CAMBRIDGE PLATONISTS. A school of writers in the English Church, members of the University of Cambridge, in the latter part of the Seventeenth Century. who sought to exhibit the entire rationality of the doctrines of the Christian religion, and drew largely from I'lato in execution of this purpose. They were the liberals of their age, and were often styled `Latitudinarians.' There had been a liberal party in the early part of the century, but its liberalism was concerned with Church polity. It sought to maintain a comprehensive Church. The liberalism of the Cambridge Platonists took another direction, for they sought to emphasize the great Christian doctrines to the neglect of minor matters. often made the instruments of sectarian exclusiveness, and to show that these great doctrines were identical with the teachings of the soundest philosophy. With a single ex ception (More, educated at Emmannel College, and of the Puritan party), they worked in great harmony: while they naturally belonged to the party that had formulated the Puritan theology in the Westminster Confession. they were led, by the prevailing laxity of morals and the mul tiplication of sects, to endeavor to overcome the schism between divinity and morals. They were powerfully influenced by the philosophical cur rents of their time, particularly by the writings of Descartes (Cudworth and Keon), less so by those of Bacon. But as a school, they were formed by the study of Plato, and of the Chris tian Fathers who followed the Platonic course of thought—those of Alexandria. On the other hand. the school was largely determined by its fundamental antagonism to the doctrines of Hobbes. who founded his philosophy On the senses, and ignored the moral and religious pos tulates of human nature. Against this philos ophy the Cambridge Platonists waged uncom promising and unceasing war. Their liberalism, however, brought them into suspicion, and they were generally regarded with disfavor.
The principal representatives of this school were the following: Benjamin Which rote, born in Shropshire, March 11, 1609-10, died at Easter, 1683, in Cam bridge. His father was apparently a country squire, the owner of Whichcote Hall. He was sent to Emmanuel College in 1626, took his ILA. in 1629. and his M.A. in 1633, when lie became fellow of his college. In 1636 he was ordained, in 1643 presented to the living of North Cad bury, where he probably married. He was made provost of King's College, Cambridge, in 1644, and continued to occupy this post till the Resto ration. 1660, when he was displaced by the royal order. His great work here was performed as a teacher, and particularly as the preacher of the Sunday afternoon lecture in Trinity Church. In these sermons he sought to lift the plane of cur rent religious thinking. and he exercised the great influence %%Adel' belongs to those whom the sight of a receptive audience quickens to elo quenve. After his removal he weupied two dif
ferent charges in London, spending his last fif teen years in Saint Laurence Jewry, where he was attentively heard by it small but select. con gregation, lie published nothing himself. After his death a few sheets of Select Notions were published in 1685. a Treatise of Dcrotion in 1697, then S,/••t Sermons (1(i98) with a preface by the Earl of Shaftesbury (reprinted, Edin burgh, 1742) ; and in the I 700 if. a new edition of the sermons from the author's own MSS. in four volumes, with a volume of Apho risms (1753).
John Ninith, one of the most gifted of the school. born at Achurch, Northamptonshire, 1618, died August 7. 1652, has left behind almost no materials for a biography. He entered Em manuel College. Cambridge, in 1636, took his ILA. in 16'40. and his M.A. in 1644, at which time lie was chosen fellow of Queen's Colleoe. his health seems to have been precarious (rein the first. His labors were principally confined to his office as teacher, for which he had remarkable qualifications. His preaching was with a rare degree of eloquence, which can still be felt in the Discourses (1(i60), which remain to us. lie gained much local fame as a lecturer on mathe matics. His personal character was such as to excite the admiration and love of his asso ciates in a remarkable degree. As a founder of the school, his special service was in develop ing the foundations of a Christian philosophy.
The two most famous of the Cambridge Platonists are Ralph Cudworth and Henry More, whose lives will lie found in their alphabetical places in this Encyclopiedia. More obscure were Nathaniel culrerwel, of a genius and eloquence like Smith's, who entered Ennuannel in 1633 and took his M.A. in 1640, was a fellow and preacher in the College Chapel, died about 1651, and whose Discourse of the Light of Nature was published 1652; John Worthington, a native of Manchester, educated at Emmanuel College, Master of Jesus College till the Restoration, then held a succession of livings, and finally Hackney, where he was chosen lecturer in 1670, his Dis courses being published in 1725. and Miscel lanies) in 1704; George Rust, fellow of Christ's College in 1657, after the Restoration in Ireland. where, in 1667. he became Bishop of Dromore, died in 1670, his Discourse of Truth appear ing in 1682; Simon Patrick (1626-1707), Bishop of Chichester, 1689, and of Ely, 1691; Edward Fowler, took his M.A. in Trinity College. Cam bridge. about 1655. finally Bishop of Gloucester: Joscph Glanrill and Joint Norris, both Oxford students. but impregnated with the spirit of the Cambridge Platonism. Consult John Tulloch, Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in England in the Nerenteenth Century, Vol. 11. (Edinburgh, 1872).