Case, John

, M. D. a physician and philosopher of Oxford, was born at Woodstock in that county, and educated in New college, Oxford, where, as well as in Christ Church, he was some time chorister. In 1564 he was elected scholar of St. John’s college, proceeded M. A. was made fellow of the house, and was accounted one of the most acute disputants of his time. He forsook his fellowship, as supposed, on account of his inclination to the Koman catholic religion, but appears to have concealed this, as we find him in 1589 made prebendary of North Aulton, in the church of Salisbury. In the mean time he was reckoned so able an instructor, that he was permitted*

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This permission must not be understood as alluding to his catholic principles, which probably were not generally known, 'but as being a deviation from the more regular mode of vacant. education, which was allowed in a few instances at this time, and Case and other teachers were intended to be promoted to headships when they became

to keep a sort of private academy in St. Mary Magdalen’s | parish, where he held declamations, disputations, and exercises, as in the other colleges and halls, and his auditors were numerous, particularly of young men of popish principles; and several men of eminence came from his school. His printed works were also held in considerable estimation. His learning was various, but he inclined most to medicine, and was admitted to his doctor’s degree in that faculty in 1589. In 1574 he married Elizabeth, the widow of one Dobsou, keeper of the Bocardo prison. By his lectures, and by his medical practice he acquired a considerable fortune, much of which he bestowed on pious uses. He was a man, says Wood, “of an innocent, meek, religious, and studious life, of a facete and affable conversation; a lover of scholars, beloved by them again, and had in high veneration.” Pits gives nearly the same character. Dodd only laments that he hurt his conscience by occasional conformity to the reformed religion, and says that he never made a candid confession of his faith till he lay in his last sickness, when he was assisted by a priest of the Roman catholic communion. He died at his house in Oxford, Jan. 23, 1600, and was interred in the chapel of St. John’s college, where a monument was afterwards erected to his memory. He was one of the benefactors to this college.

He wrote, 1. “Summa veterum interpretum in universam dialecticam Aristotelis,London, 1584, 4to; Oxon. 1592, 1598, 4to. 2. “Speculum moralium questionum in universam ethicam Aristotelis,” Oxon. 1585, 4to; Francf. 1616, 8vo. 3. “Sphaera civitatis, sive de politica,” Oxon. 1588, 4to; Francf. 1616, 8vo. The former edition was printed by Barnes, and having been pirated on the continent, Barnes obtained an order that every bachelor of arts, when he determined, should provide himself with a genuine copy. 4. “Apologia musices, tarn vocalis, quam instrumentalis, et mixtae,” Oxon. 1588, 8vo. Wood mentions B book entitled “The Praise of Music, &c.1586, 8vo, which an ingenious writer in the Bibliographer (vol.11.) is inclined to attribute to Dr. Case, and Dr. Farmer was of the same opinion. The most conclusive proof must depend on a comparison of the Latin with the English work, neither of which is at present within our reach. 5. “Thesaurus ceconomiae, seu commentarius in ceconomia Aristotelis,” Oxon. 1597; Hanov. 1598, 8vo. 6. “Appendix Theium ceconomicarum,” ibid. 7. “lleflexus speculi moralis, seu comment, in magna moralia Arist.” Oxon. 1596. | 8. “Lapis Philosophicus, seu comment, in octo libros phisicorum Arist.” Oxon. 1599, 4to. 9. “Ancilla philosophise, seu Epit. in 8 lib. Arist.” Oxon. 1599, 4to. 1

1

Wood’s Ath. and Annals and Hist, of the University, Dodd’s Church Hist, vol. II. Bibliographer, vol. II.