, master of Catharine-hall, in the university of Cambridge, and author
, master of Catharine-hall, in the
university of Cambridge, and author of several ingenious
works, was descended from a good family in the county of
Suffolk, and born about 1636. Having been carefully
instructed in grammar and classical literature, he was sent
to Catharine-hall, in the university of Cambridge, where
he was admitted on the 10th of May, 1653. He took the
degree of B. A. in 1656, was elected fellow of his college 1
in 1658, and in 1660 became M. A. We meet with no
farther particulars about him till 1670, when he published,
but without his name, “The Grounds and Occasions of the
Contempt of the Clergy and Religion enquired into. In a
letter to R. L.
” This piece had a very rapid sale, and
passed through many editions. It was attacked by an
anonymous writer the following year, in “An Answer to a
Letter of Enquiry into the Grounds,
” &c. and by Barnabas Oley, and several others; particularly the famous Dr.
John Owen, in a preface to some sermons of W. Bridge.
Eachard replied to the first of his answerers in apiece
entitled “Some Observations upon the Answer to an Enquiry into the Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of
the Clergy: with some additions. In a second letter to
R. L.
” In Mr. Hobbes’s State of
Nature considered: in a dialogue between Philautus and
Timothy. To which are added, five letters from the author of The Grounds and Occasions of the
” Contempt of
the Clergy.“In these letters he animadverted, with his
usual facetiousness, on several of the answerers of his first
performance. He soon after published some farther remarks on the writings of Hobbes, in
” A second Dialogue
between Philautus and Timothy." On the death of Dr.
John Lightfoot, in 1675, Mr. Eachard was chosen in his
room master. of Catharine-hall; and in the year following
he was created D. D. by royal mandamus. It does not
appear that he produced any literary works after being
raised to this station; but it is said that he executed the
trust reposed in him, of master of his college, with the
utmost care and fidelity, and to the general satisfaction of
the whole university. He was extremely desirous to have
rebuilt the greatest part, if not the whole, of Catharine-hall,
which had fallen ipto decay: but he died before he could
accomplish any part of that design, except the master’s
lodge. He contributed, however, largely towards rebuilding the whole; and was very assiduous in procuring donations for it from his learned or wealthy friends. He died
on the 7th of July, 1697, and was interred in the chapel
of Catharine-hall, with an elegant Latin inscription, said
to have been more recently added by the late Dr.
Farmer.
regius professor of divinity, when he took the degree of D. D. and, about the same time, was elected master of Catharine-hall in the same university. In 1601 he had the
, an English bishop, and styled by
Camden a “prodigious learned man,
” was born in 1559,
and, after a proper foundation in grammar-learning, at
Hadley school, was sent to St. John’s college, Cambridge,
and became a scholar there: but, afterwards removing to
Trinity-college, was chosen fellow of that society. In
1596 he was appointed regius professor of divinity, when
he took the degree of D. D. and, about the same time,
was elected master of Catharine-hall in the same university.
In 1601 he had the honour to succeed the celebrated Dr.
Alexander Nowell in the deanry of St. Paul’s, London, by
the recommendation of his patron sir Fulk Greville, and
queen Elizabeth; and, in the beginning of James’s reign,
he was chosen prolocutor of the lower house of convocation. In 1612 he was appointed one of the first governors
of the Charter-house hospital, then just founded by Thomas Sutton, esq. In April 1614, he was made bishop of
Litchfield and Coventry; and, in 1618, translated to Norwich, where he died May 12, 1619. He was buried in
that cathedral, where he lay unnoticed till some time after
the restoration of Charles II. when Cosin, bishop of Durham, who had been his secretary, erected a monument in
1669, with a Latin inscription, in which he is declared
to be, “Vir undequaque doctissimus, et omui enconiio
major.
”
Wood observes, that he had the character of being the
best scholastic divine in the English nation; and Cosin,
who perhaps may be thought to rival him in that branch
of learning, calls himself his scholar, and expressly declares that he derived all his knowledge from him. He is
allso celebrated by Smith, for his distinguished wisdom,
erudition, and piety. In the controversy, which in his
time divided the reformed churches, concerning predestination and grace, he held a middle opinion, inclining rather to Arminianism , and seems to have paved the way
for the reception of that doctrine in England, where it
was generally embraced a few years afterwards, chiefly by
the authority and influence of archbishop Laud. Overall
had a particular friendship with Gerard Vosius and Grotius; and was much grieved to see the love of peace, and
the projects of this last great man to obtain it, so ill requited. He laboured heartily himself to compose the differences in Holland, relative to the Quinquarticular controversy; as appears in part by his letters to the two learned
correspondents just mentioned, some of which are printed
in the “Præstantium et eruditorum virorum epistolæ
ecclesiasticæ et theologicæ,
” published by Limborch and
Hartsoeker, as an historical defence of Arminianism.