Richard Crakanthorpe

, was born of a gentile Family at, or near, Strickland in Westmorland, became a Student in Queens coll. in 1583. aged 16. and soon after a poor serving Child, then a Tabarder, and at length in 1598. Fellow of the said coll. About which time, being a noted Preacher, and a profound Disputant in Divinity, (of which Faculty he was a Bachelaur,) was admired by all great men, and had in veneration, especially by the Puritanical Party, he being himself a Zealot among them, as having, with others of the same coll. entertained many of the principles of Dr. Joh. Rainolds while he lived there. After K. Jam. 1. came to the Crown, he went in the quality of a Chaplain to the Lord Evers, who in 1603. or thereabouts, was sent Embassador extraordinary to the Emperour of Germany. By which opportunity he, as Tho. Morton his Brother Chaplain in that Voyage, (afterwards B. of Durham) did advantage themselves exceedingly by conversing with learned men of other Perswasions, and by visiting several Universities and Libraries there. After his return he became Chaplain to Dr. Ravis B. of London, Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty, and by the favour of Sir John Levesen, (who had sometimes three Sons of Qu. coll.) Rector of Blacknotley near to Brayntrey in Essex, which was the best preferment, I think, he had. He was a person esteemed by most men to have been replenished with all kind of vertue and learning, to have been profound in Philosophical and Theological learning, a great Canonist, and so familiar and exact in the Fathers, Councels, and Schoolmen, that none in his time scarce went beyond him. Also that none have written with greater diligence, (I cannot say with a meekermind because some have reported that he was as foul-m [••] ched against the Papists, particularly M. Ant. de [〈…〉] was afterwards against them and the Prelatists,) or with better truth or faith, than he, as by those things of his extant do appear, the titles of which are these.

Sermons. As (1) Serm. of Sanctification, preached on Act Sunday 12. Jul. 1607. on 1 Thes. 5. 23. Lond. 1608. qu. (2) Inaugurat. Serm. of K. Jam. at Pauls Cross 24. Mar. 1608. on 2 Chron. 9. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Ibid. 1609. qu. (3) Serm. of Predestination, on 2 Pet. 1. 10. Lond. 1620. 23. qu.

Justinian the Emperour defended, against Card. Baronius. Lond. 1616. in 7 sh. in qu.

Introductio in Metaphysicam lib. 4. Oxon. 1619. in a little oct.

Defence of Constantine, with a treatise of the Popes Temporal Monarchy. Lond. 1621. qu.

Logicae libriquinque de praedicalibus, praedicamentis, &c. Lond. 1622. &c. Ox. 1677. in a large qu.

Appendix de Sillogismo Sophistico.

Tractatus de providentia Dei. Cantab. 1622. &c. qu.

Defensio Eccl. Anglicanae contra M. Anton. de Dominis Archiep. Spalatensis injurias. Lond. 1625. qu. Published by Dr. Joh. Barcham. Which book was held to be the most exactest piece for controversie since the time of the Reformation.

Virgilius dormitans. Or, a treatise of the first General Councel held at Constantinople, an. 553. under Justinian the Emperour, in the time of Pope Vigilius, Lond. 1631. fol.

Popish falsifications. Or, an answer to a treatise of a Popish Recusant, intit. The first part of Protestants proofs for Catholicks Religion and Recusancy; taken only from the writings of such Protestant Doctors and Divines of England, as have been published in the Reign of K. James, an. 1607.—MS. This book I saw at Oxon in the hands of Mr. Edw. Benlowes the Poet, who in his younger days was a Papist, or at least very Popishly affected, and in his elder years a bitter Enemy to that Party. Whether the said book was ever printed I cannot tell.

Animadversions on Cardinal Baronius his Annals.— MS. Either lost or embezil’d after the authors death.

I have seen also several of his Epistles, written to Dr. Hen. Airay Provost of Qu. coll. stitch’d up with Dr. Joh. Rainolds his Declamations, and other things among the MSS. in the Library of Dr. Thom. Barlow, afterwards B. of Lincoln. What else he hath written I find not, nor any thing more of him, only that he dying at Blacknotly before-mentioned, (for want of a Bishoprick, as K. Jam. 1. used to say,) was buried in the Chancel of the Church there, 25. 1624 Nov. in sixteen hundred twenty and four: At which time Dr. Joh. Barchem, Dean of Rockyng in Essex, did Preach his Funeral Sermon before several Gentlemen and Ministers of the neighbourhood, shewing to them, in the conclusion, the great piety and learning of him, who then lay as a spectacle of mortality before them. Had that Sermon been printed, I might have thence said more of this worthy author, but it being quite lost, I presume, after that Doctors death, we must be content with those things that are already said of him.