17th century English theologian and scholar
John Pearson
(28 February 1613 – 16 July 1686) was an English theologian and scholar.
[2]
Life
[
edit
]
He was born at
Great Snoring
, Norfolk.
From
Eton College
he passed to
Queens' College, Cambridge
, and was elected a scholar of
King's College, Cambridge
in April 1632, and a fellow in 1634.
[3]
On taking orders in 1639 he was collated to the
Salisbury
prebend of
Nether-Avon
. In 1640 he was appointed chaplain to the lord-keeper Finch, by whom he was presented to the living of Thorington in Suffolk. In the
Civil War
he acted as chaplain to
George Goring
's forces in the west. In 1654 he was made weekly preacher at St Clement's,
Eastcheap
, in
London
.
With
Peter Gunning
he disputed against two
Roman Catholics
,
John Spenser
and
John Lenthall
, on the subject of
schism
, a one-sided account of which was printed in
Paris
by one of the Roman Catholic disputants, under the title
Scisme Unmask't
(1658).
Pearson also argued against the
Puritan
party, and was much interested in
Brian Walton
's polyglot
Bible
. In 1659 he published in London his celebrated
Exposition of the Creed
, dedicated to his parishioners of St Clement's, Eastcheap, to whom the substance of the work had been preached several years before. For example, in relation to the
Christian cross
, he wrote in his commentary on the
Apostles' Creed
that the Greek word
stauros
originally signified "a straight standing Stake, Pale, or Palisador", but that, "when other transverse or prominent parts were added in a perfect Cross, it retained still the Original Name", and he declared: "The Form then of the Cross on which our Saviour suffered was not a simple, but a compounded, Figure, according to the Custom of the
Romans
, by whose Procurator he was condemned to die. In which there was not only a straight and erected piece of Wood fixed in the Earth, but also a transverse Beam fastned unto that towards the top thereof".
[5]
Soon after the Restoration he was presented by
Juxon
,
Bishop of London
, to the rectory of St Christopher-le-Stocks; and in 1660 he was created doctor of divinity at Cambridge, appointed a royal chaplain, prebendary of
Ely
,
archdeacon of Surrey
, and
Master
of
Jesus College, Cambridge
. In 1661 he was appointed
Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity
; and on the first day of the ensuing year he was nominated one of the commissioners for the review of the liturgy in the conference held at the Savoy. There he won the esteem of his opponents and high praise from Richard Baxter. On 14 April 1662 he was made Master of
Trinity College, Cambridge
. In 1667 he was admitted a fellow of the
Royal Society
.
Upon the death of John Wilkins in 1672, Pearson was appointed
bishop of Chester
. He died at Chester on 16 July 1686, and is buried in
Chester Cathedral
.
Theology
[
edit
]
According to
Margaret Drabble
, Pearson was one of the most erudite theologians of his age.
Pearson's
Exposition of the Creed
, is considered one of the best products of English
dogmatic theology
.
[2]
His
soteriological
views are discussed among scholars: Nicholas Tyacke have noted that Pearson, maintained the
Arminian
view
of
conditional election
, in his
Lectiones de Deo et Attributis
(1660).
On the other hand, Jake Griesel and Stephen Hampton have observed that Pearson upheld a
Calvinist
position on the doctrines of election and grace both in his
Exposition
(1659) and his Cambridge lectures, and did so explicitly against the
Arminians
or
Remonstrants
(
contra Remonstrantes, sive eos quos Arminianos vocant
).
[11]
Works
[
edit
]
In 1659 his
Golden Remains
of
John Hales
of Eton, with a memoir, was published. Also in 1659 was published his
Exposition of the Creed
in which the lectures which were given at the church of St Clement, Eastcheap, London, were included. (The notes are a rich mine of patristic learning.)
In 1672 he published at Cambridge
Vindiciae epistolarum S. Ignatii
, in 4to, in answer to
Jean Daille
. His defence of the authenticity of the letters of Ignatius has been confirmed by
J. B. Lightfoot
and other scholars. In 1682 his
Annales cyprianici
were published at Oxford, with
John Fell
's edition of
Cyprian
's works. His last work, the
Two Dissertations on the Succession and Times of the First Bishops of Rome
, formed with the
Annales Paulini
the principal part of his
Opera posthuma
, edited by
Henry Dodwell
in 1688.
See the memoir in
Biographia Britannica
, and another by
Edward Churton
, prefixed to the edition of Pearson's
Minor Theological Works
(2 vols., Oxford, 1844). Churton also edited almost the whole of the theological writings.
Notes and references
[
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]
Citations
[
edit
]
- ^
"The Armorial Bearings of the Bishops of Chester"
. Cheshire Heraldry Society
. Retrieved
9 February
2021
.
- ^
a
b
Sanders, Francis (1895).
"Pearson, John (1613-1686)"
.
Dictionary of National Biography
. Vol. 44. pp. 168?173.
- ^
"Pearson, John (PR632J2)"
.
A Cambridge Alumni Database
. University of Cambridge.
- ^
Pearson, John (1715).
An exposition of the [Apostles'] Creed
.
- ^
Cf. John Pearson,
The Minor Theological Works of John Pearson
, ed. Edward Churton, vol. 1
(Oxford, 1844), 243?67; idem,
An Exposition of the Creed
, 4th ed.
(London, 1676), 27?29, 129, 168, 236, 282?83, 306, 327?30, 332, 356, 380, 390.
Sources
[
edit
]
- Drabble, Margaret (1985).
The Oxford Companion to English Literature
(5th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-866130-6
.
- Griesel, Jake (2019).
John Edwards of Cambridge (1637-1716): A Reassessment of his position within the later Stuart Church of England
(PhD dissertation). Cambridge: University of Cambridge.
- Hampton, Stephen (2008).
Anti-Arminians: The Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles II to George I
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Pollen, John Hungerford (1912).
"John Spenser"
.
Catholic Encyclopedia
. Vol. 14.
- Lueker, Erwin Louis (2000).
"Arminianism"
.
Christian Cyclopedia
. Saint Louis, MO: Concordia publ. House.
- Sanders, Francis (1895).
"Pearson, John (1613-1686)"
.
Dictionary of National Biography
. Vol. 44. pp. 168?173.
- Tyacke, Nicholas (2001).
Aspects of English Protestantism C. 1530-1700
. Manchester: University Press.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911). "
Pearson, John
".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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