THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ee See
formance of clerical duties. In 1701 he was appointed deputy to Newton’s Lucasian professorship at Cambridge, and in 1703 succeeded Newton Early as professor and gave uphisliving. As Life and professor, Whiston lectured on mathe- Cambridge matics and natural philosophy, besides Career. engaging in scientific experimentation and being one of the first to popularize the theories of Newton. He advocated various reforms, both academic and general, perhaps with more zeal than judgment; and, making theological as well as scientific investigations, he became convinced that Arianism was the dominant faith of the first two centuries and that the Apostolic Constitutions (see APosToLIc CONSTITUTIONS AND Canons) was ‘the most sacred of the canonical books of the New Testament.’”’ This view he expounded in an essay (1708) which the Cambridge vice-chancellor refused to license, though it was printed later in his Primitive Christianity Revived. Remonstrances of friends only served to prove the depth of Whiston’s conviction—or his stubbornness —and in Oct., 1710, he was deprived of his professorship. Proceedings for his prosecution, instigated by convocation, dragged along for four or five years, but were finally dropped after the death of Queen Anne.
Thenceforth Whiston lived in London. He hada small property and received many gifts from friends and public personages, which, he states, “ with eclipses, comets, and lectures,’”’ provided him “‘ such a competency as greatly contented him.” His lectures were on various topics, e.g., meteors, eclipses, earthquakes, and the like (in which he generally saw the fulfilment of prophecy), the tabernacle of Moses and the temple at Jerusalem (illustrated by models), and the return of the Jews to Palestine (which he believed to be imminent). He was one of the first (perhaps the first) to present scientific experiments before popular audiences in London. He tried unsuccessfully to win a reward offered by parliament for the discovery of a means of determining longitude. A fund of £500 raised for him by subscription about 1740 he used for making a survey of the coasts. In 1715 he organized a society for promoting “ primitive Christianity,’’ which for two years held: weekly meetings in his house in London and numbered among its members John Gale (a Baptist), Arthur Onslow, Thomas Emlyn (Unitarian), Thomas Rundle (afterward bishop of Derry), and Thomas Chubb (q.v.). Until 1747 he maintained communion with the Church of England, but then he joined the Baptists so that he might no longer hear the Athanasian Creed repeated. Among certain “new discoveries ”’ of his later years were that anointing the sick with oil is a Christian duty, that the Tatars are the lost tribes, and that the millennium would begin in 1766.
In spite of his vagaries, Whiston was well liked by a large circle, including such men as Samuel Clarke, the philosopher, and Bishop Benjamin Hoadly (qq.v.; both of whom privately shared some of his views), as well as Addison and Steele, whom he knew well. His integrity and simpleminded honesty won respect, and so consistent was
Life in London.
his practise of these virtues that a somewhat blunt manner of commending them to others was generally received with good-nature. The chief of his many publications (for a list of fifty-two titles, “ omitting a few occasional papers,” cf. DNB, 1xi. 13-14) was his Primitive Christianity Revived (4 vols., London, 1711), which contains the Epistles of Ignatius, the Apostolic Constitutions, and dis- ‘sertations, a fifth volume, containing Writings. the ‘“‘ Recognitions ”’ of Clement, being added in 1712. His first book, A New Theory of the Earth (1696; 5th ed., with appendix, 1736), was the result of studies in the Cartesian philosophy and Newton’s Principia, confirming the narrative of Genesis on Newtonian grounds and explaining the deluge by collision with a comet. The Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecies (1708) was the Boyle lectures for 1707 (cf. The Literal Accomplishment of Scripture Prophecies, 1724, an answer to Collins’ Grounds and Reasons). The Genuine Works of Flavius Josephus, the Jewish Historian, in English, with dissertations, appeared in 1737. That this has been reprinted innumerable times (as late as 1906, ed. D. 8S. Margoliouth) and is still the standard English translation of Josephus is due to other causes than the merits of the translator, for Whiston’s scholarship was defective for the task even in his time, and the advance of knowledge since the early eighteenth century, as well as the better text now available, make a new translation much to be desired. Other of Whiston’s more noteworthy works are: A Short View of the Chronology of the Old Testament and of the Harmony of the Four Evangelists (London, 1702); An Essay on the Revelation of St. John (1706); Prelectiones physico-mathematice sive philosophia clarissimt Newtont mathematica illustrata (1710; English, 1716); Athanasius Convicted of Forgery (1712); An Argument to Prove that All Persons Solemnly though Irregularly Set Apart for the Ministry Are Real Clergymen (1714); The True Origin of the Sabellian and Athanasian Doctrine of the Trinity (1720); A Chronological Table Containing the Hebrew, Phenician, Egyptian, and Chaldean Antiquities (1721); Athanasian Forgeries, Impositions, and Interpellations (by a ‘‘ Lover of Truth,” 1736); The Primitive New Testament, a translation of the Gospels and Acts from the Codez Beze, of the Pauline epistles from the Clermont manuscripts, and of the catholic epistles from the Codex Alexandrinus (1745); and Memoirs of Willtam Whiston, Written by Himself (1749; 2d ed., 1753). ON ees Besides the autobiographic Memoirs, ut sup., consult: J. Nichols, Literary Anecdotes of the 18th Century,
i. 494-506, London, 1812; L. Stephen, Hist. of English
Thought in the 18th Century, 2 vols., New York, 1881;
J. H. Overton and F. Relton, The English Church (1714-
1800), London, 1906; DNB, Ixi. 10-14.
WHITAKER, OZI WILLIAM: Protestant Episcopalian bishop of Pennsylvania; b. at New Salem, Mass., May 10, 1880; d. at Philadelphia Feb. 9, 1911. He was graduated from Middlebury College, Vt. (A.B., 1856), and from the General Theological Seminary, New York City (1863). He went as a missionary to Nevada and was rector of St. John’s, Gold Hill (1863-65); of St. Paul’s, Englewood, N. J. (1865-67); and of St. Paul’s, Virginia
City (1867-69). In 1869 he was consecrated mis-
sionary bishop of Nevada, serving until he be-
came bishop coadjutor of Pennsylvania in 1886.
A year later (1887), on the death of Bishop Ste-
phens, he became bishop of the diocese.
BrisuiocrapHy: W. 8. Perry, The Episcopate in America, p. 201, New York, 1895.
WHITAKER, WILLIAM: Church of England; b. at Holme (19 m. n. of Manchester), England, 1548; d. at Cambridge Dec. 4, 1595. He studied at St. Paul’s school in London, and at Cambridge (B.A., 1568; M.A., 1571; minor fellow, 1569; major fellow, 1571; B.D., Oxford, 1578); became canon of Norwich Cathedral, 1578; regius professor of divinity, 1580; chancellor of St. Paul’s, London, 1580; master of St. John’s College, 1586; and canon of Canterbury, 1595. He was a man of great learning, stanch in his Protestantism and Calvinism. Most of his works were polemical, among which may be mentioned Disputatio de sacra scriptura (Cambridge, 1588; Eng. transl., A Disputation on Holy Scripture against the Papists, especially Bellarmine and Stapleton, ed. for Parker Society, 1849); Responsionis ad decem illas rationes, quibus fretuo EH. Campianus certamen ecclesie Anglicane ministrio obtulit im causa fidei .. . (London, 1583; Eng. transl., An Answere to the Ten Reasons of Edward Campian, the Jesuit, 1606). His Opera were collected and published in 2 vols., Geneva, 1610. See LAMBETH ARTICLES.
Brsutiocrapuy: A Vita by A. Ashton with other biographic material is in the Opera, ut sup., i. 698-716; there is also An Account of the Life and Death . . . in Whitaker’s Cygnea Cantio, London, 1772. Consult further: The Life by Gataker in Fuller’s Abel Redivivus, pp. 401-408, London, 1651; R. Churton, Life of A. Nowell, pp. 325— 334, Oxford, 1809; C. H. and T. Cooper, Athene Cantabrigienses, vol. ii., London, 1861; T. Baker, Hist. of the College of St. John, . . . Cambridge, ed. J. E. B. Mayor, 2 vols., Cambridge, 1869; W. H. Frere, The English Church (1658-1625), pp. 282-283, 342, London, 1904; DNB, |xi. 21-23.
WHITBY, SYNOD OF: An assembly convened by Oswy, king of Northumbria, in the spring of 664 to settle the differences between the Irish and Roman ecclesiastics in his realm concerning the date of Easter, the shape of the tonsure, and the like (see Crutic CHurRcH IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND). Oswy’s marriage with Eansfled, daughter of the king of Kent, had brought the dispute to a crisis, as the king adhered to the Celtic usages brought to North England from Iona, while the southern princess, coming from the region of Canterbury, followed Roman custom and brought with her to the north a Catholic chaplain. The assembly met at Hilda’s convent at Streaneshalch (Whitby, on the coast of Yorkshire, 40 m. n.n.e. of York). Oswy presided, and among those present were Alchfrid, king of Deira, Oswy’s son; Agilbert, bishop of the West Saxons (a native of Gaul); Wilfrid, afterward bishop of York; Colman, bishop of Lindisfarne; Cedd, bishop of the East Saxons; and Hilda. Wilfrid spoke for the Roman party and Colman for the British. The latter claimed to follow St. John and Columba, whereupon Wilfrid asserted the supremacy of St. Peter and quoted Matt. xvi. 18, thereby convincing the king. In consequence of his defeat Colman and the Jrish monks, with about thirty of