Jump to content

Ralph Cudworth

From Niidae Wiki

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox officeholder

Ralph Cudworth Template:Post-nominals (Template:IPAc-en;<ref>Template:Cite Collins Dictionary</ref> 1617 – 26 June 1688) was an English Anglican clergyman, Christian Hebraist, classicist, theologian and philosopher, and a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists who became 11th Regius Professor of Hebrew (1645–1688), 26th Master of Clare Hall (1645–1654), and 14th Master of Christ's College (1654–1688).<ref>J.A. Passmore, Ralph Cudworth: An Interpretation (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1951)</ref> A leading opponent of Hobbes's political and philosophical views, his magnum opus was his The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678).<ref>D.A. Pailin, 'Cudworth, Ralph (1617–88)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).</ref>

Family background

[edit]

Ancestry

[edit]

Cudworth's family reputedly originated in Cudworth (near Barnsley), Yorkshire, moving to Lancashire with the marriage (Template:Circa1377) of John de Cudworth (died 1384) and Margery (died 1384), daughter of Richard de Oldham (living 1354), lord of the manor of Werneth, Oldham. The Cudworths of Werneth Hall, Oldham, were lords of the manor of Werneth/Oldham, until 1683. Ralph Cudworth (the philosopher)'s father, Ralph Cudworth (Snr), was the posthumous-born second son of Ralph Cudworth (d.1572) of Werneth Hall, Oldham.<ref>Edwin Butterworth, Historical Sketches of Oldham (John Hirst: Oldham, 1856), pp. 22–23 (Google)</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="british-history.ac.uk">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Stansfield-Cudworth 2019 48–80">Template:Cite journal</ref>

The Rev. Dr Ralph Cudworth Snr (1572/73–1624)

[edit]

Template:Main The philosopher's father, The Rev. Dr Ralph Cudworth (1572/73–1624), was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA (1592/93, MA (1596). Emmanuel College (founded by Sir Walter Mildmay (1584), and under the direction of its first Master, Laurence Chaderton) was, from its inception, a stronghold of Reformist, Puritan and Calvinist teaching, which shaped the development of puritan ministry, and contributed largely to the emigrant ministry in America.<ref>'History of the College' Emmanuel College website Template:Webarchive; S. Bendell, C. Brooke, and P. Collinson, A History of Emmanuel College (Boydell Press: Woodbridge 1999).</ref>

Ordained in 1599<ref>Template:CCEd</ref><ref name="CCEdp">Template:CCEd</ref> and elected to a college fellowship by 1600,<ref>S. Bush Jnr and C.J. Rasmussen, The Library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1584–1637 (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 77–79 and p. 210 (Google).</ref> Cudworth Snr was much influenced by William Perkins, whom he succeeded, in 1602, as Lecturer of the Parish Church of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge.<ref>B. Carter, 'The standing of Ralph Cudworth as a Philosopher' in G.A.J. Rogers, T. Sorell, and J. Kraye (eds), Insiders and Outsiders in Seventeenth Century Philosophy (Routledge: London, 2009), at p. 100 (see note 4).</ref> He was awarded the degree of Bachelor of Divinity in 1603.<ref>Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses i(1), p. 431.</ref> He edited Perkins's Commentary on St Paul's Epistle to the Galatians (1604),<ref>H.C. Porter, Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1958), pp. 264–66 (Google)</ref> with a dedication to Robert, 3rd Lord Rich (later 1st Earl of Warwick), adding a commentary of his own with dedication to Sir Bassingbourn Gawdy.<ref>A Commentarie or Exposition, upon the Five First Chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians: penned by the godly, learned, and iudiciall divine, Mr. W. Perkins. Now published for the benefit of the Church, and continued with a supplement upon the sixt chapter, by Rafe Cudworth Bachelour of Divinitie (John Legat: London, 1604).</ref> Lord Rich presented him to the Vicariate of Coggeshall, Essex (1606)<ref>Template:CCEd</ref> to replace the deprived minister Thomas Stoughton, but he resigned this position (March 1608), and was licensed to preach from the pulpit by the Chancellor and Scholars of the University of Cambridge (November 1609).<ref>Church of England clergy database, CCEd Records ID: 193711 (Vacancy) [1]</ref><ref>Template:CCEd</ref> He then applied for the rectorate of Aller, Somerset (an Emmanuel College living)<ref>R.W. Dunning (ed.), 'Parishes: Aller ', A History of the County of Somerset, iii (1974), pp. 61–71 (British History Online).</ref> and, resigning his fellowship, was appointed to it in 1610.<ref>CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID: 178651, as 30 August 1610.</ref>

His marriage (1611) to Mary Machell (c.1582–1634), (who had been "nutrix" – nurse, or preceptor – to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales)<ref>J.L. v. Mosheim, Radulphi Cudworthi Systema intellectuale hujus universi (sumtu viduae Meyer: Jena, 1733), i, 'Praefatio Moshemii' (34 sides, unpaginated), side 19. The information was from Edward Chandler.</ref> brought important connections. Cudworth Snr was appointed as one of James I's chaplains.<ref>Mosheim, as cited above.</ref> Mary's mother (or aunt) was the sister of Sir Edward Lewknor, a central figure (with the Jermyn and Heigham families) among the puritan East Anglian gentry, whose children had attended Emmanuel College.<ref>P. Collinson, '17: Magistracy and Ministry – A Suffolk Miniature', in Godly People. Essays on English Protestantism and Puritanism (Hambledon Press: London, 1983), pp. 445–66.</ref> Mary's Lewknor and Machell connections with the Rich family included her first cousins Sir Nathaniel Rich and his sister Dame Margaret Wroth, wife of Sir Thomas Wroth of Petherton Park near Bridgwater, Somerset, influential promoters of colonial enterprise (and later of nonconformist emigration) in New England. Aller was immediately within their sphere.

Ralph Snr and Mary settled at Aller, where their children (listed below) were christened during the following decade.<ref>D. Richardson, Magna Carta Ancestry, ed. K.J. Everingham, 2nd Edn (2011), ii, p. 10, items 15–16)</ref> Cudworth continued to study, working on a complete survey of Case-Divinity, The Cases of Conscience in Family, Church and Commonwealth while suffering from the agueish climate at Aller.<ref>Letter of Ralph Cudworth (Snr) to James Ussher, Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Rawlinson Letters 89, fol. 25 r–v: Early modern letters online.</ref> He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity (1619),<ref name="Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses">Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses.</ref> and was among the dedicatees of Richard Bernard's 1621 edition of The Faithfull Shepherd.<ref>R. Bernard, The Faithfull Shepherd, wholy in a manner transposed, 3rd Edn, Thomas Pavier: London, 1621), dedication in front matter (Internet Archive). (1st Edition, 1607, 2nd 1609).</ref> Ralph Snr died at Aller declaring a nuncupative will (7 August 1624) before Anthony Earbury and Dame Margaret Wroth.<ref>Will of Raphe Cudworthe, Doctor of Divinity, Parson of Aller, Somerset (P.C.C. 1624, Byrde quire).</ref>

Children

[edit]
File:St Andrews Church, Aller (geograph 5188498).jpg
Parish Church of St Andrew, Aller, Somerset: where John Stoughton succeeded Ralph Cudworth Snr (1624)

The children of Ralph Cudworth Snr and Mary (née Machell) Cudworth (c.1582–1634) were:

  • General James Cudworth (1612–82) was Assistant Governor (1756–1758, 1674–1680) and Deputy Governor (1681–82) of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, and four-times Commissioner of the United Colonies (1657–1681),<ref>Samuel Deane, 'Gen. James Cudworth' in History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1831 (James Loring: Boston, 1831), pp. 245–51; also Scituate Historical Society Template:Webarchive</ref> whose descendants form an extensive family of American Cudworths.
  • Elizabeth Cudworth (1615–1654) married (1636) Josias Beacham of Broughton, Northamptonshire (Rector of Seaton, Rutland (1627–1676)), by whom she had several children. Beacham was ejected from his living by the Puritans (1653), but reinstated (by 1662).<ref>Josias Beacham’s first wife was Maria Sheffield (died 1634): S.H.C., 'Extracts from the Parish register of Seton, Co. Rutland, relative to the family of Sheffield', Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica I (J.B. Nichols & Son: London, 1834), pp. 171–73.; Will of Josias Beacham, Rector of Seaton (Rutland) (P.C.C. 1675/76). London Marriage Allegations, 28 April 1636 (St Mary Aldermanbury). Foster, Index Ecclesiasticus. Beacham was a graduate of Brasenose College, Oxford</ref>
  • Ralph Cudworth (Jnr)
  • Mary Cudworth
  • John Cudworth (1622–1675) of London and Bentley, Suffolk, Alderman of London, and Master of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers (1667–68).<ref>W. Dumville Smythe, An Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers, London (Chiswick Press: London, 1905), pp. 109–10.; Will of John Cudworth, Girdler of London (P.C.C. 1675).</ref> On his death, John left four orphans of whom both Thomas Cudworth (1661–1726)<ref>J. Peile, Biographical Register of Christ's College, 1505–1905: II: 1666–1905 (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1913), p. 64 (Internet Archive).</ref> and Benjamin Cudworth (1670–15 Sept. 1725) attended Christ's College, Cambridge.<ref>J. Peile, Biographical Register, ii, p. 111.</ref> Benjamin Cudworth's black memorial slab is in St. Margaret's parish church, Southolt, Suffolk.
  • Jane/Joan(?) Cudworth (born c.1624; fl. unmarried, 1647) may have been Ralph's sister.<ref>D. Richardson, Jewels of the Crown, 4 (2009), citing references to Jane Cudworth in the Will of John Machell of Wonersh (P.C.C. 1647).</ref>

Career

[edit]

Education

[edit]

The second son, and third of five (probably six) children, Ralph Cudworth (Jnr) was born at Aller, Somerset, where he was baptised (13 July 1617). Following the death of his father, Ralph Cudworth Snr (1624), The Rev. Dr John Stoughton (1593–1639), (son of Thomas Stoughton of Coggeshall; also a Fellow of Emmanuel College), succeeded as Rector of Aller, and married the widow Mary (née Machell) Cudworth (c.1582–1634).<ref>J.C. Whitebrook, 'Dr. John Stoughton the Elder', Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society, 6(2), (1913), pp. 89–107; and 6(3), (1914), pp. 177–87 (Internet Archive).</ref> Dr Stoughton paid careful attention to his stepchildren's education, which Ralph later described as a "diet of Calvinism".<ref>F.J. Powicke, The Cambridge Platonists: A Study (J.M. Dent & Co.: London, 1926), p. 111.</ref> Letters, to Stoughton, by both brothers James and Ralph Cudworth make this plain; and, when Ralph matriculated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1632),<ref>Template:Acad. See Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses i(1), p. 431.</ref> Stoughton thought him "as wel grounded in Scho[o]l-Learning as any Boy of his Age that went to the University".<ref>Mosheim, Radulphi Cudworthi Systema Intellectuale (1733), i, 'Praefatio Moshemii' (34 sides, unpaginated) 19th side, note.</ref> Stoughton was appointed Curate and Preacher at St Mary Aldermanbury, London (1632),<ref>Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, i(4), p. 171.</ref> and the family left Aller. Ralph's elder brother, James Cudworth, married and emigrated to Scituate, Plymouth Colony, New England (1634).<ref>'Letter of James Cudworth of Scituate, 1634', (to Stoughton), in New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 14 (1860), pp. 101–04.</ref> Mary Machell Cudworth Stoughton died during summer 1634,<ref>Whitebrook, 'Dr John Stoughton the Elder', p. 94 (Internet Archive).</ref> and Dr Stoughton married a daughter of John Browne of Frampton and Dorchester.<ref>Marriage at St Mary Aldermanbury, 18 January 1635/6; J.P. Ferris, Browne, John II (1580–1659), of Dorchester and Frampton, Dorset, History of Parliament online, 1604–29.</ref>

Pensioner, Student and Fellow of Emmanuel College (1630–1645)

[edit]
File:Emmanuel College, Cambridge, July 2010 (05).JPG
Emmanuel College, Cambridge

From a family background embedded in the early nonconformity and a diligent student, Cudworth was admitted (as a pensioner) to his father's old college, Emmanuel College, Cambridge (1630), matriculated (1632), and graduated (BA (1635/36); MA (1639)). After some misgivings (which he confided in his stepfather),<ref>T. Solly, The Will Divine and Human (Deighton Bell & Co.: Cambridge/Bell & Daldy: London, 1856), pp. 287–91.</ref> he was elected a Fellow of Emmanuel (1639), and became a successful tutor, delivering the Rede Lecture (1641). He published a tract entitled The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow (1642),<ref>R. Cudworth, The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow (Richard Bishop: London, 1642) (Umich/eebo).</ref> and another, A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper (1642),<ref>R. Cudworth, A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper (2nd edn, J. Flesher for R. Royston: London, 1670) (Google).</ref> in which his readings of Karaite manuscripts (stimulated by meetings with Johann Stephan Rittangel) were influential.<ref>D.J. Lasker, 'Karaism and Christian Hebraism: a New Document', Renaissance Quarterly, 59(4), (2006), pp. 1089–1116.</ref>

11th Regius Professor of Hebrew (1645) and 26th Master of Clare Hall (1645–1654)

[edit]
File:Clare College, back of Old Court.jpeg
Old Court, Clare College, Cambridge

Following sustained correspondence with John Selden<ref>D. Levitin, Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science: Histories of Philosophy in England, Template:Circa1640–1700 (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2015), p. 171 and note 300, with itemized citations (Google).</ref> (to whom he supplied Karaite literature), he was elected (aged 28) as 11th Regius Professor of Hebrew (1645).<ref name="Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses"/> In 1645, Thomas Paske had been ejected as Master of Clare Hall for his Anglican allegiances, and Cudworth (despite his immaturity) was selected as his successor, as 26th Master (but not admitted until 1650).<ref>D. Neal (ed. J.O. Choules), The History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists (Harper & Brothers: New York, 1844), p. 481 (Google). See J. Barwick, Querela Cantabrigiensis (Oxford 1647), 'A Catalogue' (Umich/eebo).</ref> Similarly, his fellow-theologian Benjamin Whichcote was installed as 19th Provost of King's College.<ref>S. Hutton, 'Whichcote, Benjamin (1609–83), theologian and moral philosopher' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.</ref> Cudworth attained the degree of Bachelor of Divinity (1646), and preached a sermon before the House of Commons of England (on 1 John 2, 3–4),<ref>New King James Version at Bible Gateway</ref> which was later published with a Letter of Dedication to the House (1647).<ref>R. Cudworth, A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at Westminster, March 31. 1647 (Roger Daniel: Cambridge, 1647), Letter of Dedication (Umich/eebo).</ref> Despite these distinctions and his presentation, by Emmanuel College, to the rectorate of North Cadbury, Somerset (3 October 1650), he remained comparatively impoverished. He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Divinity (1651),<ref name="Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses"/> and, in January 1651/2, his friend Dr John Worthington wrote of him, "If through want of maintenance he should be forced to leave Cambridge, for which place he is so eminently accomplished with what is noble and Exemplarily Academical, it would be an ill omen."<ref>Letter of John Worthington (6 January 1651/2), quoted in Mosheim's Preface to Systema Intellectuale (1733), i, p. xxviii (1773 edn).</ref>

Marriage (1654) and 14th Master of Christ's College (1654–1688)

[edit]
File:Cambridge - St Andrews Street - Christ's College - First Court - View ENE.jpg
First Court, Christ's College, Cambridge

Despite his worsening sight, Cudworth was elected (29 October 1654) and admitted (2 November 1654), as 14th Master of Christ's College.<ref>'1654, Oct. 29. Dr Cudworth was chosen Master of Christ's College, admitted Nov. 2.': J. Crossley, Diary and Correspondence of Dr John Worthington (Chetham Society, O.S., 13 (1847), i, p. 52.</ref> His appointment coincided with his marriage to Damaris (died 1695), daughter (by his first wife, Damaris) of Matthew Cradock (died 1641), first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Company. Hence Worthington commented "After many tossings Dr Cudworth is through God's good Providence returned to Cambridge and settled in Christ's College, and by his marriage more settled and fixed."<ref>Letter of John Worthington (30 January 1654/5) quoted in Mosheim's Preface (1733), i, p. xxviii (1773 edn)</ref>

In his Will (1641), Matthew Cradock had divided his estate beside the Mystic River at Medford, Massachusetts (which he had never visited, and was managed on his behalf)<ref>C. Seaburg and A. Seaburg, Medford on the Mystic (Medford Historical Society, 1980).</ref> into two moieties: one was bequeathed to his daughter Damaris Cradock (died 1695), (later wife of Ralph Cudworth Jnr); and one was to be enjoyed by his widow Rebecca (during her lifetime), and afterwards to be inherited by his brother, Samuel Cradock (1583–1653), and his heirs male.<ref>Will of Mathew Cradock of London, Merchant (P.C.C. 1641); C. Brooks, The History of the Town of Medford (J.M. Usher: Boston, 1855), pp. 90–92 (Internet Archive).</ref> Samuel Cradock's son, Samuel Cradock Jnr (1621–1706), was admitted to Emmanuel (1637), graduated (BA (1640–1); MA (1644); BD (1651)), was later a Fellow (1645–56), and pupil of Benjamin Whichcote's.<ref>Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, i(1), p. 411; J.C. Whitebrook, 'Samuel Cradock, cleric and pietist (1620–1706): and Matthew Cradock, first governor of Massachusetts', Congregational History Society, 5(3), (1911), pp. 183–90; S. Handley, 'Cradock, Samuel (1620/21–1706), nonconformist minister', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.</ref> After part of the Medford estate was rented to Edward Collins (1642), it was placed in the hands of an attorney; the widow Rebecca Cradock (whose second and third husbands were Richard Glover and Benjamin Whichcote, respectively), petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts, and the legatees later sold the estate to Collins (1652).<ref>Brooks, The History of the Town of Medford, pp 41–43, and p. 93 (Internet Archive).</ref><ref>'Cradock, Craddock', in C.H. Pope, The Pioneers of Massachusetts: A Descriptive List (Boston 1900), pp. 121–22 (Internet Archive).</ref>

The marriage of the widow Rebecca Cradock to Cudworth's colleague Benjamin Whichcote laid the way for the union between Cudworth and her stepdaughter Damaris (died 1695), which reinforced the connections between the two scholars through a familial bond. Damaris had first married (1642)<ref>R. Brenner, Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London's Overseas Traders, 1550–1663 (Verso: London, 2003), p. 139 (Google).</ref> Thomas Andrewes Jnr (died 1653) of London and Feltham, son of Sir Thomas Andrewes (died 1659), (Lord Mayor of London, 1649, 1651–2), which union had produced several children. The Andrewes family were also engaged in the Massachusetts project, and strongly supported puritan causes.<ref>Will of Thomas Andrewes, Leather seller of London (P.C.C. 1653). These relationships are confirmed by these wills and the Chancery case Andrewes v Glover (National Archives, London); W.G. Watkins, 'Notes from English Records', New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 64 (1910), pp. 84–87.</ref>

Commonwealth and Restoration

[edit]

Cudworth emerged as a central figure among that circle of theologians and philosophers known as the Cambridge Platonists, who were (more or less) in sympathy with the Commonwealth: during the later 1650s, Cudworth was consulted by John Thurloe, Oliver Cromwell's Secretary to the Council of State, with regard to certain university and government appointments and various other matters.<ref>T. Birch, Account of the Life and Writings (1743), pp. viii–x (pp. 16–18 in pdf).</ref><ref>'Life of Cudworth, Appendix A: Letters to Thurloe', in W.R. Scott, An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality (Longmans, Green & Co.: London, 1891), pp. 19–23 (Hathi Trust).</ref> During 1657, Cudworth advised Bulstrode Whitelocke's sub-committee of the Parliamentary "Grand Committee for Religion" on the accuracy of editions of the English Bible.<ref>C. Anderson, The Annals of the English Bible (William Pickering: London, 1845), ii, Book 3, p. 394 (Google).</ref> Cudworth was appointed Vicar of Great Wilbraham, and Rector of Toft, Cambridgeshire Ely diocese (1656), but surrendered these livings (1661 and 1662, respectively) when he was presented, by Dr Gilbert Sheldon, Bishop of London, to the Hertfordshire Rectory of Ashwell (1 December 1662).<ref name="CCEdp" />

File:Former swimming pool - geograph.org.uk - 1580169.jpg
The mid-seventeenth century Fellows' Swimming Pool, Christ's College, Cambridge

Given Cudworth's close cooperation with prominent figures in Oliver Cromwell's regime (such as John Thurloe), Cudworth's continuance as Master of Christ's was challenged at the Restoration but, ultimately, he retained this post until his death.<ref>Letter (6 August 1660), in J. Crossley, Diary and Correspondence of Dr John Worthington (Chetham Society, O.S., 13 (1847)), i, p. 203; and Christ's College website, List of Masters of Christ's College.</ref> He and his family are believed to have resided in private lodgings at the "Old Lodge" (which stood between Hobson Street and the College Chapel), and various improvements were made to the college rooms in his time.<ref>J. Covell, 'An Account of the Master's Lodgings in ye College', in R. Willis and J.W. Clarke, The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, and of the Colleges of Cambridge and Eton, (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1886), ii, pp. 212–19 (Internet Archive).</ref> He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1662.

Later life

[edit]

In 1665, Cudworth almost quarrelled with his fellow-Platonist, Henry More, because of the latter's composition of an ethical work which Cudworth feared would interfere with his own long-contemplated treatise on the same subject.<ref>'Life of Cudworth, Appendix B: Letters of Cudworth and More', in Scott, An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise, pp. 24–28 (Hathi Trust).</ref> To avoid any difficulties, More published his Enchiridion ethicum (1666–69), in Latin;<ref>An Account of Virtue; or, Dr. Henry More's Abridgement of Morals, put into English (transl. Edward Southwell), (facsimile of Benjamin Tooke's London (1690) English edn; Facsimile Text Society, New York, 1930), Internet Archive.</ref> However, Cudworth's planned treatise was never published. His own majestic work, The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678),<ref>R. Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; Wherein, All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted, and its Impossibility Demonstrated (Richard Royston: London, 1678)</ref> was conceived in three parts of which only the first was completed; he wrote: "there is no reason why this volume should therefore be thought imperfect and incomplete, because it hath not all the Three Things at first Designed by us: it containing all that belongeth to its own particular Title and Subject, and being in that respect no Piece, but a Whole."<ref>R. Cudworth, 'Preface to the Reader', True Intellectual System (1678).</ref>

File:All Saints Church Damaris Cudworth tablet plaque High Laver Essex England.jpg
Memorial to Damaris Cudworth

Cudworth was installed as Prebendary of Gloucester (1678).<ref name="CCEdp" /> His colleague, Benjamin Whichcote, died at Cudworth's house in Cambridge (1683),<ref>G. Dyer, History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge, (Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown: London, 1814), ii, p. 355 (Google).</ref> and Cudworth himself died (26 June 1688), and was buried in the Chapel of Christ's College.<ref>Epitaph in Mosheim's Preface (1733), i, p. xxix (1773 edn); for his monumental inscription [2].</ref> An oil portrait of Cudworth (from life) hangs in the Hall of Christ's College.<ref>Oil portrait of Ralph Cudworth, image (copyright Christ's College) viewable here.</ref> During Cudworth's time an outdoor Swimming Pool was created at Christ's College (which still exists), and a carved bust of Cudworth there accompanies those of John Milton and Nicholas Saunderson.<ref>'Splashing out for a piece of history', News, 23 July 2010 (University of Cambridge website). Listing by Historic England.</ref>

Cudworth's widow, Damaris (née Cradock) Andrewes Cudworth (died 1695), maintained close connections with her daughter, Damaris Cudworth Masham, at High Laver, Essex, which was where she died, and was commemorated in the church with a carved epitaph reputedly composed by the philosopher John Locke.<ref>Will of Damaris Cudworth (P.C.C. 1695); H.R. Fox Bourne, The Life of John Locke, (Harper & Brothers: New York, 1876), ii, pp. 306–07 (Internet Archive).</ref>

Children

[edit]

The children of Ralph Cudworth and Damaris (née Cradock) Andrewes Cudworth (died 1695) were:

  • John Cudworth (Template:Circa1656–1726) was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge (1672), graduated (BA (1676–77); MA (1680)), and was a pupil of Mr Andrewes. He was a Fellow (1678–1698), was ordained a priest (1684), and later became Lecturer in Greek (1687/88) and Senior Dean (1690).<ref>J. Peile, Biographical Register of Christ's College 1505–1905: II: 1666–1905 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1913), ii, p. 46.</ref>
  • Charles Cudworth (died 1684) was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge (1674–6), but may have not graduated, instead, making a career in the factories of Kasimbazar, West Bengal, India, which was where John Locke (friend of his sister Damaris Cudworth), corresponded with him (27 April 1683).<ref>Locke's letter, in Lord King, The Life of John Locke: With Extracts from His Correspondence (New Edn, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley: London, 1830), ii, pp. 16–21 (Google).</ref> He married (February 1683/84), Mary Cole, widow of Jonathan Prickman, Second for the English East India Company at Malda.<ref>R.C. Temple, The Diaries of Streynsham Master, 1675–80, and other contemporary papers relating thereto II: The First and Second "Memorialls, 1679–80, Indian Records Series (John Murray: London, 1911), p. 343 and note 2 (Internet Archive); W.K. Firminger (ed.), 'The Malda Diary and Consultations (1680–82)', Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, N.S., 14 (1918), pp. 1–241 (Internet Archive).</ref> Charles Cudworth died in March 1684.<ref>J. Peile, Biographical Register, ii, pp. 49–50, citing Journal entries from Factory Records, Kasinbazar III.</ref>
  • Thomas Cudworth graduated at Christ's College, Cambridge (MA (1682)).<ref>J. Peile, Biographical Register, ii, p. 70.</ref><ref>Locke's letter supposedly addressed to Thomas, in H.R. Fox Bourne, The Life of John Locke (Harper and Brothers: New York, 1876), i, pp. 473–76 (Internet Archive).</ref>
  • Damaris Cudworth (1659–1708), a devout and talented woman, became the second wife (1685) of Sir Francis Masham, 3rd Baronet (c.1646–1723) of High Laver, Essex.<ref>M. Knights, 'Masham, Sir Francis, 3rd Bt. (Template:Circa 1646–1723), of Otes, High Laver, Essex', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons, 1690–1715 (Boydell & Brewer,Woodbridge, 2002), History of Parliament Online.</ref> Lady Masham was a friend of the philosopher John Locke, and also a correspondent of Gottfried Leibniz. Her son, Francis Cudworth Masham (died 1731), became Accountant-General to the Court of Chancery.

The stepchildren of Ralph Cudworth (children of Damaris (née Cradock) Andrewes (died 1695) and Thomas Andrewes (died 1653)) were:

  • Richard Andrewes (living 1688) who, according to Peile, is not the Richard Andrewes who attended Christ's College, Cambridge during this period.<ref>J. Peile, Biographical Register, I: 1448–1665 (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1910), i,p. 601 (Internet Archive).</ref>
  • John Andrewes (died after 1688?) matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge (1664), graduated (BA (1668/9); MA (1672)), was ordained deacon and priest (1669–70), and was a Fellow (1669–75).<ref>Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, i(1), p. 30; J. Peile, Biographical Register, i, p. 612 (Internet Archive).</ref> Peile suggests he died Template:Circa1675, but he was a legatee in the will of his brother Thomas (1688). John Covel attended a "Pastoral" performed by Cudworth's children contrived by John Andrewes.<ref>Covell, 'An Account of the Master's Lodgings'.</ref>
  • Thomas Andrewes (died 1688), Citizen and Dyer of London, was a linen draper. He married (August 1681), Anna, daughter of Samuel Shute, of St Peter's, Cornhill.<ref>G.J. Armytage, Allegations for Marriage-Licences Issued by the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Canterbury, July 1679 to June 1687, Harleian Society, 30 (1890), p. 70 (Internet Archive).</ref><ref>Will of Thomas Andrewes, Citizen and Dyer of London (P.C.C. 1688, Foot quire); H.F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England, with the addition of New Series, A-Anyon (Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, 1969), ii, pp. 1738–39 (Internet Archive).</ref>
  • Mathew Andrewes (died 1674) was admitted to Queens' College, Cambridge (1663/4), and later elected a Fellow.<ref>Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, i(1), p. 30. Will of Mathew Andrewes, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge (P.C.C. 1674, Bunce quire); H.F. Waters, Genealogical Gleanings in England, with the addition of New Series, A-Anyon (Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, 1969), ii, p. 1738.</ref>
  • Damaris Andrewes (died 1687) married (1661), (as his first wife) Sir Edward Abney (1631–1728), (a student at Christ's College, Cambridge (BA 1649–52/53); Fellow (1655–61); and Doctor of both laws (1661)).<ref>Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, i(1), p. 2; A.A. Hanham, 'Abney, Sir Edward (1631–1728), of Willesley Hall, Leics. and Portugal Row, Lincoln’s Inn Fields', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, and S. Handley (eds), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690–1715 ( Boydell and Brewer: Woodbridge, 2002), History of Parliament Online.</ref><ref>For correspondence between Cudworth and Edward's father, James Abney: E. Randall (ed.), C. Melinsky (ill.), Letters to my Father: Edward Abney, 1660–63 (Simon Randall: Sevenoaks, 2005).</ref>

Philosophy

[edit]

Cudworth was a member of the Cambridge Platonists, a group of English seventeenth-century thinkers associated with the University of Cambridge who were stimulated by Plato's teachings but also were aware of and influenced by Descartes, Hobbes, Bacon, Boyle and Spinoza. The other important philosopher of this group was Henry More (1614–1687). More held that spiritual substance or mind controlled inert matter. Out of his correspondence with Descartes, he developed the idea that everything, whether material or non, had extension, an example of the latter being space, which is infinite (Newton) and which then is correlative to the idea of God (set out in his Enchiridion metaphysicum 1667). In developing this idea, More also introduced a causal agent between God and substance, or Nature, in his Hylarchic Principle, derived from Plato's anima mundi or world soul, and the Stoic's pneuma, which encapsulates the laws of nature, both for inert and vital nature, and involves a sympathetic resonance between soul (psyche) and body (soma).<ref name=Stanford>Template:Cite web</ref>

Plastic principle

[edit]

The role of nature was one faced by philosophers in the Age of Reason or Enlightenment. The prevailing view was either that of the Church of a personal deity intervening in his creation, producing miracles, or an ancient pantheism (atheism relative to theism) – deity pervading all things and existing in all things. However, the "ideas of an all-embracing providential care of the world and of one universal vital force capable of organizing the world from within."<ref name=Giglioni>Template:Cite journal</ref> presented difficulties for philosophers of a spiritual as well as materialistic bent.

Cudworth countered these mechanical, materialistic views of nature in his True intellectual system of the universe (1678), with the idea of 'the Plastick Life of Nature', a formative principle that contains both substance and the laws of motion, as well as a nisus or direction that accounts for design and goal in the natural world. He was stimulated by the Cartesian idea of the mind as self-consciousness to see God as consciousness. He first analysed four forms of atheism from ancient times to present, and showed that all misunderstood the principle of life and knowledge, which involved unsentient activity and self-consciousness, addressing the tension between theism and atheism, took both the Stoic idea of Divine Reason poured into the world, and the Platonic idea of the world soul (anima mundi) to posit a power that was polaric – "either as a ruling but separate mind or as an informing vital principle – either nous hypercosmios or nous enkosmios.<ref name=Giglioni /> According to the Encyclopædia Britannica:<ref name="1902 Encyc.">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>

Template:Blockquote

All of the atheistic approaches posited nature as unconscious, which for Cudworth was ontologically unsupportable, as a principle that was supposed to be the ultimate source of life and meaning could only be itself self-conscious and knowledgeable, that is, rational, otherwise creation or nature degenerates into inert matter set in motion by random external forces (Coleridge's 'chance whirlings of unproductive particles'). Cudworth saw nature as a vegetative power endowed with plastic (forming) and spermatic (generative) forces, but one with Mind, or a self-conscious knowledge. This idea would later emerge in the Romantic period in German science as Blumenbach's Bildungstreib (generative power) and the Lebenskraft (or Bildungskraft). Guido Giglioni writes:<ref name=Giglioni />

Template:Blockquote

The essence of atheism for Cudworth was the view that matter was self-active and self-sufficient, whereas for Cudworth the plastic power was unsentient and under the direct control of the universal Mind or Logos. For him atheism, whether mechanical or material could not solve the "phenomenon of nature." Henry More argued that atheism made each substance independent and self-acting such that it 'deified' matter. Cudworth argued that materialism/mechanism reduced "substance to a corporeal entity, its activity to causal determinism, and each single thing to fleeting appearances in a system dominated by material necessity."<ref name=Giglioni />

Cudworth had the idea of a general plastic nature of the world, containing natural laws to keep all of nature, inert and vital in orderly motion, and particular plastic natures in particular entities, which serve as 'Inward Principles' of growth and motion, but ascribes it to the Platonic tradition:<ref name=Smith>Template:Cite web</ref>

Template:Blockquote

Further, Cudsworth's plastic principle was also a functional polarity. As he wrote:<ref name=Raiger>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Template:Blockquote

As another historian notes in conclusion, "Cudworth’s theory of plastic natures is offered as an alternative to the interpretation of all of nature as either governed by blind chance, or, on his understanding of the Malebranchean view, as micro-managed by God."<ref name="Smith"/>

Plastic principle and mind

[edit]

Cudworth's plastic principle also involves a theory of mind that is active, that is, God or the Supreme Mind is "the spermatic reason" which gives rise to individual mind and reason. Human mind can also create, and has access to spiritual or super-sensible 'Ideas' in the Platonic sense.<ref name="Stanford"/> Cudworth challenged Hobbesian determinism in arguing that will is not distinct from reason, but a power to act that is internal, and therefore, the voluntary will function involves self-determination, not external compulsion, though we have the power to act either in accordance with God's will or not. Cudworth's 'hegemonikon' (taken from Stoicism) is a function within the soul that combines the higher functions of the soul (voluntary will and reason) on the one hand with the lower animal functions (instinct), and also constitutes the whole person, thus bridging the Cartesian dualism of body and soul or psyche and soma. This idea provided the basis for a concept of self-awareness and identity of an individual that is self-directed and autonomous, an idea that anticipates John Locke.

Legacy

[edit]

Locke examined how man came to knowledge via stimulus (rather than seeing ideas as inherent), which approach led to his idea of the 'thinking' mind, which is both receptive and pro-active. The first involves receiving sensations ('simple ideas') and the second by reflection – "observation of its own inner operations" (inner sense which leads to complex ideas), with the second activity acting upon the first. Thought is set in motion by outer stimuli which 'simple ideas' are taken up by the mind's self-activity, an "active power" such that the outer world can only be real-ized as action (natural cause) by the activity of consciousness. Locke also took the issue of life as lying not in substance but in the capacity of the self for consciousness, to be able to organize (associate) disparate events, that is to participate life by means of the sense experiences, which have the capacity to produce every kind of experience in consciousness. These ideas of Locke were taken over by Fichte and influenced German Romantic science and medicine. (See Romantic medicine and Brunonian system of medicine). Thomas Reid and his "Common Sense" philosophy, was also influenced by Cudworth, taking his influence into the Scottish Enlightenment.<ref name="Stanford"/>

George Berkeley later developed the idea of a plastic life principle with his idea of an 'aether' or 'aetherial medium' that causes 'vibrations' that animate all living beings. For Berkeley, it is the very nature of this medium that generates the 'attractions' of entities to each other.<ref name="Raiger"/>

Template:Blockquote

Berkeley meant this 'aether' to supplant Newton's gravity as the cause of motion (neither seeing the polarity involved between two forces, as Cudworth had in his plastic principle). However, in Berkeley's conception, aether is both the movement of spirit and the motion of nature.

Both Cudworth's views and those of Berkeley were taken up by Coleridge in his metaphor of the eolian harp in his 'Effusion XXXV' as one commentator noted: "what we see in the first manuscript is the articulation of Cudworth’s principle of plastic nature, which is then transformed in the published version into a Berkeleyan expression of the causal agency of motion performed by God’s immanent activity."<ref name="Raiger"/>

Works

[edit]

Template:Portal

Sermons and treatises

[edit]

Cudworth's works included The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow (1642); A Sermon preached before the House of Commons (1647); and A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper (1670). Much of Cudworth's work remains in manuscript. However, certain surviving works have been published posthumously, such as A Treatise concerning eternal and immutable Morality, and A Treatise of Freewill.

A Treatise concerning eternal and immutable Morality (posth.)

[edit]

Cudworth's Treatise on eternal and immutable Morality, published with a preface by Edward Chandler (1731),<ref>R. Cudworth, Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality... with a Preface by... Edward Lord Bishop of Durham (1st edn, James and John Knapton: London, 1731)</ref> is about the historical development of British moral philosophy. It answers, from the standpoint of Platonism, Hobbes's famous doctrine that moral distinctions are created by the state. It argues that just as knowledge contains a permanent intelligible element over and above the flux of sense-impressions, so there exist eternal and immutable ideas of morality.<ref name=EB1911/>

A Treatise of Freewill (posth.)

[edit]

Another posthumous publication was Cudworth's A Treatise of Freewill, edited by John Allen (1838). Both this and the Treatise on eternal and immutable Morality are connected with the design of his magnum opus, The True Intellectual System of the Universe.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The True Intellectual System of the Universe (1678)

[edit]

In 1678, Cudworth published The True Intellectual System of the Universe: the first part, wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted and its impossibility demonstrated, which had been given an Imprimatur for publication (29 May 1671).

File:The True Intellectual System of the Universe -bound with another text by Cudworth- 2 vols - Upper cover (Davis187).jpg
A finely-bound first edition of the True Intellectual System (1678) in the British Library (shelfmark: Davis 187).

The Intellectual System arose, according to Cudworth, from a discourse refuting "fatal necessity", or determinism.<ref name=EB1911>Template:Cite EB1911</ref> Enlarging his plan, he proposed to prove three matters:

  1. the existence of God;
  2. the naturalness of moral distinctions; and
  3. the reality of human freedom.

These three comprise, collectively, the intellectual (as opposed to the physical) system of the universe; and they are opposed, respectively, by three false principles: atheism, religious fatalism (which refers all moral distinctions to the will of God), and the fatalism of the ancient Stoics (who recognized God and yet identified him with nature). Only the first part, dealing with atheism, was ever published.

Cudworth criticizes two main forms of materialistic atheism: the atomic (adopted by Democritus, Epicurus and Thomas Hobbes); and the hylozoic (attributed to Strato of Lampsacus, which explains everything by the supposition of an inward self-organizing life in matter). Atomic atheism, to which Cudworth devotes the larger part of the work, is described as arising from the combination of two principles, neither of which is, individually, atheistic (namely atomism and corporealism, or the doctrine that nothing exists but body). The example of Stoicism, Cudworth suggests, shows that corporealism may be theistic.

Cudworth discusses the history of atomism at length. It is, in its purely physical application, a theory that he fully accepts. He holds that theistic atomism was taught by Pythagoras, Empedocles and many other ancient philosophers, and was only perverted to atheism by Democritus. Cudworth believes that atomism was first invented before the Trojan war by a Sidonian thinker named Moschus or Mochus (whom he identifies with Moses in the Old Testament).

Cudworth's method in arranging his work was to marshal the atheistic arguments elaborately before refuting them in his final chapter. This led many readers to accuse Cudworth himself of atheism – as John Dryden remarked, "he has raised such objections against the being of a God and Providence that many think he has not answered them".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Much attention was also attached to a subordinate matter in the book, the conception of the "Plastic Medium" (a revival of Plato's "World-Soul") which was intended to explain the existence and laws of nature without referring to the direct operation of God. This theory occasioned a long-drawn controversy between Pierre Bayle and Georges-Louis Leclerc, with the former maintaining, and the latter denying, that the Plastic Medium is favourable to atheism.

Summing up the work, Andrew Dickson White wrote in 1896:

To this day he [Cudworth] remains, in breadth of scholarship, in strength of thought, in tolerance, and in honesty, one of the greatest glories of the English Church ... He purposed to build a fortress which should protect Christianity against all dangerous theories of the universe, ancient or modern ... While genius marked every part of it, features appeared which gave the rigidly orthodox serious misgivings. From the old theories of direct personal action on the universe by the Almighty he broke utterly. He dwelt on the action of law, rejected the continuous exercise of miraculous intervention, pointed out the fact that in the natural world there are "errors" and "bungles" and argued vigorously in favor of the origin and maintenance of the universe as a slow and gradual development of Nature in obedience to an inward principle.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Arms

[edit]

Template:Infobox COA wide

Ancestry

[edit]

Template:Ahnentafel

References

[edit]

Template:Reflist

Sources

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]

Template:Wikiquote

Template:S-start Template:S-aca Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-bef Template:S-ttl Template:S-aft Template:S-end

Template:Masters of Clare College, Cambridge Template:Masters of Christ's College, Cambridge Template:Regius Professors of Hebrew (Oxbridge) Template:FRS 1662 Template:Anglicanism (footer) Template:Philosophy topics Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://wiki.niidae.com/index.php?title=Ralph_Cudworth&oldid=23034"