William Cave

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William Cave bigraphy, stories - English divine

William Cave : biography

30 December 1637 – 4 August 1713

William Cave (30 December 1637 – 4 August 1713)There is some dispute as to what day he died. For example, Chisholm 1911 and Stephen 1887 give 4 July, yet Jackson 1908, Hook 1847 and Cunningham 1837 have 4 August, and McClintock 1868 has 13 August. The conclusive proof is from Owen 1784, 216, who reproduces "an exact copy" of the burial inscription given him by the vicar of the parish, which reads "Aug. iv." (= 4 August). was an English divine and patristic scholar.

Life

Cave was born at Pickwell, Leicestershire, of which parish his father, John Cave was vicar. He was educated at Oakham School and St. John’s College, Cambridge. He took his B.A. degree in 1656, his M.A. in 1660, his D.D. in 1672, and in 1681 he was incorporated D.D. at Oxford. He was vicar of St Mary’s, Islington (1662–91), rector of All-Hallows the Great, Upper Thames Street, London (1679–89), and in 1690 became vicar of Isleworth in Middlesex, at that time a quiet place which suited his studious temper. Cave was also chaplain to Charles II, and in 1684 became a canon of Windsor, where he died. He was buried at St Mary’s, Islington, near his wife and children.The details of his burial are from Stephen 1887, 341; cf. Cunningham 1837, 344.

Works

During the course of his work he was drawn into controversy with Jean Le Clerc (1657-1736), who was then writing his Bibliothèque universelle et historique. Cave published a dissertation De Eusebii Caesariensis Arianismo adversus Johannem Clericum, criticizing Le Clerc’s treatment of Eusebius as an Arian, as the last of three dissertations appended to the second part of his Historia Literaria (London 1698). Le Clerc replied in a work entitled Epistolae Criticae et Ecclesiasticae, which formed the third volume of the second edition of his Ars Critica (Amsterdam, 1700); . Le Clerc said, that Cave, in his Historia Literaria, had concealed many things about the fathers, for the sake of enhancing their credit, which an impartial historian should have related; and that, instead of lives of the fathers, he often wrote panegyrics upon them.Chalmers 1813; cf. Stephen 1887, 342. Cave responded the same year with his Epistola Apologetica (London, 1700). This was reprinted at the end of the second volume of the Historia Literaria, in the edition published at Oxford in 1743.

Cave is said to have been "of a learned and communicative conversation;" he is also reported to have been "a florid and eloquent preacher," and the printed sermons he has left behind bear out this character.The opinion of John Henry Overton, in Overton 1887, 342.

  • Primitive Christianity: or, the Religion of the ancient Christians in the first Ages of the Gospel, 2 volumes, 1672. It was dedicated to Nathaniel Crewe, lord bishop of Oxford. Reprinted many times: and .
  • Tabulae Ecclesiasticae [Tables of Ecclesiastical Writers], 1674
  • Antiquitates Apostolicae: or, The History of the Lives, Acts, and Martyrdoms of the Holy Apostles of our Saviour and the two Evangelists, St. Mark and St. Luke, 1675. Originally published as the second part of Jeremy Taylor’s Antiquitates christianae. Reprinted many times: and .
  • Apostolici: or, the history of the lives, acts, death and martyrdoms of those who were contemporary with, or immediately succeeded the apostles. As also the most eminent of the primitive fathers for the first three hundred years, 1677; . Reprinted in later years as ,
  • A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church by Bishops, Metropolitans and Patriarchs 1683
  • Ecclesiastici: or, the History of the lives, acts, death and writings of the most eminent Fathers of the Church, 1683. Reprinted in later years as and .
  • Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Historia Literaria a Christo nato usque ad saeculum XIV, a literary history of ecclesiastical writers, in two parts, the first part published , the second . Reprinted several times. The edition that appeared in , was printed without the author’s knowledge, reprinted . This 1705 printing is said to have caused the author great loss, and to have so disgusted him that he would not issue a second edition; but he spent much time during the later years of his life in revising repeatedly this great work.Stephen 1887, 342. He made alterations and additions equal to one-third of the whole work, and wrote new prolegomena. It was finally printed in two folio volumes, with some additional matter from Henry Wharton, edited by Daniel Waterland, the first , the second . It is regarded by all as being the best edition.
  • Sermons: A Sermon before the King at Whitehall, 23 Jan. 1675 (London, 1676); A Sermon before the Lord Mayor at St. Mary-le-Bow, 5 Nov. 1680 (London, 1680); A Sermon before the King at Whitehall, 18 Jan. 1684 (London, 1685).

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