Thomas Gataker (*
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, 4 September 1574 – †
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, 27 June 1654) was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ...
clergyman and theologian.
Life
He was born in
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
, the son of
Thomas Gatacre
Thomas Gatacre (by 1533–1593) was an English politician and cleric.
He was the third son of William Gatacre, and was an MP of the Parliament of England for Gatton in April 1554. His background was a strongly Catholic family at Gatacre Hall ...
. He was educated at
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corporation established by a charter dated 9 April 1511. The ...
. From 1601 to 1611 he held the appointment of preacher to the society of
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincol ...
, which he resigned on accepting the rectory of
Rotherhithe
Rotherhithe () is a district of south-east London, England, and part of the London Borough of Southwark. It is on a peninsula on the south bank of the Thames, facing Wapping, Shadwell and Limehouse on the north bank, as well as the Isle of D ...
. In 1642 he was chosen a member of the
Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopt ...
, and annotated for them the books of
Isaiah
Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named.
Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...
,
Jeremiah
Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning "Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewis ...
and
Lamentations
The Book of Lamentations ( he, אֵיכָה, , from its incipit meaning "how") is a collection of poetic laments for the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. In the Hebrew Bible it appears in the Ketuvim ("Writings") as one of the Five Megillo ...
.
He disapproved of the introduction of the Covenant and declared himself in favour of
episcopacy
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
. He was one of the forty-seven London clergymen who disapproved of the trial of
Charles I Charles I may refer to:
Kings and emperors
* Charlemagne (742–814), numbered Charles I in the lists of Holy Roman Emperors and French kings
* Charles I of Anjou (1226–1285), also king of Albania, Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily
* Charles I of ...
.
He engaged in a public controversy with the astrologer
William Lilly
William Lilly (9 June 1681) was a seventeenth century English astrologer. He is described as having been a genius at something "that modern mainstream opinion has since decided cannot be done at all" having developed his stature as the most imp ...
, who had mentioned Gataker in an
almanac
An almanac (also spelled ''almanack'' and ''almanach'') is an annual publication listing a set of current information about one or multiple subjects. It includes information like weather forecasts, farmers' planting dates, tide tables, and othe ...
, which has some further biographical details.
Works
His principal works, besides some volumes of sermons, are:
*''Of the Nature and Use of Lots'' (1619), a curious treatise which led to his being accused of favouring games of chance, but which Boswell called "a learned book of the age". Gataker understood the random nature of lots and argued that they could not be used to discern the intention of God. The second edition in 1627 contained a refutation of
James Balmford's criticism. It was edited and republished in 2008 as ''The Nature and Uses of Lotteries'', Conall Boyle (ed.) Imprint Academic.
*''Dissertatio de stylo Novi Testamenti'' (1648)
*''Cinnus, sive Adversaria miscellanea, in quibus Sacrae Scripturae primo, deinde aliorum scriptorum, locis aliquam multis lux redditur'' (1651), to which was afterwards subjoined ''Adversaria Posthuma''
*an edition of ''
Meditations
''Meditations'' () is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy.
Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the ''Meditations'' in Koine ...
'' by
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Latin: áːɾkus̠ auɾέːli.us̠ antɔ́ːni.us̠ English: ; 26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good E ...
(1652)
[According to Hallam, is the "earliest edition of any classical writer published in England with original annotations," and, for the period at which it was written, possesses remarkable merit.]
His collected works were published in
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Net ...
in 1698.
Notes
References
*
External links
*
* https://www.usask.ca/english/gataker/gat_bio.htm
* https://web.archive.org/web/20061029004731/http://www.apuritansmind.com/MemoirsPuritans/MemoirsPuritansThomasGataker.htm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gataker, Thomas
1574 births
1654 deaths
Writers from London
Westminster Divines
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
17th-century English Anglican priests
17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
17th-century English writers
17th-century English male writers