Robert Crosse (1606–1683) was an English puritan theologian.

Life

He was son of William Crosse of

Dunster Dunster is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, England, within the north-eastern boundary of Exmoor National Park. It lies on the Bristol Channel southeast of Minehead and northwest of Taunton. At the 2011 Unit ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. He entered Lincoln College, Oxford, in 1621, obtained a fellowship in 1627, graduated in arts, and in 1637 proceeded B.D. Siding with the

presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

s on the outbreak of the

First English Civil War The First English Civil War took place in England and Wales from 1642 to 1646, and forms part of the 1639 to 1653 Wars of the Three Kingdoms. They include the Bishops' Wars, the Irish Confederate Wars, the Second English Civil War, the Anglo ...

, he was nominated in 1643 one 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 took the Solemn League and Covenant. In 1648, submitting to the parliamentarian visitors, he was appointed by the committee for the reformation of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

to succeed Dr. Robert Sanderson as Regius Professor of Divinity. He declined the post, however, and soon afterwards was instituted as vicar of

Chew Magna Chew Magna is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 1,149. To the south of the village is Che ...

in Somerset. At the Restoration he conformed, and as there was nobody to claim his living, he retained it till his death on 12 December 1683.

Anthony à Wood Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695), who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary. He was responsible for a celebrated ''Hist. and Antiq. of the Universitie of Oxon''. Early life Anthony W ...

says he was a noted philosopher and theologian, an able preacher, and well versed in the

Church Father The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical pe ...

s and

scholastic philosopher Scholasticism was a medieval school of philosophy that employed a critical organic method of philosophical analysis predicated upon the Aristotelian 10 Categories. Christian scholasticism emerged within the monastic schools that translat ...

s. He had a controversy with

Joseph Glanvill Joseph Glanvill (1636 – 4 November 1680) was an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman. Not himself a scientist, he has been called "the most skillful apologist of the virtuosi", or in other words the leading propagandist for the approa ...

, on the subject of Aristotelian philosophy. This became sharp when Crosse accused Glanvill, and the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

of which he was a Fellow, of being "downright atheists", based on their experimental philosophy. Crosse then passed the baton to

Henry Stubbe Henry Stubbe or Stubbes (1632–12 July, 1676) was an English Royal physician, Latinist, Historian, Dissident, Writer and Scholar. Life He was born in Partney, Lincolnshire, and educated at Westminster School. Given patronage as a child by the ...

, who became a very persistent critic of the Society. Quentin Skinner, ''Visions of Politics'' (2002) III p. 337. A book which Crosse wrote against Glanvill was rejected by the licensers, but Glanvill, having obtained the contents of it, sent it in a letter to Dr. Nathaniel Ingelo, who had a hundred copies of it privately printed under the title of the ''Chew Gazette''. Afterwards Crosse wrote ballads against Glanvill with the object of ridiculing him and the Royal Society.

Works

He was the author of ''Logon alogia, seu Exercitatio Theologica de Insipientia Rationis humanae, Gratia Christi destitutae, in Rebus Fidei; in 1 Cor. ii. 14,'' Oxford, 1655, 4to.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crosse, Robert 1606 births 1683 deaths 17th-century English Anglican priests English Calvinist and Reformed theologians Westminster Divines English subscribers to the Solemn League and Covenant 1643 17th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians English conforming Puritans Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford People from West Somerset (district)