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

, 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