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Thus, I Have Limited Myself to a Discussion of His Public Works and Have Provided at Best an Intellectual Biography Based on Those Works

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Thus, I Have Limited Myself to a Discussion of His Public Works and Have Provided at Best an Intellectual Biography Based on Those Works APPENDIX A AN ESSAY ON BIOGRAPHY It has not been my purpose to provide a comprehensive biography of Stillingfleet; thus, I have limited myself to a discussion of his public works and have provided at best an intellectual biography based on those works. Indeed, biographical information on Stillingfleet is sparse, the most detailed being the essay on his life and character which was first published in the second volume of Stillingfleet's Works, published in 1710. That essay was republished in 1735, but in both cases no author is given. It is this anonymous piece on Stillingfieet's life and character that most dictionary and encyclopedia articles on Stillingfleet follow. The authorship has been variously attributed to Richard Bentley, Timothy Godwin (or Goodwin), and a Mr. Spinkes. The latter is mentioned in a note by Thomas Hearne on his copy of the life, and, as far as I know, no one besides Hearne has mentioned Spinkes as the author. (See The Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous English Literature: Kennedy, Smith, and Johnson: London, 1928, III, p. 349). Both Bentley and Godwin were, at different times, chaplains to Stillingfleet, and either could have had access to the Bishop's records, as well as to the Bishop himself. Bentley, however, is mentioned near the end of the essay on Stillingfleet's life and character as being the author of the epitaph which graces the Bishop's tomb in the cathedral at Worcester, and which was printed following the essay. The author, in fact, speaks of Bentley in such glowing terms as to his character and friendship with Stillingfieet, that one is led to believe that someone other than Bentley was the author. Godwin was Stillingfleet's chaplain at the time of the Bishop's death, and of the three­ Spinkes, Bentley, and Godwin-he seems to be the most likely candidate for Stillingfleet's biographer. The epitaph is in Latin, is eloquent, and is in keeping with Bentley's reputation as a classical scholar. The biography is in English, is not very well written, and internally, at least, seems unworthy of a great classical scholar such as Bentley. Hearne, in the note 160 AN ESSAY ON BIOGRAPHY on his copy mentioned above, writes : "When this book first came out, Dr. Timothy Goodwin ... was said to be the author; which I rather believe, than that it was done (as it hath been suggested) by Mr. Spinkes, a non­ juror". It is perhaps relevant to note that Hearne had little affection for Godwin, referring to him as "the snivelling sneaking archdeacon of Oxford". (See David C. Douglas, English Scholars, p. 253). It is possibly on the basis of Hearne's note that both the Bodleian and Huntington Libraries list Godwin as the author of the essay on the life and character of Bishop Stillingfieet. (The Library of Congress Supplement (Ann Arbor, 1948) has no entry for this work). It is of course possible that some fourth party, heretofore unmentioned, was the actual author of Stillingfieet's biography, but until some evidence to the contrary is introduced, it seems that Godwin should be attributed with the authorship. Finally, it should be noted that I have not been able to track down Stillingfieet's manuscripts, though, if they have not been destroyed, they are undoubtedly still in England. They are not in the British Museum, the Bodleian Library, or at St. John's, Cambridge. Some of the manuscripts have been copied and are at Dr. William's Library in London. It is possible that they are still in the possession of the Stillingfieet family. (When William Holden Hutton did his article on Stillingfieet for the DNB near the turn of the century the manuscripts were available to him and he noted that they were then still in the possession of the family). Since I have not seen the manuscripts, I do not know if they contain anything that was not published either in Stillingfieet's Works of 1710 or in his Miscellaneous Discourses on Several Occasions, published in 1735 by his son, James Stillingfieet. (The latter contains several letters from Stilling­ fieet; none, however, are of a personal nature). A short piece on StilIingfieet appeared in 1946, but no reference to the manuscripts was made. The author, James Nankivell, follows Stillingfieet's ecclesiastical career, and notes all the baptisms, ordinations, etc., which Stillingfieet performed, and promised to write a full biography of the Bishop. If the biography was written, however, it was never published. (See James Nankivell, Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, 1689-99, reprinted from the Transactions of the Worcester Archaeological Society; Ebenezer Baylis & Son: Worcester, 1946). APPENDIX B STILLINGFLEET'S INFLUENCE Eleven years after his death in 1699, Stillingfleet's many publications, along with a few incomplete treatises, were collected in a six-volume edition of his Works. But, despite a lengthy and panegyrical biography which prefaced the second volume of his Works, they failed to arouse much interest. George Berkeley knew of Stillingfleet's controversy with Locke, and he noted that his own notion of substance should please the Stillingfieetians.1 And Berkeley s Alciphron seems to have been influenced by Stillingfleet's method of defending the reasonableness of Christianity. Also, Butler's Analogy of Religion and Paley's View of the Evidences of Christianity indicate that even though Stillingfleet's direct influence may not have been great in the eighteenth century, his spirit and method were carried on by Christian apologists. 2 His influence, however, did not die out completely. Late in the eighteenth century, for example, Richard Watson, the Bishop of Llandaff, brought about a slight and brief Stillingfieet revival. 3 Watson's defenses of Christianity against Henry Gibbon and Thomas Paine both indicate Stillingfleet's influence. 4 Also, early in the nineteenth century, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, an astute critic of seventeenth- 1 See The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne, ed. A. A. Luce and T. E. Jessop (New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1950), I, p. 64. "I take not away substances. I ought not to be accused of discarding Substance out of the reasonable World." "We have assuredly an Idea of Substance. Twas absurd of Locke to think we had a name without a Meaning. This might prove Acceptable to the Stillingfleetians." Ibid., p. 86. 2 The influence on eighteenth century defenses of the reasonableness of Christianity of the works of Chillingworth, Tillotson, and Stillingfieet needs to be researched, but there seems to be at least a prima facie case for such influence on the works of Berkeley, Butler, and Paley. 3 See Chalmer's Biographical Dictionary, art. "StilJingfieet," (London, 1816). The author of the article claims that Watson's praise of Stillingfieet as "a good reasoner" has "probablY contributed to revive an attention to Stillingfieefs works, which have accordingly risen very highly in value." 4 See Richard Watson, An Apology for Christianity (Cambridge, 1776) and An Apology for the Bible (London, 1796), written against Gibbon and Paine, respectively. 162 STILLINGFLEET'S INFLUENCE century Anglicanism, took an interest in Stillingfieet's Origines Sacrae,5 which was last published at Oxford in 1817. In 1842 a two-volume edition of Origines Britannicae was put out, also at Oxford. And three years later, a second edition of The Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome Truly Represented was brought out in Scotland by Dr. Cunningham, as part of his overall attack on Roman Catholicism. 6 Finally, a reproduction of Stillingfieet's Works and his letters to Locke have been promised as forthcoming. 7 5 Coleridge's marginalia for Origines Sacrae may be found in Roberta Florena Brinkley, Coleridge and the 17th Century (Durham, N.C. : Duke University Press, 1955). 6 Cunningham's edition and comments are remarked upon by James Gillis, Bishop of Limya, a Roman Catholic, in A Letter to the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, containing ... a few strictures on the Rev. Dr. Cunningham's edition of Stillingfleet's "Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome," (Edinburgh, 1846). 7 The photoreproduction of Stillingfleet's Works has been advertised in Books in Print since 1972. The letters are being published by R. H. Popkin. WORKS BY STILLING FLEET BIBLIOGRAPHY An Answer to Mr. Cressy's Epistle Apologetical to a Person of Honour, Touching his Vindication of Dr. Stillingfleet (London, 1675). An Answer to Mr. Locke's Letter, Concerning Some Passages Relating to his Essay of Humane Understanding: Mention'd in the late Discourse in Vindi­ cation of the Trinity. With a POSTSCRIPT in answer to some Reflections made on that Treatise in a late Socinian Pamphlet (London, 1697). An Answer to Mr. Locke's Second Letter; Wherein His Notion of IDEAS is prov'd to be Inconsistent with it self, and with the ARTICLES of the CHRISTIAN FAITH (London, 1698). An Answer to the Paper Delivered by Mr. Ashton at his Execution to Sir Francis Child, Sheriff of London, &c. Together with the Paper it self (London, 1691). An Answer to several late Treatises, Occasioned by a Book, entituled a Discourse concerning the Idolatry Practised in the Church of Rome, and the Hazard of Salvation in the Communion of it (London, 1673). An Answer to some Papers Lately Printed, concerning the Authority of the Catholic Church in Matters of Faith, and the Reformation of the Church of England (London, 1686). The Case of an Oath of Abjuration Considered (London, 1702), attributed to Stillingfieet. The Council of Trent Examin'd and Disprov'd by Catholick Tradition, In the main Points in Controversy between Us and the Church of Rome. With a Particular Account of the Times and Occasions of introducing Them (London, 1688).
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