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William Temple (logician)
Encyclopedia
Sir William Temple was an English Ramist logician and fourth Provost
of Trinity College, Dublin
.
, and passed with a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge
, in 1573. In 1576 he was elected a fellow of King's, and graduated B.A. in 1577-8 and M.A. in 1581. Though destined for the law, he became a tutor in logic at his college. "In his logic readings," wrote a pupil, Anthony Wotton
, in his Runne from Rome (1624), "he always laboured to fit his pupils for the true use of that art rather than for vain and idle speculations." He accepted with enthusiasm the logical methods and views of Petrus Ramus
, and became the most active champion of the Ramists in England.
. Adopting the pseudonym "Franciscus Mildapettus of Navarre" (Ramus had studied in youth at the Parisian Collège de Navarre
), he issued a tract against Digby. The work was dedicated to Philip Howard, 1st Earl of Arundel, whose acquaintance Temple had made while the earl was studying at Cambridge. Digby replied with great heat next year, and Temple retorted with a volume published under his own name. This he again dedicated to his patron the Earl of Arundel, and he announced his identity with Mildapettus. He appended to the volume an elaborate epistle addressed to another Ramist, Johannes Piscator
of Strasburg, professor at Herborn Academy
.
Temple's contributions to the controversy attracted notice abroad, and this volume was reissued at Frankfort in 1584. Meanwhile in 1582 Temple had concentrated his efforts on Piscator's writings, and he published in 1582 a second letter to Piscator with the latter's full reply.
In 1581, Temple had supplicated for incorporation as M.A. at Oxford, and soon afterwards he left Cambridge to take up the office of master of the Lincoln grammar school
. In 1584 he published an annotated edition of Ramus's Dialectics. It was published at Cambridge by Thomas Thomas
, the university printer, and is said to have been the first book that issued from the university press. A further reply to Piscator was appended. The dedication was to Sir Philip Sidney. In the same year Temple contributed a long preface, in which he renewed with spirit the war on Aristotle, to the Disputatio de prima simplicium et concretorum corporum generatione, by a fellow Ramist, James Martin
of Dunkeld
, professor of philosophy at Turin
. This also came from Thomas's press at Cambridge: it was republished at Frankfort in 1589. In the same place there was issued in 1591 a severe criticism of both Martin's argument and Temple's preface by an Aristotelian, Andreas Libavius
, in his Quaestionum Physicarum controversarum inter Peripateticos et Rameos Tractatus (Frankfort, 1591).
. He was with Sidney during his fatal illness in the autumn of the following year, and his master died in his arms (17 October 1586). Sidney left him by will an annuity of £30.
Temple's services were next sought successively by William Davison, the queen's secretary, and Sir Thomas Smith, clerk of the privy council. But about 1594 he joined the household of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
, and for many years performed secretarial duties for the earl in conjunction with Anthony Bacon
, Henry Cuff, and Sir Henry Wotton. In 1597 he was, by Essex's influence, returned to parliament as member for Tamworth
in Staffordshire
.
He seems to have accompanied Essex to Ireland in 1599, and to have returned with him next year. When Essex was engaged in organising his rebellion in London in the winter of 1600-1, Temple was still in his service, but he protested in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, written after Essex's arrest, that he was kept in complete ignorance of the plot. Temple's fortunes were prejudiced by Essex's fall. Sir Robert Cecil is said to have viewed him with marked disfavour.
Consequently, despairing of success in political affairs, Temple turned anew to literary study. In 1605 he brought out, with a dedication to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
, A Logicall Analysis of Twentye Select Psalmes performed by W. Temple. He is apparently the person named Temple for whom Bacon vainly endeavoured, through Thomas Murray of the privy chamber, to procure the honour of knighthood in 1607-8.
.
He was appointed a master in chancery at Dublin on 31 Jan. 1609-10, and he was returned to the Irish House of Commons
as member for Dublin University in April 1613. He represented that constituency till his death.
Temple proved himself an efficient administrator of both college and university, attempting to bring them into conformity at all points with the educational system in vogue at Cambridge. Many of his innovations became features of the academic organisation of Dublin. By careful manipulation of the revenues of the college he increased the number of fellows from four to sixteen, and the number of scholars from twenty-eight to seventy. The fellows he was the first to divide into two classes, making seven of them senior fellows, and nine of them junior. The general government of the institution he entrusted to the senior fellows. He instituted many other administrative offices, to each of which he allotted definite functions, and his scheme of college offices remained unchanged for many years.
He drew up new statutes for both the college and the university, and endeavoured to obtain from James I a new charter, extending the privileges which Queen Elizabeth had granted in 1595. He was in London from May 1616 to May 1617 seeking to induce the government to accept his proposals, but his efforts failed.
His tenure of the office of provost was not altogether free from controversy. He defied the order of Archbishop George Abbot that he and his colleagues should wear surplice
s in chapel. He insisted that as a layman he was entitled to dispense with that formality. Privately he was often in pecuniary difficulties, from which he sought to extricate himself by alienating the college estates to his wife and other relatives.
Temple was knighted by the lord-deputy, Sir Oliver St. John
on 4 May 1622, and died at Trinity College, Dublin, on 15 Jan. 1626-7, being buried in the old college chapel (since pulled down). At the date of his death negotiations were begun for his resignation owing to 'his age and weakness' His will, dated 21 December 1626, is preserved in the public record office at Dublin. He possessed much land in Ireland.
, afterwards Master of the Rolls in Ireland
, and Thomas with three daughters, Catharine, Mary, and Martha. The second son, Thomas, fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, became rector of Old Ross, in the diocese of Ferns
, on 6 March 1626-7. He subsequently achieved a reputation as a puritan preacher in London, where he exercised his ministry at Battersea
from 1641 onwards. He preached before the Long parliament, and was a member of the Westminster Assembly
.
Provost (education)
A provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States, Canada and Australia, the equivalent of a pro-vice-chancellor at some institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland....
of Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
.
Early life
He was educated at Eton CollegeEton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
, and passed with a scholarship to King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
, in 1573. In 1576 he was elected a fellow of King's, and graduated B.A. in 1577-8 and M.A. in 1581. Though destined for the law, he became a tutor in logic at his college. "In his logic readings," wrote a pupil, Anthony Wotton
Anthony Wotton
Anthony Wotton was an English clergyman and controversialist, of Puritan views. He was the first Gresham Professor of Divinity. Christopher Hill describes him as a Modernist and Ramist.-Life:...
, in his Runne from Rome (1624), "he always laboured to fit his pupils for the true use of that art rather than for vain and idle speculations." He accepted with enthusiasm the logical methods and views of Petrus Ramus
Petrus Ramus
Petrus Ramus was an influential French humanist, logician, and educational reformer. A Protestant convert, he was killed during the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre.-Early life:...
, and became the most active champion of the Ramists in England.
Ramist controversies
In 1580 he replied in print to an impeachment of Ramus's position by Everard DigbyEverard Digby (scholar)
Everard Digby was an English academic theologian, expelled as a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge for reasons that were largely religious. He is known as the author of a 1587 book, written in Latin, that was the first work published in England on swimming; and also as a philosophical teacher,...
. Adopting the pseudonym "Franciscus Mildapettus of Navarre" (Ramus had studied in youth at the Parisian Collège de Navarre
Collège de Navarre
The College of Navarre was one of the colleges of the historic University of Paris, rivaling the Sorbonne and renowned for its library. It was founded by Queen Joan I of Navarre in 1305, who provided for three departments, the arts with 20 students, philosophy with 30 and theology with 20...
), he issued a tract against Digby. The work was dedicated to Philip Howard, 1st Earl of Arundel, whose acquaintance Temple had made while the earl was studying at Cambridge. Digby replied with great heat next year, and Temple retorted with a volume published under his own name. This he again dedicated to his patron the Earl of Arundel, and he announced his identity with Mildapettus. He appended to the volume an elaborate epistle addressed to another Ramist, Johannes Piscator
Johannes Piscator
Johannes Piscator was a German Reformed theologian, known as a Bible translator and textbook writer.He was a prolific writer, and initially moved around as he held a number of positions...
of Strasburg, professor at Herborn Academy
Herborn Academy
The Herborn Academy was a German institution of higher learning very similar to a university in Herborn, which existed from 1584 to 1817...
.
Temple's contributions to the controversy attracted notice abroad, and this volume was reissued at Frankfort in 1584. Meanwhile in 1582 Temple had concentrated his efforts on Piscator's writings, and he published in 1582 a second letter to Piscator with the latter's full reply.
In 1581, Temple had supplicated for incorporation as M.A. at Oxford, and soon afterwards he left Cambridge to take up the office of master of the Lincoln grammar school
Lincoln Christ's Hospital School
Lincoln Christ's Hospital School is a state comprehensive school for 11-18 year olds located on Wragby Road in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England.-Admissions:Its student population is just under 1400, including over 300 in the sixth form...
. In 1584 he published an annotated edition of Ramus's Dialectics. It was published at Cambridge by Thomas Thomas
Thomas Thomas
Thomas Thomas , widely known as "Dr. T. Thomas", was the first cardio-thoracic surgeon of Indian citizenship, as well as a prolific author and poet.He was trained by Reeve H...
, the university printer, and is said to have been the first book that issued from the university press. A further reply to Piscator was appended. The dedication was to Sir Philip Sidney. In the same year Temple contributed a long preface, in which he renewed with spirit the war on Aristotle, to the Disputatio de prima simplicium et concretorum corporum generatione, by a fellow Ramist, James Martin
James Martin (philosopher)
James Martin was a Scottish philosophical writer and early Ramist.-Life:He was a native of Dunkeld, Perthshire, and is said to have been educated at the University of Oxford. A James Martin, whose college is not mentioned, commenced M.A. at Oxford on 31 March 1522.He was professor of philosophy...
of Dunkeld
Dunkeld
Dunkeld is a small town in Strathtay, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is about 15 miles north of Perth on the eastern side of the A9 road into the Scottish Highlands and on the opposite side of the Tay from the Victorian village of Birnam. Dunkeld and Birnam share a railway station, on the...
, professor of philosophy at Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
. This also came from Thomas's press at Cambridge: it was republished at Frankfort in 1589. In the same place there was issued in 1591 a severe criticism of both Martin's argument and Temple's preface by an Aristotelian, Andreas Libavius
Andreas Libavius
Andreas Libavius was a German doctor and chemist.-Life:Libavius was born in Halle, Germany, as Andreas Libau. In Halle he attended the gymnasium and studied from the year 1576 in University of Wittenberg. From 1577 on he studied in the University of Jena in the faculties of philosophy and history...
, in his Quaestionum Physicarum controversarum inter Peripateticos et Rameos Tractatus (Frankfort, 1591).
Secretary
Temple's writings attracted the attention of Sir Philip Sidney, to whom the edition of Ramus's Dialectics was dedicated in 1584, and Sidney invited Temple to become his secretary in November 1585, when he was appointed governor of FlushingFlushing, Netherlands
Vlissingen is a municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the former island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an important harbour for centuries. It was granted city rights in 1315. In the 17th century...
. He was with Sidney during his fatal illness in the autumn of the following year, and his master died in his arms (17 October 1586). Sidney left him by will an annuity of £30.
Temple's services were next sought successively by William Davison, the queen's secretary, and Sir Thomas Smith, clerk of the privy council. But about 1594 he joined the household of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex
Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, KG was an English nobleman and a favourite of Elizabeth I. Politically ambitious, and a committed general, he was placed under house arrest following a poor campaign in Ireland during the Nine Years' War in 1599...
, and for many years performed secretarial duties for the earl in conjunction with Anthony Bacon
Anthony Bacon (1558–1601)
Anthony Bacon was a member of the powerful English Bacon family who was also a spy during the Elizabethan era.-Early years, 1558-1580:...
, Henry Cuff, and Sir Henry Wotton. In 1597 he was, by Essex's influence, returned to parliament as member for Tamworth
Tamworth (UK Parliament constituency)
Tamworth is a parliamentary constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- History :...
in Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
.
He seems to have accompanied Essex to Ireland in 1599, and to have returned with him next year. When Essex was engaged in organising his rebellion in London in the winter of 1600-1, Temple was still in his service, but he protested in a letter to Sir Robert Cecil, written after Essex's arrest, that he was kept in complete ignorance of the plot. Temple's fortunes were prejudiced by Essex's fall. Sir Robert Cecil is said to have viewed him with marked disfavour.
Consequently, despairing of success in political affairs, Temple turned anew to literary study. In 1605 he brought out, with a dedication to Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales
Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...
, A Logicall Analysis of Twentye Select Psalmes performed by W. Temple. He is apparently the person named Temple for whom Bacon vainly endeavoured, through Thomas Murray of the privy chamber, to procure the honour of knighthood in 1607-8.
Provost
On 14 November 1609 he was made provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, the chancellor of the university, was induced to assent to the nomination at the request of James UssherJames Ussher
James Ussher was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–56...
.
He was appointed a master in chancery at Dublin on 31 Jan. 1609-10, and he was returned to the Irish House of Commons
Irish House of Commons
The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland, that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords...
as member for Dublin University in April 1613. He represented that constituency till his death.
Temple proved himself an efficient administrator of both college and university, attempting to bring them into conformity at all points with the educational system in vogue at Cambridge. Many of his innovations became features of the academic organisation of Dublin. By careful manipulation of the revenues of the college he increased the number of fellows from four to sixteen, and the number of scholars from twenty-eight to seventy. The fellows he was the first to divide into two classes, making seven of them senior fellows, and nine of them junior. The general government of the institution he entrusted to the senior fellows. He instituted many other administrative offices, to each of which he allotted definite functions, and his scheme of college offices remained unchanged for many years.
He drew up new statutes for both the college and the university, and endeavoured to obtain from James I a new charter, extending the privileges which Queen Elizabeth had granted in 1595. He was in London from May 1616 to May 1617 seeking to induce the government to accept his proposals, but his efforts failed.
His tenure of the office of provost was not altogether free from controversy. He defied the order of Archbishop George Abbot that he and his colleagues should wear surplice
Surplice
A surplice is a liturgical vestment of the Western Christian Church...
s in chapel. He insisted that as a layman he was entitled to dispense with that formality. Privately he was often in pecuniary difficulties, from which he sought to extricate himself by alienating the college estates to his wife and other relatives.
Temple was knighted by the lord-deputy, Sir Oliver St. John
Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison
Sir Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison was an English soldier who became Lord Deputy of Ireland.-Early years:He was the second son of Nicholas St John of Lydiard Park in Wiltshire and Purley Park in Berkshire, by his wife Elizabeth , daughter of Sir Richard Blount of Mapledurham House in...
on 4 May 1622, and died at Trinity College, Dublin, on 15 Jan. 1626-7, being buried in the old college chapel (since pulled down). At the date of his death negotiations were begun for his resignation owing to 'his age and weakness' His will, dated 21 December 1626, is preserved in the public record office at Dublin. He possessed much land in Ireland.
Family
His wife Martha, daughter of Robert Harrison, of a Derbyshire family, was sole executrix. By her Temple left two sons, Sir John TempleJohn Temple (judge)
Sir John Temple was an Irish lawyer, courtier and politician who sat in the Irish House of Commons at various times between 1641 and 1677 and in the House of Commons of England from 1646 to 1648...
, afterwards Master of the Rolls in Ireland
Master of the Rolls in Ireland
The office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland originated in the office of the keeper of the Rolls in the Irish Chancery and became an office granted by letters patent in 1333. It was abolished in 1924....
, and Thomas with three daughters, Catharine, Mary, and Martha. The second son, Thomas, fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, became rector of Old Ross, in the diocese of Ferns
Diocese of Ferns
Diocese of Ferns can refer to:*The Roman Catholic Diocese of Ferns*The Church of Ireland diocese of Ferns within the united Diocese of Cashel, Waterford, Lismore, Ossory, Ferns & Leighlin...
, on 6 March 1626-7. He subsequently achieved a reputation as a puritan preacher in London, where he exercised his ministry at Battersea
Battersea
Battersea is an area of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is an inner-city district of South London, situated on the south side of the River Thames, 2.9 miles south-west of Charing Cross. Battersea spans from Fairfield in the west to Queenstown in the east...
from 1641 onwards. He preached before the Long parliament, and was a member of the Westminster Assembly
Westminster Assembly
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was appointed by the Long Parliament to restructure the Church of England. It also included representatives of religious leaders from Scotland...
.