Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

BURNET, THOMAS (1635-1715)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 853 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

BURNET, See also:THOMAS (1635-1715) , See also:English divine, was See also:born at See also:Croft in See also:Yorkshire about the See also:year 1635. He was educated at See also:Northallerton, and at See also:Clare See also:Hall, See also:Cambridge. In 1657 he was made See also:fellow of See also:Christ's, and in 1667 See also:senior See also:proctor of the university. By the See also:interest of See also:James, See also:duke of See also:Ormonde, he was chosen See also:master of the See also:Charterhouse in 1685, and took the degree of D.D. As master he made a See also:noble stand against the illegal attempts to admit See also:Andrew See also:Popham as a pensioner of the See also:house, strenuously opposing an See also:order of the 26th of See also:December 1686, addressed by James II. to the See also:governors dispensing with the statutes for the occasion. Burnet published his famous Telluris Theoria Sacra, or Sacred Theory of the See also:Earth,' at See also:London in 1681. This See also:work, containing a fanciful theory of the earth's structure,' attracted much See also:attention, and he was afterwards encouraged to issue an English See also:translation, which was printed in See also:folio, 1684-1689. See also:Addison commended the author in a Latin See also:ode, but his theory was attacked by See also:John Keill, See also:William See also:Whiston and See also:Erasmus See also:Warren, to all of whom he returned answers. His reputation obtained for him an introduction at See also:court by See also:Archbishop See also:Tillotson, whom he succeeded as clerk of the closet to See also:King William. But he suddenly marred his prospects by the publication, in 1692, of a work entitled Archaeologiae Philosophicae: sive Doctrina antiqua de Rerum Originibus, in which he treated the See also:Mosaic See also:account of the fall of See also:man as an See also:allegory. This excited a See also:great clamour against him; and the king was obliged to remove him from his See also:office at court. Of this See also:book an English translation was published in 1729.

Burnet published several other See also:

minor See also:works before his See also:death, which took See also:place at the Charterhouse on the 27th See also:September 1715. Two See also:posthumous works appeared several years after his death—De Fide et Officiis Christianorum (1723), and De Statu Mortuorum et Resurgentium Tractatus (1723); in which he maintained the See also:doctrine of a See also:middle See also:state, the See also:millennium, and the limited duration of future See also:punishment. A See also:Life of Dr Burnet, by See also:Heathcote, appeared in 1759. " Which," says See also:Samuel See also:Johnson, " the critick ought to read for its elegance, the philosopher for its arguments, and the See also:saint for its piety " (Lives of English Poets, vol. i. p. 303). 2 Burnet held that at the See also:deluge the earth was crushed like an See also:egg, the See also:internal See also:waters rushing out, and the fragments of See also:shell becoming the mountains.

End of Article: BURNET, THOMAS (1635-1715)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML.
Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide.
Do not copy, download, transfer, or otherwise replicate the site content in whole or in part.

Links to articles and home page are always encouraged.

[back]
BURNET, GILBERT (1643-1715)
[next]
BURNETT, FRANCES ELIZA HODGSON (1849– )