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CHILLINGWORTH, WILLIAM (1602-1644)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 163 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHILLINGWORTH, See also:WILLIAM (1602-1644) , See also:English divine and controversialist, was See also:born at See also:Oxford in See also:October 1602. In See also:June 1618 he became a See also:scholar of Trinity See also:College, Oxford, and was made a See also:fellow of his college in June 1628. He had some reputation as a skilful disputant, excelled in See also:mathematics, and gained some See also:credit as a writer of verses. The See also:marriage of See also:Charles I. with Henrietta Maria of See also:France had stimulated the propaganda of the See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:Church, and the See also:Jesuits made the See also:universities their See also:special point of attack. One of them, " See also:John See also:Fisher," who had his See also:sphere at Oxford, succeeded in making a convert of See also:young Chillingworth, and prevailed upon him to go to the Jesuit college at See also:Douai. Influenced, however, by his godfather,'See also:Laud, then See also:bishop of See also:London, he resolved to make an impartial inquiry into the claims of the two churches. After a See also:short stay he See also:left Douai in 1631 and returned to Oxford. On grounds of Scripture and See also:reason he at length declared for Protestantism, and wrote in 1634, but did not publish, a confutation of the motives which had led him over to See also:Rome. This See also:paper was lost; the other, on the same subject, was probably written on some other occasion at the See also:request of his See also:friends. He would not, however, take orders. His theological sensitiveness appears in his refusal of a preferment offered to him in 1635 by See also:Sir See also:Thomas See also:Coventry, See also:lord keeper of the See also:great See also:seal. He was in difficulty about subscribing the See also:Thirty-nine Articles.

As he informed See also:

Gilbert See also:Sheldon, then See also:warden of All Souls, in a See also:letter, he was fully resolved on two points—that to say that the See also:Fourth Commandment is a See also:law of See also:God appertaining to Christians is false and unlawful, and that the damnatory clauses in the Athanasian Creed are most false, and in a high degree presumptuous and schismatical. To subscribe, therefore, he See also:felt would be to " subscribe his own damnation." At this See also:time his See also:principal See also:work was far towards completion. It was undertaken in See also:defence of Dr See also:Christopher See also:Potter, See also:provost of See also:Queen's College in Oxford, who had for some time been carrying on a controversy with a Jesuit known as See also:Edward Knott, butwhose real name was See also:Matthias See also:Wilson. Potter had replied in 1633 to Knott's Charity Mistaken (163o), and Knott retaliated with See also:Mercy and Truth. This work Chillingworth engaged to See also:answer, and Knott, See also:hearing of his intention and hoping to See also:bias the public mind, hastily brought out a pamphlet tending to show that Chillingwprth was a Socinian who aimed at perverting not only Catholicism but See also:Christianity. Laud, now See also:archbishop of See also:Canterbury, was not a little solicitous about Chillingworth's reply to Knott, and at his request, as " the young See also:man had given cause why a more watchful See also:eye should be held over him and his writings," it was examined by the See also:vice-See also:chancellor of Oxford and two professors of divinity, and published with their approbation in 1637, with the See also:title The See also:Religion of Protestants a Safe Way to Salvation. The See also:main See also:argument is a vindication of the See also:sole authority of the See also:Bible in spiritual matters, and of the See also:free right of the individual See also:conscience to interpret it. In the See also:preface Chiliingworth expresses his new view about subscription to the articles. " For the Church of See also:England," he there says, " I am persuaded that the See also:constant See also:doctrine of it is so pure and orthodox, that whosoever believes it, and lives according to it, undoubtedly he shall be saved, and that there is no See also:error in it which may necessitate or See also:warrant any man to disturb the See also:peace or renounce the communion of it. This, in my See also:opinion, is all intended by subscription." His scruples having thus been overcome, he was, in the following See also:year (1638), promoted to the chancellorship of the church of Sarum, with the prebend of Brixworth [in See also:Northamptonshire annexed to it. In the great See also:civil struggle he used his See also:pen against the Scots, and was in the See also:king's See also:army at the See also:siege of See also:Gloucester, inventing certain engines for assaulting the See also:town. Shortly afterwards he accompanied Lord See also:Hopton, See also:general of the king's troops in the See also:west, in his See also:march; and, being laid up with illness at See also:Arundel See also:Castle, he was there taken prisoner by the See also:parliamentary forces under Sir William See also:Waller.

As he was unable to go to London with the See also:

garrison, he was conveyed to See also:Chichester, and died there in See also:January 1644. His last days were harassed by the diatribes of the Puritan preacher, See also:Francis Cheynell. Besides his principal work, Chillingworth wrote a number of smaller See also:anti-Jesuit papers published in the See also:posthumous Additional Discourses (1687), and nine of his sermons have been preserved. In politics he was a zealous Royalist, asserting that even the unjust and tyrannous violence of princes may not be resisted, although it might be avoided in terms of the instruction, " when they persecute you in one See also:city, flee into another." His writings See also:long enjoyed a high popularity. The Religion of Protestants is characterized by much fairness and acuteness of argument, and was commended by See also:Locke as a discipline of perspicuity and the way of right reasoning." The See also:charge of Socimanism was frequently brought against him, but, as See also:Tillotson thought, " for no other cause but his worthy and successful attempts to make the See also:Christian religion reasonable." His creed, and the whole gist of his argument, is expressed in a single See also:sentence, " I am fully assured that God does not, and therefore that men ought not to, require any more of any man than this, to believe the Scripture to be God's word, and to endeavour to find the true sense of it, and to live according to it." A See also:Life by Rev. T. See also:Birch was prefixed to the 1742 edition of Chillingworth's See also:Works. See also:CHILD$ (from See also:Chile and See also:hue, " See also:part of Chile''), a See also:province of See also:southern Chile, and also the name of a large See also:island off the Chilean See also:coast forming part of the province. The province, See also:area 8593 sq. m., pop. (1895) 77,750, is composed of three See also:groups of islands, Chiloe, Guaitecas and Chonos, and extends from the narrow strait of Chacao in 410 40' S. to the See also:peninsula of Taytao, about 450 45' S. The See also:population is composed mainly of See also:Indians, distantly related to the tribes of the mainland, and mestizos. The See also:capital of the province is Ancud or See also:San See also:Carlos, at the See also:northern end of the island of Chiloe, on the sheltered See also:bay of San Carlos, once frequented by whalers.

It is the seat of a bishopric; pop. (1905) 3182. Other towns are See also:

Castro. the former capital, on the eastern See also:shore of Chiloe, and the See also:oldest town of the island (founded 1566), once the seat of a Jesuit See also:mission, and Melinca on an island of the Guaitecas See also:group. The island of Chiloe, which lies immediately See also:south of the province of See also:Llanquihue, is a continuation of the western Chilean formation, the coast range appearing in the mountainous range of western Chiloe and the islands extending south along the coast. Between this coast range and the See also:Andes, the gulfs of Chacao, or Ancud and Coecovado (See also:average width, 3o m.) See also:separate the island from the mainland. Chiloe has an extreme length See also:north to south of about 118 m., and an averageti width of 35 to 40 m., with an area of about 4700 sq. m. There are several lakes on the island—Cucao, 12 m. long, being the largest,—and one small See also:river, the Pudeto, in the northern part of the island, is celebrated as the See also:scene of the last engagement in the See also:war for in-dependence, the See also:Spanish retaining See also:possession of Chiloe until 1826.

End of Article: CHILLINGWORTH, WILLIAM (1602-1644)

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