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GALE, THEOPHILUS (1628-1678)

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 398 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GALE, See also:THEOPHILUS (1628-1678) , See also:English See also:nonconformist divine, was See also:born in 1628 at Kingsteignton, in See also:Devonshire, where his See also:father was See also:vicar. In 1647 he was entered at Magdalen See also:College, See also:Oxford, where he took his B.A. degree in 1649, and M.A. in 1652. In 165o he was made See also:fellow and See also:tutor of his college. He remained some years at Oxford, discharging actively the duties of tutor, and was in 1657 appointed as preacher in See also:Winchester See also:cathedral. In 1662 he refused to submit to the See also:Act of Uniformity, and was ejected. He became tutor to the sons of See also:Lord See also:Wharton, whom he accompanied to the See also:Protestant college of See also:Caen, in See also:Normandy, returning to See also:England in 1665. The latter portion of his See also:life he passed in See also:London as assistant to See also:John Rowe, an See also:Independent See also:minister who had See also:charge of an important See also:church in See also:Holborn; Gale succeeded Rowe in 1677, and died in the following See also:year. His See also:principal See also:work, The See also:Court of the Gentiles, which appeared in parts in 1669, 1671 and 1676, is a See also:strange storehouse of See also:miscellaneous philosophical learning. It resembles the Intellectual See also:System of See also:Ralph See also:Cudworth, though much inferior to that work both in See also:general construction and in fundamental See also:idea. Gale's endeavour (based on a hint of See also:Grotius in De veritate, i. 16) is to prove that the whole See also:philosophy of the Gentiles is a distorted or mangled See also:reproduction of Biblical truths. Just as Cudworth referred the Dennocritean See also:doctrine of atoms to See also:Moses as the See also:original author, so Gale tries to show that the various systems of See also:Greek thought may be traced back to Biblical See also:sources.

Like so many of the learned See also:

works of the 17th See also:century, the Court of the Gentiles is chaotic and unsystematic, while its erudition is rendered almost valueless by the See also:complete See also:absence of any See also:critical discrimination. His other writings are: A True Idea of See also:Jansenism (1669); Theophil, or a Discourse of the See also:Saint's Amitie with See also:God in See also:Christ (1671) ; Anatomie of Infidelitie (1672) ; Idea theologiae (1693); Philosophic generalis (1676).

End of Article: GALE, THEOPHILUS (1628-1678)

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