Online Encyclopedia

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

JOHN EACHARD (1636 ?-1697)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 789 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

JOHN See also:EACHARD (1636 ?-1697)  , See also:English divine, was See also:born in See also:Suffolk, and was educated at Catharine See also:Hall, See also:Cambridge, of which he became See also:master in 1675 in See also:succession to See also:John See also:Lightfoot . He was created D.D. in 1676 by royal See also:mandate, and was twice (in 1679 and 1695) See also:vice-See also:chancellor of the university . He died on the 7th of See also:July 1697 . In 167o he had published anonymously a humorous See also:satire entitled The Ground and Occasions of the Contempt of the See also:Clergy enquired into in a See also:letter to R . L., which excited much See also:attention and provoked several replies, one of them being from John See also:Owen . These were met by Some Observations, &°c., in a second letter to R . L . (1671), written in the same bantering See also:tone as the See also:original See also:work . See also:Eachard attributed the contempt into which the clergy had fallen to their imperfect See also:education, their insufficient incomes, and the want of a true vocation . His descriptions, which were somewhat exaggerated, were largely used by See also:Macaulay in his See also:History of See also:England . He gave amusing illustrations of the absurdity and poverty of the current See also:pulpit See also:oratory of his See also:day, some of them being taken from the sermons of his own See also:father . He attacked the See also:philosophy of See also:Hobbes in his Mr Hobb's See also:State of Nature considered; in a See also:dialogue between Philautus and See also:Timothy (1672), and in his Some Opinions of Mr Hobbs considered in a second dialogue (1673) .

These were written in their author's chosen vein of See also:

light satire, and See also:Dryden praised them as highly effective within their own range . Eachard's own sermons, however, were not See also:superior to those he satirized . See also:Swift (See also:Works, xii . 279) alludes to him as a See also:signal instance of a successful humorist who entirely failed as a serious writer . A collected edition of his works in three volumes. with a See also:notice of his See also:life, was published in 1774 . The Contempt of the Clergy was reprinted in E . See also:Arber's English Garner . A See also:Free Enquiry into the Causes of the very See also:great Esteem that the Nonconforming Preachers are generally in with their Followers (1673) has been attributed to Eachard on insufficient grounds .

End of Article: JOHN EACHARD (1636 ?-1697)
[back]
EABANI
[next]
EADBALD (d. 64o)

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." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.