Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 38.djvu/427

 MORE, HENRY (1614–1687), theologian, born at Grantham in 1614, was son of 'Alexander More, esq., a gentleman of fair estate and fortune.' Both his parents were strong Calvinists, and from his childhood he took a deep interest in questions of theology, but could never accept the Calvinistic system. He appears to have been committed by his father to the care of his uncle, who threatened to flog him 'for his immature forwardness in philosophising concerning the mysteries of necessity and free- will.' At fourteen he was sent to 'Eton School &hellip; for the perfecting of the Greek and Latin tongue.' He made great progress in his studies, and in 1631 was admitted at Christ's College, Cambridge, about the time when John Milton was leaving it. In 1635 he graduated B.A., and for three or four years was still unsettled in regard to religion. But in 1639 he proceeded M.A., and was elected fellow of his college; and about the same time he received holy orders. Thenceforth he lived almost entirely within the walls of Christ's College, except when he went to stay with his 'heroine pupil ' (as his biographer terms her), Anne, viscountess Conway [q. v.], at her country seat of Ragley in Warwickshire, where his great pleasure was to wander among the woods and glades. He won a high reputation both for saintliness and for intellectual power; but he refused all preferment, successively declining the mastership of his college (1654), the deanery of Christ Church, Oxford, the provostship of Trinity College, Dublin, with the deanery of St. Patrick's, and two bishoprics. Intensely loyal to the king, both during the civil wars and after the Restoration, he was once persuaded to make a journey to Whitehall to kiss his majesty's hands; but when he heard by the way that this would be the prelude to a bishopric he at once turned back. In 1676 he was persuaded by the lord chancellor, the Earl of Nottingham, to accept a prebend at Gloucester, but he resigned it immediately in favour of his friend Dr. Fowler, afterwards bishop of the diocese. He declined advancement simply 'from a pure love of contemplation and solitude, and because he thought he could do the church of God greater service in a private than in a public station.' He had many pupils at Christ's; he loved music, and used to play on the theorbo; he enjoyed a game at bowls, and still more a conversation with intimate friends, who listened to him as to an oracle; and he was so kind to the poor that it is said 'his very chamber-door was a hospital for the needy.' He shrank from bitter theological and political disputes; but he had the courage of his opinions, which were very definite. He made no secret of his attachment to the church of England at a time when it was dangerous to avow such sentiments; and he did not hesitate to use the church liturgy both in public and private when it was a crime to do so.

On 1 Sept. 1687 he died at Cambridge, and was buried in the chapel of his college. His life was published in 1710 by the Rev. R. Ward, rector of Ingoldsby, a living which was in More's gift; but he has himself given us a far more vivid and interesting picture of himself in the 'Praefatio generalissima' to the 1679 edition of his 'Opera Omnia.' An engraving of More by Faithorne is prefixed to his 'Opera Theologica,' 1675, and another by Loggan to his 'Works,' 1679.

More belonged to that little band of Christian Platonists which was formed at Cambridge in the middle of the seventeenth century, and the distinctive traits of their school of thought are perhaps best brought out in his writings. The 'occult science,' of which such men as Van Helmont and Greatrakes were in More's time the apostles, had a singular fascination for him; but he was saved from its extravagances by the firmly implanted conviction which tinges all his life and all his writings that holiness was the way to knowledge, 'being well advised,' he says, 'both by the dictates of my own conscience and the clear information of those holy oracles which we all deservedly reverence, that God reserves his choicest secrets for the purest minds.' He was a voluminous writer. Like many others he began as a poet and ended as a prose writer. His first work, published in 1642, but written two years earlier, was entitled 'Psychozoia Platonica: or, a Platonicall Song of the Soul, consisting of foure severall Poems.' This was followed in 1647 by his full collection of 'Philosophicall Poems,' which includes 'The Song of the Soul,' much enlarged, and is dedicated 'to his dear father.' A second edition was published in the same year, and it was included by Dr. A. B. Grosart in his Chertsey Worthies Library (1878).

His prose works are:
 * 1) 'Observations upon Anthroposophia Theogmagica and Anima Magica Abscondita by Alazonomastix Philalethes,' 1650; in answer to Thomas Vaughan (brother of the poet), who replied in 'The Man-mouse taken in a Trape.'
 * 2) 'The Second Lash of Alazonomastix,' a rejoinder to Vaughan, 1651.
 * 3) 'An Antidote against Atheism, or an Appeal to the Naturall Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether there be not a God,' 1653: 2nd edit. 'corrected and enlarged: With an Appendix