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 well-known 'Religion of Protestants' (, iii. 91), and he always remained one of the royal chaplains.

Prideaux, as a moderate and impartial divine, was one of the miscellaneous theologians summoned by the lords' committee 1 March 1640-1, to meet in the Jerusalem chamber and discuss plans of church reform under the lead of Williams (, Life of Milton, ii. 225). In the autumn Charles, resolving to fill the five vacant sees, promoted four bishops and appointed Prideaux to the fifth, that of Worcester. Prideaux was consecrated on 19 Dec. 1641, and installed a few weeks later; he was thus engaged at Worcester when Williams and his eleven colleagues assembled to make their protest, 29 Dec., and so escaped impeachment. He was one of the three peers, all bishops, who alone dissented when the bill for excluding the spiritual peers from parliament was read a third time, 5 Feb. 1641-2, and thus ended his brief parliamentary career. That the commons were not hostile to Prideaux was shown by his nomination as one of the assembly of 102 divines, April 1642 (, ii. 573). He never attended any of its meetings (, iv. 150), and, returning to Worcester, gradually identified himself with the royalists; so that in the list of 119 divines nominated in the ordinance of June 1643 his name no longer appears (, ib.) He maintained himself in his diocese until the end of the war, and was in Worcester when the city capitulated to Rainsborough, 23 July 1646 (, Worcestershire, ii. App. p. cv). Deprived of what remained to him of the episcopal estates, he sought a refuge with his son-in-law, Dr. Henry Sutton, rector of Bredon, Worcestershire. His last years were spent in comparative poverty, and Wood, quoting Gauden (Pillar of Gratitude, p. 13), calls him a 'verus librorum helluo,' because he had to sell his library to provide for his family. He died of fever at Bredon 29 July 1650 (epitaph in Antiquities of Worcestershire, 1717, 8vo, pp. 110-11), and was buried in the chancel of the church there 15 Aug. (Lansd. MS. 985, f. 168), a great concourse attending his funeral (, Worthies, ed. 1662, p. 254).

Wood writes of him as 'an humble man, of plain and downright behaviour, careless of money and imprudent in worldly matters' (Athenæ, iii. 266-7). He maintained his independence of mind amid the storm of controversy. His piety was sincere, and he possessed a strong sense of humour. His friendship with Casaubon and many of the foremost continental scholars attests his learning.

He married twice. By his first wife, Mary, granddaughter of Dr. Taylor, the Marian martyr, he had a son William, who contributed verses to the Oxford 'Epithalamia' of 1625, and, becoming a colonel in the king's service, was killed at Marston Moor (, pp. 55, 210, 228). His second wife was Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Reynell, and widow of William Goodwin, dean of Christ Church, who died on 11 Aug. 1627, and was buried with two of her children in St. Michael's Church, Oxford (Lansdowne MS. 985, f. 168). By her he had, with three children who died young, a son Matthias (infra) and two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth. Sarah married William Hodges, fellow of Exeter, in whose favour her father resigned the vicarage of Bampton, 1634 (, p. 63). Elizabeth married Dr. Henry Sutton, rector of Bredon (, under 'Bredon').

A portrait of John Prideaux hangs in the hall of Exeter College. It is one of two copies made in 1832 by Smith from an original at Laycock Abbey, Wiltshire (, p. 130). Two engravings are mentioned by Bromley.

Prideaux composed, in addition to a number of sermons, prefatory verses, &c., the following works: 1. 'Tabulæ ad Grammaticam Græcam introductoriæ,' Oxford, 1608, 4to. 2. 'Tyrocinium ad Syllogismum legitimum contexendum,' Oxford, 1629, 4to. 3. 'Heptades Logicæ: sive Monita ad ampliores Tractatus introductoria' (printed with the 'Tyrocinium' in the third edition of the 'Tabulæ,' Oxford, 1639, 4to). 4. Castigatio cujusdam Circulatoris, qui R. P. Andream Eudaemon-Johannem Cydonium e Societate Jesu seipsum nuncupat. . . Opposita ipsius calumniis in Epistolam J. Casauboni ad Frontonem Ducæum,' Oxford, 1614, 8vo. 5. 'Alloquium sereniss. Reg. Jacobo Woodstochiae habitum, 24 Aug. 1624,' Oxford, 1625, 4to. 6. 'Orationes novem inaugurales, de totidem Theologies Apicibus, prout in Promotione Doctorum Oxonige publice proponebantur in Comitiis. . . . Accedit. . . de Vtosis institutione concio. . . habita in Die inerum. An. 1616,' Oxford, 1626, 4to (2 parts). 7. 'Lectiones decem de totidem Religionis Capitibus, praecipue hoc tempore controversis, prout publice habebantur Oxoniæ in Vesperiis,' Oxford, 1626, 4to. 8. 'The Doctrine of the Sabbath,' translated, London, 1634, 4to (printed in Latin at end of 'Heydani Disputatio de Sabbato,' Leyden, 1658, 8vo). 9. 'Lectiones, Orationes , Conciones , et Oratio ad Jacobum Regem,' Oxford, 1648, fol. (including those previously published). 10. 'Fasciculus Controversiarum Theologicarum ad Juniorum aut Occupatorum Captum colligatus,' Oxford,