Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/454

Wake of the Book of Common Prayer, if by that means the just scruples of protestant dissenters might be removed (Gent. Mag. 1737, p. 263). He was in constant correspondence with men like Jablonski and Le Clerc. Antoine Court appealed to him for help and sympathy. He had pleaded the cause of the exiled Vaudois in a sermon before William and Mary.

The most memorable event in the history of his relations with foreign churches was the negotiation with certain members of the Gallican church, which went on from 1717 to 1720. The hostility of French ecclesiastics to the high papal pretensions set forth in the bull ‘Unigenitus’ led some of them to contemplate a union with the English church. On 11 Feb. 1718 Louis Ellies Du Pin, the ecclesiastical historian, wrote to Wake expressing his ardent desire for union. Wake showed himself well disposed, and the matter was discussed by the Sorbonne in a conciliatory spirit, and on 28 March Du Pin raised few important objections to the doctrines contained in the ‘articles,’ and Wake declared himself willing to recognise some differences in belief. After Du Pin's death, however, in 1719, the negotiations made no further progress, and it may be doubted whether the project would ever have found general favour among French and English churchmen (, Archbishop Wake and the Project of Union, 1896).

Wake died at Lambeth on 24 Jan. 1736–7, and was buried at Croydon on 9 Feb. following. His epitaph is given in Lysons's ‘Environs of London’ (i. 184), but with a wrong date. There is a portrait of him, by Isaac Whood, at Lambeth (cf. Catalogue of Second Loan Exhibition, 1867, No. 221), and another in the vestry of St. James's, Piccadilly. A portrait, ascribed to Thomas Gibson, was purchased by the trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1857, and a fourth is at Christ Church, Oxford. He is said to have been the last archbishop of Canterbury who went from Lambeth to the houses of parliament by water, using the old state barge (, London Past and Present, ii. 363).

In October 1688 Wake married Etheldreda, third daughter and coheiress of Sir William Hovell, knt., of Hillington, Norfolk; and by this lady, who died on 15 April 1731, he had a large family. Particulars of several members of it will be found in ‘Notes and Queries’ (8th ser. viii. 121). Cole (Addit. MS. 5841, p. 21) complains of the archbishop's affairs being wholly managed, in his closing years, by his son-in-law, Dr. Lynch. Wake left by will his collection of coins and medals (on which see a letter from him to Dr. Stukeley, 2 Feb. 1727, in Lit. Illustr. ii. 784) and his valuable library of books to his own college of Christ Church. Though he died possessed of a large fortune (Gent. Mag. 1737, p. 61), he had spent considerable sums on the buildings of his dioceses. These are enumerated by Henry Mills in the preface to his ‘Essay on Generosity’ (1732), which was dedicated to Wake (see also Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xii. 345).

Wake's writings are too numerous to be all specified here. The most important of them, in point of magnitude, is the ‘State of the Church and Clergy of England in their Councils, Synods, Convocations, Conventions, and other their Assemblies, historically deduced,’ 1703, fol. A copy of this, with manuscript notes by the author, is in the Cambridge University Library. It was called forth by Atterbury's ‘Rights, Powers, and Privileges of an English Convocation,’ but, like Bentley's ‘Phalaris,’ does much more than confute an opponent. Next in importance may be placed ‘The Genuine Epistles of the Apostolical Fathers, S. Barnabas, S. Ignatius, S. Clement, S. Polycarp, the Shepherd of Hermas,’ (1693, 8vo; 4th edit. 1737). His ‘Principles of the Christian Religion in a Commentary on the Church Catechism’ (13th edit. 1812) has been widely circulated. A copious list of Wake's writings, supplementary to that found in Watt's ‘Bibliotheca,’ is given by Professor John E. B. Mayor in ‘Notes and Queries’ (8th ser. viii. 121).

[Authorities quoted in text; Wake's own manuscripts at Christ Church, Oxford; Ducarel's manuscript catalogue of Wake's papers (Lambeth Library, No. 1133); Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 22880; Jervis's Hist. of the Church of France, 1872, ii. 425–41; Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, ed. Maclaine, 1811, vol. vi. Appendix iv.; D'un Projet d'Union, 1864; Oxford Essays, 1857, pp. 96–7; Notes and Queries, 8th ser. viii. 197; Courayer's Validity of the Ordinations, 1844, pp. xvii sqq., xliv, xlv; others cited by Professor Mayor in the article above referred to.]  WAKEFELD, ROBERT (d. 1537), oriental scholar, was probably born, like his younger brother, Thomas [q. v.], at Pontefract in Yorkshire. After graduating in arts at Cambridge (1513–14), he went abroad to study oriental languages. A letter of Bishop Fisher (, Hist. of the College of St. John, ed. Mayor, i. 358), assuring him of ‘the emoluments of his college during the space of two years,’ appears to prove that Wakefeld was a member of St. John's 