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Bate
391
Bate

but he accepted later from the Bishop of Ely a fellowship in St. John's College. He commenced M.A. in 1727. In 1730 he became moderator of the university, and in 1731 one of the taxers. Bate accompanied Horace Walpole as chaplain when the latter went to Paris as ambassador. Upon his return home he was presented to the good living of St. Paul's, Deptford, on 23 June 1731, where he studied hard. His knowledge of Hebrew was very great, but his researches and speculations bore little fruit. His published books are: 1. ‘An Address to his Parishioners on the Rebellion of 1745.’ 2. ‘Infidelity scourged, or Christianity vindicated against Chubb, &c.’ (1746). 3. ‘An Essay towards a Rationale of the literal Doctrine of Original Sin … occasioned by some of Dr. Middleton's Writings’ (1752; 2nd ed. 1766). There are also occasional sermons, with some scholarly notes introduced. He died in 1775. The funeral sermon, preached by the Rev. Colin Milne at St. Paul's, Deptford, was published.

[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, ii. 52, iii. 56–7; Masters's History of Corpus Christi College; Chalmers's Biog. Dictionary; writings in Williams's Library.]

A. B. G.

BATE, JOHN (d. 1429), theologian and philosopher, was, according to Leland's account, born west of the Severn (inter Transabrinos), but seems to have been brought up in the Carmelite monastery at York, where his progress in learning was so great that he was despatched to complete his studies at Oxford. Philosophy and theology seem to have divided his attention, and on asking his master's degree in both these subjects he proceeded to add to his reputation by authorship. He was acknowledged to be an authority in his own university, and the news of his acquirements soon spread abroad. His name became known to the heads of his order, and at last his fellow-Carmelites of York elected him their prior. It was probably somewhat earlier than this that he was ordained sub-deacon and deacon in March and May 1415 by Clifford, bishop of London. Bate appears to have continued in his new office till February 1429, when he died, ‘weighed down by a violent disease.’ According to Bale (Heliades, f. 82), Walden, the great English provincial of the Carmelites, deputed to represent the English at the council of Constance, speaks of him with great praise. The principal works of this writer, whose titles have come down to our days, are treatises on the ‘Parts of Speech,’ on Porphyry's ‘Universals,’ and on Aristotle's ‘Ethics.’ Other works of Aristotle also seem to have engaged his attention. We are also told that he wrote a book on Gilbert de la Porée's ‘Sex Prædicamenta.’ A long list of his productions may be made out by comparing the various titles given by the biographers cited at the foot of this article. Both Leland and Bale declare that Bate was a good Greek scholar; but the latter assures us, with the zeal of a newly made convert, that Bate devoted his talents to propping up the blasphemies of Antichrist and disseminating evil dogmas. Bate died and was buried at York, where his tomb seems to have been extant in the days of Bale, who quotes one verse from the Latin epitaph inscribed upon it: ‘Bati doctoris hæc condit petra cadaver.’

[Leland, 434; Bale, 567; Pits, 613; Tanner; Bale's Heliades, Harley MS. 3838 f. 82; St. Etienne's Bibliotheca Carmelitana, i. 791–2.]

T. A. A.

BATE, JULIUS (1711–1771), divine, was born in 1711, being one of the ten children of the Rev. Richard Bate, by his wife, Elizabeth Stanhope. He entered St. John's College, Cambridge, became B.A. 1730, and M.A. 1740. He became a disciple of Hutchinson, and was a prominent member of the Hutchinsonian school, of which Bishop Horne and Jones of Nayland are the best known representatives. Hutchinson was patronised by the Duke of Somerset, who allowed him to appoint Bate to the rectory of Sutton, near the duke's seat of Petworth. Bate attended Hutchinson in his last illness (1737), and was associated with Spearman in the publication of Hutchinson's works. Bate, in 1745, wrote a pamphlet called ‘Remarks upon Mr. Warburton's remarks, showing that the ancients knew there was a future state, and that the Jews were not under an equal providence.’ It provoked some expressions of contempt from Warburton, who calls him (Works, xii. 58) ‘Zany to a mountebank’ (that is, to Hutchinson), and classes him with Dr. Richard Grey as an ‘impotent railer.’ Bate published various other pamphlets in defence of Hutchinson's fanciful mysticism, and on the corresponding interpretation of the Hebrew text. His chief work is ‘Critica Hebræa, or a Hebrew-English Dictionary without points,’ 1767, an objection to the ‘hydra of pointing’ being one of the characteristics of the school. Sufficient specimens may be found in the ‘Monthly Review’ (xxxvi. 355–61). Bate died at Arundel 20 Jan. 1771.

[Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, iii. 52; Spearman's Life of Hutchinson.]

L. S.