PAGIT or PAGITT, EPHRAIM (1575–1647), heresiographer, son of Eusebius Pagit [q. v.], was born in Northamptonshire, probably at Lamport, about 1575. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 25 May 1593, being eighteen years old. There is no evidence of his graduation, but he is said to have been a great linguist, writing fifteen or sixteen languages. On 19 Aug. 1601 he was admitted to the rectory of St. Edmund the King, Lombard Street. In May 1638 he wrote a series of letters addressed to Cyril Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople, and other patriarchs of the Greek church, commending to their notice his own ‘Christianographie,’ the translation of the English prayer-book into Greek by Elias Petley, and Laud's conference with Fisher.
On the outbreak of the civil war Pagit was silenced, and retired to Deptford, Kent. He was always a strong royalist, and in favour of the prayer-book; yet he took the covenant, and in 1645 he joined in a petition to parliament for the establishment of presbyterianism, probably as a preferable alternative to independency. His standard of doctrine he finds in the articles of ‘our mother,’ the church of England. He died at Deptford in April 1647, and was buried in the churchyard. He married the widow of Sir Stephen Bord of Sussex.
His accounts of sectaries are valuable, as he makes it a rule to give authorities; and they take a wide range, since he treats every deflection from Calvinism as heresy, and every approach to independency as faction.
He published:
- ‘Christianographie; or, a Description of the sundrie Sorts of Christians in the World,’ &c., 1635, 4to; many reprints; best edition, 1640, fol.
- ‘Heresiography; or a description of the Hereticks and Sectaries of these latter times,’ &c., 1645, 4to; two editions same year; many reprints; sixth and best edition, 1662, 8vo.
- ‘The Mystical Wolf,’ &c., 1645, 4to (sermon on Matt. vii. 15; reissued with new title-page, ‘The Tryall of Trueth,’ &c.). His nine letters to the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Moscow, and of the Maronites, also to Prince Radziwil of Poland and John Tolnai of Transylvania, are in Harl. MS. 825.
All are duplicated in Greek and Latin; two are also in English, and one in Syriac.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), iii. 210 sq.; Walker's Sufferings of the Clergy, 1714, ii. 174; Brook's Lives of the Puritans, 1813, iii. 62 sq.; the Lamport registers do not begin till 1587, those of Oundle in 1625; Pagitt's works.]
PAGIT, EUSEBIUS (1551?–1617), puritan divine, was born at Cranford, Northamptonshire, about 1551. At twelve years of age he entered Christ Church, Oxford, as a chorister. According to his son's account, given to Fuller, 'he brake his right arme with carrying the pax;' the limb was permanently disabled, and he was in the habit of signing himself 'lame Eusebius Pagit.' He was afterwards student of Christ Church, and stood high in philosophy, being 'commonly called the golden sophister.' Though he is said to have taken no degree, Cole is doubtless right in identifying him with the Eusebius Paget who matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge, on 22 Feb. 1563-1564, and commenced B.A. in 1567. He is said to have been vicar of Oundle, Northamptonshire, but this seems incorrect. In 1571 he was suspended from preaching for not subscribing the articles, and at this time he had no benefice. On 21 April 1572 he was preferred to the rectory of Lamport, Northamptonshire. On 29 Jan. 1574 he was cited before Edmund Scambler [q. v.], then bishop of Peterborough, for nonconformity, was suspended, and shortly afterwards was deprived. He subscribed Cartwright's book of discipline (1574), and with John Oxenbridge, B.D., was arrested and taken to London by order from Archbishop Grindal, for taking a leading part in the presbyterian associations of Northamptonshire and Warwickshire.
Subsequently he was presented to the rectory of Kilkhampton, Cornwall. He told the patron and the bishop (probably John Walton, elected 2 July 1579) that he could not conform in all points, and was admitted and inducted on this understanding. His attitude was peaceable and his ministry laborious and popular. In March 1584 he was brought up before his ordinary and enjoined to an exact conformity. Towards the end of 1584 articles of accusation, founded on his preaching, were exhibited against him before the high commission by Farmer, curate of Barnstaple, Devonshire. He appeared before the commission, presided over by Archbishop Whitgift, on 11 Jan. 1585. The articles were dropped, and he was charged with refusing to use the prayer-book and to observe the ceremonies. In his written defence he admitted his obligation to use the prayer-book authorised by the Uniformity Act of 1559 (this was Edward VI's second prayer-book), and denied that he had ever refused to do so. He allowed that he had not exactly followed that book, but pleaded that there was no copy of it provided for his church; that
