College of Physicians, who died in the parish of St. Clement Danes in January 1670-1 (Wood, Fasti Oxon., ed. Bliss, ii. 178; Foster, Alumni Oxon., 1500-1714; Munk, Royal Coll. of Phys. i. 268).
[Whitaker's Works; Granger's Biogr. Hist. iv. 6; Watt's Bibl. Brit.]
WHITAKER, WILLIAM (1548–1595), master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a leading divine in the university in the latter half of the seventeenth century, was born 'at Holme in the parish of Bromley, Lancashire, in 1548, being the third son of Thomas Whitaker of that place, by Elizabeth his wife, daughter of John Nowell, esq., of Read, and sister of Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's' (Cooper, Athenæ Cantabr. ii. 196). After receiving the rudiments of learning at his native parish school, he was sent by his uncle, Alexander Nowell [q. v.], to St. Paul's school in London, and thence proceeded to Cambridge, where he matriculated as a pensioner of Trinity College on 4 Oct. 1564. He was subsequently elected a scholar on the same foundation, proceeded B.A. in March 1568, and on 6 Sept. 1569 was elected to a minor fellowship, and on 25 March 1571 to a major fellowship, at his college. In 1571 he commenced M.A. Throughout his earlier career at the university he was assisted by his uncle, who granted him leases, 'freely and without fine' (Churton, Nowell, p. 306), towards defraying his expenses. Whitaker evinced his gratitude by dedicating to Nowell a translation of the Book of Common Prayer into Greek, and a like version of Nowell's own larger catechism from the Latin into Greek.
The marked ability with which he acquitted himself when presiding as 'father of the philosophy act' at an academic commencement appears to have first brought him prominently into notice. He also became known as an indefatigable student of the scriptures, the commentators, and the schoolmen, and was very early in his career singled out by Whitgift, at that time master of Trinity, for marks of special favour (Opera, vol. ii. p. v). On 3 Feb. 1578 he was installed canon of Norwich Cathedral, and in the same year was admitted to the degree of B.D., and incorporated on 14 July at Oxford (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714). In 1580 he was appointed by the crown to the regius professorship of divinity, to which Elizabeth shortly after added the chancellorship of St. Paul's, London, and from this time his position as the champion of the teaching of the church of England, interpreted in its most Calvinistic sense, appears to have been definitely taken up. In 1582, on taking part in a disputation at commencement, he took for his thesis, 'Pontifex Romanus est ille Antichristus, quern futurum Scriptura prsedixit.' His lectures, as professor, afterwards published from shorthand notes taken by John Allenson, a fellow of St. John's (Baker, Hist. of St. John's College, p. 185), were mainly directed towards the refutation of the arguments of divines of the Roman church, especially Bellarmine and Thomas Stapleton (1535-1598) [q. v.] He also severely criticised the Douay version of the New Testament, thereby becoming involved in a controversy with William Rainolds [q. v.]
On 28 Feb. 1586 Whitaker, on the recommendation of Whitgift and Burghley, was appointed by the crown to the mastership of St. John's College. The appointment was, however, opposed by a majority of the fellows on the ground of his supposed leanings towards puritanism. His rule as an administrator justified in almost equal measure the appointment and its objectors. The college increased greatly in numbers and reputation, but the puritan party gained ground considerably in the society. Whitaker was a no less resolute opponent of Lutheranism than of Roman doctrine and ritual, and under his teaching the doctrine of Calvin and Beza came to be regarded as of far higher authority than that of the fathers and the schoolmen.
In the discharge of his ordinary duties as master his assiduity and strict impartiality in distributing the rewards at his disposal conciliated even those who demurred to his theological teaching, and Baker declares that the members of the college were 'all at last united in their affection to their master,' and that eventually 'he had no enemies to overcome.'
In 1587 he was created D.D.; and in 1593, on the mastership of Trinity College falling vacant by the preferment of Dr. John Still [q. v.] to the bishopric of Bath and Wells, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the post. In the following year he published his 'De Authoritate Scripture,' written in reply to Stapleton, prefixing to it a dedication to Whitgift (18 April 1594), the latter affording a noteworthy illustration of his personal relations with the primate, and also of the Roman controversialist learning of that time. In May 1595 he was installed canon of Canterbury; but his professorship, mastership, and canonry appear to have left him still poor, and in a letter to Burghley, written about a fortnight before his death, he complains pathetically at being so frequently passed over amid 'the great
