Benjamin Whichcote

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Benjamin Whichcote (1609–1683) was an English priest and a leader of the Cambridge Platonists. He was also the Provost of King’s College, Cambridge. He believed that humans are the “child of reason” and not entirely depraved by nature, and he argued for religious toleration.

Whichcote was born at Whichcote Hall in Stoke upon Tern, Shropshire. He went to Emmanuel College, Cambridge in 1628 and became a fellow in 1633. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1637. In 1643 he married and served as a priest in a parish in North Cadbury, Somerset.

In 1644 Whichcote became the 19th Provost of King’s College because Parliament controlled the universities. He did not subscribe to the National Covenant. In 1650, during the Interregnum, he was vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge and advised Oliver Cromwell on tolerating Jews.

After the Restoration, Whichcote was removed from King’s College but was restored in 1662 when he accepted the Act of Uniformity. He then became the Curate of St. Anne’s Church, Blackfriars, until it burned down in 1666. In 1668 he was appointed Vicar of St Lawrence Jewry.

Whichcote was brothers with Jeremy Whichcote and Elizabeth Foxcroft (wife of Ezechiel Foxcroft). He was a leading figure among the Cambridge Platonists and held liberal views. In 1650 he argued with his former teacher Anthony Tuckney. He rejected the idea of total depravity, taking a semi-Pelagian position and saying that man is the “child of reason.” He believed some questions are beyond the reach of human reason and called for religious toleration. Some people labeled him Arminian, Socinian, or Latitudinarian.

He died in Cambridge in May 1683, aged 74, and was buried in London at the church of St Lawrence Jewry. Most of his writings were published after his death, including Select Notions of B. Whichcote (1685), Select Sermons (1689), Discourses (1701), and Moral and Religious Aphorisms (1703).