Benjamin Whichcote

Benjamin Whichcote (1609 to 1683) was an English priest, Provost of King's College, Cambridge, and a leader of the Cambridge Platonists. Born at Whichcote Hall in Stoke upon Tern, Shropshire, he studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, was ordained in 1637 and became Provost of King's in 1644, serving as vice-chancellor of the university in 1650. He rejected the Puritan doctrine of total depravity and held that man is a child of reason, and because he thought some questions beyond the power of reasonable and religious people to settle, he called for religious toleration. His opponents labelled him an Arminian, Socinian and Latitudinarian. Nearly all his writings, including Select Notions, Select Sermons and Moral and Religious Aphorisms, were published after his death.