Brian Walton
Encyclopedia
Brian Walton was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
priest, divine and scholar.
Life
He was born at Seymour, in the district of Cleveland, YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. His early education was at the Newcastle Royal Free Grammar School
Royal Grammar School, Newcastle
Royal Grammar School Newcastle upon Tyne, known locally and often abbreviated as RGS, is a long-established co-educational, independent school in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It gained its Royal Charter under Queen Elizabeth I...
http://www.seaham.i12.com/myers/m-walton.html. He went up to Cambridge as a sizar
Sizar
At Trinity College, Dublin and the University of Cambridge, a sizar is a student who receives some form of assistance such as meals, lower fees or lodging during his or her period of study, in some cases in return for doing a defined job....
of Magdalene College
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Magdalene College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1428 as a Benedictine hostel, in time coming to be known as Buckingham College, before being refounded in 1542 as the College of St Mary Magdalene...
in 1616, migrated to Peterhouse
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Peterhouse is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the oldest college of the University, having been founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely...
in 1618, was bachelor in 1619 and master of arts in 1623. After holding a school mastership at Suffolk and two curacies (the second as curate of All-hallows, Bread Street), he was made rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of St Martin's Ongar in London, and of Sandon, in Essex, in 1626. At St Martin's Ongar he took a leading part in the contest between the London clergy and the citizens about the city tithes, and compiled a treatise on the subject, which is printed in Brewster
Brewster (disambiguation)
-People:* Anna Brewster* Benjamin Brewster * Craig Brewster* Daniel Brewster* David Brewster, Scottish scientist* David Brewster * Diane Brewster* Elizabeth Brewster* Harlan Carey Brewster, Canadian politician...
's Collectanea (1752). His conduct in this matter displayed his ability, but his zeal for the exaction of ecclesiastical dues was remembered in 1641 in the articles brought against him in parliament, which appear to have led to the sequestration of his very considerable preferments. He was also charged with Popish practices, but on frivolous grounds, and with aspersing the members of parliament for the city. "He who has the love of a good woman is ashamed of every misdeed."
In 1642 he was ordered into custody as a delinquent; thereafter he took refuge in Oxford, and ultimately returned to London to the house of William Fuller
William Fuller (dean)
William Fuller was dean of Ely and later dean of Durham. He was in serious trouble with parishioners and Parliament during the early 1640s.-Life:...
(1580?-1659), dean of Ely
Dean of Ely
The position of Dean of Ely Cathedral, in East Anglia, England, was created at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The first Dean of Ely had been the last Benedictine prior of Ely.-List of Deans:*1541-1557 Robert Steward or Welles...
, whose daughter Jane was his second wife. In this retirement he gave himself to Oriental studies and carried through his great work, a Polyglot
Polyglot (book)
A polyglot is a book that contains side-by-side versions of the same text in several different languages. Some editions of the Bible or its parts are polyglots, in which the Hebrew and Greek originals are exhibited along with historical translations...
Bible which should be completer, cheaper and provided with a better critical apparatus than any previous work of the kind.
The Polyglot Bible
The proposals for the Polyglot appeared in 1652. The book itself came out in six great folios. The first volume appeared in September, 1654; the second in July, 1655; the third in July, 1656; and the last three in 1657. Nine languages are used: HebrewHebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
, Chaldee, Samaritan
Samaritan
The Samaritans are an ethnoreligious group of the Levant. Religiously, they are the adherents to Samaritanism, an Abrahamic religion closely related to Judaism...
, Syriac
Syriac language
Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Having first appeared as a script in the 1st century AD after being spoken as an unwritten language for five centuries, Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from...
, Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...
, Ethiopic, Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
. Among his collaborators were James Ussher
James Ussher
James Ussher was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–56...
, John Lightfoot
John Lightfoot
John Lightfoot was an English churchman, rabbinical scholar, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge and Master of St Catharine's College, Cambridge.-Life:...
and Edward Pococke
Edward Pococke
Edward Pococke was an English Orientalist and biblical scholar.-Early life:He was the son of clergyman from Chieveley in Berkshire, and was educated at Lord Williams's School of Thame in Oxfordshire and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford...
, Edmund Castell
Edmund Castell
Edmund Castell was an English orientalist.He was born at Tadlow, in Cambridgeshire. At the age of fifteen he entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, gaining his BA in 1624-5 and his MA in 1628. Appointed Professor of Arabic in 1666, with the full title 'Sir Thomas Adams Professor of Arabic'. He...
, Abraham Wheelocke
Abraham Wheelocke
Abraham Wheelocke was an English linguist. He was the first Adams Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge, from around 1632. According to Robert Irwin he regarded it as part of his academic duty to discourage students from taking up the subject. Thomas Hyde was one of his...
and Patrick Young
Patrick Young
Patrick Young was a Scottish scholar and royal librarian to King James VI and I, and King Charles I. He was a noted Biblical and patristic scholar.-Life:...
, Thomas Hyde
Thomas Hyde
Thomas Hyde was an English orientalist. The first use of the word dualism is attributed to him, in 1700.-Life:He was born at Billingsley, near Bridgnorth in Shropshire, on 29 June 1636...
and Thomas Greaves
Thomas Greaves (orientalist)
Thomas Greaves was an English orientalist, a contributor to the London Polyglot of Brian Walton.-Life:He was a son of the Rev. John Greaves of Colemore, Hampshire, and brother of John Greaves, Nicholas Greaves and of Sir Edward Greaves...
. The great undertaking was supported by liberal subscriptions, and Walton's political opinions did not deprive him of the help of the Commonwealth; the paper used was freed from duty, and the interest of Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in the work was acknowledged in the original preface, part, of which was afterwards cancelled to make way for more loyal expressions towards that restored monarchy under which Oriental studies in England immediately began to languish. To Walton himself, however, the Restoration brought no disappointment. He was consecrated bishop of Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
in December 1660. In the following spring he was one of the commissioners at the Savoy Conference
Savoy Conference
The Savoy Conference of 1661 was a significant liturgical discussion that took place, after the Restoration of Charles II, in an attempt to effect a reconciliation within the Church of England.-Proceedings:...
, but took little part in the business. In the autumn of 1661 he paid a short visit to his diocese, and returning to London he died.
However much Walton was indebted to his helpers, the Polyglot Bible is a great monument of industry and of capacity for directing a vast undertaking, and the Prolegomena (separately reprinted by Dathe, 1777, and by Francis Wrangham, 1825) show judgment as well as learning. The same qualities appear in Walton's Considerator Considered (1659), a reply to the Considerations of John Owen
John Owen (theologian)
John Owen was an English Nonconformist church leader, theologian, and academic administrator at the University of Oxford.-Early life:...
, who thought that the accumulation of material for the revision of the received text tended to atheism. Among Walton's works must also be mentioned an Introductio ad lectionem linguarum orientalium (1654; 2nd ed., 1655), meant to prepare the way for the Polyglot. In 1669, Dr. Edmund Castell published the "Lexicon Heptaglotton" in two folio volumes. This was a lexicon of the seven Oriental languages used in Walton's Polyglot, and had grammars of those languages prefixed.
Manuscripts used by Walton
- Minuscule 47Minuscule 47Minuscule 47 , ε 515 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 15th century. It has complex contents and some marginalia....
- Minuscule 57Minuscule 57Minuscule 57 , δ 255 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on parchment leaves. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 12th century.The manuscript is lacunose...
- Codex Montfortianus
- Minuscule 96Minuscule 96Minuscule 96 , ε 514 , is a Greek minuscule manuscript of the New Testament, on paper leaves. Palaeographically it has been assigned to the 15th century. It has marginalia.- Description :...
- Minuscule 2818Minuscule 2818Minuscule 2818 , Aπρ20 . Formerly it was labelled as 36aK in all catalogues, but it was renumbered by Aland, because two manuscripts had number 36...
Further reading
- Henry J. Todd, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Walton (London, 1821), in 2 vols., of which the second contains a reprint of Walton's answer to Owen
- M'Clintock, John, and James Strong, "Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature" (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1880).
External links
- Henry John ToddHenry John ToddHenry John Todd was an English clergyman, librarian, and scholar, known as an editor of John Milton.He was librarian at Lambeth Palace , and examined and described manuscripts, chiefly biblical, which formerly belonged to Professor Carlyle, Orientalist, and after his death were transferred to the...
, Memoirs of the life and writings of the Right Rev. Brian Walton (1821)