PRIDEAUX, JOHN, an eminent dignitary of the English Church, was born in 1578 at Stowford, an obscure hamlet near Ivy-Bridge in Devonshire. His rise in life began amid great embarrassments. While a poor village lad, he aspired to be clerk of the neighbouring parish of Ugborough, and was unsuccessful. The failure depressed his spirits very much, until a kind country lady sent him at her own expense to a school in the vicinity. There he unweariedly plodded on for some time, acquiring with great difficulty a small smattering of classical learning. A rustic-looking youth of eighteen, clad in breeches which were no better than leather, and had very little in their pockets, he then set out to travel on foot to the distant university of Oxford. On his arrival it was accepted by him as a great boon that he was allowed to become a student of Exeter College, on condition that he should also become a menial of Exeter kitchen. In spite of all these difficulties, however, Prideaux soon rose to eminence. His attainments recommended him to a probationer fellowship in 1602. The repute of his theological learning placed him in the rectorship in 1612. Nor in this important position did he fail to advance his reputation. His gentle and fatherly government won every heart. The students under his charge increased till they outnumbered those under any of the other rectors of the university. Some even came from abroad for the purpose of sitting at his feet. His fame was established; and no ecclesiastical preferment was beyond his reach. Several benefices, the office of regius professor of divinity, and the vice-chancellorship were conferred upon him. At length, in 1641, he was promoted by Charles I. to the see of Worcester. Bishop Prideaux, in the discharge of his high office, showed himself to be a fine specimen of the English clergyman of that period. Among his flock he was simple and gentle, a child in the affairs of this world, and
Priego a saint in the affairs of the next. In his study he was a good linguist, a profound theologian, and a very hammer of the heretics. And when the troubles of the civil war came, his spirit was not unequal to the trials of a martyr. In vain did the Puritans harass him, and sequester his estate for his adherence to the cause of the king. He continued true to the principles of his church, living upon the proceeds of his library for the rest of his life, and leaving at his death in 1650 no other legacy to his children but "pious poverty, God's blessing, and a father's prayers." The chief works of Bishop Prideaux are Viginti Duæ Lectiones de Totidem Religionis Capitulis, fol., Oxford, 1648; and Fasciculus Controversiarum Theologicarum ad Juniores, 4to, Oxford, 1648. A list is given in Watt's Bibliotheca Britannica. (See Wood's Athenæ Oxonienses.)