Robert South Biography Quotes 17 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Robert South was born in 1634 (traditionally 4 September) at Hackney, then just outside London, England. He was educated at Westminster School under the formidable headmaster Dr. Richard Busby, whose rigorous classical training shaped South's fluent Latin and highly wrought English prose. From Westminster he was elected in 1651 to a studentship (fellowship) at Christ Church, Oxford, where he took his B.A. in 1655 and M.A. in 1657. Already conspicuous for sharp intellect and a memorable turn of phrase, he began to preach at St Mary's, the university church, before the Restoration.

Oxford in the Interregnum
South's university years unfolded during the Commonwealth, when Christ Church was under the puritan dean John Owen. Like many young royalists navigating a precarious public climate, South displayed a tact that later supplied his critics with anecdotes. A well-known story recounts his Latin address delivered when Oliver Cromwell visited Westminster School, which, though conventionally loyal in tone, South afterwards treated with dry self-deprecation. In 1658, while episcopal ordination was still illegal, he was ordained deacon and priest by the ejected Bishop Robert Skinner, a quiet act of allegiance to the old Church of England in difficult times.

Restoration Preferment and Court Chaplaincy
The Restoration in 1660 brought South into the open as a conspicuous high-church royalist. He was chosen Public Orator of the University of Oxford and soon became chaplain to Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, the Lord Chancellor, and then a chaplain in ordinary to King Charles II. South preached frequently at court and before the universities, gaining a reputation for sermons that combined classical poise with satire and episcopal orthodoxy.

Ecclesiastical advancement followed. He was installed a prebendary of Westminster (mid-1660s), created D.D. (1669), and in 1670 became a canon of Christ Church, Oxford. In 1678 he accepted the Crown living of Islip, near Oxford, which he held for the rest of his life. These posts anchored him simultaneously in London's ecclesiastical life and in the intellectual society of Oxford.

Voice and Style as a Preacher
South's pulpit style was famed for clarity, classical balance, and a caustic wit aimed at hypocrisy, enthusiasm, and doctrinal novelty. He relished the epigram, "An Aristotle was but the rubbish of an Adam" is often cited, and he built arguments through close moral reasoning rather than ornate divinity. His "Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions", published in multiple volumes from the late seventeenth century onward, circulated widely and were long reprinted. Their polish and vigor later drew praise from literary figures such as Samuel Johnson, who held South up as a model of English pulpit eloquence.

High Church Convictions and Controversies
A convinced Anglican of the high-church stripe, South defended the established church against nonconformity and "latitudinarian" theology. He distrusted the broad-church temper associated with John Tillotson and Gilbert Burnet and spoke sharply against what he saw as the dilution of apostolic doctrine.

In the 1690s Trinity controversies, he crossed pens with William Sherlock (Dean of St Paul's), whose attempt to explain the Trinity seemed to South perilously tritheistic. South's Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock's book (1693) is merciless in tone and a landmark of the dispute. He also criticized the influence of fashionable philosophy on theology, taking swipes at the "new way of ideas" associated with John Locke, an especially piquant posture given that Locke had been a long-time member of Christ Church. South's polemics were learned, witty, and often scalding; admirers found them bracing, detractors called them scurrilous.

Colleagues, Patrons, and Adversaries
- Richard Busby: South's schoolmaster at Westminster, remembered with awe by generations of pupils; he instilled the disciplined Latinity and rhetorical control that mark South's sermons.
- Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon: South's powerful patron at the Restoration; through Clarendon he gained court visibility and early preferment.
- Charles II and the Duke of York (later James II): South preached often before the Stuart court, enjoying the favor of monarchs even while remaining suspicious of Roman Catholicism.
- Henry Aldrich: Dean of Christ Church and a close Oxford ally, sharing South's high-church tastes in theology and classical culture.
- William Sherlock: Chief opponent in the Trinity debates; their exchange is among the most biting theological polemics of the age.
- John Locke: A one-time colleague at Christ Church whose philosophy South regarded as theologically corrosive; though not direct combatants in print on every point, South's critiques of "ideas" targeted Locke's influence.
- Gilbert Burnet and John Tillotson: Leading churchmen of the more moderate, Whig-aligned wing whom South frequently caricatured as "latitude-men".
- Francis Atterbury: A younger Tory high churchman and Christ Church man. When, late in Queen Anne's reign (1713), the bishopric of Rochester and deanery of Westminster were said to be offered to South, he declined on grounds of age and health and recommended Atterbury, who duly received both posts.

Later Years
South kept his Oxford stall and the rectory of Islip into old age, dividing time between Oxford and London. He continued to revise and publish sermons, to mentor younger clergy, and to serve as a touchstone for high-church sentiment in an era increasingly shaped by party politics and new philosophies. Though strongly Tory, he weathered the Revolution settlement; unlike the nonjurors, he took the oaths and retained his preferments, a decision that preserved his institutional influence but did not blunt his criticism of innovations in church and state.

He died on 8 July 1716 in Westminster. As befitted a long-serving prebendary and celebrated preacher, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, where a monument commemorates his service to the English church and pulpit.

Reputation and Legacy
Robert South's standing rests on three pillars: the luminously structured prose of his sermons, the moral earnestness of his pastoral appeals, and the crackle of his polemical wit. His sermons remained standard reading well into the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; they shaped Anglican homiletics and supplied countless later preachers with turns of phrase and architectonic models for discourse. If some of his attacks appear harsh to modern eyes, they reflect the ferociously contested theological and political landscape of Restoration and post-Revolution England.

South's name is thus linked with the high-church classicism of Christ Church, the courtly Restoration pulpit, and the great English sermon tradition, an orator whose sentences could wound in controversy but heal in moral exhortation, and whose relentless defense of Trinitarian, episcopal Anglicanism made him one of the most distinctive clerical voices of his century.

Selected Works
- Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions (multiple volumes, late 17th, early 18th century; frequently reprinted)
- Animadversions on Dr. Sherlock's Book, entitled A Vindication of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity (1693)
- Additional sermons, charges, and posthumous collections issued after his death, which consolidated his reputation as one of the classic English preachers of the Restoration era.

Our collection contains 17 quotes who is written by Robert, under the main topics: Wisdom - Never Give Up - Deep - Faith - Reason & Logic.

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