Anthony Wotton

Anthony Wotton (c. 1561 – 1626) was an English clergyman and controversialist, of Puritan views. He was the first Gresham Professor of Divinity. Christopher Hill describes him as a Modernist and Ramist.

He was born in London about 1561, and was educated at Eton College; he then was elected scholar of King's College, Cambridge, being admitted on 1 October 1579. His tutor was William Temple. He graduated B.A. in 1583, and proceeded M.A. in 1587. He was made B.D. in 1594, and in the same year he disputed with John Overall at Cambridge before Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, who made him his chaplain. On the death of William Whitaker in the following year Wotton wrote some eulogistic verses, and became a candidate for the regius professorship of divinity vacated by Whitaker; though Wotton was highly commended for his disputation, Overall was elected by the votes of the younger Cambridge men, who preferred Overall's moderate high-church views to Wotton's puritanism.

In March 1596, on the establishment of Gresham College, Wotton was appointed its first professor of divinity. He held the post less than two years, vacating it and his fellowship at King's on his marriage, on 27 October 1598, to Sybell, aged 28, daughter of William Brisley of Isleworth, Middlesex.

Wotton now became lecturer at All Hallows, Barking, a post which he held till his death; all his books are dated from his house on Tower Hill. He failed to obtain further preferment, because of his views, but he became a well-known and popular preacher. In 1604 he was suspended by John Bancroft, his prayer that "the king's eyes might be opened" being taken as an insinuation that the king was blind. The suspension did not last long.

...
Wikipedia