Life
Willis was born in Ribbesford, Worcestershire, where his father was a tanner. He was educated at Bewdley Grammar School and Wadham College, Oxford, where he matriculated in 1684 and graduated BA in 1688. He became a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.
Willis became a curate at Cheshunt and then, in 1692, lecturer at St Clement, Strand, where he acquired a reputation as a preacher. In 1694 he was chaplain to King William III on a journey to the Netherlands.
In 1701 Willis was appointed Dean of Lincoln and in 1714 Bishop of Gloucester. In 1721 he became Bishop of Salisbury and in 1723 Bishop of Winchester. There is a memorial to him in Winchester Cathedral. Willis was Lord High Almoner from 1718 to 1723.
He was one of the principal founders of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (SPCK). He gave in 1702 the first of the annual sermons on behalf of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG). It proposed an influential set of theories about evangelical missionary work in connection with the Anglican church settlement, commercial life and colonization.
He accused John Locke of “Hobbism” citing a parallel with Leviathan. He attacked deism in general, and John Toland and William Stephens in particular.
He gave a thanksgiving sermon 23 August 1705, for victories of the Duke of Marlborough in the War of the Spanish Succession. Given in St Paul's Cathedral, it was an elaborate effort for a full state occasion, and was published. It attracted also attracted controversy, with John Hughes writing A review of the case of Ephraim and Judah, and its application to the case of the church of England and the dissenters, and Joseph Williamson replying. He was also attacked by the Unitarian Thomas Emlyn.
He was a Whig in politics.
Read more about this topic: Richard Willis (bishop)
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“His speech is a burning fire;
With his lips he travaileth;
In his heart is a blind desire,
In his eyes foreknowledge of death:
He weaves, and is clothed with derision;
Sows, and he shall not reap;
His life is a watch or a vision
Between a sleep and a sleep.”
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“In short, no association or alliance can be happy or stable without me. People can’t long tolerate a ruler, nor can a master his servant, a maid her mistress, a teacher his pupil, a friend his friend nor a wife her husband, a landlord his tenant, a soldier his comrade nor a party-goer his companion, unless they sometimes have illusions about each other, make use of flattery, and have the sense to turn a blind eye and sweeten life for themselves with the honey of folly.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)