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{{Short description|English clergyman, theologian, philosopher, and Cambridge Platonist (1617–88)}}
{{for|Ralph Cudworth Snr|Ralph Cudworth (died 1624)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2012}}
 
{{Infobox officeholder
| honorific_prefix      = [[The Reverend]] [[Regius Professor of Hebrew (Cambridge)|Professor]]
| name                	= Ralph Cudworth
| honorific_suffix      = [[Royal Society|FRS]]
| image             	= A treatise concerning eternal and immutable morality (1731) (14597157587).jpg
| imagesize             = 
| caption               = 
| order1                = [[Regius Professor of Hebrew (Cambridge)|11th Regius Professor of Hebrew, University of Cambridge]]
| term_start1           = 1645
| term_end1             = 1688
| predecessor1          = [[Robert Metcalfe (Hebraist)|Robert Metcalfe]]
| successor1            = Wolfram Stubbe
| order2                = [[Christ’s College, Cambridge|14th Master of Christ’s College, Cambridge]]
| term_start2           = 1654
| term_end2             = 1688
| predecessor2          = [[Samuel Bolton]]
| successor2            = [[John Covel]]
| order3                = [[Clare College, Cambridge|26th Master of Clare Hall, Cambridge]]
| term_start3           = 1645 (1650)
| term_end3             = 1654
| predecessor3          = [[Thomas Paske]]
| successor3            = [[Theophilus Dillingham]]
| birth_date            = {{Birth year|1617}}
| birth_place           = [[Aller, Somerset]], [[Kingdom of England|England]]
| death_date            = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1688|06|26|1617}}
| death_place           = 
| nationality           = [[England|English]]
| alma_mater            = [[University of Cambridge]]:
{{ubl| [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge|Emmanuel College]] ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]]; [[Master of Arts|MA]]) | [[Clare College, Cambridge|Clare Hall]] ([[Bachelor of Divinity|BD]]; [[Doctor of Divinity|DD]]) }}
| parents               = {{ubl| [[Ralph Cudworth (died 1624)|Ralph Cudworth (Snr)]] | Mary Machell }}
| spouse                = {{marriage|Damaris Cradock Andrewes|1654}}
| children              = 4, including [[Damaris Cudworth Masham]]
| relatives             = [[James Cudworth (colonist)|James Cudworth]] (brother)<br>
| module1               = {{Infobox philosopher|embed=yes
| notable_works         = ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe'' (1678)
| region             	= [[Western philosophy]]
| era                	= [[17th-century philosophy]]<br />[[Early modern philosophy]]
| main_interests        = 
| school_tradition      = [[Cambridge Platonists]]
| notable_ideas         = 
| influences            = [[Plato]]
| influenced            = {{hlist| [[Damaris Cudworth Masham|Masham]] | [[Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury|Shaftesbury]]}} }}
| module2             	= {{Infobox clergy |child=yes
| religion           	= Christianity ([[Anglican]])
| church             	= [[Church of England]]
| ordained           	= {{hlist | 1650 (Priest)}}
| congregations      	= 
| offices_held       	= [[Vicar]], [[Great Wilbraham|Gt Wilbraham]] (1656)<br>[[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]], [[North Cadbury|N. Cadbury]] (1650–6)<br>[[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]], [[Toft, Cambridgeshire|Toft]] (1656–62)<br>[[Rector (ecclesiastical)|Rector]], [[Ashwell, Hertfordshire|Ashwell]] (1662–88)<br>[[Prebendary]], [[Gloucester]] (1678)}}
}}

'''Ralph Cudworth''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|FRS}} ({{IPAc-en|r|eɪ|f|_|ˈ|k|ʊ|d|ɜːr|θ|}} {{respell|rayf|_|KUUD|urth}}; 1617&nbsp;– 26 June 1688) was an [[English people|English]] [[Anglican clergyman]], [[Christian Hebraist]], [[classicist]], [[theologian]] and [[philosopher]], and a leading figure among the [[Cambridge Platonists]] who became 11th [[Regius Professor of Hebrew (Cambridge)|Regius Professor of Hebrew]] (1645–88), 26th Master of [[Clare College, Cambridge|Clare Hall]] (1645–54), and 14th Master of [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]] (1654–88).<ref>J.A. Passmore, ''Ralph Cudworth: An Interpretation'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=9ZNtAAAAQBAJ&dq=Passmore%2C+Ralph+Cudworth+An+Interpretation&pg=PP1 (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1951)]</ref> A leading opponent of [[Thomas Hobbes|Hobbes's]] political and philosophical views, his ''magnum opus'' was his ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe'' (1678).<ref>D.A. Pailin, 'Cudworth, Ralph (1617–88)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (2004).</ref>

==Family background==
===Ancestry===
Cudworth's family reputedly originated in [[Cudworth, South Yorkshire|Cudworth]] (near [[Barnsley]]), [[Yorkshire]], moving to [[Lancashire]] with the marriage ({{circa}}1377) of John de Cudworth (died 1384) and Margery (died 1384), daughter of Richard de Oldham (living 1354), [[lord of the manor]] of [[Werneth, Greater Manchester|Werneth]], [[Oldham]]. The Cudworths of [[Werneth Hall]], [[Oldham]], were lords of the manor of Werneth/Oldham, until 1683. Ralph Cudworth (the philosopher)'s father, [[Ralph Cudworth (died 1624)|Ralph Cudworth (Snr)]], was the posthumous-born second son of Ralph Cudworth (d.1572) of [[Werneth, Greater Manchester|Werneth Hall]], [[Oldham]].<ref>[[Edwin Butterworth]], ''Historical Sketches of Oldham'' (John Hirst: Oldham, 1856), [https://books.google.com/books?id=DfUVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA22 pp. 22–23] (Google)</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Butterworth|first=James|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DfUVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA22|title=History and Description of the Parochial Chapelry of Oldham|publisher=J. Dodge, etc|year=1826|location=Oldham|pages=52ff ('Pedigree of the Families of Oldhams and Cudworths')}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Fuller|first=Thomas|url=https://archive.org/details/worthiesengland02fulluoft/page/n225/mode/2up?view=theater|title=History of the Worthies of England|publisher=Thomas Tegg|year=1811|editor-last=Nuttall|editor-first=T.A.|volume=ii|location=London|pages=208}}</ref><ref name="british-history.ac.uk">{{Cite web|title=The parish of Prestwich with Oldham: Oldham {{!}} British History Online|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp92-108|access-date=2021-06-25|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref><ref name="Stansfield-Cudworth 2019 48–80">{{Cite journal|last=Stansfield-Cudworth|first=R. E.|date=2019|title=Gentry, Gentility, and Genealogy in Lancashire: The Cudworths of Werneth Hall, Oldham, c.1377–1683|journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society|volume=111|pages=48–80}}</ref>

===The Rev. Dr Ralph Cudworth Snr (1572/3–1624)===
{{merge|Ralph Cudworth (died 1624)|section=yes|date=October 2024}}
The philosopher's father, [[Reverend|The Rev.]] [[Doctor of Divinity|Dr]] [[Ralph Cudworth (died 1624)|Ralph Cudworth]] (1572/3–1624), was educated at [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge]], where he graduated BA (1592/93, MA (1596). Emmanuel College (founded by Sir [[Walter Mildmay]] (1584), and under the direction of its first Master, [[Laurence Chaderton]]) was, from its inception, a stronghold of Reformist, Puritan and Calvinist teaching, which shaped the development of puritan ministry, and contributed largely to the emigrant ministry in America.<ref>'History of the College' [https://www.emma.cam.ac.uk/about/history/college/ Emmanuel College website]; S. Bendell, C. Brooke, and P. Collinson, ''A History of Emmanuel College'' (Boydell Press: Woodbridge 1999).</ref>

Ordained in 1599<ref>{{CCEd |type=ordination |id=123517 |name=Cudworthe, Rodulphus |accessed=28 October 2024 }}</ref><ref name="CCEdp">{{CCEd |type=person |id=89100 |name=Cudworth, Ralph |year1=1606 |year2=1608 |accessed=28 October 2024 }}</ref> and elected to a college fellowship by 1600,<ref>S. Bush Jnr and C.J. Rasmussen, ''The Library of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 1584–1637'' (Cambridge University Press, 2005), [https://books.google.com/books?id=riRkkmBry6oC&pg=PA77 pp. 77–79] and p. 210 (Google).</ref> Cudworth Snr was much influenced by [[William Perkins (theologian)|William Perkins]], whom he succeeded, in 1602, as Lecturer of the Parish Church of [[St Andrew the Great]], Cambridge.<ref>B. Carter, 'The standing of Ralph Cudworth as a Philosopher' in G.A.J. Rogers, T. Sorell, and J. Kraye (eds), ''Insiders and Outsiders in Seventeenth Century Philosophy'' (Routledge: London, 2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=bD2OAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA100 at p. 100 (see note 4)].</ref> He was awarded the degree of [[Bachelor of Divinity]] in 1603.<ref>Venn, ''[[Alumni Cantabrigienses]]'' i(1), p. 431.</ref> He edited Perkins's ''Commentary'' on [[Paul the Apostle|St Paul]]'s [[Epistle to the Galatians]] (1604),<ref>H.C. Porter, ''Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge'' (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1958), [https://books.google.com/books?id=j7Q6AAAAIAAJ&dq=Cudworth%2C+%22William+Crashaw%22&pg=PA264 pp. 264–66] (Google)</ref> with a dedication to [[Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick|Robert, 3rd Lord Rich (later 1st Earl of Warwick)]], adding a commentary of his own with dedication to Sir [[Bassingbourne Gawdy (died 1606)|Bassingbourn Gawdy]].<ref>''A Commentarie or Exposition, upon the Five First Chapters of the Epistle to the Galatians: penned by the godly, learned, and iudiciall divine, Mr. W. Perkins. Now published for the benefit of the Church, and continued with a supplement upon the sixt chapter, by Rafe Cudworth Bachelour of Divinitie'' (John Legat: London, 1604).</ref> Lord Rich presented him to the Vicariate of [[Coggeshall]], [[Essex]] (1606)<ref>{{CCEd |type=appointment |id=193664 |name=Cudworth, Rodolphus |location=Coggshall |accessed=28 October 2024 }}</ref> to replace the deprived minister [[John Stoughton (priest)#Origin and religious background|Thomas Stoughton]], but he resigned this position (March 1608), and was licensed to preach from the pulpit by the [[Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury|Chancellor]] and Scholars of the [[University of Cambridge]] (November 1609).<ref>Church of England clergy database, CCEd Records ID: 193711 (Vacancy) [https://theclergydatabase.org.uk/jsp/DisplayVacancy.jsp?CDBAppRedID=193711]</ref><ref>{{CCEd |type=appointment |id=178652 |name=Cudworthe, Rodulphus |location=Preacher |accessed=28 October 2024 }}</ref> He then applied for the rectorate of [[Aller, Somerset]] (an Emmanuel College living)<ref>R.W. Dunning (ed.), 'Parishes: Aller ', ''A History of the County of Somerset'', iii (1974), [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=66488 pp. 61–71] (British History Online).</ref> and, resigning his fellowship, was appointed to it in 1610.<ref>CCEd Appointment Evidence Record ID: 178651, as 30 August 1610.</ref>

His marriage (1611) to Mary Machell (''c''.1582–1634), (who had been "nutrix" – nurse, or preceptor – to [[Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales]])<ref>[[Johann Lorenz von Mosheim|J.L. v. Mosheim]], ''Radulphi Cudworthi Systema intellectuale hujus universi'' (sumtu viduae Meyer: Jena, 1733), i, 'Praefatio Moshemii' (34 sides, unpaginated), [https://books.google.com/books?id=LO9OAAAAcAAJ side 19]. The information was from [[Edward Chandler (bishop)|Edward Chandler]].</ref> brought important connections. Cudworth Snr was appointed as one of [[James VI and I|James I]]'s chaplains.<ref>Mosheim, as cited above.</ref> Mary's mother (or aunt) was the sister of Sir [[Edward Lewknor (died 1605)|Edward Lewknor]], a central figure (with the [[Robert Jermyn (1539–1614)|Jermyn]] and Heigham families) among the puritan [[East Anglia]]n gentry, whose children had attended Emmanuel College.<ref>P. Collinson, '17: Magistracy and Ministry – A Suffolk Miniature', in ''Godly People. Essays on English Protestantism and Puritanism'' (Hambledon Press: London, 1983), pp. 445–66.</ref> Mary's Lewknor and Machell connections with the Rich family included her first cousins Sir [[Nathaniel Rich (merchant adventurer)|Nathaniel Rich]] and his sister Dame Margaret Wroth, wife of Sir [[Thomas Wroth (died 1672)|Thomas Wroth]] of [[Petherton Park]] near [[Bridgwater]], Somerset, influential promoters of colonial enterprise (and later of nonconformist emigration) in [[New England]]. Aller was immediately within their sphere.

Ralph Snr and Mary settled at Aller, where their children (listed below) were christened during the following decade.<ref>D. Richardson, ''Magna Carta Ancestry'', ed. K.J. Everingham, 2nd Edn (2011), ii, p. 10, items 15–16)</ref> Cudworth continued to study, working on a complete survey of [[Casuistry|Case-Divinity]], ''The Cases of Conscience in Family, Church and Commonwealth'' while suffering from the [[Fever|agueish]] climate at Aller.<ref>Letter of Ralph Cudworth (Snr) to James Ussher, [[Bodleian Library]], Oxford, MS Rawlinson Letters 89, fol. 25 r–v: [http://emlo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/profile/work/9a862849-3c6c-4561-8236-8855aebd4e0d ''Early modern letters online''].</ref> He was awarded the degree of [[Doctor of Divinity]] (1619),<ref name="Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses">Venn, ''Alumni Cantabrigienses''.</ref> and was among the dedicatees of [[Richard Bernard]]'s 1621 edition of ''The Faithfull Shepherd''.<ref>R. Bernard, ''The Faithfull Shepherd, wholy in a manner transposed'', 3rd Edn, Thomas Pavier: London, 1621), [https://archive.org/details/faithfulshe00bern/page/n13 dedication in front matter] (Internet Archive). ([https://books.google.com/books?id=CBBBAQAAMAAJ 1st Edition, 1607], 2nd 1609).</ref> Ralph Snr died at Aller declaring a [[nuncupative will]] (7 August 1624) before [[Anthony Earbury]] and Dame Margaret Wroth.<ref>Will of Raphe Cudworthe, Doctor of Divinity, Parson of Aller, Somerset (P.C.C. 1624, Byrde quire).</ref>

==== Children ====
[[File:St Andrews Church, Aller (geograph 5188498).jpg|thumb|right|[[Church of St Andrew, Aller|Parish Church of St Andrew]], [[Aller, Somerset|Aller]], [[Somerset]]: where [[John Stoughton (priest)|John Stoughton]] succeeded [[Ralph Cudworth (died 1624)|Ralph Cudworth]] Snr (1624)]]'''The children of Ralph Cudworth Snr and Mary (née Machell) Cudworth (''c''.1582–1634) were:'''

*[[General]] [[James Cudworth (colonist)|James Cudworth]] (1612–82) was Assistant Governor (1756–8, 1674–80) and Deputy Governor (1681–2) of [[Plymouth Colony]], [[Massachusetts]], and four-times Commissioner of the United Colonies (1657–81),<ref>Samuel Deane, 'Gen. James Cudworth' in ''History of Scituate, Massachusetts, from its first settlement to 1831'' (James Loring: Boston, 1831), pp. 245–51; also ''[http://www.scituatehistoricalsociety.org/families/CudworthJames.htm Scituate Historical Society] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524190252/http://www.scituatehistoricalsociety.org/families/CudworthJames.htm |date=24 May 2008 }}''</ref> whose descendants form an extensive family of American Cudworths.
* Elizabeth Cudworth (1615–54) married (1636) Josias Beacham of [[Broughton, Northamptonshire]] (Rector of [[Seaton, Rutland]] (1627–76)), by whom she had several children. Beacham was ejected from his living by the Puritans (1653), but reinstated (by 1662).<ref>Josias Beacham’s first wife was Maria Sheffield (died 1634): S.H.C., 'Extracts from the Parish register of Seton, Co. Rutland, relative to the family of Sheffield', ''Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica'' I (J.B. Nichols & Son: London, 1834), [https://books.google.com/books?id=HCcAAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA171 pp. 171–73.]; Will of Josias Beacham, Rector of Seaton (Rutland) (P.C.C. 1675/76). ''London Marriage Allegations'', 28 April 1636 (St Mary Aldermanbury). Foster, ''Index Ecclesiasticus''. Beacham was a graduate of [[Brasenose College|Brasenose College, Oxford]]</ref>
* '''Ralph Cudworth (Jnr)'''
* Mary Cudworth
* John Cudworth (1622–75) of [[London]] and [[Bentley, Suffolk]], Alderman of London, and Master of the [[Worshipful Company of Girdlers]] (1667–68).<ref>W. Dumville Smythe, ''An Historical Account of the Worshipful Company of Girdlers, London'' (Chiswick Press: London, 1905), [https://archive.org/stream/historicalaccoun00smyt#page/108/mode/2up pp. 109–10.]; Will of John Cudworth, Girdler of London (P.C.C. 1675).</ref> On his death, John left four orphans of whom both Thomas Cudworth (1661–1726)<ref>J. Peile, ''Biographical Register of Christ's College, 1505–1905: II: 1666–1905'' (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1913), [https://archive.org/details/biographicalregi02peil/page/64 p. 64] (Internet Archive).</ref> and Benjamin Cudworth (1670–15 Sept. 1725) attended Christ's College, Cambridge.<ref>J. Peile, ''Biographical Register'', ii, [https://archive.org/details/biographicalregi02peil/page/110 p. 111].</ref> Benjamin Cudworth's black memorial slab is in St. Margaret's parish church, Southolt, Suffolk.
* Jane/Joan(?) Cudworth (born ''c''.1624; [[floruit|fl.]] unmarried, 1647) may have been Ralph's sister.<ref>D. Richardson, ''Jewels of the Crown'', 4 (2009), citing references to Jane Cudworth in the Will of John Machell of Wonersh (P.C.C. 1647).</ref>

==Career==
===Education===
The second son, and third of five (probably six) children, Ralph Cudworth (Jnr) was born at [[Aller, Somerset|Aller]], [[Somerset]], where he was baptised (13 July 1617). Following the death of his father, Ralph Cudworth Snr (1624), [[Reverend|The Rev.]] [[Doctor of Divinity|Dr]] [[John Stoughton (priest)|John Stoughton]] (1593–1639), (son of Thomas Stoughton of Coggeshall; also a Fellow of Emmanuel College), succeeded as Rector of Aller, and married the widow Mary (née Machell) Cudworth (''c''.1582–1634).<ref>J.C. Whitebrook, 'Dr. John Stoughton the Elder', ''Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society'', 6(2), (1913), [https://archive.org/details/transactionscong6191cong/page/88 pp. 89–107]; and 6(3), (1914), [https://archive.org/details/transactionscong6191cong/page/176 pp. 177–87] (Internet Archive).</ref> Dr Stoughton paid careful attention to his stepchildren's education, which Ralph later described as a "diet of [[Calvinism]]".<ref>F.J. Powicke, ''The Cambridge Platonists: A Study'' (J.M. Dent & Co.: London, 1926), p. 111.</ref> Letters, to Stoughton, by both brothers James and Ralph Cudworth make this plain; and, when Ralph matriculated at [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge|Emmanuel College]], Cambridge (1632),<ref>{{acad|id=CDWT632R|name=Cudworth, Ralph}}. See Venn, ''[[Alumni Cantabrigienses]]'' i(1), p. 431.</ref> Stoughton thought him "as wel grounded in Scho[o]l-Learning as any Boy of his Age that went to the University".<ref>Mosheim, ''Radulphi Cudworthi Systema Intellectuale'' (1733), i, 'Praefatio Moshemii' (34 sides, unpaginated) [https://books.google.com/books?id=LO9OAAAAcAAJ 19th side, note.]</ref> [[John Stoughton (priest)|Stoughton]] was appointed Curate and Preacher at [[St Mary Aldermanbury]], [[London]] (1632),<ref>Venn, ''[[Alumni Cantabrigienses]]'', i(4), p. 171.</ref> and the family left Aller. Ralph's elder brother, [[James Cudworth (colonist)|James Cudworth]], married and emigrated to [[Scituate, Massachusetts|Scituate]], [[Plymouth Colony]], [[New England]] (1634).<ref>'Letter of James Cudworth of Scituate, 1634', (to Stoughton), in ''New England Historical and Genealogical Register'', 14 (1860), pp. 101–04.</ref> Mary Machell Cudworth Stoughton died during summer 1634,<ref>Whitebrook, 'Dr John Stoughton the Elder', [https://archive.org/details/transactionscong6191cong/page/94 p. 94] (Internet Archive).</ref> and Dr [[John Stoughton (priest)|Stoughton]] married a daughter of John Browne of [[Frampton, Dorset|Frampton]] and [[Dorchester, Dorset|Dorchester]].<ref>Marriage at St Mary Aldermanbury, 18 January 1635/6; J.P. Ferris, ''Browne, John II (1580–1659), of Dorchester and Frampton, Dorset'', [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1604-1629/member/browne-john-ii-1580-1659 History of Parliament online, 1604–29.]</ref>

===Pensioner, Student and Fellow of Emmanuel College (1630–45)===
[[File:Emmanuel College, Cambridge, July 2010 (05).JPG|thumb|upright|Emmanuel College, Cambridge]]
From a family background embedded in the early nonconformity and a diligent student, Cudworth was admitted (as a pensioner) to his father's old college, [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge|Emmanuel College]], Cambridge (1630), matriculated (1632), and graduated (BA (1635/6); MA (1639)). After some misgivings (which he confided in his stepfather),<ref>T. Solly, ''The Will Divine and Human'' (Deighton Bell & Co.: Cambridge/Bell & Daldy: London, 1856), [https://archive.org/details/willdivineandhu01sollgoog/page/n16 <!-- pg=286 --> pp. 287–91.]</ref> he was elected a Fellow of Emmanuel (1639), and became a successful tutor, delivering the [[Rede Lecture]] (1641). He published a tract entitled ''The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow'' (1642),<ref>R. Cudworth, ''The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow'' [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/B20917.0001.001?view=toc (Richard Bishop: London, 1642)] (Umich/eebo).</ref> and another, ''A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper'' (1642),<ref>R. Cudworth, ''A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=C7s6AQAAMAAJ (2nd edn, J. Flesher for R. Royston: London, 1670)] (Google).</ref> in which his readings of [[Karaite Judaism|Karaite]] manuscripts (stimulated by meetings with [[Johann Stephan Rittangel]]) were influential.<ref>D.J. Lasker, 'Karaism and Christian Hebraism: a New Document', ''Renaissance Quarterly'', 59(4), (2006), pp. 1089–1116.</ref>

===11th Regius Professor of Hebrew (1645) and 26th Master of Clare Hall (1645–54)===
[[File:Clare College, back of Old Court.jpeg|thumb|upright|Old Court, Clare College, Cambridge]]
Following sustained correspondence with [[John Selden]]<ref>D. Levitin, ''Ancient Wisdom in the Age of the New Science: Histories of Philosophy in England, {{Circa}}1640–1700'' (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2015), [https://books.google.com/books?id=XZqNCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA171 p. 171 and note 300], with itemized citations (Google).</ref> (to whom he supplied Karaite literature), he was elected (aged 28) as 11th [[Regius Professor of Hebrew (Cambridge)|Regius Professor of Hebrew]] (1645).<ref name="Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses"/> In 1645, [[Thomas Paske]] had been ejected as Master of [[Clare College, Cambridge|Clare Hall]] for his Anglican allegiances, and Cudworth (despite his immaturity) was selected as his successor, as 26th Master (but not admitted until 1650).<ref>D. Neal (ed. J.O. Choules), ''The History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists'' (Harper & Brothers: New York, 1844), [https://books.google.com/books?id=72gPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA481 p. 481] (Google). See J. Barwick, ''Querela Cantabrigiensis'' (Oxford 1647), [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A26729.0001.001/1:10?rgn=div1;view=fulltext 'A Catalogue'] (Umich/eebo).</ref> Similarly, his fellow-theologian [[Benjamin Whichcote]] was installed as 19th [[Provost (education)|Provost]] of [[King's College, Cambridge|King's College]].<ref>S. Hutton, 'Whichcote, Benjamin (1609–83), theologian and moral philosopher' in ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.</ref> Cudworth attained the degree of [[Bachelor of Divinity]] (1646), and preached a sermon before the [[House of Commons of England]] (on [[1 John 2]], 3–4),<ref>New King James Version at [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+John+2%3A3-11&version=NKJV Bible Gateway]</ref> which was later published with a Letter of Dedication to the House (1647).<ref>R. Cudworth, ''A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, at Westminster, March 31. 1647'' (Roger Daniel: Cambridge, 1647), [https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A35343.0001.001/1:2?rgn=div1;view=fulltext Letter of Dedication] (Umich/eebo).</ref> Despite these distinctions and his presentation, by Emmanuel College, to the rectorate of [[North Cadbury, Somerset]] (3 October 1650), he remained comparatively impoverished. He was awarded the degree of [[Doctor of Divinity]] (1651),<ref name="Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses"/> and, in January 1651/2, his friend Dr [[John Worthington (academic)|John Worthington]] wrote of him, "If through want of maintenance he should be forced to leave Cambridge, for which place he is so eminently accomplished with what is noble and Exemplarily Academical, it would be an ill omen."<ref>Letter of John Worthington (6 January 1651/2), quoted in Mosheim's Preface to ''Systema Intellectuale'' (1733), i, p. xxviii (1773 edn).</ref>

===Marriage (1654) and 14th Master of Christ's College (1654–88)===
[[File:Cambridge - St Andrews Street - Christ's College - First Court - View ENE.jpg|thumb|upright|First Court, Christ's College, Cambridge]]
Despite his worsening sight, Cudworth was elected (29 October 1654) and admitted (2 November 1654), as 14th Master of [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]].<ref>'1654, Oct. 29. Dr Cudworth was chosen Master of Christ's College, admitted Nov. 2.': J. Crossley, ''Diary and Correspondence of Dr John Worthington'' (Chetham Society, O.S., 13 (1847), i, p. 52.</ref> His appointment coincided with his marriage to Damaris (died 1695), daughter (by his first wife, Damaris) of [[Matthew Cradock]] (died 1641), first [[Governor]] of the [[Massachusetts Bay Company]]. Hence Worthington commented "After many tossings Dr Cudworth is through God's good Providence returned to Cambridge and settled in Christ's College, and by his marriage more settled and fixed."<ref>Letter of John Worthington (30 January 1654/5) quoted in Mosheim's Preface (1733), i, p. xxviii (1773 edn)</ref>

In his Will (1641), [[Matthew Cradock]] had divided his estate beside the [[Mystic River]] at [[Medford, Massachusetts]] (which he had never visited, and was managed on his behalf)<ref>C. Seaburg and A. Seaburg, ''Medford on the Mystic'' (Medford Historical Society, 1980).</ref> into two moieties: one was bequeathed to his daughter Damaris Cradock (died 1695), (later wife of Ralph Cudworth Jnr); and one was to be enjoyed by his widow Rebecca (during her lifetime), and afterwards to be inherited by his brother, Samuel Cradock (1583–1653), and his heirs male.<ref>Will of Mathew Cradock of London, Merchant (P.C.C. 1641); C. Brooks, ''The History of the Town of Medford'' (J.M. Usher: Boston, 1855), [https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofm00brooks/page/90 pp. 90–92] (Internet Archive).</ref> Samuel Cradock's son, [[Samuel Cradock]] Jnr (1621–1706), was admitted to Emmanuel (1637), graduated (BA (1640–1); MA (1644); BD (1651)), was later a Fellow (1645–56), and pupil of [[Benjamin Whichcote]]'s.<ref>Venn, ''[[Alumni Cantabrigienses]]'', i(1), p. 411; J.C. Whitebrook, 'Samuel Cradock, cleric and pietist (1620–1706): and Matthew Cradock, first governor of Massachusetts', ''Congregational History Society'', 5(3), (1911), pp. 183–90; S. Handley, 'Cradock, Samuel (1620/21–1706), nonconformist minister', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''.</ref> After part of the Medford estate was rented to Edward Collins (1642), it was placed in the hands of an attorney; the widow Rebecca Cradock (whose second and third husbands were Richard Glover and [[Benjamin Whichcote]], respectively), petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts, and the legatees later sold the estate to Collins (1652).<ref>Brooks, ''The History of the Town of Medford'', [https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofm00brooks/page/57 pp 41–43], and [https://archive.org/details/historyoftownofm00brooks/page/92 p. 93] (Internet Archive).</ref><ref>'Cradock, Craddock', in C.H. Pope, ''The Pioneers of Massachusetts: A Descriptive List'' (Boston 1900), [https://archive.org/details/pioneersofmassac00pope/page/120 pp. 121–22] (Internet Archive).</ref>

The marriage of the widow Rebecca Cradock to Cudworth's colleague [[Benjamin Whichcote]] laid the way for the union between Cudworth and her stepdaughter Damaris (died 1695), which reinforced the connections between the two scholars through a familial bond. Damaris had first married (1642)<ref>R. Brenner, ''Merchants and Revolution: Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London's Overseas Traders, 1550–1663'' (Verso: London, 2003), [https://books.google.com/books?id=amFQ3gq-SjQC&pg=PA139 p. 139] (Google).</ref> Thomas Andrewes Jnr (died 1653) of London and Feltham, son of Sir [[Thomas Andrewes]] (died 1659), ([[Lord Mayor of London]], 1649, 1651–2), which union had produced several children. The Andrewes family were also engaged in the Massachusetts project, and strongly supported puritan causes.<ref>Will of Thomas Andrewes, Leather seller of London (P.C.C. 1653). These relationships are confirmed by these wills and the Chancery case ''Andrewes v Glover'' (National Archives, London); W.G. Watkins, 'Notes from English Records', ''New England Historical and Genealogical Register'', 64 (1910), [https://archive.org/stream/newenglandhistor1910wate#page/84/mode/2up pp. 84–87.]</ref>

===Commonwealth and Restoration===
Cudworth emerged as a central figure among that circle of theologians and philosophers known as the [[Cambridge Platonists]], who were (more or less) in sympathy with the [[Commonwealth of England|Commonwealth]]: during the later 1650s, Cudworth was consulted by [[John Thurloe]], [[Oliver Cromwell]]'s Secretary to the [[English Council of State|Council of State]], with regard to certain university and government appointments and various other matters.<ref>T. Birch, ''Account of the Life and Writings'' (1743), [http://warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/ach2200b2396022.pdf pp. viii–x (pp. 16–18 in pdf).]</ref><ref>'Life of Cudworth, Appendix A: Letters to Thurloe', in W.R. Scott, ''An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality'' (Longmans, Green & Co.: London, 1891), [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015014300878;view=1up;seq=35 pp. 19–23] (Hathi Trust).</ref> During 1657, Cudworth advised [[Bulstrode Whitelocke]]'s sub-committee of the Parliamentary "Grand Committee for Religion" on the accuracy of editions of the English Bible.<ref>C. Anderson, ''The Annals of the English Bible'' (William Pickering: London, 1845), ii, [https://books.google.com/books?id=85ZgAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA394 Book 3, p. 394] (Google).</ref> Cudworth was appointed Vicar of [[Great Wilbraham]], and Rector of [[Toft, Cambridgeshire|Toft]], [[Cambridgeshire]] [[Diocese of Ely|Ely diocese]] (1656), but surrendered these livings (1661 and 1662, respectively) when he was presented, by Dr [[Gilbert Sheldon]], [[Bishop of London]], to the [[Hertfordshire]] Rectory of [[Ashwell, Hertfordshire|Ashwell]] (1 December 1662).<ref name="CCEdp" />

[[File:Former swimming pool - geograph.org.uk - 1580169.jpg|thumb|right|The mid-seventeenth century Fellows' Swimming Pool, Christ's College, Cambridge]]
Given Cudworth's close cooperation with prominent figures in Oliver Cromwell's regime (such as [[John Thurloe]]), Cudworth's continuance as Master of Christ's was challenged at the [[Restoration (England)|Restoration]] but, ultimately, he retained this post until his death.<ref>Letter (6 August 1660), in J. Crossley, ''Diary and Correspondence of Dr John Worthington'' (Chetham Society, O.S., 13 (1847)), i, p. 203; and Christ's College website, [https://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/college-life/masters-christs-college-1505 List of Masters of Christ's College].</ref> He and his family are believed to have resided in private lodgings at the "Old Lodge" (which stood between Hobson Street and the College Chapel), and various improvements were made to the college rooms in his time.<ref>J. Covell, 'An Account of the Master's Lodgings in ye College', in R. Willis and J.W. Clarke, ''The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, and of the Colleges of Cambridge and Eton'', (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1886), ii, [https://archive.org/details/architecturalhis02will_0/page/212 pp. 212–19] (Internet Archive).</ref> He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society|Fellow]] of the [[Royal Society]] in 1662.

===Later life===
In 1665, Cudworth almost quarrelled with his fellow-[[Platonism|Platonist]], [[Henry More]], because of the latter's composition of an ethical work which Cudworth feared would interfere with his own long-contemplated treatise on the same subject.<ref>'Life of Cudworth, Appendix B: Letters of Cudworth and More', in Scott, ''An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise'', [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015014300878;view=1up;seq=40 pp. 24–28] (Hathi Trust).</ref> To avoid any difficulties, More published his ''Enchiridion ethicum'' (1666–69), in [[Latin]];<ref>''An Account of Virtue; or, Dr. Henry More's Abridgement of Morals, put into English'' (transl. Edward Southwell), (facsimile of Benjamin Tooke's London (1690) English edn; Facsimile Text Society, New York, 1930), [https://archive.org/details/enchiridionethic00more/page/n11 Internet Archive].</ref> However, Cudworth's planned treatise was never published. His own majestic work, ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe'' (1678),<ref>R. Cudworth, ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe: The First Part; Wherein, All the Reason and Philosophy of Atheism is Confuted, and its Impossibility Demonstrated'' [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_HKbl4NOjBr8C/page/n36 <!-- pg=1 --> (Richard Royston: London, 1678)]</ref> was conceived in three parts of which only the first was completed; he wrote: "there is no reason why this volume should therefore be thought imperfect and incomplete, because it hath not all the Three Things at first Designed by us: it containing all that belongeth to its own particular Title and Subject, and being in that respect no Piece, but a Whole."<ref>R. Cudworth, 'Preface to the Reader', ''True Intellectual System'' (1678).</ref>

[[File:All Saints Church Damaris Cudworth tablet plaque High Laver Essex England.jpg|thumb|right|Memorial to Damaris Cudworth]]
Cudworth was installed as [[Prebendary]] of [[Gloucester]] (1678).<ref name="CCEdp" /> His colleague, [[Benjamin Whichcote]], died at Cudworth's house in Cambridge (1683),<ref>G. Dyer, ''History of the University and Colleges of Cambridge'', (Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown: London, 1814), ii, [https://archive.org/details/historyofunivers02dyeruoft/page/355 p. 355] (Google).</ref> and Cudworth himself died (26 June 1688), and was buried in the Chapel of Christ's College.<ref>Epitaph in Mosheim's Preface (1733), i, p. xxix (1773 edn); for his monumental inscription [https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2017/207/114458886_1501186726.jpg].</ref> An oil portrait of Cudworth (from life) hangs in the Hall of [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]].<ref>Oil portrait of Ralph Cudworth, image (copyright Christ's College) viewable [http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TRDvPMfjquQ/UdqJqLZhIjI/AAAAAAAAApo/-EQjKfkEUr8/s1600/portrait.jpg here].</ref> During Cudworth's time an outdoor Swimming Pool was created at [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]] (which still exists), and a carved bust of Cudworth there accompanies those of [[John Milton]] and [[Nicholas Saunderson]].<ref>'Splashing out for a piece of history', [https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/splashing-out-for-a-piece-of-history ''News, 23 July 2010''] (University of Cambridge website). Listing by [https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1125548 Historic England].</ref>

Cudworth's widow, Damaris (née Cradock) Andrewes Cudworth (died 1695), maintained close connections with her daughter, [[Damaris Cudworth Masham]], at [[High Laver]], [[Essex]], which was where she died, and was commemorated in the church with a carved epitaph reputedly composed by the philosopher [[John Locke]].<ref>Will of Damaris Cudworth (P.C.C. 1695); H.R. Fox Bourne, ''The Life of John Locke'', (Harper & Brothers: New York, 1876), [https://archive.org/stream/lifeofjohnlocke02bour#page/306/mode/2up ii, pp. 306–07] (Internet Archive).</ref>

===Children===
The children of Ralph Cudworth and Damaris (née Cradock) Andrewes Cudworth (died 1695) were:

* John Cudworth ({{Circa}}1656–1726) was admitted to [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]], Cambridge (1672), graduated ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] (1676–7); [[Master of Arts|MA]] (1680)), and was a pupil of Mr Andrewes. He was a Fellow (1678–98), was ordained a priest (1684), and later became Lecturer in Greek (1687/8) and Senior Dean (1690).<ref>J. Peile, ''Biographical Register of Christ's College 1505–1905: II: 1666–1905'' (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1913), ii, [https://archive.org/details/biographicalregi02peil/page/46 p. 46].</ref>
* Charles Cudworth (died 1684) was admitted to [[Trinity College, Cambridge|Trinity College]], Cambridge (1674–6), but may have not graduated, instead, making a career in the factories of [[Kasimbazar]], [[West Bengal]], [[India]], which was where [[John Locke]] (friend of his sister [[Damaris Cudworth Masham|Damaris Cudworth]]), corresponded with him (27 April 1683).<ref>Locke's letter, in Lord King, ''The Life of John Locke: With Extracts from His Correspondence'' (New Edn, Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley: London, 1830), ii, [https://archive.org/details/lifejohnlockewi02kinggoog/page/n25 pp. 16–21] (Google).</ref> He married (February 1683/84), Mary Cole, widow of Jonathan Prickman, Second for the English [[East India Company]] at [[Malda, West Bengal|Malda]].<ref>R.C. Temple, ''The Diaries of [[Streynsham Master]], 1675–80, and other contemporary papers relating thereto'' II: The First and Second "Memorialls, 1679–80, Indian Records Series (John Murray: London, 1911), [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.65857/page/n349 p. 343 and note 2] (Internet Archive); W.K. Firminger (ed.), 'The Malda Diary and Consultations (1680–82)', ''Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal'', N.S., 14 (1918), [https://archive.org/details/mobot31753002183892/page/n1 pp. 1–241] (Internet Archive).</ref> Charles Cudworth died in March 1684.<ref>J. Peile, ''Biographical Register'', ii, [https://archive.org/details/biographicalregi02peil/page/48 pp. 49–50], citing Journal entries from Factory Records, Kasinbazar III.</ref>
* Thomas Cudworth graduated at [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]], Cambridge ([[Master of Arts|MA]] (1682)).<ref>J. Peile, ''Biographical Register'', ii, [https://archive.org/details/biographicalregi02peil/page/70 p. 70].</ref><ref>Locke's letter supposedly addressed to Thomas, in H.R. Fox Bourne, ''The Life of John Locke'' (Harper and Brothers: New York, 1876), i, [https://archive.org/details/lifeofjohnlocke01bour/page/474 pp. 473–76] (Internet Archive).</ref>
*[[Damaris Cudworth Masham|Damaris Cudworth]] (1659–1708), a devout and talented woman, became the second wife (1685) of [[Baron Masham|Sir Francis Masham]], 3rd [[Baronet]] (c.1646–1723) of [[High Laver]], [[Essex]].<ref>M. Knights, 'Masham, Sir Francis, 3rd Bt. ({{circa}} 1646–1723), of Otes, High Laver, Essex', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, and S. Handley (eds), ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons, 1690–1715'' (Boydell & Brewer,Woodbridge, 2002), [http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/masham-sir-francis-1646-1723 History of Parliament Online.]</ref> Lady Masham was a friend of the philosopher [[John Locke]], and also a correspondent of [[Gottfried Leibniz]]. Her son, Francis Cudworth Masham (died 1731), became Accountant-General to the Court of Chancery.

The stepchildren of Ralph Cudworth (children of Damaris (née Cradock) Andrewes (died 1695) and Thomas Andrewes (died 1653)) were:

* Richard Andrewes (living 1688) who, according to [[John Peile|Peile]], is ''not'' the Richard Andrewes who attended Christ's College, Cambridge during this period.<ref>J. Peile, ''Biographical Register, I: 1448–1665'' (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1910), i,[https://archive.org/details/biographicalregi01peil/page/600 p. 601] (Internet Archive).</ref>
* John Andrewes (died after 1688?) matriculated at [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]], Cambridge (1664), graduated ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] (1668/9); [[Master of Arts|MA]] (1672)), was ordained deacon and priest (1669–70), and was a Fellow (1669–75).<ref>Venn, ''Alumni Cantabrigienses'', i(1), p. 30; J. Peile, ''Biographical Register'', i, [https://archive.org/details/biographicalregi01peil/page/612 p. 612] (Internet Archive).</ref> Peile suggests he died {{Circa}}1675, but he was a legatee in the will of his brother Thomas (1688). [[John Covel]] attended a "Pastoral" performed by Cudworth's children contrived by John Andrewes.<ref>Covell, 'An Account of the Master's Lodgings'.</ref>
* Thomas Andrewes (died 1688), [[Worshipful Company of Dyers|Citizen and Dyer of London]], was a linen draper. He married (August 1681), Anna, daughter of Samuel Shute, of St Peter's, Cornhill.<ref>G.J. Armytage, ''Allegations for Marriage-Licences Issued by the Vicar-General of the Archbishop of Canterbury, July 1679 to June 1687'', Harleian Society, 30 (1890), [https://archive.org/details/allegationsforma30army/page/70 p. 70] (Internet Archive).</ref><ref>Will of Thomas Andrewes, Citizen and Dyer of London (P.C.C. 1688, Foot quire); H.F. Waters, ''Genealogical Gleanings in England, with the addition of New Series, A-Anyon'' (Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, 1969), ii, [https://archive.org/details/genealogicalglea02wate/page/1738 pp. 1738–39] (Internet Archive).</ref>
* Mathew Andrewes (died 1674) was admitted to [[Queens' College, Cambridge]] (1663/4), and later elected a Fellow.<ref>Venn, ''Alumni Cantabrigienses'', i(1), [https://archive.org/details/alumnicantabrigipt1vol1univiala/page/30 p. 30]. Will of Mathew Andrewes, Fellow of Queen's College, Cambridge (P.C.C. 1674, Bunce quire); H.F. Waters, ''Genealogical Gleanings in England, with the addition of New Series, A-Anyon'' (Genealogical Publishing Company: Baltimore, 1969), ii, [https://archive.org/details/genealogicalglea02wate/page/1738 p. 1738].</ref>
* Damaris Andrewes (died 1687) married (1661), (as his first wife) Sir [[Edward Abney]] (1631–1728), (a student at [[Christ's College, Cambridge|Christ's College]], Cambridge ([[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] 1649–52/53); Fellow (1655–61); and [[Doctor of both laws]] (1661)).<ref>Venn, ''Alumni Cantabrigienses'', i(1), [https://archive.org/details/alumnicantabrigipt1vol1univiala/page/2 p. 2]; A.A. Hanham, 'Abney, Sir Edward (1631–1728), of Willesley Hall, Leics. and Portugal Row, Lincoln’s Inn Fields', in D. Hayton, E. Cruickshanks, and S. Handley (eds), ''The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1690–1715'' ( Boydell and Brewer: Woodbridge, 2002), [https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/abney-sir-edward-1631-1728 History of Parliament Online].</ref><ref>For correspondence between Cudworth and Edward's father, James Abney: E. Randall (ed.), C. Melinsky (ill.), ''Letters to my Father: Edward Abney, 1660–63'' (Simon Randall: Sevenoaks, 2005).</ref>


==Philosophy==
Cudworth was a member of the [[Cambridge Platonists]], a group of English seventeenth-century thinkers associated with the University of Cambridge who were stimulated by Plato's teachings but also were aware of and influenced by Descartes, Hobbes, Bacon, Boyle and Spinoza. The other important philosopher of this group was Henry More (1614–1687). More held that spiritual substance or mind controlled inert matter. Out of his correspondence with Descartes, he developed the idea that everything, whether material or non, had extension, an example of the latter being space, which is infinite (Newton) and which then is correlative to the idea of God (set out in his Enchiridion metaphysicum 1667). In developing this idea, More also introduced a causal agent between God and substance, or Nature, in his Hylarchic Principle, derived from Plato's ''anima mundi'' or world soul, and the [[Pneuma (Stoic)|Stoic's pneuma]], which encapsulates the laws of nature, both for inert and vital nature, and involves a sympathetic resonance between soul (''psyche'') and body (''soma'').<ref name=Stanford>{{cite web|last=Stanford U. Encyc. of Philosophy|title=The Cambridge Platonists|url=http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/cambridge-platonists/|accessdate=1 August 2012}}</ref>

=== Plastic principle ===
The role of nature was one faced by philosophers in the Age of Reason or Enlightenment. The prevailing view was either that of the Church of a personal deity intervening in his creation, producing miracles, or an ancient pantheism (atheism relative to theism) – deity pervading all things and existing in all things. However, the "ideas of an all-embracing providential care of the world and of one universal vital force capable of organizing the world from within."<ref name=Giglioni>{{cite journal|last=Giglioni|first=Guido|title=The cosmoplastic system of the universe: Ralph Cudworth on Stoic naturalism|journal=Revue d'histoire des sciences|year=2008|volume=Tome 61/2|issue=2 |pages=313–331|doi=10.3917/rhs.612.0313 |url=http://www.cairn.info/revue-revue-d-histoire-des-sciences-2008-2-page-313.htm}}</ref>  presented difficulties for philosophers of a spiritual as well as materialistic bent.

Cudworth countered these mechanical, materialistic views of nature in his ''True intellectual system of the universe'' (1678), with the idea of 'the Plastick Life of Nature', a formative principle that contains both substance and the laws of motion, as well as a nisus or direction that accounts for design and goal in the natural world. He was stimulated by the Cartesian idea of the mind as self-consciousness to see God as consciousness. He first analysed four forms of atheism from ancient times to present, and showed that all misunderstood the principle of life and knowledge, which involved unsentient activity and self-consciousness, addressing the tension between theism and atheism, took both the Stoic idea of Divine Reason poured into the world, and the Platonic idea of the world soul (''[[anima mundi]]'') to posit a power that was polaric – "either as a ruling but separate mind or as an informing vital principle – either nous hypercosmios or nous enkosmios.<ref name=Giglioni />

:It is in connection with the refutation of hylozoic atheism that he brings forward the celebrated hypothesis, which he held in common with More, of a plastic nature,—a substance intermediate between matter and spirit,—a power which prosecutes certain ends but not freely or intelligently,—an instrument by which laws are able to act without the immediate agency of God...<ref name="1902 Encyc.">{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|year=1902|title=Ralph Cudworth|url=http://www.1902encyclopedia.com/C/CUD/ralph-cudworth.html|accessdate=1 August 2012}}</ref>
All of the atheistic approaches posited nature as unconscious, which for Cudworth was ontologically unsupportable, as a principle that was supposed to be the ultimate source of life and meaning could only be itself self-conscious and knowledgeable, that is, rational, otherwise creation or nature degenerates into inert matter set in motion by random external forces (Coleridge's 'chance whirlings of unproductive particles'). Cudworth saw nature as a vegetative power endowed with plastic (forming) and spermatic (generative) forces, but one with Mind, or a self-conscious knowledge. This idea would later emerge in the Romantic period in German science as [[Johann Friedrich Blumenbach|Blumenbach's ''Bildungstreib'']] (generative power) and the ''Lebenskraft'' (or ''Bildungskraft'').

:...the life of the universe splits into two principles&nbsp;– the one transcendent and intellectual (« an animalish, sentient and intellectual nature, or a conscious soul and mind, that presided over the whole world »), the other immanent and devoid of perception (« a certain plastic nature, or spermatic principle which was properly the fate of all things »)<ref name=Giglioni />

The essence of atheism for Cudworth was the view that matter was self-active and self-sufficient, whereas for Cudworth the plastic power was unsentient and under the direct control of the universal Mind or ''Logos''. For him atheism, whether mechanical or material could not solve the "phenomenon of nature." Henry More argued that atheism made each substance independent and self-acting such that it 'deified' matter. Cudworth argued that materialism/mechanism reduced "substance to a corporeal entity, its activity to causal determinism, and each single thing to fleeting appearances in a system dominated by material necessity."<ref name=Giglioni />

Cudworth had the idea of a general plastic nature of the world, containing natural laws to keep all of nature, inert and vital in orderly motion, and particular plastic natures in particular entities, which serve as 'Inward Principles' of growth and motion, but ascribes it to the Platonic tradition:
:The Platonists seem to affirm both these together, namely that there is a Plastick Nature lodged in all particular Souls of Animals, Brutes, and Men, and also that there is a Plastick or Spermatick Principle of the whole Universe distinct from the Higher Mundane Soul, though subordinate to it.(Cudworth, TIS, p. 165)<ref name=Smith>{{cite web|last=Smith|first=Justin E. H.|title=The Leibnizian Organism Between Cudworth's Plastic Natures and Locke's Thinking Matter|url=http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/colloqueNE/textes_des_communications/Smith.pdf|publisher=Concordia University, Montreal|accessdate=1 August 2012}}</ref>
Further, Cudsworth's plastic principle was also a functional polarity. As he wrote:
:The Seminary Reason or Plastick Nature of the Universe opposing the Parts to one another and making them severally Indigent, produces by that means War and Contention. And therefore though it be One, yet notwithstanding it consists of Different and Contrary things. For there being Hostility in its Parts, it is nevertheless Friendly and Agreeable in the Whole; after the same manner as in a Dramatick Poem, Clashings and Contentions are reconciled into one Harmony. And therefore the Seminary or Plastick Nature of the World, may fitly be resembled to the Harmony of Disagreeing things.<ref name=Raiger>{{cite journal|last=Raiger|first=Michael|title=The Intellectual Breeze, the Corporeality of Thought, and the Eolian Harp|journal=Coleridge Bulletin|date=Winter 2002|series=New Series|issue=20|pages=76–84|url=http://www.friendsofcoleridge.com/MembersOnly/CB20Raiger.htm|accessdate=1 August 2012}}</ref>

As another historian notes in conclusion, "Cudworth’s theory of plastic natures is offered as an alternative to the interpretation of all of nature as either governed by blind chance, or, on his understanding of the Malebranchean view, as micro-managed by God."<ref name="Smith"/>

==== Plastic Principle and mind ====
Cudworth's plastic principle also involves a theory of mind that is active, that is, God or the Supreme Mind is "the spermatic reason" which gives rise to individual mind and reason. Human mind can also create, and has access to spiritual or super-sensible 'Ideas' in the Platonic sense.<ref name="Stanford"/> Cudworth challenged Hobbesian determinism in arguing that will is not distinct from reason, but a power to act that is internal, and therefore, the voluntary will function involves self-determination, not external compulsion, though we have the power to act either in accordance with God's will or not. Cudworth's 'hegemonikon' (taken from Stoicism) is a function within the soul that combines the higher functions of the soul (voluntary will and reason) on the one hand with the lower animal functions (instinct), and also constitutes the whole person, thus bridging the Cartesian dualism of body and soul or ''psyche'' and ''soma''. This idea provided the basis for a concept of self-awareness and identity of an individual that is self-directed and autonomous, an idea that anticipates John Locke.

== Legacy  ==
Locke examined how man came to knowledge via stimulus (rather than seeing ideas as inherent), which approach led to his idea of the 'thinking' mind, which is both receptive and pro-active. The first involves receiving sensations ('simple ideas') and the second by reflection – "observation of its own inner operations" (inner sense which leads to complex ideas), with the second activity acting upon the first. Thought is set in motion by outer stimuli which 'simple ideas' are taken up by the mind's self-activity, an "active power" such that the outer world can only be real-ized as action (natural cause) by the activity of consciousness. Locke also took the issue of life as lying not in substance but in the capacity of the self for consciousness, to be able to organize (associate) disparate events, that is to participate life by means of the [[empirical evidence|sense experience]]s, which have the capacity to produce every kind of experience in consciousness. These ideas of Locke were taken over by Fichte and influenced German Romantic science and medicine. (See [[Romantic medicine]] and [[Brunonian system of medicine]]).
[[Thomas Reid]] and his "Common Sense" philosophy, was also influenced by Cudworth, taking his influence into the Scottish Enlightenment.<ref name="Stanford"/>

George Berkeley later developed the idea of a plastic life principle with his idea of an 'aether' or 'aetherial medium' that causes 'vibrations' that animate all living beings. For Berkeley, it is the very nature of this medium that generates the 'attractions' of entities to each other.

:The refraction of light is also thought to proceed from the different density and elastic force of this æthereal medium in different places. The vibrations of this medium, alternately concurring with or obstructing the motions of the rays of light, are supposed to produce the fits of easy reflection and transmission. Light by the vibrations of this medium is thought to communicate heat to bodies. Animal motion and sensation are also accounted for by the vibrating motions of this æthereal medium, propagated through the solid capillaments of the nerves. In a word, all the phenomena and properties of bodies that were before attributed to attraction, upon later thoughts seem ascribed to this æther, together with the various attractions themselves. (Berkeley V 107–8)<ref name="Raiger"/>

Berkeley meant this 'aether' to supplant Newton's gravity as the cause of motion (neither seeing the polarity involved between two forces, as Cudworth had in his plastic principle). However, in Berkeley's conception, aether is both the movement of spirit and the motion of nature.

Both Cudworth's views and those of Berkeley were taken up by Coleridge in his metaphor of the eolian harp in his 'Effusion XXXV' as one commentator noted: "what we see in the first manuscript is the articulation of Cudworth’s principle of plastic nature, which is then transformed in the published version into a Berkeleyan expression of the causal agency of motion performed by God’s immanent activity."<ref name="Raiger"/>

==Works==
{{Portal|Christianity}}

===Sermons and Treatises===
Cudworth's works included ''The Union of Christ and the Church, in a Shadow'' (1642); ''A Sermon preached before the [[United Kingdom House of Commons|House of Commons]]'' (1647); and ''A Discourse concerning the True Notion of the Lord's Supper'' (1670). Much of Cudworth's work remains in manuscript. However, certain surviving works have been published posthumously, such as ''A Treatise concerning eternal and immutable Morality, and A Treatise of Freewill. ''

====''A Treatise concerning eternal and immutable Morality'' (posth.)====
Cudworth's ''Treatise on eternal and immutable Morality'', published with a preface by [[Edward Chandler (bishop)|Edward Chandler]] (1731),<ref>R. Cudworth, ''Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality... with a Preface by... Edward Lord Bishop of Durham'' [https://archive.org/stream/treatiseconcerni00cudw#page/n5/mode/2up (1st edn, James and John Knapton: London, 1731)]</ref> is about the historical development of British moral philosophy. It answers, from the standpoint of [[Platonism]], Hobbes's famous doctrine that moral distinctions are created by the state. It argues that just as knowledge contains a permanent intelligible element over and above the flux of sense-impressions, so there exist eternal and immutable ideas of morality.<ref name=EB1911/>

====''A Treatise of Freewill'' (posth.)====
Another posthumous publication was Cudworth's ''A Treatise of Freewill'', edited by [[Chaplain of King's College London|John Allen]] (1838). Both this and the ''Treatise on eternal and immutable Morality'' are connected with the design of his ''magnum opus'', ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe''.<ref>{{cite book|author=Ralph Cudworth|title=Ralph Cudworth: A Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality: With A Treatise of Freewill|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XZiig6ljKSoC&pg=PA219|year=1996|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-47918-9|page=219|editor=S. Hutton}}</ref>

===''The True Intellectual System of the Universe'' (1678)===
In 1678, Cudworth published ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe: the first part, wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted and its impossibility demonstrated'', which had been given an [[Imprimatur]] for publication (29 May 1671).

[[File:The True Intellectual System of the Universe -bound with another text by Cudworth- 2 vols - Upper cover (Davis187).jpg|thumb|right|A finely-bound first edition of the ''True Intellectual System'' (1678) in the British Library (shelfmark: Davis 187).]] 
The ''Intellectual System'' arose, according to Cudworth, from a discourse refuting "fatal necessity", or [[determinism]].<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Cudworth, Ralph| volume=7| pages=612–613 |last= Sturt |first= Henry |author-link= Henry Sturt}}</ref> Enlarging his plan, he proposed to prove three matters:
:(a) the [[existence of God]];
:(b) the naturalness of moral distinctions; and
:(c) the reality of human [[Free will|freedom]].

These three comprise, collectively, the intellectual (as opposed to the physical) system of the universe; and they are opposed, respectively, by three false principles: atheism, religious fatalism (which refers all moral distinctions to the will of God), and the fatalism of the ancient [[Stoics]] (who recognized God and yet identified him with nature). Only the first part, dealing with atheism, was ever published.

Cudworth criticizes two main forms of materialistic [[atheism]]: the [[atomism|atomic]] (adopted by [[Democritus]], [[Epicurus]] and [[Thomas Hobbes]]); and the [[Hylozoism|hylozoic]] (attributed to [[Strato of Lampsacus]], which explains everything by the supposition of an inward self-organizing life in matter). Atomic atheism, to which Cudworth devotes the larger part of the work, is described as arising from the combination of two principles, neither of which is, individually, atheistic (namely atomism and corporealism, or the doctrine that nothing exists but body). The example of Stoicism, Cudworth suggests, shows that corporealism may be theistic.

Cudworth discusses the history of atomism at length. It is, in its purely physical application, a theory that he fully accepts. He holds that theistic atomism was taught by [[Pythagoras]], [[Empedocles]] and many other ancient philosophers, and was only perverted to atheism by Democritus. Cudworth believes that atomism was first invented before the [[Trojan war]] by a [[Sidon]]ian thinker named Moschus or [[Mochus]] (whom he identifies with [[Moses]] in the [[Old Testament]]).

Cudworth's method in arranging his work was to marshal the atheistic arguments elaborately before refuting them in his final chapter. This led many readers to accuse Cudworth himself of atheism – as [[John Dryden]] remarked, "he has raised such objections against the being of a God and Providence that many think he has not answered them".<ref>{{cite book |last=Scott |first=W. R. |date=1891 |chapter=The Life of Ralph Cudworth |title=An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise |location=London |publisher=Longmans, Green and Co |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ARxLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA15 |pages=15–17}}</ref> Much attention was also attached to a subordinate matter in the book, the conception of the "Plastic Medium" (a revival of [[Plato]]'s "[[Anima mundi|World-Soul]]") which was intended to explain the existence and laws of nature without referring to the direct operation of God. This theory occasioned a long-drawn controversy between [[Pierre Bayle]] and [[Georges-Louis Leclerc]], with the former maintaining, and the latter denying, that the Plastic Medium is favourable to atheism.

Summing up the work, [[Andrew Dickson White]] wrote in 1896:

<blockquote>
To this day he [Cudworth] remains, in breadth of scholarship, in strength of thought, in tolerance, and in honesty, one of the greatest glories of the English Church ... He purposed to build a fortress which should protect Christianity against all dangerous theories of the universe, ancient or modern ... While genius marked every part of it, features appeared which gave the rigidly orthodox serious misgivings. From the old theories of direct personal action on the universe by the Almighty he broke utterly. He dwelt on the action of law, rejected the continuous exercise of miraculous intervention, pointed out the fact that in the natural world there are "errors" and "bungles" and argued vigorously in favor of the origin and maintenance of the universe as a slow and gradual development of Nature in obedience to an inward principle.<ref>{{cite book |last=White |first=Andrew Dickson |date=1901 |title=A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom |volume=1 |location=New York |publisher=D. Appleton and Company |url=https://archive.org/details/ahistorywarfare04whitgoog/page/n44/mode/2up?&view=theater |page=16}}</ref>
</blockquote>

==Arms==
{{Infobox COA wide
| image = 
| notes = The arms of the Cudworths of Werneth, Oldham, Lancashire (with a crescent charged upon a crescent for the second son of a second son).
| crest = 
| escutcheon = Azure, a fess Erminois between three demi-lions Or, with a crescent Argent charged with a crescent Sable for difference.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Saint-George|first1=Richard|url=http://archive.org/details/visitationofcoun00sainrich|title=The visitation of the county palatine of Lancaster, made in the year 1613|last2=Raines|first2=F. R.|publisher=Chetham Society|year=1871|volume=Old Series, 82|location=Manchester|pages=80}}</ref><ref name="british-history.ac.uk">{{Cite web|title=The parish of Prestwich with Oldham: Oldham {{!}} British History Online|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp92-108|access-date=2021-06-25|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref>
| motto = }}

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
| collapsed=yes |align=center | ref=<ref name="british-history.ac.uk">{{Cite web|title=The parish of Prestwich with Oldham: Oldham {{!}} British History Online|url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lancs/vol5/pp92-108|access-date=2021-06-25|website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref><ref name="Stansfield-Cudworth 2019 48–80">{{Cite journal|last=Stansfield-Cudworth|first=R. E.|date=2019|title=Gentry, Gentility, and Genealogy in Lancashire: The Cudworths of Werneth Hall, Oldham, c.1377–1683|journal=Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society|volume=111|pages=48–80}}</ref>
| boxstyle_1=background-color: #fcc;
| boxstyle_2=background-color: #fb9;
| boxstyle_3=background-color: #ffc;
| boxstyle_4=background-color: #bfc;
| 1= 1. '''Ralph Cudworth'''
| 2= 2. [[Ralph Cudworth (died 1624)|Ralph Cudworth (1572/3–1624)]]
| 3= 3. Mary Machell (c. 1582–1634)
| 4= 4. Ralph Cudworth (d.1572) of [[Werneth, Greater Manchester|Werneth]], [[Oldham]]
| 5= 5. Jane Assheton
| 6= 6. Matthew Machell (c.1549–93) of [[London]]
| 7= 7. Mary Lewkenor
| 8= 8. Ralph Cudworth (d.1558) of [[Werneth, Greater Manchester|Werneth]], [[Oldham]]
| 9= 9. Agnes Lees
| 10= 10. Arthur Assheton (d.1591) of [[Clegg Hall|Clegg]], [[Littleborough, Greater Manchester|Littleborough]]
| 12= 12. John Machell of [[London]]
| 13= 13. Jane Loddington
| 14= 14. [[Edward Lewknor (died 1556)|Edward Lewkenor]] (c.1517–56) of [[Kingston by Sea|Kingston Buci]], [[Sussex]]
| 15= 15. Dorothy Wroth
}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Sources==
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Cudworth, Ralph|volume=7|pages=612–613}}

==Further reading==
* Cudworth's ''The True'' ''Intellectual System of the Universe'' (1678) was translated into Latin by [[Johann Lorenz von Mosheim]], and furnished with notes and dissertations translated into English in [[John J. Harrison]]'s edition (1845). The first Latin edition:  [https://books.google.com/books?id=LO9OAAAAcAAJ Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, ''Radulphi Cudworthi Systema intellectuale hujus universi'', 2 Vols (sumtu viduae Meyer, Jena 1733)]; the second Latin edition (with paginated ''Mosheimii Praefatio''): [https://books.google.com/books?id=QtUOmJbPd5IC&dq=Radulphi+Cudworth&pg=PP4 (Samuel and John Luchtmans: Lugduni Batavorum, 1773)].
*[[Thomas Birch]]'s ''Account'' (biography), first published (1743) in the Second Edition (London), and reprinted in subsequent editions. Birch supplied notes and references to Cudworth's text, after Mosheim.
*[[Paul Janet|Paul Alexandre René Janet]], [https://archive.org/details/essaisurlemdiat01janegoog ''Essai sur le médiateur plastique de Cudworth''] (Ladrange: Paris, 1860).
*[[John Tulloch]], [https://archive.org/details/a611326202tulluoft ''Rational theology and Christian Philosophy in England in the seventeenth century''] (William Blackwood and Sons: Edinburgh and London, 1874), ii, pp.&nbsp;193–302.
*C.E. Lowrey, [https://archive.org/details/philoralph00lowruoft ''The Philosophy of Ralph Cudworth: a study of the True Intellectual System of the Universe''] (Phillips & Hunt: New York, 1884).
*[[James Martineau]], [https://archive.org/details/typesofethicalth02martuoft ''Types of Ethical Theory''] (Clarendon Press: Oxford, 1885), ii, pp.&nbsp;396–424.
*[[William Richard Scott]], [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015014300878;view=1up;seq=5 ''An Introduction to Cudworth's Treatise''] (Longmans, Green & Co.: London, 1891).
*Geoffrey Philip Henry, [[iarchive:cambridgeplatoni0000paws/page/n3/mode/2up|The Cambridge Platonists and Their Place in Religious Thought]] (Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge: London, 1930) pp. 70–81
*[[J. H. Muirhead]], ''[[iarchive:platonictraditio033063mbp/page/n31/mode/2up|The Platonic Tradition in Anglo-Saxon Philosophy: Studies in the History of Idealism in England and America]]'' (London: George Allen & Unwin LTD; New York: The MacMillan Company, 1931), i, pp. 25–71
*[[Arthur Prior]], ''[[iarchive:in.ernet.dli.2015.504084/page/n23/mode/2up|Logic and the Basis of Ethics]]'' (Oxford University Press, 1949), pp. 13–25
*[[Rosalie Littell Colie]], ''[[iarchive:lightenlightenme0000coli/page/n5/mode/2up|Light and Enlightenment: A Study of the Cambridge Platonists and the Dutch Arminians.]]'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1957), pp. 117–145
*Lydia Gysi, [[iarchive:platonismcartesi0000unse/page/n5/mode/2up|''Platonism and Cartesianism in the Philosophy of Ralph Cudworth'']] (Verlag Herbert Lang & Cie: Bern, 1962)
*Ian P. McGreal, ''[[iarchive:greatthinkersofw00ianp/page/n5/mode/2up|Great Thinkers of the Western World]]'' (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1992) pp. 205–208
*[[Slawomir Raube]], ''[https://repozytorium.uwb.edu.pl/jspui/bitstream/11320/13388/1/S_Raube_Deus_Explicatus.pdf Deus explicatus: Stworzenie i Bóg w myśli Ralpha Cudwortha (Creation and God in Ralph Cudworth’s Thought)]'' (Bialystok (Poland), 2000).
*Benjamin Carter, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=aCGduAAACAAJ 'The Little Commonwealth of Man'. The Trinitarian Origins of the Ethical and Political Philosophy of Ralph Cudworth.]'' (Leuven: Peeters: Belgium, Isd, 2011).

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
*[http://cambridgeplatonists.org/bibliography/ralph-cudworth/ Cambridge Platonists’ Research Group: Research Portal: Ralph Cudworth Bibliography]
*{{Cite DNB|wstitle=Cudworth, Ralph}}
* {{cite EB1911|wstitle= Cudworth, Ralph |volume= 07 | pages = 612&ndash;613 |last1= Sturt |first1= Henry  |author-link= Henry Sturt }}
*Article on Cudworth in ''Treasures in Focus'' Blog, Christ's College, Cambridge [http://christstreasures.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/treasures-in-focus-8-ralph-cudworth_12.html No. 8, July 2013].
*{{cite IEP |url-id=cudworth |title=Cudworth, Ralph}}
*{{BBKL|c/cudworth_r|band=16|autor= Klaus-Gunther Wesseling |artikel= Cudworth {der Jüngere}, Ralph|spalten=352–362}}
*R. Cudworth, [https://books.google.com/books?id=B9YpAAAAYAAJ ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe''] (1678) on [[Google Books]]
*R. Cudworth, ''The True Intellectual System of the Universe'' (1678; 3-volume edn: Tegg, 1845) on Internet Archive: [https://archive.org/details/trueintellectual01cudwuoft ''Volume 1''], [https://archive.org/details/trueintellectual02cudwuoft ''Volume 2''], and [https://archive.org/details/trueintellectual03cudwuoft ''Volume 3''].
*R. Cudworth, [https://archive.org/details/mrcudworthsserm00broggoog ''Sermon before the Commons, at Westminster, 31 March 1647''] (1647; repr. 1852)
*R. Cudworth, [https://archive.org/details/treatiseconcerni00cudw ''A Treatise concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality''] (1731)
*R. Cudworth, [https://archive.org/details/theyknowchristw00cudwgoog ''They know Christ who keep his Commandments''] (repr. 1858)

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