William Sherlock (theologian)
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He was born at Southwark, the son of a tradesman,[2][3] and was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School and Eton, and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge.[4] In 1669 he became rector of St George's, Botolph Lane, London, and in 1681, he was appointed a prebendary of St Paul's. In 1684 he was made Master of the Temple.[5]
In 1686, he was among a swift succession of clerics reproved for preaching against the pope and the following of him but also for his controversy with the chaplain, Lewis Sabran, of the new king; his pension was stopped. After the Glorious Revolution, deposing that king, James II and VII, he was suspended for refusing the oaths to William III and Mary II but yielded before losing his position.[5]
He became Dean of St Paul's in 1691.
About this time he became involved in the Socinian controversy over Unitarian ideas. In 1690 and 1693, he published works on the doctrine of the Trinity, which ironically helped rather than injured the Socinian cause and involved him in a controversy with Robert South and others.[5] His doctrine was even condemned as heretical at Oxford University. Sherlock defended himself in The Distinction... and Present State... (both 1696), which however practically gave up on the positions that had been impugned.
He died at Hampstead in 1707.[5] By his wife, Elizabeth (née Gardner),[6][7] he was the father of Bishop Thomas Sherlock.
