Collegiate Church

SEE COLLEGIAL OR COLLEGIATE CHURCH.

Collier, Jeremy, an English non-juror, was born Sept. 23,1650, at Stow- with-Quy, Cambridgeshire. He passed M.A. at Caius College, Cambridge, in 1676, and obtained the living of Ampton, Sussex, which he resigned for the lectureship of Gray's Inn, 1685. At the Revolution of 1688 he not only refused the oaths, but was active in behalf of the dethroned monarch. In 1696 he was outlawed. At last he turned his talents to better ends, and made war on the licentiousness of the theater. His first work on this subject was, A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the Stage (Loud. 1738, 3d ed. 8vo). The wits in vain opposed him, and after a ten years'

struggle, in which he wrote other books and pamphlets on the subject, he accomplished his object. The rest of his life was spent in various literary labors. He was consecrated a nonjuring bishop by Dr. Hicks in 1713, and died April 26, 1726. Collier was a man of eminent abilities, but of small reasoning faculty. Besides the books above named, he wrote Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain (new edition, with Life of Collier, Lend. 1840, 9 vols. 8vo); Essays on Moral Subjects (Lond. 3 vols. 8vo); Historical, Geographical, and Poetical Dictionary, from Moreri, with additions (Lond. 1701-27, 4 vols. fol.), besides numerous controversial tracts. — Macaulay, Hist. of England, 3. 363; Life of Collier (prefixed to his Ec. History of England); Hook, Eccles. Biography, 4:137 Biographia Britannica, 4:12.