Rainold(E)S
Rainold(e)s (also written Raynolds, Reynolds, and occasionally in the Latin Reginaldus), JOHN, was a celebrated English divine of the second half of the 16th century. He was born at Pinhoe, Devonshire, in 1549; was educated at Merton College, Oxford, and Corpus Christi College, of the same university; and was chosen probationer fellow in 1566. He finally took holy orders, and in 1593 was promoted to the deanery of Lincoln. In 1598 he was offered a bishopric, and at the same time was called to the presidency of Corpus Christi College. He cared less for distinctions than for scholarly tasks, and therefore gave the preference to the offer of his alma mater. In this new position he became famous beyond seas, as well as in England. His learning and readiness of application gave him a reputation second to none in Elngland; and the king, who prided himself on his own reputation for scholarship, and desired above all things to maintain this reputation, leaned greatly on this distinguisheld divine, and always favored his projects It is thus that we owe to Rainolds the King James Version of the Sriptures, for it is well known that Rainolds urged the king to the undertaking, and demonstrated its necessity. He was a great Hebraist, and made translations of small portions at first, and, reading these to the king in his private chamber, convinced his roval master of the want, and the good likely to be accomplished as well as the renown to be gained. SEE ENGLISH VERSIONS. Rainolds died in 1607. Bishop Hall speaks of Rainolds as being near to a miracle in his prodigious treasury of knowledge; John Milton refers to him always as "our famous Dr. Raynolds;" and Wood, in his Athenae Oxon. (ii, 13), calls him "the very treasury of erudition." Hallam, in his Constitutional Hist. of England, calls him "nearly, if not altogether, the most learned man in England" (i, 297), and in his Literary Hist. of Europe (i, 560), "the most eminently learned man of the queen's reign." He published a number of separate sermons, treatises against the Church of Rome, and some other theological productions, of which there is a complete list in Wood (Athenoe Oxon. ii, 11-19). We have room here to mention only, Sex Theses de S. Scripture et Ecclesia (Lond. 1580; Ruppelae, 1586; Lond. 1602, 8vo; in English, 1598,12mo; 1609, 4to): — The Summe of the Conference between John Rainoldes and John Hart touchinq the Read and Faith of the Church, etc. (1584, 1588, 1598, 1609, 4to; Latin, Oxon. 1619, fol.): — Orationes duce in Ceoll. Co. Cphristi (Oxon. 1587, 8vo): — De Romance Ecclesiec Idololatria in Cultu Sanctorum Reliquiarum, Imaginunae, Aque, Salis,
Olei, etc. (1596, 4to): — The Overthrow of Stage Playes, by the Way of Controversie betwixt D. Gager and D. Rainoldes, etc. (1599, 4to; Middleburgh, 1600, 4to; Oxf. 1629, 4to); see Collier, Hist. of Dramatic Poetry, iii, 201, and his Bibl. Account of Early English Literature (1865), s.v. "Rainoldes;" Anchceolo Nov. 1841, p. 114: — Defence of the Judgement of the Reformed Churches that a Man may lawfullie not only put awaie his Wife fir her Adultirie, but also marrie Another, etc. (1609- 10, 4to): — Censutra Librorumn Apocryphorumn Veteris Testameenti (Oppenheim, 1611, 2 vols. 4to; very rare); not only in this work, but in the Hampton Court Conference also (where, by the way, he sided with the Puritans), Rainolds protested against the reading of apocryphal lessons in the public service of the Church: The Prophesie of Obadiah, sermons (Oxon. 1613, 4to): — Orationes duodecim [including The Summe of the Conference, etc.] in Coll. Corp. Christi (1614, 1628, 8vo); the first oration was published in an English transl. by J. Leicester (Lond. 1638, 12mo): — The Original of Bishops and Metropolitans (1641, 4to): — Judgment concerning Episcopacy, whether it be God's Ordinance (Lond. 1641, 4to): — Prophesie of Haggai, fifteen sermons (1649, 4to). See the literature quoted in Allibone, Dict. of Brit. and Amer. Authors, s.v.; Middleton, Ertangel. Biog. vol. ii; Soames, Hist. of the Church of England in the Elizabethan Reign (see Index); Froude, Hist. of Eng. (see Index in vol. 11).
