Joseph Butler, Bishop of Durham
16 June -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Teachers, page 473
Born in 1692 at Wantage in Berkshire, Joseph Butler was the
son of Presbyterian parents and studied at the dissenting
academy of Tewksbury. He abandoned Presbyterianism in 1714
for the Church of England and, after studying at
Oxford, was ordained
priest in 1718 and began preaching the sermons which won him
his fine reputation. He became Bishop of
Durham and now
ranks among the greatest exponents of natural theology and
ethics in England since the Reformation. He died on this
day in 1752.