Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Carlile, Christopher
CARLILE, CHRISTOPHER, D.D. (d. 1588?), divine, was a member of Clare Hall Cambridge, of which society he was elected a fellow. He commenced M.A. in 1541, and in 1548 was chosen one of the proctors of the university. In 1552 he took the degree of B.D,, and he was suhsequently created D.D. He was residing at Monks' Horton in Kent in 1563. The first dated edition (1572) of his discourse on the controverted point, whether St. Peter was ever at Rome is dedicated to Lord Wentworth, ‘by whom,’ says the author, ‘I have bene liberally sustained these xxx. yeares.’ On 22 Aug. 1571 one Christopher Carlile, M.A., was instituted to the rectory of St. John's, Hackney, which was vacant by his death on 2 Aug. 1588 when William Sutton, M.A., was appointed his successor. Another Christopher Carlile, who lived for some time at Barham in Kent, removed thence to the parsh of St. Botolph, near Bishopsgate, London, where he died in the beginning of the year 1596.
Carlile was an excellent Hebrew scholar. He wrote 1. ‘A Discourse wherein is plainly proved by the order of time and place that Peter was never at Rome. Furthermore, that neither Peter nor the Pope is the head of Christes Church,' Lond. n.d. and 1572, 4to. Another edition bears this title, 'A Discourse of Peters Lyfe, Peregrination, and Death,’ Lond. 1582, 4to. The first discourse was reprinted, with two letters to a clergyman, by James Billet, Lond. 1845, 8vo. 2. ‘Discourse, concerning two divine Positions. The first effectually concluding, that the soules of the faithfull fathers deceased before Christ went immediately to Heaven. The second sufficientlye setting foorth unto us Christians, what we are to conceive, touchinq the descension of our Saviour Christ into Hell,’ Lond. 1582, 16mo. Dedicated to Henry, earl of Huntingdon. This book contains the substance of a public disputation held at Cambridge in 1562: and was written in confutation of a work by Dr. R. Smith of Oxford. Carlile’s book was interdicted by public authority soon after its appearance. The Psalms of David in English, with annotations, 1573; manuscript in the Cambridge University Library, Ff. 5. 6.
[Carlisle’s Collections for a History of the Carlisle Family, 58; Tanner’s Bibl. Exit. 154; Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert). 862, 878. 908, l008, 1071, 1191, 1319; Lyson's Environs, ii. 476; Cooper's Annals of Cambridge, v. 283; Additt MS. 5865, f. 49; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. (Bliss), i. 836, 418; Cooper's Athenæ Cantab. ii. 84; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 619; Robinson’s Hackney. ii. 154, l55.]