COOK
COOPER
British Academy in 1903. Dr. Conybeare
is also an Officer of the French Academy
and a member of the Armenian Academy
of Venice. He has written a large number
of works on oriental (especially Armenian),
religious, and biblical questions, and was
for years a member of the Rationalist
Press Association. For his Eationalist
views see his Myth, Magic, and Morals
(1909, a valuable discussion of Christian
origins) and The Historical Christ (1914).
COOK, Keningale Robert, M.A., LL.D., writer. B. Sep. 26, 1845. Ed. Eugby and Trinity College, Dublin. He was intended for the Church, but he refused to subscribe to the creeds, and entered the Civil Service, afterwards becoming a stockbroker. He founded and edited the Dublin University Magazine in 1877, which became in 1878 the University Magazine, a well-known organ of the most advanced opinions. He published various dramas and volumes of verse, and The Fathers of Jesus, a Study of the Lineage of the Christian Doctrine and Traditions (2vols.,1886). D. June 24,1886.
COOPER, Anthony Ashley, first Earl of Shaftesbury. B. July 22, 1621. Ed. Oxford (Exeter College). He entered Parliament in 1640, and served in the Puritan army in 1644-45. In 1647 he was High Sheriff of Wiltshire, and in 1653 a member of the Privy Council ; and in 1661 he was made a Peer. During the earlier years he, on political grounds, pro fessed Presbyterianism, but he opposed all oppressive measures and wrote on tolera tion. In 1672 he was created Earl of Shaftesbury and Lord Chancellor. He was one of the most enlightened British states men of the time, and his private life was one " of rare purity for the age " (Diet. Nat. Biog.). He quarrelled with the King, and was relieved of office and charged with high treason (1681), but he evaded prosecu tion by flying to Holland. His public character is much disputed, but the general feeling now is that he was " ever uncor- rupt." Shaftesbury was an intimate friend 181
of Locke, and was " indifferent in matters
of religion " (Life, ii, 95). When asked his
religion, he gave the classic reply (which
was later plagiarized by Disraeli) : " Wise
men are of but one religion." Pressed to
define this religion, he added : " Madam,
wise men never tell." D. Jan. 21, 1683.
COOPER, Anthony Ashley, third Earl of Shaftesbury. B. Feb. 26, 1671. Ed. privately under Locke s supervision, and at Winchester. He entered Parliament, but his health compelled him to quit political life and he went to Holland, where he made the acquaintance of Bayle. He became Earl on the death of his father in 1699. Still deterred by ill-health from politics, to which he brought a high idealism, he turned to letters, and in 1711 published his famous Characteristicks. He attended church and took the Sacrament, but his work plainly shows that he held a Deistic view of the Bible. He gave a yearly pension to the Deist Toland, though he was not rich. In philosophy he deserted Locke for Platonism, and held an intuitionist ethic. He was, says the Dictionary of National Biography, " a man of lofty and ardent character." D. Feb. 15, 1713.
COOPER, John Gilbert, poet. B. 1723. Ed. Westminster School and Cambridge (Trinity College). He was, says Kippis (Biog. Brit.), " a most zealous admirer and imitator of Shaftesbury." His Deism is apparent in his poem, The Power of Har mony (1745), and his Life of Socrates (1749). D. Apr. 14, 1769.
COOPER, Robert, Secularist lecturer. B. Dec. 29, 1819. At the age of fourteen Cooper began to teach in the Owenite School at Salford, and three years later became an Owenite lecturer. In 1832 he published The Holy Scriptures Analysed, which was denounced in the House of Lords. He became one of Owen s mission aries in 1841, and in 1852 he founded and edited The London Investigator. D. May 3, 1868.
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