MORE, HENRY. - He was the principal representative of the Cambridge Neoplatonists (who also influenced the poet Crashaw), b. at Grantham on 12 Oct. 1614 to Calvinist parents, d. at Cambridge on 1 Sept. 1687. He repudiated his parents' faith very early. He studied at Eton and then at Cambridge, in whose University he taught philosophy and theology.

He sought to reconcile the Neoplatonic currents (Ficino, Plotinus, the Theologia Germanica) with the rationalism of Descartes (who was among his correspondents), arriving at a sort of mystical rationalism with deviations into occultism and theosophy. He was the author of laborious mystical poems and of voluminous theological and theosophical works, of which the most considerable is Divine dialogues (1668). M. translated his own works into Latin in the hope of spreading them on the continent. Of his verses, The life of the soul is chiefly remembered.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: Opera omnia, 3 vols., London 1679. Bibliographical indications in Philosophical writings of H. M., edited by F. J. Mackinnon, New York 1925, pp. 233-45. Studies: A. C. Berson, Essays, London 1896; F. R. Anderson, H. M., diss., Columbia-New York 1933; D. Boush, English literature in the early 17th century, London-New York 1945, passim.

Augusto Guidi

@incollection{ec8_more_henry, author = {Guidi, Augusto}, title = {More, henry}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1407}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/more-henry} }

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More, Henry

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