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George Downame
George Downame (c. 1566—1634), otherwise known as George Downham, was an author of influential philosophical and religious works who served as Bishop of Derry during the early years of the Plantation of Ulster. He is said to have been a chaplain to both Elizabeth I and James I.
George Downame was a son of William Downame, Bishop of Chester, and an elder brother of John Downame. He matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge, in November 1581, graduated B.A. in 1584/5, obtained the further degree of B.D. in 1595, and was made D.D. in 1601. In the early 1580s he was, although a bishop's son, briefly a "zealous espouser of puritan principles" and it was only after "mature study" that he "heartily embraced episcopy".
Downame was elected a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1587 and shortly afterwards was chosen to be Professor of Logic at the University. Thomas Fuller considered "no man was then and there better skilled in Aristotle or a greater follower of Ramus". The supremacy of Aristotle in the study of Logic (or Dialectics) was in decline and the writings of Petrus Ramus became increasingly dominant, in large part due to Downame's role as "the Cambridge apostle" for Ramus's approach. In 1601 he published an 800-page commentary on Ramus's 95-page Dialecticae, the eloquence of Downame so opening the "clenched fist" of the subject matter as to "smooth and stroke one with the palm thereof".
By 1593, he was divinity lecturer at St Paul's Cathedral, where he held the prebend of Caddington Major, and on appointment to the vicarage of Sandbach in the following year he also became a prebendary of Chester. In September 1596 he was preferred by Elizabeth I to the rectory of St Margaret's, Lothbury, continuing there until 1601 when his brother John succeeded him in the living.
Among his parishioners at Lothbury was the diplomat Sir Henry Killigrew, to whom Downame dedicated the printed text of his Easter Sermon of 1602, declaring that "to your Worship, your loving brother and the virtuous Lady your wife I am for great benefits exceedingly bound". Both Sir Henry and his brother Sir William Killigrew were on intimate terms with the Earl of Essex, which may have contributed to Downame's appointment as chaplain to the ill-fated Earl by 1599. He is said also to have served as a chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I.
Downame held the rectory of Munden Magna, Hertfordshire, from 1601. While there he published the substance of his teaching at St Paul's in successive volumes.
In 1616 he was appointed Bishop of Derry. His diocese, comprising 45 parishes, was potentially valuable but in a state of decay. Little remained of the fabric of its old cathedral and 34 of its churches were ruinous or roofless.
Downame's seventeen years as bishop saw the commencement and completion of Derry's new Cathedral Church of St Columb (the first non-Roman Catholic cathedral to be built in Western Europe) and, following his failure to agree terms with the Irish Society for a suitable site within the city, he built a new Bishop's Palace overlooking Lough Swilly at Fahan. Although this was constructed on ecclesiastical land, the building costs of 2,000 marks were paid by Downame from his own private means, and in September 1634 Charles I directed Lord Deputy Wentworth to pay Downame's widow rent for the property out of the Irish Exchequer.
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George Downame
George Downame (c. 1566—1634), otherwise known as George Downham, was an author of influential philosophical and religious works who served as Bishop of Derry during the early years of the Plantation of Ulster. He is said to have been a chaplain to both Elizabeth I and James I.
George Downame was a son of William Downame, Bishop of Chester, and an elder brother of John Downame. He matriculated at Christ's College, Cambridge, in November 1581, graduated B.A. in 1584/5, obtained the further degree of B.D. in 1595, and was made D.D. in 1601. In the early 1580s he was, although a bishop's son, briefly a "zealous espouser of puritan principles" and it was only after "mature study" that he "heartily embraced episcopy".
Downame was elected a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge in 1587 and shortly afterwards was chosen to be Professor of Logic at the University. Thomas Fuller considered "no man was then and there better skilled in Aristotle or a greater follower of Ramus". The supremacy of Aristotle in the study of Logic (or Dialectics) was in decline and the writings of Petrus Ramus became increasingly dominant, in large part due to Downame's role as "the Cambridge apostle" for Ramus's approach. In 1601 he published an 800-page commentary on Ramus's 95-page Dialecticae, the eloquence of Downame so opening the "clenched fist" of the subject matter as to "smooth and stroke one with the palm thereof".
By 1593, he was divinity lecturer at St Paul's Cathedral, where he held the prebend of Caddington Major, and on appointment to the vicarage of Sandbach in the following year he also became a prebendary of Chester. In September 1596 he was preferred by Elizabeth I to the rectory of St Margaret's, Lothbury, continuing there until 1601 when his brother John succeeded him in the living.
Among his parishioners at Lothbury was the diplomat Sir Henry Killigrew, to whom Downame dedicated the printed text of his Easter Sermon of 1602, declaring that "to your Worship, your loving brother and the virtuous Lady your wife I am for great benefits exceedingly bound". Both Sir Henry and his brother Sir William Killigrew were on intimate terms with the Earl of Essex, which may have contributed to Downame's appointment as chaplain to the ill-fated Earl by 1599. He is said also to have served as a chaplain to Elizabeth I and James I.
Downame held the rectory of Munden Magna, Hertfordshire, from 1601. While there he published the substance of his teaching at St Paul's in successive volumes.
In 1616 he was appointed Bishop of Derry. His diocese, comprising 45 parishes, was potentially valuable but in a state of decay. Little remained of the fabric of its old cathedral and 34 of its churches were ruinous or roofless.
Downame's seventeen years as bishop saw the commencement and completion of Derry's new Cathedral Church of St Columb (the first non-Roman Catholic cathedral to be built in Western Europe) and, following his failure to agree terms with the Irish Society for a suitable site within the city, he built a new Bishop's Palace overlooking Lough Swilly at Fahan. Although this was constructed on ecclesiastical land, the building costs of 2,000 marks were paid by Downame from his own private means, and in September 1634 Charles I directed Lord Deputy Wentworth to pay Downame's widow rent for the property out of the Irish Exchequer.