John Norris

John Norris, sometimes referred to as John Norris of Bemerton, was born in 1657 in Collingbourne Kingston, Wiltshire, and died in early 1712. He was an English theologian, philosopher, and poet, and is associated with the Cambridge Platonists. Norris received his education at Winchester School and Exeter College, Oxford, where he obtained a B.A. in 1680. He later became a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, earning an M.A. in 1684. From 1692 until his death, he lived a secluded life as a country parson and thinker in Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton, Wiltshire. In his philosophical work, Norris was a Platonist and a mystic. He emerged as an early opponent of John Locke, notably challenging Locke's *An Essay Concerning Human Understanding* (1690) in his own *Christian Blessedness or Discourses upon the Beatitudes* (1690). He further critiqued Locke's theories in his *Essay toward the Theory of the Ideal or Intelligible World* (1701–4). Norris also addressed religious schism in *Christian Blessedness* and *The Charge of Schism, Continued*. His extensive body of work, comprising 23 publications, includes other titles such as *An Idea of Happiness* (1683), *Miscellanies* (1687), *Theory and Regulation of Love* (1688), and a *Discourse concerning the Immortality of the Soul* (1708). His most widely read work was *A Collection of Miscellanies, consisting of Poems, Essays, Discourses and Letters* (1687). Norris's philosophical approach, particularly his engagement with Platonic philosophy, was influenced by Nicolas Malebranche. His poem 'The Resignation' gained popularity and was frequently published throughout the first half of the eighteenth century, even being quoted by Samuel Richardson.