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John Wilkins FRS (14 February 1614 – 19 November 1672) was an Anglican clergyman, natural philosopher and author, and was one of the founders of the Royal Society. He was Bishop of Chester from 1668 until his death. Wilkins is one of the few persons to have headed a college at both the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge. He was a polymath, although not one of the most important scientific innovators of the period. His personal qualities were brought out, and obvious to his contemporaries, in reducing political tension in Interregnum Oxford, in founding the Royal Society on non-partisan lines, and in efforts to reach out to religious nonconformists. He was one of the founders of the new natural theology compatible with the science of the time.〔Alister E. McGrath, ''A Scientific Theology: Nature'' (2001), p. 242.〕 He is particularly known for ''An Essay towards a Real Character and a Philosophical Language'' (1668) in which, amongst other things, he proposed a universal language and a decimal system of measures which was later developed to become the metric system.〔 〕 Wilkins lived in a period of great political and religious controversy, yet managed to remain on working terms with men of all political stripes; he was key in setting the Church of England on the path toward comprehension for as many sects as possible, "and toleration for the rest." Gilbert Burnet called him "the wisest clergyman I ever knew. He was a lover of mankind, and had a delight in doing good." His stepdaughter married John Tillotson, who became Archbishop of Canterbury. == Early life == He was probably born at Canons Ashby, Northamptonshire, though some sources say Fawsley; his father Walter Wilkins (died 1625) was a goldsmith and his mother Jane Dod was daughter of John Dod, a well-known conforming Puritan. His mother then remarried, and Walter Pope was a half-brother. Wilkins was educated at a school in Oxford run by Edward Sylvester, and matriculated at New Inn Hall. He then moved to Magdalen Hall, Oxford where his tutor was John Tombes, and graduated with a B.A. degree in 1631, an M.A. degree in 1634.〔 He studied astronomy with John Bainbridge. Wilkins went to Fawsley in 1637, a sheep-farming place with little population, dominated by the Knightley family, to whom he and then Dod may have ministered; Richard Knightley had been Dod's patron there. He was ordained a priest of the Church of England in Christ Church Cathedral in February 1638.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=''Knightley, Richard (1593–1639), of Fawsley, Northants.'' History of Parliament Online )〕 He then became chaplain successively to Lord Saye and Sele, and by 1641 to Lord Berkeley. In 1644 he became chaplain to Prince Charles Louis, nephew of King Charles I, who was then in England.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Wilkins」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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