Samuel Baker, D.D. (died 1660), was a Church of England clergyman and divine notable for rapid promotion; an apparent softness to the Church of Rome, and, later in life, for imprisonment arising out of his apparent Catholic leanings.
Doctor of Divinity is an advanced or honorary academic degree in divinity.
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2017. As the world's oldest and largest continuously functioning international institution, it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilisation. The church is headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the pope. Its central administration, the Holy See, is in the Vatican City, an enclave within the city of Rome in Italy.
Baker was matriculated as a pensioner of Christ's College, Cambridge, 11 July 1612, became B.A. in 1615-6, M.A. in 1619, and was elected a fellow of his college. On 7 May 1623 he was incorporated M.A. at Oxford, and he proceeded B.D. at Cambridge in 1627. The corporation of London presented him to the rectory of St. Margaret Pattens in that city, where he at one time enjoyed great popularity as a puritanical preacher. He was, however, 'taken off from those courses,' and made domestic chaplain to William Juxon, bishop of London. On 29 October 1636 he became prebendary of Totenhall in the church of St. Paul. Having in 1637 resigned the rectory of St. Margaret Pattens, he was, on 5 July in the same year, instituted to that of St. Mary-at-Hill. On 28 August 1638 the king conferred on him the position of canon of the First Stall at St George's Chapel, Windsor. This he resigned on 17 May 1639, and on the 20th of the same month was nominated to a canonry in the church of Canterbury. In the same year he was created D.D. In 1640 he resigned the rectory of St. Christopher in London, and on 4 April in that year became rector of South Weald in Essex. Soon after the assembling of the Long parliament he was complained of for having licensed certain books and refused his license to others, and he was subsequently sequestered from all his preferments, persecuted, and imprisoned.
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as God's House. In 1505, the college was granted a new royal charter, was given a substantial endowment by Lady Margaret Beaufort, and changed its name to Christ's College, becoming the twelfth of the Cambridge colleges to be founded in its current form. The college is renowned for educating some of Cambridge's most famous alumni, including Charles Darwin and John Milton.
William Juxon was an English churchman, Bishop of London from 1633 to 1649 and Archbishop of Canterbury from 1660 until his death.
The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.
Baker, who is supposed to have died in the early part of 1660, was one of the learned persons who rendered material assistance in the preparation of Bishop Walton's Polyglot Bible.
