PATRICK, SIMON (1626-1707), bishop of Chichester, and afterwards of Ely, author of a number of works in practical divinity, was born at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, on 8th September 1626, entered Queens' Colleo.e, Cam-bridffe in 1644, and, after taking orders in 165f, became , successively chaplain to Sir Walter St John, and vicar of Battersea, Surrey. He was afterwards (1662) preferred to the rectory of St Paul's, Covent Garden, London, where he continued to labour during the year of the plague. Dean of Peterborough from 1678, he became bishop of Chichester in 1689, in which year he was employed, along with others of the new bishops, to settle the affairs of the church in Ireland. In 1691 he received the bishop-ric of Ely-, which he held until his death, 31st May 1707.

His sermons and devotional writings, which are very numerous, were held in high estimation in last century, and his edifying Commentaru on the Historical aild l'oetical Books of the Old :Testa• mod, in 10 vols., brought down as far as to the Song of Solomon, has been reprinted comparatively recently 0853). Ills Friendly Debate between a Conformist and a Nonconformist was a contro-versial tract which excited considerable feeling at the time of its pnblieation in 1668, but he lived long enough to soothe by his moderation and candour the exasperation it had caused. The first collected edition of his works appeared at Oxford in 1859 (9 vols., 8vo); a small Autobiography was published also at Oxford in 1839.