 A life-long fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, Henry More was the most prolific of the Cambridge Platonists. He was also the most directly engaged in contemporary philosophical debate: not only did he enter into correspondence with Descartes (between 1648 and 1649) but he also wrote against Hobbes, and was one of the earliest English critics of Spinoza (whom he attacks in Demonstrationum duarum propositionum ... confutatio and Epistola altera both published in his Opera omnia, 1671). Although he eventually became a critic of Cartesianism, he initially advocated the teaching of Cartesianism in English Universities. More’s published writings included, besides philosophy, poetry, theology and bible commentary. His main philosophical works are his An Antidote Against Atheism (1653), his Of the Immortality of the Soul (1659), Enchiridion metaphysicum (1671), and Enchiridion ethicum (1667). Like the other Cambridge Platonists, More used philosophy in defence of theism against the claims of rational atheists. The most important statement of More’s theological position his An Explanation of the Grand Mystery of Godliness appeared in 1660. In opposition to Calvinist pessimistic voluntarism, this propounds a moral, rational providentialism in which he vindicates the goodness and justice of God by invoking the Origenist doctrine of the pre-existence of the soul. It also makes the case for religious toleration. 