Burnet, Thomas (1635-1715)

English cleric. He was clerk of the closet to William III, but the clamour raised by his Archaeologia Philosophicae (1692), in which he treated the biblical account of creation as an allegory, compelled him to retire. Burnet was born in Croft, Yorkshire, England. He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge University, later becoming master of the Charterhouse in 1685. In 1681 he published Telluris Theoria Sacra, a fanciful account of the earth's structure.