He studied medicine, and became a practising physician.

He travelled on the continent, and returning to England in 1633, he began to write his most important work, _Religio Medici_, at once a transcript of his own life and a manifesto of what the religion of a physician should be.

It was kept in manuscript for some time, but was published without his knowledge in 1642.
He then revised the work, and published several editions himself.

No description of the treatise can give the reader a just idea of it; it requires perusal.

The criticism of Dr.Johnson is terse and just: it is remarkable, he says, for "the novelty of paradoxes, the dignity of sentiment, the quick succession of images, the multitude of abstruse allusions, the subtilty of disquisition, and the strength of language." As the portraiture of an inner life, it is admirable; and the accusation of heterodoxy brought against him on account of a few careless passages is unjust.
Among his other works are _Essays on Vulgar Errors_ (_Pseudoxia Epidemica_), and _Hydriotaphica_ or _Urne burial_; the latter suggested by the exhumation of some sepulchral remains in Norfolk, which led him to treat with great learning of the funeral rites of all nations.