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WIIITGIFT, JOHN, ARCHBISHOP. 



WHITGIFT, JOHN, ARCHBISHOP. 



Divinity. In 1568 the bishop of Ely, Dr. Cox, whose chaplain he had 

 been for some time, conferred upon him a prebend in his cathedral. 



Meanwhile Dr. Whitgift was taking an active part in the government 

 of the university, for which purpose he drew up, with the vice-chan- 

 cellor and some of the heads of colleges, a body of new statutes. He 

 was very strict in enforcing discipline and close conformity with the 

 Established Church; and his activity in restraining any laxity of 

 doctrine or practice in the university, while it brought him into much 

 contention and raised him many enemies, may be regarded as the 

 main cause of his future advancement in the Church. Mr. Cartwright, 

 the Lady Margaret's professor of divinity, having in his letters attacked 

 episcopacy, the Church Liturgy, and other institutions settled at the 

 Reformation, Dr. Whitgift challenged him to a public disputation, 

 which was refused by him; and while the judicial proceedings against 

 Cartwright were pending, which ended in his expulsion, he wrote an 

 elaborate confutation of these schismatic opinions, and laid it before 

 Archbishop Parker. In 1571 he filled the office of vice-chancellor to 

 the university, and in the following year was elected prolocutor of the 

 Lower House of Convocation. At this time a book was published, 

 called 'An Admonition to the Parliament,' being a violent attack 

 upon the entire constitution of the Reformed Church, its sacraments, 

 its Liturgy, its dignitaries, and ministers. It was looked upon by the 

 whole church as a most dangerous book, and Dr. Parker, then arch- 

 bishop of Canterbury, who had already bad many opportunities of 

 judging of Whitgift's zeal and capacity, desired him to undertake an 

 answer. This he accordingly did, under the immediate inspection and 

 with the constant advice and assistance of the archbishop. His 

 answer was published in the same year as the Admonition, and was 

 an able work, of great learning, and evincing much skill in controversy. 

 He treated the doctrines of his opponents with severity, but in a 

 manner temperate, dignified, and lofty ; and in his vindication of the 

 compilers of the Liturgy, and other eminent churchmen who had been 

 assailed in the Admonition, his zealous and reverential feelings are 

 expressed in a tone of worthy eloquence. The Admonition had been 

 supported by other pamphlets, to all of which Dr. Whitgift addressed 

 replies in his Answer to the Admonition. Cartwright, who had now 

 been expelled from the university, published a reply to Dr. Whitgift's 

 Answer to the Admonition, to which Whitgift prepared a Defence. 

 His labours in this controversy met with the approbation of all those 

 who were well affected to the Established Church, and obtained for 

 him the deanery of Lincoln from the queen. Nor did his preferment 

 rest here long, for on a vacancy occuring in the see of Worcester in 

 1576, he was appointed to be bishop of that diocese. 



Here also his activity and zeal were conspicuous. His diocese was 

 very full of Roman Catholics, at a time when their discovery and 

 punishment were enjoined as the duty of the Church and the civil 

 magistrate. He now acted in both capacities, having been appointed 

 vice-president of the Marches of Wales in the absence of Sir Henry 

 Sydney, the lord-president, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland. He 

 exerted himself to repress the papacy on the one hand, and dissent or 

 Puritanism on the other, and repeatedly obtained the thanks of the 

 Privy Council for hia success. At the same time he protected the 

 rights and interests of the clergy of his diocese. The strictness of his 

 orthodoxy and the severity of his discipline were displayed at a time 

 most favourable for his future promotion. Grindal, then archbishop 

 of Canterbury, had given great offence to the queen by his leniency to 

 echismatics, and at length, on refusing to obey the queen's orders in 

 suppressing prophesyings (or meetings of the clergy for worship and 

 the discussion of religious subjects in private houses), he was sus- 

 pended from his office by the Star Chamber, and confined to his own 

 house. Grindal, a meek and timid man, was anxious to resign at 

 once his office and its cares : and Elizabeth offered the archbishopric 

 to Whitgift, which he however declined to accept during the life of 

 Grindal. That prelate soon lifterwards died, and in 1583 Whitgift 

 succeeded him. 



The queen's zeal for orthodoxy was now at its height, and the new 

 archbishop lost no time in proving his determination to enforce con- 

 formity. He immediately required all the clergy to subscribe to three 

 articles before they were permitted to execute any ecclesiastical 

 function, viz. : 1, That the queen was the supreme head of the 

 church ; 2, That the Ordinal and Book of Common Prayer contained 

 nothing that is contrary to the Word of God ; and 3, That the Thirty- 

 nine Articles were to be admitted as agreeable to the Holy Scriptures. 

 He suspended all the clergy who refused to subscribe to these articles, 

 introduced greater strictness in the admission to holy orders, and 

 exacted compliance with all the forms and ceremonies of the Church. 

 He also obtained from the queen a new ecclesiastical commission, with 

 greater powers than any of the preceding commissions which he 

 never flinched from exercising. Henceforward, from his high station 

 in the Church and his personal Influence with the queen and her 

 councillors, his biography may be said to be the ecclesiastical history 

 of England during the remainder of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

 Religious persecution was the spirit of that age, and though cruelty 

 does not appear to have been part of Whitgift's character, he was a 

 stern disciplinarian inflexible in his principles, and resolute in their 

 application. Doubt was unknown to him, and he would not allow it 

 in others. With this strong conviction of right, he regarded all dis- 

 sentients as obstinate schismatics unwilling to be convinced of their 



errors, and therefore deserving of punishment. His chief object how- 

 ever was to exclude nonconformists from the Church, rather than to 

 seek out and punish heretics. To this duty he repeatedly affirmed that 

 "her majesty moved and earnestly exhorted him, with strait charge, 

 as ho would answer the contrary ; " and he would listen to no solicita- 

 tion to bend him from his purpose. Having heard of threats against 

 his person, he writes to Lord Burghley, " And if there be no other 

 remedy, I am content to be sacrificed in so good a cause : which I will 

 never betray, nor give over; God, her majesty, the laws, my own 

 conscience, and duty, being with me." The Lord Treasurer Burghley, 

 who had always been his firm friend, often expressed his disapproba- 

 tion of Whitgift's severity, and contended wisely, as well as humanely, 

 that the ministers of the Church ought not to be questioned upon 

 minute points of doctrine, unless they were " notorious offenders in 

 papistry and heresy," and " wished that the spirit of gentleness 

 might win, rather than severity ; " yet in spite of the remonstrances 

 of that great man, and even of the council, Whitgift persisted in 

 maintaining an inquisition in the Church which drove many pious 

 men into dissent. 



Whether convinced of the evils of such inquisition, or at length 

 overcome by the persuasion of others, we find him, in 1585, assenting 

 to the advice of Secretary Walsingham, and agreeing to require sub- 

 scription of those only who were hereafter to enter into livings or the 

 ministry, leaving unmolested the clergy already in the enjoyment of 

 benefices, provided they read the Book of Common Prayer according to 

 the appointed ritual. 



In order to secure uniformity of opinion, he obtained from the 

 court of Star Chamber, of which he was a member, a decree to restrain 

 the liberty of the press. By this decree, of June 23, 1585, no printing- 

 presses were allowed anywhere but in London, Oxford, and Cam- 

 bridge ; the number of these was to be settled by the archbishop and 

 bishop of London : no book was suffered to be printed without 

 having been perused by them, and all persons selling, uttering, 

 or even binding unauthorised books were liable to three months' 

 imprisonment. 



Notwithstanding the strictness of Whitgift's views in matters of 

 ecclesiastical discipline, his natural character was free from harshness 

 or severity. He earnestly besought the queen to pardon Udal, and 

 others condemned to die for their sedition ; and for the dismission of 

 Cartwright and other contentious ministers from the Star Chamber. 

 His integrity, his piety, and his learning, gained the esteem of the best 

 men of his time, and the respect of hia most decided opponents. His 

 respect for learning and learned men was evinced on various occasions. 

 Hooker dedicated his ' Ecclesiastical Polity ' to the archbishop, not 

 only on account of his high office in the Church, but in gratitude for 

 previous favours and encouragement; and the learned antiquary Stow 

 dedicated to him his 'Annals' in 1600, and said, "that his grace's 

 great love and affection to all good studies in general, and to antiquities 

 in particular, had been so singular, that all who liked and loved good 

 studies justly esteemed him their principal and gracious patron." 



The archbishop always took a lively interest in the management of 

 public charities, and contributed munificently to their foundation and 

 support. In 1584 he restored the ancient hospital of Eastbridge, for 

 the relief of the poor, in the city of Canterbury, enlarged its endow- 

 ments, and placed it upon an improved foundation. He also built 

 and endowed, entirely from his own revenues, an hospital, free-school, 

 and chapel at Croydon in Surrey, the completion of which was accom- 

 plished during his own life-time. His liberality gave rise to exaggerated 

 accounts of his wealth and the revenues of his see ; to correct which 

 the archbishop drew up an exact statement of all his purchases and of 

 the yearly income of the archbishopric. His steward also stated in 

 the House of Commons, about the same time, that the net income of 

 the archbishop did not exceed 2200Z. 



On the death of Queen Elizabeth Whitgift was afraid lest King 

 James should make alterations in the government and Liturgy of the 

 Church ; and in order to conciliate him he deputed Dr. Nevyl, dean 

 of Canterbury, to wait upon his majesty in Scotland, and to recom- 

 mend the Church of England to his favour and protection. The 

 king's answer was favourable to the stability of the Church ; but the 

 tenor of Whitgift's correspondence from this time shows him to have 

 been in continual apprehension of change. In October 1603, the king 

 issued a proclamation for a conference of the clergy upon the state of 

 the Church. In the January following this conference was held, in 

 which the archbishop took a prominent part in explaining and defend- 

 ing before the king the doctrines and practices of the Church. The 

 result was a commission to the archbishop and to certain bishops and 

 lords of the council for the regulation of matters in the Church. The 

 most important subjects submitted to them were, " that care be taken 

 that one uniform translation of the Bible be printed, and read in the 

 Church, and that without any notes ; " and " that consideration be had 

 what chapters both of the Apocrypha and Canonical Scripture, are 

 meetest to be read in churches. Whitgift however did not live to 

 assist in the consultations of this commission. Soon after the con- 

 ference, he caught cold while sailing to Fulham in his barge, and on 

 the following Sunday, after a long interview with the king, he was 

 seized with a fit, which ended in an attack of palsy and loss of speech. 

 The king visited him at Lambeth, and told him " that he would pray 

 for his life ; and that if he could obtain it he should think it one of the 



