Lancelot Andrewes | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of Winchester | |
%2c_English_School_circa_1660.jpg) "Bishop Andrews",c. 1660 | |
| Church | Church of England |
| Diocese | Winchester |
| In office | 1619–1626 |
| Predecessor | James Montague |
| Successor | Richard Neile |
| Other post(s) | Dean of the Chapel Royal (1618–1626) Bishop of Ely (1609–1619) Lord Almoner (1605–1619) Bishop of Chichester (1605–1609) Dean of Westminster (1601–1605) |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | c. 1579 (deacon); 11 June 1580 (priest) by William Chaderton |
| Consecration | 3 November 1605 by Richard Bancroft |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1555 |
| Died | (1626-09-25)25 September 1626 (aged 70–72) Southwark,Surrey, England |
| Nationality | English |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Residence | Winchester House, Southwark (at death) |
| Parents | Thomas Andrewes (father) |
| Occupation | Preacher,translator |
| Alma mater | Pembroke Hall, Cambridge |
Lancelot Andrewes | |
|---|---|
| Venerated in | Anglican Communion |
| Feast | 25 September (Church of England) 26 September (ECUSA) |
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Lancelot Andrewes (1555 – 25 September 1626) was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in theChurch of England during the reigns ofElizabeth I andJames I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively asBishop of Chichester,of Ely, andof Winchester and oversaw the translation of theKing James Version of the Bible (or Authorized Version). In the Church of England he iscommemorated on25 September with alesser festival.
Andrewes was born in 1555 nearAll Hallows, Barking, by theTower of London, of an ancientSuffolk family later domiciled at Chichester Hall, atRawreth in Essex; his father, Thomas, was master ofTrinity House. Andrewes attended theCooper's free school inRatcliff in the parish ofStepney and then theMerchant Taylors' School underRichard Mulcaster. In 1571 he enteredPembroke Hall,Cambridge, and graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree, proceeding to aMaster of Arts degree in 1578.[1] His academic reputation spread so quickly that on the foundation in 1571 ofJesus College, Oxford he was named in the charter asone of the founding scholars "without his privity" (Isaacson, 1650); his connection with the college seems to have been purely notional, however.[2] In 1576 he was elected fellow of Pembroke College; on 11 June 1580 he wasordained a priest byWilliam Chaderton,Bishop of Chester,[3] and in 1581 was incorporatedMaster of Arts (MA) at Oxford. As catechist at his college he read lectures on theDecalogue (published in 1630), which aroused great interest.
Once a year he would spend a month with his parents and, during this vacation, he would find a master from whom he would learn a language of which he had no previous knowledge. In this way, after a few years, he acquired most of the modern languages of Europe.[4]
Andrewes was the elder brother of the scholar and clericRoger Andrewes, who also served as a translator for theKing James Version of the Bible.
In 1588, following a period as chaplain toHenry Hastings, 3rd Earl of Huntingdon, Lord President of the Council in the North, he became vicar ofSt Giles, Cripplegate, in the City of London, where he delivered striking sermons on the temptation in the wilderness and theLord's Prayer. In a sermon (duringEaster week) on 10 April 1588, he stoutly vindicated theReformed character of the Church of England against the claims ofRoman Catholicism and adducedJohn Calvin as a new writer, with lavish praise and affection.
Yet, Andrewes was certainly noCalvinist. It has been said that he developed a proto-Arminiansoteriology while at Cambridge and that he maintained this non-Calvinist theology throughout his life.[5] He made it a point to refuse to repeat the common Calvinist slogans of his time.[6] During the first half of the seventeenth century, he claimed that Calvinism was incompatible with civil government, preaching, and ministry.[7] Throughout his sermons, he unashamedly criticized Calvinist doctrine and practice.[8] He has been referred to as an avant-garde conformist, which is understood as an implicitly proto-Arminian precursor toLaudianism and explicitEnglish-Arminianism. He outright decried the translation and Calvinistic notes in the Geneva translation of the Bible. He taught that God condemned Cain for his own freely chosen sin and he denied that God unconditionally predestined any to salvation or that he unconditionally condemned anyone. He argued for soteriological synergism, using Lot's wife as a picture that one's salvation is not secure post-conversion apart from an ongoing and freely chosen cooperation with God's saving grace.[9]John Overall and Andrewes were more sympathetic to theRemonstrants than the Calvinists at the time of theSynod of Dort. Andrewes, out of fear, denied his support for the Remonstrants when letters sent to him from that party were intercepted. He was not on friendly terms with the delegates to the synod and he made it clear that he did not support the results. He and the Remonstrants attempted to use the ecclesiological similarities between the Contra-Remonstrants and the Puritans to persuade James I not to involve himself in the Synod of Dort or to support the Remonstrant cause if he did.[10]
Through the influence ofFrancis Walsingham, Andrewes was appointedprebendary of St Pancras inSt Paul's Cathedral, in 1589, and subsequently became master of his own college of Pembroke, as well as a chaplain toJohn Whitgift,Archbishop of Canterbury. From 1589 to 1609 he was prebendary ofSouthwell. On 4 March 1590, as a chaplain of Elizabeth I, he preached before her an outspoken sermon and, in October that year, gave his introductory lecture at St Paul's, undertaking to comment on the first four chapters of theBook of Genesis. These were later compiled asThe Orphan Lectures (1657).
Andrewes liked to move among the people, yet found time to join a society of antiquaries, of whichWalter Raleigh,Philip Sidney, Burghley, Arundel, the Herberts, Saville,John Stow andWilliam Camden were members. Elizabeth I had not advanced him further on account of his opposition to the alienation of ecclesiastical revenues. In 1598 he declined the bishoprics ofEly andSalisbury, because of the conditions attached. On 23 November 1600, he preached atWhitehall a controversial sermon onjustification. In July 1601 he was appointedDean of Westminster and gave much attention to the school there.
Whenplague struck in 1603 he retreated toChiswick to teach the boys ofWestminster School, where he preached a plague sermon on 21 August arguing in favour of leaving London under such circumstances. His argumentation rested on the Old Testament's commands to avoid exposing oneself to contagion, to avoid contact withlepers, etc. Andrewes claimed that the plague was caused by "inventions" like "new meats in diet" and "new fashions in apparel" that had roused the wrath of God. He condemns changes in Christian tradition that "our fathers never knew of".[11]
On the accession ofJames I, Andrewes rose into great favour. He assisted at thecoronation of James I and Anne, and in 1604 took part in theHampton Court Conference.
Andrewes' name is the first on the list of divines appointed to compile theAuthorized Version of the Bible, which was commissioned in 1604 and published in 1611. He headed the "First Westminster Company" which took charge of the first books of theOld Testament (Genesis to2 Kings). He acted, furthermore, as a sort of general editor for the project as well.
On 31 October 1605 his election asBishop of Chichester wasconfirmed, he was consecrated a bishop on 3 November, installed atChichester Cathedral on 18 November[3] and madeLord High Almoner (until 1619).[12] Following the discovery of theGunpowder Plot, Andrewes was asked to prepare a sermon to be presented to the king in 1606 (Sermons Preached upon the V of November, in Lancelot Andrewes, XCVI Sermons, 3rd. Edition (London,1635) pp. 889, 890, 900–1008 ). In this sermon Andrewes justified the need to commemorate the deliverance and defined the nature of celebrations. This sermon became the foundation of celebrations which continue 400 years later.[13] In 1609 he publishedTortura Torti, a learned work which grew out of the Gunpowder Plot controversy and was written in answer toBellarmine'sMatthaeus Tortus, which attacked James I's book on theoath of allegiance. After moving to Ely[3] (his election to that see was confirmed on 22 September),[12] he again controverted Bellarmine in theResponsio ad Apologiam.
In 1617 he accompanied James I toScotland with a view to persuading the Scots that Episcopacy was preferable toPresbyterianism. He was made dean of theChapel Royal and translated (by the confirmation of his election to that see in February 1619)[12] toWinchester, adiocese that he administered with great success.
Following his death in 1626 inWinchester Palace, the bishop's residence inSouthwark, he was mourned alike by leaders in church and state, and buried in St Saviour's Church (nowSouthwark Cathedral, then in theDiocese of Winchester). He was buried in a small chapel at the east end. After the destruction of the Bishop's Chapel in 1830, his tomb was moved to a new position, immediately behind the high altar.[14] His monument is byGerard Janssen; the canopy was restored byArthur Blomfield with colouring byNinian Comper.
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Two generations later,Richard Crashaw caught up the universal sentiment, when in his lines "Upon Bishop Andrewes' Picture before his Sermons" he exclaims:
Andrewes was a friend ofHugo Grotius, and one of the foremost contemporary scholars, but is chiefly remembered for his style of preaching. As a churchman he was typicallyAnglican, equally removed from thePuritan and the Roman positions. A good summary of his position is found in hisFirst Answer to Cardinal Perron, who had challenged James I's use of the title "Catholic". His position in regard to theEucharist is naturally more mature than that of the first reformers.
As to the Real Presence we are agreed; our controversy is as to the mode of it. As to the mode we define nothing rashly, nor anxiously investigate, any more than in the Incarnation of Christ we ask how the human is united to the divine nature in One Person. There is a real change in the elements—we allowut panis iam consecratus non-sit panis quem natura formavit; sed, quem benedictio consecravit, et consecrando etiam immutavit [i.e., "that the bread once consecrated is not the bread which nature has formed, but that which the blessing has consecrated and, by consecrating it, has also changed"]. (Responsio, p. 263).
Adoration is permitted, and the use of the terms "sacrifice" and "altar" maintained as being consonant with scripture and antiquity. Christ is "a sacrifice—so, to be slain; a propitiatory sacrifice—so, to be eaten." (Sermons, vol. ii. p. 296).
By the same rules that the Passover was, by the same may ours be termed a sacrifice. In rigour of speech, neither of them; for to speak after the exact manner of divinity, there is but one only sacrifice,veri nominis, that is Christ's death. And that sacrifice but once actually performed at His death, but ever before represented in figure, from the beginning; and ever since repeated in memory to the world's end. That only absolute, all else relative to it, representative of it, operative by it ... Hence it is that what names theirs carried, ours do the like, and the Fathers make no scruple at it—no more need we.(Sermons, vol. ii. p. 300).
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Andrewes preached regularly and submissively before James I and his court on the anniversaries of theGowrie Conspiracy and the Gunpowder Plot. These sermons were used to promulgate the doctrine of theDivine Right of Kings.
HisLife was written byAlexander Whyte (Edinburgh, 1896), M. Wood (New York, 1898), andRobert Lawrence Ottley (Boston, 1894). His services to his church have been summed up thus: (1) he has a keen sense of the proportion of the faith and maintains a clear distinction between what is fundamental, needing ecclesiastical commands, and subsidiary, needing only ecclesiastical guidance and suggestion; (2) as distinguished from the earlier protesting standpoint, e.g. of theThirty-nine Articles, he emphasised a positive and constructive statement of the Anglican position.
His best-known work is thePreces Privatae orPrivate Prayers, edited byAlexander Whyte (1896),[15] which has widespread appeal and has remained in print since renewed interest in Andrewes developed in the 19th century. ThePreces Privatae were first published by R. Drake in 1648; an improved edition byF. E. Brightman appeared in 1903.[16]John Rutter set some of those prayers to music. Andrewes's other works occupy eight volumes in theLibrary of Anglo-Catholic Theology (1841–1854). Ninety-six of his sermons were published in 1631 by command ofCharles I, have been occasionally reprinted, and are considered among the most rhetorically developed and polished sermons of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth centuries. Because of these, Andrewes has been commemorated by literary greats includingT. S. Eliot.
Andrewes was considered, next toJames Ussher, to be the most learned churchman of his day, and enjoyed a great reputation as an eloquent and impassioned preacher, but the stiffness and artificiality of his style render his sermons unsuited to modern taste. Nevertheless, there are passages of extraordinary beauty and profundity. His doctrine wasHigh Church, and in his life he was humble, pious and charitable. He continues to influence religious thinkers to the present day, and was cited as an influence by T. S. Eliot, among others. Eliot borrowed, almost word for word and without his usual acknowledgement, a passage from Andrewes' 1622 Christmas Day sermon for the opening of his poem "Journey of the Magi". In his 1997 novelTimequake,Kurt Vonnegut suggested that Andrewes was "the greatest writer in the English language", citing as proof the first few verses of the23rd Psalm. His translation work has also led him to appear as a character in three plays dealing with theKing James Bible, Howard Brenton'sAnne Boleyn (2010), Jonathan Holmes'Into Thy Hands (2011) and David Edgar'sWritten on the Heart (2011).
He has an academic cap named after him, known as theBishop Andrewes cap, which is like amortarboard but made of velvet, floppy and has a tump or tuff instead of a tassel. This was in fact the ancient version of the mortarboard before the top square was stiffened and the tump replaced by a tassel and button. This cap is still used by Cambridge DDs and at certain institutions as part of theiracademic dress.
A block of flats in theBarbican Residential Estate, central London, is namedAndrewes House. All the Barbican's residential buildings are named after famous people with a connection to the locale.
There is a stained glass window depicting Bishop Andrewes inGrays Inn Chapel, central London
Andrewes created a significant personal library. In his will, he bequeathed approximately 400 volumes to Pembroke College (Cambridge) where they remain.[17]
His collection included:
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Cousin, John William (1910). "Andrewes, Lancelot".A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – viaWikisource.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: "Andrewes, Lancelot".Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Master of Pembroke College, Cambridge 1589–1605 | Succeeded by |
| Church of England titles | ||
| Preceded by | Bishop of Chichester 1605–1609 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Ely 1609–1619 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Bishop of Winchester 1618–1626 | Succeeded by |
| Early Medieval 634–1006 |
|  Arms of the Bishop of Winchester |
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| High Medieval 1006–1304 | ||
| Late Medieval 1305–1501 | ||
| Early Modern 1501–1820 |
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| Late Modern 1820–current | ||
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