Part One. John Strype: Life and Acts of John Whitgift: The Third and Last Archbishop of Canterbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth

Copy of portrait of Archbishop John Whitgift from Lambeth Palace. Born 1530. Died 29 February 1604.

Part One.

John Strype. The Life and Acts of John Whitgift, D.D.: The Third and Last Lord Archbishop of Canterbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth in Four Volumes, Volume 1. (Oxford: Clarendom Press, 1822).

Strype is freely available at http://books.google.com/books?id=fti4aQKAbRsC&oe=UTF-8

We turn to the following URL for some basics prior to a resumption of blogging four volumes.

http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/JohnWhitgift.htm

We glean some details in the above ULR prior to entering into the four-volume work of John Strype, the leading authority on Archbishop Whitgift. Here are some bullets about his life.

1. Eldest son of Henry Whitgift, merchant of Great Brimsby, Lincolnshire.
   
2. Born between 1530-1533.
   
3. Educated by his uncle, Robert Whitgift, abbot of neighbouring monastery of Wellow.
   Later, upon the uncle’s recommendation, he went to St. Anthony’s School, London.
   
4. 1549, he matriculated at Queen’s College, Cambridge and, in May 1550, moved to Pembroke Hall. While at Pembroke, John Bradford the Martyr, was his tutor. In May 1555, he became a fellow at Peterhouse. This raises questions for us about his theology in 1555, especially after studying with Bradford.
   
5. He took orders in 1560 and became the Chaplain to Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely.
   
6. We detour from Whitgift to his supervising elder, Bishop Cox—in points 8-11. Cox's picture is to the right. We suspect that Bishop Cox’s view hardened after the Marian persecutions, his own exile, and his involvement with the Puritans. We obviously suspect a connection and consequences for a study of Whitgift. A few points about Richard Cox.
   
7. Richard Cox became more decisively Protestant upon the accession of Edward VI’s accession. He was consulted on the 1549 and 1552 Book of Common Prayer. As the Chancellor of Oxford, he promoted Peter Vermigli to a professorship and was involved in removing anything savouring of Romanism. We suspect, without a further review of Cox, that he was a thorough-going predestinarians as was Peter Vermigli.


8. Cox lost his preferments and did jail time at the infamous Marshalsea Prison when Queen Mary fleeted up. We note this because suffering for the faith changes a man, as it did Luther. In May 1554, Cox escaped and headed to Antwerp for follow-on travels to Frankfurt. Archbishop Sandys was his fellow traveler. Cox takes part in the famous struggle between the Puritans and the Anglicans over The Book of Common Prayer. We call attention to John Knox’s role in this. It was called the Coxian and Knoxian faction. The fracus resulted in Cox calling Knox a traitor to Emperor Charles V. This fracus displeased German, Swiss and other English Churchmen. Knox and his followers were expelled from Frankfurt and the 1552 BCP was retained as the form of worship at Frankfurt, Germany. We believe this was one of Knox’s errors of doctrine and spirit.
   
9. Upon return to England, Queen Elizabeth made Cox the Bishop of Ely, a position he held until his death twenty-one years later. He refused to worship in Elizabeth’s chapel because of the Crucifix and lights. He utterly despised Romanists, with a modicum more of patience—but just a modicum—more of patience with the Puritans.
   
10. We feel that one of the failures in England was the entitlements offered to Bishops, both medieval as well as Reformational. Cox, as others, ended up in numerous property disputes with courtiers seeking Episcopal lands. Erastianism will bear consequences for subsequent English history, including, regrettably, doctrinal errors, e.g. rejection of The Lambeth Articles, 1595.

11. We return to Archbishop John Whitgift. After taking orders in 1560 and serving as Chaplain to Bishop Richard Cox of Ely, Whitgift was appointed Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. His stipend was substantially increased based upon his successful lecture. One year later, he was appointed the Regius Professor of Divinity, becoming a Master first of Pembroke Hall and then Trinity College. By September 1570, he was the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge University.

12. We are told that Whitgift was an “High Churchman,” but this appears to be more of a political than theological description, that is, a Royalist’s Royalist. We expect further information to emerge as we assay Strype’s authoritative collection of manuscripts.

13. Whitgift, as did many others, ran afoul of Thomas Cartwright, 1535-1603. Cartwright in 1569 became the Lady Margaret’s Professor of Divinity, but John Whitgift deprived him of the Professorship inn December 1570 and his Mastership of Trinity College in September 1571. Cartwright criticized the hierarchy and constitution of the Church of England; the Reformation Church of England, according to Cartwright, was out-of-accord with the ancient Church organization; Cartwright may have been more right than wrong.

14. Cartwright was forced to flee England. He returned ultimately and died in the same year as Queen Elizabeth, 1603.

15. It is reported that Whitgift was inferior to Cartwright over the “constitutions and customs” of the Church of England. We will suspend judgment at this point; it appears to pertain to church government and matters adiaphora. This is raising more questions as we proceed.

16. In June 1571, Whitgift was nominated Deal of Lincoln and, on 24 March 1577, was appointed Bishop of Worcester. In August 1583, he was appointed as the Archbishop of Canterbury. Grindal was his predecessor and Bancroft his successor. While committed to the Reformation, he enforced Elizabeth’s uniformity and subscription tests and retained Elizabeth’s confidence and favour.

17. Whitgift drew up articles against nonconforming Churchmen which gave rise to the Martin Marprelate tracts. For the full texts, see http://www.anglicanlibrary.org/marprelate/

18. In 1595, Whitgift championed The Lambeth Articles. We posted some information on them at http://reformationanglicanism.blogspot.com/2009/08/part-two-english-reformer-dr-william.html

19. Whitgift attended Elizabeth 1 on her deathbed and was involved in the coronation of James 1. He was present at the Hampton court Conference, January 1604, but died in February 1604. He was buried at Croyden in the Parish church of St. John Baptist.

Here endeth Part One.