Whitgift, John

▪ archbishop of Canterbury

born c. 1530, Grimsby, Lincolnshire, Eng.

died Feb. 29, 1604, London

      archbishop of Canterbury who did much to strengthen the Anglican church during the last years of Elizabeth I and to secure its acceptance by her successor, James I. He was the first bishop to be appointed to the Privy Council by Elizabeth, who entirely trusted and supported him, insisting on his ministrations on her deathbed.

      Whitgift was the son of a prosperous merchant. He was ordained in 1560 and was appointed regius professor of divinity and chaplain to the queen in 1567. In 1571 he became prolocutor of the Lower House of Convocation. He was bishop of Worcester (1577–83) and vice president of the Marches of Wales (1577–80). As archbishop of Canterbury from 1583, Whitgift at once began to reverse the policy of attempted conciliation with the Puritans adopted by his predecessor, Edmund Grindal. He sent his chaplain to search out secret Presbyterianism and to discover those responsible for the Puritan Marprelate tracts. Once he had secured reasonable conformity, he did not persecute, as is shown by his later treatment of Thomas Cartwright.

      Whitgift founded a hospital and a school at Croydon, where he is buried. His reply to those who sought to presbyterianize the Church of England, An Answere to a Certen Libel Intituled, An Admonition to the Parliament (1572), and his subsequent writings against Cartwright constitute his chief Works, which were edited by John Ayre (1851–53).

Additional Reading

V.J.K. Brook, Whitgift and the English Church (1957), examines his political and ecclesiastical roles.

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