Anthony Sparrow (1612–1685) was an English Anglican priest. He was

Bishop of Norwich The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The bishop of Norwich is Graham Usher. The see is in t ...

and Bishop of Exeter.

Career

Born in 1612, Sparrow was educated and became a fellow at Queens' College, Cambridge, and was ordained a priest in February 1635. He was an adherent to the

Laudianism Laudianism was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England, promulgated by Archbishop William Laud and his supporters. It rejected the predestination upheld by the previously dominant Calvinism in favour of free will, ...

movement. In April 1644 under the parliamentarian purge of the university, he was ejected for non-residence by

Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester Edward Montagu, 2nd Earl of Manchester, KG, KB, FRS (16025 May 1671) was an important commander of Parliamentary forces in the First English Civil War, and for a time Oliver Cromwell's superior. Early life He was the eldest son of Henry M ...

. In 1647, he was ejected from rectory of

Hawkedon Hawkedon is a village and civil parish in the West Suffolk district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located around south-south-west of Bury St Edmunds, the parish also contains the hamlet of Thurston End, and in 2005 had a population of 120. Th ...

for using the outlawed

Book of Common Prayer The ''Book of Common Prayer'' (BCP) is the name given to a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion and by other Christian churches historically related to Anglicanism. The original book, published in 1549 in the reign ...

. Following the

Restoration Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to: * Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage ** Audio restoration ** Film restoration ** Image restoration ** Textile restoration * Restoration ecology ...

, he was reinstated in 1660; and held the post of

Archdeacon of Sudbury The Archdeacon of Sudbury is a senior cleric in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. The archdeacon is responsible for the disciplinary supervision of the clergy in its five rural deaneries; Clare, Ixworth, Lavenham, Sudbury and Thingoe. ...

from then until 1667. In 1667, he became Bishop of Exeter and in 1676 he was promoted to bishop of Norwich. He died on 19 May 1685. In his will, he left £100 to the rebuilding of St Paul's Cathedral.

Marriage and progeny

He married and left at his death several daughters as his co-heiresses, one of whom was Joan Sparrow (d. 1703), wife of Edward Drew (d. 1714) of The Grange, Broadhembury, Devon, a Canon of Exeter Cathedral. Vivian, Lt.Col. J.L., (Ed.) The Visitations of the County of Devon: Comprising the Heralds' Visitations of 1531, 1564 & 1620, Exeter, 1895, p.307, pedigree of Drew

Bibliography

* ''A Sermon Concerning Confession of Sins, and the Power of Absolution'' (1637) * ''A Rationale on the Book of Common Prayer of the Church of England'' (1655) * "A Collection of Articles, Injunctions, Canons, Orders, Ordinances, and Constitutions Ecclesiastical, with other Publik Records of The Church of England, Chiefly in the Times of K. Edward. VIth. Q. Elizabeth. and K. James." ...Published to Vindicate The Church of England and to promote Uniformity and peace in the same. (1661; London, Printed by R. Norton for Timothy Garthwait at the Little North-doore of St. Paul's Church 1661)

References

External links

Anthony Sparrow's major works
at Project Canterbury {{DEFAULTSORT:Sparrow, Anthony 1612 births 1685 deaths Archdeacons of Sudbury Bishops of Exeter Bishops of Norwich 17th-century Church of England bishops Presidents of Queens' College, Cambridge Vice-Chancellors of the University of Cambridge Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge 17th-century Anglican theologians Anglican liturgists