William Sancroft (30 January 161724 November 1693) was the 79th
Archbishop of Canterbury
The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Just ...
, and was one of the
Seven Bishops imprisoned in 1688 for
seditious libel against
King James II, over his opposition to the king's
Declaration of Indulgence
The Declaration of Indulgence, also called Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, was a pair of proclamations made by James II of England and Ireland and VII of Scotland in 1687. The Indulgence was first issued for Scotland on 12 February and ...
. Deprived of his office in 1690 for refusing to swear allegiance to
William and
Mary, he later enabled and supported the consecration of new nonjuring bishops leading to the
nonjuring schism.
Life
Sancroft was born at
Ufford Hall in
Fressingfield, Suffolk, son of Francis Sandcroft (1580–1647) and Margaret Sandcroft née Butcher (1594–1631). He was educated at the
Bury St Edmunds free grammar school before being admitted to
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site on which the college sits was once a priory for Dominican m ...
, in September 1633 and matriculating there in 1634. His uncle
William Sancroft the Elder
William Sancroft the Elder (1582 – April 1637) served as Master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge from 1628 until 1637.
Admitted to Emmanuel College, Cambridge on 12 October 1596, Sancroft gained a scholarship, and graduated B.A. 1600/1, M.A. 1604, ...
was then master of the college. He graduated
B.A. in 1638,
M.A. in 1641 and became a fellow in 1642, but was ejected in 1649 for refusing to accept the "
Engagement". He remained abroad till the
Restoration, after which he was chosen one of the university preachers, and was elected
Master of his ''alma mater'' Emmanuel College in 1662, serving until 1665. He began fundraising for a new chapel for the college in 1663 and contributed largely towards the cost. He continued to play a role in college affairs and the chapel was completed in 1667 to a design by
Christopher Wren
Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 church ...
.
In 1663 he was nominated to the
deanery of York. He became
Dean of St Paul's
The dean of St Paul's is a member of, and chair of the Chapter of St Paul's Cathedral in London in the Church of England. The dean of St Paul's is also ''ex officio'' dean of the Order of the British Empire.
The current dean is Andrew Tremlet ...
in 1664, greatly assisting with the rebuilding of
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...
after the
Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through central London from Sunday 2 September to Thursday 6 September 1666, gutting the medieval City of London inside the old Roman city wall, while also extending past th ...
,
towards which he contributed £1400. He also rebuilt the deanery, and improved its revenue. He was criticized for leaving London during the
Great Plague of 1665, though in his defence virtually all of the upper class did the same.
In 1668 he was admitted
Archdeacon of Canterbury
The Archdeacon of Canterbury is a senior office-holder in the Diocese of Canterbury (a division of the Church of England Province of Canterbury). Like other archdeacons, he or she is an administrator in the diocese at large (having oversight of ...
upon the king's presentation, but he resigned the post in 1670. In 1677, being now prolocutor of the
Convocation of the English Clergy, he was unexpectedly advanced to the archbishopric of Canterbury, at the express wish of the King, who trusted in his moderation. So unwilling was he to accept that the King only persuaded him by explaining that he had already appointed the new Dean of St Paul's. He attended
Charles II upon his deathbed, and "made to him a very weighty exhortation, in which he used a good degree of freedom". He crowned King James II in 1685.
Sancroft wrote with his own hand the petition presented in 1688 against the reading of the
Declaration of Indulgence
The Declaration of Indulgence, also called Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, was a pair of proclamations made by James II of England and Ireland and VII of Scotland in 1687. The Indulgence was first issued for Scotland on 12 February and ...
, which was signed by himself and six of his suffragans (collectively known as the
Seven Bishops). For this, they (of whom Sancroft was oldest, at 71) were all committed to the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is sep ...
, but were acquitted.
Nonjuring schism
Upon the withdrawal of
James II, Sancroft concurred with the
Lords
Lords may refer to:
* The plural of Lord
Places
*Lords Creek, a stream in New Hanover County, North Carolina
*Lord's, English Cricket Ground and home of Marylebone Cricket Club and Middlesex County Cricket Club
People
*Traci Lords (born 19 ...
in a declaration to
William III for a free parliament, and due indulgence to the Protestant
dissenters. But, when William and his wife (James's daughter)
Mary were declared king and queen, he
refused to take the oath to them, and was accordingly suspended and deprived in 1690.
In August 1690
John Tillotson took over his duties. In April 1691 Tillotson officially became Sancroft's successor.
Many years after it was composed,
John Overall's ''Convocation Book'' was published by Sancroft, to justify the principles of his
Nonjuring party. The book was "on the subject of Government, the divine institution of which was very positively asserted". It consisted partly of canons and partly of introductory and explanatory dissertations on the matter of the canons and had been duly sanctioned in the Convocation of 1610. It was, however, a strange oversight in Sancroft's party to publish the book, as there are several canons in it which clearly lay down that a de facto government is, when completely established, to be held in the light of a de jure government; and it was upon the very grounds set forth in this book that
William Sherlock took the oaths to King William.
[''King's Handbook to the Cathedrals of England'', by ]Richard John King Richard John King (18 January, 1818–10 February, 1879) was an English antiquarian and scholar of medieval poetry. He is best known as a writer of handbooks.
Life
He was the eldest son of Richard King and his wife Mary Grace Windeatt, and was born ...
, published by John Murray, Albemarle Street, Oxford, 1862, p166.
Sancroft was a patron of
Henry Wharton (1664–1695), the divine and church historian, to whom on his deathbed he entrusted his manuscripts and the remains of
Archbishop Laud
William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 16 ...
(published in 1695). Sancroft provided financial support to
Mary Astell and an introduction to her future publisher; Astell later dedicated a collection of poetry to him.
From 5 August 1691 until his death two years later, he lived a very retired life in his native village of Fressingfield. He died at his family home,
Ufford Hall, and was buried in the churchyard of Fressingfield, where there is a Latin epitaph to his memory.
See also
*
Bibliography
*''Fur praedestinatus'' (1651)
*''Modern Policies'' (1652)
*''Three Sermons'' (1694)
*''Nineteen Familiar Letters to Mr North'' (afterwards Sir Henry North) published in 1757
''The Life of William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury'', Volume Iby
George D'Oyly (1821)
''The Life of William Sancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury'', Volume IIby George D'Oyly (1821)
References
Sources
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sancroft, William
1617 births
1693 deaths
17th-century Anglican archbishops
Alumni of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Archbishops of Canterbury
Deans of St Paul's
Deans of York
Masters of Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Members of the Privy Council of England
People educated at King Edward VI School, Bury St Edmunds
People from Fressingfield
Participants in the Savoy Conference
English nonjuror clergy
Burials in Suffolk
17th-century Anglican theologians