England Under The Tudors: Archbishop John Whitgift (c.1530-1604).

Archbishop John Whitgift
Unknown artist, c.1600.
National Portrait Gallery.

John Whitgift, English Archbishop, was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, c. 1530, son of Henry Whitgift and Anne Dynewell, the eldest of six sons and one daughter. His early education was with his uncle Robert Whitgift, an abbot at the monastery of Wellow. He continued his studies in London at St. Anthony's School, and matriculated at Queen's College, Cambridge, in 1549. In 1550, he changed to Pembroke Hall where he was tutored by John Bradford.

Whitgift was ordained a minister in 1560, and served as a professor of divinity at Peterhouse, Cambridge (1567-1569), and as Vice-Chancellor (1570). His gifts as preacher and orator earned him an invitation to preach before Queen Elizabeth I, who was impressed. Whitgift was made Dean of Lincoln in 1571, and Bishop of Worcester in 1577. He was nominated as Archbishop of Canterbury by Queen Elizabeth I in 1583.

Whitgift, whose religious views were Calvinistic, found Puritan writings heretical, seditious and dangerous as harming the uniformity of the Church of England. He drew up Articles Touching Preachers, to which all clergy were required to subscribe. In 1586, Whitgift became a Privy Councillor, and secured a decree from the Star Chamber for increased censorship. With it, Whitgift did his best to suppress Puritan writings. This, naturally, caused an uproar in Puritan circles, and gave rise to the Martin Marprelate controversy (1588-1589).

In 1595, Whigift founded the Whitgift School at Croydon, still today a prestigious institute of learning. Well favored by Elizabeth, Witgift attended the queen on her deathbed in 1603, and crowned the new king, James I. He died on February 28, 1604, and was buried in Croydon Church.

Other Local Resources:

Books for further study: Brook, Victor John Knight. Whitgift & The English Church.
           New York, Macmillan, nd. [1957]

Dawley, Powel Mills. John Whitgift and the English Reformation.
           New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1954.

Lake, Peter. Anglicans and Puritans : Presbyterianism and English
           Conformist Thought from Whitgift to Hooker.
           London: Unwin Hyman, 1988.

Whitgift on the Web:

Whitgift, John - The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia
John Whitgift - Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society

Article Citation:

Jokinen, Anniina. “Archbishop Whitgift.” Luminarium.
30 Sep. 2022. [Date when you accessed the page]. <https://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/whitgift.htm>

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