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

John Whitgift, English Archbishop, was born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, c. 1530. He studied at Cambridge, was ordained a minister in 1560, and served as a professor of divinity at Peterhouse, Cambridge (1567-1569), and as Vice-Chancellor (1573). He was made Dean of Lincoln in 1571, and Bishop of Worcester in 1577. Whitgift 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. In 1586, he 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. Whitgift, well favored by Elizabeth, attended the queen on her deathbed in 1603, and crowned the new king, James I. Whitgift died on February 28, 1604.

Other Local Resources:

• Whitgift's Articles Touching Preachers, 1583
  
• Queen Elizabeth I
  
• Burghley's Letter to Archbishop Whitgift, 1584
  

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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.

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Whitgift on the Web:

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

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Article Citation:

Jokinen, Anniina. “Archbishop Whitgift.” Luminarium.
                17 Apr. 2002. [Date when you accessed the page].                 <http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/whitgift.htm>

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Created by Anniina Jokinen on April 17, 2002. Last updated April 25, 2007.