Everything about George Abbot Archbishop Of Canterbury totally explained
George Abbot (
October 19,
1562 –
August 5,
1633) was an
English divine and
Archbishop of Canterbury. He also served as the fourth Chancellor of
Trinity College, Dublin between 1612 and 1633.
Early years
Born at
Guildford in
Surrey, where his father
Maurice Abbot (died 1606) was a cloth-worker. He studied, and then taught, at
Balliol College, Oxford, was chosen Master of
University College in 1597, and appointed
Dean of
Westminster in 1600. He was three times
Vice-Chancellor of the
university, and took a leading part in preparing the authorized version of the
New Testament. In 1608 he went to
Scotland with
George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar to arrange for a union between the churches of
England and Scotland. He so pleased
King James in this affair that he was made
Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry in 1609 and was translated to the
see of
London a month afterwards.
Archbishop of Canterbury
Less than a year later, on
March 4,
1611 Abbot was raised to the position of
Canterbury. As archbishop, he defended the
Apostolic Succession of the Anglican archbishops & bishops and the validity of the Church's priesthood in 1614. In consequence of the
Nag's Head Fable, the archbishop invited certain
Roman Catholics to inspect the register in the presence of six of his own episcopal colleagues, the details of which inspection were preserved. It was agreed by all parties that:
"The register agrees in every particular with what we know of the history of the times, and there exists not the semblance of a reason for pronouncing it a forgery."
In spite of his defense of the Catholic nature of the priesthood, his
puritan instincts frequently led him not only into harsh treatment of Roman Catholics, but also into courageous resistance to the royal will, for example when he opposed the scandalous divorce suit of the Lady
Frances Howard against the
Earl of Essex, and again in 1618 when, at
Croydon, he forbade the reading of the declaration permitting
Sunday sports. He was naturally, therefore, a promoter of the match between the
elector palatine,
Frederick V, and the
Princess Elizabeth, and a firm opponent of the projected marriage of the
Prince of Wales with the
Infanta of
Spain. This policy brought upon him the hatred of
William Laud (with whom he'd previously come into collision at Oxford) and the court, though the King himself never forsook him.
In 1622, while hunting in
Lord Zouch's park at
Bramshill in
Hampshire, a bolt from his cross-bow aimed at a deer happened to strike one of the keepers, who died within an hour, and Abbot was so greatly distressed by the event that he fell into a state of settled
melancholia. His enemies maintained that the fatal issue of this accident disqualified him for his office, and argued that, though the
homicide was involuntary, the sport of
hunting which had led to it was one in which no clerical person could lawfully indulge. The King had to refer the matter to a commission of ten, though he said that "an angel might have miscarried after this sort." The commission was equally divided, and the King gave a casting vote in the Archbishop's favour, though signing also a formal pardon or dispensation.
After this the Archbishop seldom appeared at the Council, chiefly on account of his infirmities. In
1625 he attended the King constantly, however, in his last illness, and performed the ceremony of the coronation of
King Charles I. His refusal to license the
assize sermon preached by Dr
Robert Sibthorp at
Northampton on
February 22 1627, in which cheerful obedience was urged to the king's demand for a general loan, and the duty proclaimed of absolute non-resistance even to the most arbitrary royal commands, led Charles to deprive him of his functions as
primate, putting them in commission. The need of summoning parliament, however, soon brought about a nominal restoration of the Archbishop's powers. His presence being unwelcome at court, he lived from that time in retirement, leaving Laud and his party in undisputed ascendancy. He died at Croydon on
August 5 1633, and was buried at Guildford, his native place, where he'd endowed a hospital with lands to the value of £300 a year.
Legacy
Abbot was a conscientious
prelate, though narrow in view and often harsh towards both separatists and Roman Catholics. He wrote a large number of works, the most interesting being his discursive
Exposition on the Prophet Jonah (1600), which was reprinted in 1845. His
Geography, or a Brief Description of the Whole World (1599), passed through numerous editions.
The best account of him is in
S. R. Gardiner's
History of England.
Guildford remembers the Archbishop with a statue in the High Street, a pub and also a secondary school (
George Abbot School) named after him.
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