SKETCH

OF

THE LIFE

OF

THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD

JOHN WHITGIFT, D. D.

By Divine Providence,

Archbishop of Canterbury,

Primate

OF ALL ENGLAND,

AND

METROPOLITAN.

LIFE OF WHITGIFT.

SINCE the celebrated Primate, Archbishop Whitgift, bears so conspicuous a part in the preceding History, we think the following Sketch may be no unacceptable addition; though the life of this eminent person has been written by two competent authors, yet, because their performances are not at present in very general circulation, we have thought that it might be agreeable to our readers to have a brief memoir at hand, to which they might turn while the memory should be yet fresh with the impression of the Archbishop's charity and munificence. We contemplate only a sketch of his life, but it is at the same time, our wish to present the reader, with so much of it as shall be adequate to suggest a correct estimation of his character, and to constitute an interesting

narrative; with reference to the present undertaking, we cannot but apply to him the language of the elegant epitaph upon Archbishop Sheldon.

De tanto viro pauca dicere non expedit, multa non opus est*.

John Whitgift was descended from an ancient family in Yorkshire; his grandfather had numerous children, some of whom he educated as scholars, others he established in different situations of life, according to his ability. His son Henry was settled as a merchant at Great Grimsby, in Lincolnshire, and there married Anne Dynewell, a young woman of character and good family; the fruits of this union were a daughter, named Alice, and six sons, of whom the subject of this memoir was the eldest, horn in the year 1530.

He received his earliest instruction from his uncle, Robert Whitgift, Abbot of the Monastery of Wellow, in the county of Lincoln, near Grimsby, He was impressed by a remarkable saying of his uncle, which, it would seem he remembered during the whole course of his

Of so great a man to say little is not meet, to say much would be useless.

life: it was, "That they and their religion could not long continue, because (said the Abbot) I have read the whole scripture over, and over, and could never find therein that it was founded by God." And in support of his opinion, the good man usually quoted the words of our Saviour;-" Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Matt. xv. 13.

Young Whitgift, having discovered great quickness of understanding, was sent by his uncle to London, and became a scholar in St. Anthony's school, boarding with his aunt, who lived in St. Paul's church-yard. She was the wife of Michael Shaller, a Verger of that church. Here he had a narrow escape of his life. It happened that he slept with another boy who was sick with the plague, and in the summer time after he had come hot and thirsty from school, seeking at the head of the bed for something to drink, he unconsciously took the urine of the diseased boy, and drank it, but fortunately with impunity; his bed-fellow died *.

This circumstance is recorded by Sir George Paule, Comptroller of Archbishop Whitgift's household, and mentioned also by Strype,