THE
P RTAL
September 2011
Launcelot
Andrewes
Page 7
Anglican
Luminary
by Fr Keith Robinson
Lancelot
Andrewes was born in the heat of the Reformation controversies in 1555, in Barking in
Essex. He proved to be a child of outstanding intellect with a great thirst for learning. After Merchant Taylors’
School he went up to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge. He was said to be proficient in no less than twenty one
languages.
the principle of episcopacy.
Ordained in 1581, he
After this he was made
became Chaplain to the
Dean of the Chapels Royal
Earl of Huntingdon, and
and translated to the See of
in 1588 he was appointed
Winchester.
to the Vicarage of St Giles
Cripplegate, and a prebend of
oratorical skills
St Paul’s. Here he was known
His oratorical skills were
as “the star of preachers”.
much admired in his day.
From then on perhaps few
Bishop Nicholas Felton had
priests have been appointed
so endeavoured to model
to so many different positions;
himself on Andrewes’ style,
some successively, others
that he admitted it “had
concurrently and in plurality.
almost marred my own
He became Master of
natural trot by endeavouring
Pembroke Hall, and Chaplain
to imitate his artificial amble.”
to Archbishop Whitgift.
Queen Elizabeth I, who very
The other great work
much took to him, appointed
for which he ought to
him one of her Chaplains,
be remembered is his
and in 1598 offered him the
contribution
to
the
bishoprics of Salisbury and
“Authorised” Version of the
Ely, which he declined. In
Bible. Much of his work,
1601 the Queen appointed
him to the Deanery of Westminster, where he did especially sermons and lectures, was published, though
much to build up the school, and which gave him a often posthumously. Perhaps his most enduring work
was Preces Privatae, a collection of devotions originally
natural involvement in the coronation of James I.
for his own personal use (published in 1648).
translating the Bible
James had the ideal person, close to hand, to oversee
his great project of translating the Bible. Andrewes
personally worked on the earlier books of the Old
Testament, as well as acting as a kind of general editor
for the whol e work. Key meetings of the commission
took place in the Jerusalem Chamber in the Deanery.
a “catholic life”
Andrewes was also a key theologian for the emerging
Church of England, setting it on a course which for
long it would follow. He was not sympathetic to the
more extreme reformers, and felt that it was possible
to lead a “catholic life” within the reformed church. He
vigorously defended the church’s historic Orders, and
In 1602 Andrewes was appointed Bishop of preached frequently and openly in defence of the Real
Chichester and Lord High Almoner, but after only Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and the Eucharistic
four years at Chichester he was translated to Ely. It was Sacrifice.
about this time that he engaged on the King’s behalf in
polemical writings with Cardinal (now Saint) Robert
He died, mourned by all, on the 26 September 1626
Bellarmine. In 1617 he travelled with the King to at Winchester Palace in Southwark, and is buried in
Scotland in a campaign to persuade the Scots to accept what is now Southwark’s Anglican Cathedral.