Memoirs of the Life and Works of Lancelot Andrewes, Lord Bishop of Winchester

Andrewes at School and at the University-His College Lectures on the Decalogue-His doctrines-Faith the foundation of ReligionOf the rule of interpretation-The reason of the introduction of the New Covenant-Of the use of images and pictures in Churches -Of the Eucharist, and of the application of sacrificial terms to it.

LANCELOT ANDREWES was born A.D. 1555, in Thamesstreet, in the parish of Allhallows, Barking, London, of religious parents, who, besides his education, left him a fair estate which descended to his heir at Rawreth, a little village between Chelmsford and Rayleigh.' His father Thomas in his latter time became one of the Society and master of Trinity House, and was descended of the ancient family of

1 Morant professes that he was unable to discover what this property was. (Morant's Essex, vol. i. p. 286.) But he informs us that the manors of Malgreffs or Malgraves, in the parish of Horndon, and of Goldsmiths in that of Langdon, were in this family. Langdon and Horndon-on-the-Hill are between Billericay and Tilbury. "Anne daughter of Mr. Thomas Andrews, citizen of London, brought it to her husband Thomas Cotton, of Conington, in Cambridgeshire." This Anne must have been the bishop's niece. Her only daughter Frances married Dingley Ascham, Esq. (Ibid. pp. 218, 247.) Note in p. iii. Andrewes' Minor Works. (Oxford, J. H. Parker, 1854.) In the register of Newton, near Bury St. Edmund's, there occurs, "Rebecca daughter of William Andrewes, gent. of Bury, was buried 22 Nov. 1582." This family bore the same arms with the bishop. They were dispersed over Hampshire, Suffolk, and London; and perhaps of this family was Sir Henry Andrewes, of Lathbury, near Newport Pagnel, in Buckinghamshire.

the Andrewes in Suffolk. Lancelot was early sent to the Coopers' Free School, Ratcliff, in the parish of Stepney. This school was founded in the reign of Henry the Eighth by Nicholas Gibson, grocer, who in 1538 served the office of Sheriff. It was intended for the education of sixty children of poor parents, under a master and usher, and to it were attached an almshouse and chapel. Here Andrewes was placed under Mr. Ward, who, discovering his abilities, persuaded his parents to continue him at his studies and to destine him to a learned profession. His young scholar did not prove unmindful of his kindness, but when raised to the see of Winchester, promoted his son Dr. Ward to the living of Bishop's Waltham.' At this place, which is a small market-town ten miles north-east of Southampton, the Bishops of Winchester had a residence from the time of Bishop Henry de Blois, brother of king Stephen. This place was the favorite resort of the famous Wykeham. The palace was destroyed in the civil wars.2 From Mr. Ward Andrewes was sent to the celebrated Richard Mulcaster, then master of Merchant Taylors' School. Mulcaster was a strict disciplinarian, having been trained under the stern Udal at Eton. Thence he went to King's College, Cambridge, in 1548, but removed to Oxford, where his learning was so highly esteemed that in 1561 he was appointed the first master of Merchant

1 Dr. Ward was also Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, and Prebendary of Chichester. Bishop Andrewes probably collated him to the latter.

2 "Little now remains but a part of the wall, overgrown with ivy, and the park is converted into a farm. The stews for keeping fish for the use of the house are still in being; and against a wall near the ruins is an ancient peartree, said to have been planted by William of Wykeham, who is said to have expended 30,000 marks in repairing and enlarging this mansion."-Cruttwell's Tour, &c., 1801, vol. ii. p. 162.

3 Bishop Andrewes left his son Peter a legacy of £20. Of Mulcaster Isaacson records that Andrewes ever reverently respected him during his life, in all companies, and placed him at the upper end of his table, and after his death caused his picture (having but few other in his house) to be set over his study door. He was of a wealthy family in Cumberland, who, in the time of William Rufus, had the charge of defending the border-countries from the Scots. He was the son of William Mulcaster, Esq., who resided during the former part of his life at Carlisle, and whose pedigree occurs in notices of Surrey Descents, amongst the uncatalogued MSS. of Dr. Rawlinson at Oxford. (Gent. Mag. vol. lxx. p. 420.)

Taylors' School, which was founded in that same year by the munificent Sir Thomas White. Here Mulcaster continued until 1596, and was appointed master of St. Paul's School, from which he was preferred by the Queen to the rich rectory of Stanford Rivers, near Ongar, 1598. In 1609 he was deprived by death of a beloved wife, with whom he had lived happily fifty-six years. He did not long survive, but died April 15, 1611. Amongst Andrewes'

contemporaries at Merchant Taylors' were Giles Thompson, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester,' Thomas Dove, afterwards Bishop of Peterborough, and Ralph Hutchenson, who was president of St. John's College, Oxford, from 1590 to his death, January 17, 1605. On his leaving Merchant Taylors' School in 1571, Andrewes was entered at Pembroke College, Cambridge. On 9th September in this same year Dr. Thomas Watts, of Christ's College, Cambridge, (who in 1560 was appointed archdeacon of Middlesex, in the place of the venerable Alexander Nowell,) being then prebendary of Totenhale in St. Paul's, and in 1571 also dean of Bocking, founded seven scholarships at Pembroke College, called Greek scholarships. The four first scholars upon this foundation were Andrewes and Dove, Gregory Downhall, and John

1 Dr. Giles Thompson was also a native of the metropolis. He was sent from Merchant Taylors' School in 1571 to University College, Oxford, and was elected thence to a fellowship at All Souls in 1580. He served the office of Proctor in 1586, and was appointed Divinity Reader at Magdalene College. Queen Elizabeth made him one of her chaplains, and in 1602 Dean of Windsor. He had a considerable hand in preparing the present version of the New Testament, and succeeded Dr. Parry in the see of Gloucester in 1611, but died the following year.

2 Dr. Dove being an eloquent preacher was made Dean of Norwich in 1589, and raised to the see of Peterborough in 1601. There he continued till his death, August 30, 1630. He was about the same age with Andrewes.

3 Sir John Harrington relates that Sir Francis Walsingham, the same "great councillor of those times who procured Andrewes a prebend in Paul's," gave him a "liberal exhibition." (Brief View of the State of the Church of England, p. 141. Lond. 1652.) Whether this refers to his own liberality towards Andrewes at the University, or to his having perhaps brought him into the notice of his other patrons, Price and Watts, does not appear. It is most probable that Sir Francis Walsingham contributed out of his own purse to his support at the University. He resided in the immediate vicinity of Andrewes' parents, in Seething-lane, communicating with All Hallows, Barking.

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