Editing Richard Bancroft

{{Short description|Archbishop of Canterbury from 1604 to 1610}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}

{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = {{pre-nominal styles|size=100%|MRevd|&RHPC}}
| name = Richard Bancroft
| honorific-suffix =
| archbishop_of = [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]
| image = Richard Bancroft from NPG.jpg
| imagesize =
| alt =
| caption =
| province =
| church = [[Church of England]] 
| diocese = [[Diocese of Canterbury|Canterbury]] 
| see =
| enthroned = November 1604
| ended = 2 November 1610
| predecessor = [[John Whitgift]]
| successor = [[George Abbot (Archbishop of Canterbury)|George Abbot]]
| ordination = 1574
| ordained_by = [[Richard Cox (bishop)|Richard Cox]]
| consecration = 8 May 1597
| consecrated_by = [[John Whitgift]]
| other_post =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = 1544
| birth_place = [[Farnworth, Widnes|Farnworth]], [[Lancashire]], [[England]]
| death_date = 2 November 1610 (aged 66)
| death_place = [[Lambeth]], [[Surrey]], [[England]]
| buried = Lambeth
| nationality = [[English people|English]]
| religion = [[Anglicanism|Anglican]]
| residence =
| parents = John Bancroft<br>Mary Curwen
| spouse =
| children =
| occupation =
| profession =
| alma_mater = [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], [[Jesus College, Cambridge]]
| signature =
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'''Richard Bancroft''' (1544 –  2 November 1610) was an English churchman, [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] from 1604 to 1610 and "chief overseer" of the [[King James Bible]].

== Life ==
Bancroft was born in September 1544 at [[Farnworth, Widnes|Farnworth]], now part of [[Widnes, Cheshire]], second son of Mary [Curwen] and John Bancroft. His mother was the daughter of James Curwen and niece to [[Hugh Curwen]], [[Archbishop of Dublin]] from 1555 to 1567, then [[Bishop of Oxford]] until his death in November 1568.<ref>{{cite ODNB |last1=Walshe |first1=Helen Coburn |title=Curwen [Coren], Hugh |date=2008 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/6966 }}</ref>

He was initially educated at the local [[grammar school]], founded by bishop [[William Smyth]], also from Farnworth.<ref>{{cite book|last=Foster|first=Alan|title=A History of Farnworth Church, Its Village and Parish|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M_36GwAACAAJ|year=1981}}</ref> He became a scholar of [[Christ's College, Cambridge]] in 1563, and graduated [[Bachelor of Arts|BA]] in 1567, [[Master of Arts (Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin)|MA]] in 1570 (at [[Jesus College, Cambridge]]), [[Doctor of Divinity|DD]] 1585.<ref>{{acad|id=BNCT563R|name=Bancroft, Richard}}</ref>

Bancroft was older than most students at Cambridge, reportedly due to money problems, and was apparently more successful at sports (wrestling, boxing and quarterstaff) than study. During his many years there, Bancroft was one the students chosen to meet Queen Elizabeth I when she visited the University. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://kingjamesbibletranslators.org/bios/Richard_Bancroft/ | title=King James Bible Translators }}</ref>
In 1564, his uncle Hugh obtained a [[sinecure]] for him at [[St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin|St Patrick's, Dublin]].<ref>{{cite ODNB|last1=Cranfield|first1=Nicolas S.|title=Bancroft, Richard |date=2008 |edition=Online |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/1272}}</ref> Ordained about that time, he was named chaplain to [[Richard Cox (bishop)|Richard Cox]], then [[bishop of Ely]], and in 1575 was presented to the rectory of [[Teversham]] in [[Cambridgeshire]]. The next year he was one of the preachers to the university.

In 1584 he was made [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]] of [[St Andrew, Holborn]]. In 1585 he was appointed treasurer of [[St Paul's Cathedral]], [[London]], and in 1586 was made a member of the ecclesiastical commission. On 9 February 1589 he preached at [[St Paul's Cathedral|Paul's Cross]] a sermon, the substance of which was a passionate attack on the [[Puritan]]s. He described their speeches and proceedings, caricatured their motives, denounced the exercise of the right of private judgment, and set forth the divine right of bishops in such strong language that [[Francis Knollys (the elder)|Sir Francis Knollys]], the Puritanically inclined Treasurer to the Household, held it to amount to a threat against the supremacy of the crown.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cargill Thompson|first=W. D. J.|year=1969|title=A Reconsideration of Richard Bancroft's Paul's Cross Sermon of 9 February 1588/9|journal=The Journal of Ecclesiastical History|volume=20|issue=2|pages=253–266|doi=10.1017/S0022046900054683}}</ref>

In the following year Bancroft was made a [[prebendary]] of St Paul's; he had been [[Canon (priest)|canon]] of [[Westminster Abbey|Westminster]] since 1587. He was chaplain successively to [[Christopher Hatton|Lord Chancellor Hatton]] and [[John Whitgift|Archbishop Whitgift]]. In June 1597, he was consecrated [[Bishop of London]]; and from this time, in consequence of the age and incapacity for business of Archbishop Whitgift, he was virtually invested with the power of primate, and had the sole management of ecclesiastical affairs. Among the more noteworthy cases which fell under his direction were the [[Marprelate Controversy|proceedings]] against "[[Martin Marprelate]]", [[Thomas Cartwright (churchman)|Thomas Cartwright]] and his friends, and [[John Penry]], whose "seditious writings" he caused to be intercepted and given up to the [[Lord Keeper]].

In 1600 he was sent on an embassy, with others, to [[Emden]], for the purpose of settling certain matters in dispute between the [[English people|English]] and the [[Kingdom of Denmark|Dane]]s. This mission, however, failed. Bancroft was present at the death of [[Elizabeth I of England|Queen Elizabeth]].

Bancroft died having never married, 2 November 1610. He was interred in the parish Church at Lambeth with a simple stone slab marking the grave. A keen reader, he left behind a library of over 6,000 volumes. <ref>{{cite web | url=https://kingjamesbibletranslators.org/bios/Richard_Bancroft/ | title=King James Bible Translators }}</ref>

=== Archbishop of Canterbury ===
In March 1604 Bancroft, on Whitgift's death, was appointed by royal writ president of convocation then assembled; and he there presented a book of canons collected by himself. It was adopted and received the royal approval, but was strongly opposed<ref>{{cite book|last=Babbage|first=S. B.|year=1962|title=Puritanism and Richard Bancroft|publisher=S.P.C.K.|place=London|pages=192–193}}</ref> and set aside by Parliament two months afterwards. In the following November he was elected successor to Whitgift in the see of [[Canterbury]]. He continued to show the same zeal and severity as before, and with so much success that [[Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon|Lord Clarendon]], writing in his praise, expressed the opinion that "if Bancroft had lived, he would quickly have extinguished all that fire in England which had been kindled at Geneva."

In 1608 he was chosen chancellor of the [[University of Oxford]]. One of his last public acts was a proposal laid before Parliament for improving the revenues of the Church, and a project for a college of controversial divinity at [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]]. In the last few months of his life he took part in the discussion about the consecration of certain Scottish bishops, and it was in pursuance of his advice that they were consecrated by several bishops of the English Church. By this act were laid the foundations of the [[Scottish Episcopal Church]]. Bancroft was "the chief overseer" of the [[King James Bible|authorized version of the Bible]]. He died at [[Lambeth Palace]] on 2 November 1610.

==Discovery of his coffin==
In 2016, during the refurbishment of the [[Garden Museum]],<ref>[http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/page/support-us Museum web-site]</ref> which is housed at the medieval church of St Mary-at-Lambeth,<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol23/pp104-117 British History on-line]</ref> 30 lead coffins were found; one with an archbishop's red and gold mitre on top of it.<ref>[https://www.thetimes.com/uk/article/builders-discover-archbishops-tombs-under-church-floor-bjddcdjnh Times on-line]</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/remains-five-archbishops-canterbury-discovered-under-london-museum-n747196 |title = Remains of five archbishops of Canterbury found under London museum| website=[[NBC News]] | date=17 April 2017 }}</ref> On one of these coffins, a metal plate served to identify it as being that of Bancroft.<ref>[[The Sunday Telegraph]] 'Lost in Lambeth: the tombs that time forgot' p17 Issue no 2,913, 16 April 2017</ref>

== See also ==
* [[John Bancroft (bishop)|John Bancroft]], his nephew and [[Master of University College, Oxford]]
* [[Hugh Curwen]], [[Archbishop of Dublin]] 1555 to 1567, [[Bishop of Oxford]] 1567 to 1568

== References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* Bancroft, Richard. (1693.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=g8BjAAAAcAAJ A Survey of the Pretended Holy Discipline] (in English). London: Richard Hodgkinson. This work is critical of the Puritan's doctrinal textbook, the ''Disciplina''.
* {{NPG name | id=00236 |name= Richard Bancroft}}

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{{succession box | before=[[Richard Fletcher (bishop)|Richard Fletcher]] | title=[[Bishop of London]] | after=[[Richard Vaughan (bishop)|Richard Vaughan]] | years=1597&ndash;1604}}
{{succession box | before=[[John Whitgift]] | title=[[Archbishop of Canterbury]] | after=[[George Abbot (Archbishop of Canterbury)|George Abbot]] | years=1604&ndash;1610}}
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{{succession box|title=[[List of Chancellors of the University of Oxford|Chancellor of the University of Oxford]]|years=1608–1610|before=[[Thomas Sackville, 1st Earl of Dorset|Earl of Dorset]]|after=[[Thomas Egerton, 1st Viscount Brackley|Baron Ellesmere]]}}
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{{Archbishops of Canterbury}}
{{Bishops of London}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bancroft, Richard}}
[[Category:1544 births]]
[[Category:1610 deaths]]
[[Category:Translators of the King James Version]]
[[Category:17th-century English Anglican priests]]
[[Category:People from Widnes]]
[[Category:16th-century Church of England bishops]]
[[Category:17th-century Anglican archbishops]]
[[Category:Bishops of London]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Canterbury]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Chancellors of the University of Oxford]]
[[Category:Doctors of Divinity]]
[[Category:Burials at St Mary-at-Lambeth]]
[[Category:People from Farnworth]]
[[Category:16th-century Anglican theologians]]
[[Category:17th-century Anglican theologians]]