BANCROFT, Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of James I., distinguished as an inflexible opponent of Puritanism, was born at Farnworth in Lancashire in 1544. He was educated at Cambridge University, studying first at Christ’s College, and afterwards at Jesus College. He took his degree of B.A. in 1567, and that of M.A. in 1570. Ordained about that time, he was named chaplain to Dr 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, and in 1584 was presented to the rectory of St Andrew’s, Holborn. His unquestionable abilities, and his zeal as a champion of the church in those unsettled times, secured him rapid promotion, and at length the highest ecclesiastical position in the land. He graduated B.D. in 1580, and D.D. five years later. In 1585 he was appointed treasurer of St Paul’s Cathedral, London. On February 9, 1589, he preached at Paul’s Cross a sermon on 1 John iv. 1, the substance of which was a passionate attack on the Puritans. 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 one of the queen’s councillors held it to amount to a threat against the supremacy of the Crown. Sixteen days after the publication of this ecclesiastical manifesto, Bancroft was made a prebendary of St Paul’s. Within a few years he was advanced to the same dignity in the collegiate church of Westminster, and in the cathedral church of Canterbury. He was chaplain successively to Lord Chancellor Hatton and Archbishop Whitgift. In May 1597 he was consecrated bishop of London; and from this time, in consequence of ...