George Abbot

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George Abbot

George Abbot (born October 19, 1562 in Guildford , England , † August 4, 1633 in Croydon , England) was an English prelate .

Lineage and Early Life

Abbot came from a poor background. He was the fourth of six sons of the cloth maker Maurice Abbot (* around 1520, † 1606) and his wife Alice, née Marsh or March (* around 1526, † 1606), who had converted to Protestantism and eagerly adhered to this new faith. Abbot was also the younger brother of Robert Abbot . He attended high school in his hometown. External help enabled him to study at Balliol College in Oxford from 1579 . There he was able to graduate in 1585 as a Master of Philosophy and in 1597 as a Doctor of Theology and Master of the University College. In his doctoral thesis ( Quaestiones sex in quibus e sacra Scriptura et Patribus quid statuendum sit definitur , 1597) he turned against Romanism in six theses. In 1599 he became dean of Winchester . He served three times as rector of Oxford University between 1600 and 1605. At that time, he became theological opponent of William Laud .

In 1608 Abbott accompanied the Scottish treasurer, George Home, 1st Earl of Dunbar , to Scotland and tried, on behalf of the English King James I , to bring about a conciliatory union of the Scottish Episcopal Church with the English. However, the related conference in Linlithgow remained fruitless. Nevertheless Abbot rose in favor of James I and was now also used by him in political matters. So he brokered peace between Spain and the Netherlands on royal mandate . Soon he rose higher in the church hierarchy and was made Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry on December 3, 1609 and Bishop of London on January 20, 1610 . In the same year the episcopal constitution was introduced in Scotland, to which he played a major role.

Archbishop of Canterbury under James I.

With the appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury (April 9, 1611) Abbot became the head of the English Church and an important advisor to James I. He tried to calibrate the intra-Protestant conflicts in England and therefore between the Puritans and the Romanists led by William Laud convey, although he leaned toward the former. He also pursued a strictly anti-Catholic attitude. At the request of Jacob I, he asked the English ambassadors on the European continent to provide regular information on the religious policy of the countries in which they served. When the Jesuits tried to persuade James I in 1611 that he should negotiate a marriage of the Prince of Wales , Henry Frederick Stuart , with an infanta of the great Catholic power Spain, Abbot was able to successfully prevent the king from doing so.

Abbot next pursued the plan of a marriage of the daughter of Jacob I, Elisabeth Stuart , with the elector Frederick V of the Palatinate . The Spanish ambassador Zuñinga, however, made an offer in August 1612 to marry the English king's daughter to the Spanish monarch himself. But Abbot was able to prevent this plan with a haunting letter to James I and on February 14, 1613, he celebrated Elizabeth's wedding with the Palatinate Elector in Westminster Abbey .

In a public speech in 1613, Abbot demanded no tolerance of Catholics from the English king, otherwise he would commit treason. He also fought against the efforts of Hugo Grotius , who had traveled to England, to incline Jacob I the Remonstrant . On the other hand, he gave his protection to the renegade Antonio de Dominis, who gave him a handwriting of the history of the Council of Tridentine written by Sarpi. He also repeatedly spoke out fearlessly against the despotic decisions of Jacob I and especially later against those of his successor. So he tried stubbornly but in vain to dissuade James I from approving the sensational divorce of the noble Frances Howard , Countess of Somerset, from her husband Robert Devereux, 3rd Earl of Essex (September 25, 1613). In 1618, Abbot turned unsuccessfully against the king's permission ( Declaration of Sports ) to be allowed to host games on Sunday. However, at his current whereabouts in Croydon, he forbade the declaration from being read out in the service as required by a royal order. In 1619 he asked Jakob I, whose son-in-law Friedrich V, who had become the new Bohemian ruler, to provide military support.

In 1622 Abbot was invited to Bramshill Park ( Hampshire ) by Lord Zouch and accidentally shot a gamekeeper with his crossbow on a hunting trip. This weighed heavily on his soul; he became moody, withdrew, practiced penance by fasting, and helped the widow of the victim. Now his opponents claimed that Abbot could no longer officiate as archbishop under canon law ; because a cleric should not legally indulge in hunting. Some newly appointed bishops, especially his adversary William Laud, refused to be ordained by him. When a royal commission also failed to reach an agreement on this question, James I himself established the archbishop's innocence with regard to secular laws. Since the king also exercised the ecclesiastical supremacy, he obtained Abbot's acquittal of all ecclesiastical offenses by eight bishops. Abbot's position was restored, but he rarely appeared at court.

From 1617 to 1622 Abbot tried in vain by all means to thwart negotiations on the marriage of a Spanish Infanta with the English heir to the throne Charles (I) ; It was only when he personally traveled to Madrid in 1623 that his courtship failed due to the excessive Spanish demands. Even so, Abbot's efforts to consolidate Protestantism on mainland Europe under England's leadership against papal power were unsuccessful. When Jacob I was dying in 1625, Abbot visited him regularly.

Deposition by Charles I and death

When Charles I ascended the throne, Abbot led the solemn coronation ceremony, but largely lost his influence because the new king did not like him. He strove for absolute monarchy and preferred William Laud as his adviser. Abbot, on the other hand, did not give permission to print a copy from the court flatterer Dr. Robert Sibthorp delivered a speech in Northampton on February 22, 1627, in which he had demanded recognition of the supreme authority of the king in all affairs of state and church. A commission set up by Charles I unlawfully removed Abbot from his office as archbishop on October 9, 1627, but it was only refilled after his death. Abbot had not come to court since the beginning of 1628. But he was still very respected in the House of Lords and in April 1628 spoke out against the king's wish to have people locked up without charge. Instead of Abbot, William Laud baptized the newborn heir to the throne in 1630 . After the death of Abbot, who remained unmarried, on August 4, 1633 in Croydon, his opponent William Laud also succeeded him as Archbishop of Canterbury. His body was transferred to his hometown of Guildford. There he was buried on September 4, 1633 in the church he had founded. He had also founded a hospital in his home town, as well as charitable institutions in London, Canterbury and Oxford.

In Guildford Abbot was erected a statue and a pub and a high school ( George Abbot School ) named after him.

Literary work

Abbot wrote many writings, including Geography, or a Brief Description of the Whole World (1599), Exposition upon the Prophet Jonah (1600), parliamentary speeches and letters. He played a key role in the English translation of the New Testament in 1611 organized by James I. He also brokered the acquisition of the important Codex Alexandrinus and thus made an outstanding contribution to Western religious studies.

literature

Web links

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predecessor Office successor
William Overton Bishop of Lichfield
1609 - 1610 		Richard Neile
Thomas Ravis Bishop of London
1610 - 1611 		John King
Richard Bancroft Archbishop of Canterbury
1611 - 1633 		William Laud


personal data
SURNAME Abbot, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English prelate
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1562
PLACE OF BIRTH Guildford , England
DATE OF DEATH 4th August 1633
Place of death Croydon , England