Richard Bancroft

Richard Bancroft (* 1544 in Farnworth, Lancashire, † November 2, 1610 in London) was from 1604 to 1610 Archbishop of Canterbury.

Bancroft studied at Christ's College, Cambridge, and then at Jesus College. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in 1567 and 1570 his Master of Arts. Around this time he was ordained a priest and appointed chaplain to Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, and in 1575 proposed to the Rector of " Teversham " in Cambridgeshire. The following year he was one of the preachers at the university.

In 1580 he graduated from the " Bachelor of Divinity " (BD ) and five years later, the "Doctor of Divinity " (DD). In 1584 he became rector of St Andrew 's Church in Holborn, 1585 Treasurer of St Paul's Cathedral in London and was from 1586 a member of the church clergy Commission. On February 9, 1589 he held in Paul 's Cross a sermon with a passionate attack on the Puritans, their language and activities, he caricatured their motives and denounced their rights of free expression ( right of private judgment ) on. He explained the " divine right of bishops " in such strong language that one of the advisers of Queen Elizabeth looked at this as an attack on the primacy of the crown.

In the following years he became Prebendary of St. Paul's, from 1587 canon of Westminster and chaplain of " Lord Chancellor Hatton " and Archbishop Whitgift. In June 1597 he was ordained Bishop of London. Since that time, in particular due to the age and incapacity of Archbishop John Whitgift, he was practically endowed with the power of the Church's primacy and the highest responsibility of ecclesiastical affairs. In this time, the Marprelate controversy fell. In 1600 he was sent with others as an ambassador to Emden to resolve certain disputes between the English and the Danes. This mission ended as a failure.

He was present at the death of Queen Elizabeth I.. After the death of Archbishop Whitgift, he was appointed in March 1604 his successor as Archbishop of Canterbury in 1608 and appointed at the same time as Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

He died on 2 November 1610 the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Lambeth Palace.

In 2010, an exhibition entitled Treasures of Lambeth Palace Library took place in Lambeth Palace, which also presented the documents handed over by the Bancroft library private collection.