page_title: George Abbot (bishop)
section_title: Archbishop of Canterbury
hierarchical_section_title: George Abbot (bishop) / Biography / Archbishop of Canterbury
caption_attribution_description: English: Tomb of George Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury in Holy Trinity Church in Guildford in Surrey
context_page_description: George Abbot was an English divine who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1611 to 1633. He also served as the fourth Chancellor of Trinity College, Dublin, from 1612 to 1633.
  Chambers Biographical Dictionary describes him as "[a] sincere but narrow-minded Calvinist". Among his five brothers, Robert became Bishop of Salisbury and Maurice became Lord Mayor of London. He was a translator of the King James Version.
context_section_description: On 4 March 1611, Abbot was raised to the position of Canterbury. As archbishop, he defended the apostolic succession of the Anglican archbishops and bishops and the validity of the Church's priesthood in 1614. In consequence of the Nag's Head Fable, the archbishop invited certain Roman Catholics to inspect the register in the presence of six of his own episcopal colleagues, the details of which inspection were preserved. It was agreed by all parties that:
  The register agrees in every particular with what we know of the history of the times, and there exists not the semblance of a reason for pronouncing it a forgery.
  In spite of his defence of the catholic nature of the priesthood, his Puritan instincts frequently led him not only into harsh treatment of Roman Catholics, but also into courageous resistance to the royal will, such as when he opposed the scandalous divorce suit of the Lady Frances Howard against the Earl of Essex, and again in 1618 when, at Croydon, he forbade the reading of the Declaration of Sports listing the permitted Sunday recreations.
  He was naturally, therefore, a promoter of the match between the king's daughter, Princess Elizabeth, and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, and a firm opponent of the projected marriage of the new Prince of Wales (later Charles I) and the Spanish Infanta, Maria Anna. This policy brought upon the archbishop the hatred of William Laud (with whom he had previously come into collision at Oxford) and the king's court, although the King himself never forsook Abbot.
  In July 1621, while hunting in Lord Zouch's park at Bramshill in Hampshire, a bolt from his cross-bow aimed at a deer happened to strike one of the keepers, who died within an hour, and Abbot was so greatly distressed by the event that he fell into a state of settled melancholia.
  His enemies maintained that the fatal issue of this accident disqualified him for his office, and argued that, though the homicide was involuntary, the sport of hunting which had led to it was one in which no clerical person could lawfully indulge.
  The King had to refer the matter to a commission of ten, though he said that "an angel might have miscarried after this sort."
  The commission was equally divided, and the King gave a casting vote in the Archbishop's favour, though signing also a formal pardon or dispensation. Gustavus Paine notes that Abbot was both the "only translator of the 1611 Bible and the only Archbishop of Canterbury ever to kill a human being."
  After this the Archbishop seldom appeared at the council, chiefly on account of his infirmities. In 1625 he attended the King constantly, however, in his last illness, and performed the ceremony of the coronation of King Charles I as king of England. His refusal to license the assize sermon preached by Dr Robert Sibthorp at Northampton on 22 February 1627, in which cheerful obedience was urged to the king's demand for a general loan, and the duty proclaimed of absolute non-resistance even to the most arbitrary royal commands, led Charles to deprive him of his functions as primate, putting them in commission. The need of summoning parliament, however, soon brought about a nominal restoration of the Archbishop's powers. His presence being unwelcome at court, he lived from that time in retirement, leaving Laud and his party in undisputed ascendancy.
  He died at Croydon on 4 August 1633, and was buried at Guildford, his native place, where he had endowed a hospital with lands to the value of £300 a year.
caption: The tomb of George Abbot in Holy Trinity Church, Guildford
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