HUMPHREY (or HUMFREY), LAWRENCE (1527? 1J90), president of Magdalen College, Oxford, and dean suc cessively of Gloucester and Winchester, was born at Newport Pagnel. He was elected demy of Magdalen College in 1S46 and fellow in He was one of the most promising pupils of Peter Martyr, and on Mary's accession obtained leave from his college to travel abroad. He lived at Basel, Zurich, Frankfurt and Geneva, making the acquaintance of the leading Swiss divines, whose ecclesiastical views he adopted. He returned to England at Elizabeth's accession, was appointed regius professor of divinity at Oxford in 156o, and was recommended by Archbishop Parker and others for election as president of Magdalen. The fellows refused at first to elect so pronounced a reformer, but they yielded in 1561, and Humphrey gradually converted the college into a stronghold of Puritanism. In 1564 he and his friend Thomas Sampson, dean of Christ Church, were called before Parker for refusing to wear the prescribed ecclesiastical vest ments; and a prolonged controversy broke out, in which Bullinger and other foreign theologians took part as well as most of the leading divines in England. In spite of Bullinger's advice, Hum phrey refused to conform ; and Parker wished to deprive him as well as Sampson. But the presidency of Magdalen was elec tive and the visitor of the college was not Parker but the bishop of Winchester; and Humphrey escaped with temporary retire ment. Parker, in fact, was not supported by the council; in 1566 Humphrey was selected to preach at St. Paul's Cross, and was allowed to do so without the vestments. In that year, on the occasion of Elizabeth's visit to Oxford he wore his doctor's gown and habit, which the queen told him "became him very well" ; and his resistance now began to weaken. He yielded on the point before 1571 when he was made dean of Gloucester. In 1578 he was one of the divines selected to attend the diet at Schmalkalden, and in 1580 he was made dean of Winchester. In 1585 he was persuaded by his bishop, Cooper, to restore the use of surplices in Magdalen College chapel. He died on Feb. 1, 159o, and was buried in the college chapel.
See Bloxam's Register of Magdalen College, iv. ; Cooper's Athenae Cantabrigienses; Wood's Athenae Oxonienses; Gough's Index to Parker Soc. Publ.; Strype's Works; Cal. State Papers (Dom. ; Acts of the Privy Council; Burnet's Hist. Ref.; Collier's Eccles. Hist.; Dixon's Church Hist. vol. vi. ; Dict. Nat. Biog.