SANCROFT, Dr. WILLIAM, an English archbishop, historically notable as the most dis tinguished dignitary among the nag jurors (q.v.), was b. at Fresingfield in Suffolk, Jan. 30,1616. educated at the grammar school of Bury St. Edmunds, and at Emanuel college, Cambridge. Sancroft was reckoned a first-rate scholar by his contemporaries, and in 1542 Sancroft ‘val elected fellow of his college, but in the following year lie was deprived of his fellowship by the Puritans for refusing the famous "engagement," after which he went abroad. On the restoration of Charles II., in 1650, lie was appointed chaplain to Casio, bishop of Durham; and, after several preferments, was in 1668 made arch deacon of Canterbury, and in 1677 was raised, against his inclination, to the first dignity in the church—the archbishopric of Canterbury. The manner in which Sancroft dis charged his ecclesiastical duties deserves.the highest commendation. He attended king Charles II. on his death-be l, and is said to have spoken very freely to the once "merry monarch" on the nature of his past life. In 1683, :don; with several of his brother bishops, he was committed to the tower by king JZITIC3 II., for sending him a petition in which they explained why they could not c3nscie itioirly order his declaration in favor of liberty of conscience to be read in the.churches; but in the events which imme
diately preceded and accompanied the great revolution, lie played a somewhat ambigu ous and perplexing part. At first lie refused when James asked him to sign a i.eclara tiou expressing abhorrence of the prince of Orange's invasion. Later (Dec., 1683). he even went the length of concurring in an address to William, yet he seems from this point to have drawn back, and to have fallen under the dominion of his theory of the divine right of kings. He was not present at the convention of the lords spiritual and temporal to meet the new monarch, and after the settlement, lie refused along with seven other bishops, to take the oath of allegiance to the government, in consequence of, which ho was suspended by act of parliament, Aug. 1, 1689, but his actual departure from Lam beth did not take place till June 23, 1601. He then retired to his native village, where he died, Nov. 24, 1693. See Macaulay's History of England, vols, ii. iii. and iv.