WHITGIFT, John, English prelate: b. Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, about 1530; d. Lambeth, 29 Feb. 1604. He was educated at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and after the ac cession of Elizabeth took holy orders (1560) and was made chaplain to Cox, bishop of Ely. In 1563 he was appointed Lady Margaret pro fessor of divinity at Cambridge, in which office be gained a high reputation by his lectures on the book of Revelations and the Epistle to the Hebrews, and in 1567 was elected master of Pembroke Hall. Soon after the queen made him her chaplain and master of Trinity Col ge, Cambridge, and the same year he also be came regius professor of divinity. He was made dean of Lincoln in 1571, and in 1576 bishop of Worcester, and, being also vice-president of the marches of \‘'ales, made constant use of both the temporal and spiritual powers to put drawn Roman Catholicism and Puritanism within the limits of his jurisdiction. In 1583 he became archbishop of Canterbury, and soon exacted from every clergyman in the church a subscription to the three points of the queen's supremacy, the lawfulness of the common prayer and ordination service, and the truth of the whole 39 articles. Making use of the court
of high commission he removed from positions in the church all non-conformists. In 1585 the star chamber. at his instigation, passed ordi nances for the rcivilation of the press, by which no one was allowed to print except in Lawton, Oxford and Cambridge; the number of printers was to be determined by the ecclesiastical com missioners; and none but a few special printers were to be suffered to print any book, matter or thing whatsoever until it should be perused and allowed by the archbishop of Canterbars and the bishop of London; and every one sell ing books contrary to the intent of the ordi nance was to be imprisoned for three months In 1586 he was sworn of the Privy Council and framed the statutes of cathedral churches. The hospital and grammar school at Croydon were founded by Whitgift. Consult 'Lives' by Strype (1718) and by Sir George Pack (1612): and Frere, W. H., 'The English Church of 1558-1625' (London 1904).