Sanderson, ROBERT

Sanderson, ROBERT, Bishop of Lincoln, the greatest of English casuists, was born on 19th September 1587, either at Sheffield or at his father's seat, Giltwaite Hall, near Rotherham. From Rotherham grammar-school he passed in his thirteenth year to Lincoln College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow (1606), reader of logic (1608), and thrice sub-rector (1613-16), in the last year being also chosen senior proctor. He had taken orders in 1611, and in 1618 was presented to the rectory of Wyberton in Lincolnshire, in 1619 to that of Boothby-Pagnell, near Grantham, in the same county. In 1631 he was appointed a king's chaplain: 'I carry,' said Charles I., 'my ears to hear other preachers, but I carry my conscience to hear Mr Sanderson, and to act accordingly.' He was created D.D. in 1636; from 1646 to 1648 filled the regius chair of divinity at Oxford; and continued parson of Boothby-Pagnell for upwards of forty years, even (in spite of one imprisonment and frequent plunderings) through all the Great Rebellion. In October 1660 he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln, and in 1661 he was moderator of the Savoy Conference; to him are due the present preface to the Prayer-book and the General Confession. He died at his palace of Buckden, Hunts, 29th January 1663. His works, collected and edited by Professor Jacobson (6 vols. Oxford, 1854), comprise, besides sermons, the Logica Artis Compendium (1615), De Obligatione Conscientie Praelectiones (1647; new ed. by Whewell, 1851), Nine Cases of Conscience resolved (1628-78), and Episcopacy not Prejudicial to the Regal Power (1661). See the Life by Izaak Walton, reprinted in vol. iv. of Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Biography (1853).