Rev. Fr. Dr. Nicolas Sander - The Rise And Growth of The Anglican Schism

The Rise and Growth of the Anglican Schism

Nicolas Sander, D.D .

Originally published in Latin in 1585 (Cologne) as De Origine ac Progressu Schismatis Anglicani ("Concerning the Origin and Progress of the Anglican Schism"). Issued in over 30 editions in various countriesin Latin, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Polish.

This edition, the first edition in English, was first published in 1877 by Burns and Oates, London.

Republished in 1988 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc. by arrangement with Burns & Oates Ltd., Tunbridge Wells, England.

Library of Congress Catalog Card No.: 88-50849

ISBN: 0-89555-347-3

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
www.TANBooks.com

1988

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

By David Lewis

T HE earliest and the most trustworthy account which we possess of the great changes in Church and State that were wrought in the reign of Henry VIII. was written by the celebrated Dr. Nicolas Sander, and published in the year of our Lord 1585, at Cologne, with the following title:

"Doctissimi viri Nicolai Sanderi, de origine ac progressu Schismatis Anglicani liber. Continens historiam maxime ecclesiasticam, annorum circiter sexaginta, lectu dignissimam: nimirum, ab anno 21 regni Henrici 8 quo primum cogitare cpit de repudianda legitima uxore serenissima Catherina, usque ad hunc vigesimum septimum Elizabeth, qu ultima est ejusdem Henrici soboles. Editus et auctus per Edouardum Rishtonum. Prcipua capita totius operis post prfationem authoris continentur. Coloni Agrippin, Anno Domini, 1585."

His work was sent to the printers after the death of the author, as may be gathered from the title-page, by the Rev. Edward Rishton, missionary priest, who added to it the Fourth Book.

Dr. Sander himself had made some progress in his account of the reign of Elizabeth, but as he had not perfectly arranged it for the press, Mr. Rishton thought it best to supply its place, as he has done, with the clear and accurate sketch, which is here called the continuation of the history.

Edward Rishton, the first editor of Dr. Sander's account of the rise of the Anglican Schism, was "descended," according to Tanner, "from an ancient and honourable family in the county of Lancaster familia antiqua et generosa in agro Lancastriensi oriundus "and entered Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1568, when Elizabeth was queen of England.

Having finished his course, he took his degree of B.A. in 1572, and in the following year entered the new seminary at Douai, then newly founded by William, afterwards Cardinal, Allen; for among those who, according to the register of the seminary, began to study theology on the feast of St. Remi, October 1, 1573, was Edward Rishton of the diocese of Chester.

The seminary was an offence to queen Elizabeth and her ministers, who stirred up the heretics at Douai

On Easter Eve in the following year, April 7, 1577, Mr. Rishton was ordained priest at Cambrai,

Mr. Rishton left Rheims on the 5th day of June, and made his way to England; but "the feet swift to shed blood" overtook him, and he was seized, imprisoned, tried, and condemned to death. That sentence, however, was not executed, but he was kept a prisoner in the Tower, out of which he was taken January 21, 1585, and placed on board a vessel, and cast ashore on the coast of Normandy, by orders of Elizabeth. He reached Rheims on the 3d of March, and then went to Paris, where he met his friend, who prevailed upon him to publish this work of Dr. Sander. But during his imprisonment in the Tower of London he kept a diary, in which he recorded from time to time the merciless tortures to which the Catholics within its walls were subjected by the ministers of Elizabeth. The diary was published after his death, at the end of the edition of Dr. Sander's work which was printed in Rome, 1587, and remains as a record of savage cruelty perpetrated by people who professed, and even practised, the utmost licence in matters of religion; but labouring, as is always the habit of people so professing, under the most perfect incapacity of allowing to others the same deplorable liberty, or even tolerating the only religion that is true. From Paris he went to Pont--Mousson, but did not remain there because of the breaking out therein of a grave disease, not, however, escaping the danger he hoped to avoid, for he became seriously ill at Ste. Mnhould, where he departed this life to receive the reward of his good confession.

The day of his death, according to the Douai diary, was June 29, 1585, but it is not improbable that the report brought to the seminary at Rheims may have been inexact, or perhaps entered in the wrong place in the diary. Mr. Rishton has told the story of Alfield and Webley, who were put to death July 6 because they had brought into the country a book of Cardinal Allen. He must therefore have lived beyond the 29th of June. Still further, he has mentioned the deportation of priests in September of that year, and it may be that he lived even to see the beginning of 1586.

On the other side may be said that the positive testimony of the Douai diary is too clear to be set aside, for the printers in Cologne may have added the story of Alfield and Webley, and the deportation of the priests, in order to make the history complete down to the day in which they were printing the continuation of Mr. Rishton.

Nicolas Sander, the author of the work edited by Mr. Rishton, was descended from an ancient and honourable family, which in the reign of king John was settled in Sanderstead, in the county of Surrey. The head of the house at that time seems to have been William Sander, who, dying without issue, left his lands in that parish to the monastery of Hyde, near Winchester, and in the reign of Henry III. the monks entered into possession. In his other estates he was succeeded by his brother, and in the reign of Edward II. the family was settled at Sander Place, or Charlwood Place, in the parish of Charlwood, in the same county of Surrey.

In the beginning of the sixteenth century the head of the family was Nicolas Sander of Charlwood, whose son, Sir Thomas Sander, was high sheriff of Surrey, A.D. 1553. The high sheriff of the same county, A.D. 1556, was William Sander of Aston, a younger brother of Nicolas Sander, the father of Sir Thomas. William Sander of Aston married Elizabeth Mynes, who in her widowhood went into exile that she might keep the faith, and of that marriage there was issue twelve children, of whom Nicolas Sander was one. Two daughters entered religion, and were professed in the monastery of Sion. Margaret, the elder, was prioress under Catherine Palmer, who recovered possession of the monastery in the reign of Mary, and who was forced to abandon it under Elizabeth.

Another daughter was married to Henry Pits of Hampshire, and was the mother of John Pits, to whom we owe the great work "De Illustribus Angli Scriptoribus," printed in Paris, A.D. 1619.

Nicolas was born at Charlwood, A.D. 1527, and was educated in the famous school of William of Wykeham, in Winchester; from that school he went to the New College of its founder, in Oxford, of which he was admitted scholar, August 6, 1546, and then fellow two years afterwards, August 6, 1548. He applied himself to the study of canon law, and took his degree in that faculty.