Concordia 25_cover section.indd

Left: Lancelot Andrewes memorial plaque in Presbytery Bottom: Lancelot Andrewes Creation Altar Frontal (photos Stephen O’Connell)

Concordia Winter 2022

No-one could have been a more suitable preceptor for the future translator of the Authorised Version. At 16, already possessed of a high academic reputation, Andrewes entered Pembroke College, Cambridge, graduating MA in 1578. He was to be Master of the College from 1589 to his death in 1626. (He was also awarded an MA at Oxford and named a founding Fellow of Jesus College). During his university years he would take a month’s vacation with his parents and learn a new language, eventually mastering six ancient and fifteen modern ones. He was priested in 1580. Lancelot Andrewes was greatly admired by James I. His name was first on the list of divines appointed to work on the King James Bible (published 1611). He headed the First Westminster Company, responsible for Genesis to 2 Kings, and acted as general editor for the whole project. His appointment as Bishop of Winchester in 1619 was a token of James’ gratitude and respect. It is also worthy of note that five other scholars of Merchant Taylors’ took part in the production of the King James Bible. Winchester Cathedral commemorates him in a statue on the Great Screen, (placed at the feet of St Gregory, patron of learned men) and by the Creation Altar Frontal (below) which quotes from one of his prayers – “Essence beyond essence, Nature Uncreate, Framer of the World”. The memorial to him by Simon Verity, pictured left, was placed in the Presbytery in 1994. It shows his image and symbols relating to his personal virtues and devotion to the Eucharist.

15