Lancelot Andrewes (1555-1626) was a
royal chaplain to both Queen Elizabeth and King James of England, a bishop of
the state church of England and a respected scholar in his day. He was the director
of what was called “The First Westminster Company,” charged with translating
the Old Testament books from Genesis to Second Kings for what came to be known
as the King James Bible.
But he was also a hateful and
zealous persecutor of any who sought to read the Bible for themselves and act
according to their own beliefs rather than according to what the official
church taught. He was charged with interrogating religious separatists whose
fellow believers would eventually board the Mayflower
to seek religious freedom in America. It was a task he performed with relish.
In 1590, one such separatist, Henry
Barrow, whose sins seem to have included the belief that the Bible, not church
authorities, provided the basis for all belief, was imprisoned and tortured for
three years before enduring one such interrogation from Andrewes. At one point,
Barrow spoke of the darkness, the filth and the isolation of his imprisonment. Andrewes’
reply was devoid of sympathy, empathy or Christian kindness. “For close
imprisonment you are the most happie. The solitarie and contemplative life I
hold the most blessed life. It is the life I would chuse.” Barrow would
eventually be burned alive at the stake for his Christian beliefs, but on that
occasion his final response was to open Andrewes’ New Testament to the parable
of the Good Samaritan and point to the verse about how a certain priest
happened to pass that way and did nothing to alleviate another’s suffering.1
Though Lancelot Andrewes may have
been an official representative of the kingdoms of earth, it wa
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