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Robert Sanderson (theologian)

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Robert Sanderson
Bishop of Lincoln
Robert Sanderson by John Riley
DioceseDiocese of Lincoln
In office24 October 1660 – 1663 (d.)
PredecessorThomas Winniffe
SuccessorBenjamin Lany
Other post(s)Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford (1642–1648 & 1660–1661)
Personal details
Born(1587-09-19)19 September 1587
Died29 January 1663(1663-01-29) (aged 75)
BuriedSt Mary's Church, Buckden
DenominationAnglican
SpouseAnn Nelson
Alma materLincoln College, Oxford

Robert Sanderson (19 September 1587 – 29 January 1663) was an English theologian and casuist.

Family and education

He was born in Sheffield in Yorkshire and grew up at Gilthwaite Hall, near Rotherham.[1] He was educated at Lincoln College, Oxford. Entering the Church, he rose to be Bishop of Lincoln.

Logician

His work on logic, Logicae Artis Compendium (1615), was long a standard treatise on the subject. It enjoyed at least ten editions during the seventeenth century and was widely read as a textbook. Sanderson's biographer, Izaak Walton writes that by 1678 'Logicae' had sold 10,000 copies. In her introduction to the 1985 facsimile edition E. J. Ashworth writes that "The young Isaac Newton studied Sanderson's logic at Cambridge, and as late as 1704." Thomas Heywood of St. John's College, Ashworth adds, recommended Newton "Sanderson or Aristotle himself". Sanderson's logic remained popular even after the appearance of the influential Port-Royal Logic.

Church career

Sanderson's sermons were also admired; but he is perhaps best remembered for his Nine Cases of Conscience Resolved (1678), in consideration of which he has been placed at the head of English casuists. He left large collections of historical and heraldic matter in MS.

At the Stuart Restoration, he was elected to the See of Lincoln on 13 October 1660, confirmed 24 October and consecrated a bishop on 28 October.[2]

Sanderson is today perhaps best known as the subject of one of Izaak Walton's Lives, published in 1678.

Works

  • The Works of Robert Sanderson in Six Volumes (1854) edited by William Jacobson. Oxford at the University Press. Most volumes are available in full or partial views in Google Books.
  • Logicae Artis Compendium, edited by E. J. Ashworth. Bologna: Editrice CLUEB, 1985. Also published as vol.VI in 'The Works of Robert Sanderson in Six Volumes' W. Jacobson (ed).

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainCousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: J. M. Dent & Sons – via Wikisource.

 Lupton, Joseph Hirst (1897). "Sanderson, Robert (1587-1663)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 50. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

  1. ^ Odom, William (1926). "Bishops—Clergy—Ministers". Hallamshire worthies. Sheffield: Northend. pp. 30–31. OCLC 23581396.
  2. ^ Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857, vol. 9, 1999, pp. 1–5
Academic offices
Preceded by Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford
1642–1648
Succeeded by
Preceded by Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford
1660–1661
Succeeded by
Church of England titles
Vacant
Title last held by
Thomas Winniffe
Bishop of Lincoln
1660–1663
Succeeded by