ABBOT, GEORGE

ABBOT, GEORGE. - English Protestant, born at Guildford to a cloth manufacturer in 1562, and died on 4 Aug. 1633. While still a student, he attracted attention for his Puritan-Calvinist ideas, and when he was elected vice-chancellor of Oxford he ensured that the stained-glass windows depicting sacred images were destroyed. He was conciliatory toward the Scottish Puritans, but a most bitter enemy of Catholics. While vice-chancellor, he was chosen among the members of the university for the translation of the Bible, called the “Authorized Version” (v.), with the special task, together with eight others, of overseeing the revision of the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and the Apocalypse. As chaplain to the earl of Durbax, treasurer of the kingdom of Scotland and great friend of King Giacomo I (1603-25), he went to Scotland, where he rendered great assistance in establishing episcopacy. For this reason the king promoted him in 1609 to the bishopric of Lichfield, and in 1610 to that of London. At the death of the archbishop of Canterbury, R. Bancroft (1604-10), A. was, by the king’s will, despite his Calvinist doctrines, in reward for the work accomplished in Scotland and on the recommendation of the earl of Durbax, elected to the primatial see. Under his government the Puritan party grew in number and importance, with sad consequences for King Carlo I (1625-40) and for A.’s successor, W. Laud.