SANDERS, NICHOLAS. - English polemicist, b. at Charlwood c. 1530, d. in Ireland in Apr. 1581. After completing his studies in canon law in his homeland, with the accession of Elizabeth (1559) he first went into exile in Rome, then in Central Europe in the retinue of Cardinal Hosius.
From 1565 to 1572 he was a professor at Louvain, devoted himself to the publication of numerous works, and, as Apostolic Delegate for England, attended to the needs of his native country. In 1572, having made his way to the Spanish court, he urged Philip II to wage war against Elizabeth. In 1579 he landed in Ireland and for eighteen months was the driving force behind the Irish struggle against England, dying there from the privations and hardships he endured.
Of his writings, the most notable is *De visibili monarchia Ecclesiae libri octo* (Louvain 1571). He is also the author of a history of the Anglican schism (*De origine et progressu schismatis anglicani libri tres*, Cologne 1581), in which he reveals himself more as a passionate polemicist than as an impartial historian.