View source for John Tillotson

{{Short description|Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694}}
{{About |1=the former Archbishop |2=the 1950s and 1960s singer |3=Johnny Tillotson}}
{{Use British English |date=May 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = {{pre-nominal styles |size=100% |MRevd |&RHPC}}
| name = John Tillotson
| honorific-suffix = 
| archbishop_of = [[Archbishop of Canterbury]]
| image = John Tillotson by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg
| imagesize = 
| alt = 
| caption = Portrait by [[Godfrey Kneller]]
| province = 
| church = [[Church of England]]
| diocese = [[Diocese of Canterbury|Canterbury]]
| see = 
| enthroned = April 1691
| ended = 22 November 1694
| predecessor = [[William Sancroft]]
| successor = [[Thomas Tenison]]
| ordination = 
| consecration = 31 May 1691
| consecrated_by = [[Peter Mews]]
| other_post = 
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = October 1630
| birth_place = [[Sowerby, West Yorkshire|Sowerby]], [[Yorkshire]], [[England]]
| death_date = 22 November 1694 (aged 64)
| death_place = 
| buried = 
| nationality = [[English people|English]]
| religion = [[Anglicanism|Anglican]]
| residence = 
| parents = 
| spouse = Elizabeth Tillotson née French
| children = 
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| alma_mater = [[Clare College, Cambridge]]
| signature = John Tillotson Signature.svg
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'''John Tillotson''' (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] from 1691 to 1694.

==Curate and rector==
Tillotson was the son of a [[Puritan]] [[Cloth production|clothier]] at Haughend, [[Sowerby, West Yorkshire|Sowerby]], Yorkshire. Little is known of his early youth; he studied at [[Colne]] Grammar School,{{sfn|Carr|1878}} before entering as a [[pensioner]] of [[Clare College, Cambridge|Clare Hall, Cambridge]], in 1647. His tutor was [[David Clarkson (minister)|David Clarkson]] and he graduated in 1650, being made a fellow of his college in 1651.<ref name=ACAD />{{sfn |Gordon |1898}}

In 1656 Tillotson became tutor to the son of [[Sir Edmund Prideaux, 1st Baronet of Ford Abbey|Edmund Prideaux]], attorney-general to [[Oliver Cromwell]]. About 1661 he was ordained without subscription by [[Thomas Sydserf]], a Scottish bishop. Tillotson was present at the [[Savoy Conference]] in 1661, and remained identified with the [[Presbyterians]] until the passing of the [[Act of Uniformity 1662]]. Shortly afterwards he became curate of [[Cheshunt]], Herts, and in June 1663, rector of [[Kedington]], Suffolk.{{sfn |Gordon |1898}}

He now devoted himself to an exact study of biblical and [[Patristics|patristic]] writers, especially [[Basil of Caesarea|Basil]] and [[John Chrysostom|Chrysostom]]. The result of this reading, and of the influence of [[John Wilkins]], Master of [[Trinity College, Cambridge]], was seen in the general tone of his preaching, which was practical rather than theological, concerned with issues of personal morality instead of theoretical doctrine. This plain style of preaching is reflective of the late 17th century, when the integration of reason into Protestant theology came to be seen as one of its finest attributes against [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]]. Tillotson himself was personally tolerant enough towards Catholics, remarking in a famous sermon that while Popery was "gross superstition", yet "Papists, I doubt not, are made like other men". He was actually a [[latitudinarian]], also known as "Cambridge Arminianism".{{sfn |Lueker |2000}} Besides, Tillotson adopted [[Arminianism|Arminian]] views.{{sfn |Lueker |2000b}}

He was a man of the world as well as a divine, and in his sermons, he exhibited a tact which enabled him at once to win the ear of his audience. In 1664 he became preacher at [[Lincoln's Inn]]. The same year he married Elizabeth French, a niece of [[Oliver Cromwell]]; and he also became a Tuesday lecturer at [[St Lawrence, Jewry]] (where he was later buried). Tillotson employed his controversial weapons with some skill against [[atheism]] and Catholicism. In 1663 he published a characteristic sermon on "The Wisdom of being Religious," and in 1666 replied to [[John Sergeant (priest)|John Sergeant]]'s ''Sure Footing in Christianity'' by a pamphlet on the "Rule of Faith." The same year he received the degree of D.D.{{sfn |Chisholm |1911}}

==Dean of Canterbury and Archbishop==
[[File:The grave of John Tillotson, St Lawrence Jewry, London.jpg |thumb |The grave of John Tillotson, [[St Lawrence Jewry]], London]]
In 1670 he became prebendary and in 1672 [[dean of Canterbury]]. That latter year he was also elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]].{{sfn|Tillotson|1752|p=lvii}} In 1675 he edited [[John Wilkins]]'s ''Principles of Natural Religion'', completing what was left unfinished of it, and in 1682 his Sermons. Along with [[Gilbert Burnet|Burnet]], Tillotson attended [[William Russell, Lord Russell]] on the scaffold in 1683. In 1684, he wrote a ''Discourse against [[Transubstantiation]]''. He afterwards enjoyed the friendship of Lady Russell, and it was partly through her that he obtained so much influence with [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Princess Anne]], who followed his advice in regard to the settlement of the crown on [[William III of England|William of Orange]]. He possessed the special confidence of William and Mary, and was made [[Clerk of the Closet|clerk of the closet]] to the king in March 1689.{{sfn |Chisholm |1911}}

It was chiefly through his advice that the king appointed an ecclesiastical commission for the reconciliation of the Dissenters. In August of this year, he was appointed by the chapter of his cathedral to exercise the archepiscopal jurisdiction of the province of Canterbury during the suspension of Sancroft. He was also, about the same time, named [[Dean of St Paul's]]. Soon afterwards he was elected to succeed [[William Sancroft|Sancroft]] as archbishop; but accepted the promotion with extreme reluctance, and it was deferred from time to time, at his request, until April 1691. In 1693 he published four lectures on the [[Socinian controversy]],{{sfn|Tillotson|1693}} partly to clear his own name from charges of sympathy with Socinianism in his previous associations with [[Thomas Firmin]], [[Stephen Nye]] and others.

His attempts to reform certain abuses of the Church of England, especially that of clerical non-residence, awakened much ill-will, and of this the [[Jacobitism|Jacobites]] took advantage, pursuing him to the end of his life with insult and reproach. He died on 22 November 1694.{{sfn |Chisholm |1911}}

For his manuscript sermons, Tillotson's widow received 2500 guineas. Ralph Barker edited some 250 of them together with the "Rule of Faith" (1695–1704). In 1752 an edition appeared in 3 vols., with ''Life by Thomas Birch'', compiled from Tillotson's original papers and letters. Various selections from his sermons and works have been published separately.<ref>GW Weldon in 1886</ref> AMS Press, New York, published a modern edition of his works in the 1980s. In his home town of Sowerby, a statue of Tillotson still exists in St. Peter's church and an avenue is named after him in the lower end of the town.

He is buried in the church of [[St Lawrence Jewry]] just west of the [[Bank of England]] in the City of London.

[[Thomas Tillotson]] was his great great nephew.

==Works==
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book|first=John |last=Tillotson|display-authors=0|title= A Sermon Concerning the Unity of the Divine Nature and the Blessed Trinity |location=London|date= 1693}}
*{{cite book|first=John |last=Tillotson|display-authors=0|editor=Thomas Birch|title=The Works of John Tillotson with the Life of the author|date=1752|volume=}}
* ''A Discourse Against Transubstantiation''
* ''A Persuasive to Frequent Communion in the Holy Sacrament of the Lord's Supper''
* ''[https://archive.org/search.php?query=john%20tillotson%20works%20AND%20collection%3Atoronto Ten Volume Set of the Works of John Tillotson]''
{{refend}}

==Notes and references==
===Citations===
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=ACAD>{{acad |id=TLT647J |name=Tillotson, John}}</ref>
}}

===Sources===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=James |title=Annals and stories of Colne and neighbourhood |url = https://archive.org/details/annalsstoriesofc00carriala |date = 1878}}
* {{EB1911 |wstitle=Tillotson, John |volume=26|page=976}}
* {{cite ODNB |first=Isabel |last=Rivers |title=Tillotson, John (1630–1694) |id=27449}}
* {{cite DNB |wstitle=Tillotson, John |volume=56 |first=Alexander |last=Gordon}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |language=en |last=Lueker |first=Erwin Louis |title=Arminianism |year=2000b |encyclopedia=Christian Cyclopedia |place=Saint Louis, MO |publisher=Concordia publ. House |url=http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=A&word=ARMINIANISM }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |language=en |last=Lueker |first=Erwin Louis |title=Tillotson, John Robert |year=2000 |encyclopedia=Christian Cyclopedia |place=Saint Louis, MO |publisher=Concordia publ. House |url=http://cyclopedia.lcms.org/display.asp?t1=t&word=TILLOTSON.JOHNROBERT }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
* [http://anglicanhistory.org/england/jtillotson/ Bibliographic directory] from [[Project Canterbury]]

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel |en}}
{{s-bef |before=[[Thomas Turner (dean)|Thomas Turner]]}}
{{s-ttl |title=[[Dean of Canterbury]] |years=1672–1689}}
{{s-aft |after=[[John Sharp (archbishop)|John Sharp]]}}
{{s-bef |before=[[Edward Stillingfleet]]}}
{{s-ttl |title=[[Dean of St Paul's]] |years=1689–1691}}
{{s-aft |after=[[William Sherlock]]}}
{{s-bef |before=[[William Sancroft]]}}
{{s-ttl |title=[[Archbishop of Canterbury]] |years=1691–1694}}
{{s-aft |after=[[Thomas Tenison]]}}
{{s-end}}

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{{Commons category |John Tillotson}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tillotson, John}}
[[Category:1630 births]]
[[Category:1694 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Anglican archbishops]]
[[Category:Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Archbishops of Canterbury]]
[[Category:Arminian ministers]]
[[Category:Arminian theologians]]
[[Category:Clerks of the Closet]]
[[Category:Deans of Canterbury]]
[[Category:Deans of St Paul's]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society]]
[[Category:Participants in the Savoy Conference]]
[[Category:People from Sowerby Bridge]]
[[Category:17th-century Anglican theologians]]
[[Category:Lincoln's Inn]]