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NICHOLAS SANDERS (c. 1530-1581)

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Originally appearing in Volume V24, Page 138 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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NICHOLAS See also:SANDERS (c. 1530-1581)  , See also:Roman See also:Catholic See also:agent and historian, See also:born about 1530 at Charlwood, See also:Surrey, was a son of See also:William See also:Sanders, once See also:sheriff of Surrey, who was descended from the Sanders of Sanderstead . Educated at See also:Winchester and New See also:College, See also:Oxford, he was elected See also:fellow in 1548 and graduated B.C.L. in 1551 . The See also:family had strong Catholic leanings, and two of See also:Nicholas's sisters, who must have been much older than he was, became nuns of See also:Sion See also:convent before its See also:dissolution . Nicholas was selected to deliver the oration at the reception of See also:Cardinal See also:Pole's visitors by the university in 1557, and soon after See also:Elizabeth's See also:accession he went to See also:Rome where he was befriended by Pole's confidant, Cardinal See also:Morone; he also owed much to the generosity of See also:Sir See also:Francis See also:Englefield (q.v.) . He was ordained See also:priest at Rome, and was, even before the end of 155o, mentioned as a likely See also:candidate for the cardinal's See also:hat . For the next few years he was employed by Cardinal See also:Hosius, the learned See also:Polish See also:prelate, in his efforts to check the spread of See also:heresy in See also:Poland, Lithuania and See also:Prussia . In 1565, like many other See also:English exiles, he made his headquarters at See also:Louvain, and after a visit to the Imperial See also:Diet at See also:Augsburg in 1566, in attendance upon Commendone, who had been largely instrumental in the reconciliation of See also:England with Rome in See also:Mary's reign, he threw himself into the See also:literary controversy between See also:Bishop See also:Jewel (q.v.) and See also:Harding . His De visibili Monarchia Ecclesiae, published in 157r, contains the first narrative of the sufferings of the English Roman Catholics . Its extreme papalism and its strenuous See also:defence of See also:Pius V.'s See also:bull excommunicating and deposing Elizabeth marked out Sanders for the enmity of the English See also:government, and he retaliated with lifelong efforts to procure the deposition of Elizabeth and restoration of Roman Catholicism . His expectations of the cardinalate were disappointed by Pius V.'s See also:death in 1572, and Sanders spent the next few years at See also:Madrid trying to embroil See also:Philip II., who gave him a See also:pension of 300 ducats, in open See also:war with Elizabeth . " The See also:state of Christendom," he wrote, " dependeth upon the stout assailing of England." His ardent zeal was sorely tried by Philip's cautious temperament ; and Sir See also:Thomas See also:Stukeley's projected Irish expedition, which Sanders was to have accompanied with the blessings and assistance of the See also:pope, was diverted to See also:Morocco where Stukeley was killed at the See also:battle of Al Kasr al Kebir in 1578 . Sanders, however, found his opportunity in the following See also:year, when a force of Spaniards and Italians was despatched to Smerwick to assist See also:James Fitzmaurice and his Geraldines in stirring up an Irish See also:rebellion ..

The Spaniards were, however, annihilated by See also:

Lord See also:Grey in 158o, and after nearly two years of wandering in Irish See also:woods and bogs Sanders died of See also:cold and See also:starvation in the See also:spring of 1581 . The English exiles were disgusted at the See also:waste of such material: " Our Sanders," they exclaimed, " is more to us than the whole of See also:Ireland." His writings have been the basis of all Roman Catholic histories of the English See also:Reformation . The most important was his De Origine ac Progressu schismatic Anglicani, which was continued after 1558 by See also:Edward Rishton, and printed at See also:Cologne in 1585; it has been often re-edited and translated, the best English edition being that by See also:David See also:Lewis (See also:London, 1877) . Its statements earned Sanders the See also:nickname of Dr Slanders in England; but a considerable number of the " slanders" have been confirmed by corroborative See also:evidence, and others, e.g. his storythat See also:Ann See also:Boleyn was See also:Henry VIII.'s own daughter, were simply borrowed by Sanders from earlier writers . It, is not a more untrustworthy See also:account than a vehement controversialist engaged in a See also:life and death struggle might be expected to write of his theological antagonists . See Lewis's Introduction (1877); Calendars of Irish, See also:Foreign and See also:Spanish State Papers, and of the See also:Carew See also:MSS . ; See also:Knox's Letters of Cardinal See also:Allen; T . F . See also:Kirby's Winchester Scholars; R . Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors; A . O . See also:Meyer's England and See also:die katholische Kirche unter Konigin Elisabeth (191o); and T .

G . See also:

Law in Diet . Nat . Biogr. i . 259-261 where a See also:complete See also:list of Sanders's writings is given . (A . F .

End of Article: NICHOLAS SANDERS (c. 1530-1581)
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