Bishop Launcelot Andrewes

	Bishop Launcelot Andrewes died on September 25th ,1626 at the age of 71. As Bishop of Winchester, and a renowned theologian and academic, Andrewes was entrusted by King James I to oversee a new translation of the bible, now known as the King James Version. In 1571, at the age of just 16, he entered Pembroke College, Cambridge as a scholar and, perhaps confusingly, he was also named as a Founding Scholar of the protestant Jesus College, Oxford in the same year.
Before he even started his academic journey at Cambridge, he had learned a considerable number of modern European languages (some say 15-20) including Hebrew, in addition to the Latin and classical Greek which were the foundations of any education at the time. Just five years later, in 1576, he was elected Fellow of Pembroke College, completing a Master of Arts degree there in 1581 having been ordained a priest in the June of the previous year. His academic talents and outspoken protestant opinions on some religious doctrines and on the Catholic church served to ease his progress through the ranks of the English clergy. King James’ accession to the throne in 1603 marked a further positive stage in Bishop Andrewes’ rise to fame and favour. He was made Bishop of Chichester in 1605 and the sermon he presented to James I on the first anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot in 1606, promoted the annual commemoration of the event, which continues to be celebrated each November 5th. Launcelot Andrewes’ most famous contribution to the Church of England was his commission by King James to oversee a third, and “more complete and accurate” new English translation of the bible. This work commenced in 1604 and was published in 1611. It is widely praised for the beauty of the language used, clear sentence structure and phrasing, and the everyday English language and idioms used. More than 400 years later it remains the most widely printed book ever and, for many, the most prized version.
	Andrewes died in Winchester Palace in Southwark, London in 1626 and is buried in Southwark Cathedral. Regardless of their final resting place, the memory of some Bishops of Winchester is marked by significant monuments in Winchester Cathedral. The memorial for Bishop Launcelot Andrewes is more restrained being no more than a simple wall plaque mounted in the cathedral’s quire. At his death Andrewes was said to be "the most worthy bishop of Winchester, the great light of the Christian world"