John Tillotson

The Most Reverend and Right Honourable John Tillotson
Archbishop of Canterbury
Installed	April 1691
Term ended	22 November 1694
Predecessor	William Sancroft
Successor	Thomas Tenison
Personal details
Born	October 1630 Sowerby, Yorkshire
Died	22 November 1694
Alma mater	Clare College, Cambridge

John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury from 1691 to 1694.

Tillotson was the son of a Puritan clothier at Haughend, Sowerby, Yorkshire. Little is known of his early youth; he studied at Colne Grammar School, before entering as a pensioner of Clare Hall, Cambridge in 1647. His tutor was David Clarkson and he graduated in 1650, being made a fellow of his college in 1651.

In 1656 Tillotson became tutor to the son of 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.

He now devoted himself to an exact study of biblical and patristic Catholic writers, especially Basil and 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 Roman Catholicism. Tillotson himself was personally tolerant enough towards Roman Catholics, remarking in a famous sermon that while Popery was "gross superstition", yet "Papists, I doubt not, are made like other men."

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