In this age of rediscovery of the Puritans it is surprising that the name of Laurence Chaderton has not become better known. He could cer­tainly be placed amongst the first rank of Puritan scholars and preach­ers, yet it is doubtless due to the fact that his published works were so few that he has not been granted the place he deserves. It is the aim of this brief article to go some way to redress the balance.

Devotion to Study and Preaching⤒🔗

Laurence was born the son of Edmund Chaderton in the parish of Old­ham, Lancashire, around the year 1536. The Chadertons were a well-to-do family of Catholic persuasion. Edmund was a most fervent papist and to ensure that Laurence followed in his footsteps he employed a priest to educate his son. The boy showed much promise, especially in Latin and Greek. He was sent to the Inns of Court in London to embark on the study of law. Soon after leaving home, Chaderton was first ex­posed to the evangelical faith, which he was shortly to adopt as his own. Upon this he abandoned all thought of a legal career, and in 1564 he was admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge, for the study of divinity. His father did not respond well to these changes in his son. He ceased all further financial support for his studies and disinherited him.

Yet through divine providence Chaderton was able to continue his academic pursuits unabated. In addition to theology, he devoted himself to the study of Hebrew, quickly becoming proficient in that language. To elucidate the Old Testament text he enlisted the help of the tradit­ional rabbinic commentaries (virtually the only aid to the study of the Hebrew text at the time), which he read in the original mediaeval Hebrew. Chaderton's personal copy of the Rabbinic Bible containing marginal notes in his own hand remains in the library of Emmanuel College.

He graduated in 1567 and the following year was elected a fellow of the college. He engaged in tutoring. He was subsequently also appoint­ed 'lecturer' (a Bible teacher) at St Clement's Church in Cambridge. Here his weekly sermons earned him a reputation as a solid expositor of the Word of God. He also regularly journeyed into London where he preached at St Paul's Cross and the Middle Temple.

On one occasion, when he had already spoken for two hours, he apologized for trying his congregation's patience; but they called out, 'For God's sake, Sir, go on!' Much to their satisfaction he went on for another hour! When, at the age of eighty-two, he decided it was time to retire from public preaching, to his amazement he received letters from forty other ministers of the Word urging him to continue, many of them attributing their own conversions to his ministry.

All the while he was serving as tutor and lecturer, Chaderton applied himself to on-going study. He was awarded the Master of Arts in 1571 and the Bachelor of Divinity in 1578. Much later in life, when in his seventies, he was created Doctor of Divinity.

Throughout his life Chaderton was a staunch advocate of Calvinistic orthodoxy. In 1576, he held a public disputation with Peter Baro, the Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, over the latter's leanings towards Arminianism. According to witnesses, Chaderton advocated his posit­ion, not only with greater ability and with a greater demonstration of learning than his opponent, but also with a better temper. While firm in his own Calvinistic beliefs, Chaderton was moderate by nature. He was gracious towards those with whom he differed and could never be accused of extremism. Nor was his Christianity merely doctrinal or cerebral. One of his contemporaries commented, 'How good a man Mr Chaderton is, who hath such a living affection to the poor, which is a certain token of a sound Christian.' He commended practical acts of Christian piety, even shaming his hearers on one occasion by claiming that the good deeds of the Papists often put the Protestants to shame.

Moreover, as he conducted himself in public, so he was in private. His household servants testified of his personal godliness in the confines of his own home. He was anxious that they should attend public wor­ship, and used to say, 'I desire as much to have my servants to know the Lord, as myself.'

During his early years at Cambridge Chaderton's friends included such notable individuals as William Fulke, author of the classic Defence of the Sincere and True Translation of the Holy Scriptures into the English Tongue, Thomas Cartwright, the champion of English Presby­terianism, and William Perkins, who, beginning under the tutorship of Chaderton at Christ's College, went on to become one of the foremost Puritan preachers and theologians of his day.

Emmanuel College←⤒🔗

Chaderton's godliness and learning brought him to the attention of those in positions of influence. In 1584 Sir Walter Mildmay, the wealthy Puri­tan philanthropist, founded the new Emmanuel College in Cambridge. Mildmay was keen to establish an institute of learning that would assist in the promotion of the Reformed faith and invited Chaderton to take up the position of Master. At first he was hesitant, yet when Mildmay threatened not to proceed with the opening of the college unless Chad­erton accepted, he submitted.

Chaderton was faithful to his calling as Master, and the college quickly gained a reputation as a 'seed-bed' of Puritan learning. Gener­ations of students were instructed in the study of the Scriptures in the original languages, in Reformed divinity, and in the art of preaching. To promote biblical knowledge and exegetical and expository ability, Chaderton and others organized what became known as 'mutual con­ferences'. At these weekly meetings, the Bible was intensively studied, chapter by chapter. Commencing with prayer, they read the passage in the original, then discussed linguistic matters. The plain meaning of the text was derived using the grammatico-historical approach typical of the Reformers and their successors. Next the logical relations within the passage were studied. Only once these foundational matters had been thoroughly discussed would the group proceed to see what points of doctrine the text contained and how they should be applied. Students would take it in turns to lead the various stages of inquiry, and their comments were evaluated by their seniors. The whole process took several hours. One observer of such a conference afterwards wrote a description of what had taken place, concluding, 'At last they went out, like Apollos, eloquent men and mighty in the Scriptures'.

Familiar names among Emmanuel alumni of those early decades of its history were Jeremiah Burroughs, Joseph Hall, Thomas Watson, Thomas Shepard, John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker, all of whom were to make their own impact in the life of the church, both in England and in the North American colonies.

For many years Chaderton directed Emmanuel College on thoroughly Reformed-Puritan principles. Besides the strong emphasis on Scripture, he saw to it that the influences of the established church were little felt within the college. Much to the chagrin of his higher Anglican brethren, the surplice was generally not worn, the chapel was merely an ordinary unconsecrated hall with few of the trimmings of other college chapels, and communion was taken seated. It was only a bold soul who would dare such unconcealed non-conformity in Elizabethan times.

After thirty-eight years as head of Emmanuel, the time came for Chaderton, now in his mid-eighties, to give way to a younger man. He was initially reluctant to resign in case the post might be given to an Arminian, but eventually an appropriate successor was found in John Preston, the famed writer of The Breastplate of Faith and Love, a man every bit as Puritan in persuasion as his predecessor. Remarkably, such was Chaderton's longevity that he was to outlive not only Preston but also his successor! Even following his retirement Chaderton was still consulted regarding college affairs for many years to come.

The Hampton Court Conference←⤒🔗

When James VI of Scotland became James I of England he summoned leading figures of the various sections of the English church to discuss their differences. It is a further indication of the position Chaderton held among his contemporaries that he was one of the four chosen to rep­resent the Puritan party at the Conference. The other three were John Reynolds, Master of Corpus Christi, Oxford, John Knewstubs, rector of Cock field in Suffolk, and Thomas Sparke, rector of Bletchley in Buckinghamshire. The Puritans were initially optimistic about the out­come, and not without reason. Had not James been brought up under the influence of John Knox? Was not Presbyterianism flourishing in his native Scotland? They were sure the king would listen sympathetically to their complaints. The Puritans were anxious to set out their concerns – the need for an adequately trained ministry, the control of ecclesiasti­cal income, the reform of ceremonies having no basis in Scripture, such as that of confirmation, the sign of the cross, the wearing of the surplice, lectionary readings from the Apocrypha, and other such matters. In short, they were seeking a more thorough reformation of the church than Anglicanism had so far accomplished.

Yet, as things turned out, when the delegates convened at Hampton Court Palace in 1604, it was evident that James had quite a different agenda. His primary concern was to establish harmony in his kingdom, particularly in the realm of religion, and his long speeches made it per­fectly obvious that he had no intention of making the changes that the Puritans were seeking. Constitutionally the king himself was head of the church, and he was evidently of a mind to manage the affairs of that church through his bishops and the existing episcopal system.

John Reynolds, acting as the main Puritan spokesman, endeavoured to counter the king's arguments, but to little avail. Chaderton was con­spicuously silent during the proceedings. Possibly, soon after the confer­ence began, he realized that he and his colleagues were not there to be given a hearing but simply to give the king an opportunity to vent his spleen against them and to pressure them into conformity.

However, though the conference was not a Puritan success, one posit­ive decision was taken: that a new translation of the Bible should be undertaken. In this project also Chaderton was to play a part.

The King James Bible←⤒🔗

There were already English Bibles circulating in the British Isles, several different versions in fact. Yet it could be argued that each was either lacking in some way or had some particular bias that rendered it unac­ceptable for common use. Tyndale's translation had been incomplete, Coverdale's and the Great Bible had not been done entirely from the original languages, the Geneva Bible originated among the Puritans, the Douai version among the Catholics, and the Bishops' Bible among the Anglican bishops.

At Hampton Court plans were set in motion for a major new English version. It was resolved, 'That a translation be made of the whole Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek; and this to be set out and printed, without any marginal notes, and only to be used in all churches of England in time of divine service.' Here was a tool, James hoped, that would serve to unite all the various religious factions in his kingdom.

Six companies of translators, totaling fifty scholars in all, were established for the execution of the work – two in Oxford, two in Cambridge, and two in Westminster. Each company was given a direc­tor and allocated a number of biblical books to work on. The king had decided to include both Chaderton and Reynolds among the number of translators, along with fellow Puritans Samuel Ward, Thomas Holland, Thomas Harrison, and Daniel Featley. Evidently the king wished to make the new version acceptable to Puritan as well as to prelate.

Chaderton, in view of his expertise in Hebrew, was assigned to the first Cambridge Company, which was given the task of translating all the Old Testament books from 1 Chronicles to the Song of Solomon. This group was initially under the directorship of Dr Edward Lively, Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge. But early in the proceedings he became seriously ill and died. It is possible that, following Lively's death, Chaderton may have exerted more influence upon the other members of his company.

During the years following the Hampton Court conference Chader­ton and his team regularly met to work painstakingly through Hebrew texts which included the great poetic books of Scripture – Job, Psalms, and Proverbs. Sometimes they were satisfied with the renderings of the earlier translations. In Psalm 23:1, for instance, 'The LORD is my shep­herd; I shall not want', they followed the Geneva Bible exactly (other earlier versions preferring 'lack'). Verse 5 of the same Psalm, 'My cup runneth over', also retains the Geneva wording, over against the merely 'full' cup of other versions. At other times they sought to improve upon their predecessors and offered a new reading. Such is the case with Psalm 42:1, 'As the hart panteth after the water brooks', where the earlier translations had used the verb 'brayeth' or 'desireth'. In Psalm 119:17 instead of 'Do well unto thy servant' (Great Bible), 'Be beneficial unto thy servant' (Geneva), and 'Reward thy servant' ('Bishops'), the King James Version reads much more effectively, 'Deal bountifully with thy servant.'

There can be no doubt that Chaderton, expert linguist as he was, left his mark upon the translation that was to become arguably the most influential Bible version of all time.

A Leading Puritan←⤒🔗

In 1640 Chaderton's long and useful life drew to its close. Those who knew him reported that, though well over a hundred years old, his wits were still with him and his eye had not grown dim. His funeral sermon was preached by Richard Holdsworth, the current Master of Emmanuel College. In his memory, a monumental slab bearing a simple inscription was placed over his remains at the entrance of the college chapel.

Chaderton, regrettably, had written little intended for pub­lication. There is one sermon in print that he preached at St Paul's Cross, and another dealing with the doctrine of justification. Apart from that a number of writings have survived in manuscript form, most notably 'An Order to be Used for the Training Up and Exercising of Students in Divinity'.

Yet we should not judge the greatness of a man merely on the basis of his published writings. From what we have seen of his contributions as a Reformed educator, an expository preacher, a representative of the Puritans before the king, and a translator of Holy Scripture, together with his godly and charitable character, Laurence Chaderton's place as a prominent figure in the Puritan movement is not in doubt.