WILLIAM BARLOW
The fifth company of Translators was composed of seven divines, who held their meetings at Westminster. Their special portion of the work was the whole of the Epistles of the New Testament. The president of this company was Dr. William Barlow, at the time of his appointment, Dean of Chester. He belonged to an ancient and respectable family, residing at Barlow, in Lancashire. He was bred a student of Trinity Hall in the University of Cambridge. He graduated in 1584, became Master of Arts in 1587 and was admitted to a fellowship in Trinity Hail in 1590. Seven years later, Archbishop Whitgift made him sinecure Rector of Orpington in Kent. He was one of the numerous ecclesiastics of that day, who were courtiers by profession, and studied with success the dark science of preferment. When Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was beheaded for high treason in the year 1600, Dr. Barlow preached on the occasion, at St. Paul's Cross, in London. He was now a "rising man." In 1601, the prebendship of Chiswick was conferred upon him, and he held it till he was made Bishop of Lincoln. In the year 1603, he became at the same time, Prebendary of Westminster and Dean of Chester. This latter prebendship, he held in "commendam" to the day of his death…
The King granted Dr. Reynolds's motion for a new translation of the Bible, to be prepared by the ablest divines in his realm. Dr. Barlow was actively employed in the preliminary arrangements. He was also appointed to take part in the work itself; in which, being a thorough bred scholar, he did excellent service.
In the course of the work, in 1605, being, at the time, Rector of one of the London parishes, St. Dunstan's in the East, Dr. Barlow was made Bishop of Rochester. He was promoted to the wealthier see of Lincoln in 1608, where he presided with all dignity till his death. He died at a time when he had some hopes of getting the bishopric of London. His decease took place at his Episcopal palace of Buckden, where he was buried in 1613. He published several books and pamphlets, which prove him not out of place when put among the learned men of that erudite generation of divines.
JOHN SPENCER
This very learned man was a native of the county of Suffolk. He became a student of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1577. He was elected Greek lecturer for that College, being then but nineteen years of age. His election was strenuously, but vainly, opposed by Dr. Reynolds, partly on account of his youth, and on the ground of some irregularity in his appointment. Perhaps this opposition was also to be ascribed to the fact, that young Spencer early attached himself to that party in his College which dreaded Puritanism quite as much as Popery. In 1579, he was chosen Fellow of the same College.
He was the fellow-student, and, like Saravia, Savile, and Reynolds, the intimate friend of Richard Hooker, the author of that famous work, "The Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity." This work, in the preparation of which Spencer was constantly consulted, and was even said to have had a special hand was in part its author, and which he edited after Hooker's death, this work is to this day the" great gun" on the ramparts of the Episcopal sect. Its argument, however, is very easily disposed of. It is thus described by Dr. James Bennett; "The architecture of the fabric resembles Dagon's temple; for it rests mainly upon two grand pillars, which, so long as they continue sound, will support all its weight. The first is, 'that the Church of Christ, like all other societies, has power to make laws for its well being; and the second, that where the sacred Scriptures are silent, human authority may interpose. But if some Samson can be found to shake these pillars from their base, the whole edifice, with the lords of the Philistines in their seats, and the multitude with which it is crowded, will be involved in one common ruin. Grant Mr. Hooker these two principles, and his arguments cannot be confuted. But if a Puritan can show that the Church of Christ is different from all civil societies, because Christ had framed a constitution for it, and that where the Scriptures are silent, and neither enjoin nor forbid, no human association has a right to interpose its authority, but should leave the matter indifferent; in such a case, Hooker's system would not be more stable than that of the Eastern philosopher, who rested the earth on the back of an elephant, who stood upon a huge tortoise, which stood upon nothing."
After the death of Hooker in 1600, his papers were committed to Dr. Spencer, the associate and assistant of his studies, to superintend their publication. He attended carefully to this literary executorship, till the translation of the Bible began to engross his attention, when he committed the other duty, though still retaining a supervisory care, to a young and enthusiastic admirer of Hooker. The publication was not completed at the time of Dr. Spencer's death, and the papers of Hooker passed into other hands.
When he became Master of Arts, in 1580, John Spencer entered into orders, and became a popular preacher He was eventually one of King James' chaplains. His wife was a pupil of Hooker's as well as her brothers, George and William Cranmer, who became diplomatic characters, and warm patrons of their celebrated teacher. Mrs. Spencer was a great niece of Thomas Cranmer, that Archbishop of Canterbury, whom Queen Mary burnt at the stake for his Protestantism. In 1589, Dr. Spencer was made Vicar of Alveley in Essex, which he resigned, in 1592, for the vicarage of Broxborn. In 1599, he was Vicar of St. Sepulchre's, beyond Newgate, London. He was made President of Corpus Christi College, on the death of Dr. Reynolds, in 1607. Dr. Spencer was appointed to a prebendal stall in St. Paul's, London, in 1612. His death took place on the third day of April, 1614, when he was fifty-five years of age. Of his eminent scholarship there can be no question He was a valuable helper in the great work of preparing our common English version. We have but one publication from his pen, a sermon preached at St. Paul's Cross, and printed after his decease, of which Keble, who is Professor of Poetry at Oxford, says, that it is "full of eloquence, and striking thoughts."
ROGER FENTON
This clergy man was a native of Lancashire. He was Fellow of Pembroke Hall, in Cambridge University.
For many years, he was "the painful, pious, learned, and beloved minister" of St. Stephen's, Walbrook, London, to which he was admitted in 1601. He was also presented by the Queen to the Rectory of St. Bennet's, Sherehog, which he resigned in 1606, for the vicarage of Chigwell, in Essex. He was also collated, in place of Bishop Andrews, to the Prebendship of Pancras in St. Paul's cathedral, where he was Penitentiary of St. Paul's. His prebendship of Pancras also made him, (so Newcourt says,) Rector of that church. He died January 16th, 1616, aged fifty years. He was buried under the communion-table of St. Stephen's, where there is a monument erected to his memory by his parishioners, with an inscription expressing their affection toward him as a pastor eminent for his piety and learning.
His principal publication is described as a solid treatise against usury. His most intimate friend was Dr. Nicholas Felton, another London minister. The following singular incident is related of them by good old Thomas Fuller; "Once my own father gave Dr. Fenton a visit, who excused himself from entertaining him any longer. 'Mr. Fuller, said he, 'hear how the passing bell tolls at this very instant, for my dear friend, Dr. Felton, now a-dying I must to my study, it being mutually agreed upon betwixt us, in our healths, that the survivor of us should preach the other's funeral sermon.' But see a strange change! God, 'to whom belong the issues of death,' with the patriarch Jacob blessing his grand-children, 'wittingly guided his hands across,' reaching out death to the living, and life to the dying. So that Dr. Felton recovered, and not only performed that last office to his friend, Dr. Fenton, but survived him more than ten years, and died Bishop of Ely." By that funeral sermon, it appears that Dr. Fenton was free of the Grocers' Company, a wealthy guild, to whom belonged the patronage of St. Stephen's Church. He was also Preacher of Gray's Inn, a society or college of lawyers.
Bishop Felton says of him," None was fitter to dive into the depths of school divinity. He was taken early from the University, and had many troubles afterward; yet he grew, and brought forth fruit. Never a more learned hath Pembroke Hall brought forth, with but one exception." This nameless exception was doubtless the great Bishop I,ancelot Andrews. Dr. Fenton suffered severely in regard to health, in consequence of his sedentary habits. "In the time of his sickness," says his friend, "1 told him that his weakness and disease were trials only of his faith and patience.'' "Oh no," he answered, "they are not trials but *corrections."
*(Non probationes, sed castigationes.)RALPH HUTCHINSON
Dr. Hutchinson, at the time of his appointment, was President of St. John's College, having entered that office in 1590. This, which marks him as a learned man, is all we can tell of him. We can find nothing of his birth nor at what place nor do we find a record of any kind concerning his death.
WILLIAM DAKINS
He was educated at Westminster School, and admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, May 8th, 1587. He was chosen Fellow in 1593. He became Bachelor in Divinity in 1601. The next year he was appointed Greek lecturer. In 1604, he was appointed Professor of Divinity at Gresham College, London. He was elected on the recommendation of the Vice Chancellor and Head of Colleges in Cambridge, and also of several of the nobility, and of the King himself. The King in his letter to the Mayor and Aldermen of London, calls him "an ancient divine," not in allusion to his age, but his character. This appointment was given him as a remuneration for his undertaking to do his part in the Bible-translation. He was considered peculiarly fit to be employed in this work, on account of "his skill in the original languages."
In 1606, he was chosen Dean of Trinity College; but died a few months after, on the second day of October, being less than forty years of age. Though taken away in the midst of his days, and of the work on account of which we are interested in him, he evidently stood in high repute as to his qualifications for a duty of such interest and importance,
MICHAEL RABBET
All we can tell of him is, that he was a Bachelor in Divinity, and Rector of the Church of St. Vedast, Foster Lane, London.
MR. SANDERSON
The bare name is all that is left to us with any certainty. Wood mentions a Thomas Sanderson, D. D., of Baliol College, Oxford, who was installed Archdeacon of Rochester in 1606; but does not say whether he was one of our Translators.
