Lawrence Sanders
LAWRENCE SANDERS
After Queen Mary prohibited Protestant preaching in the first year of her reign, several ministers continued to preach the Gospel as private pastors. One of these was Lawrence Sanders.
Sanders, from a prosperous noble family, studied at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge. His widowed mother wanted him to become a merchant, so he apprenticed himself to a merchant named Sir William Chester. But soon Sanders realized that he really wanted to be a preacher, and his master, who was a good man, set him free from his contract so Sanders could return to Cambridge as a divinity student.
Sanders began to preach during the reign of King Edward, when Protestantism became the official religion of England. After holding several positions, he became a preacher in the countryside of Leicestershire, where he taught diligently until being offered a church in London named Allhallows. Just as he was about to give up his position in the country to concentrate on his London parish, Queen Mary made her bid for the throne. Seeing that Mary would bring hard times on all Protestants, Sanders kept both positions. If he had given one of them up, he would certainly have been replaced by a Catholic.
So he traveled back and forth to serve both parishes until it became illegal to preach from the Gospel. Sanders continued to preach to his rural congregation until he was forcibly prevented from doing so. Since he couldn’t work there, he traveled back to London.
As he entered the city on Saturday, October 14, Sanders was met by Sir John Mordant, an advisor of Queen Mary, who warned him against preaching the next day. Sanders ignored his advice and gave his morning sermon; then, as he was preparing for the afternoon one, he was taken from his church and brought before the bishop, Sir John Mordant, and some chaplains. The bishop asked Sanders to write out his beliefs concerning transubstantiation and sent him to see the Lord Chancellor, who put him in prison.
After being imprisoned for fifteen months, during which he stayed loyal to his conscience, Sanders was brought to trial before the lord chancellor on charges of treason, heresy, and sedition. Presented with the paper he’d written earlier on transubstantiation, Sanders replied, “What I have written, I have written. I won’t accuse myself of anything else. There’s nothing you can bring against me.”
After he was excommunicated and turned over to the legal authorities, the bishop of London came to prison to strip Sanders of his offices on February 4. When he was done, Sanders told him, “I thank God I’m not of your church.”
On February 8, Sanders embraced the stake and kissed it, saying, “Welcome to the cross of Christ. Welcome everlasting life.”