SAUNDERSON, DR ROBERT, an eminent casuist, was born at Rotherham in Yorkshire on the 19th September 1587, and was descended of an ancient family. He attended the grammar-school at Rotherham, where he made such wonderful proficiency in the languages, that at 13 it was judged proper to send him to Lincoln college, Oxford. In 1608 he was appointed logic reader in the same college. He took orders in 1611, and was promoted successively to several benefices. Archbishop Laud recommended him to King Charles I. as a profound casuist; and that monarch, who seems to have been a great admirer of casuistical learning, appointed him one of his chaplains in 1631. Charles proposed several cases of conscience to him, and received so great satisfaction from his answers, that at the end of his month's attendance he told him, that he would wait with impatience during the intervening 11 months, as he was resolved to be more intimately acquainted with him, when it would again be his turn to officiate. The king regularly attended his sermons, and was wont to say, that "he carried his ears to hear other preachers, but his conscience to hear Mr Saunderson."
In 1642 Charles created him regius professor of divinity at Oxford, with the canonry of Christ church annexed: but the civil wars prevented him till 1646 from entering on the office; and in 1648 he was ejected by the visitors which the parliament had commissioned. He must have stood high in the public opinion; for in the same year in which he was appointed professor of divinity, both houses of parliament recommended him to the king as one of their trustees for settling the affairs of the church. The king, too, reposed great confidence in his judgment, and frequently consulted him about the state of his affairs. When the parliament proposed the abolition of the episcopal form of church-government as incompatible with monarchy, Charles desired him to take the subject under his consideration, and deliver his opinion. He accordingly wrote a treatise entitled, Episcopacy as established by law in England not prejudicial to regal power. At taking leave, the king advised him to publish Cases of Conscience: he replied, that "he was now grown old and unfit to write cases of conscience." The king said, "It was the simplest thing he ever had heard from him; for no young man was fit to be a judge, or write cases of conscience." Walton, who wrote the life of Dr Saunderson, informs us, that in one of these conferences the king told him (Dr Saunderson), or one of the rest who was then in company, that "the remembrance of two errors did much affect him; which were his assent to the earl of Strafford's death, and the abolishing of episcopacy in Scotland; and that if God ever restored him to the peaceable possession of his crown, he would prove his repentance by a public confession and a voluntary penance, by walking barefoot from the Tower of London, or Whitehall, to St Paul's church, and would desire the people to intercede with God for his pardon."
Dr Saunderson was taken prisoner by the parliament's troops and conveyed to Lincoln, in order to procure in exchange a Puritan divine named Clark, whom the king's army had taken. The exchange was agreed to, on condition that Dr Saunderson's living should be restored, and his person and property remain unmolested. The first of these demands was readily complied with; and a stipulation was made, that the second should be observed; but it was impossible to restrain the licentiousness of the soldiers. They entered his church in the time of divine service, interrupted him when reading prayers, and even had the audacity to take the common prayer book from him, and to tear it to pieces.
The honourable Mr Boyle, having read a work of Dr Saunderson's entitled De juramenti obligatione, was so much pleased, that he inquired at Bishop Barlow, whether he thought it was possible to prevail on the author to write Cases of Conscience, if an honorary pension was assigned him to enable him to purchase books, and pay an amanuensis. Saunderson told Barlow, "that if any future tract of his could be of any use to mankind, he would cheerfully set about it without a pension." Boyle, however, sent him a present of 50l., sensible no doubt, that, like the other royalists, his finances could not be great. Upon this Saunderson published his book De Conscientia.
When Charles II. was reinstated in the throne, he recovered his professorship and canonry, and soon after was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln. During the
the two years and a half in which he possessed this new office, he spent a considerable sum in augmenting poor vicarages, in repairing the palace at Budgen, &c. He died January 29. 1662-3, in his 76th year.
He was a man of great acuteness and solid judgment. "That staid and well-weighed man Dr Saunderson (says Dr Hammond) conceives all things deliberately, dwells upon them discreetly, discerns things that differ exactly, passeth his judgment rationally, and expresses it aptly, clearly, and honestly." Being asked, what books he had read most? he replied, that "he did not read many books, but those which he did read were well chosen and frequently perused." These, he said, were chiefly three, Aristotle's Rhetoric, Aquinas's Secunda Secundae, and Tully's works; especially his Offices, which he had not read over less than 20 times, and could even, in his old age, recite without book." He added, that "the learned civilian Dr Zouch had written Elementa juris prudentiae, which he thought he could also say without book, and that no wise man could read it too often." He was not only conversant with the fathers and schoolmen, with casuistical and controversial divinity; but he was well acquainted with all the histories of the English nation, was a great antiquary, had searched minutely into records, and was well skilled in heraldry and genealogy.
It will now be proper to give a short account of his works. 1. In 1615 he published Logicae Artis Compendium, which was the system of lectures he had delivered in the University when he was logic reader. 2. Sermons, amounting in number to 36, printed in 1681, folio, with the author's life by Walton. 3. Nine Cases of Conscience resolved; first collected in one volume, in 1678, 8vo. 4. De juramenti obligatione. This book was translated into English by Charles I. while a prisoner in the isle of Wight, and printed at London in 1665, 8vo. 5. De Obligatione conscientiae. 6. Censure of Mr Antony Ascham his book of the confusions and revolutions of government. 7. Pax Ecclesiae, concerning Predestination, or the five points. 8. Episcopacy, as established by law in England, not prejudicial to the regal power, in 1661. Besides these, he wrote two Discourses in defence of Usher's writings.