Tillotson Archbishop of Canterbury

J Houbraken after Kneller
Tillotson Archbishop of Canterbury
Knapton ca. 1740
Copper engraving
380 x 240 mm
£65
John Tillotson (October 1630 – 22 November 1694) was an Archbishop of Canterbury (1691-1694
John Tillotson has been described as ‘the wisest and best man that ever sat in the primatial chair of Canterbuy’. More recently, Dr. Edward Carpenter has written that ‘If character in itself qualified for office, no man could have had greater claims to Canterbury than John Tillotson. He was intelligent, liberal and warm hearted.’ Whilst his primacy was brief and uneventful, it may be added that probably no post-Reformation archbishop has ever upheld the Protestant character of the Church of England more than John Tillotson.