1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Sanderson, Robert

SANDERSON, ROBERT (1587–1663), English divine, was born probably at Sheffield, Yorkshire, in September 1587. He was educated at Rotherham grammar school and at Lincoln College, Oxford, took orders in 1611, and was promoted successively to several benefices. On the recommendation of Laud he was appointed one of the royal chaplains in 1631, and was a favourite preacher with the king, who made him regius professor of divinity at Oxford in 1642. The Civil War kept him from entering the office till 1646; and in 1648 he was ejected by the Parliamentary visitors. He recovered his position at the Restoration, was moderator at the Savoy Conference, 1661, and was promoted to the bishopric of Lincoln. He died two years later on the 29th of January 1663.

His most celebrated work is his Cases of Conscience, deliberate judgments upon points of morality submitted to him. They are distinguished by moral integrity, good sense and learning. His practice as a college lecturer in logic is better evidenced by these “cases” than by his Compendium of Logic, first published in 1618. A complete edition of Sanderson's works (6 vols.) was edited by William Jacobson in 1854. It includes the Life by Izaak Walton, revised and enlarged.