Hadrian Saravia

Background

Saravia was born in Hesdin (Artois), then part of Flanders, to Protestant Spanish and Flemish parents, Christopher de Saravia and Elisabeth Boulengier.

Education

Hadrian Saravia's first formal training was likely with the Franciscan friars in St. Omer. Leaving the friary in 1557, he came under the informal tutelage of many of the Protestant reformers of his day, both in England and on the Continent. Although Saravia had already served as a schoolmaster and was recognized as a scholar and churchman, he resumed his studies at the University of Leiden in 1583, and was appointed a professor of theology there before a year's time. He received his D. D. at the University of Leiden and was incorporated D. D. at Oxford in 1590.

Career

Hadrian Saravia's first ecclesiastical position came in 1562 as minister to the Wallon congregation in Antwerp, Belgium. Thereafter, he founded the Wallon Church in Brussels. A year later he assumed the post of headmaster at Elizabeth College on the Isle of Guernsey. He also was an assistant minister there. In 1568 when the Protestant William of Orange mounted an attack on the Netherlands to wrest it back from Spanish control, Saravia became William's chaplain following the successful campaign. Hadrian returned to England in 1571 and became headmaster of the King Edward VI School in Southampton. In 1578 he resigned to return to the Continent where he served as an inspector of the newly founded theological school at Ghent. While there he also chaired the provincial synod and served as a minister. He was very active in all kinds of Protestant church activities and, as mentioned, became a faculty member and "rector magnificus" of the University of Leiden in 1584.

In 1586 Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and Queen Elizabeth's close friend, led a military expedition to the Netherlands. He was accompanied by his chaplain and Translator to be, Thomas Holland. They were greeted by Saravia, who by this time was an advisor to Dudley on church issues. While still occupying his professorship at the university, Saravia was suspected of aiding Dudley in capturing Leiden. For his alleged role he was sentenced to death, but was able to escape to England where he stayed for the rest of his life.

Arriving in England he received a series of church appointments including rector of Tatonhill, Staffordshire (1588), prebendary of Gloucester (1591) and Canterbury (1595) Cathedrals, vicar of Lewisham (1595), and rector of Great Chart, Kent (1610).

In addition to his other duties, he worked on various theological projects until his death.

Achievements

• Saravia, like his fellow Translator from Kent, Richard Clerke, was selected to be part of Lancelot Andrewes' First Westminster Company responsible for translating the Old Testament books of Genesis through 2 Kings. At 73 he was the oldest man in his company and the senior of all the King James Bible Translators.
  
  He brought to the task of translation a lifetime of scholarship and experiences which must have been an enormous contribution to his company.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Treatise on the Different Degrees of the Christian Priesthood

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

Membership

He was a member of the First Westminster Company charged by James I of England to produce the King James Version of the Bible.

Connections

In 1561, he married Catherine d'Allez of St Omer. The marriage would last 45 years, and the couple had one son and an unknown number of daughters.

In 1606 Catharine died. Marguerite, the wife of Hadrian's second marriage was much younger, only thirty years old. They had six years together before Hadrian's death.