Nicholas Sanders

Nicholas Sanders (also spelled Sander; c. 1530 – 1581) was an English Catholic priest and polemicist.

Early life Sanders was born at Sander Place near Charlwood, Surrey, one of twelve children of William Sanders, once sheriff of Surrey, who was descended from the Sanders of Sanderstead. At the age of ten, Nicholas became a student at Hyde Abbey. Sanders was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he was elected fellow in 1548 and graduated B.C.L. in 1551. The family had strong Roman Catholic leanings, and two of his elder sisters became nuns of Sion convent before its dissolution. Sanders was selected to deliver the oration at the reception of Cardinal Pole's visitors by the university in 1557. With the accession of Elizabeth I, Sanders went abroad around May 1559, with the guidance and financial support of Francis Englefield.

Priesthood In Rome, Sanders was befriended by Pole's confidant,Cardinal Morone; he also owed much to the generosity of Francis Englefield.

Sanders and Fitzmaurice landed a force of some 600 Spanish and Italian freelance troops with arms for 4,000 rebels and covert Papal support at Smerwick harbour in Ireland, launching the Second Desmond Rebellion. Sanders paraded the papal banner at Dingle before trying to arm local Irish clans and Gerald FitzGerald, 15th Earl of Desmond and others seeking their backing, but they never linked up. The invasion fleet was immediately captured by Sir William Wynter, and in November 1580 the troops already at Smerwick were massacred by the Irish Royal Army under Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton, after the 3-day Siege of Smerwick. As Spain and the Papacy were not formally at war with England, Fr. Sanders and his men were declared outlaws. Fr. Sanders himself escaped into the hills.

Grey's report from Smerwick mentioned Sanders' involvement: Execution of the Englishman who served Dr. Sanders, and two others, whose arms and legs were broken for torture.

After spending months as a fugitive in the south-west of Ireland, Sanders is believed to have died of cold and starvation in the spring of 1581.

The sources and production of De origine are complex. The "Jodochus Skarnhert" of Cologne involved in it has been tentatively identified with Robert Persons, who worked on the second edition of 1586. William Allen is now assumed to have had a large editorial role from the start. Rishton acted as an editor, and moved De origine towards martyrology. Other sources included: the writings of Reginald Pole on the English Reformation; a life of John Fisher; Cochlaeus writing against Richard Morison; and Richard Hilliard.

Catholic writers who took up the content of De origine included Girolamo Pollini, Andrea Sciacca, Bernardo Davanzati, Pedro de Ribadeneira, and François Maucroix. British Protestant reactions included that of Peter Heylin, who called Sanders "Dr Slanders", and Gilbert Burnet who was prompted into his History of the Reformation at the end of the 17th century.

Works

De origine et progressu schismatis Anglicani, 1585.