Rainolds, John

Abstract

John Rainolds was the highest authority English Puritan theologian of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. He was educated at Corpus Christi College in Oxford, where he converted from Catholicism to Protestantism. He read Greek from 1572, and from his readings we received the discussion manuscript of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, the first critical work to be written on the text of the Greek philosopher. From 1578 Rainolds dedicated his studies to theology, highlighting in the Sex theses written in 1580 a steadfast commitment to Calvinism and a rigid anti-Catholic attitude. Rainolds soon became the figurehead of the Puritan movement in Oxford: the many religious public disputes, his charisma, coupled with the intellectual stature of Rainolds increased his authority to the point of attracting the attentions and suspicions of Elizabeth I, so the queen decided to co-opt Rainolds in the Anglican episcopate in order to “neutralize” him and appointed him Bishop of Lincoln in 1579. The theologian could not refuse the assignment; however, he was able to postpone his inauguration until he gained the coveted appointment of the president of Corpus Christi College in 1598. Once James I Stuart ascended to the English throne in 1603, Rainolds confided in a Presbyterian sense reform of the Anglican church, which seemed possible when the king decided to convene a religious conference at Hampton Court. Here Rainolds led the Puritan delegation, but, despite the favorable conditions, the king did not make any concessions in ecclesiastical matters, and therefore, Rainolds only obtained the consent for a new English translation of the Bible, satisfying his expectations in the last years of his life, which ended in 1607 in Oxford.