Archbishop of Canterbury
He was consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury in 1663. He was greatly interested in the welfare of the University of Oxford, of which he became Chancellor in 1667, succeeding Lord Clarendon, as Hyde now was. The Sheldonian Theatre at Oxford was built and endowed at his expense.
He accepted much purely secular work, acting as arbiter on petitions presented through him, and taking up investigations passed on by the king, especially in connection with the navy. Sheldon lost political influence after the fall of Clarendon in 1667, and by making Charles's philandering a matter of religious reproach. He was vocal against the Royal Declaration of Indulgence of 1672. He is depicted in a window in Gray's Inn Chapel.
Sheldon is mentioned in Pepys Diary who relates a story from his "Cozen Roger" that"...the Archbishop of Canterbury that now is, do keep a wench, and that he is a very wencehr as can be and tells us that is publicly known that Sir Charles Sidley had got away one of the Archbishop's wenches from him..."
Sheldon never married.
Read more about this topic: Gilbert Sheldon
Famous quotes containing the words archbishop and/or canterbury:
“The archbishop is away. The church is gray.
He has left his robes folded in camphor
And, dressed in black, he walks
Among fireflies.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“How soon I may ride the whole world about;
And at the third question thou must not shrink,
But tell me here truly what I do think.””
—Unknown. King John and the Abbot of Canterbury (l. 30–32)