rebellion against their lawful sovereigns.’ On the translation of Neile from Rochester to Lichfield, Buckeridge was selected by James to succeed him. He was consecrated at Lambeth on 9 June 1611 by Archbishop Abbot, Andrewes and his predecessor, Neile, being among the assisting prelates. The headship of his college, thus vacated, was filled by his former pupil, Laud, mainly on his recommendation. He had previously introduced Laud to the notice of Bishop Neile, who had appointed him his chaplain, and thus paved the way for his future preferment. In the month of September 1613 Buckeridge was one of the prelates concerned in the infamous Essex divorce case, and pronounced, with Andrewes, Bilson, and Neile, for the nullity of the marriage, against Archbishop Abbot, Bishop King of London, and the soundest civilians.
In the fierce controversy aroused by the two books of Dr. Richard Montague, Buckeridge stood by the side of Laud, now the bishop of St. David's, in his defence. Laud employed his influence with Buckingham to secure his favour for Montague; and on the day that the house was pronouncing a formal censure on his views (2 Aug. 1625), he declared with Buckeridge and Bishop Howson of Oxford, in a joint letter to the duke, that in their opinion Montague's statements were in no way contrary to the doctrines of the church of England (Laud, Collected Works, Lib. of Anglo-Cath. Theol. vol. vi. pt. i. pp. 244–6). In February 1626, when Buckingham had been induced to consent that a two days' conference should be held at York House on the incriminated books, Buckeridge, aided by White, dean of Carlisle, and Cosin, supported Montague's orthodoxy against the attacks of Bishop Morton of Lichfield and Dr. Preston, the puritan master of Emmanuel. Buckeridge's defence was able and temperate. He denied that the council of Trent had erred in any directly fundamental article of faith. A second conference was held a few days later, at which Montague defended his theses in person against Bishop Morton and Dr. Preston. On the presentation of the ‘Petition of Right,’ in 1628, Buckeridge advised that it should be delivered to the judges, that they might give their opinion whether anything in it encroached on the royal prerogative. If their reply was favourable, the petition might then be entered on the roll without in any way prejudicing the king's right (Gardiner, Hist. of Engl. vi. 64, 287).
On 26 Nov. 1628 Buckeridge preached the funeral sermon of Bishop Andrewes, his honoured friend for above thirty years, at St. Saviour's, Southwark, in which he repudiated the doctrine of the Real Presence in any proper sense. In 1629, in conjunction with Laud, then bishop of London, he published, by the king's special command, Andrewes's ‘Ninety-one Sermons,’ to which his funeral sermon was appended. In April 1628 Buckeridge, ‘by the power and favour’ of Laud (Heylyn), had been appointed to succeed Nicholas Felton as bishop of Ely. He died on 23 May 1631, ‘leaving behind him the character of a very pious, learned, and worthy bishop.’ He was buried in the parish church of Bromley, Kent, where the palace of the bishops of Rochester was then situated. Two portraits of Buckeridge as bishop are preserved in St. John's College, Oxford, one in the hall, and a second, of smaller size, representing him as an older man, in the presidents' lodgings. He bequeathed 500l. towards improving the stipends of the fellows and scholars of St. John's College, to the chapel of which he gave the altar furniture, hangings, and plate of his episcopal chapel at Ely. He also left a bequest to the poor of the parish of Bromley, the proceeds of which are still received. In addition to the funeral sermon on Bishop Andrewes, Buckeridge published: 1. ‘A Sermon preached at Hampton Court before the King,’ 23 Sept. 1606 [on the royal supremacy]. 2. ‘De Potestate Papæ in rebus temporalibus sive in regibus deponendis usurpata adv. Robertum Cardinalem Bellarminum libri duo,’ London, 1614, 4to. 3. ‘A Sermon preached before Her Majestie at Whitehall, Mar. 22, 1617 [on Ps. xcv. 6], touching prostration and kneeling in the worship of God. To which is added a discourse concerning kneeling at the communion,’ London, 1618, 4to. In this, writes Heylyn (ib.), ‘he asserted the piety and antiquity of this religious posture with such solid reasons and such clear authorities that he came off without the least opposition by that party.’
[Wood's Athenæ, ii. 506–10; Newcourt's Repertorium, i. 357; Taylor's Hist. Coll. S. John Bapt. MS.; Cosin's Sum and Substance of the Conferences at York House, Lib. A.-C. T. ii. 17–83; Heylyn's Cyprianus Anglicanus, pp. 44 sq.; Hunt's Religious Thought in England, i. 155–7; Gardiner's Hist. of Engl.]
BUCKHURST, Lord. [See Sackville, Thomas.]
BUCKINGHAM, EDWARD STAFFORD, Duke of. [See Stafford.]
