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George Gifford

It may at first glance appear inappropriate to put this in the 'Sermons' section but George Gifford, who was incumbent at All Saints for a very short time from 1582 to 1584. 

Gifford was born in Dry Drayton, near Cambridge and attended Christ's College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1570 and MA in 1573.[1] He afterwards lived at Maldon, but was discharged from the priesthood for refusing to subscribe to Archbishop Whitgift's articles of conformity. He was later reinstated as a lecturer at Maldon, serving there at a lecturer until his death in 1600.

It is possible that in 1586 he attended the deathbed of Sir Philip Sidney in the Low Countries, where Gifford was serving as chaplain to the Earl of Essex's troops.

Gifford was a moderate in the witchcraft debate, although he still believed in the existence of witches, and that they should be severely punished. His main concern in the Dialogue was to ensure more care was taken in witchcraft prosecutions, and to attempt to restrain the persecuting fervour with which witches were sought out and indicted.

Gifford was a proliferous writer and those who may be interested can see online his "Dialogue Concerning Witches and Witchcraft" at: 

 http://openlibrary.org/authors/OL112784A/George_Gifford

You will need to scroll down a short way on the first page of this site and then click on "Read".

His "Sermons upon the Whole Booke of the Revelation" can be located at:

http://vinyl2.sentex.net/~tcc/GR/Gifford.php

 Please be aware that this is extremely lengthy.

He also wrote "Fifteen Sermons Upon the Song of Salomon" and there are two copies of this held by the Thomas Plume Library but I have not been able to find a reproduction of this on the internet.

Page last updated: Monday 10th January 2011 7:13 PM
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