Sanders, Nicholas

Sanders or Sander, Nicholas, 1530–81, English Roman Catholic churchman. He became prominent at Oxford as an ally of Cardinal Pole and had to flee on the accession of Elizabeth I. He attended the Council of Trent and traveled in Poland and Lithuania. He rose to prominence as a leader of the exiled English Catholics. From 1573 to 1578 he worked on plans to restore Catholicism by deposing Elizabeth, and in 1579 he sailed with a Spanish troop to join in the revolt of the earl of Desmond. Disaster overtook them, and in 1581 he died of the hardships he had undergone. His De origine ac progressu schismatis Anglicani is the prime source for the state of Roman Catholics in England under Elizabeth I.