John Whitgift (c. 1530 – 29 February 1604) was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horses. Whitgift's theological views were often controversial.

He was the eldest son of Henry Whitgift, a merchant, of Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, where he was born, probably between 1530 and 1533. The Whitgift family is thought to have originated in the relatively close East Yorkshire village of Whitgift, adjoining the River Ouse.

Whitgift's early education was entrusted to his uncle, Robert Whitgift, abbot of the neighbouring Wellow Abbey, on whose advice he was sent to St Anthony's School, London. In 1549 he matriculated at Queens' College, Cambridge, and in May 1550 he moved to nearby Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, where the martyr John Bradford was his tutor. In May 1555 he was elected a fellow of Peterhouse.

Having taken holy orders in 1560, he became chaplain to Richard Cox, Bishop of Ely, who collated (that is, appointed) him to the rectory of Teversham, just to the east of Cambridge. In 1563 he was appointed Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, and his lectures gave such satisfaction to the authorities that on 5 July 1566 they considerably augmented his stipend. The following year he was appointed Regius Professor of Divinity, and became master first of Pembroke Hall (1567) and then of Trinity in 1570. He had a principal share in compiling the statutes of the university, which passed the great seal on 25 September 1570, and in the November following he was chosen as vice-chancellor.

While at Cambridge he formed a close relationship with Andrew Perne, sometime vice-chancellor. Perne went on to live with Whitgift in his old age. Puritan satirists would later mock Whitgift as "Perne's boy" who was willing to carry his cloak-bag – thus suggesting that the two had enjoyed a homosexual relationship.

Whitgift taught Francis Bacon and his older brother Anthony Bacon at Cambridge University in the 1570s. As their tutor, Whitgift bought the brothers their early classical text books, including works by Plato, Cicero and others. Whitgift's authoritarian beliefs and conservative religious teachings had a profound impact on Bacon, as did his teaching on natural philosophy and metaphysics. Bacon would later disavow Whitgift, writing to Elizabeth I to warn her against Whitgift's attempts to root out the "careful and diligent preachers in each parish".

Whitgift's theological views were controversial. An aunt with whom he once lodged wrote that "though she thought at first she had received a saint into her house, she now perceived he was a devil". Thomas Macaulay's description of Whitgift as "a narrow, mean, tyrannical priest, who gained power by servility and adulation..." is, according to the author of his 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica entry, "tinged with rhetorical exaggeration; but undoubtedly Whitgift's extreme High Church notions led him to treat the Puritans with exceptional intolerance". In a pulpit controversy with Thomas Cartwright regarding the constitutions and customs of the Church of England, his oratorical effectiveness proved inferior, but he was able to exercise arbitrary authority: together with other heads of the university, he deprived Cartwright of his professorship, and in September 1571 Whitgift exercised his prerogative as master of Trinity to strip him of his fellowship. In June of the same year Whitgift was nominated Dean of Lincoln. In the following year he published An Answere to a Certain Libel entitled an Admonition to the Parliament, which led to further controversy between the two churchmen. From 1572 to 1577 he was Rector of St Margaret's church in Laceby in Lincolnshire. On 24 March 1577, Whitgift was appointed Bishop of Worcester, and during the absence of Sir Henry Sidney in Ireland in 1577 he acted as vice-president of Wales.

In August 1583 he was appointed Archbishop of Canterbury to replace Edmund Grindal, who had been placed under house arrest after his disagreement with Queen Elizabeth over "prophesyings" and died in office. Whitgift placed his stamp on the church of the Reformation, and shared Elizabeth's hatred of Puritans. Although he wrote to Elizabeth remonstrating against the alienation of church property, Whitgift always retained her special confidence. In his policy against the Puritans and in his vigorous enforcement of the subscription test he thoroughly carried out her policy of religious uniformity.