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London Parish Clergy and the Protestant Reformation, 1547–1559*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 July 2014

Barrett L. Beer
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Extract

Although significant changes took place in the Church of England between 1547 and 1553, the Protestant Reformation under Edward VI has received less attention from historians than the Reformation under Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. The publication of A. G. Dickens' The English Reformation in 1964 marked the beginning of a redirection of reformation studies which included a deeper appreciation of the importance of the Edwardian Reformation. Dickens saw the English Reformation as part of a larger European religious crisis and focused attention on Lutheran, Calvinistic, and other continental influences that contributed to the development of protestantism under Henry VIII and Edward VI. Emphasizing the successes of Edwardian reformers, Dickens wrote, “Such evidence as we can adduce suggests that Protestantism continued steadily to expand amongst the upper and middle classes, while … able preachers could still make many converts among the working people of the towns.” In recent years, however, regional studies have revealed the obstacles to Protestant reform and the survival of Roman Catholicism.

This essay looks at the Edwardian Reformation from the center of England, the city of London, and examines religious change at the parochial level. It is based on sixty-three clergy who were appointed to a total of sixty-six London benefices between 1547 and 1553 and traces their careers through the reign of Mary to the Elizabethan settlement of 1559. The essay studies the process of parochial reform by examining the exercise of patronage and attempting to determine the quality and religious orientation of beneficed clergy. It also seeks to identify the successes and failures of the government of Edward VI as it sought to promote Protestant reforms throughout the country.

Type
The 1985 Denis Bethell Prize Essay of the Charles Homer Haskins Society
Information
Albion , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , Fall 1986 , pp. 375 - 393
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference on British Studies 1986

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Footnotes

*

I am pleased to acknowledge the assistance of Professor Roger B. Manning who read and criticized an earlier version of this essay. I am, of course, solely responsible for any errors that remain.

References

1 Cross, Claire, Church and People, 1450-1660: The Triumph of the Laity in the English Church (Hassocks, Sussex, 1976), p. 254Google Scholar has drawn attention to the neglect of the Edwardian Reformation. The research discussed by Haigh, Christopher, “The Recent Historiography of the English Reformation,” Historical Journal 25 (1982): 995–1007CrossRefGoogle Scholar indicates that this neglect continues. For a recent study of the historiography of the Edwardian Reformation, see my article, “John Stow and the English Reformation, 1547-1559,” Sixteenth Century Journal 16, 2 (1985): 257–271CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Older works tend to be High Anglican and insular. These include Lee, F. G., King Edward VI: Supreme Head (New York, 1886)Google Scholar, Watson, R. W., History of the Church of England, 6 vols. (Oxford, 1878–1902)Google Scholar, Gairdner, James, The English Church in the Sixteenth Century from the Accession of Henry VIII to the Death of Mary (New York, n.d., original edition, 1902)Google Scholar, and Frere, W. H., The English Church in the Reigns of Elizabeth and James I (New York, n.d., original edition, 1904)Google Scholar.

2 Dickens, A. G., The English Reformation (London, 1964), pp. 59-82, 197–258Google Scholar.

3 Bowker, Margaret, The Secular Clergy in the Diocese of Lincoln, 1485-1520 (Cambridge, 1968)Google Scholar, and The Henrician Reformation: The Diocese of Lincoln under John Longland, 1521-1547 (Cambridge, 1981)Google Scholar. Clark, Peter, English Provincial Society from the Reformation to the Revolution: Religion, Politics and Society in Kent, 1500-1640 (Hassocks, Sussex, 1977)Google Scholar. Haigh, Christopher, Reformation and Reaction in Tudor Lancashire (Cambridge, 1975)Google Scholar. Manning, Roger, Religion and Society in Elizabethan Sussex (Leicester, 1969)Google Scholar.

4 Three dissertations deal with aspects of the Reformation in London: Mullins, E. L. C., “The Effects of the Marian and Elizabethan Religious Settlement upon the Clergy of London, 1553-1564” (London, M.A., 1948)Google Scholar; Owen, H. G., “The London Parish Clergy in the Reign of Elizabeth” (London, Ph.D., 1957)Google Scholar; and Brigden, Susan, “The Early Reformation in London, 1520-1547: The Conflict in the Parishes” (Cambridge, Ph.D. 1979)Google Scholar. See also idem., “Religion and Social Obligation in Early Sixteenth-Century London,” Past and Present 103 (May 1984):67-112.

5 The distinction between a “rapid” and “slow” Reformation is developed in Haigh, “The Recent Historiography of the English Reformation.” An earlier formulation of the concept appears in Manning, pp. 272-276. Elton's views are found in Reform and Reformation: England 1509-1558 (London, 1977), p. 371Google Scholar. Support for Elton's interpretation may be found in Davis, John F., Heresy and Reformation in the South-East of England, 1520-1559 (London, 1983)Google Scholar.

6 Bowker, , The Secular Clergy, pp. 106–09Google Scholar. Two other important works on the parish clergy are Heath, Peter, The English Parish Clergy on the Eve of the Reformation (Toronto, 1969)Google Scholar, and Hill, C., The Economic Problems of the Church from Archbishop Whitgift to the Long Parliament (Oxford, 1956)Google Scholar.

7 Maclure, Millar, The Paul's Cross Sermons, 1534-1642 (Toronto, 1958), pp. 39-49, 192–95Google Scholar.

8 Brigden, , “The Early Reformation in London,” pp. 228–9Google Scholar.

9 Bowker, , The Henrician Revolution, p. 141Google Scholar.

10 Data for this study have been compiled from the following sources: Newcourt, Richard, Repertorium: An Ecclesiastical Parochial History of the Diocese of London, 2 vols., (London, 1708–1710)Google Scholar; Hennessy, George, Novum Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (London, 1898)Google Scholar; Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Edward VI, 1547-53, ed. Brodie, R. H., 5 vols. and index (London, 1924–1929)Google Scholar; Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, Philip and Mary, 1553-58, ed., Giuseppi, M. S., 4 vols. (London, 1936–1939)Google Scholar; British Library, Royal Ms. 18C24; Public Record Office, E 334/4 (Court of First Fruits and Tenths, Composition Book); and Guildhall Library Manuscripts 12 Ms. 9531 (Register of Bishops Bonner and Ridley).

11 Owen, , “The London Parish Clergy,” p. 241Google Scholar.

12 O'Day, Rosemary, “The Ecclesiastical Patronage of the Lord Keeper, 1558-1642,” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5th series, 23 (1973): 90CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

13 For details on the career of Goodrich see Heal, Felicity, “The Bishops of Ely and Their Diocese during the Reformation Period: ca. 1515-1600” (Cambridge, Ph.D., 1972), pp. 82–7Google Scholar.

14 Sir Martin Bowes was mayor of London, 1545-6, and a Member of Parliament for London, 1547-52 and 1553. Nicasius Yetswert was appointed clerk of the signet during the reign of Henry VIII and held office through the reigns of Edward VI and Mary. His daughter married John Rogers' eldest son; hence it is not surprising that he presented a benefice to Rogers. Thomas Aldred was a justice of the peace for the East Riding and collector of customs in the port of Hull. Later he was M. P. for Hull and mayor. CPR, Edward VI, 1, 92Google Scholar; 4, 366, 372; 5, 314, 353. Thomas Barber, esquire had a house at Stratford at Bow, Middlesex. CPR, Edward VI, 1, 89, 415Google Scholar; 5, 357, 375. Humphrey Welles of Hoar Cross, Staffordshire was M.P. for Newcastle under Lyme in 1545. For biographies of Aldred, Bowes, and Welles, see Bindoff, S. T., The House of Commons 1509-1558, 3 vols. (London, 1982), 1: 303-4, 469–71Google Scholar; 3: 573-4.

15 Owen, , “The London Parish Clergy,” p. 245Google Scholar.

16 Shirley, T. F., Thomas Thirlby: Tudor Bishop (London, 1964), pp. 104–18Google Scholar.

17 Venn, John, Alumni Cantabrigienses: A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates, and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge from Earliest Times to 1900 (Cambridge, 1922–1954)Google Scholar. Foster, Joseph, Alumni Oxonienses: The Members of the University of Oxford, 1500-1714 (Nendeln, Liechtenstein, 1968)Google Scholar. For Alexander see Collinson, Patrick, Archbishop Grindal, 1519-1583: The Struggle for a Reformed Church (London, 1979), pp. 130–34Google Scholar. Veron has been studied by Denis, Philippe, “John Veron: The First Known French Protestant in England,” Proceedings of the Huguenot Society of London 22 (1973): 157–63Google Scholar.

18 According to Owen, (“The London Parish Clergy,” p. 107)Google Scholar, 47% of the London clergy were graduates in 1560. Brigden, (“The Early Reformation in London,” p. 70)Google Scholar found that 63% of the clergy were graduates for the years 1521-1546.

19 Heal, , “The Bishops of Ely,” p. 86Google Scholar; Bowker, , The Henrician Reformation, p. 187Google Scholar.

20 Nichols, J. G., ed., Chronicle of the Grey Friars of London (London, 1852), p. 67Google Scholar.

21 STC 17, 799. Chester, J. L., John Rogers (London, 1861)Google Scholar and Dictionary of National Biography.

22 Dickens, , The English Reformation, p. 224Google Scholar; Bailey, D. S., Thomas Becon and the Reformation of the Church in England (London, 1952), pp. 105, 68Google Scholar. The Sick Man's Salve, STC 1757, was first published in 1561. See also King, John N.. English Reformation Literature (Princeton, 1982), pp. 290–97Google Scholar.

23 Stow's Survey of London (London, 1965), p. 431Google Scholar.

24 For a discussion of the effects of non-residence and pluralism see Owen, , “The London Parish Clergy,” pp. 216–17Google Scholar; Brigden, , “The Early Reformation in London,” pp. 62–68Google Scholar; and Mullins, , “Effects of the Marian and Elizabethan Settlement,” pp. 68–71Google Scholar.

25 William Glynn died on May 21, 1558. Elton, G. R., Policy and Police (Cambridge, 1972) p. 310 mentions a William Glyn who was vicar-general of Bangor in the 1530sGoogle Scholar.

26 Frere, W. H., The Marian Reaction in its Relation to the English Clergy (London, 1896), pp. 46–7Google Scholar.

27 Grieve, Hilda E. P., “The Deprived Married Clergy in Essex, 1553-61,” T.R.H.S., 4th series, 22 (1940): 142Google Scholar. Estimates of deprivations in other dioceses are given by Frere, , “The Marian Reaction,” pp. 52–3Google Scholar.

28 Loades, D. M., The Reign of Mary Tudor (New York, 1979), p. 157Google Scholar.

29 The best analysis of Mary's religious policy is in ibid., pp. 157-77.

30 Garrett, C. H., The Marian Exiles (Cambridge, 1938), p. 129Google Scholar.

31 Grieve, , “Deprived Married Clergy,” pp. 152–3Google Scholar.

32. Nichols, J. G., ed., Diary of Henry Machyn (London, 1847), p. 48Google Scholar. See also Strype, John, Ecclesiastical Memorials (Oxford, 1822), 3, 1, 34Google Scholar; and CPR, Mary, 1, 466, where Sowdley is given a pardon in October 1553.

33 B. L., Harl. Ms 425, fos. 106r-117r. Most of the manuscript account is printed in Wordsworth, Christopher, Ecclesiastical Biography (London, 1853), 3: 285–314Google Scholar.

34 Dickens, , The English Reformation, pp. 274–5Google Scholar.

35 Ibid., p. 293.

36 Bailey, , Thomas Becon, pp. 79–91Google Scholar.

37 Garrett, , The Marian Exiles, pp. 188-190, 278–81Google Scholar.

38 Dickens, , The English Reformation, p. 294Google Scholar, Garrett, , The Marian Exiles, pp. 249, 263Google Scholar. Humphrey Perkins' place of exile is not known.

39 Guildhall Library Manuscripts 12 Ms. 9531, fo. 472.

40 CPR, Elizabeth, 1, 5Google ScholarPubMed. Mullins, , “Effects of the Marian and Elizabethan Settlement,” p. 422Google Scholar.

41 Hudson, Winthrop S., The Cambridge Connection and the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 (Durham, N.C., 1980), p. 103Google Scholar. Haugaard, William P., Elizabeth and the English Reformation (Cambridge, 1968), passimGoogle Scholar.

42 Dent, C. M., Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford (Oxford, 1983), pp. 30–37Google Scholar.

43 Collinson, , Archbishop Grindal, p. 115Google Scholar; Jones, N. L., Faith by Statute: Parliament and the Settlement of Religion, 1559 (London, 1982), p. 41Google Scholar.

44 Collinson, , Archbishop Grindal, pp. 130–34Google Scholar.

45 Guildhall Library Manuscripts, Ms 1432/1 St. Alphage; Ms 4570/1 St. Margaret Pattens; Ms 1002/1a St. Mary Woolnoth.

46 The value of individual benefices is based on Caley, J. and Hunter, J., Valor Ecclesiasticus, 6 vols. (London, 1810–1834)Google Scholar.

47 The five Protestants include William Britten, Robert Croome, John Pullen, Henry Reynolds, and John Rogers. Christopher Ashbourn and John Law may also have been Protestants in 1553.