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The Prebendaries' Plot of 1543: a Reconsideration

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2011

Extract

There are many accounts of the ‘prebendaries' plot’ of 1543 against archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Some view the event as a counterattack against advancing heresy in Canterbury diocese. Others see a ‘papist’ revolt within Cranmer's own household. Nearly all agree that the plot was a wholly clerical enterprise. They have studied the clergy alone, focusing on the prebendaries' and preachers' activities against their ordinary. Recent accounts have stressed the relationship between the prebendaries' plot and the conflict between Cranmer and bishop Stephen Gardiner. That there was factional strife in the royal council, which could easily focus on religious issues, is not in question here. What is lacking, however, in recent accounts is any consideration of the substantial involvement of a number of Kentish gentlemen and royal officials, although their part in the affair was noted in near-contemporary accounts. By following these traces we may enlarge our understanding of the intrigue of 1543 in the context of Reformation politics at the county level.

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Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

page 241 note 1 Typically in Ridley, J., Thomas Cranmer, Oxford 1962, 229–44Google Scholar; a different explanation which also stresses the clergy is Gairdner, J., Lollardy and the Reformation in England, London 19081913, ii. 366, or in his preface to Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII (hereafter cited as LP), XVIII. ii.Google Scholar

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page 242 note 1 William Gardiner alias Sandwich, Arthur St. Leger, Richard Parkhurst, John Miles and William Hadleigh, alias Hunt.

page 242 note 2 Robert Serles and Edmund Shether.

page 242 note 3 John Willoughby, vicar of Chilham, in particular.

page 242 note 4 LP, XVIII. ii. 546 (pp. 295–418). The LP calendar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS. 128, which is cited here, is almost always accurate and includes long sections in extenso. The sad gap in the collection of depositions and allegations which make up MS. 128 is the lack of any material from Dr. John London, who was not interrogated in Canterbury.

page 243 note 1 Ibid., 295, 311.

page 243 note 2 Ibid., 311.

page 243 note 3 Ibid., 306

page 243 note 4 Ibid., 306, 308, 302, 304–5.

page 243 note 5 Ibid., 306, 307, 308.

page 243 note 6 Ibid., 307.

page 243 note 7 Canterbury Cathedral Library MS. J/Q/335/ii. On the flourishing heresy in Canterbury in the early 1530s, see the monk-chronicler of St. Augustine's abbey: British Museum, Harleian MS. 419, fol. 112v.

page 244 note 1 LP. XVIII. ii. 546 (pp. 311, 313).

page 244 note 2 J. E. Cox (ed.) Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer, (P.S.), 335–6, 411; Archaeologia Cantiana (hereafter cited as Arch. Cant.) lxix, 159–70. George Neville, Lord Abergavenny, died in 1535.

page 244 note 3 Valor Ecclesiasticus, ed. Record Commissioners, i. 1–7.

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page 244 note 6 E.g., LP. II. p. 1513; III. 1081(8), 1928(4), 3534; IV. ii. p. 1331.

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page 245 note 5 Kent Archives Office (hereafter cited as KAO), PRC 32/19/fols. 7v—12v.

page 245 note 6 Cranmer, Letters, 330.

page 245 note 7 Ibid., 361.

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page 246 note 1 Ridley, Cranmer, 178–85, 240–1.

page 246 note 2 Cranmer, Letters, 397.

page 246 note 3 Compare the two lists of April 1540 and April 1541: PRO E315/245/fols. 76–9 (calendared at LP, XV. 1452) and the patent creating the new chapter, 8 April 1541: LP, XVI. 779(5).

page 246 note 4 Nichols, Narratives, 253.

page 246 note 5 LP, XVIII. ii. 546(p. 325).

page 246 note 6 Ibid., 335.

page 247 note 1 Ibid., 307.

page 247 note 2 Ibid., 319.

page 247 note 3 Ibid., 360, 366.

page 247 note 4 Ibid., 341.

page 247 note 5 Ibid., 369.

page 247 note 6 Ibid., 320–1, 323–4. John Blande was parson of Addisham: PRO E334/2/fol. 52 and DNB. Turner was curate of Chartham near Canterbury: Acts of the Privy Council (new ser.) (cited as APC), i. 156.

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page 251 note 4 PRO, SP 1/83/fols. 108–13 (LP, VII. 515); LP, VIII. 864, IX. 1010, XII. ii. 1099, 1122, 1151 (3); IX. 142.

page 252 note 1 31 Henry VIII, cap. 3; lands: PRO, E315/212/fol. 166v; E315/189/fol. 47; E315/215/fols. 30–2; E314/10/100.

page 252 note 2 LP, VII. 515; XVIII. ii, 546(360).

page 252 note 3 LP, XVIII. i, 623(96).

page 252 note 4 PRO, Prob. 11/33/11; C142/91/4; three years later, at his son's death the lands were valued at £108 p.a.: PRO, Wards 9/135/fol. 299.

page 252 note 5 Nichols, Narratives, 252.

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