IV John Howson's Answers to Archbishop Abbot's Accusations at his ‘Trial’ before James I at Greenwich, 10 June 1615

doi:10.1017/S0068690500004475

¹ Laud's endorsement refers to ‘King James’ and ‘the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Abbot’ which implies that he received the document after James’ death in 1625 and perhaps after that of Abbot in 1633. The style of Laud's hand on the endorsement also supports a date of c. 1630.

² After Thomas Thornton (1568), Thomas Whyte and John Weston (both 1591) and Leonard Hutton (1599).

³ Howson, John, A Sermon preached at St Maries in Oxford in Defence of the Festivities of the Church of England (Oxford, 1603)Google Scholar, sig. A3v.

⁴ Howson, John, A Second Sermon preached at Paules Crosse, the 21. of May, 1598 (1598).Google Scholar

⁵ Oxford University Archives (hereafter cited as OUA), NEP supra/Register M, fos. 71v–2. See also Dent, C.M., Protestant Reformers in Elizabethan Oxford (Oxford, 1983), 212–8.Google Scholar

⁶ OUA, NEP supra/Register M. fo. 74v.

⁷ Text, pp. 115–16, below pp. 328–9, Westminster Cathedral Archives (hereafter cited as WCA), Series A, xi. (1612), 370. The words of the censure hung upon the doors of Christ Church and the University Church of St Mary read ‘propter conciones publicas minus orthodoxas et offensionis plenas’. Annotations upon all the Books of the Old and New Testament (1645), sig.Biv. On doubtful authority, Wood suggests that Howson may have afterwards been ‘forced to recant by Dr Rob. Abbots’. Wood, A., The History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, ed. Gutch, J. (2 vols., Oxford, 1792–1796), II. I. 312Google Scholar. See also Letters of Sir Thomas Bodley to Thomas Barnes, ed. Wheeler, G.W. (Oxford, 1926), 227–8.Google Scholar

⁸ Text, p. 118, below p. 332.

⁹ One of Howson's sermons against the Genevan glosses, preached at some time after March 1612, survives in Bodley, Rawlinson MS D 320 fos. 46–65v. Its polemical tone implies that Howson took few pains to avoid offending his critics.

¹⁰ Shriver, F., ‘Orthodoxy and diplomacy: James I and the Vorstius affair’ EHR, lxxxv (1970), 449–74.CrossRef Google Scholar

¹¹ Text, pp. 117–18, 120, below pp. 331–2, 335.

¹² Bodley, Rawl. MS A 289 fo. 78. See also Wood, II. 1. 289.

¹³ Wood, II. 1. 289.

¹⁴ Airay may never have recovered his face when Howson, as Vice-Chancellor, managed to have him silenced. OUA, NEP supra/Register M, fos. 149v–50. See also Dent, 215–6.

¹⁵ Public Record Office, SP 14/80/124.

¹⁶ Wood, II. 1. 321, based on W. Prynne, Canterburies Doome (1646), 155.Google Scholar

¹⁷ For an assessment of the theory and practice of Abbot's archiepiscopal rule, see Fincham, K. C., ‘Prelacy and Politics: Archbishop Abbot's defence of Protestant Orthodoxy’ Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research (forthcoming, 1988).Google Scholar

¹⁸ Laud, William, Works, ed. Bliss, J. & Scott, W. (7 vols., Oxford, 1847–1860), iii. 134–5.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Fincham, ‘Prelacy and Polities’, passim.

²⁰ Lockyer, R., Buckingham (1981), 18–20.Google Scholar

²¹ Letters of John Chamberlain, ed. McClure, N.E. (2 vols., Philadelphia, 1939), i. 478, 597, 609Google Scholar. Robert Abbot's preferment was made in the teeth of much opposition, and among his competitors for the see was Richard Field: Berkshire Record Office, Trumbull MSS, Alphabetical Series, XXXVI no. 77. Nathaniel Field, Some Short Memorials concerning the Life of that reverend divine Doctor Richard Field, ed. J. Le Neve (1717), 15–16.Google Scholar

²² Gardiner, S.R., ‘On Certain Letters of Diego Sarmiento de Acuna’ Archaeologia, xli. (1867), 168Google Scholar. Abbot's enmity with Bilson dated back to his time as Dean of Winchester (1600–9): Warwickshire Record Office, CR 136/B 193; A Complete Collection of State Trials, ed. T.B. & T.J. Howell (34 vols., 1816–1828), ii. 817.Google Scholar

²³ Text, pp. 116, 122, below pp. 330, 338.

²⁴ Text, pp. 119, 123, below pp. 334, 340.

²⁵ Fincham, K. & Lake, P., ‘The Ecclesiastical Policy of King James I’ Journal of British Studies, xxiv. (1985), 169–207.CrossRef Google Scholar

²⁶ Text, p. 119, below p. 334.

²⁷ Text, p. 118, below p. 333.

²⁸ Collinson, P., The Religion of Protestants (Oxford, 1982), 41.Google Scholar

²⁹ Benefield had been domestic chaplain to Abbot in c. 1610. Sebastian Benefield, Doctrinae Christianae Sex Capita (Oxford, 1610)Google Scholar, sig. *3v.

³⁰ Letters of John Chamberlain, ii. 118Google Scholar. Richard Field, the unlucky suitor for Salisbury, had been offered the reversion of the bishopric of Oxford, but died in November 1616. Field, 16.

³¹ Text, p. 123, below p. 341.

³² We owe this observation to Conrad Russell.

³³ Fincham & Lake, 198–202.

³⁴ For a broader consideration of these disputes, see Tyacke, N.R.N., Anti-Calvinists: the rise of English Arminianism, c. 1590–1640 (Oxford, 1987), ch. 3.Google Scholar

³⁵ For their comments on an earlier draft of this note and document, we are particularly grateful to Frederick Shriver, Conrad Russell and Nicholas Tyacke.

^{page 328 note 1} The pagination (pp. 115–23) is in the same hand as the document, which suggests that it was originally part of a larger collection of Howson's personal papers.

^{page 328 note 2} John Howson held the second stall at Christ Church, Oxford, from 15 May 1601 until his election as Bishop of Oxford on 12 Sept. 1618. He was consecrated the following year (9 May 1619).

^{page 328 note 3} George Abbot, former fellow of Balliol, and Master of University College, Oxford. He was installed Dean of Winchester in 1600, was consecrated Bishop of Coventry & Lichfield in Dec. 1609, and within two years had become Bishop of London (20 Jan. 1610) and Archbishop of Canterbury (9 April 1611).

^{page 328 note 4} James I was indeed at Greenwich on 10 June 1615. See Nichols, J., Progresses, processions, and magnificent festivities of King James the First (4 vols., 1828), iii. 92.Google Scholar

^{page 328 note 5} Robert Abbot, Master of Balliol since March 1610 and Regius Professor of Divinity since March 1612. He was elected Bishop of Salisbury on 11 October 1615 and was consecrated later that year.

^{page 328 note 6} Ecclesiasticus, xiii. I.

^{page 328 note 7} William Goodwin, Dean of Christ Church since 13 Sept. 1611.

^{page 328 note 8} The quaestiones theologorum for 1612–4 are recorded in Register of the University of Oxford, ed. A. Clark (Oxford Historical Society, 1887), II. 1. 209–10.Google Scholar

^{page 329 note 9} The full text read ‘propter conciones publicas minus orthodoxos et offensionis plenas’. See above p. 321 fn. 7.

^{page 329 note 10} Richard Neile, Bishop of Coventry & Lichfield 1610–14.

^{page 329 note 11} Thomas Singleton, Principal of Brasenose College and Vice-Chancellor in 1598–9 and 1611–14.

^{page 330 note 12} William James was Dean of Christ Church 1584–96. He became Dean and then Bishop of Durham, 1596 and 1606.

^{page 330 note 13} Thomas Ravis was Dean of Christ Church 1596–1605. He resigned when he became Bishop of Gloucester.

^{page 330 note 14} John King, Archdeacon of Nottingham, was Dean of Christ Church 1605–11. He became Bishop of London in 1611.

^{page 330 note 15} In Sept. 1604, when it became clear that Ravis would be consecrated Bishop of Gloucester, Howson had been one of four prebendaries to urge Robert Cecil to consider John King as his most suitable successor as dean. Historical Manuscripts Commission (hereafter cited as HMC), 9 Hatfield House MSS, xvi. 309.Google Scholar

^{page 330 note 16} Thomas Thornton held the third stall from March 1568 until his death in April 1629.

^{page 330 note 17} Thomas Whyte held the eighth stall from 1591 until his death in March 1623.

^{page 330 note 18} Leonard Hutton held the seventh stall from Dec. 1599 until his death in May 1632.

^{page 330 note 19} John Weston held the sixth stall from Sept. 1591 until his death in July 1632.

^{page 331 note 20} John Perin held the fourth stall from Nov. 1604 until his death in May 1615.

^{page 331 note 21} Goodwin was Vice-Chancellor between 1614 and 1616.

^{page 332 note 22} Revelation, ix. 1–3. ‘Locusts are false teachers, heretikes, and worldly subtile prelates … which forsake Christ, to maintaine false doctrine’. Genevan gloss. See Firth, K.R., The Apocalyptic tradition in Reformation Britain, 1530–1645 (Oxford, 1979), 44, 51, 95–6Google Scholar & passim.

^{page 332 note 23} Laud, like Howson, suffered intense persecution at the hands of Oxford Calvinists before 1615 to the extent that, according to Peter Heylin, it was ‘almost made a heresy’ to be seen in Laud's company and ‘a misprision of heresy’ to greet him in the street. Cyprianus Anglicus (1668), 54Google Scholar. Later in the narrative (Text p. 120, below p. 336) Howson claimed that his University friends ‘durst not shewe’ their affection for him ‘for feare of his Grace and my Lord of London’.

^{page 332 note 24} Ariosto, Orlando Furioso in English Heroical Verse by John Harington (1591), 108Google Scholar. Stanza XV, lines 64–74.

^{page 333 note 25} Henry Robinson was Provost of The Queen's College from 1581 to 1599, and Bishop of Carlisle from 1598 until his death in 1616.

^{page 333 note 26} Robinson was one of three bishops said to have ‘turned puritans’ in the months before the Hampton Court conference of Jan. 1604. British Library, Sloane MS 271, fo. 23v.

^{page 333 note 27} John Rainolds, President of Corpus Christi College from 1598 until his death in 1607.

^{page 333 note 28} Abbot was evidently bluffing. In 1604 he had admitted in print that ‘some men of learning’ disliked the excessive use of the languages of the Cross in sermons. Abbot, George, The Reasons which Doctour Hill hath brought for the upholding of Papistry … unmasked (Oxford, 1604), 371–2, 418–9Google Scholar. The issue was much debated in the period. Lancelot Andrewes, in a sermon at St Giles Cripplegate in 1592, attacked those who refused to hear the languages, even when they were accompanied by a translation. Works, ed. Wilson, J.P. & Bliss, J. (11 vols., Oxford, 1841–1854), v. 61Google Scholar. Robert Browne deplored the use of Hebrew and Greek—‘the maidens of the bishops’—to give a false air of scholarship. The Writings of Robert Harrison and Robert Browne, ed. A. Peel & L.H. Carlson (1953), 173.Google Scholar

^{page 333 note 29} John Childerley, fellow of St John's College, Oxford, since 1579, and successively chaplain at Lambeth to Archbishops Bancroft and Abbot.

^{page 333 note 30} The sermon has not been traced in MacClure, M., The Paul's Cross Sermons, 1534–1642 (Toronto, 1958)Google Scholar. The text is misremembered from Genesis, xxvii. 1.

^{page 334 note 31} ‘The inhabitants of this Isle were wont merrily to make their boast, that their case was happier than all others, because they had neither hooded monks, nor cavilling lawyers, nor yet crafty foxes’. Camden, William, Britain … written first in Latin (1610), i. 274.Google Scholar

^{page 334 note 32} Sir William Periam, Sergeant at Law in 1580 and Chief Baron of the Exchequer from 1592 until his death in 1604. For one example of Periam's partiality to the godly, see BL, Harleian MS 7517, fo. 37.

^{page 334 note 33} Edmund Lilye, Master of Balliol 1580–1609, and Vice-Chancellor in 1585–6 and 1596–7.

^{page 335 note 34} Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, was elected Chancellor in Dec. 1591. He died, as the Earl of Dorset, in April 1608.

^{page 335 note 35} George Abbot was a domestic chaplain to Buckhurst from c. 1600 to 1608.

^{page 335 note 36} James I visited Oxford in August 1605 and stayed in Christ Church. Nichols, , i. 541.Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 37} The pastoral included ‘five or six men almost naked’ which, if it was to James I's taste, was evidently not to that of Abbot. Nichols, i. 547–8.

^{page 335 note 38} Walter Browne, Arminian tutor at Corpus Christi College, died in 1613. He was labelled a papist during Laud's trial in 1644; Laud admitted the acquitance, but denied knowledge of Browne's opinions. HMC, 17 MSS of the House of Lords, Addenda 1514–1714, ed. M.F. Bond (new series, 1962), xi. 448.Google Scholar

^{page 335 note 39} Benjamin Carier was a royal chaplain and canon of Canterbury who defected to Rome in 1613 and then published an apologia addressed to James I: A Treatise written by M. Doctor Carier, wherein he layeth down sundry learned and pithy considerations, by which he was moved, to forsake the Protestant congregation, and to betake himselfe to the Catholike Aposlolike Roman Church (Brussels, 1614).

^{page 336 note 40} Nicholas Bond, President of Magdalen College, 1589–1608.

^{page 336 note 41} Thomas Holland, fellow of Balliol, became Regius Professor of Divinity in 1589 and Rector of Exeter College in 1592. He died in 1612.

^{page 336 note 42} George Ryves, Warden of New College, 1599–1613. He served as Vice-Chancellor in 1601–2, in which office he was succeeded by Howson.

^{page 336 note 43} John Williams, fellow of All Souls, became Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in 1594 and Principal of Jesus in 1602. He died in 1613.

^{page 336 note 44} While James I publicly endorsed the Pope's status as Antichrist, he was prepared to withdraw the charge, provided the papacy dropped its claims to a power to depose princes. Mcllwain, C.H., The Political Works of James I (Cambridge, Mass., 1918), 149–50Google Scholar; Spain & the Jacobean Catholics, vol. 2, 1613–1624, ed. A.J. Loomie (Catholic Record Society), lxviii. (1978), 146.Google Scholar

^{page 336 note 45} The works of Hieronymus Zanchius of Heidelberg were widely read in Elizabethan Oxford: Dent, 96–102.

^{page 336 note 46} [James I], An Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance; first set forth without a name, now acknowledged. Together with a Premonition (1609).

^{page 337 note 47} Lancelot Andrewes, Responsio ad Apologiam Cardinally Bellarmini (1610).

^{page 337 note 48} Lancelot Andrewes. He had been consecrated Bishop of Chichester in Nov. 1605, and in Nov. 1609 was translated to Ely.

^{page 337 note 49} Archbishop Bancroft's death in Nov. 1610 led to much speculation about a successor, and Andrewes was among the favourites for the post: WCA, Series A, xi. (1610), 293; HMC, 77 De Lisle & Dudley MSS, iv. 245.Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 50} Eudaemon-Joannes, Andreas, Parallelus Torti ac Tortoris eius L. Cisestrensis (Cologne, 1611).Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 51} Daniel Price, chaplain to Prince Henry, James 1 and Prince Charles, was a staunch Calvinist who suffered a brief imprisonment in 1621 for his opposition to the Spanish match. The Court and Times of James the First, ed. T. Birch (2 vols., 1848), ii. 267.Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 52} William Barlow, Dean of Chester (1602–5) and Bishop of Rochester (1605–8) and of Lincoln (1608–13), was best known for his account of the Hampton Court conference, The Summe and Substance, of the Conference …, (1604)Google Scholar, and for A Defence of the Articles of the Protestants Religion, (1601).Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 53} Field, Richard, Of the Church. Five Bookes, (1606–1610).Google Scholar

^{page 337 note 54} Thomas Morton, Dean of Gloucester (1607–9) and of Winchester (1610–16). He was consecrated Bishop of Chester in July 1616 and died, as Bishop of Durham, in the last year of the Interregnum (22 Sept. 1659).

^{page 338 note 55} Morton, Thomas, A Catholike Appeal for Protestants, out of the Confessions … (1609).Google Scholar

^{page 338 note 56} Richard Bancroft, Bishop of London 1597–1604 and Archbishop of Canterbury 1604–10. In 1608 he was elected Chancellor of Oxford, a rare honour for a Cambridge man.

^{page 338 note 57} On 4th July 1610 William Crashaw appeared in the southern Convocation on the charge of publishing ‘an erroneous book’, usually taken to be Newes from Italy of a Second Moses, (1608). See Wilkins, D., Concilia Magnae Brilanniae et Hiberniae, (4 vols., 1737), iv. 457–8.Google Scholar

^{page 338 note 58} George Abbot was Dean of Winchester 1600–9.

^{page 339 note 59} Abbot's censure was published in 1641. Cheapside Crosse censured and condemned by a letter sent from the Vice-Chauncellor … (1641).

^{page 339 note 60} Ravis was Abbot's predecessor as Bishop of London, 1607–9. As early as Dec. 1606 Abbot had established close links with Bancroft, and in 1609–10 the latter groomed Abbot to succeed him at Canterbury. See Warwickshire RO, CR 136/B 193; Fincham, ‘Prelacy and Polities’, fn. 20.

^{page 339 note 61} John King.

^{page 339 note 62} Sir William Greene of Great Milton, Sheriff of Oxfordshire in 1600–1, and a parishioner of Howson between 1601 and 1608.

^{page 339 note 63} John Bridges, Bishop of Oxford 1604–18.

^{page 339 note 64} ie the Presence Chamber, which contained the cloth and chair of state, and where important ceremonies, such as the formal reception of ambassadors, were performed.

^{page 339 note 65} The remainder of this sentence may be paraphrased as follows: Greene, guessing the identity of his anonymous accuser, believed he was slandered because of his esteem for Howson.

^{page 340 note 66} See Milward, P., Religious Controversies of the Jacobean Age (1978), 91–4.Google Scholar

^{page 340 note 67} A shaft clearly aimed at Abbot, whom Howson still regarded as a puritan.

^{page 340 note 68} Robert Abbot, presumably preaching in his turn as Regius Professor of Divinity at St Mary's, Oxford.

^{page 340 note 69} No evidence exists that Robert Abbot did go to Oxford to acknowledge his error in attacking Howson. However, in the parallel instance of Laud's hearing that month, George Abbot ‘him selfe acknowledged his brothers error in it, and Dr Aboiis him selfe asked pardon for it’. PRO, SP 14/80/124, quoted in extenso above p. 323.

^{page 340 note 70} If Abbot ever wrote these letters to the University, they have not survived. Subsequently (in Jan. 1617) the King found it necessary to send nine Articles to the University. OUA, Convocation Book N, 1615–28, fo. 33v, primed in Wood, II. 1. 323–4.

^{page 340 note 71} The published sermons given in 1616 complied with this order: John Howson, Certaine Sermons made in Oxford, Anno. Dom. 1616. Wherein, is proved that Saint Peler had no monarchicall power over the rest of the Apostles, against Bellarmine, Sanders, Stapleton and the rest of that compaine. Published by Commandement (1622).

^{page 341 note 72} Cesare Baronius (1538–1607), the prominent Roman polemicist.

^{page 341 note 73} P'or Browne and Carier, see above p. 335 ms. 38–9. John Langworth, a friend of Carier, was Archdeacon of Wells and a canon of Canterbury who died in Jan. 1614. James’ knowledge of him was probably derived from Abbot, who regarded Langworth as a crypto-papist, ‘a notable hyprocrite and a man suspected all his time, but went to churche and received the communion’. Catholic newsletters disclose that a Roman priest attended Langworth on his deathbed, although he was not received into the Catholic Communion. WCA, Old Brotherhood Archives, i. no. 39; Series A, xiii. (1614), 58; PRO, SP 14/76/48.

^{page 341 note 74} A reference, perhaps, to competition between Howson and George Abbot for a fellowship at Balliol in 1583, to which Abbot was elected.

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IV John Howson's Answers to Archbishop Abbot's Accusations at his ‘Trial’ before James I at Greenwich, 10 June 1615

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IV John Howson's Answers to Archbishop Abbot's Accusations at his ‘Trial’ before James I at Greenwich, 10 June 1615

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