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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
page 1 note 2 The pedigree of the family, as compiled from Harl. MS. 1535, f. 297 b, the will of Whittingham, Surtees, Durham, vol. ii. pp. 315, 326, 330, &c., is as follows:
page 2 note 1 Circa an. 1536. Marg. note in MS. The date of his birth given by general biographers is 1524, at the city of Chester; but if this marginal date be correct, it must have been 1520.
page 2 note 2 Or Student, more strictly speaking, a Student in Christ Church being equivalent to a Fellow in other colleges. It is noticeable that the writer still retains the primary name of the college, Wolsey's, although Henry VIII., after the confiscation of Wolsey's property, usurped the right of being called founder, and altered the name, first in 1532 to King Henry VIII.'s college, and after, in 1546, when it became a cathedral, to that of Christ Church of the foundation of Henry VIII.—Ingram's Memorials of Oxford, vol. i. pp. 44, 46.
page 2 note 3 His licence bears date 17 May, 1550.—Wood's Athenœ Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 446.
page 2 note 4 During his residence in Orleans, he married Catherine, daughter of Lewis Jaqueman, and sister to the wife of John Calvin the reformer, but the date of the marriage is uncertain. Her mother was daughter and heir of Gouteron, lord of Inguir and Turvyle, near Orleans.—Athen. Oxon. vol. i. p. 447.
page 2 note 5 Dr. Nich. Wotton, Dean of York and Canterbury, was the English resident in France up to the spring of 1550. He was succeeded by Sir John Mason, who remained till July 1551, when Sir William Pickering was appointed, and remained till nearly the close of Edward VL.'s reign.
page 3 note 1 Before deciding to leave the country, he had made an effort to obtain toleration for his party, as recorded in the following letter from Julius Terentianus to John ab Ulmis, dated Strasburgh, Nov. 20, 1553: “Master Peter Martyr is forbidden to leave his house; and Sidall, a truly excellent man, is ordered to guard against hia running away; and thus master Peter has had his own house made a prison of these six weeks. But I, perceiving that the danger was manifest, went to London, to seek assistance from my friends. They were now reduced to a very small number, and were so far from being able to assist us, that they were exposed to the greatest peril themselves. Whittingham and I conceive the project of presenting a petition to the Queen and Council, in which we embrace the entire circumstances of master Peter; how he had been invited over from Strasburgh by the deceased King, and had been recalled by the magistrates of Strasburgh during the last year, but that the King would not give him licence to depart; that the correspondence relative to all these facts was in the royal archives; and that moreover many of the Council could bear abundant testimony to their truth. We added that master Peter had committed no offence either against the Queen or the laws of the realm; that, if his enemies chose to bring any charge against him, he was prepared to meet it; that he now perceived that the Queen had no longer occasion for his services, and therefore he petitioned her for a licence to enable him to leave the kingdom.
“Whittingham and I proceed to Richmond; he presents the petition respecting Peter to the secretary, who, as is customary, lays it on the Council table, and bids us wait. On that day nothing was done; we are ordered to come again on the morrow; we are there at the hour appointed, but still nothing is doné We feel at last that we are imposed upon. We agree therefore among ourselves, that Whittingham should return to Oxford, and remain with master Peter, for he was now almost entirely by himself, since every one, except only Sidall and master Haddon, had withdrawn from his society. As to me, I remain in London, to make what interest I can.
“At length Whittingham returns after some days: we both of us wait upon [Sir John] Mason, who at first declined interposing in so disagreeable a case, and said that he was altogether out of favour; afterwards however he was urgent that master Peter might be allowed to come to London, and plead his cause before the Council. He obtains his request, and we have moreover permission to remove all our goods.” —Zurich Letters, vol. i. pp. 369–370, published by the Parker Society.
page 4 note 1 Thomas Harding, the well-known controversialist, opponent of Bishop Jewell. He was Hebrew professor at Oxford, 1542–1548; prebendary of Winchester, 1554; deprived by Queen Elizabeth, and died at Louvain, 1572.
page 4 note 2 This proclamation, dated August 17, 1553, is preserved in the Record Office, Domestic State Papers, Mary, vol. i. No. 7. It exhorts all subjects to observe “the service of God agreable to God's word and the primitive Church:” but permitting them to obey existing laws until repealed; exhorting them not to use the “devilish terms of Papist or Heretic;” and forbidding all preaching or public reading of religious books, without licence of the Queen.
page 5 note 1 The Bishops deprived by Mary, beside Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer burnt, were William Barlow, Bishop of Bath and Wells; John Scory, Bishop of Chichester; Miles Corerdale, Bishop of Exeter; John Harley, Bishop of Hereford; John Tailour, Bishop of Lincoln; John Hooper, Bishop of Worcester; and John Bird, Bishop of Chester. Paul Bushe, Bishop of Bristol, and John Poynet, Bishop of Winchester, resigned.
page 5 note 2 On the subject of these disputes, Whittingham thus writes to Calvin:—
“The occasion that ought to bring us the greatest comfort from your most important letter has, in a manner, thrown us into the greatest anxiety and distress. For when there seemed likely to be no end to such noisy contentions, and on that account it was ordered by the magistrate that we should comply with all the rites of the French church, (unless there should happen to be anything that might justly be found fault with), this circumstance so much offended some parties that, leaving the contest about ceremonies, they betook themselves to forensic accusation. For Master Knox, being most unjustly charged before the magistrate with high treason, has been ordered to quit the place, not without the regret of all good men, and even of the magistrate himself.
“He is therefore on his way to you, and will explain the whole matter in order. This only I can speak from experience, that nothing ever occasioned greater distresa and shame to good men than this wickedness has done; but I cannot now relate these things by reason of my grief, and he will himself explain them better and more fully in person, as well as all other matters, of which I will describe the progress and result more at length after the fair.
“Farewell in Christ, and with your wonted affection, aid us by your prayers and counsel.
Will. Whittingham.
“Frankfort, March 25, 1555.”
Zurich Letters, vol. ii. p. 764, published by the Parker Society. See also Strype's Grindal, p. 15; Annals of Reformation, vol. i. pt. i. p. 152.
page 6 note 1 This was about Sept. 1555. Shortly before his departure he wrote the following letter to Calvin:
“Supposing that this letter will scarcely reach you much sooner than I shall arrive myself, I do not write so fully as the subject itself requires, and as I could wish; for I have sent off all my baggage, and am hastening to you as speedily as possible.
“With respect to those who are at Basle, we are in hopes that, after a mutnal conference, they, together with us, will both enjoy your valuable assistance, and not only rejoice in that divine benefit, but will embrace and cherish it. I shall very soon, I hope, converse with you in person about your letter to our friends, and our own departure, and other matters.
“Master St.Andrew has zealously conducted himself here, and to the great and common benefit of the churches. Master John à Glauberg has made honourable mention of you, as he ought to do, and requests me to salute you most diligently in his name, as, being at this time especially engaged in a multitude of affairs, he is unable to write to you. All our friends salute you, reverence, and most deservedly esteem you.
“May Almighty God very long preserve you, both to His own glory and the common comfort both of ourselves and all others. Frankfort, Sept. 21.
“Your disciple,
“W. Whittingham.”
Zurich Letters, vol. ii. p. 766, published by the Parker Society.
A brief but clear account of this controversy may be found in Carruthers' History of the Church of England, vol. i. c. xiv.; Strype's Grindal, p. 170; and also his Annals, Index to vol. iii.
page 7 note 1 The book is entitled “History of Troubles at Frankfort;” reprinted in 1708 in a collection called the Phœnix, vol. ii. It is described by Fuller in his Church History, b. 8, p. 208.
page 7 note 2 Christopher Goodman, a note d Puritan writer; he and Whittingham were intimately associated at Frankfort, and again in 1558 at Geneva, where Goodman published a pamphlet entitled “How superior powers ought to be obeyed of their subjects, and wherein they may lawfully, by God's word, be disobeyed and resisted,” which, though written in Mary's time, was offensive to Queen Elizabeth because it strongly reprobated the government of women, as “a monster in nature,” quoting God's instructions to the Israelites, “From the middle of thy brethren, shalt thou choose thee a king, and not amongst thy sisters. For God is not contrary to himself, which at the beginning appointed the woman to be in subjection to her husband, and the man to be head ofthe woman, (as saith the Apostle) who will not permit so much to the woman as to speak in the assembly of men, much less to be ruler of a realm or nation.”
page 7 note 3 Goodman, divinity reader Oxon., temp. Edward VI.—Marg. note in MS.
page 8 note 1 Quis in MS.
page 8 note 2 This letter is printed in the Parker Society's edition of Jewell's works, 4th portion, p. 1192, under the date of 1557, quoting from Ashmolean MS. 8560, 98 E 4.
page 9 note 1 In 1557 Knox's son Nathaniel was born at Geneva, and baptised on May 23rd, when Whittingham stood sponsor to the child.
page 9 note 2 Knox's strong vituperations of the English government induced the magistrates of Geneva to send Whittingham and a Mr. Williams to him, to request him to depart, or they should be constrained to deliver him to the Emperor.—Strype's Memorials, vol. i. pt. iii. pp. 407–544.
page 9 note 3 In 1578, when the charge of invalidity of ordination was brought against Whittingham, it was stated that he was “not ordained according to Geneva,” i.e. he was only appointed to preach, not ordained by imposition of hands. See p. 30 infra. But Wood, in his Athenœ, distinctly states that he was “made a minister, according to the Geneva fashion.” Vol. i. p. 447.
page 9 note 4 Anthony Gilby was the author of several controversial and theological treatises, published between 1547 and 1590; one of the most important being his translation of Beza's paraphrases on the Psalms.
page 9 note 5 Thomas Sampson, of whom it was said that it was doubtful whether there was living “a better man, a greater linguist, a more complete scholar, or a more profound divine.” He was afterwards Dean of Chichester and also of Christchurch, Oxford, but deprived and imprisoned for non-conformity. Carruthers’ English Church History, vol. i. p. 469 et seq.; Strype's Parker, book ii. ch. 22, and Neale's History of the Puritans, edit. 1811, vol. i. ch. 4, pp. 114–117.
page 10 note 1 For an account of this Geneva Bible, commonly known from the translation of Genesis chap. iii. v. 7, as the Breeches Bible, see art. Version Authorized, in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii. p. 1673. Westcott, in his History of the translation of the English Bible, pp. 121–127, gives the principal share of the New Testament revision to Whittingham, and supposes him to be the reviser whose address is prefixed, but he also shared the labour of the Old Testament revision. It was probably at this time that he translated into Latin the Liturgy of the church of Geneva. He also wrote a preface to Nicholas Ridley's Declaration of the Lord's Supper.— Athenœ Oxon., vol. i. p. 449.
page 10 note 2 Though Sternhold died in 1549, his edition of the Psalms was not published till 1562. The first 15 were by Sternhold, 58 more by Hopkins, 5 by Whittingham, 27 by T. Norton, one by R. Wisdom, and 7 bear the initials W. K. and T. C, William Kethe and Thos. Churchyard. See John Holland's Psalmists of Britain, vol. i. p. 110.
page 10 note 3 The following is an extract from the Council Book of Geneva, in reference to Whittingham's return to England, dated May 30, 1560:—” William Whittingham, citizen, in his own name and that of his company, came to thank the magistrates for the kind treatment they have received in this city, and to state that they are required to return to their own country, in order to minister to the church there; but that they entreated their worships still to regard them as humble servants of the republic, and promised that in everything and every place, wherever they might have the means of doing service, either to the state, or to any inhabitants of this city, they would exert themselves to the utmost of their power. They requested, too, a certificate of their life and conversation during their residence in this city, and gave in a register of those of their countrymen who came to dwell therein, by way of a perpetual remembrance.
“It was decreed that they should have honourable licence to depart, together with a testimonial of the satisfaction we have had in them; and that they be exhorted to pray for us, and to act in their turn towards foreigners as we have done to them; that they be always disposed to look with affection upon this city; and that those who are now citizens or subjects be still regarded as such for the time to come.”— Zurich Letters, vol. ii. p. 765, note.
page 11 note 1 Francis II., husband of Mary Queen of Scots. The Earl went in January, 1561, and remained till the end of February.
page 11 note 2 Havre, then a new-haven, being founded in 1509, by Louis XII.; for particulars of its defence, see Froude, vol. vii. p. 54; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 1547–80, pp. 203–220, and Foreign 1562, sub voce Newhaven.
page 11 note 3 Rheingraf Philip Francis, Elector Palatine of the Rhine.
page 11 note 4 Ambrose Dudley, son of John late Duke of Northumberland, and elder brother of Robert Earl of Leicester.
page 11 note 5 He was President of Wales in 1560, and retained the office till his decease in 1586, but he was at Newhaven during the greater part of the siege. See Foreign Calendar, 1562.
page 12 note 1 Several honourable notices of Whittingham occur in the correspondence of the Earl of Warwick, Lord Lieutenant, and others, at the siege of Newhaven, e.g.
“ Herewith your honour shall receive the copy of certain articles lately augmented, which shall to-morrow be eftsoons proclaimed; God grant they may also be duly executed. The poor here have been heretofore pitifully spoiled by the Godless soldiers, and none before this time presented whereby justice might be ministered, whereunto my lord is most willingly bent, and by Mr. Whittingham and the rest there wanteth no public admonition in this behalf.”—Thomas Wood to Sir William Cecil, Newhaven, 9th November, 1562.—Foreign Correspondence, Record Office.
“I assure you we may all here think ourselves happy in having such a man amongst us as Mr. Whittingham is, not only for the great virtues in him, but likewise for the care he hath to serve our mistress besides. Wherefore, in my opinion, he doth well deserve great thanks at Her Majesty's hands.”—Warwiek to Cecil, Newhaven, 20th November, 1562.—Ibid.
And again—
“Forasmuch as Bradbridge and Vyron is both gone from hence, by reason of sickness, so that we have no minister but only Mr. Whittingham, who is so excellent a man indeed as that I would not for no thing in the world spare him, I have thought good therefore to put you in remembrance, either to procure Mr. Goodman to come hither, for the good report I have heard of him, or else Mr. Wyburn, for that if this man should chance to be shot, then are we utterly destitute.”—Warwick to Cecil, Newhaven, 28th December, 1562.—Ibid.
page 12 note 2 See Sir A. Poynings to Cecil, July 6, 1563, and other papers from July 6 to August 1, 1563, Domestic Calendar of State Papers, 1547–1580.
page 13 note 1 In May 1562, an effort was made to obtain for him the parsonage of Loughborough, the rector of which, John Wyllock, was absent in Scotland, attending Thos. Randolph, ambassador there, as chaplain. The advowson was in the gift of Lord Hastings of Loughborough, whose tendencies were popish, and he wished to place therein Adams, one of his own chaplains. The Earl of Bedford, Lord Robert Dudley, and Mr. Goodrich used their influence with his lordship in favour of Whittingham, but in vain; and therefore Wyllock, who held the cure, though professing his willingness to resign in favour of an “honest, learned man like Whittingham, begged leave to hold the living with a dispensation for five years for non-residence, rather than relinquish it to a Papist.”—Wyllock to Cecil, May 20, and Randolph to Cecil, May 30, 1562.—Foreign Correspondence, Record Office.
page 13 note 2 It is probable from the coincidence of dates that the service alluded to is thus recorded in a letter from Warwick and the Council of War at Newhaven to the Council:
“You may perceive, by certain examinations herewith enclosed, what late practices here hath been for the burning of the ships in this haven, which was revealed by Mr. Whittingham, and the parties also found out by him, upon intelligence given unto him by one Mons. Le Barre, principal minister of this town, and a man of great learning and no less fidelity towards this cause, being now departed hence to Caen, with a great number of the burgesses, whom the only bruit of war hath driven from hence, without any compulsion used therein towards them.”—Date May 18, 1563.—Foreign Correspondence, Record Office.
page 13 note 3 The modern Durham is directly from the Norman Duresme. The coinage of the episcopal mint, from Bishop Bec (1283–1310) to Cardinal Langley (Bp. 1406—1437), gives the legend indifferently Dureme, or the Latin Dunolm or Dunelm. Derame first appears on a coin of Bishop Booth (1457–1476), and his successors have all the varieties of Derham, Dirram, and Durham. In The Siege of Carlaverock Bishop Bec is described as “le noble Evesque de Doureame.”—Surtees's Durham, vol. i. p. 32; vol. iv. p. 2, p. 3.
page 14 note 1 Warwick, in a letter to Dudley, written from Newhaven, the same day as the preceding, says: “For that I had in my letter to the Queen's Majesty for-got my humblest thanks for the behalf of my dear friend Mr. Whittingham, for the great favour it have pleased her to show him, for my sake, I beseech you therefore do not forget to render them unto her Majesty.”—Foreign Correspond. Record Office.
page 14 note 2 Dr. Thomas Wilson, who was secretary 1577 to 1581, dean of Durham 1579, and died 1581.
page 14 note 3 See note 3, p. 11.
page 16 note 1 The original of this letter is in the Public Record Office, Foreign Papers, 1562, No. 1304. The variations in readings are given in the note s; the words affected by them are printed in italics.
page 16 note 2 Insert “Grace, mercy, and peace through Christ Jesus.”
page 16 note 3 “others.”
page 16 note 4 “would easily have approved.”
page 17 note 1 “herein persuaded.”
page 17 note 2 “with.”
page 17 note 3 Insert “only.”
page 17 note 4 “their.”
page 17 note 5 Insert “as not sincere.”
page 17 note 6 Omit “to come.”
page 17 note 7 “have purchased with.”
page 17 note 8 “most.”
page 17 note 9 “form that the godly fathers used.”
page 17 note 10 Insert “in these days, and according to the example of the best reformed churches.”
page 17 note 11 Insert “that.”
page 17 note 12 Insert “here.”
page 17 note 13 “between.”
page 17 note 14 Insert “Bishop.”
page 17 note 15 Insert “us.”
page 17 note 16 Insert “my.”
page 17 note 17 “vantage.”
page 18 note 1 “reproach.”
page 18 note 2 Insert “that.”
page 18 note 3 Insert “as well.”
page 18 note 4 Insert “as I pity you.”
page 18 note 5 Insert “From Newhaven, this 20th December, 1562.
“Your honour's most humbly to commande,
“W. WHITTINGHAM.”
The subject of introducing the English forms into the service at Newhaven was discussed at length in a letter sent the same day from Cuthbert Vaughan, Comptroller and Muster-master of the Forces, and one of the Council of war at Newhaven. He strongly dissuades the enforcing of ceremonies in a country where they would give offence, and might make the people weary of the English, and hopes the dregs of superstition yet remaining in the church may be redressed this Parliament.—See Foreign Calendar 1562, p. 575
page 19 note 1 The reference here is to a dangerous attack of small-pox, from which Queen Elizabeth suffered in October 1562.
page 19 note 2 Antoine de Bourbon, King of Navarre, died 7th Nov. 1562, of a wound received at the siege of Rouen.
page 19 note 3 The letter in question is preserved in the Public Record Office, Foreign Papers, 1562, No. 1771, and is as follows:
“Grace, mercy, and peace through Christ Jesus our Lord. Oh, happy news that brought life before they threatened death! Oh our miserable sins, that brought in danger that life which should have drawn so many thousands to death! Oh, the unspeakable mercies of our God, who, by prolonging that life, hath revived all true professors of God's holy word!
“Thus we may see the just judgments of God, and also may behold his wonderful mercys which surmount them. God grant us true repentance for our sins, fervent minds to prayer, sincere love of his word, and the right practise of our Christian profession!
“But one thing, right honourable, doeth make me to tremble, when I behold God's plagues in such a readiness, and represented unto us in those blood-thirsty wolves, which seem to be reserved and kept up to make them more eager and greedy of the blood of the poor lambs of Jesus Christ, which daily they gape after and threaten. Certainly an horrible terror to all God's children, a discouraging to all the professors of true religion, and to the enemy a wonderful encouraging, whereby his heart toward God is hardened, and against the Queen's Majesty made rebellious. The Lord God move her heart to remedy this evil, and send her a long and prosperous reign, to his glory, and the comfort, not only of us her subjects, but of all Christendom; seeing the whole state thereoff this day dependeth on her Majesty.
“It would be tedious to repeat to your honour all our news, which my Lord Presedent can most certainly declair, upon whose relation I doubt not but you will, by foreseeing the dangers, provide speedy remedy. My Lord-Lieutenant behaveth [him] self very honourably, and hath the commendation of all sorts. Only it may please your honour not to suffer him to be destitute of some special wise counselled, whose heart may be sincerely bent to this cause, whose valientness may engender fear in the enemy, and whose wisdom may with speed remedy dangers; for now that my Lord President is departed hence, my Lord shall be almost left destitute. Yea and by the private dissensions of them whose authority, by concord, might appease all particular grudges of other men, our state might easily fall into danger.
“The Rhinegrave was within half-a-mile of this town, with a great company of Almains, pretending no hurt but meaning no goodness, as your honour shall perceive by my Lord Presedent. The next day afterward, which was the seventh of this month, he departed toward Guise, leaving 12 ensigns of Almains within two miles of this place. Guise by report is gone toward Paris. Some say that the prince hath taken all such plate and treasure as the King had left at Fontainebleaú.
“Here is a gentleman called Mons. Beauvoir, left as governor under the Vidame in such things as shall appertain to the duty of the French towards our state. He hath married the Vidame's sister, and surely is a godly, valiant, and trusty gentleman, greatly afEectioned toward your honour; therefore I wish he might be encouraged in his well doing. Concerning religion certain orders are drawn, but as yet not published, for preaching and prayers to be had daily, and for discipline to be practised for the supressing of vice, which would otherwise in short time grievously infect this flock. Hither came, with my Lord, one Mr. Broadbridge, minister, and since their departure from Dieppe, Mr. Viron. The soldiers are for the most part so void of knowledge and fear of God that I think, considering the number that is to come, we shall all have oecasion to be both well and diligently occupied. Thus I am bold to trouble your honour, albeit I am not ignorant of your great affairs otherwise, and of your special care for the furtherance of this cause.
“The Lord God bless and prosper you, and direct you in this and all other your Godly enterprises, to His glory, the honour of the Queen's majesty, and all our comforts! Amen. From New Haven this 8 Novembre.
“Your honours most humbly to obey,
“W.Whittingham.
“To the right honourable Sir William Cecil, Knight,
principal secretary to the Queen's majesty.”
page 21 note 1 On his passage through London, he preached before the Queen, at Windsor, on Sept. 2, 1563.—Strype's Annals, vol. i. pt. 2, p. 88, and Parker, vol. i. p. 268.
page 21 note 2 Sir William Cecil was made Lord Burghley February 25, 1571, and Lord High Treasurer 15th July, 1572. The secretaryship devolved upon Sir Thomas Smith, and was shared with him the following year by Sir Francis Walsingham.
page 21 note 3 A long controversial letter from Whittingham to the Earl of Leicester, against the “old Popish apparel,” dated Durham, 1564, is printed in Strype's Parker, vol. iii. pp. 76–84.
page 21 note 4 The question does not seem to have been so much whether chasubles, &c, should be retained, as whether the surplice should be worn instead of the black Genera gown. The Elizabethan Prayer Book of 1559 contained a rubric retaining vestments; the Statute 1 Eliz. cap. 2, sec. 25, qualified this, but leaving large discretionary powers in the hands of the Queen.
page 22 note 1 An account of the controversy may be seen in Collier's Eoclesiastical History, vol. ii. p. 495, and in Blunt's Annotated Prayer Book, Introduction p. 67.
page 22 note 2 He and Mr. Beton refused at first, but afterwards consented. Strype's Grindal, p. 145. Canon Raine has kindly supplied the following note s from the York registers, relative to this controversy. The interrogatories are absent, but may be guessed at from the replies in most cases.
“August 5, 1566. Office against Mr. Wm. Whittingham, Dean of Durham. Certain articles are administered to him, to which he makes the following replies:—
“1. True.
“2. He doyth not now well remembre, nor certainly knowe the lawes, statutes, etc., articulate, and therfore he doythe referre himeself to the same.
“3. He doyth not well knowe or remembre—(as before).
“4. He openly goeth abrode in the cytty of Duresme, and also into the queare in the cathedrall churche of Duresme, doyth and hayth used to weare a rounde capp, and sometymes abrode in the country.
“5. He cometh into the cathedrall churche of Duresme, and into the queare. ther, in a rounde capp and a gowne, withowt a surples above the same, but not to the offence of any honeste or grave personnes, as he belevethe.
“6. He one time, upon Christenmas Day nexte comynge shalbe thre yeres, dyd minister the Communyon withowt eyther cope or surples, howbeit he dyd not minister the Communion sence that day, and he receyveth the Communyon neyther syttinge nor standinge, but bowing his kne towardes the grounde at the receyving therof.
“7. True.
“ He is enjoined henceforth to wear decent apparell in church and elsewhere on pain of deprivation; to conform before All Saints’ Day next, and to appear to certify his conformity.
“ February 17,1566–7. Pronounced contamacious for not certifying his conformity.
page 23 note 3 A contemporary rhymer writes:—
“Wood, Williams, Whittingham, and Sutton,
Valued the Prayer Book not a button,
gy they grudg'd to say,
And threw the surplice quite away—
Alter'd confession, chang'd the hymns
For old Jack Hopkins’ pithy rhymes.”
Ward's Reformation Cant, i.
“February 18, 1566–7. Does not appear. Ordered to be cited to appear in person.
“March 17. Citation again decreed. If disobeyed he will be deprived.
“March 18. John Broket, public notary, appears for the Dean, alleges his conformity and desires dismissal of suit. Ordered to prove conformity.
“May 26, 1567. A letter of James Bishop of Durham, put in by proctor, testifying to the Dean's conformity.
“August 2,1567. After many delays, the Commissioners release him from the suit.”
page 23 note 1 The following letter, printed in Strype's Parker, vol i. pp. 267–8, gives some account of Whittingham's official labours:—
“Grace, mercy, and peace, through Jesus Christ our Lord!
“Albeit I am not ignorant how unbeseeming it is to trouble your honour with letters of small importance, yet I colde not, in so long tyme, omit to shew some signification of my special duety, as wel to yielde unto your honor most humble thanks, with promise of my service where you shall appoint, as also to certify you of our doings here.
“First, in the morning at six of the clock, the grammar schoole and song schole, with all the servants of the house, resort to prayers into the church; which exercise continueth almost half-an-hour. At nyne of the clock we have our ordinary service, and likewise at thre afternone. The Wednesdays and Fridays are appointed to a general fast, with prayers and preaching of God's word. The Sundaies and holydays before none we have sermons, and at after none the catcchisme is expounded.
“Because we lak an able scholemaster, I bestow daily three or four hours in teaching the youth, till God provide us of some that may better suffice.
“The people in the country are very docile, and willing to hear God's word; but the towne is very stiff, notwithstanding they be handeled with al lenitie and gentleness. The best hope I have that now of late they begyn to resort more diligently to the sermons and service. God make us all profitable setters forth of His glory, and preserve long, bless, and direct your honour, to His glory and all our comforts! My brother Mr. Hallyday most humbly saluteth your honour; so doth Mr. Benet.
“From Durham, this 19th December.
“Your honour's most humbly to commande,
“W. Whittingham.”
page 23 note 2 James Pilkington, elected 20th February, 1561, ob. 23rd January, 1576, aged 55.
page 24 note 1 This must have been Thursday, November 10, 1569. The following Monday, November 14, the Earls of Northumberland and Westmerland had appeared with their forces at Durham, and, to inspire the idea that they fought for the Catholic religion, they began their proceedings by tearing in pieces the Bible and throwing down the communion table in Durham Cathedral. Earl of Surrey to the Queen, November 15, 1569.—State Papers, Record Office. See also Froude's Elizabeth, vol. ix. ch. 18, pp. 515 et seq.
page 25 note 1 This statement does not agree with the testimony even of their enemies, who said that they paid for all they took, and suffered no spoil, and that a soldier who had taken a horse of the dean's out of his stable was punished, and compelled to restore the horse.—Sussex to Cecil, November 16, 1569.
page 25 note 2 The Earl of Warwick and Lord Admiral Clinton, afterwards Earl of Lincoln, were the leaders. They had reached Wetherby by December 14, and on the 16th the rebels had dispersed. Full particulars of this rebellion will be found in the Calendar of State Papers, Addenda, 1569–70, and also in Sir Cuthbert Sharpe's Memorials of the Rebellion of 1569, in which many of the papers are printed.
page 25 note 3 Edmund Grindal, Archbishop of York, was translated to Canterbury 10th January, 1576, and Edwin Sandys, his successor, was appointed 25th January, 1577. James Pilkington, Bishop of Durham, died January 23, 1576, and Richard Barnes succeeded him 5th April, 1577. By a singular mistake, several authorities name Pilkington's death as in January, 1575, instead of 1575–6; Barnes's elevation as in April, 1575.
page 26 note 1 The claim of the Archbishop to visit was of course in capacity of his office as metropolitan. On the general question whether archbishops have such power except on appeal, see Stephen's Dictionary of Church Lan, under Visitation and Metropolitan. In the phrase “the church of Durham,” no doubt the diocese is included, and, as part of the diocese, the cathedral, or rather its clerical officers.
page 26 note 2 The vulgar form for prebendary—the prebend strictly is the property of the stall held by the prebendary.
page 26 note 3 A brief notice of this visitation occurs in the Injunctions and Ecclesiastical Proceedings of Bishop Barnes, edited by Canon Raine, for the Surtees Society, p. 65; the Durham chapter records have several allusions to a later and similar contest about 1587, when, during the vacancy of the see of Durham, the Archbishop of York had the care of the spiritualities. The papers relating to this vexata questio are—
A folio labelled “De sede vacante”containing, among other articles,—
A paper of reasons why, supposing the Archbishop had power to visit the prior and convent, he should not have the same power over the dean and chapter, because they are not successors of the prior and convent, but grantees from the King.
Paper entitled “Sententia versus Decanum et Capitulum Dunelm. 1590.”
Paper on a dispute between the Archbishop of York and Dean and Chapter of Durham, on the right of visitation.
Paper in Latin on the same subject, with quotations from Latin authors and remarks in English.
Summary of reasons in favour of the chapter having the right over the spiritualities.
Four papers relating to the custody of the temporalities and spiritualities.
Selections from the minutes of chapter, entitled Eccles. Cath. Dunelm. Liber Actionum, ah anno 1578 ad 1581.
page 27 note 1 For the chapter statutes, see Hutchinson, vol. ii. p. 118, &c., especially chapters i. and v.
page 28 note 1 It is probably in reference to these and similar proceedings that the Bishop writes of the Church of Durham as an Augean stable, “whose stink is grievous in the nose of God and man, and which to purge far passeth Hercules’ labours.” Strype's Annals, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 109, Oxford ed. A news-writer of the time, Fleetwood, recorder of London, speaks of there being a “broil of excommunication between the Archbishop and Dean,” but plainly says he thinks my Lord Bishop in the wrong. Ibid. vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 107.
page 28 note 2 The spirit of the county would be with Whittingham, partly because of the clan-like feeling which had always pervaded the Palatinate, and partly because of the resistance which had existed for ages on the part of the Northern province to any needless interference on the part of the Archbishops of York. An account of Archbishop Wickwaine's attempt to visit the priory of Durham in 1283 is given in Raine's Lives of the Archbishops of York, p. 320, quoting Hist. Dunelm. Scriptores tres, Surtees Soc. ed. pp. 58–69, and Prynne's Collections, vol. iii. p. 309. Chron. Lanercost, p. 120. For a similar case, see Injunctions of Bishop Barnes, Appendix p. viii.
page 29 note 1 Henry Hastings, third Earl of Huntingdon. He held the office until his death, 31st December, 1595.
page 29 note 2 The commission is printed in Rymer's Fœdera, vol. xv. p. 785, date May 14, 1578. In the notice of Whittingham, in Hutchinson's Durham, vol. ii. pp. 143–152, a previous commission is said to have been procured by Whittingham to the Archbishop of York, the President of the Council in the North, and the Dean of York, to determine complaints against him, chiefly in reference to the validity of his ordination, on which Dean Hutton, who inclined to Whittingham, spoke of his ordination as superior to that of the Archbishop. But this commission does not appear on the Patent or Close Rolls. Strype (Annals Reform, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 168) places it in 1576, and records that it had little effect, because of misunderstandings between the Commissioners.
There is a commission on the Patent Roll, 19 Eliz. pars 12, memb. 12 dors., to the Bishop of Durham, Henry Lord Hunsdon, Warden of the East Marches, Cuthbert Lord Ogle, William Lord Eure, Dean Whittingham, and sixteen others, to enforce within the diocese of Durham obedience to the Acts of Uniformity, and also of assurance of the Queen's power, of 5 Eliz.; and to the Act of 15 Eliz., to suppress all disorders in churches or chapels, or against divine service or the ministers thereof, impose fines upon such as absent themselves, and enforce obedience to the Articles of 1562; with power to punish disobedience by excommunication, censure, or fine, the Bishop keeping a register of the proceedings. It is dated Gorhambury, 22nd July, 1576.
page 29 note 3 About July 8, 1578, see Appendix p. 42.
page 30 note 1 He is also censured for having, in his capacity of Dean of Durham, encouraged his former friends, Knox and Goodman, to set up Presbyterianism in Scotland, but this does not seem to have formed one of the articles of his accusation. Hutchinson's Durham, vol. ii. p. 147.
page 30 note 2 The statutes making this proviso are of the date of Mary, and printed in Hutchinson, vol. ii. p. 118.
page 30 note 3 The question does not appear to have been whether the ordination was episcopal (the high episcopal doctrine dates chiefly from Bancroft, Saravia, and Bilson, about 1590), but whether the recognised form of Geneva ordination had been given to Whittingham. See for fuller accounts of the case, Appendix Nos. I., II.
It was said that he was “made minister by a few mean men and lay persons in a private house at Geneva, without the knowledge or consent of Mr. Calvin, chief minister there.” Strype's Annals, vol. iii. pt. 1, p. 468.
page 30 note 4 In 1595, showing that this life could not have been written earlier than that date.
page 30 note 5 These words, being employed only in the Romish ordination service, seem to point out Whittingham's opponent to be W. Bennett, D.D., who held the fourth stall. He and Robert Swift, who was ordained at Louvain, were the only members of the chapter that had received Romish orders, but Bennett seems the more likely, because, being spiritual chancellor under Bishop Pilkington, and for a short time under Bishop Barnes, he would hare more influence than Swift. Hntchinson, vol. ii. p. 183, et seq.
page 31 note 1 This wag in August 1578. About this time, on 30th September, 1578, when Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham, assigned the preachers for the diocese for the year from Michaelmas 1578 to 1579, he gave twelve sermons to Mr. Dean, of which four were in Durham, one in Chester, and one in Lancaster. Injunctions, &c., of Richard Barnes, Bishop of Durham, p. 82, Surtees Soc.
page 31 note 2 There was great difference of opinion among the commissioners themselves. The Earl of Huntingdon, Lord President, refused to agree to Whittingham's dismissal, on the ground of imperfect ordination, “for it will be ill taken by all the godly and learned, both at home and abroad, that we should allow of the popish massing priests in our ministry, and disallow of ministers made in a reformed church.” He urged rectification of the disorders of the chapter, blaming their irregular ways, embezzling of revenues, &c., and especially censuring Archdeacon Pilkington and young Bunny, as “precise men who worked all the trouble.” Strype, Annals Reform., vol. ii. pt. ii. p. 173.
On the other hand, the Archbishop of York writes to the Lord Treasurer on April 4, 1579, from Bishopthorpe, that “This Durham matter breedeth a great broil. The Dean hath gotten more friends than the matter deserveth. The discredit of the church of Geneva is hotly alleged. Verily, my lord, that church is not touched; for he hath not received his ministry in that church, or by any authority or order from that church, so far as yet can appear. Neither was there any English church in Germany that attempted the like; neither needed they to have done, having among themselves sufficient ministers to supply the room. But if his ministry, without authority of God or man, without law, order, or example of any church, may be current, take heed to the sequel. Who seeth not what is intended? God deliver his church from it! I will never be guilty of it.” He concludes with a request not to be further made a party in this Durham matter. Strype's Annals, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 620–1, Oxf. edit. A full account of the affair is given in Strype, vol. ii. pt. ii. pp. 167–175. An indefinite adjournment was the inevitable result of these differences.
page 32 note 1 Strype, in his Annals of the Reformation, vol. ii. pt. 2, p. 173, says that the Lord President wrote that there was a manifest desire, on the reading of the commission, to deal first with the Dean, but at length the commissioners consented to deal with general disorders, which took so long that they adjourned to Auckland in November. This was the date of Whittingham's journey to London, for his second certificate, sent to the Commissioners, is dated from London, 15 Nov. 1578 (Appendix p. 42), and had been there three months before Candlemas Day, February 2, 1579.
page 32 note 2 Archbishop Sandys, in legislating upon a similar case several years later, declared that had Whittingham lived he had been deprived, without special grace and dispensation. Strype's Whitgift, vol. i. p. 481.
page 32 note 3 There were not wantings erious grounds of accusation against the Dean connected with Durham Cathedral, which his biographer has thought fit to omit.
He made a profit of £20 by taking down and selling the high leaden roof in the Frater-house (Refectory), and making it a flat roof instead. He intended to take down and sell a peal of four bells which hung in the Galilee steeple, but was forestalled by Thomas Spark, the Bishop's suffragan, who removed three of them, at his own cost of £30 or £40, to the gardens, leaving one still standing over the Galilee. He removed the marble and freestone slabs that covered the graves of the priors of Durham; had them used for troughs for horses and hogs, and some employed to construct a washing-house. By a kind of retributive justice, his own tombstone in Durham Cathedral was destroyed by the Scots in 1640. Greenwell's note s on Durham Wills and Inventories, pt. 2, p. 16. Hutchinson's Durham, vol. ii. p. 146.
He removed from the cathedral two holy-water stones; one he placed in his own kitchen, where it was used for steeping beef and salt fish; the other his widow took away with her to a house in the North Bailey, whither she removed, and put it in her kitchen, carrying away also other stones, as gravestones, &c, which she required, and which remained till a superstitious feeling arising from many deaths in the house led to their restoration to the abbey-yard.
Worse still, on the pretence of executing the instructions of the Queen's Commissioners for the removal of superstitious books and ornaments, the Dean broke up and defaced in a fit of iconoclastic zeal an image of St. Cuthbert, which he found standing by the parlour-door (door of the old locutorium), in the east alley of the cloisters; and his wife, getting into her hands the long venerated banner of St. Cuthbert, which had more than once been a rallying point in times of conflict, especially in the battle of the Standard in 1138, “did most injuríously burn and consume the same in her fire, in the notable contempt and disgrace of all ancient and goodly reliques.” Wood's Athenœ Oxon. vol. i. p. 449. Rites of Durham, pp. 23, 33, 34, 52, 53, 64, 69, Surtees Soc. Surtees's Durham, vol. i. p. lxxii.
page 33 note 1 No Parliament actually met between that of 18 Eliz., which commenced its sittings on February 18, 1576, and 1581; but there were sundry prorogations, and it was probably expected to meet earlier.
page 34 note 1 The biographer here regards Whittingham as a martyr to his obedience to the statutes in resisting the Archbishop of York; whereas the Archbishop probably knew of the havoc Whittingham had committed in the cathedral; and his adversary, if the Romish prebendary Bennett, might conscientiously consider Whittingham's consecration invalid.
page 36 note 1 The conjecture has already been hazarded (note 4, p. 30,) that this chief opponent of Whittingham was Wm. Bennett, prebendary and spiritual chancellor.; and it derives strength from the fact that Bennett resigned his prebend in 1579, within a few months after Whittingham's death, probably on account of madnesa, and died in 1583.
page 36 note 2 His favour to Whittingham was afterwards made an article of accusation against himself. Strype's Annals, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 463.
page 36 note 3 It bears date 18 April, 1579. In it he thanks God for calling him from the blindness of idolatry and superstition to be partaker of the blessed light of his Gospel, and making him a preacher of his holy ministry. He divides his goods into three equal parts, bequeathing one to his wife, a second to his daughters Sarah, Judith, Deborah, and Elizabeth, when 24 years old or married; the portion of any that die to go to poor divinity students in Oxford or Cambridge. The third portion is bestowed in numerous legacies: £10 to poor householders in Durham; £6 13s. 4d. to poor strangers of the French church in London; to the Countesses of Huntingdon and Warwick each a book with a cover silver-gilt, value £10; to his two elder daughters £30; his cousin Rich. Whittingham £5; the rest in small sums of from £4 to 1s. 8d. to sundry persons, including his nurse and many servants, the petty canons, choristers, schoolmasters, &c.; Dr. Pilkington has a legacy of 10s. and his former coadjutors, Mr. Goodman and Mr. Gilby, each an old ryal. Residue to his wife, younger son Daniel, and two younger daughters.
Of his landed property, the manor of East and West Baulk, co. York, and rectory of Mitgarth, he leaves to his son Timothy, with reversion to Daniel and his daughters, reserving to his wife her thirds, and £400 profits towards the bringing up of his children, and making her sole tutor of the younger.ones, the eldest son being a ward of the crown. Durham Wills, edited by Rev. W. Greenmell for the Surtees Society, pt. ii. pp. 14–19.
page 38 note 1 Patent Roll, 21 Eliz.
page 39 note 1 From the Durham Chapter Archives.
page 40 note 1 Depositions from the Courts of Durham, pp. 314–316, Surtees Society.
page 40 note 2 Durham Wills, pp. 15, 16, edited by Rev. W. Greenwell, for the Surtees Society.
page 48 note 1 This is the Corpus land-the separate estate specially appointed to the dean and each prebendary.