Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T21:33:41.225Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Continuity and change in diocese and province: the role of a Tudor bishop*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Paul Ayris
Paul Ayris
Affiliation:
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Thomas Cranmer's register is important in shedding valuable shafts of light on the nature of the episcopal office in Tudor England. Despite the government's break with Rome in the 1530s, much of the archbishop's routine administration continued unaltered. Nonetheless, there were profound changes in Cranmer's role. Royal commissions, proclamations, injunctions, letters missive and acts of parliament all served to modify Cranmer's position as principal minister of the king's spiritual estate. When the crown issued a commission to the archbishop for the exercise of his jurisdiction, the prelate's position as a royal official was clear for all to see. It is sure, however, that the impact of Christian humanism and reformed theology also did much to shape Cranmer's work. The enforcement of the English Litany and, most notably, of the 42 Articles reveal the changing nature of the episcopal office at this time. In contrast to received orthodoxy, it is now clear that the bishops mounted a widespread campaign at the end of Edward VI's brief reign to secure use of this reformed formulary. There can be little doubt that Thomas Cranmer's years at Canterbury were of great significance in reshaping the role of the episcopate in early modern England.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 1996 , pp. 291 - 313
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Lambeth Palace Library (L.P.L.), Thomas Cranmer's register (TCR), fos. 1–433[A].

2 Miscellaneous writings and letters of Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, martyr, 1536, ed. by Cox, J. E. (Parker Society, 1844) (PS II), pp. 326–7.Google Scholar

3 For the political background to Cranmer's appointment, cf. Ayris, P, ‘God's vicegerent and Christ's vicar: the relationship between the crown and the archbishopric of Canterbury 1533–53’, in Ayris, P and Selwyn, D. G. (eds.), Thomas Cranmer: churchman and scholar (Woodbridge, 1993), pp. 116–21.Google Scholar

4 Ayris and Selwyn, p. 283.

5 The register of John Morton, archbishop of Canterbury 1486–1500, ed. by C., Harper-Bill (2 vols. to date, Canterbury and York Society, 75, 78, 1987–1991), 75 nos. 1–6.Google Scholar

6 TCR, fos. 1–5V.

7 Ibid. fos. 343V–344, 347–8 and 348V–350.

8 It is possible that William Warham, junior, was the archbishop's illegitimate son. Cf. Rex, R. A. W., Henry VIII and the English reformation (Basingstoke, 1993), p. 179 n. 5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9 TCR, fos. 351–3. Cf. Baskerville, G, ‘A sister of Archbishop Cranmer’, in English Historical Review (EHR), LI (1936), 287–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 TCR, fos, 25–6V.

11 Ibid. fos. 57–8.

12 Cf. Thompson, A. H., The English clergy and their organization in the later middle ages (Oxford, 1947), pp. 46–56Google Scholar; Churchill, I. J., Canterbury administration: the administrative machinery of the archbishopric of Canterbury illustrated from original records (2 vols., London, 1933), I, 594–6Google Scholar; Rodes, R. E., Ecclesiastical administration in medieval England: the Anglo-Saxons to the reformation (Notre Dame, 1977), pp. 103–4.Google Scholar

13 L.P.L., William Warham's register, 2 vols., 1, fo. 24; Churchill, 1, 594.

14 PS II, p. 249; cf. TCR, fo. 340V.

15 PS II, p. 395.

16 Ibid. pp. 263–4.

17 Register of John Morton, 75, X.

18 The register of Robert Hallum, bishop of Salisbury 1407–17, ed. Horn, J. M. (Canterbury and York Society, 72, 1977–1979), xiv, 235–9.Google Scholar

19 Lander, S. J., The diocese of Chichester, 1508–1558: episcopal reform under Robert Sherburne and its aftermath (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1976), pp. 24–93, 375–8.Google Scholar

20 Humanism, reform and the reformation: the career of Bishop John Fisher, ed. Bradshaw, B and Duffy, E (Cambridge, 1989), Appendix III.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 British Library (B.L.), Additional MS 48022, fo. 98–V.

22 Logan, F. D., ‘Thomas Cromwell and the vicegerency in spirituals: a re-visitation’, EHR, CIII (1988), 658–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lehmberg, S. E., ‘Supremacy and vicegerency: a re-examination’, EHR, LXXXI (1966), 225–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 B.L., Cotton MS Cleopatra E VI, fo. 262. Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII [a calendar] (L.P.), ed. Brewer, J. S., Gairdner, J and Brodie, R. H. (21 vols., London, 1862–1910)Google Scholar; vol. 1 (rev. edn, 1920); Addenda (1 vol., 1929–32), IX, 424.

24 Devon Record Office (D.R.O.), Chanter catalogue 14 [part of John Veysey's register], fos. 66V–67; Exeter Dean and Chapter Library, miscellaneous charter, 2426; Lincoln Archive Office (L.A.O.), register 26 [part of John Longland's register], fo. 261–V; L.A.O., dean and chapter wills, II, fo. 32V; Guildhall Library, London (G.L.), MS 9531/11 [John Stokesley's register], fos. 67–V; University Library of Cambridge (U.L.C.), EDR, G/1/7 [part of Thomas Goodrich's register], fo. 125; Kent County Archive Office, DRb/Ar 1/14 [John Hilsey's register], fos. 1–2.

25 For a recent study of the visitation of the universities, cf. Logan, F. D., ‘The first royal visitation of the English universities, 1535’, EHR, CVI (1991), 861–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 Somerset Record Office (S.R.O.), D/D/Ca 10.

27 B.L., Additional MS 48022, fos. 92–3; printed in Wilkins, D, Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae (4 vols., London, 1737), III, 810Google Scholar. For a discussion of this part of the MS, cf. Ayris and Selwyn, pp. 126–7.

28 PS II, p. 338.

29 Bowker, M, ‘The supremacy and the episcopate: the struggle for control, 1534–40’, The Historical Journal, XVIII (1975), 242.Google Scholar

30 TCR, fo. 97V; all the injunctions are printed in Gee, H and Hardy, W. J., Documents illustrative of English church history (London, 1896), pp. 269–74.Google Scholar

31 TCR, fos. 215–16V; printed in Gee and Hardy, pp. 275–81. Cromwell's letter is printed in Merriman, R. B., Life and letters of Thomas Cromwell (2 vols., Oxford, 1902), II, 156–7.Google Scholar

32 The injunctions are printed in EHR, XLI (1926), 420–3.Google Scholar

33 TCR, fos. 90V–92.

34 Ibid. fo. 101.

35 PS II, p. 81.

36 TCR, 215–V and Wilkins, , Concilia, III, 837.Google Scholar

37 The circular has not survived, but Professor Elton has reconstructed its contents. Cf. Elton, G. R., Policy and police: the enforcement of the reformation in the age of Thomas Cromwell (Cambridge, 1972), p. 232, n. 1.Google Scholar

38 PS II, pp. 306–7.

39 Elton, pp. 233–4.

40 Ibid. pp. 234–5.

41 L.P., VIII, 963.

42 PS II, pp. 326–8.

43 L.P.L., MS 1107, fos. 1–76. For a discussion of this collection, cf. Ayris and Selwyn, pp. 316–18.

44 Strype, J, Memorials of … Thomas Cranmer, ed. for the Ecclesiastical History Society (4 vols., Oxford, 1848–54), IIIGoogle Scholar, appendix and addenda, 820, 751, 752–3.

45 PS II, p. 167. These words come from Cranmer's Answer to the Devonshire rebels of 1547, but they are clearly based on his legal Commonplaces, which date ultimately from the late 1520s.

46 Statutes of the realm, compiled by Luders, A, Tomlins, T. E., Raithby, J. et al. (II vols., London, 1810–1828), III, 462–4.Google Scholar

47 Ayris, P, Thomas Cranmer's register: a record of archiepiscopal administration in diocese and province (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Cambridge, 1984), pp. 247–58.Google Scholar

48 Rodes, , Ecclesiastical administration in medieval England, p. 175.Google Scholar

49 L.P., VII, 530.

50 Burnet, G, History of the reformation of the church of England, ed. by Pocock, N (7 vols., Oxford, 1865), IV, 291.Google Scholar

51 Statutes of the realm, IV, 3–4.

52 Handbook of British chronology, ed. Fryde, E. B., Greenway, D. E., Porter, S and Roy, I (3rd edn, London, 1986), pp. 225–84, 289–99.Google Scholar

53 Ibid.

54 TCR, fos. 329V, 330–V.

55 Scarisbrick, J. J., Henry VIII (London, 1968), p. 368.Google Scholar

56 L.P., XV, 14, 823.

57 TCR, fo. 141–V.

58 Ibid. fo. 142V; Strype, J, Ecclesiastical memorials (3 vols. in 6, Oxford, 1822), I, ii, 452–3Google Scholar; L.P., XV, 850 (3).

59 TCR, fos. 142V–143; Strype, , Memorials, I, ii, 453–5Google Scholar; L.P., XV, 850 (4) and (5).

60 TCR, fo. 145–6; L.P., XV, 861 (2.i, iii).

61 TCR, fo. 142V; Strype, , Memorials, I, ii, 452–3Google Scholar; L.P., XV, 850 (3).

62 Helmholz, R. M., Roman canon law in reformation England (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 69–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

63 TCR, fos. 141V–142V. The text in the register omits the lists of signatories: cf. Burnet, IV, 436–9. A separate notification of the synod's decision, bearing the signatures and seals of the archbishops of Canterbury and York alone, was despatched to the crown. B.L., Cotton charter X, 13.

64 Statutes of the realm, III, 781–3.

65 For the record in Edward Lee's register at York, cf. Borthwick Institute, York, register 28, fos. 142–50. Proceedings and ordinances of the privy council of England, 10 Richard II, 1386, – 33 Henry VIII, 1542, ed. Nicholas, H (7 vols., London, 1834–1837), VII, 118.Google Scholar

66 PS II, p. 449.

67 Ibid. p. 127.

68 Ibid. p. 116.

69 Ibid. p. 117.

70 Ibid. p. 305.

71 Kelly, M. J., Canterbury jurisdiction and influence during the episcopate of William Warham, 1503–32 (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation submitted for the Ph.D. degree, University of Cambridge, 1963), pp. 15–17.Google Scholar

72 Registrum Thome Bourgchier, Cantuariensis archiepiscopi, a.d. 1454–1486, ed. by Du Boulay, F. R. H. (Canterbury and York Society, 54, 1957), xxxix.Google Scholar

73 Register of John Morton, 75, xiii.

74 Kelly, pp. 15–17.

75 For the Chichester figures, cf. Lander, p. 204; the figures for Essex are taken from Oxley, J. E., The reformation in Essex to the death of Mary (Manchester, 1965), p. 265.Google Scholar

76 Zell, M. L., ‘The personnel of the clergy of Kent, in the reformation period’, EHR, LXXXIX (1974), 529 n. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

77 Strype, J, The life and acts of John Whitgift, D.D. (3 vols., London, 1822), I, 536.Google Scholar

78 R., O'Day, The English clergy: the emergence and consolidation of a profession 1558–1642 (Leicester, 1979), pp. 29–30.Google Scholar

79 The register of Henry Chichele, ed. Jacob, E. F. and Johnson, H. C. (Canterbury and York Society, 42, 45–7, 1937–1947), I, liii–lvii.Google Scholar

80 Statutes of the realm, III, 464–7.

81 The archbishop's formal style can be seen in his commission to John Cockes to undertake a visitation of the college in May 1541; TCR, fo. 40–V.

82 L.P., VII, 1216 (32).

83 TCR, fos. 42V–45V; printed in Visitation articles and injunctions of the period of the reformation, ed. by Kennedy, W. P. M. and Frere, W. H. (3 vols., Alcuin Club, 1910), II, 70–81Google Scholar. In the nineteenth century, a copy of the injunctions was printed from a manuscript at All Souls College; Statutes of the colleges of Oxford: statutes of All Souls College (3 vols., London, 1853), I [3] and 77–85.Google Scholar

84 Statutes, p. 34; Kennedy and Frere, p. 75.

85 Statutes, p. 46; Kennedy and Frere, pp. 78–9.

86 The reformation of the ecclesiastical laws as attempted in the reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI and Queen Elizabeth, ed. Cardwell, E (Oxford, 1850), p. 132.Google Scholar

87 Duffy, E, The stripping of the altars: traditional religion in England c. 1400–c. 1580 (New Haven, 1992).Google Scholar

88 Churchill, , Administration, I, 358–9 and 359 n. 2.Google Scholar

89 Acts of the privy council of England, a.d. 1542–1631, new series (46 vols., London, 1890–1964), I, 15.Google Scholar

90 S.R.O., D/D/B, register 13 [William Knight's register], fos. IIV–12; cf. also U.L.C., EDR, G/1/7, fos. 148–V; cf. G.L., MS 9531/12 part 1 [part of Edmund Bonner's register], fos. 41V–42.

91 Ibid. fos. 45V, 47–V, 255–6 [fos. 242–75 comprise Thomas Thirlby's Westminster register]. I am currently preparing for publication an annotated text of the model sermon with an introduction.

92 Kitching, C. J., ‘Broken angels: the response of English parishes to the Turkish threat to Christendom, 1543–4’, in Sheils, W. J. and Wood, D (eds.), The church and wealth. Papers read at the 1986 summer meeting and the 1987 winter meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society (Oxford, 1987), pp. 209–17.Google Scholar

93 G.L., MS 9531/12, part 1, fo. 46.

94 Ibid. fo. 46V; TCR, fo. 22–V; cf. S.R.O., D/D/B, register 13, fo. 17–V; cf. also U.L.C., EDR, G/1/7, fos. 155V–156.

95 Haigh, C, English reformations: religion, politics and society under the Tudors (Oxford, 1993), p. 13.Google Scholar

96 Ibid. pp. viii–ix.

97 On his eucharistic doctrine, for example, see Brooks, P. N., Thomas Cranmer's doctrine of the eucharist: an essay in historical development ([1965] 2nd edn, Basingstoke, 1992)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Forster, P, ‘Some reflections on the theology of Thomas Cranmer’, in Johnson, M (ed.), Thomas Cranmer: a living influence for 500 years (Durham, 1990), pp. 266–9Google Scholar; Hall, B, ‘Cranmer's relations with Erasmianism and Lutheranism’Google Scholar, in Ayris and Selwyn, pp. 3–37; Selwyn, D. G., ‘Cranmer's library: its potential for reformation studies’Google Scholar, in Ayris and Selwyn, esp. pp. 61–72; Hall, B, ‘Cranmer, the eucharist and the foreign divines in the reign of Edward VI’Google Scholar, in Ayris and Selwyn, pp. 217–58.

98 Processionale ad usum insignis ac praeclarae ecclesiae Sarum, ed. Henderson, W. G. (Leeds, 1882), p. 110.Google Scholar

99 Haigh, p. 164; Brightman, F. E., The English rite: being a synopsis of the sources and revisions of the Book of Common Prayer (2 vols., London, 1915), I, 178Google Scholar; Processionale, p. 110.

100 Cf. G.L., MS 9531/12, part 1, fos. 60V–61 and also 259V–260; TCR, fos. 48V–50; U.L.C., EDR, G/1/7, fos. 164–165V; S.R.O., D/D/B, register 13, fos. 21V–22.

101 TCR, fos. 26V–27; cf. S.R.O., D/D/B, register 13, fos. 26–7 and G.L., MS 9531/12 part 1, fos. 72–V and 262V.

102 Cf. G.L., MS 9531/12 part 1, fos. 82V–83 and 263; cf. also S.R.O., D/D/B, register 13, fos. 27V–28 and U.L.C., EDR, G/1/7, fos. 176–V. This is the injunction for which Brightman, in his study of the Litany, could find no manuscript source. Cf. Brightman, F. E., ‘The Litany under Henry VIII’, EHR, XXIV (1909), 101–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

103 Wriothesley, C, A chronicle of England during the reigns of the Tudors from 1485 to 1559, ed. by Hamilton, W. D. (Camden Society, new series, XI, XX, 1875–1877), XI, 161Google Scholar; Brightman, , English rite, I, lxii.Google Scholar

104 Cf. Hardwick, C, A history of the Articles of Religion (3rd edn, rev. by Proctor, F, London, 1876), pp. 31–113Google Scholar; Hall, B, ‘Cranmer's relations with Erasmianism and Lutheranism’Google Scholar in Ayris and Selwyn, pp. 21–4; de Satgé, J. C., Packer, J. I., Herklots, H. G. G., Lampe, G. W. H., The Articles of the church of England (London, 1964)Google Scholar; The two liturgies, a.d. 1549, and a.d. 1552: with other documents set forth by authority in the reign of Edward VI, ed. by Ketley, J. (Parker Society, 1844), pp. 526–37Google Scholar. I am grateful to the Rev. David Selwyn, St David's University College, Lampeter, for the opportunity to discuss with him some of the finer points of the history of the Articles.

105 Lamb, J, A collection of letters, statutes and other documents from the MS library of Corpus Christi College illustrative of the history of the University of Cambridge during the period of the reformation from a.d. MD to a.d. MDLXXII (London, 1838), pp. 161–4Google Scholar; Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 106, no. 80; U.L.C., University Archives Collect. Admin. 5 (liber rerum memorabilium), fo. 189–V. I am grateful to Dr Elizabeth Leedham-Green for her help in uncovering the exciting history of the implementation of the Articles in the University of Cambridge.

106 Bowker, M, The Henrician reformation: the diocese of Lincoln under John Longland 1521–1547 (Cambridge, 1981), p. 65.Google Scholar

107 Elton, , Policy and police, pp. 222–30.Google Scholar

108 Liber rerum memorabilium, fo. 190.

109 U.L.C., Grace Book Δ, fos. 34V–35, 37V.

110 G.L., MS 9531/12, Part 2 [containing Nicholas Ridley's register], fos. 297–300.

111 Ibid. fos. 297V–300.

112 D.R.O., Book 51 [John Hooker's commonplace book], fo. 348V; cf. D.R.O., Z19/18/9 [John Hooker's ‘Synopsis chorographical’], pp. 106–8.

113 D.R.O., Chanter catalogue 17 [part of Miles Coverdale's register], fos. 2–12. Clearly, fos. 1–14 of the register form a self-contained section originally intended for subscriptions to the Articles; fos. 12V–14V were later filled with Elizabethan caveats and other business.

114 Norfolk and Norwich Record Office, SUN/3, fos. IV–16V; calendared in MC/16; cf. Burnet, VI, 298–302. The MS is described briefly in the First report of the royal commission on historical manuscripts (London, 1874), pp. 86–7.Google Scholar

115 Houlbrooke, R. A., Church courts and the people during the English reformation 1520–1570 (Oxford, 1979), pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

116 Writings and disputations of Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, martyr, 1556, relative to the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, ed. Cox, J. E. (Parker Society, 1844), p. 377.Google Scholar

117 I am currently engaged in a transcription and critical edition of the whole text of Thomas Cranmer's register, which documents much of the evidence discussed in this paper.