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Wills as Religious Propaganda: The Testament of William Tracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

John Craig Esq.  and
Caroline Litzenberger
John Craig Esq.
Affiliation:
Robinson College,Cambridge CB3 9AN
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Extract

Wills have become one of the most widely used sources for students of the English Reformation. There has been an ever increasing literature tracing testators' religious beliefs, the role and influence of scribes and clerics, the various copies and manifestations of a particular testament and the often formulaic character of this legal document. Little attention has been paid by students of wills to the polemical and propagandistic qualities of such documents and rightly so, for most testators exhibited greater concern for property than polemics.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 44 , Issue 3 , July 1993 , pp. 415 - 431
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

1 We use the terms ‘will’ and ‘testament’ throughout interchangeably as a useful shorthand. A more detailed discussion of the legal origins of the terms may be found in Pollock, F. and Maitland, F. W., The History of English Law, 2nd edn, Cambridge 1911, 314–56Google Scholar. See the discussion of wills in Dickens, A. G., Lollards and Protestants in the Diocese of York 1509–1558, London 1959, 214–18Google Scholar; Collinson, P., The Religion of the Protestants, Oxford 1982, 196–7Google Scholar; Spufford, M., Contrasting Communities: English villagers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Cambridge 1974, 320–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On the issue of scribal influence and the use of formularies see idem, ‘The scribes of villagers' wills in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and their influence’, Local Population Studies vii (1971), 28–43; Zell, M. L., ‘The use of religious preambles as a measure of religious belief in the sixteenth century’, Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 1 (1977), 246–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cross, C., ‘Wills as evidence of popular piety in the Reformation period: Leeds and Hull, 1540–1640’, in Loades, D. (ed.), The End of Strife, Edinburgh 1984, 44–51Google Scholar; Marsh, C., ‘In the name of God? Will-making and faith in early modern England’, in Martin, G. H. and Spufford, P. (eds), The Records of the Nation, Woodbridge 1990, 214–49Google Scholar; Alsop, J. D., ‘Religious preambles in early modern English wills as formulae’, this JOURNAL xl (1989), 19–27Google Scholar; Burgess, C., ‘Late medieval wills and pious convention: testamentary guidance reconsidered’, in Hicks, M. A. (ed.), Profit, Piety and the Professions in later Medieval England, Gloucester 1990, 14–33Google Scholar; Duffy, E., The Stripping of the Altars, New Haven, CT-London 1992Google Scholar.

2 While it is true that the drafting of a will required the presence of witnesses and probably a scribe, this did not negate the essentially private character of the action. The making of a will cannot be equated with public pronouncements such as wedding banns or acts of penance.

3 Perrow, E. C., ‘The last will and testament as a form of literature’, Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters xvii (1914), 682–753Google Scholar. Cf. Bach, Ulrich, Kommentierte Bibliographic englischer literarischer Testamente vom 14 bis zum 20 Jahrhundert, Heidelberg 1982Google Scholar.

4 The Testamentum domini asini included the verses, ‘caput meum iudicantibus, vocem meam cantantibus, linguamque predicantibus, Ohe’:Novati, F., Carmina Medii Aevi, Florence 1883, 79–81Google Scholar.

5 Furnivall, F. J., Jyl of Brentford's Testament, London 1871, 7–19Google Scholar.

6 Idem, Wyll of the Devyll and Last Testament, London 1871, 20–8.

7 Ibid. 23.

8 Cf. ‘The Last Will and Testament of Charing Crosse’, (1646), in Ashbee, E. W., Occasional Facsimile Reprints of Rare and Curious Tracts, London 1872, ii, no. 28Google Scholar; Thomas Nashe, ‘Summers last will and Testament’ (1600), in R. B. McKerrow (ed.), The Works of Thomas Nashe, repr. Oxford 1958, iii. 231–95; ‘Last Will and Testament of the Earl of Pembroke’, in Somers, Lord, A Collection of Scarce and Valuable Tracts, 2nd edn, London 1812, vii. 89–91Google Scholar.

9 Most testators at this time left something to the Church, and wealthy individuals such as Tracy generally left considerable sums. For examples of traditional wills see Wills and Inventories from the Registers of the Commissary of Bury St Edmunds and the Archdeacon of Sudbury, ed. Tymms, S. (Camden Society xlix, 1850)Google Scholar; The Fifty Earliest English Wills in the Court of Probate, London, 1387–1439, ed. Furnivall, F. J. (Early English Text Society lxxviii, 1882)Google Scholar; the will of Sir Roger Townsend of Suffolk cited and printed in Richmond, C., John Hopton: a fifteenth century Suffolk gentleman, Cambridge 1981, 244CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10 Cf. Craig, J. S., ‘The Bury Stirs revisited: an analysis of the townsmen’, Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology xxxvii (1991), 208–24Google Scholar.

11 Suffolk Record Office, Bury St Edmunds, IC 500/1/46 (140). It is striking that Wyther reverses the more normal order of Christ's offices as ‘prophet, priest and king’, placing ‘king’ before the other two.

12 A reference to the execution of two Brownists, Copping and Thacker, both of whom were executed at the Summer assize of 1583 for distributing Brownist books: BL, MS Lansdowne 37, no. 28, fo. 59.

13 Peel, A., ‘Congregational martyrs at Bury St Edmunds: how many?’, Transactions of the Congregational Historical Society xv (1946), 64–7Google Scholar.

14 ‘Tyler a prisoner from the gale’ was buried on 1 Oct. 1587: Hervey, S. H. A., St James Parish Registers: Burials 1562–1800 (Suffolk Green Books xvii, 1916), 23Google Scholar. According to evidence given in the Spring of 1583, Tyler, along with Copping, had been ‘committed to prison five or six years past’, which places his arrest about 1577–8: BL, MS Lansdowne 37, no. 28, fo. 59.

15 PRO, PROB 11/56, fo. 23. Cf. the discussion of Smith's will in Collinson, P., The Elizabethan Puritan Movement, Oxford 1967, 144Google Scholar.

16 Sheils, W. J., The Puritans in the Diocese of Peterborough, 1558–1610 (Northamptonshire Record Society xxx, 1979), 104–6Google Scholar.

17 Wiburn was requested and acted as Smith's executor, and Smith left £5 each to the ‘preachers of God's holy word’, ‘Mr Percyvall Wyborne, Mr Wake, Mr Kine, Mr Buckley and Mr Standon’. Both Standon and Buckley witnessed Smith's will.

18 Smith was not alone in using his will to express his Presbyterian convictions. See the will of the Cranbrook clothier, Richard Jorden, cited in P. Collinson, ‘Cranbrook and the Fletchers: popular and unpopular religion in the Kentish Weald’, in idem, Godly People, London 1983, 424–5.

19 Calendar of State Papers Domestic, Charles I, 1633–34, cclx, no. 83. A copy of Fenn's will was sent to Laud by the bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, on 21 Feb. 1633/4.

20 The Last Will and Testament with the Profession of the faith of Humfrey Fen sometimes Pastor of one of the Churches of Coventry, London 1641Google Scholar, Wing F676. On Fenn see DMB s.v. Fenn.

21 Cited in Collinson, P., ‘The Church: religion and its manifestations’, in Andrews, J. F. (ed.), William Shakespeare: his world, his work, his influence, New York 1985, i. 38Google Scholar.

22 The Letter Book of Robert Joseph, ed. Aveling, H. and Pantin, W. A., Oxford 1967, 101Google Scholar.

23 LP iii. 3282; iv. 548, 1610 (11), 6248 (11), 6418 (23).

24 The Testament of Master Wylliam Trade esquier/expounded both by William Tyndale and Jhon Frith, Antwerp 1535, STC 24167, sig. Aviii(v); also printed in‘The Testament of Master William Tracy, Esquire, expounded by William Tyndale’, in Tyndale's Answer to Sir Thomas More's Dialogue etc., ed. Walter, H., Cambridge 1850, 279Google Scholar. Every printing of Tyndale's commentary has ‘xx yeres’, probably a printer's error for ‘x yeres’ which would date their meeting to 1521. Walsh employed Tyndale as his son's tutor 1522–4. Sir John Walsh was a rising member of the Gloucestershire gentry who had married Ann, the daughter of Sir Robert Poyntz of Iron Acton. In 1535 Walsh was host to Henry vm and Anne Boleyn during their royal progress through Gloucestershire:The Visitation of the County of Gloucestershire taken in theyear 1623, ed. SirMacLean, John, London 1885, 265Google Scholar; LP viii, no. 989.

25 Hockaday Abstracts, xci, Alderton Parish 1554Google Scholar, unpaginated. GRO, Gloucestershire Diocesan Records, viia. 343, 350–1; ix. 144. Thomas Bell, sheriff of Gloucester described James Ashe as one of the bishop of Worcester's ‘disorderly and colorable’ preachers and asserted that he had spoken slander against the king: LP x, no. 1099.

26 PRO, PROB 11/39, fo. 248V.

27 LP xiii, pt. 2, 710. For his pamphlets see STC 24162–6. He served as sheriff of Gloucestershire in 1561: Gloucester City Library, Smyth of Nibley Papers, iv, fo. 67.

28 Sir Alexander Baynham served as sheriff of Gloucestershire five times under three kings as well as on innumerable royal commissions (sometimes with William Tracy): LP i. 1176 (iii), 2053 (6ii); ii. 713, 1213, 2533, 3297; iii. 1248 (vi), 1081, 2415, 3282; iv. 390 (2), 547; Gloucester City Library, Smyth of Nibley Papers, iv, fo. 67.

29 In 1513 Sir Alexander had granted the manor of Mitcheldean, plus lands and tenements in Little Dean and Ruadean, to William Tracy and others by charter. He referred to that charter in a document which was attached to the will of his wife, Elizabeth, in which he also made mention of his four children: John, his eldest son, Thomas and James, his younger sons, and Jane, his daughter. However, in his actual will, dated 20 Sept. 1524, he only mentioned John, Thomas, and Jane. The omission of James may have been due to the latter's religious beliefs: PRO, PROB 11/22, fo. 209; 11/21, fo. 215V; 11/24, fo. 146.

30 Burnet, Gilbert, The History of the Reformation, ed. Pocock, Nicholas, Oxford 1845, i. 270Google Scholar; Foxe, John, Acts and Monuments, ed. Townsend, George, London 1846, iv. 697–704Google Scholar.

31 Concilia Magnae Britanniae el Hibemiae ab anno MDXLVI ad annum MDCCXVII, ed. Wilkins, Anthony, London 1737, iii. 746–7Google Scholar; LP v, no. 928. Tracy's will was also condemned under the seal of the University of Oxford on 28 Jan. 1531: Wood, Anthony à, History and Antiquities of the University of Oxford, ed. Gutch, J., Oxford 1792–1796, ii. 51Google Scholar.

32 Cf. the letter written by Tracy's son Richard dated 15 Jan. 1532/3: ‘Yt is not unknowen to you of the late trouble that I have had touching my fathers testament and that not only, but also of the greate and abhomynable worldly shame doon unto hys kynred in burnyng his roten bones. This shame is not only to his kynred, but also to alle the gentillmen of the shere, for he had ben High Sherif of the Shire, and also put in greate truste by comission of the Kinge that dede ys, as also of the Kinge that nowe is. Sir yt is shewed me that the principall actor therin ys in trouble and that he shallbe punished therfore: Foxe, , Acts and Monuments, vGoogle Scholar, appendix 3; LP vi. 40. See also Davies, C., ‘A Protestant gentleman and the English Reformation: the career and attitudes of Richard Tracy,?1501–1569’, in The Sudeleys – Lords of Toddington, London 1987, 121–6Google Scholar.

33 Foxe, , Acts and Monuments, v. 31–2Google Scholar. Foxe printed Tracy's will in full. Both Latimer, preaching at Convocation in 1536, and Pilkington, preaching at the restoration of Bucer and Fagius in Cambridge in 1560, mentioned the burning of William Tracy's corpse. Thus Pilkington refers to Wycliffe, ‘Of the which self same sauce tasted also William Tracy of Gloucester, a man of a worshipful house, because he had written in his last will that he should be saved only by faith in Jesus Christ and that there needed not the help of any man thereto’: Works of Bishop Pilkington, ed. Scholefield, J., Cambridge 1842, 653Google Scholar; Sermons of Hugh Latimer, ed. Corrie, G. E., Cambridge 1844, i. 46Google Scholar. For more modern commentators see Dickens, A. G., The English Reformation, London 1964, 96Google Scholar; Powell, Kenneth, ‘The beginnings of Protestantism in Gloucestershire’, TBGAS xc (1971), 151–3Google Scholar; idem, ‘The social background to the Reformation in Gloucestershire’, ibid, xcii (1973), 112–13.

34 Tracy may have been influenced by the Latin primer of 1527 in his choice of this passage from Job: This Primer of Salysbury Vse, 1527, STC 15955, fo. 85V.

35 This corroborates Tyndale's comment about Tracy. See above, p. 421.

36 The Testament of Master Wylliam Trade, sigs Aiii–iiii; also printed in Tyndale's Answer, 271–83.

37 Burnet, , History of the Reformation, iii. 133Google Scholar.

38 Foxe, , Acts and Monuments, v. 29–30Google Scholar.

39 Ibid. 38.

40 Ibid. 565–8. At some point, yet unknown, it reached Sir John Price, the Welsh humanist and author of the first book published in Welsh. He translated and copied it into one of his commonplace books: Oxford, Balliol College, MS 353, fo. 141, cited in Williams, Glanmor, The Welsh Church from Conquest to Reformation, rev. edn, Cardiff 1976, 337, 528, 535. 540Google Scholar.

41 Tyndale in exile obviously possessed a copy of the will. Frith probably wrote his commentary in Antwerp before returning to England in 1532. It is clear that the tract was printed after Frith's death and Tyndale's capture: The Testament of Master Wylliam Trade, sig. aii. A copy of Tyndale's, commentary is also printed in Tyndale's Answer, 271–83Google Scholar.

42 Wills and Inventories from the Registers of the Commissary of Bury St Edmunds, 130–2.

43 Cf. Rupp, E. G., Essays in the English Protestant Tradition, London 1946, 6–14Google Scholar; Davis, J. F., Heresy and Reformation in the South-East of England, 1520–1559, London 1983, 54, 120–2Google Scholar; MacCulloch, D., Suffolk and the Tudors, Oxford 1986, 178–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brigden, S., London and the Reformation, Oxford 1989, 123–7, 160Google Scholar.

44 MacCulloch contends that the dating of this in LP is too early but places the incident before 1536: Suffolk and the Tudors, 178 n. 89.

45 PRO, SP 1/65, fo. 191; LP v. 186.

46 MacCulloch, , Suffolk and the Tudors, 178–9Google Scholar; Peet, D. J., ‘The Mid-Sixteenth Century Parish Clergy with Particular Consideration of the Dioceses of Norwich and York’, unpubl. PhD diss., Cambridge 1980, 210–19Google Scholar.

47 Hudson, Anne in The Premature Revolution, Oxford 1989, 482Google Scholar, mistakenly places Mendlesham in Norfolk and cites the case of the ‘Christian Brethren’ of Mendlesham only to dismiss it as a misleading term on the basis that there is no evidence for heretical books in Mendlesham. Patrick Collinson has recently argued that the Mendlesham Brethren might be better seen as expressing the ‘insubordination characteristic of the mixed economy of high Suffolk, with its weak manorial organisation and lack of gentry control’ rather than as ‘Bible reading card carrying Protestants’: ‘Godly preachers and zealous magistrates in Elizabethan East Anglia: the roots of dissent’, in Leedham-Green, E. S. (ed.), Religious Dissent in East Anglia, Cambridge 1991, 11Google Scholar.

48 Batley, J. Y., On a Reformer's Latin Bible: being an essay on the ‘adversaria’ in the Vulgate of Thomas Bilney, Cambridge 1940, 16–20Google Scholar.

49 Cited in Dickens, , Lollards and Protestants, 217–18Google Scholar; also printed in Sheils, W. J. (ed.), The Reformation in the North to 1558, York 1976Google Scholar. Dickens wrote that Hoppay's will shows no evidence of composition by a priest, and he may be right, but was unaware of the debt owed by Hoppay to Tracy's testament.

50 Cited in Mayhew, G.J., ‘The progress of the Reformation in east Sussex, 1530–1559’, Southern History v (1983), 43Google Scholar. Mayhew comes closest of all commentators to drawing the connection with William Tracy's will, but mistakenly views these preambles ‘as based on an even longer, more fully comprehensive version’. This preamble was almost certainly based on the 1548 publication of Tracy's will, because of the absence of ‘and’ in the phrase ‘of his passion of his resurrection’. In the 1548 edition the ‘&’ appears near the end of a line and is easy to miss: ‘The Will of Master Wylliam Tracie’, in Wyclyffes Wycket, STC 25590, sigs ciiii, diiii.

51 GRO, Gloucestershire Wills 1551/62.

52 Ibid. 1552/43.

53 Cook, M. A., ‘Eye (Suffolk) in the Years of Uncertainty’, unpubl. PhD diss., Keele 1982, 175–6Google Scholar.

54 Martin, Jeanette, ‘The People of Reading and the Reformation 1520–1570’, unpubl. PhD diss., Reading 1987, 444Google Scholar. We are grateful to Dr Martin for permission to consult her thesis.

55 The East Anglian; Notes and Queries, n.s. iii (1889–1890), 347–8Google Scholar. We owe this reference to the kindness of Dr Eamon Duffy.

56 Wrightson, K. and Levine, D., Poverty and Piety in an English Village: Terling, 1525–1700, London 1979, 155Google Scholar.

57 Cited in Cross, , ‘Wills as evidence of popular piety’, 44–51Google Scholar.

58 Cambridgeshire Record Office, Ely Probate Records, C.9, C.10, C.11 (consistory court wills), nos 1 and 2 of archdeaconry wills.

59 Burnet, , History of the Reformation, iii. 164Google Scholar.

60 PRO, PROB 11/25, fo. 11. Brown's will was proved at Lambeth on 12 Feb. 1533. Cf. LP v. 928; vi. 1570.

61 The authors would be grateful to hear of other examples of the use of William Tracy's will. References for all the wills noted in Fig. 1 appear in the text with the exception of the following. Boston: Richard Gylman, singing man, 1548, Lincolnshire Archive Office, Lincoln Consistory Court Wills, 1547–9, fo. 187. (We owe this reference to Mrs Mary Lucas.) Shrewsbury: John Mynton, draper, 1549, PRO, PROB 11/5. (We owe this reference to Mr W. A. Champion.) South Cerney: Thomas Priden, husbandman, 1573, GRO, Gloucestershire Wills, 1573/195.