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‘Dens of loitering lubbers’: protestant protest against cathedral foundations, 1540–1640

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Claire Cross
Claire Cross*
Affiliation:
University of York
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Extract

In A View of Popishe Abuses which enlarged upon the corruptions remaining in the English church, already itemised by protestant radicals in An Admonition to the Parliament of 1572, the writer dwelt at some length upon the iniquities of cathedral foundations.

We should be too long to tell your honours of cathedral churches, the dens aforesaid of all loitering lubbers, where master dean, master vicedean, master canons or prebendaries the greater, master petty canons or canons the lesser, master chancellor of the church, master treasurer, otherwise called Judas the pursebearer, the chief chanter, singingmen, special favourers of religion, squeaking choristers, organ players, gospellers, pistellers, pensioners, readers, vergers etc. live in great idleness and have their abiding. If you would know whence all these came, we can easily answer you, that they came from the pope, as out of the Trojan horse’s belly, to the destruction of God’s kingdom. The church of God never knew them, neither doth any reformed church in the world know them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 9: Schism, Heresy and Religious Protest , 1972 , pp. 231 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1972

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References

page no 231 note 1 Both these pamphlets have been reprinted in Puritan Manifestoes, [ed Frere, W. H. and Douglas, C. E.] (London 1954)Google Scholar. This is the edition referred to here, but the spelling has been modernised.

page no 231 note 2 Puritan Manifestoes, p 32.

page no 231 note 3 ‘To troul’ is defined as ‘to utter volubly’ in Johnson, S., A Dictionary of the English Language, 11 (London 1820) p 887 Google Scholar.

page no 232 note 1 The Seconde Parte of a Register, ed Peel, A., 11 (Cambridge 1915) p 211 Google Scholar. Spelling modern ised.

page no 232 note 2 Brooke, C. N. L., ‘The Earliest Times to 1485’ in A History of St Paul’s Cathedral, ed Matthews, W. R. and Atkins, W. M. (London 1957) pp 9-10Google Scholar.

page no 233 note 1 Cranmer’s Miscellaneous Writings, ed Cox, J. E., Parker Society (Cambridge 1846) pp 396-7Google Scholar.

page no 234 note 1 These, and all subsequent valuations, unless otherwise stated, are taken from Valor Ecclesiasticus temp. Henr. VIII, ed Caley, J., 6 vols, Record Commission (London 1810-34)Google Scholar.

page no 234 note 2 Willis, B., >Survey of the Cathedrals of Lincoln, Ely, Oxford and Peterborough, 11 (London 1730) pp 95, 141, 176, 209, 245, 252Google Scholar.

page no 234 note 3 The whole question of residence in English medieval secular cathedrals is discussed at length in Edwards, K., The English Secular Cathedrals in the Middle Ages (revised ed Manchester 1967) especially p 35 Google Scholar.

page no 235 note 1 These remarks are based on the rolls of the minster chamberlain, ninety-four of which have survived sporadically for half years between 1480 and 1679. York, Minster Lib rary MS E. 1. 46-138.

page no 235 note 2 Chapter Act Book, 1565-1634. York, Minster Library MS H.4 fols 1-377.

page no 235 note 3 York, Minster Library MS H.4 fob 35r, 117r, 180v, 210V and see Harrison, F., Life in a Medieval College (London 1952) especially parts five and sixGoogle Scholar.

page no 236 note 1 For Durham, Carlisle, Chester and Bristol see Willis, B., Survey of the Cathedrals Of York, Durham, Carlisle, 1 (London 1727) pp 222, 285, 329, 760Google Scholar. For Ely and Peterborough see Willis, B., Survey of the Cathedrals of Lincoln, Ely, Oxford and Peterborough, 11 (1730) PP 346, 503Google Scholar. For Gloucester see Fosbrooke, T. D., An Original History of the City of Gloucester (London 1819) p 219 Google Scholar. For Norwich see Blomefield, F., An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk, IV (London 1806) p 566 Google Scholar.

page no 236 note 2 Chamberlain’s Rolls, York, Minster Library MS E.1, VII, 93,93b. DNB, XXVIII, pp 357-8 under ‘Matthew Hutton’.

page no 236 note 3 York, Minster Library MSS E.1, VII, 96; E.1, VIII, 103. DNB, VII, pp 150-1 under ‘ William Goodwin ‘.

page no 237 note 1 See p 232 n 1.

page no 237 note 2 Strype, J., The Life and Acts of John Whitgift (London 1718) pp 280-1Google Scholar.