Correspondence of Matthew Parker
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CORRESPONDENCE OF MATTHEW PARKER, D.D., ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. Ct>e ^atftet Society gnetitute* «. IB. |*1.29®@©.£?L. jfov \$t Hufiiication of tfje SSIorfee of Uje dFatfjere an& ©atrip ftgatitett* of tfjc laeformeo «?nglioIj (CJjurcfj. CORRESPONDENCE OF MATTHEW PARKER, D.D. AECHBISHOP OF CANTERBUEY. COMPRISING LETTEES WEITTEN BY AND TO HIM, FEOM A.D. 1535, TO HIS DEATH, A.D. 1575. EDITED FOB ©&e ^at&tv &otittv t JOHN BEUCE, ESQ. AND THE EEV. THOMAS THOMASON PEROWNE, M.A. FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. CAMBRIDGE : PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. M.DCCC.LIII. — INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. It is not deemed necessary to introduce the Correspondence of Archbishop Parker to the members of the society which bears his name, by any lengthened or express biography. To consider his career in detail, would be to write the ec- clesiastical history, and indeed no small portion also of the literary history, of the most important part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Such a work, however valuable, would be foreign to the purpose of the Parker Society ; the design of which is to furnish materials, rather than treatises ; to publish authorities, rather than to draw conclusions. But, in truth, although not in the form of an express biography, this volume contains within itself what is really and truly a Life of Archbishop Parker. In what esteem he was held by Archbishop Cranmer and others of the Reformers 1 of the English church , by what steps he rose to the arch- bishoprick, how he exercised the authority of that exalted office, what difficulties he had to encounter, and by what spirit the whole tenour of his life was animated, these things 1 One interesting proof of this esteem, the MS. of which was searched for in vain when the early portion of the Correspondence went to press, may find a place here. It is a letter from Latimer to Parker, which, having escaped from its old place of deposit, has lately been added to the Library of the British Museum, where it stands, Additional MS. 19,400, No. 21. It was probably written in 1535, when Parker was chaplain to Anne Boleyn. "Mine own good master Parcare, salutem. And as yet I have de- vised nothing, nor yet will, till I have spoken with the King's grace, and have passed through the next parliament. And then, what I shall alter and change, found and confound, you shall not be ignorant thereof. Vale, and do as master Latymer shall move you to do. Ostende teipsum mundo; delitescere diutius nolito; operare bonum dum tempus habes, veniet nox quando nemo poterit operari. Notum est quid potes, fac non minus velis quam potes. Vale. Txms, H. Latymer, of Worcester. To his well-beloved, master Parcare, chaplain to the Queen's good grace." — VI INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. which are the essence of his biography—all appear clearly in the present volume, written unmistakeably by his own pen, and by the pens of his correspondents. No one who will take the trouble to peruse the following pages will need any biographer to instruct him farther as to the character, or as to the opinions, of Archbishop Parker. Some few facts, principally relating to his early and his domestic history, were registered by the Archbishop himself in a small roll of parchment, which is preserved with peculiar care in Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. These auto- biographical memoranda, not being of the character of Corre- spondence, could not find a place in the body of the present volume, but they are necessary to be read in connection with the Letters, and tend to complete the information which they 1 contain. The memoranda are as follows : "In the Year of our Lord 1504, on the 6th of August, letter 2 G and F , Matthew Parker was born at Norwich, in the parish of Saint Saviour; and was brought up in the parish of All Saints near Fye-bridge gates, and edu- cated in the parish of Saint Clement near Fye-bridge, under William, his father, who lived to a.d. 1516, and to the 48th year of his age; Alice, his mother, who lived to a.d. 1553, and to the 83rd year of her age. \ , i (Thomas Benis, Bachelor of Theology, rector of St Cle- ( t ' & *" I in reading 1. l.-j I < ment s, and partly by Richard Pope, priest. He was ] in writing 1 2. , 2. William Prior, clerk, of the church of St Benedict. instructed | y . ' „ . ). (W Love, priest ) „ , , , a a , , in singing 13. > 01 &t btephen s, severe teachers. *j n „ , , , 1 <K. Manthorp, clerk J k in grammarJ 4. 4. William Neve, an easy and kind schoolmaster. YEAR 1522. 8th of 3 September, about the 17th year of my age , sent to 1 The original Latin in which these entries are made, is printed in the Appendix, No. I. p. 481. 2 The Dominical Letter. 3 Strype, in the body of his work, (Bk. i. c. I, p. 8), gives 1520 as the date of Parker's going to Cambridge. This is certainly wrong. Parker's own autobiographical roll gives "A . 1522, 8°. Septembr. m circa a setatis mese 17 ;" but this must be a mistake for 1521, for he was born in August 1504, and would therefore have been in his 18th, not his 17th year, in September 1522. Moreover, at the foot of a document written by Stephen Gardiner (Parker MSS., C. C. Coll., Camb., cvi. art. 15, p. 63, Orig.), there is this note, ap- parently in Parker's handwriting: "Hoc anno in festo Nativitatis INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. Vll TEAR Cambridge (by the help of Mr Bunge, of the parish of St George, but at my mother's expense) ; and in Corpus Christi College, under a tutor, Robert Cowper, a Master of Arts, but of small learning, instructed in dialectics and philosophy; partly in Saint Mary's Hostel, and partly in [Corpus] Christi College. 1522. 4 In the month of March elected a Bible-clerk of Corpus Christi College. 1525. Admitted Bachelor of Arts. 1526. 22nd of December. Made Sub-deacon under the titles of Barnwell, and the Chapel in the fields, Norwich. 1527. 20th of April. Made Deacon. 1527. 15th of June. Made Priest. 1527. 6th of September. Elected a Fellow of Corpus Christi College. 1527. 5 3rd. Created Master of Arts. ,Granchester \ 1 IBeach [Landbeach] J 2 „ , 1533. On the first Sunday in Advent . Sundav gt Be„et g churchf entered office in on the of [Cambridge] 3 preaching. Adrent<3 - Madingley, and 4 \ Barton. / 5 1535. 30th of March. Called to the Court of Queen Anne*. 1535. 14th of July. Made Bachelor of Divinity. ] 535. 4th of November. Promoted to the deanery of Stoke Clare by Queen Anne, in the 27th year of Henry VIII. 1537. 1st of March. Called to the court of the King, and made chaplain of Henry VIII. 1538. 1st of July. Created Doctor of Divinity. 1542. 27th of May. Presented to the rectory of Ashen in Essex. 1541. 8 28th of October. Installed into the second prebend in the church of Ely, by collation of Henry VIII. 1544. 4th of December. Elected Master of Corpus Christi College by commendatory letters of Henry VIII. 1544. 30th of April. Eesigned the rectory of Ashen. 1544. 1st of May. Presented to the rectory of Burlingham, Norfolk. beatse Marise M. P. accessit Cantabrigiam." Now the festival in question falls on the 8th of September, but the date of Gardiner's document is, "Anno Domini millesimo quingentesimo vicesimo primo." 4 i. e. 1522-3. 6 Probably this should be 3rd of July, 1528. 6 The figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, here seem to intimate the order of Parker's first five sermons, of which the first four were preached on the Sundays in Advent, the fifth on Christmas- day, which fell that year on a Sunday. 7 Anne Boleyn. 8 This date is printed in the chronological order in which it stands in the original MS. Viii INTRODUCTORY NOTICE. YEAK 1544J 25th of January. First elected to the office of Vice-Chan- cellor of Cambridge. 1545. 22nd of September. Presented to the rectory of Land- beach. 1547. 1st of April. Resigned the deanery of Stoke in obedience to an Act of Parliament. 1548. 2 7th of February. Elected a second time to the office of Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge. 1550. 1st of October. Resigned the rectory of Burlingham St An- drew's. 1552. 1st of June. Presented to the prebend i by the illustrious of Coringham I Prince Edward the 1552. 8th of June. Nominated to the deanery [ gixth. of Lincoln 1552. 9th of July. Installed into the prebend aforesaid. 1552. 30th of July. Elected dean of Lincoln. 1552. 7th of October. Installed into the deanery in person. 1553. of December. Resigned the office of Master of Corpus Christi College to Laurence Moptyd, whom, under con- straint, I had myself chosen as my successor. 1554. 2nd of April. Deprived of my prebend in the Church of Ely, and deprived of my rectory of Landbeach, to which church I procured to be presented, William Whalley, canon of Lincoln, whom I chose as my successor, and he was insti- tuted on the 30th of September. 1554. 21st of May. Despoiled of my deanery of Lincoln, as also on the same day of my prebend of Coringham in the same Church, to which Mr George Pierpoint was presented by virtue of an advowson of the same granted [to me] by the bishop of Lincoln, J. Taylor. The deanery was conferred upon Francis Malet, Doctor of Divinity, by Queen Mary.