DOCSLIB.ORG

UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Sir Thomas White's Dream: St. John's College, Oxford, The Merchant Taylors' Company, London, and the Reformation Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8jq2g82j Author Parsons, Katherine Amelia Publication Date 2016 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Sir Thomas White’s Dream: St. John’s College, Oxford, the Merchant Taylors’ Company, London, and the Reformation A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Katherine Amelia Parsons March 2016 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson Dr. Randolph Head Dr. Georg Michels Copyright by Katherine Amelia Parsons 2016 The Dissertation of Katherine Amelia Parsons is approved: ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements Much like navigating religious reforms during the Tudor and Stuart periods, writing a dissertation is a rough and perilous business that requires the assistance of friends and allies. I have been blessed with both. This dissertation was inspired and guided by Thomas Cogswell, who suggested this topic when he cryptically advised me to look into Sir William Cordell. I have never looked back. Since then he has taught me the importance of telling history’s stories in a way that engages the reader, the horrors of using the passive voice, how to tease a narrative out of a seemingly dry manuscript, and the necessity of making writing a priority. For all of this and more, I am grateful. My other committee members have been equally encouraging and inspiring. Georg Michels encouraged me to stay in graduate school the first year of my Ph.D. program when I became overwhelmed and discouraged. His keen eye for consistency in narrative and argument has been instrumental in shaping how I think about historical writing. He also introduced me to the history of Imperial Russia, my favorite distraction from Early Modern England. I am forever indebted to him for the time and effort that he has spent encouraging me as a scholar. Randolph Head has also been a steady support, recommending helpful texts, polishing my ability to transcribe 16th century documents, and providing constructive criticism when needed. Through a series of seminars he iv introduced me to micro-histories of the Reformation, and it is my hope and desire that this dissertation becomes a meaningful contribution to that genre. Throughout my graduate studies I have been supported by a number of different institutions, and I owe a debt of gratitude to a plethora of people at all of them. In the UCR History Department Office, I am indebted to a number of women, past and present, namely Susan Komura, Deisy Escobedo, Rosie Mamaril, Connie Young, Christina Cuellar, Wendy Mello, and Iselda Salgado. Their assistance and efficiency has been invaluable to me. At the Tomás Rivera Library, Tracy Wandel has extended mercy to me when I was unable to return books until long after their due date. Her kindness saved me literally thousands of dollars in late fees and fines. The Inter-Library Loan Office was also courteous and professional. I remain in awe of their ability to find obscure dissertations and rolls of microfiche. I am also grateful to the History Department, the Graduate Division, and the Chancellor’s Office at UCR for their generous financial support. I was fortunate to be hired to a full time faculty position while working on my dissertation. I am deeply indebted to La Sierra University for their faith in my abilities and unfailing support. I am particularly grateful to the Provost’s Office for their financial support. The Department of History and the College of Arts and Sciences assisted in research funding, as well as providing much needed time to research and write the dissertation. The student workers at La Sierra University also assisted a great deal with research. I am particularly indebted to v Nicqelle Godfrey, Laura Kosch, Winta Hailemariam, and Daniel Larios. Beyond financial support, I have benefited from the care of my colleagues. In particular, I would like to thank Jeff Dupée, Andrew Howe, and Lora Geriguis, who have been generous with their time and abilities, each of them read sections of the dissertation and I found their comments to be invaluable. Any faults in the text or its content are entirely my own. During my research trip to England I was assisted by a number of helpful librarians and archivists at the Guildhall Library, London and the Bodleian Library, Oxford. But I am particularly grateful to Michael Riordan at the St. John’s College Archive at the University of Oxford for assisting with manuscripts and answering questions. His companionship and patience made freezing winter days in a one-room archive in the basement of St. Giles’ House warm and productive. Stephen Freeth, Archivist of the Merchant Taylors’ Company, introduced me to the company records housed in the Guildhall Library and kindly provided me permission to photograph them for my own use. His compassion toward an American academic on a time constricted research trip will never be forgotten. I also benefited from lengthy conversations during my sojourn in England with a number of academics who sharpened my thinking and language on early modern history, particularly Nicholas Tyacke, Andrew Hegarty, Stephen Alford, Ian Archer, Simon Healy, Steve Gunn, Amy Blakeway, vi Helena Halcomb-Carr, and Joel Halcomb. Also, Lonnie Robinson and James McComish kindly forwarded their unpublished work to me. The support of friends and family has sustained me through this process. Notably, Melissa Zjaci, Joshua Parsons, Emina Parsons, Stephanie Scott, Angela Palmer, Alex Wiltsie, Deborah Higgens, Whitny Braun, Darla Koh, Tamsin James, Sasha Ross, Ken Crane, and Eric Vega have been there with tea, conversation, and a willingness to commiserate. A special thanks goes to Shawn Koh, who has been willing to share his wife’s attention with hundreds of dead Oxford fellows and London Merchants. His patience and love has been unstinting throughout this process. Finally, I would like to thank my parents, Lyndon and Leslie Parsons. Their financial, moral, and emotional support has been endless. My father inspired me with a love of the Christian church and its history from an early age and has read every word of this dissertation. My mom has always been there with a hug and a much-needed meal when I was too focused on work to forage for food at the local market. She has also endured hearing large sections of writing read over the phone and provided valuable feedback. I never would have completed this without you both. Thank you. vii To Mom and Dad viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Sir Thomas White’s Dream: St. John’s College, Oxford, the Merchant Taylors’ Company, London and the Reformation by Katherine Amelia Parsons Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in History University of California, Riverside, March 2016 Dr. Thomas Cogswell, Chairperson This dissertation is a dual case study of two institutions, St. John’s College, Oxford and the Merchant Taylors’ Company, London. It considers how these two groups navigated the later Reformation in England, from the accession of Elizabeth I until the beginnings of the English Civil Wars. Although separate corporations, they were tied together by Sir Thomas White, a Merchant Taylor who founded St. John’s College, Oxford. He joined the two establishments in his will, granting the Merchant Taylors’ Company the right to elect up to forty-two of the College’s fifty fellows. This arrangement ultimately resulted in power struggles between the two groups, as each side attempted to press its own interests. These tensions were exacerbated by confessional differences between the two groups. Sir Thomas White originally founded St. John’s College as a training college for Catholic priests during the re-establishment of traditional religion during the reign of Mary Tudor. Following the establishment of the ix Elizabethan Protestant settlement, it became a haven for crypto-papists and conforming Catholics. St. John’s College remained a religiously conservative institution until the 1580’s, when it became a breeding ground for avant-garde conformity, and later the birth place of Laudianism. Conversely, godly Protestants from the 1570’s onward increasingly populated the leadership of the Merchant Taylors’ Company. Godly members of the London community governed the Company from the turn of the seventeenth century onwards, but more moderate Calvinists who supported the Jacobean and Carolinian courts tempered them. These religious differences led to friction between St. John’s College and the Merchant Taylors’ Company that exploded regularly at the elections of scholars held on St. Barnabas’ day each year. Previous historians have highlighted the financial context of these rows, but have largely ignored the religious and social foundations of tensions between the two groups. This dissertation seeks to rectify this oversight and contributes to the work of early modern English history, Reformation history, social history, and local history. My primary sources include correspondence, official registers, election ballots, state papers, college accounts, company
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Tale of a Fish How Westminster Abbey Became a Royal Peculiar
    The Tale of a Fish How Westminster Abbey became a Royal Peculiar For Edric it had been a bad week’s fishing in the Thames for salmon and an even worse Sunday, a day on which he knew ought not to have been working but needs must. The wind and the rain howled across the river from the far banks of that dreadful and wild isle called Thorney with some justification. The little monastic church recently built on the orders of King Sebert stood forlornly waiting to be consecrated the next day by Bishop Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, who would be travelling west from the great Minster of St Paul’s in the City of London. As he drew in his empty nets and rowed to the southern bank he saw an old man dressed in strange and foreign clothing hailing him. Would Edric take him across even at this late hour to Thorney Island? Hopeful for some reward, Edric rowed across the river, moaning to the old man about the poor fishing he had suffered and received some sympathy as the old man seemed to have had some experience in the same trade. After the old man had alighted and entered the little church, suddenly the building was ablaze with dazzling lights and Edric heard chanting and singing and saw a ladder of angels leading from the sky to the ground. Edric was transfixed. Then there was silence and darkness. The old man returned and admonished Edric for fishing on a Sunday but said that if he caste his nets again the next day into the river his reward would be great.
    [Show full text]
  • Being a Thesis Submitted for the Degree Of
    The tJni'ers1ty of Sheffield Depaz'tient of Uistory YORKSRIRB POLITICS, 1658 - 1688 being a ThesIs submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by CIthJUL IARGARRT KKI August, 1990 For my parents N One of my greater refreshments is to reflect our friendship. "* * Sir Henry Goodricke to Sir Sohn Reresby, n.d., Kxbr. 1/99. COff TENTS Ackn owl edgements I Summary ii Abbreviations iii p Introduction 1 Chapter One : Richard Cromwell, Breakdown and the 21 Restoration of Monarchy: September 1658 - May 1660 Chapter Two : Towards Settlement: 1660 - 1667 63 Chapter Three Loyalty and Opposition: 1668 - 1678 119 Chapter Four : Crisis and Re-adjustment: 1679 - 1685 191 Chapter Five : James II and Breakdown: 1685 - 1688 301 Conclusion 382 Appendix: Yorkshire )fembers of the Coir,ons 393 1679-1681 lotes 396 Bibliography 469 -i- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Research for this thesis was supported by a grant from the Department of Education and Science. I am grateful to the University of Sheffield, particularly the History Department, for the use of their facilities during my time as a post-graduate student there. Professor Anthony Fletcher has been constantly encouraging and supportive, as well as a great friend, since I began the research under his supervision. I am indebted to him for continuing to supervise my work even after he left Sheffield to take a Chair at Durham University. Following Anthony's departure from Sheffield, Professor Patrick Collinson and Dr Mark Greengrass kindly became my surrogate supervisors. Members of Sheffield History Department's Early Modern Seminar Group were a source of encouragement in the early days of my research.
    [Show full text]
  • Six Unpublished Letters of Queen Henrietta Maria
    SIX UNPUBLISHED LETTERS OF dUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA R. A. BEDDARD IN the morass of papers left by that diligent servant of the House of Stuart, Sir Edward Nicholas, Secretary of State to Charles I and Charles II, is a small cache of six letters written by, or at the command of, Queen Henrietta Maria.^ Five of them are addressed to Nicholas in his official capacity as Secretary.^ Three of them are informal, being little more than hastily penned notes in the Queen's own hand. These are undated by her, but two of them have been endorsed by Nicholas with the date on which he received them: 5 September and i October 1641. His endorsement locates them in the difficult period of Charles Ts residence in Edinburgh, when his master was seeking to build a party among the Scottish nobles. The third most probably belongs to the same year. All three show that the King was during his absence from England regularly employing his wife in the routine business of despatching, and, on occasion, restraining the time of delivery of his correspondence.^ The other two letters addressed to Secretary Nicholas are of greater historical moment. Not only are they more ample in content, they are also more formal in nature. They belong to a much later period in the Queen's life, when she had taken up residence in her native France following her successful flight from Exeter in July 1644.^ The two communications are cast in the form of royal warrants, drafted by the clerk attending the Queen at the palace of St Germain-en-Laye, outside Paris, where for a time she occupied grace and favour lodgings given to her by her sister-in-law, Anne of Austria, Queen Regent of France and the widow of Louis XIII.^ As such, they are signed by Henrietta Maria at the beginning in the customary fashion, and are dated coram regina 9 and 22 June 1648 respectively, according to the New Style of the Gregorian calendar in use in Catholic France: that is, 30 May and 12 June, according to the Old Style of the Julian computation still in use in Protestant England.
    [Show full text]
  • The Holinshed Editors: Religious Attitudes and Their Consequences
    The Holinshed editors: religious attitudes and their consequences By Felicity Heal Jesus College, Oxford This is an introductory lecture prepared for the Cambridge Chronicles conference, July 2008. It should not be quoted or cited without full acknowledgement. Francis Thynne, defending himself when writing lives of the archbishops of Canterbury, one of sections of the 1587 edition of Holinshed that was censored, commented : It is beside my purpose, to treat of the substance of religion, sith I am onelie politicall and not ecclesiasticall a naked writer of histories, and not a learned divine to treat of mysteries of religion.1 And, given the sensitivity of any expression of religious view in mid-Elizabethan England, he and his fellow-contributors were wise to fall back, on occasions, upon the established convention that ecclesiastical and secular histories were in two separate spheres. It is true that the Chronicles can appear overwhelmingly secular, dominated as they are by scenes of war and political conflict. But of course Thynne did protest too much. No serious chronicler could avoid giving the history of the three kingdoms an ecclesiastical dimension: the mere choice of material proclaimed religious identity and, among their other sources, the editors drew extensively upon a text that did irrefutably address the ‘mysteries of religion’ – Foxe’s Book of Martyrs.2 Moreover, in a text as sententious as Holinshed the reader is constantly led in certain interpretative directions. Those directions are superficially obvious – the affirmation 1 Citations are to Holinshed’s Chronicles , ed. Henry Ellis, 6 vols. (London, 1807-8): 4:743 2 D.R.Woolf, The Idea of History in Early Stuart England (Toronto, 1990), ch 1 1 of the Protestant settlement, anti-Romanism and a general conviction about the providential purposes of the Deity for Englishmen.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Seventeenth Century Letters and P E T I T I O N S Erom T H E M U N I M E N T S O F T H E Dean a N D C H a P T E R O E C a N T E R B U R Y
    http://kentarchaeology.org.uk/research/archaeologia-cantiana/ Kent Archaeological Society is a registered charity number 223382 © 2017 Kent Archaeological Society ( 93 ) SOME SEVENTEENTH CENTURY LETTERS AND P E T I T I O N S EROM T H E M U N I M E N T S O F T H E DEAN A N D C H A P T E R O E C A N T E R B U R Y . EDITED BY 0. EVELEIGH WOODRUFF, M.A. INTRODUCTION THE thirty-two letters and petitions which, by the courtesy of the Dean and Chapter, I have been permitted to trans- cribe, and now to offer to the Kent Archasological Society for pubhcation, were written—with the exception of three or four—in the seventeenth century, on the eve of the troublous times which culminated in the overthrow of Church and King, or in the years immediately fohowing the restoration of the monarchy when deans and chapters, once more in possession of their churches, and estates, were reviving the worship and customs which had been for many years in abeyance. One letter, however, is of earher date than the seventeenth century and three are later. Thus number one is from the pen of Dr. Nicholas Wotton, the first dean of the New Eoundation. Wotton, who was much employed in affairs of state, did not spend much time at Canterbury. His letter, which is dated from London, February 11th, 1564-5, is addressed to his brethren the prebendaries of Canterbury, and its purport is to inform them that Sir Thomas Gresham has offered to build, at his own proper cost and charges, a new Royal Exchange in the city of London.
    [Show full text]
  • Richard Kilburne, a Topographie Or Survey of The
    Richard Kilburne A topographie or survey of the county of Kent London 1659 <frontispiece> <i> <sig A> A TOPOGRAPHIE, OR SURVEY OF THE COUNTY OF KENT. With some Chronological, Histori= call, and other matters touching the same: And the several Parishes and Places therein. By Richard Kilburne of Hawk= herst, Esquire. Nascimur partim Patriæ. LONDON, Printed by Thomas Mabb for Henry Atkinson, and are to be sold at his Shop at Staple-Inn-gate in Holborne, 1659. <ii> <blank> <iii> TO THE NOBILITY, GEN= TRY and COMMONALTY OF KENT. Right Honourable, &c. You are now presented with my larger Survey of Kent (pro= mised in my Epistle to my late brief Survey of the same) wherein (among severall things) (I hope conducible to the service of that Coun= ty, you will finde mention of some memorable acts done, and offices of emi= <iv> nent trust borne, by severall of your Ancestors, other remarkeable matters touching them, and the Places of Habitation, and Interment of ma= ny of them. For the ready finding whereof, I have added an Alphabeticall Table at the end of this Tract. My Obligation of Gratitude to that County (wherein I have had a comfortable sub= sistence for above Thirty five years last past, and for some of them had the Honour to serve the same) pressed me to this Taske (which be= ing finished) If it (in any sort) prove servicea= ble thereunto, I have what I aimed at; My humble request is; That if herein any thing be found (either by omission or alteration) substantially or otherwise different from my a= foresaid former Survey, you would be pleased to be informed, that the same happened by reason of further or better information (tend= ing to more certaine truths) than formerly I had.
    [Show full text]
  • Lambeth Palace Library Research Guide Biographical Sources for Archbishops of Canterbury from 1052 to the Present Day
    Lambeth Palace Library Research Guide Biographical Sources for Archbishops of Canterbury from 1052 to the Present Day 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 3 2 Abbreviations Used ....................................................................................................... 4 3 Archbishops of Canterbury 1052- .................................................................................. 5 Stigand (1052-70) .............................................................................................................. 5 Lanfranc (1070-89) ............................................................................................................ 5 Anselm (1093-1109) .......................................................................................................... 5 Ralph d’Escures (1114-22) ................................................................................................ 5 William de Corbeil (1123-36) ............................................................................................. 5 Theobold of Bec (1139-61) ................................................................................................ 5 Thomas Becket (1162-70) ................................................................................................. 6 Richard of Dover (1174-84) ............................................................................................... 6 Baldwin (1184-90) ............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • STEPHEN TAYLOR the Clergy at the Courts of George I and George II
    STEPHEN TAYLOR The Clergy at the Courts of George I and George II in MICHAEL SCHAICH (ed.), Monarchy and Religion: The Transformation of Royal Culture in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007) pp. 129–151 ISBN: 978 0 19 921472 3 The following PDF is published under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence. Anyone may freely read, download, distribute, and make the work available to the public in printed or electronic form provided that appropriate credit is given. However, no commercial use is allowed and the work may not be altered or transformed, or serve as the basis for a derivative work. The publication rights for this volume have formally reverted from Oxford University Press to the German Historical Institute London. All reasonable effort has been made to contact any further copyright holders in this volume. Any objections to this material being published online under open access should be addressed to the German Historical Institute London. DOI: 5 The Clergy at the Courts of George I and George II STEPHEN TAYLOR In the years between the Reformation and the revolution of 1688 the court lay at the very heart of English religious life. Court bishops played an important role as royal councillors in matters concerning both church and commonwealth. 1 Royal chaplaincies were sought after, both as important steps on the road of prefer- ment and as positions from which to influence religious policy.2 Printed court sermons were a prominent literary genre, providing not least an important forum for debate about the nature and character of the English Reformation.
    [Show full text]
  • Title Page R.J. Pederson
    Cover Page The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/22159 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation Author: Pederson, Randall James Title: Unity in diversity : English puritans and the puritan reformation, 1603-1689 Issue Date: 2013-11-07 Chapter 3 John Downame (1571-1652) 3.1 Introduction John Downame (or Downham) was one of the greatest exponents of the precisianist strain within Puritanism during the pre-revolutionary years of the seventeenth century, a prominent member of London Puritanism, and renowned casuist.1 His fame rests chiefly in his nineteen published works, most of which were works of practical divinity, such as his four-part magnum opus, The Christian Warfare (1604-18), and his A Guide to Godlynesse (1622), a shorter, though still copious, manual for Christian living. Downame was also known for his role in publishing two of the most popular theological manuals: Sir Henry Finch’s The Summe of Sacred Divinitie (1620), which consisted of a much more expanded version of Finch’s earlier Sacred Doctrine (1613), and Archbishop James Ussher’s A Body of Divinitie (1645), which was published from rough manuscripts and without Ussher’s consent, having been intended for private use.2 Downame also had a role in codifying the Westminster annotations on the Bible, being one of a few city ministers to work on the project, though he never sat at the Westminster Assembly.3 Downame’s older brother, 1 Various historians from the seventeenth century to the present have spelled Downame’s name differently (either Downame or Downham). The majority of seventeenth century printed works, however, use “Downame.” I here follow that practice.
    [Show full text]
  • DISSERTATION-Submission Reformatted
    The Dilemma of Obedience: Persecution, Dissimulation, and Memory in Early Modern England, 1553-1603 By Robert Lee Harkins A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Ethan Shagan, Chair Professor Jonathan Sheehan Professor David Bates Fall 2013 © Robert Lee Harkins 2013 All Rights Reserved 1 Abstract The Dilemma of Obedience: Persecution, Dissimulation, and Memory in Early Modern England, 1553-1603 by Robert Lee Harkins Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Ethan Shagan, Chair This study examines the problem of religious and political obedience in early modern England. Drawing upon extensive manuscript research, it focuses on the reign of Mary I (1553-1558), when the official return to Roman Catholicism was accompanied by the prosecution of Protestants for heresy, and the reign of Elizabeth I (1558-1603), when the state religion again shifted to Protestantism. I argue that the cognitive dissonance created by these seesaw changes of official doctrine necessitated a society in which religious mutability became standard operating procedure. For most early modern men and women it was impossible to navigate between the competing and contradictory dictates of Tudor religion and politics without conforming, dissimulating, or changing important points of conscience and belief. Although early modern theologians and polemicists widely declared religious conformists to be shameless apostates, when we examine specific cases in context it becomes apparent that most individuals found ways to positively rationalize and justify their respective actions. This fraught history continued to have long-term effects on England’s religious, political, and intellectual culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = the National Library of Wales Cymorth
    Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales Cymorth chwilio | Finding Aid - Coed Coch and Trovarth Estate Records, (GB 0210 TROVARTH) Cynhyrchir gan Access to Memory (AtoM) 2.3.0 Generated by Access to Memory (AtoM) 2.3.0 Argraffwyd: Mai 04, 2017 Printed: May 04, 2017 Wrth lunio'r disgrifiad hwn dilynwyd canllawiau ANW a seiliwyd ar ISAD(G) Ail Argraffiad; rheolau AACR2; ac LCSH This description follows NLW guidelines based on ISAD(G) Second Edition; AACR2; and LCSH https://archifau.llyfrgell.cymru/index.php/coed-coch-and-trovarth-estate-records-2 archives.library .wales/index.php/coed-coch-and-trovarth-estate-records-2 Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru = The National Library of Wales Allt Penglais Aberystwyth Ceredigion United Kingdom SY23 3BU 01970 632 800 01970 615 709 [email protected] www.llgc.org.uk Coed Coch and Trovarth Estate Records, Tabl cynnwys | Table of contents Gwybodaeth grynodeb | Summary information .............................................................................................. 3 Hanes gweinyddol / Braslun bywgraffyddol | Administrative history | Biographical sketch ......................... 3 Natur a chynnwys | Scope and content .......................................................................................................... 4 Trefniant | Arrangement .................................................................................................................................. 4 Nodiadau | Notes ............................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Gown Before Crown: Scholarly Abjection and Academic Entertainment Under Queen Elizabeth I Linda Shenk Iowa State University, [email protected]
    English Publications English 2009 Gown Before Crown: Scholarly Abjection and Academic Entertainment Under Queen Elizabeth I Linda Shenk Iowa State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/engl_pubs Part of the European History Commons, Intellectual History Commons, and the Women's History Commons The ompc lete bibliographic information for this item can be found at http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ engl_pubs/142. For information on how to cite this item, please visit http://lib.dr.iastate.edu/ howtocite.html. This Book Chapter is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Publications by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Gown Before Crown: Scholarly Abjection and Academic Entertainment Under Queen Elizabeth I Abstract In 1592, Queen Elizabeth I and the Privy Council made a rather audacious request of their intellectuals at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The hrC istmas season was fast approaching, and a recent outbreak of the plague prohibited the queen's professional acting company from performing the season's customary entertainment. To avoid having a Christmas without revels, the crown sent messengers to both institutions, asking for university men to come to court and perform a comedy in English. Cambridge's Vice Chancellor, John Still, wished to decline this royal invitation, and for advice on how to do so he wrote to his superior, William Cecil, Lord Burghley, who was not only the Chancellor of Cambridge but also Elizabeth's chief advisor.
    [Show full text]