Life of Matthew Parker (Strype, 1821)/Book I/Chapter I

This is the enhanced reading edition of Chapter I, prepared for AnglicanWiki. Section headings, English translations of Latin, internal links, and editorial notes are modern additions; Strype's text is otherwise preserved. A faithful transcription without modern editorial apparatus is also maintained.

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The Archbishop's nativity, stock, education; remove to Cambridge; his entrance into holy Orders. Studies divinity closely. Embraces the Gospel. Many now profess it in Cambridge.

Birth and Parentage

WE begin with his birth, parentage, and education; matters, which though the least of those that are worthy to be set down and observed concerning our Archbishop, of whom we have so great things to say, yet do not use to be unacceptable to hear, nor ought to be omitted by one that undertakes to be a biographer. He was born in the parish of St. Saviour's, in the ancient city of Norwich, (that gives nomination to a Bishop,) the 6th day of August, in the 19th year of King Henry VII. and in the year of our Lord 1504; which was the year of the splendid enthronization of his predecessor Warham; and the very year also wherein the great light of the Helvetian churches, Henry Bullinger, came into the world. So that he was fifteen years younger than his glorious predecessor Cranmer the martyr, and four years elder than his immediate predecessor Pole, the Cardinal. He had his education in the parish of St. Clement's, near Fibrig, in the same city. His father was William Parker, an honest and free citizen of Norwich aforesaid, and by trade a calendrer of stuffs; if we may believe what a peevish man, and enemy of the Archbishop, notes in the margin of the English translation of the life of the seventieth Archbishop of Canterbury. Which William, being aged forty-eight years, died in the year 1516, when Matthew his son was but twelve years of age; leaving issue surviving, (besides Matthew his eldest son, ) Botolph, Thomas, and Margaret. William was the son and heir of John, and John of Nicolas Parker, a man of note

The Parker Family of Norwich

in his time, being principal Registrary of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and keeper of the registers belonging to his court of Canterbury. The authentic letters whereof still remain (and I have seen them) in the register of Christ's church, Canterbury, entitled, Literæ de Officio Registrarii Cant. Curiæ Cant. concessæ magistro Nic. Parkero, publico authoritate apostolicâ et imperiali Notario, et Curiæ nostræ Cant. Clerico jurato ("Letters concerning the Office of Registrar of the Court of Canterbury, granted to Master Nicholas Parker, Notary by public apostolic and imperial authority, and sworn Clerk of our Court of Canterbury"). By virtue whereof, this Nicolas Parker, being, as is here specified, by apostolical and imperial authority Public Notary, and sworn Clerk of the court of Canterbury, was constituted Public Registrary of the said court, and keeper of the registry, and of all acts, muniments, and registers, belonging to the same office. This place was conferred upon him by John Stafford, Archbishop of Canterbury, January 26, 1450. for of that date are the foresaid letters: wherein the Archbishop bestowed this commendation upon the said Nicolas; " The honesty of your beha" viour, and your other gifts of integrity and virtue, where" with we know you to be furnished, do deservedly induce " us to have a particular favour for you." In this office he continued three and thirty years, and more, viz. to the year 1483, when, by an instrument in the same register extant, dated Febr. ult. he is said to be senio confractus, ac diversis passionibus ac infirmitatibus detentus ("worn out with age, and held back by various sufferings and infirmities"); that is, "broken with age, and hindered from business by many " maladies and infirmities." Which was the cause that Thomas Bourchier, then Archbishop, joined with him Richard Spencer, Public Notary, as his assistant. This Parker's house was in Ivy-lane, in the parish of St. Faith's, London; and there he was alive in June 1484, as appears by an instrument of that date, wherein he is mentioned.

The family of the Parkers was of ancient standing in the city of Norwich, and allied to other creditable citizens there. One Margaret Parker, who, I suppose, might be the Archbishop's grandmother, had a legacy bequeathed her by one

Thomas Aylmer, of Norwich, grocer, in his last will, dated August 13, 1500, therein styling her his aunt Margaret Parker. Which makes it probable, that John Aylmer, being a Norfolk man, and perhaps of Norwich, (sometime the learned and painful Bishop of London, and before that, tutor to one of the learnedest and best women of that age, viz. the Lady Jane Grey,) was related to our Parker. One of this name, and I strongly conjecture of this family, (not unlikely to be brother to William,) namely, Thomas Parker, I find living in Colchester, a weaver by trade, and a known man, as the earnest professors of the Gospel were called in those dark times. For about the year 1525 (Tonstal being Bishop of London) a strict inquisition was held, in those parts of Essex especially, by the Bishop and his officers, chiefly for the detecting and punishing of these known men. Thomas was then discovered by one that had used great conversation with him; informing, " that he had in divers " places, and at divers times, spoken against pilgrimages, " pardons, and other articles; and that they were not profitable, and should not be used: and affirming, that " we should worship God only, and no saints; and that "the Sacrament of the Altar was but an host, and not the "body of Christ: that pilgrimages to Walsingham, Ipswich, and all other pilgrimages, were nought; and that " those saints so repaired unto were but idols." For which words and doctrines he was afterwards fain to abjure. And yet it seems after his abjuration he could not let go his former opinions: for about the year 1531 I find John Mully the Apparitor certified, " that he had used his diligence personally to cite Thomas Parker of Colchester, suspected " and detected of heretical pravity, (so the words of the " Acts run,) and, as it is said, abjured; and that he had " sought for him at his house, but could not take him, for " that he fled." (And it was time for him so to do: for, for his relapse after abjuration, he was to expect nothing but burning. ) Upon which the Apparitor took his oath. And at this time Dr. Jeffery Wharton, the Bishop of London's Vicar General, gave Margery Parker of Colchester,

wife, as it seems, to the said Thomas, her oath to make true answer unto articles to be ministered to her.

William Parker: Marriage and Children

But to return to our William again, father to the Archbishop. He lived in very good reputation and plenty, and was a gentleman, bearing for his coat of arms in a field gules, three keys erected. To which shield, in honour of the Archbishop, a chevron was added afterwards, charged with

three resplendent estoilles. This man, besides our Matthew, who was his third son, but the eldest surviving, had a fourth named Botolph Parker, who also was in Orders, and a fifth named Thomas, who afterwards obtained the chief place, magistracy, and honour of his city, and was Mayor of Norwich, when his brother Matthew had acquired the chief dignity and held the highest place of eminency in the Church. He with Alice his wife lie buried in the churchyard of St. Clement's; over whose bodies was erected a tomb, which Matthew his son, when Archbishop, appointed 12d. yearly to the clerk of the parish to take care of, and defend from being misused.

The Monins Kindred

His father dying, as was said, while this his son Matthew was young, left him to the care of his mother, as his predecessor Archbishop Cranmer was left to his by his father, dying also while he was young. His mother was Alice, of the worshipful house of the Monins, or Monings, of Suffolk, which also spread into Norfolk. There are now, or lately were, some of that name and blood in Kent, being a stock of long duration and credit in that county.

An ancient gentleman of which family, lately living in Kent, told a reverend friend of mine, now deceased, that he had heard his father often say with much complacency, " Good Archbishop " Parker lay in the belly of a Monins :" and that he had seen in a parchment roll belonging to their house, that Monins was married to Parker. There is a private seat in the parish of Bekesburn, formerly an house of Archbishop Parker's, and his son's after him, where is a glass window with the coat of arms of Parker and Monins impaled baron and femme, being the Archbishop's father and mother. William Monins of Norfolk, of whom our Archbishop was descended, was several times knight of the shire for the county of Norfolk: which shews his family on his mother's side to have been ancient, and of good rank and quality. Of this ancient family of the Monins of Kent, let me add but this further, as I have learned of one who hath deserved well of this work. Of it were three branches. The first lived in Waldershire, a village in East Kent. Of that family was Sir William Monings. And of this house all the heirs male are extinct; the last of them leaving four daughters, coheiresses; the eldest of which is, or lately was, the wife of Sir John Knatchbul in Kent, and knight of the shire for that county. The second branch of the family lived in Lydden, a small village near Waldershire. The third family seemed to have been transplanted into Suffolk or Norfolk, whence the Archbishop's mother was derived. For in her coat of arms, impaled with that of his father, was the mullet, the ordinary distinction of a third house.

Alice Parker's Second Marriage

This gentlewoman his mother lived thirty-seven years after the death of her husband, namely, to the year 1553, dying in the month of September, being three years above eighty; and had the satisfaction to see her son Matthew advanced to great preferment and honour in the University, Court, and Church; and the happiness likewise to die just before the time when he was stripped of all: to see his prosperity, but not his adversity. But being young, within three or four years after her husband Mr. Parker's death, she married again to one Mr. Baker of Norwich, gentleman: by whom she had John Baker; who afterwards lived at Cambridge, and was one of the witnesses for our Archbishop at his consecration, and whom he made his treasurer, and to whom by his last will he remitted a bond of two hundred pounds, and constituted him one of his executors. We could perhaps more perfectly have set forth these things relating to his parentage, had we that roll and pedigree of the Archbishop's, which is found mentioned in a notebook of John Parker, Esq. his son; where be these words, written with his hand, " My father's birth, and divers pro" ceedings of his, under seal ;" and, " A roll of my father's

"birth and pedigree." These he mentioned as being in his custody: and probably were both written by the Archbishop himself, as willing to leave some memorials of himself to his posterity. The former of these is safely lodged in Parker's MS. library in Bene't college: and of this I have made use occasionally. The other MS. viz. the roll of his birth and pedigree, I am afraid is utterly lost. However, to make some amends for it, I have procured somewhat of the Archbishop's family, and the descent from him, found by an inquisition of Kent, made by the Office of Heralds in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; when the coat of arms of John Parker, Esq. son and heir of the Archbishop, was given in and entered into their books: an exemplification whereof was in much favour and readiness communicated to me by Sir Henry St. George, then Clarencieux, now Garter, King at Arms: which may be seen in the Appendix.

Education at Norwich

Nothing was wanting to the forming of Matthew's tender years; as though he were to be nurtured up on purpose to fill some eminent places in the Church or State: for he had several masters for his education in several faculties. His

first masters for reading were one Benis, Rector of St. Clement's in Norwich, and one Pope, a Priest. For writing he was instructed by one Prior, Clerk of St. Benedict's. For singing, Love, a Priest, and Manthorp, Clerk of St. Stephen's, were his masters: of both whose harshness he felt so much, that he could never forget it. But he had amends in W. Neve, his schoolmaster for grammar learning, a man of a more gentle and mild disposition; who was provided to teach him at home.

Removal to Cambridge

And being by him sufficiently fitted for the University, thither he was transplanted in the year 1520, a year remarkable for the theatrum imaginis crucifixi ("theatre of the crucifix image"), i. e. a rood-loft, then first magnificently built in St. Mary's church in Cambridge, and partly gilt: which stood to the fourth year of Queen Elizabeth, when, by the means of this sometime young scholar, being now Archbishop of Canterbury, it was for the most part demolished. In this year, I say, about the beginning of the month of September, in Sturbridge fair-time, being

then entered into his seventeenth year, and so of more maturity to set about manly studies, he was removed to Cambridge, and admitted into the college of Corpus Christi and the Blessed Virgin, now commonly called Bene't college: to which house are appropriated peculiar encouragements for such young men as shall be sent thither from the city of Norwich. There he was at first maintained wholly at his mother's charge. His lodging was in St. Mary Hostle, situate within the parish of Great St. Mary's. The title and government of which hostle, though at that distance, belonged to Bene't college, till he afterwards purchased it of the Master and Fellows, as we shall hear hereafter. Through this hostle was a fair way afterwards made to the public schools at the Archbishop's charge, and named Universitystreet, but now commonly called The Regent Walk.

Life at Bene't College

It hath been observed as no small honour and happiness to the University, that Parker, Bacon, and Cecil, were all contemporary here: who afterwards at the same time also were all advanced to the highest places and dignities in the kingdom; the one to be Archbishop of Canterbury and Primate of all England; the other to be a Privy Counsellor and Lord Keeper of the Great Seal; the third to be Secretary of State and Privy Counsellor also, and High Chancellor of the said University, and not long after Lord High Treasurer of England: " who, as they all at the same time " studied at Cambridge, and flourished in their studies there; " so after, at one time were the chiefest statesmen under " Queen Elizabeth. Grave, wise, and sound in their administrations, and studied to their utmost to be furtherers of " good learning." But to return to our student. He had the misfortune to be placed under a tutor, one Cooper, of small learning. Yet six months after his admittance, viz. March the 20th, he behaved himself so well, that he was chosen a Scholar of the house, called a Bible Clerk;

Degrees and Holy Orders

and setting close to his studies, he employed himself in reading and digesting logic and philosophy, till the year 1523, when he determined, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts.

And at the same time two others, that after proved also very eminent for religion, even to the shedding of their bloods for it, commenced the same degree, viz. Bradford and Ridley, both of Pembroke hall. And so also did one Scot, who seems to be he that was afterwards Bishop of Chester, but a zealot on the contrary side. The year following, our Parker was made Subdeacon under the titles of Barnwell and the chapel in Norwich Fields.

Anno 1527, in April, he was made Deacon, in June Priest, and in September created Master of Arts, and chose Fellow of the college, being now aged about twenty-four. And minding to inform himself thoroughly in the matters of religion then controverted, he plied the reading over the volumes of the Fathers of the Church, and ecclesiastical writers, becoming an hard student in the sacred science of theology: and that with so great a vehemency of mind, that in a short space he arrived to very considerable knowledge therein, and acquaintance with the truly ancient state and doctrines of the Church.

The Oxford Invitation Declined

Such notice had been by this time taken of him, that he was one of those in this University that should have gone to Christ's and St. Frideswide's college in Oxford, newly founded by Cardinal Wolsey: for after this house was built, care was taken to furnish it with men of the best parts and learning, to study and read there, and to adorn that magnificent foundation. For which purpose, many scholars of ripe wits and abilities in Cambridge were invited thither, with promise of great encouragement and reward. And this business was committed to Robert Shirton, Master of Pembroke hall. 6 Some went, and some refused.

Licensed to Preach

Those that went were, Richard Cox, afterwards Bishop of Ely; John Frier, a learned physician; Henry Sumner, John Clark, excellent divines; William Betts, Nicolas Herman, Richard Taverner, Flor. Dominick, John Drumm, John Akars, John Frith, and some others. But Cranmer, afterward Archbishop of Canterbury, John Skip, afterward Bishop of Hereford, Walter Haddon, Public Professor of the Civil Law, and our Parker, all then of great reputation for their wit, learning, authority, or experience, (though these were invited also,) by the persuasion of their friends, went not. Our student therefore stayed where he was, diligently following his studies. So that within five or six years, having read over the Fathers and Councils, being now about nine and twenty years of age, he thought fit to go forth out of his more private retirements, and render himself useful to the world, by preaching the word of God unto the people. And the first Sunday in Advent, in the year 1533, he preached his first sermon to the University, being the same year wherein his predecessor Cranmer was made Archbishop. The places where he preached his first sermons, were first at Grantchester, within a mile or two of Cambridge, which belonged to Bene't college; next at Beech, then at St. Benet's, then at Madingly, after that at Barton.

So that he preached, and that with good applause, first in the neighbourhood about Cambridge, and in the town, and then afterwards further off, and sometimes in towns and auditories of the greatest eminency and note. And being soon observed for his solid and profitable dispensing of God's word, a thing very rare in those days, Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, granted him a licence to preach throughout his province, and King Henry VIII. a patent for the same: it being needful at this time to license and encourage such with public countenance and authority, as could and would undeceive the people in the gross and stupid superstitions that then so much prevailed, and in the excessive encroachments of Popes upon the imperial power of the Kings of this land; exalting themselves over them in their own dominions, and commanding the purses of the people, when they pleased.

The Dawn of the Gospel at Cambridge

So that our Archbishop was an ancient lover of the Gospel, and embraced the profession of it in his younger years at Cambridge, when Bilney and Stafford and Arthur were there. Besides which most pious and learned men, there were divers others about the same time, and surviving them in the same cause; as Friar Barnes, and Latymer; by whose means religion and learning (for they went together) did then begin to flourish exceedingly in that University. And of these in Bene't college were Mr. Fooke and Mr. Soude: from whom our Parker, being a scholar of the same college, may be presumed to have first tasted of the truth. And

such was the great veneration he had for the said Bilney, that he travelled to Norwich on purpose to see his martyrdom. And out of the honour he had for his memory, and

for the vindicating him from the report that Sir Thomas Moore had given out, that he recanted before his death, and read a scroll of paper at the stake to that effect; the said Parker, when Archbishop, having before been a diligent eye and ear witness, gave a large and distinct account of all particulars relating to him, from his condemnation to his death: asserting also, that he had no such scroll or bill in his hand, neither did read any such recantation.

This relation of the Archbishop, Mr. Fox hath preserved in his Martyrology.

For Parker's lot was to fall into the University in those days, when learning and religion began to dawn there; when divers godly men resorted together for conference sake; who also oftentimes flocked together in open sight, both in the

schools, and at sermons in St. Mary's and at St. Augustine's, where Dr. Barnes was Prior, and at other disputations. Of which sort were several; and of these colleges especially: viz. King's college, Queen's college, St. John's, Peter house, Pembroke hall, Gonwell hall, and Bene't college. Their meetings to confer and discourse together for edification in Christian knowledge, were chiefly at an house called The White Horse; which was therefore afterwards nicknamed Germany by their enemies. This house was chose, because they of King's college, Queen's college, and St. John's, might come in with the more privacy at the back door. The names of some of these early professors, beside those above-mentioned, were Mr. Cambridge, Mr. Field, Mr. Colman, Mr. Coverdale, BB. D. of the Augustine's, and Mr. Parnel,

Barnes's scholar; Dr. Farman and Dr. Heins, of Queen's; Dr. Thistel, or Thixtel, of Pembroke, and Thomas Allen Fellow there, who was present at Bilney's burning. Here also were Dr. William Turner, Dr. Nicolas Ridley, Dr. Crome, of Christ's college, I think, Dr. Warner, an old acquaintance of Bilney's at Cambridge, and was with him also at his burning, being then Parson at Winterton, whom Bilney chose to be with him, to comfort him in his extremes; Rodolph Bradford of King's, Dr. Smith of Trinity hall; Simon Smith, Shaxton, Skip, and Segar Nicolson, of Gonvil hall; together with those before mentioned of Bene't college. To which I may add Dr. Edmunds, Master of Peter house, who kept a wife privately, and had a son, if I mistake not much, who was afterwards Mayor of Cambridge, and (somewhat ungratefully) proved a great sider with the Town against the University.

Editorial Notes

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Source: John Strype, The Life and Acts of Matthew Parker, the First Archbishop of Canterbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821), Vol. I. Enhanced reading edition: section headings, Latin translations, internal links, and editorial notes are modern additions; Strype's wording and historical spelling are otherwise preserved, with punctuation lightly modernized for readability.