Episcopacy

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, around page 26 we first set eyes on sights that will remain in view for a good part of our tour. I know it's a horrible metaphor, but I mean the Bishops of the Church of England.

Several of the main conflicts in 17th century England involve the role of the bishops. It may help to get an idea of who they were at the accession of James I in 1603. There were (and are) two ecclesiastical provinces in England: that of York and of Canterbury. The Archbishop of Canterbury had precedence, but each was a metropolitan bishop. The bishops who were subordinate to them were among the most educated men in England. They came out of the Universities where, almost to a man, they had excelled in learning and leadership. Their knowledge tended to be confined to divinity, but, besides the law, there was no other field of advanced study. In their day-to-day duties, bishops were required to be pastors, preachers, administrators and judges. Several bishops had palaces in London, and most spent more time in London than in their dioceses. The bishops were

• Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York. He had been Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge; and Master of Pembroke Hall. A bit of a maverick in his younger days, he was about 74 when King James came in, and we won't hear much of him. He will be succeeded by Tobias Matthew in 1606.
• Henry Robinson, Bishop of Carlisle, who was learned both in theology and law. We will see him at the Hampton Court conference in 1603.
  
• Tobias Matthew. Bishop of Durham, and, although he was not always a firm supporter of the king's secular policies, as Archbishop of York we will see his anti-Catholic side
• Richard Vaughan, Bishop of Chester, who will be translated to London in 1604. [When a Bishop is moved to another diocese, he is said to be been "translated."] Vaughan did not have a distinguished academic career and rose through the ranks of the ministering clergy.
• George Lloyd, Bishop of Sodor and Man, was a Welshman, later to be Bishop of Chester.
  
• John Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury. He was Elizabeth's great support, as political as ever a bishop was. He will survive Elizabeth by less than a year and be replaced by Richard Bancroft.
• John Still, Bishop of Bath and Wells, had been Master of Trinity College and vice-chancellor of Cambridge.
  
• Anthony Rudd, Bishop of St David's, is probably best known for preaching a sermon before Queen Elizabeth in which he repeatedly referred to her old age (she was then 63). We will see Rudd at the Hampton Court Conference in 1604.
  
• Anthony Watson, Bishop of Chichester, rose through court influence. He will also be at Hampton Court.
  
• William Cotton, a strong anti-Puritan, was Bishop of Exeter.
• Martin Heton, Bishop of Ely, had been vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
  
• The bishopric of Bristol was vacant until later in 1603, when John Thornborough, who would be a bishop for the next 38 years, assumed it.
  
• Godfrey Goldsborough, a Yorkshireman, was Bishop of Gloucester.
• Robert Bennet was Bishop of Hereford
• William Overton, who came up through the ministering clerty, was Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry.
  
• The Bishop of London, for a few more months, was Richard Bancroft who will soon succeed Whitgift as Archbishop of Canterbury.
  
• John Jegon, Bishop of Norwich, had been Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge.
  
• There had been a vacancy in the see of Oxford since 1592.
  
• Thomas Dove, Bishop of Peterborough, had gained preferment as a preacher.
  
• The Bishop of Rochester at this time was Richard Neile, the patron of William Laud. He was thought to be an Arminian (a term we will probably not get around to defining for a while.)
  
• Richard Parry, the translator of the Bible into Welsh, became Bishop of St Asaph in 1603.
  
• Henry Rowlands, about whom little is known, was Bishop of Bangor.
• William Cotton, a former chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, was Bishop of Salisbury.
• Thomas Bilson, who gave the coronation sermon for King James, was Bishop of Winchester. He will play an important role at the Hampton Court Conference.
  
• Gervase Babbington was Bishop of Worcester.
• The Bishop of Llandaff was Fraser Godwin, whose father was also a bishop.

For more information on these bishops, refer to Francis Overend White's Lives of the Elizabethan Bishops.

I was going to summarize the 3 important points that Gardiner makes in pages 26-28, but this has gone on far enough already. We'll talk about that next time.