Life

Born about 1510, he is said to have been a native of Cornwall

Cornwall

Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

. Bartholomew was early left an orphan, and was brought up under the care of Richard Tracy

Richard Tracy

-Life:He was the younger son of William Tracy, a noted Lutheran convert, graduated B.A. at Oxford on 27 June 1515, and was admitted student of the Inner Temple in 1519. In 1529 he was elected to the ‘reformation’ parliament as member for Wotton Basset, Wiltshire...

 of Toddington, Gloucestershire

Toddington, Gloucestershire

Toddington is a village and civil parish in north Gloucestershire in Tewkesbury Borough, located approx. 20 km north-east of Cheltenham with a population of around 300 people....

.

Traheron became a Minorite friar before 1527, when he is said to have been persecuted at Oxford for his religion by John London, Warden of New College

New College, Oxford

New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...

. Subsequently he moved to Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1533, being still a friar. Soon afterwards leaving his order, he went abroad, travelling in Italy and Germany. In September 1537 he joined Heinrich Bullinger

Heinrich Bullinger

Heinrich Bullinger was a Swiss reformer, the successor of Huldrych Zwingli as head of the Zurich church and pastor at Grossmünster...

 at Zurich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, and in 1538 he was living at Strasburg

Straßburg, Austria

Straßburg is a town in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Carinthia, Austria.-Location:The municipality lies in Northern Carinthia in the Gurk Valley among the Nock Mountains and the Gurk.-Municipal arrangement:...

. In that year he published an exhortation to his brother Thomas to embrace the Reformed religion.

Early in 1539 Thomas Cromwell took Traheron into his service, and Lord Chancellor Audley

Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden

Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden, KG, PC, KS , Lord Chancellor of England, born in Earls Colne, Essex, the son of Geoffrey Audley, is believed to have studied at Buckingham College, Cambridge...

 seems to have befriended him. After Cromwell's fall he left court and retired into the country, where in May 1542 he was credited with an intention marry and keep a grammar school. Before the end of Henry VIII's reign Traheron found it advisable again to go abroad, and in 1546 he was with John Calvin

John Calvin

John Calvin was an influential French theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. He was a principal figure in the development of the system of Christian theology later called Calvinism. Originally trained as a humanist lawyer, he broke from the Roman Catholic Church around 1530...

 at Geneva. Traheron gradually abandoned Bullinger's views, and adopted Calvin's doctrine of predestination

Predestination

Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...

 and anti-sacramentarian dogmas.

In 1547 he returned to England, and was Member of Parliament for Barnstaple

Barnstaple (UK Parliament constituency)

Barnstaple was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Barnstaple in Devon, in the South West of England. It returned two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom until 1885, when its representation was reduced to one member.The constituency...

. The main question at the time was the doctrine of the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

 to be adopted in the Book of Common Prayer

Book of Common Prayer

The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

, on which the Windsor commission was then sitting. Traheron was for clarity of reform but was in the minority. Early in 1549 he had a controversy with John Hooper on predestination. On 14 December of that year he was on John Cheke

John Cheke

Sir John Cheke was an English classical scholar and statesman, notable as the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University....

's recommendation appointed keeper of the king's library with a salary of twenty marks in succession to Roger Ascham

Roger Ascham

Roger Ascham was an English scholar and didactic writer, famous for his prose style, his promotion of the vernacular, and his theories of education...

, and in February 1549–50 the council nominated him tutor to the young Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk

Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk

Henry Brandon, 2nd Duke of Suffolk , styled Lord Henry Brandon before 1545, was an English nobleman, the son of the 1st Duke of Suffolk, by his fourth wife, the suo jure 12th Baroness Willoughby de Eresby....

 at Cambridge.

On Suffolk's death (16 July 1551) Traheron again retired into the country, and occupied himself with the study of Greek. In September William Cecil

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley

William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...

 suggested to him that he might be of use in the church, and proposed his election a Dean of Chichester. Traheron was not in holy orders, but on 29 September the council wrote to the chapter of Chichester Cathedral

Chichester Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called Chichester Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in Sussex, England...

 urging his election as dean. The chapter made some difficulty, and it was not till 8 January 1552 that Traheron was elected. Meanwhile, on 6 October and again on 10 February 1552, he had been nominated one of the civilians on the commission to reform the canon law

Canon law

Canon law is the body of laws & regulations made or adopted by ecclesiastical authority, for the government of the Christian organization and its members. It is the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Catholic Church , the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches, and the Anglican Communion of...

s. His position at Chichester was troubled, and in 1552 he resigned the deanery, receiving instead a canonry at Windsor

Windsor, Berkshire

Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....

 in September.

On Queen Mary

Mary I of England

Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...

's accession Traheron resigned his patent as keeper of the royal library and went abroad. In 1555 he was at Frankfurt

Frankfurt

Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...

, taking part in the ‘troubles’ there as an adherents of Richard Cox

Richard Cox (bishop)

Richard Cox was an English clergyman, who was Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Ely.-Biography:Cox was born of obscure parentage at Whaddon, Buckinghamshire, in 1499 or 1500....

, who, in opposition to John Knox

John Knox

John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and a leader of the Protestant Reformation who brought reformation to the church in Scotland. He was educated at the University of St Andrews or possibly the University of Glasgow and was ordained to the Catholic priesthood in 1536...

's party, wished to retain the English service-book; and when the congregation at Frankfort was remodelled after Knox's expulsion, Traheron was appointed a divinity lecturer. Soon afterwards he seems to have moved to Wesel

Wesel

Wesel is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wesel district.-Division of the town:Suburbs of Wesel include Lackhausen, Obrighoven, Ginderich, Feldmark,Fusternberg, Büderich, Flüren and Blumenkamp.-History:...

, where he lectured on the New Testament

New Testament

The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....

.

Traheron probably died at Wesel in 1558. His daughter Magdalen married Thomas Bowyer of Leythorne, Sussex

Sussex

Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...

.

Works

In 1543 he dedicated to Richard Tracy his translation of John of Vigo

John of Vigo

John of Vigo was a Spanish Renaissance pioneer of chirurgy....

, ‘The moste Excellent Workes of Chirurgerye made and set forthe by maister John Vigon, heed chirurgien of our tyme in Italie,’ London (other editions 1550, 1571, 1586).

He contributed to the Epigrammata Varia, London, 1551, published on the death of Martin Bucer

Martin Bucer

Martin Bucer was a Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer was originally a member of the Dominican Order, but after meeting and being influenced by Martin Luther in 1518 he arranged for his monastic vows to be annulled...

. In 1557 he published ‘An Exposition of a parte of S. Iohannes Gospel made in sondrie readinges in the English congregation at Wesel by Bartho. Traherõ, and now published against the wicked enterprises of new sterte up Arians in Englande,’ Wesel?; another edition was issued in 1558. In 1557 Traheron also published ‘An expositiõ of the 4 chap. of S. Joans Reuelation made by Bar. Traheron in sondrie readings before his contremen in Germaine,’ Wesel?; other editions, London, 1573, and London, 1577. Two other works followed in 1558, an ‘Answere made by Bar. Traheron to a privie papiste which crepte in to the english congregation of christian exiles ...,’ Wesel?, and ‘A Warning to England to repente and to turn to god from idolatrie and poperie by the terrible exemple of Calece given the 7 of March Anno C. 1558 by Benthalmai Outis [i.e. Bartholomew Traheron], ...,’ Wesel?

He published also ‘Ad Thomam fratrem Parænesis,’ Frankfurt, 1538, has verses in ‘Johannis Parkhursti Ludicra sive Epigrammata,’ 1573, wrote various letters to Bullinger which are printed in ‘Original Letters’ (Parker Society), and is credited by John Bale

John Bale

John Bale was an English churchman, historian and controversialist, and Bishop of Ossory. He wrote the oldest known historical verse drama in English , and developed and published a very extensive list of the works of British authors down to his own time, just as the monastic libraries were being...

with the authorship of ‘In mortem Henrici Dudlæi carmen i.,’ ‘In mortem senioris Viati [Wyatt] carmen i.,’ ‘In testamentum G. Tracy lib. i.,’ and ‘Epistolarum et Carminum lib. i.’