Edward Lee (bishop)
Encyclopedia
Edward Lee was archbishop of York
from 1531 until his death.
in 1461 and 1470. He was born in Kent in or about 1482. Thomas More
was a family friend, and dedicated an early work, Life of John Picus, to Lee's sister Joyce, a Poor Clare.
Lee was elected fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
, in 1500. Having graduated B.A., he was incorporated at Cambridge early in 1503, moving from Oxford, it is supposed, on account of some outbreak of plague
. At Cambridge he proceeded M.A. in 1504, being ordained deacon in that year, with title to the church of Wells, Norfolk. In 1512 he was collated to a prebend at Lincoln, and had his grace for degree of B.D., but was not admitted until 1515, in which year he was chosen proctor in convocation. Thomas Cranmer
took his M.A. in 1515, an early chance of contact with his future fellow-archbishop; Lee was later (1526) to give him his first court employment, as a junior member attached to a diplomatic mission to Spain.
. From an initially friendly disagreement, there evolved a series of polemics between Erasmus and Lee, with Lee emerging as the advocate of a traditionalist position.
Erasmus wrote to Lee explaining that he had not been able to make use of certain annotations which Lee had written. By 1519 Lee was a prominent opponent of Erasmus. Erasmus declared that Lee was a young man desirous of fame, and that he spread about reports to his disadvantage; he further said that Lee had circulated among religious houses an unfavourable criticism of his New Testament without having sent it to him, and he threatened Lee with punishment at the hands of German scholars. During 1520 the dispute was carried on with bitterness on both sides. Erasmus said that Lee's chief supporter was Henry Standish
. Lee put forth sundry attacks on Erasmus, who retaliated by the Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum Virorum, and sent an Apologia to Henry VIII defending himself against Lee. Thomas More, who said that he had loved Lee from boyhood, regretted the dispute, and set up a formal reconciliation at Calais
in 1520, where diplomatic negotiations were taking place; but the meeting of Erasmus and Lee had little immediate effect, and the quarrel was not made up until 1522.
Lee provided substantive theological criticisms of In Praise of Folly, by close reading, in a fashion also later adopted by Noël Béda and Rodolfo Pio da Carpi. In dealing with the concept of ecstasy
, Erasmus was accused by Lee of straying into territory explored by German mystical thinkers, and deemed heretical
by the Church. Erasmus shrugged off the comparisons with the Beghards
and Turlupins
; but he found it less easy to place a distance between himself and Meister Eckhart
or Johan Tauler. The heresy of Montanism
was too close to some of what he had written, and he was thrown somewhat on the defensive, in later writings avoiding the term "spirit" in its Platonic associations.
and Sir William Hussey on an embassy to the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
to carry him the Garter
, with the diplomatic aims of encouraging his opposition to the Lutherans and Francis I of France
. Lee was the orator of the embassy. He was the king's almoner, and in the same year received the archdeaconry of Colchester. In 1525 he was sent with Sir Francis Poyntz to Spain on an embassy to the emperor. During 1529 he was engaged in an embassy to the Emperor Charles V in Spain, and in January 1530 was sent with the Earl of Wiltshire
and John Stokesley
to Pope Clement VII
and the emperor at Bologna
, to endeavour to persuade them out of their opposition to the king's divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon
.
He returned to England in the spring. In 1529 he was made chancellor of the church of Salisbury, and in 1530 received a prebend at York, and a prebend of the royal chapel, and was incorporated D.D. at Oxford. Lee made himself useful to the king at home in the matter of the divorce, and on 1 June 1531 was one of a deputation which was sent to the queen to persuade her to forego her rights. He spoke freely to the queen, who told him that what he said was untrue. In September Henry wrote to the pope requesting authority for Lee's elevation to the archbishopric of York. On 13 October Lee and others had an interview with Catharine, in which they urged her to withdraw her cause from Rome and submit to the decision of bishops and doctors. Clement granted a bull for Lee's elevation on the 30th; he was consecrated to the see of York on 10 December, and was enthroned by proxy on the 17th.
Money difficulties made it advisable for him to please the king and Thomas Cromwell, which he did in the matter of patronage. In common with Stephen Gardiner
, however, he refused in February 1533 to sign the declaration that the marriage with Catharine had been void from the beginning; but shortly afterwards got from the convocation of York an approbation of the grounds of the divorce. After the execution of Elizabeth Barton
and her associates, in April 1534, it was rumoured that Lee and other bishops were to be sent to the Tower of London
, but this was idle talk. In company with Stokesley, Lee visited John Houghton, the prior of the London Charterhouse
, in the Tower, and represented to him that the succession was not a matter to die for, and he used a similar expression with reference to the cause in which Bishop John Fisher
suffered. On 21 May he and the Bishop of Durham were sent to Catharine at Kimbolton
to expound to her the act of succession, and urge her to submission. He forwarded to the king on 1 June the declaration of the York convocation held the previous month, that the Pope had no greater jurisdiction within the realm of England than any other foreign bishop, and on 17 February 1535 wrote to the king professing his willingness to obey his will. Nevertheless, he was suspected of disliking the royal supremacy. The king sent to him, as to other bishops, his commands that his new style should be published in his cathedral, and that the clergy should be instructed to set it forth in their parishes; and he also received Thomas Cranmer
's order for preaching, and form for bidding the beads, in which the king's style was inserted, with the king's order that every preacher should declare the just cause for rejecting the papal supremacy, and defend the divorce and marriage with Anne Boleyn. Henry was informed that Lee had neglected these orders, and wrote to him reminding him that he had subscribed to the supremacy. Lee answered on 14 June that he had, according to order, preached solemnly in his cathedral on the injury done to the king by the pope and on the divorce, but he acknowledged that he had made no mention of the royal supremacy. He asked the king not to listen to the accusations of his enemies. Moreover, on 1 July he wrote to Cromwell, sending him two books which he had prepared, one for his clergy to read and ‘extend’ to their congregations, the other a brief declaration to the people of the royal supremacy, adding that the livings in his diocese were so poor that no learned man would take them, that he did not know in it more than twelve secular priests who could preach. New cause of suspicion arose against him, and a few months later he was examined by the king's visitor, Richard Layton
, concerning words he was alleged to have used to the general confessor of Syon Abbey
, and concerning the supremacy. He wrote his defence to the king on 14 January 1536. On 23 April he interceded with Cromwell for two religious houses in his province—Hexham Abbey
, useful as a place of refuge during Scottish invasions, and Nostell Priory
, which he claimed as a free chapel belonging to his see. In June he argued against the condemnation of Catholic customs in convocation, and was regarded as the head of the anti-Reformation
party.
broke out, later in 1536, Lee's position was equivocal at first. He took refuge on 13 October with Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy
, who held Pontefract Castle
. On the 20th it was surrendered to the rebels, and the archbishop was compelled to take the oath of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Initially perhaps in favour of the movement, his opinion may have changed; for when on 27 November he and the clergy met in the church to consider certain articles proposed to them, he preached on the other side. The clergy, however, would not be led by him, and he was dragged from the pulpit.
For some time out of the king's favour, Cromwell stood by his friend, and in July 1537 Lee wrote to him thanking him for giving Henry a good report of his sermons. In his diocesan duties he was assisted by a suffragan bishop
. He served on the commission that drew up the Institution of a Christian Man. In May 1539 he argued in parliament in defence of the Six Articles, and in conjunction with others drew up the bill founded upon them. He was on the commission appointed in the spring of 1540 to examine the doctrines and ceremonies retained in the church, and on that which had to determine on the invalidity of the king's marriage with Anne of Cleves
.
From about 1540 he was patron to the struggling Roger Ascham
. His support was not very generous, and was accompanied by criticism, but tided Ascham over for a few years at the beginning of his career as humanist and writer.
In 1541 new statutes for the government of the church of York were issued under the great seal. Lee surrendered to the crown in 1542 the manors of Beverley
and Southwell
and other estates, receiving in exchange lands belonging to certain suppressed priories, an exchange not particularly disadvantageous to the see. He died on 13 September 1544, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried in his cathedral church. Lee was the last archbishop of York that coined money.
Verses to his honour were in 1566 placed by Laurence Humphrey, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, in the window of the founder's chamber in that college.
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
from 1531 until his death.
Early life
He was son of Richard Lee of Lee Magna, Kent, who was the son of Sir Richard Lee, lord mayor of LondonLord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
in 1461 and 1470. He was born in Kent in or about 1482. Thomas More
Thomas More
Sir Thomas More , also known by Catholics as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, social philosopher, author, statesman and noted Renaissance humanist. He was an important councillor to Henry VIII of England and, for three years toward the end of his life, Lord Chancellor...
was a family friend, and dedicated an early work, Life of John Picus, to Lee's sister Joyce, a Poor Clare.
Lee was elected fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, in 1500. Having graduated B.A., he was incorporated at Cambridge early in 1503, moving from Oxford, it is supposed, on account of some outbreak of plague
Bubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
. At Cambridge he proceeded M.A. in 1504, being ordained deacon in that year, with title to the church of Wells, Norfolk. In 1512 he was collated to a prebend at Lincoln, and had his grace for degree of B.D., but was not admitted until 1515, in which year he was chosen proctor in convocation. Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
took his M.A. in 1515, an early chance of contact with his future fellow-archbishop; Lee was later (1526) to give him his first court employment, as a junior member attached to a diplomatic mission to Spain.
Controversies with Erasmus
He spent time in 1518 at the University of Louvain, studying Greek, where he encountered Erasmus, at that time reshaping the humanist views in particular on the New TestamentNew Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. From an initially friendly disagreement, there evolved a series of polemics between Erasmus and Lee, with Lee emerging as the advocate of a traditionalist position.
Erasmus wrote to Lee explaining that he had not been able to make use of certain annotations which Lee had written. By 1519 Lee was a prominent opponent of Erasmus. Erasmus declared that Lee was a young man desirous of fame, and that he spread about reports to his disadvantage; he further said that Lee had circulated among religious houses an unfavourable criticism of his New Testament without having sent it to him, and he threatened Lee with punishment at the hands of German scholars. During 1520 the dispute was carried on with bitterness on both sides. Erasmus said that Lee's chief supporter was Henry Standish
Henry Standish
Henry Standish was an English Franciscan, who became Bishop of St. Asaph. He is known as an opponent of Erasmus in particular, and humanists in general....
. Lee put forth sundry attacks on Erasmus, who retaliated by the Epistolæ aliquot Eruditorum Virorum, and sent an Apologia to Henry VIII defending himself against Lee. Thomas More, who said that he had loved Lee from boyhood, regretted the dispute, and set up a formal reconciliation at Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....
in 1520, where diplomatic negotiations were taking place; but the meeting of Erasmus and Lee had little immediate effect, and the quarrel was not made up until 1522.
Lee provided substantive theological criticisms of In Praise of Folly, by close reading, in a fashion also later adopted by Noël Béda and Rodolfo Pio da Carpi. In dealing with the concept of ecstasy
Religious ecstasy
Religious ecstasy is an altered state of consciousness characterized by greatly reduced external awareness and expanded interior mental and spiritual awareness which is frequently accompanied by visions and emotional/intuitive euphoria...
, Erasmus was accused by Lee of straying into territory explored by German mystical thinkers, and deemed heretical
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
by the Church. Erasmus shrugged off the comparisons with the Beghards
Beghards
Beghards and Beguines were Roman Catholic lay religious communities active in the 13th and 14th centuries, living in a loose semi-monastic community but without formal vows...
and Turlupins
Turlupins
The turlupins were a religious sect in medieval France, loosely related to the Beguines and Beghards and the Brethren of the Free Spirit. The name turlupin is a derisive epithet; they appear to have called themselves the "society of the poor" or "fellowship of poverty". Mention of them survives...
; but he found it less easy to place a distance between himself and Meister Eckhart
Meister Eckhart
Eckhart von Hochheim O.P. , commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic, born near Gotha, in the Landgraviate of Thuringia in the Holy Roman Empire. Meister is German for "Master", referring to the academic title Magister in theologia he obtained in Paris...
or Johan Tauler. The heresy of Montanism
Montanism
Montanism was an early Christian movement of the late 2nd century, later referred to by the name of its founder, Montanus, but originally known by its adherents as the New Prophecy...
was too close to some of what he had written, and he was thrown somewhat on the defensive, in later writings avoiding the term "spirit" in its Platonic associations.
Relations with the king
In 1523 the king sent Lee with Henry Parker, 10th Baron MorleyHenry Parker, 10th Baron Morley
Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley , was an English peer and translator, Lord of Morley, Hingham, Hockering, &c., in Norfolk. He was the son of Alice Parker, 9th Baroness Morley, née Lovel Henry Parker, 10th Baron Morley (1476/1480/1481 – 3 December 1553/1556), was an English peer and translator, Lord...
and Sir William Hussey on an embassy to the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria
There have been several men titled Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, including:*Archduke Franz Ferdinand Karl Ludwig Joseph , better known as Franz Ferdinand, was Heir to the Austrian throne from 1896 until he was assassinated in 1914, sparking World War IOthers who have held the title:*Archduke...
to carry him the Garter
Order of the Garter
The Most Noble Order of the Garter, founded in 1348, is the highest order of chivalry, or knighthood, existing in England. The order is dedicated to the image and arms of St...
, with the diplomatic aims of encouraging his opposition to the Lutherans and Francis I of France
Francis I of France
Francis I was King of France from 1515 until his death. During his reign, huge cultural changes took place in France and he has been called France's original Renaissance monarch...
. Lee was the orator of the embassy. He was the king's almoner, and in the same year received the archdeaconry of Colchester. In 1525 he was sent with Sir Francis Poyntz to Spain on an embassy to the emperor. During 1529 he was engaged in an embassy to the Emperor Charles V in Spain, and in January 1530 was sent with the Earl of Wiltshire
Earl of Wiltshire
The title Earl of Wiltshire is one of the oldest in the Peerage of England, going back to the 12th century. It is currently held by the Marquess of Winchester, and is used as a courtesy title for the eldest son of the marquess....
and John Stokesley
John Stokesley
John Stokesley was an English church leader who was Catholic Bishop of London during the reign of Henry VIII.He was born at Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and became a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in 1495, serving also as a lecturer. In 1498 he was made principal of Magdalen Hall, and in...
to Pope Clement VII
Pope Clement VII
Clement VII , born Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici, was a cardinal from 1513 to 1523 and was Pope from 1523 to 1534.-Early life:...
and the emperor at Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...
, to endeavour to persuade them out of their opposition to the king's divorce from Queen Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
.
He returned to England in the spring. In 1529 he was made chancellor of the church of Salisbury, and in 1530 received a prebend at York, and a prebend of the royal chapel, and was incorporated D.D. at Oxford. Lee made himself useful to the king at home in the matter of the divorce, and on 1 June 1531 was one of a deputation which was sent to the queen to persuade her to forego her rights. He spoke freely to the queen, who told him that what he said was untrue. In September Henry wrote to the pope requesting authority for Lee's elevation to the archbishopric of York. On 13 October Lee and others had an interview with Catharine, in which they urged her to withdraw her cause from Rome and submit to the decision of bishops and doctors. Clement granted a bull for Lee's elevation on the 30th; he was consecrated to the see of York on 10 December, and was enthroned by proxy on the 17th.
Money difficulties made it advisable for him to please the king and Thomas Cromwell, which he did in the matter of patronage. In common with Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I of England.-Early life:...
, however, he refused in February 1533 to sign the declaration that the marriage with Catharine had been void from the beginning; but shortly afterwards got from the convocation of York an approbation of the grounds of the divorce. After the execution of Elizabeth Barton
Elizabeth Barton
Sr. Elizabeth Barton was an English Catholic nun...
and her associates, in April 1534, it was rumoured that Lee and other bishops were to be sent to the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
, but this was idle talk. In company with Stokesley, Lee visited John Houghton, the prior of the London Charterhouse
London Charterhouse
The London Charterhouse is a historic complex of buildings in Smithfield, London dating back to the 14th century. It occupies land to the north of Charterhouse Square. The Charterhouse began as a Carthusian priory, founded in 1371 and dissolved in 1537...
, in the Tower, and represented to him that the succession was not a matter to die for, and he used a similar expression with reference to the cause in which Bishop John Fisher
John Fisher
Saint John Fisher was an English Roman Catholic scholastic, bishop, cardinal and martyr. He shares his feast day with Saint Thomas More on 22 June in the Roman Catholic calendar of saints and 6 July on the Church of England calendar of saints...
suffered. On 21 May he and the Bishop of Durham were sent to Catharine at Kimbolton
Kimbolton
Kimbolton could be:*Kimbolton, Herefordshire*Kimbolton, Cambridgeshire**Kimbolton School**Kimbolton Castle**Kimbolton Airfield*Kimbolton Fireworks, the UK's only fireworks manufacturer*Kimbolton, Ohio*Kimbolton, New Zealand...
to expound to her the act of succession, and urge her to submission. He forwarded to the king on 1 June the declaration of the York convocation held the previous month, that the Pope had no greater jurisdiction within the realm of England than any other foreign bishop, and on 17 February 1535 wrote to the king professing his willingness to obey his will. Nevertheless, he was suspected of disliking the royal supremacy. The king sent to him, as to other bishops, his commands that his new style should be published in his cathedral, and that the clergy should be instructed to set it forth in their parishes; and he also received Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
's order for preaching, and form for bidding the beads, in which the king's style was inserted, with the king's order that every preacher should declare the just cause for rejecting the papal supremacy, and defend the divorce and marriage with Anne Boleyn. Henry was informed that Lee had neglected these orders, and wrote to him reminding him that he had subscribed to the supremacy. Lee answered on 14 June that he had, according to order, preached solemnly in his cathedral on the injury done to the king by the pope and on the divorce, but he acknowledged that he had made no mention of the royal supremacy. He asked the king not to listen to the accusations of his enemies. Moreover, on 1 July he wrote to Cromwell, sending him two books which he had prepared, one for his clergy to read and ‘extend’ to their congregations, the other a brief declaration to the people of the royal supremacy, adding that the livings in his diocese were so poor that no learned man would take them, that he did not know in it more than twelve secular priests who could preach. New cause of suspicion arose against him, and a few months later he was examined by the king's visitor, Richard Layton
Richard Layton
Richard Layton was an English churchman, jurist and diplomat, dean of York and a principal agent of Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell in the Dissolution of the Monasteries.-Life:...
, concerning words he was alleged to have used to the general confessor of Syon Abbey
Syon Abbey
Syon Monastery , was a monastery of the Bridgettine Order founded in 1415 which stood until its demolition in the 16th c. on the left bank of the River Thames within the parish of Isleworth, in the county of Middlesex on or near the site of the present Georgian mansion of Syon House...
, and concerning the supremacy. He wrote his defence to the king on 14 January 1536. On 23 April he interceded with Cromwell for two religious houses in his province—Hexham Abbey
Hexham Abbey
Hexham Abbey is a place of Christian worship dedicated to St Andrew and located in the town of Hexham, Northumberland, in northeast England. Since the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537, the Abbey has been the parish church of Hexham.-History:...
, useful as a place of refuge during Scottish invasions, and Nostell Priory
Nostell Priory
Nostell Priory is a Palladian house located in Nostell, near Crofton close to Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, approached by the Doncaster road from Wakefield...
, which he claimed as a free chapel belonging to his see. In June he argued against the condemnation of Catholic customs in convocation, and was regarded as the head of the anti-Reformation
Protestant Reformation
The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...
party.
The Pilgrimage of Grace and later life
When the northern insurrection called the Pilgrimage of GracePilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in York, Yorkshire during 1536, in protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. It was done in action against Thomas Cromwell...
broke out, later in 1536, Lee's position was equivocal at first. He took refuge on 13 October with Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy
Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy
Thomas Darcy, 1st Baron Darcy de Darcy , was an English statesman and rebel leader, who was executed for his part in an English rebellion known as the Pilgrimage of Grace.-Origins:...
, who held Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle is a castle in the town of Pontefract, in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was the site of the demise of Richard II of England, and later the place of a series of famous sieges during the English Civil War-History:...
. On the 20th it was surrendered to the rebels, and the archbishop was compelled to take the oath of the Pilgrimage of Grace. Initially perhaps in favour of the movement, his opinion may have changed; for when on 27 November he and the clergy met in the church to consider certain articles proposed to them, he preached on the other side. The clergy, however, would not be led by him, and he was dragged from the pulpit.
For some time out of the king's favour, Cromwell stood by his friend, and in July 1537 Lee wrote to him thanking him for giving Henry a good report of his sermons. In his diocesan duties he was assisted by a suffragan bishop
Suffragan bishop
A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. He or she may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.-Anglican Communion:...
. He served on the commission that drew up the Institution of a Christian Man. In May 1539 he argued in parliament in defence of the Six Articles, and in conjunction with others drew up the bill founded upon them. He was on the commission appointed in the spring of 1540 to examine the doctrines and ceremonies retained in the church, and on that which had to determine on the invalidity of the king's marriage with Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves
Anne of Cleves was a German noblewoman and the fourth wife of Henry VIII of England and as such she was Queen of England from 6 January 1540 to 9 July 1540. The marriage was never consummated, and she was not crowned queen consort...
.
From about 1540 he was patron to the struggling 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...
. His support was not very generous, and was accompanied by criticism, but tided Ascham over for a few years at the beginning of his career as humanist and writer.
In 1541 new statutes for the government of the church of York were issued under the great seal. Lee surrendered to the crown in 1542 the manors of Beverley
Beverley
Beverley is a market town, civil parish and the county town of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, located between the River Hull and the Westwood. The town is noted for Beverley Minster and architecturally-significant religious buildings along New Walk and other areas, as well as the Beverley...
and Southwell
Southwell
Southwell may mean the following towns in England:* Southwell, Dorset* Southwell, Nottinghamshire**Southwell Minster, historic cathedral**Southwell Racecourse, horse racing venue located near Newark-on-Trent, Nottinghamshire...
and other estates, receiving in exchange lands belonging to certain suppressed priories, an exchange not particularly disadvantageous to the see. He died on 13 September 1544, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried in his cathedral church. Lee was the last archbishop of York that coined money.
Works
He wrote:- ‘Commentarium in universum Pentateuchum,’ not printed, comp. ‘Aschami Epp.’ ii. 89;
- ‘Apologia contra quorundam Calumnias;’
- ‘Index annotationum prioris libri;’
- ‘Epistola nuncupatoria ad D. Erasmum;’
- ‘Annotationum libri duo;’
- ‘Epistola apologetica, qua respondit D. Erasmi Epistolis’ (these six, printed at Paris in or about 1520, are concerned with the controversy with Erasmus);
- ‘Exhibita quædam per E. Leum, oratorem Anglicum in concilio Cæsareo,’ &c. 1528;
Verses to his honour were in 1566 placed by Laurence Humphrey, President of Magdalen College, Oxford, in the window of the founder's chamber in that college.