Nicholas Shaxton
Encyclopedia
Nicholas Shaxton was an English Reformer
and Bishop of Salisbury
.
, and studied at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1507. M.A. in 1510, B.D. in 1521 and D.D. in 1531. He was elected a fellow of Gonville Hall in 1510. In 1520 he was appointed a university preacher. He is mentioned by John Strype
among those propagators of new views who used to frequent the ‘White Horse’. He was president of Physick's Hostel, which was attached to Gonville Hall, 1512–3.
was referred, and his name was marked by Stephen Gardiner
as favourable to the king's views. In May following he was one of the twelve Cambridge divines appointed to serve on a joint committee with twelve of Oxford in examining English books likely to disturb the faith of the people. But his own orthodoxy was called in question not long afterwards; and in May next year, when he was admitted inceptor in divinity, though one of the regents wrote asking Richard Nix, bishop of Norwich, to give him a licence to preach in his diocese, the bishop was not so easily satisfied. From inquiries made at Cambridge he learned that the vice-chancellor had censured two points in a sermon which Shaxton had preached on Ash Wednesday
: first, that it was wrong to assert publicly that there was no Purgatory
, but not damnable to think so; and, secondly, that no man could be chaste by prayers or fasting unless God made him so. He had also confessed that he had prayed at mass that the clergy might be relieved of celibacy
. These points he had been persuaded to give up so as to avoid open abjuration; but the vice-chancellor had compelled him and others who proceeded that year in divinity to take a special oath to renounce the errors of John Wiclif, John Huss, and Martin Luther
. The bishop, however, still insisted on a formal act of abjuration, because he had purchased heretical books and conveyed them into his diocese. And when Thomas Bilney
was burned shortly afterwards at Norwich, recanting at the stake heresies much the same as Shaxton's, the bishop is reported to have said, ‘Christ's mother! I fear I have burned Abel and let Cain go.’
In 1533, however, Shaxton was presented by the king to the parish church of Fuggleston in Wiltshire
, and was made treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral
; his promotion was by the influence of Anne Boleyn
, who appointed him her almoner; and next year Richard Sampson
, dean of the Chapel Royal, agreed Thomas Cranmer
's request that Shaxton should preach before the king the third Sunday in Lent. On 27 April 1534 he was promoted to a canonry in St. Stephen's, Westminster, which he gave up early next year on obtaining the bishopric of Salisbury. The previous bishop Cardinal Campeggio had been dismissed by the king as Bishop of Salisbury in 1534. After a year left vacant, Shaxton was appointed by Thomas Cromwell
in his place. He was elected to that see on 22 February 1535, and consecrated by Cranmer and two other bishops at St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster
, on 11 April, the temporalities having been already restored to him on the 1st. He desired Cromwell to write to the canons of his cathedral to exact no oath of him for his bishopric, as he received it only from the king. A paper of this date speaks of a ‘book,’ apparently on political matters, which he had submitted to the king, and on which various judgments were passed by those to whom it was shown. On 4 June he wrote to Cromwell, cordially approving the king's letters directing the bishops to set forth his royal supremacy. On 8 July the liberties of his bishopric were restored, which were declared to have been forfeited by Campeggio.
Early in 1536 Shaxton and Hugh Latimer
were assessors, with Archbishop Cranmer, in examining a fanatic who said he had seen a vision of the Trinity and Our Lady, and had a message from the latter to preach that she insisted on being honoured as of old. Shortly after the same three bishops examined John Lambert
, who had said it was sin to pray to saints. His examiners were so far in sympathy with him that they all considered the practice unnecessary, but said it was not to be denounced as sin.
As a member of convocation, Shaxton signed not only the ‘articles about religion’ drawn up in 1536, but also the declaration ‘touching the sacrament of holy orders,’ and the reasons why general councils should be summoned by princes, and not by the sole authority of the pope. When the Lincolnshire rebellion broke out in October, he was called on to furnish two hundred men out of his bishopric to serve the king, and he was one of the six bishops ‘whom the rebels complained of as subverting the faith. In Salisbury, the king's proclamations as head of the church were torn down, and his own chaplain, a Scot, who had been a friar, was put in prison by the mayor and aldermen for a sermon in which he threatened to inform the king's council of such matters. Shaxton had further disputes with the municipal authorities, who claimed that the city was the king's city, while he maintained that by a grant of Edward IV it was the bishop's. This was an old controversy, complicated by the Reformation changes. The mayor and aldermen wrote earnestly to Cromwell against Shaxton having a confirmation of the liberties granted to his predecessors, and ultimately imprisoned his under-bailiff Goodall.
In 1537 he took part in the discussion among the bishops as to the number of the sacraments, opposing John Stokesley
, who maintained that there were seven. Along with John Capon
, he gave an opinion in favour of confirmation as being a sacrament of the New Testament, though not instituted by Christ himself. He also signed ‘the bishops' book,’ entitled The Institution of a Christian Man. In 1538 he issued injunctions to his clergy, which were printed at the time by John Byddell. Like other bishops of that day, however, he exercised his episcopal functions subject to the control of Cromwell, the king's vicegerent, who became tired of complaints against him.
was issued for Salisbury on the 7th. Shaxton was committed to the custody of John Clerk
. On 9 November he wrote from his confinement at Chew
desiring liberty and a pension; he and Latimer were both pensioned.
In the spring of 1540 he, like Latimer, had the benefit of the general pardon, but was released only with a prohibition from preaching or coming near London or either of the universities, or returning to his former diocese. For some years he lived in obscurity. He held a parochial charge as curate at Hadleigh in Suffolk
, and in the spring of 1546 was summoned to London to answer for maintaining false doctrine on the sacrament. He said when he left that he should either have to burn or to forsake the truth, and on 18 June he, with Anne Askew
and two others, was arraigned for heresy at the Guildhall. All four were condemned to execution; but the king sent Bishops Edmund Bonner
and Nicholas Heath
, and his chaplains, Dr. Robinson and Dr. Redman, to confer with Shaxton and his fellow prisoner, Nicholas White, and they succeeded in persuading both of them to repudiate their heresy.
On 9 July Shaxton signed a recantation in thirteen articles, which was published at the time with a prefatory epistle to Henry VIII, acknowledging the king's mercy to him in his old age. He was then sent to Anne Askew to urge her to do likewise; but Bonner had already tried in vain to persuade her, and according to John Foxe
in his Acts and Monuments she told Shaxton it would have been better for him that he had never been born. He was appointed to preach the sermon at her burning on 16 July. On Sunday, 1 August he preached at Paul's Cross, declaring how he fell into erroneous opinion, and urged his hearers to beware of heretical books.
In September he prevailed on John Taylor, who had been suspected of similar heresies, to sign the same articles as he had done. At his request the king gave him the mastership of St. Giles's Hospital at Norwich.
, bishop of Ely
. Sitting at Ely on 9 October 1555, along with the bishop's chancellor, he passed sentence on two protestant martyrs, Wolsey and Pygot. Next year (1556) he was the chief of a body of divines and lawyers at Cambridge before whom, on Palm Sunday eve (28 March), another heretic, John Hullier, was examined.
He made his will on 5 August following, and died immediately after; the will was proved on the 9th. He desired to be buried in the chapel of Gonville Hall, and left to the hall his house in St. Andrew's parish, Cambridge, his books, and some money.
In 1546 Shaxton, along with Anne Askew
and a few others, was arrested for denying the corporal presence in the sacrament.
Protestant Reformers
Protestant Reformers were those theologians, churchmen, and statesmen whose careers, works, and actions brought about the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century...
and Bishop of Salisbury
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset...
.
Early life
He was a native of the diocese of NorwichDiocese of Norwich
Diocese of Norwich can refer to*the English Anglican Diocese of Norwich, England*the Roman Catholic Diocese of Norwich, Connecticut, USA...
, and studied at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1507. M.A. in 1510, B.D. in 1521 and D.D. in 1531. He was elected a fellow of Gonville Hall in 1510. In 1520 he was appointed a university preacher. He is mentioned by John Strype
John Strype
John Strype was an English historian and biographer. He was a cousin of Robert Knox, a famous sailor.Born in Houndsditch, London, he was the son of John Strype, or van Stryp, a member of a Huguenot family whom, in order to escape religious persecution within Brabant, had settled in East London...
among those propagators of new views who used to frequent the ‘White Horse’. He was president of Physick's Hostel, which was attached to Gonville Hall, 1512–3.
Reformer
In February 1530 he was one of the committee of divines at Cambridge to whom the question of the king's marriage with Catherine of AragonCatherine 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...
was referred, and his name was marked by 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:...
as favourable to the king's views. In May following he was one of the twelve Cambridge divines appointed to serve on a joint committee with twelve of Oxford in examining English books likely to disturb the faith of the people. But his own orthodoxy was called in question not long afterwards; and in May next year, when he was admitted inceptor in divinity, though one of the regents wrote asking Richard Nix, bishop of Norwich, to give him a licence to preach in his diocese, the bishop was not so easily satisfied. From inquiries made at Cambridge he learned that the vice-chancellor had censured two points in a sermon which Shaxton had preached on Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday
Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...
: first, that it was wrong to assert publicly that there was no Purgatory
Purgatory
Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which, it is believed, the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for Heaven...
, but not damnable to think so; and, secondly, that no man could be chaste by prayers or fasting unless God made him so. He had also confessed that he had prayed at mass that the clergy might be relieved of celibacy
Celibacy
Celibacy is a personal commitment to avoiding sexual relations, in particular a vow from marriage. Typically celibacy involves avoiding all romantic relationships of any kind. An individual may choose celibacy for religious reasons, such as is the case for priests in some religions, for reasons of...
. These points he had been persuaded to give up so as to avoid open abjuration; but the vice-chancellor had compelled him and others who proceeded that year in divinity to take a special oath to renounce the errors of John Wiclif, John Huss, and Martin Luther
Martin Luther
Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
. The bishop, however, still insisted on a formal act of abjuration, because he had purchased heretical books and conveyed them into his diocese. And when Thomas Bilney
Thomas Bilney
Thomas Bilney was an English Christian martyr.- Education :Bilney was born in or after 1495 at or near Norwich. He was educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating LL.B. and taking holy orders in 1519...
was burned shortly afterwards at Norwich, recanting at the stake heresies much the same as Shaxton's, the bishop is reported to have said, ‘Christ's mother! I fear I have burned Abel and let Cain go.’
In 1533, however, Shaxton was presented by the king to the parish church of Fuggleston in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
, and was made treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England, considered one of the leading examples of Early English architecture....
; his promotion was by the influence of Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn
Anne Boleyn ;c.1501/1507 – 19 May 1536) was Queen of England from 1533 to 1536 as the second wife of Henry VIII of England and Marquess of Pembroke in her own right. Henry's marriage to Anne, and her subsequent execution, made her a key figure in the political and religious upheaval that was the...
, who appointed him her almoner; and next year Richard Sampson
Richard Sampson
Richard Sampson was an English clergyman and composer of sacred music, who was Anglican bishop of Chichester and subsequently of Coventry and Lichfield.-Biography:...
, dean of the Chapel Royal, agreed 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 request that Shaxton should preach before the king the third Sunday in Lent. On 27 April 1534 he was promoted to a canonry in St. Stephen's, Westminster, which he gave up early next year on obtaining the bishopric of Salisbury. The previous bishop Cardinal Campeggio had been dismissed by the king as Bishop of Salisbury in 1534. After a year left vacant, Shaxton was appointed by Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex
Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, , was an English statesman who served as chief minister of King Henry VIII of England from 1532 to 1540....
in his place. He was elected to that see on 22 February 1535, and consecrated by Cranmer and two other bishops at St Stephen's Chapel, Westminster
St Stephen's Chapel
St Stephen's Chapel was a chapel in the old Palace of Westminster. It was largely lost in the fire of 1834, but the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the crypt survived...
, on 11 April, the temporalities having been already restored to him on the 1st. He desired Cromwell to write to the canons of his cathedral to exact no oath of him for his bishopric, as he received it only from the king. A paper of this date speaks of a ‘book,’ apparently on political matters, which he had submitted to the king, and on which various judgments were passed by those to whom it was shown. On 4 June he wrote to Cromwell, cordially approving the king's letters directing the bishops to set forth his royal supremacy. On 8 July the liberties of his bishopric were restored, which were declared to have been forfeited by Campeggio.
Early in 1536 Shaxton and Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer
Hugh Latimer was a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge, Bishop of Worcester before the Reformation, and later Church of England chaplain to King Edward VI. In 1555, under Queen Mary, he was burnt at the stake, becoming one of the three Oxford Martyrs of Anglicanism.-Life:Latimer was born into a...
were assessors, with Archbishop Cranmer, in examining a fanatic who said he had seen a vision of the Trinity and Our Lady, and had a message from the latter to preach that she insisted on being honoured as of old. Shortly after the same three bishops examined John Lambert
John Lambert (Protestant martyr)
John Lambert was a Protestant martyr burnt to death on November 22 at Smithfield, London. He was considered a heretic by the Roman Catholic Church and Henry VIII's Church of England....
, who had said it was sin to pray to saints. His examiners were so far in sympathy with him that they all considered the practice unnecessary, but said it was not to be denounced as sin.
As a member of convocation, Shaxton signed not only the ‘articles about religion’ drawn up in 1536, but also the declaration ‘touching the sacrament of holy orders,’ and the reasons why general councils should be summoned by princes, and not by the sole authority of the pope. When the Lincolnshire rebellion broke out in October, he was called on to furnish two hundred men out of his bishopric to serve the king, and he was one of the six bishops ‘whom the rebels complained of as subverting the faith. In Salisbury, the king's proclamations as head of the church were torn down, and his own chaplain, a Scot, who had been a friar, was put in prison by the mayor and aldermen for a sermon in which he threatened to inform the king's council of such matters. Shaxton had further disputes with the municipal authorities, who claimed that the city was the king's city, while he maintained that by a grant of Edward IV it was the bishop's. This was an old controversy, complicated by the Reformation changes. The mayor and aldermen wrote earnestly to Cromwell against Shaxton having a confirmation of the liberties granted to his predecessors, and ultimately imprisoned his under-bailiff Goodall.
In 1537 he took part in the discussion among the bishops as to the number of the sacraments, opposing 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...
, who maintained that there were seven. Along with John Capon
John Capon
John Capon, alias John Salcot was a Benedictine monk who became bishop of Bangor, then bishop of Salisbury under Henry VIII. He is often referred to as John Salcot alias Capon ....
, he gave an opinion in favour of confirmation as being a sacrament of the New Testament, though not instituted by Christ himself. He also signed ‘the bishops' book,’ entitled The Institution of a Christian Man. In 1538 he issued injunctions to his clergy, which were printed at the time by John Byddell. Like other bishops of that day, however, he exercised his episcopal functions subject to the control of Cromwell, the king's vicegerent, who became tired of complaints against him.
Resignation and heresy charge
Shaxton resigned his bishopric in 1539 because he opposed the King's Six Articles, for which he was imprisoned. He was one of the bishops who opposed the articles in parliament, till the king, as one of the lords present remarked, ‘confounded them all with God's learning.’ When the act was passed he and Latimer resigned their bishoprics. He was desired, when he gave in his resignation, to keep it secret; but it soon became known, and he wrote to ask Cromwell whether he should dress like a priest or like a bishop. Early in July he was seen in company with the archbishop of Canterbury in a priest's gown. A congé d'élireCongé d'élire
Congé d'Elire a licence from the Crown in England issued under the great seal to the dean and chapter of the cathedral church of the diocese, authorizing them to elect a bishop or archbishop, as the case may be, upon the vacancy of any episcopal or archi-episcopal see in England.-History and...
was issued for Salisbury on the 7th. Shaxton was committed to the custody of John Clerk
John Clerk (bishop)
John Clerk was an English bishop. He was educated at Cambridge University, and went on to serve under Cardinal Wolsey in a variety of capacities. He was also useful in a diplomatic capacity to both Wolsey and Henry VIII of England....
. On 9 November he wrote from his confinement at Chew
Chew Magna
Chew Magna is a village and civil parish within the Chew Valley in the Unitary Authority of Bath and North East Somerset, in the Ceremonial county of Somerset, England. The parish has a population of 1,161.To the south of the village is Chew Valley Lake...
desiring liberty and a pension; he and Latimer were both pensioned.
In the spring of 1540 he, like Latimer, had the benefit of the general pardon, but was released only with a prohibition from preaching or coming near London or either of the universities, or returning to his former diocese. For some years he lived in obscurity. He held a parochial charge as curate at Hadleigh in Suffolk
Suffolk
Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...
, and in the spring of 1546 was summoned to London to answer for maintaining false doctrine on the sacrament. He said when he left that he should either have to burn or to forsake the truth, and on 18 June he, with Anne Askew
Anne Askew
Anne Askew was an English poet and Protestant who was condemned as a heretic...
and two others, was arraigned for heresy at the Guildhall. All four were condemned to execution; but the king sent Bishops Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner
Edmund Bonner , Bishop of London, was an English bishop. Initially an instrumental figure in the schism of Henry VIII from Rome, he was antagonized by the Protestant reforms introduced by Somerset and reconciled himself to Roman Catholicism...
and Nicholas Heath
Nicholas Heath
Nicholas Heath was archbishop of York and Lord Chancellor.-Life:Heath was born in London and graduated BA at Oxford in 1519. He then migrated to Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated BA in 1520, MA in 1522, and was elected fellow in 1524. After holding minor preferments he was appointed...
, and his chaplains, Dr. Robinson and Dr. Redman, to confer with Shaxton and his fellow prisoner, Nicholas White, and they succeeded in persuading both of them to repudiate their heresy.
On 9 July Shaxton signed a recantation in thirteen articles, which was published at the time with a prefatory epistle to Henry VIII, acknowledging the king's mercy to him in his old age. He was then sent to Anne Askew to urge her to do likewise; but Bonner had already tried in vain to persuade her, and according to John Foxe
John Foxe
John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
in his Acts and Monuments she told Shaxton it would have been better for him that he had never been born. He was appointed to preach the sermon at her burning on 16 July. On Sunday, 1 August he preached at Paul's Cross, declaring how he fell into erroneous opinion, and urged his hearers to beware of heretical books.
In September he prevailed on John Taylor, who had been suspected of similar heresies, to sign the same articles as he had done. At his request the king gave him the mastership of St. Giles's Hospital at Norwich.
Later life
He was married, but now separated from his wife, giving her a pious exhortation in verse to live chaste and single. At the beginning of Edward VI's reign, on 6 March 1547, he was obliged to surrender to the king the Norwich hospital. Under Mary he became suffragan to Thomas ThirlbyThomas Thirlby
Thomas Thirlby was an English bishop. While he acquiesced in the Henrician schism, with its rejection in principle of the Roman papacy, he remained otherwise loyal to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church during the English Reformation....
, bishop of Ely
Bishop of Ely
The Bishop of Ely is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Ely in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese roughly covers the county of Cambridgeshire , together with a section of north-west Norfolk and has its see in the City of Ely, Cambridgeshire, where the seat is located at the...
. Sitting at Ely on 9 October 1555, along with the bishop's chancellor, he passed sentence on two protestant martyrs, Wolsey and Pygot. Next year (1556) he was the chief of a body of divines and lawyers at Cambridge before whom, on Palm Sunday eve (28 March), another heretic, John Hullier, was examined.
He made his will on 5 August following, and died immediately after; the will was proved on the 9th. He desired to be buried in the chapel of Gonville Hall, and left to the hall his house in St. Andrew's parish, Cambridge, his books, and some money.
In 1546 Shaxton, along with Anne Askew
Anne Askew
Anne Askew was an English poet and Protestant who was condemned as a heretic...
and a few others, was arrested for denying the corporal presence in the sacrament.