Life

He educated at Oxford, probably either at Oriel College or St, John's College, he went to Ireland about 1570. He became vicar of Naas

Naas

Naas is the county town of County Kildare in Ireland. With a population of just over twenty thousand, it is also the largest town in the county. Naas is a major commuter suburb, with many people residing there and working in Dublin...

 in 1573, and in 1580 Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I of England

Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...

 gave him the additional vicarage of Bodenstown

Bodenstown

Bodenstown is a townland on the outskirts of Sallins in County Kildare, Ireland.The most notable local features are a golf club and the parish cemetery for Sallins. The cemetery is best known as the gravesite of Theobald Wolfe Tone, the eighteenth century Irish revolutionary and leader of the...

 in Kildare. In 1577 he had license to enjoy the profits of his parish even when absent in England; but he seems to have generally resided in Ireland. When Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton

Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton

Arthur Grey, 14th Baron Grey de Wilton was a baron in the Peerage of England, remembered mainly for his memoir of his father, and for participating in the last defence of Calais.-Life:...

 assumed the Irish government in 1580, Lyon was appointed his chaplain, and in 1582 he became the first protestant bishop of Ross, in the province of Munster.

Lyon's impact was such that the mayor of Cork almost immediately petitioned Francis Walsingham

Francis Walsingham

Sir Francis Walsingham was Principal Secretary to Elizabeth I of England from 1573 until 1590, and is popularly remembered as her "spymaster". Walsingham is frequently cited as one of the earliest practitioners of modern intelligence methods both for espionage and for domestic security...

 to make him bishop of Cork and Cloyne. This was done temporarily in 1584, and in 1587 the three sees were united by patent. An Observantine Franciscan had been provided to Ross by the pope around 1580. Lyon had feared replacement, but Sir Henry Wallop, who was then in Munster, strongly supported him. The bishop went to Kinsale

Kinsale

Kinsale is a town in County Cork, Ireland. Located some 25 km south of Cork City on the coast near the Old Head of Kinsale, it sits at the mouth of the River Bandon and has a population of 2,257 which increases substantially during the summer months when the tourist season is at its peak and...

, inquiring into the rumours which preceded the Spanish Armada

Spanish Armada

This article refers to the Battle of Gravelines, for the modern navy of Spain, see Spanish NavyThe Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in 1588, with the intention of overthrowing Elizabeth I of England to stop English...

, and for years afterwards he kept an eye on those who were in correspondence with Spain. In 1589 he warned the government against promoting Thomas Wetherhead, who had been guilty of simony

Simony

Simony is the act of paying for sacraments and consequently for holy offices or for positions in the hierarchy of a church, named after Simon Magus , who appears in the Acts of the Apostles 8:9-24...

: but without effect since Wetherhead was made bishop of Waterford

Bishop of Waterford

The Bishop of Waterford was a medieval prelate, governing the Diocese of Waterford from its creation in the 11th century until it was absorbed into the new Roman Catholic Diocese of Waterford and Lismore in the 14th century...

, and continued his malpractices.

Lord Deputy William FitzWilliam

William Fitzwilliam (Lord Deputy)

- Early life :FitzWilliam was born at Milton, Northamptonshire, the eldest son of Sir William and grandson of William Fitzwilliam , alderman and sheriff of London, who had been treasurer and chamberlain to Cardinal Wolsey and who purchased Milton in 1506...

 wrote enthusiastically to Walsingham about Lyon's early evangelism: in 1589 and 1590 he had sometimes congregations in the thousands. But he had no Irish-speaking clergy. By the beginning of 1591 he had built a free school and a bridge at Ross. He spent his own money on the church there and on the palace; but the palace was burned down by the Lord of Clancahill, Donnell II O'Donovan, within three years of its completion. Even at Cork

Cork (city)

Cork is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland's third most populous city. It is the principal city and administrative centre of County Cork and the largest city in the province of Munster. Cork has a population of 119,418, while the addition of the suburban...

 Lyon found no residence, and he laid out over £1,000 in building one. He provided bibles and prayer-books in English and had them distributed throughout his diocese. There was Catholic opposition from the religious orders, Owen MacEgan, bishop-designate acting as vicar-apostolic throughout Munster, and Dermot McCraghe, the papal bishop of Cork and Cloyne. On 27 September 1595, Lyon told Lord Burghley that his congregations had dwindled away. He took a moderate line that the Irish would respond to justice, and the soldiery were harmful to his cause; but wanted the exclusion of priests from abroad. Lyon was included in every commission for the government of Munster.

Lyon raised the annual value of Cork and Ross several-fold, by research into titles and good management. The diocese of Cloyne was a different matter, where he was up against Sir John FitzEdmund Fitzgerald, the lay dean of Cloyne, and his court influence, who had been leased the lands through a nominee, by Matthew Sheyn. Fitzgerald used a device of giving the lands to the Crown, which then granted them to him and his heirs, and they only returned to the diocese on any scale after 1660.

Lyon, who lived to a good age, died at Cork 4 October 1617, and was buried in a tomb which he had raised for himself twenty years before in the palace grounds. His bones were accidentally found in 1846, and in 1865 were moved to the crypt of the new cathedral. The bishop's wife, Elizabeth, was alive in 1640. A daughter was killed by the O'Donovans in 1642, when the rebels attacked the church at Ross. A son, William, of St. John's College, Oxford, was admitted B.A. in 1611.