Matthew Parker
Matthew Parker was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 to his death. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of a distinctive tradition of Anglican theological thought.
Parker was one of the primary architects of the Thirty-nine Articles, the defining statements of Anglican doctrine. The Parker collection of early English manuscripts, including the book of St Augustine Gospels and "Version A" of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, was created as part of his efforts to demonstrate that the English Church was historically independent of Rome and was one of the world's most important collections of ancient manuscripts. Along with the pioneering scholar Lawrence Nowell, Parker's work concerning Old English literature laid the foundation for Anglo-Saxon studies.
Early years (15041525)
Matthew Parker, the eldest son of William and Alice Parker, was born in Norwich in St Saviour's parish on 6 August 1504; he was one of six children, and the third son and eldest surviving child. His father was a wealthy worsted weaver and the grandson of Nicholas Parker, registrar to successive archbishops of Canterbury between 1450 and 1483. His mother Alice Monins was originally from Kent; she may have been related by marriage to Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1555. William Parker died in about 1516 and, within three or four years following his death, Alice Parker married John Baker. Their son, also called John, was later nominated as one of Parker's executors. Matthew Parker's surviving siblings were Botolph, Thomas and Margaret. Their mother died in 1553.Parker was brought up in Norwich on Fye Bridge Street, now called Magdalen Street. He was possibly educated at home, and recalled later in life being taught by six men, mostly clerics. According to his biographer John Strype,
In 1520, the 16-year-old Parker went up to Cambridge University, where he studied at, now known as Corpus Christi College under Richard Cowper. On 20 March 1520, after six months at the college, he obtained a scholarship and became the Bible clerk at, and so was able to move from St Mary's Hostel to rooms in the college. At Cambridge he was able to read the works of Martin Luther, and had access to books by married theologians from the Continent — he first commended clerical marriage when he was a student there. He was associated with the circle of Thomas Bilney, remaining loyal to him throughout their university days together. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1525.
Career at Cambridge (15251547)
Parker was ordained as a deacon on 20 April 1527 and a priest two months later, on 15 June. In September he was elected a fellow of Corpus Christi. There is no evidence that he was ever involved in a public dispute at Cambridge, unlike his contemporaries. Bilney was accused of heresy in 1527 and then recanted, but was imprisoned for two years. He returned to Cambridge, regretting his recantation, and began to preach throughout Norfolk. In August 1531 he was condemned to be burnt at the stake as a relapsed heretic; Parker was present at his execution in Norwich on 19 August, and afterwards defended Bilney after accusations were made that he had recanted at the stake.In around 1527, Parker was one of the Cambridge scholars whom Cardinal Thomas Wolsey invited to Cardinal College at Oxford. Parker, like Cranmer, declined Wolsey's invitation. The college had been founded in 1525 on the site of St Frideswide's Priory, and was still being built when Wolsey fell from power in 1529.
Parker began his Master of Arts degree in 1528. He was licensed to preach by Cranmer in 1533, and quickly became a popular preacher in and around Cambridge; none of his sermons have survived. He would have had to adhere to the Ten Articles enforced on the clergy during that period.
File:A Lady, called Anne Boleyn, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|left|alt=painting of Anne Boleyn|Hans Holbein the Younger, A Lady, called Anne Boleyn, British Museum
After being summoned to the court of Anne Boleyn he became her chaplain. Through her influence he was appointed dean of the college of secular canons at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk in 1535, a post he held until 1547. The college had been secularised in 1514. The duties of the residents involved the regular performance of the offices of the church and prayers for the founder's family, but little direction was provided in the statutes for other times during the day, and there was little to do for the residents beyond their daily tasks and the education of the choirboys. It had come close to be acquired by Wolsey, but this had been prevented by the intervention of the Bishop of Norwich and Henry VIII's first wife, Catherine.
He retained his fellowship at Cambridge University whilst he was dean at Stoke-by-Clare. His biographer V.J.K. Brook commented that for Parker "his new post provided him with a happy and quiet place of retirement in the country to which he became devoted"; and allowed him to pursue his enthusiasm for education and the sponsorship of new buildings. At Stoke he transformed the college by introducing new statutes to ensure regular preaching occurred. Under Parker's deanship, scholars came from Cambridge to deliver lectures, greater care was taken over the education of the boy choristers, and a free grammar school for local boys was built within the precincts. His successful revitalisation of the college caused its reputation to spread, and he was able to protect it from being dissolved by citing the good work being done there; it retained its status until after Henry's death in 1547.
Shortly before Anne Boleyn's arrest in 1536, she charged her daughter Elizabeth to Parker's care, something he honoured for the rest of his life. He obtained his Bachelor of Divinity in July 1535, and in 1537 was appointed chaplain to Henry; he graduated Doctor of Divinity in July 1538.
In 1539 he was denounced to the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Audley, by his opponents at Stoke-by-Clare, who accused him of heresy and using "disloyal language against Easter, relics and other details". Audley dismissed the charges and urged Parker to "go on and fear no such enemies". In 1541 was appointed to the second prebend at Ely, a sign of royal approval.
On 4 December 1544, on Henry's recommendation, he was elected master of Corpus Christi College. Such was his devotion towards the care of the college, he is now regarded as its second founder. Upon his election he began the process of putting organising its finances properly, which enabled him to repair the buildings and construct new ones' the master's Lodgings, the college halls and many of the students' rooms were improved. He worked hard to make Corpus Christi a centre of learning, founding new scholarships.
In January 1545, after two months in the post of master of Corpus, he was elected vice-chancellor of the university. During his year in office he got into some trouble with the Chancellor of Cambridge University, Stephen Gardiner, over a play, Pammachius, performed by the students and censored by the college, which derided the old ecclesiastical system. Parker was obliged to make enquiries into the nature of the play, but then allowed to settle the matter himself on behalf of the university authorities.
Career under Edward VI
On the passing of the Act of Parliament in 1545 enabling the king to dissolve chantries and colleges, Parker was appointed one of the commissioners for Cambridge, and their report may have saved its colleges from destruction. Stoke, however, was dissolved in the following reign, and Parker received a generous pension. He took advantage of the new reign to marry in June 1547, before clerical marriages were legalised by Parliament and Convocation, Margaret, daughter of Robert Harlestone, a Norfolk squire. They had initially planned to marry since about 1540 but had waited until it was not a felony for priests to marry. The marriage was a happy one, although Queen Elizabeth's dislike of Margaret was later to cause Parker much distress. They had five children, of whom John and Matthew reached adulthood. During Kett's Rebellion, he preached at the rebels' camp on Mousehold Hill near Norwich, without much effect, and later encouraged his secretary, Alexander Neville, to write his history of the rising.Parker's association with Protestantism advanced with the times, and he received higher promotion under John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland, than under the moderate Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. At Cambridge, he was a friend of the German Protestant reformer Martin Bucer after he was exiled to England, and preached Bucer's funeral sermon in 1551. In 1552 he was promoted to the rich deanery of Lincoln.
Demotion during the reign of Mary
In July 1553 he supped with Northumberland at Cambridge, when the duke marched north on his hopeless campaign against the accession of Mary Tudor. As a supporter of Northumberland and a married man, under the new regime, Parker was deprived of his deanery, his mastership of Corpus Christi and his other preferments.However, he survived Mary's reign without leaving the country – a fact that would not have endeared him to the more ardent Protestants who went into exile and idealised those who were martyred by Mary. The historian James D. Wenn has suggested that Parker may have enjoyed the protection of Sir Rowland Hill of Soulton, Shropshire, during this time. Hill is associated with the publication of the Geneva Bible and joined Parker as a Commissioner for Ecclesiastical Cases in 1559.
Parker respected authority, and when his time came he could consistently impose authority on others. He was not eager to assume this task, and made great efforts to avoid promotion to Archbishop of Canterbury, which Elizabeth designed for him as soon as she had succeeded to the throne.