The archbishops: William Warham to Edmund Grindal

William Warham to Edmund Grindal

69. WILLIAM WARHAM succeeded to this patriarchal chair in 1503, (fn. 1) to which he was translated from London, of which see he was then bishop. He was descended of an antient family seated at Walsanger, in the parish of Okecliffe, commonly called Okely, in Hampshire, in which parish he was born; he was first educated at Wickham's college, in Winchester, from whence he was sent to New college, in Oxford, where he became fellow, and proceeded doctor of laws, and afterwards practised as an advocate in the arches, and in 1448 became moderator of the civil law school, and taking orders, had the rectory of Barley, in Hertfordshire, conferred on him, as appears by the church windows there; after which he was dignified with several promotions, both ecclesiastical and civil; for in 1493 he was made. chancellor of Wells, and next year constituted master of the rolls, (fn. 2) when being sent ambassador to Philip, duke of Burgundy, concerning the two counterfeits Lambert and Perkin Warbeck, he behaved himself in that business so wisely, that the king highly commended him, (fn. 3) and in 1502, on his return, preferred him, being then a privy councellor, to the bishopric of London, (fn. 4) and made him keeper of the great seal, and lord chancellor of England, (fn. 5) in which office he succeeded archbishop Dene, as well as in this archbi shopric, (fn. 6) and as legate of the apostolic see. (fn. 7) His entertainment, which was kept in his palace at Canterbury, on his inthronization, on March 9, being Passion Sunday, anno 1504, was truly magnificent, the duke of Buckingham performing the office of high steward, during the solemnity, many of the nobility, superior clergy and others of rank, being present as guests at it.

At this palace king Henry VII. in his 24th year, took up his abode as the archbishop's guest, during which time he made his last will, which is dated at Canterbury, on April 10 that year, 1509, by which he founded one anniversary mass in Christ church, and another in St. Augustine's monastery. (fn. 8)

On the scite of this antient palace, archbishop Warham is said to have intended to have raised a most sumptuous one for himself and his successors; but on account of a difference which arose between him and the citizens, concerning the limits of his ground here, he changed his former intention, and in his displeasure bestowed on his palace at Otford, which before this was but a mean house, 33,000l. leaving nothing of the former building standing, but the walls of the hall and chapel; notwithstanding which, he had already liberally builded at Knole, a palace of the archbishopric, little more than two miles from it. (fn. 9)

In the beginning of the year 1506, he was unanimously elected chancellor of the university of Oxford, and after king Henry VIII.'s accession to the throne, he held the great seal for the first seven years of that reign, and the king appears to have esteemed him highly, insomuch that he appointed him, together with the earl of Surry, sponsors at the christening of his eldest son; (fn. 10) notwithstanding which, Wolsey by his ill treatment, at length obliged him to resign the seal; for that prelate's power and interest with the king and court of Rome, were so much greater than the archbishop's, that during the whole of the cardinal's administration, he was little more than the shadow of a metropolitan; but as he was a man of parts and principle, so he could not see the insolence and depravity of the cardinal, without complaining of it to the king, which put the two prelates upon ill terms as long as Wolsey lived. (fn. 11)

Archbishop Warham is said to have understood the interest of the nation, and the canon law, as well as most men of his time. He was a friend to merit and learning, and encouraged a more rational and useful knowledge, than was to be acquired by the learning of the schools.

Erasmus gives a true character of archbishop Warham, when he commends him for his humanity, learning, integrity and piety, and concludes by saying, that he was a most perfect and accomplished prelate.

He was an especial benefactor to the university of Oxford, particularly by contributing to the finishing of St. Mary's church, and the divinity school there; he gave several books and manuscripts to All Souls and New college, in Oxford, and to Wickham's college, near Winchester, and he is said to have given the iron railing to Rochester bridge; and he was a principal contributer in 1519 to the church of Lambeth. He was a benefactor to the fabric of this cathedral, especially to the great tower of it, on which his arms are still to be seen in memory of it; so that excepting the above, and the great sums he laid out on his palaces, we read of no other public benefactions during his long continuance in this see.

Having sat as archbishop for twenty eight years, he died on August 3, 1532, at St. Stephen's, near Canterbury, in the house of William Warham, archdeacon of Canterbury, his kinsman, having by his last will assigned the place of his sepulture in his own cathedral, and expressed his hopes that his successor would not charge his executors with dilapidations, as he had expended above 30,000l. in building and repairing the edifices belonging to this see; he was accordingly buried in a small chapel built by himself, for the purpose, upon the north side of the martyrdom in his own cathedral, where there is an elegant tomb with his effigies at full length in his pontifical habit, lying on it; (fn. 12) in this chapel he founded a chantry of one priest, daily to celebrate for his soul, which was suppressed with the priory in king Henry VIII.'s time.

70. THOMAS CRANMER, S. T. P. was elected archbishop, the next in succession, in the year 1532. (fn. 13) He was born at Arlaiston, in Northamptonshire, on July 2, 1489, and educated at Jesus college, in Cambridge, where he became fellow and A. M. and afterwards divinity reader, moderator and S. T. P. in that university; on the death of archbishop Warham, the king foreseeing the importance it would be of, to the designs which he had in hand, that the see of Canterbury should be filled with a person of that moderate disposition, which would not be likely to thwart his measures, and one, who being inclined to the changes he was bringing forward in religion, he could the better influence in his future designs, sent to Cranmer, then abroad in Germany, to inform him of his intention to advance him to this see, and desiring him to return home for that purpose. This, after some little hesitation he did, and it is said, rather in obedience to the king's commands than his own inclination; for he foresaw the storms which were arising, and the difficulties and troubles it would bring on him. On his return, however, he accepted of the promotion, and was consecrated in St. Stephen's chapel, in the royal palace at Westminster; (fn. 14) but before his consecration, he made a solemn protestation in the presence of a public notary, that the oath he was then about to take to the pope, should not bind him from doing whatsoever he was bound to do, to God, the church, or the king.

He was instrumental in beginning the reformation in the reign of king Henry VIII. and zealous in carrying it forward in that of king Edward VI. when queen Mary came to the crown, he was advised to make his escape by flight, but he retired only into Kent, where he spent a few days at his palace of Beaksborne, from whence he removed to that of Ford in the same neighbourhood, where he received a summons to appear at Westminster, before the privy council; soon after which he was committed prisoner to the tower, and from thence conveyed to a prison in Oxford, where, after he had been brought to a public disputation with the papists concerning the real presence in the sacrament, he was led to his trial. and through the queen's implacable hatred to him, on account of her mother's divorce, and her bigotry and the inveterate malice of his enemies, he was, in the first year of queen Mary's reign, attainted of high treason in parliament, and his archbishopric was immediately sequestered; and though the queen afterwards pardoned the treason, yet he was degraded, excommunicated, and condemned to suffer death as an heretic, so that being delivered over to the secular power, he was accordingly burnt at Oxford, on March 21, 1555, (fn. 15) aged 67, and in the 23d year of his primacy.

Archbishop Cranmer had acquired learning, both in the canon and civil law, equal to most of his cotemporaries; but he had a defect in his stile which was diffused and unconnected, even for that age. He had a natural simplicity and openness of heart, which made him unfit for the courts of princes, where truth and candour are but of little use; he was affable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of benevolence and condescension, and very inoffensive; at the same time he was exceedingly timorous, which caused him frequently to comply with the king's measures, and that where the most valuable rights of his church were to be given up for the purpose; in this he has been blamed by most historians, nor can his servility in it ever meet with a defence. The archbishop left issue one son, of his own name. (fn. 16)

Besides his life, to be found in Parker's Antiquitates Brit. Eccles. Godwin and others; it was written at large by Mr. Strype, in folio, in which a list of his writings may be seen.

Among the Har'eian manuscripts are the archbishop's five books on the Eucharist; his Reform of the ecclesiastical laws; his renunciation of the papal authority and submission to king Henry VIII. his discourse concerning cardinal Pole's finding so much favour at Rome, many letters to and from him, many pieces concerning him, his life, his letters to the king and others, and many other papers relating to him.

There is a seal of archbishop Cranmer's appendant to a deed, anno 1536, among the Chartœ Antiquœ, in the treasury of the dean and chapter; 4 inches by 2½ diam. the upper part blurred; but it is the murder of Becket; underneath the archbishop, kneeling; on one side a shield, with the arms of the see impaled with his own; on the other, another with his own arms; legend, THOME CRANMER; the rest obliterated, p. 128.

He bore for his arms, Argent, on a chevron, azure, three cinquefoils, or, between three cranes, sable; but king Henry VIII. changed the craites to pelicans, vulnerating their breasts.

71. REGINALD POLE, cardinal of the church of Rome, and related to the blood royal, was elected archbishop of this see in the year 1555, and was consecrated on March 22 that year, the day after Cranmer's execution. (fn. 17)

He was the fourth son of Sir Richard Pole, knight of the garter, cousin-german to king Henry VII. his mother being the lady Margaret, countess of Salisbury, daughter of George, duke of Clarence, the youngest brother of king Edward IV. (fn. 18) He was born at Stoverton castle, in Staffordshire, and brought up at the monastery of Carthusians at Shene, in Surry, whence he went to Magdalen college, in Oxford, and became fellow of Corpus Christi, in the same university. He was first promoted to a prebend in the church of Salisbury, and was afterwards, in 1517, admitted to that of Knaresborough, in the church of York, and likewise to the deanry of the collegiate church of Wimborne, in Dorsetshire.

Being sent abroad by king Henry VIII. he resided seven years at Padua, where he became acquainted with and entertained in his family several of the most learned men of the time; (fn. 19) in the meanwhile the king made him dean of Exeter, and having abolished the papal power, sent for him home; but Pole refusing to return, was, about the year 1536, deprived of his preferments. (fn. 20) To make him amends, however, for the king's displeasure, pope Paul III. on May 22, that year, created him a cardinal, (fn. 21) and deputed him ambassador to the emperor, and the king of France; he was afterwards made legate, and sat in the council of Trent; he was twice elected pope, but not approving of the proceedings of the election, he at last lost it. Upon this disappointment, he retired to Verona, where he remained till queen Mary's accession to the throne, who sent to him to return and take upon him the direction of the affairs of the church in this king. dom; shortly after which he arrived in the character of legate from pope Julius III. landing at Dover on Nov. 22, 1555, his attainder having been reversed in parliament, by the first act that passed in that queen's reign; he came to London two days afterwards, but privately, for the papal power not being yet re-established, he could not be received in quality as legate; but the parliament having addressed the queen to reconcile the kingdom to the see of Rome, and offered to repeal all laws repugnant to it, the cardinal went with much solemnity to the house, and in a long speech gave them and the whole nation a plenary absolution, and to proceed by degrees, he took out a licence under the great seal, for his legantine power. Being but in deacon's orders on his coming into the kingdom, he was ordained priest, and was afterwards, on March 22, the same year, anno 1555, being the 2d of queen Mary's reign, consecrated archbishop of Canterbury, by Heath, archbishop of York, and six other bishops, in the church of the Franciscan friars, which had been newly restored by the queen, who was present herself at the solemnity; on the 25th he received the pall in Bow-church, in London, and on the 31st was in throned by proxy; (fn. 22) the queen having furnished the palace at Lambeth for him at her own expence and she afterwards honoured him with her company there several times. In October following he was elected chancellor of the university of Oxford, and soon after, as is affirmed by some, of Cambridge likewise: and he afterwards governed this church with a conduct that has gained him the love, the praise and the admiration of posterity. But at the latter end of the queen's reign; pope Paul IV. having taken a dislike to him, for his mild and gentle proceedings, revoked his legantine commission, and cited him to appear personally at the court of Rome, to answer such matters as should be objected to him; and in order to divest him of all power in England, he bestowed a cardinal's hat on William Peto, the noted Franciscan friar of Greenwich, and made him his legate a latere, in the archbishop's 100m, on June 13, 1557, and gave him besides the bishopric of Salisbury.

When the queen was informed of the pope's intentions, she made use of every endeavour to defend and support the archbishop, who on his part was not inactive in this affair, but dispatched his friend Ormaret to Rome, to render an account of his conduct, and the state of religion in England, and in the mean time, the queen stood so stoutly in the defence of her kinsman, that she would not suffer the new legate either to enter the realm as legate, or to enjoy the bishopric, which the pope had assigned him, and she accordingly sent to forbid his entrance into it, (fn. 23) and the legantine power was left entire as before, to the archbishop.

At last, by the queen's firmness, her remonstrances, and an alteration of circumstances, the pope, who foresaw that he should again lose England if he obstinately persisted in his resentment, condescended to stisle it, and was outwardly reconciled to the archbishop, telling Ormaret, that he was now satisfied that Pole had been misrepresented, and that he plainly saw no one living could escape calumny. But it is said, that the pope's change of behaviour arose from a secret article which he made that year, in a treaty of peace with the duke of Alva, in the name of the king of Spain, whose general he was, in which cardinal Pole was expressly restored to his legantine authority; which seems not improbable, considering the queen's resolution not to admit of any other in that character. (fn. 24)

The cardinal was in person of a middling stature, handsome and comely, his countenance was fresh coloured, his eyes sparkling, and had a look of nobility, mixed. with a placid gentleness; and he had a couttesy of behaviour, which insured both respect and affection from all who approached him; he was besides, of excellent piety, a man of learning and of great integrity.

The divisions at this time among the Protestants, their want of discipline, their disregard of the sacred orders, and their seizing the church revenues, together with the prejudices of education, inclined him to think, that religion could not be supported without a power equal to the pope's; but in this he was governed purely by motives of conscience. Had interest or ambition swayed him, he would have complied with king Henry's measures, and would then probably have stood foremost in that prince's favour, neither would he have declined his election to the popedom, if wealth and greatness had been his object. His whole conduct was noble and exemplary in all respects, and had he lived under a pope of less haughtiness, or a queen of less bigotry, his measures might have been fatal to the reformed religion; the great pattern of disinterestedness, regularity, and application which he shewed himself, his care to reform the manners of the clergy, and the abuses which their sloth and negligence had introduced, and the candid and gentle treatment with which he desired the Proteltants might be used, joined to his constant opposition to the fire and the sword, gave the Papists room to suspect him of leaning towards the heretics; wherefore he was never taken into their councils, or at least never heard or attended to in them. But in this they were mistaken, for it was the sweetness of his temper and the solidity of his judgment, that both concurred to engage him to oppose cruelty and violence, although he had at the same time an invincible attachment to the see of Rome, to a degree of superstition, and thought it impossible to maintain the order and unity of the church without it; in short, to sum up his character, he was a man of as great probity and virtue, and of as excellent endowments of mind, as any of his predecessors who had sat in this see before, had ever been, and have since, to the present time.

He died on Nov. 17, 1558, a few hours after the queen's decease, having sat in the patriarchal chair of this see two years and almost eight months; (fn. 25) forty days after which, his body having laid in state, was with much pomp, brought to his own cathedral, where it was entombed on the north side of Becket's crown; his monument, which is only a plain tomb, yet remains, and on it this short epitaph, Depositum Cardinalis Poli. (fn. 26)

He bore for his arms, Per pale, sable, and or, a saltire engrailed, counterchanged.

He is said to have given to his church of Canterbury, two silver candlesticks of great weight; a golden cross, a crozier and mitre, two rings, and a silver bason for holy water.

He was the last archbishop who was intombed in this church, their burials having ever since been discontinued here; a circumstance, seemingly strange, that not one of the archbishops since the reformation, should chuse to be buried in their own cathedral, in which they had so many bright and illustrious examples; but all, as it were with one accord, have shrunk from a burial in it, though it was the antient and accustomed place of archiepiscopal sepulture, affecting rather an obscure burial in some one private parish church or other.

He constituted Aloysio Priuli, a noble Venetian, his heir, who had been his intimate friend and companion abroad, and who coming back with him into England, continued so at the time of his death; but this noble person refused every benefit arising from it, and accepted only of two prayer books, which were constantly used by the cardinal, contenting himself with distributing the legacies and gifts, according to the directions in his will.

The several books and treatises, written by the cardinal, (fn. 27) may be seen enumerated in Wood's Ath. (fn. 28) and likewise the several lives of him written by different persons, to which may be added, a more modern one, being the life of the cardinal, published by Mr. Phillips, in 1764, which has since, however, met with a refutation.

72. MATHEW PARKER, S. T. P. succeeded cardinal Pole in this archbishopric, to which he was elected and consecrated in 1559. He was born at Norwich, (fn. 29) and educated at Corpus Christi, alias Bennet college, in Cambridge; in the time of king Henry VIII. he was promoted to be one of the king's chaplains, and was made tutor to the princess Elizabeth; after which he was made a prebendary of Ely, and in 1544 master of Benner college, above-mentioned, of which he had been fellow; afterwards being chaplain to king Edward VI. he was by the king made dean of Lincoln, and had likewise the prebend of Coringham, in that church, conferred on him, and the rectory of Landbeach; besides which, he had the deanry of the college of Stoke Clare, in Suffolk, which was suppressed by king Edward VI. notwithstanding Dr. Parker used all his endeavours for the preservation of it; but in queen Mary's reign, in 1554, he was deprived of all his preferments, for having entered into the state of matrimony, and afterwards lived a private and retired life, by which he escaped all the storms of those days; from this obscure state he was called forth by queen Elizabeth, who advanced him to this archbishopric, the highest station in the English church, though not till after several persons had refused it, on which, and not before, he proceeded in his degree of S. T. P. his consecration was performed with great solemnity, before a number of spectators in the chapel of Lambeth palace, on Dec. 17, 1559, by the bishops of Chichester, Exeter, Hereford, and the bishop suffragan of Bedford, free from the ceremonies of the church of Rome, for there were used no mitre nor pall, no pastoral staff nor ring, no gloves nor sandals; nor was there the authority of any bulls from Rome, to establish or confirm it. Being thus seated in this see, he became an excellent governor of the church committed to his charge, and strictly adhered to its doctrine and discipline, by which he incurred the ill will of the great men in power, and of most of the Puritans; but he was so firm and resolute in what he undertook to defend and maintain, that he would neither be frightened nor dissuaded from his purpose and intention. On his coming to the archbishopric, he partly rebuilt and partly repaired his palace at Canterbury, which he found burnt and almost wholly destroyed, at the expence of 1400l. (fn. 30) and he afterwards having entertained queen Elizabeth and her whole court for seven days at Croydon, entertained her sumptuously in his palace of Canterbury, in her progress through this county in 1573, and the queen's visits to him at Lambeth palace were afterwards frequent. During his continuance in the see, he performed many pious and charitable acts; he was a great benefactor to the public library at Cambridge, and to Bennet, Caius and Trinity colleges, in that university; in the former of which he founded thirteen scholarships; in the latter, one; and he repaired the regent walk, in that university; he founded a grammar school at Stoke Clare, in Suffolk, and another at Rochdale, in Lancashire, and gave 10l. per annum. for the preaching of six sermons at five churches in Norfolk, in Rogation week, and he repaired, pewed and beautified the chancel of Beaksborne church.

He was a great patron and encourager of learned men, and was himself a great lover and promoter of that learning especially, which served to illustrate the history of this country, in which he was indefatigable, and spared no cost whatever. For this purpose, the regulation of his family was laudably adapted, for as he assigned to all his domestics some business, and kept none idle about him, so those who were not employed in the management of his revenues, or the affairs of his household, were entertained for binding books, engraving, and painting, in transcribing manuscripts, or in drawing and illuminating; and having built the library of Bennet college, he deposited in it printed books to a very considerable value, and all his manuscripts relating to the reformation and church history; which have been of no small service to later historians.

He published new editions of the histories of Matthew Paris, Matthew Westminster and Walsingham, and of the four gospels in the Saxon language; and a little before his death, he finished the lives of his predecessors, archbishops of Canterbury, under the title of De Antiquitate Britannicæ Ecclesiæ, &c. (fn. 31) in which he is said to have been principally assisted by Josceline, one of his chaplains, and it seems at first not to have been generally known who was the author of it. (fn. 32)

Willis says, that the archbishop was raised by Providence, to retrieve the learned monuments of our forefathers, which had been so miserably dispersed at the dissolution of monasteries, that nothing less than the protection of so great a man could have saved them from being irrevocably lost. The above very excellent history, drawn up and published by his direction, shewed his regard to the church; and the vast expence he was at in collecting, not only Saxon manuscripts, but all other books, by which the history of this nation might be illustrated, demonstrated his affections for every thing by which the piety and learning of our forefathers might be transmitted to posterity.

He was the author, among many other treatises, (fn. 33) of one in defence of priest's marriages, to which he was probably induced by the sufferings he had undergone, and the inconveniences he then felt with the rest of the married clergy from the queen's severity to them on that account; for queen Elizabeth ever discountenanced those of them, who entered into this state, and she made it a continual obstacle to their preferment; nor did those of the bishops and dignified clergy, in general, have their wives and families to reside with them in their palaces, and cathedral precincts, but hired houses, or lodgings for them elsewhere. (fn. 34)

The character of this worthy prelate, given by the author of the Athenæ, is certainly both just and true; who tells us, (fn. 35) he was a very religious and learned man, of modest manners and behaviour; he was well read in the English history, and a diligent and curious collector of antient manuscripts, which had been scattered at the dissolution of monasteries, which he gave to the college in which he had been educated. He was reported to have been a person of great charity, a noted benefactor to the public, and an eminent ornament to the places which gave him birth and education; to which may be added, that he had neither ambition nor avarice in his disposition, and notwithstanding his public benefactions, the appearance of his family and the hospitality of his table, at which entertainments to the nobility were not unfrequent, were always suitable to his dignity; for though he left two sons, who were both married, yet he did not exert himself to amass a heap of wealth for them out of the revenues of the church, in or der to raise a name and to give his family the rank of quality (fn. 36)

The archbishop's life has been written at large by Mr. Strype, in folio, London, 1711, with a copious appendix of instruments relating to it.

Having sat in the chair of this see for fifteen years and five months, he died on May 17, 1575, at his palace of Lambeth, having directed his funeral to be solemnized without pomp, noise or expence, his bowels to be buried in the Duke's chapel, in Lambeth church, (fn. 37) and his body in the chapel of Lambeth palace, (fn. 38) at the upper end against the communion table, on the south side against his accustomed place of prayer (fn. 39) under an altar tomb which he had erected for himself, the inscription on which was written by Dr. Haddon.

The legacies in his will, both public and private, were very numerous; among the latter were, those to the queen; the several bishops who were his friends; Sir Nicholas Bacon, keeper of the great seal; Sir William Cecil, lord high treasurer; Sir William Cordel, and Mr. Justice Manwood, and the doctors of the college of the arches in London; among the former, besides his benefactions already noticed to Bennet, and the other colleges above mentioned, he ordered his executors to prepare chambers in the former of them, for three other of his scholars, to each of whom he gave 3l. 6s. 8d. yearly, to be given in such manner as his executors by their writing should prescribe; of which scholars he ordered, that the first should be elected by them from the school of Canterbury, being a native of it; the second from the school of Aylsham, and the third from the school of Wymondham, being both natives of those towns.

He devised a charitable donation to the mayor and citizens of Norwich, in which city he was born, and to the mayor and citizens of Canterbury and their successors 100l. to be lent out to one or more manufacturers of wool, in that city, by whom the poor of it might from thence be employed, according to the judgment and consent of the dean and chapter; to be lent every third year, if they should see proper.—For which he directed, that the commonalty, or some able citizens of Canterbury shall be bound, in order that his legacy should not at any time be lost; and he besides bequeathed a benefaction to the university library. (fn. 40)

The archbishop bore for his arms, Gules, on a chevron, argent, three stars of the first, between three keys of the second.

73. EDMUND GRINDAL, S. T. P. succeeded to this see in the same year 1575. (fn. 41) He was the son of William Grindal, gent. of St. Bees, in Cumberland, he was first scholar, then fellow in 1538, of Pembroke hall, in Cambridge; in 1540 he proceeded A. M. and in 1544 had the college titles for orders; four years after which he was chosen master of the college, and assistant to the chancellor in his court; then B. D. in 1549 he was Margaret professor; he was next chaplain to bishop Ridley, chaunter of St. Paul's, and by the bishop's means, was promoted to be one of the king's chaplains; and in 1552 to a prebend of Westminster, when he quitted his fellowship; the year after which, on queen Mary's accession, he fled with many others, for their religion's sake, into Germany, and there is a letter of his to Ridley, printed and dated at Frankfort in 1555. (fn. 42)

He was, says Camden in his Annals, anno 1583, a religious and grave man, who returning from banishment on queen Elizabeth's accession, was first promoted to the see of London. being consecrated on Dec. 1, 1559; (fn. 43) before which he had been chosen master a second time of Pembroke college (fn. 44) In 1570 he was translated to York, and thence again to Canterbury in 1575, as above-mentioned; (fn. 45) at first he enjoyed much of the queen's favour, but being accused of countenancing the conventicles of the turbulent ministers, and their prophecies, (fn. 46) of which his enemies took advantage, he quite lost the queen's favour, and was also ordered by her to keep his house; (fn. 47) during which time and his remaining under the queen's displeasure, the bishops of his province wrote to her in his behalf. About this time he became blind, and continued so for two years before his death, when having sat as archbishop for the space of almost seven years and an half, he died on July 6, 1583, aged 64, at his palace of Croydon, and was buried in the middle chancel of that church, on the south side of the altar, where there is a handsome monument erected to his memory, having his effigies on it at full length, in his doctor's robes.

The small wealth which he had gathered, he in great measure bestowed upon the founding of a school at St. Bees, the place of his nativity, and for the advancement of learning in both the universities. The charitable benefactions which he gave by his will were; to the above mentioned school 30l. per ann. to Queen's college, (fn. 48) in Oxford, 20l. per annum, the greatest part of his books, 87 ounces of silver plate, and the discharge of a debt of 40l. owing to him from the college; to Pembroke hall, in Cambridge, 24l. per annum; (fn. 49) the remainder of his books, and a gilt cup of forty ounces, called the Canterbury cup; to St. Mary Magdalen's college, in the same university, 5l. per annum, in lands; to Christ's college there, forty ounces of silver plate; to the parish of Croydon, the sum of 50l. to buy lands for the benefit of the poor, and to the city of Canterbury 100l. to be kept in stock for ever, for the use of the poor traders and dealers in wool in that city. (fn. 50)

Archbishop Grindal is said, when he returned from banishment on the accession of queen Elizabeth, to have first translated into this country the Tamarisk, so very useful in medicine, against the diseases of the spleen. (fn. 51)

There are several letters from and to the archbishop among the Harleian manuscripts, viz. of Nicholas Ridley to him; of the archbishop to Zanchius, and to Bullinger; of John Fox to the archbishop, and of the archbishop to him; his remarkable letter on the defence of prophesyings; his directions concerning preachers; his speech whilst under the queen's displeasure; the archbishop's letter to lord Sussex, and another letter concerning him. The archbishop left behind him the character of being a good natured, friendly, inoffensive man, a learned, useful prelate, and a sincere pious Christian, and an amiable example of all Christian virtue.

He bore for his arms, granted to him by Dethic, garter king at arms, quarterly, or, and azure, a cross, or, and ermine, in each quarter a dove, or, and azure, counter changed of the field.

The archbishop's life is written by Mr. Strype, at large, in folio, London.