PEACEMAKER
Biography
A BRILLIANT scholar, master of
St. John's College, Cambridge, he took the
oath of Supremacy under
Henry VIII, but maintained in all other points the
Catholic faith, and for preaching in its defence was imprisoned for a time by the
Protector Somerset, together with
Bishop Goodman, whose chaplain he was. By order of
Mary he preached before her at
Paul's Cross, and refuted the contradictions of the new teaching. Promoted Dean of
Durham and
Bishop of Lincoln, he was imprisoned by
Elizabeth for contempt and contumacy, and began a long course of suffering either in public or private custody. He writes to
Cecil, October 6, 1578, that two infirmities drove him to crave for succour—blindness and lameness. He had lost one of his eyes, and the other was so weak he could scarce see the meat on the table. His lameness was due to sciatica in both his thighs. His last confinement was at Wisbeach (the Castle, used as a special prison for Catholics shown here but eighty years later)
where he used all his influence, in the strife then prevailing, to promote peace and charity, and with great success. He died September 27, 1584, having proved by twenty years of bonds his repentance for his early fall.
"I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you." —
1 COR. i. 10.
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