John Bell (Bishop of Worcester)

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:For other men with the same name, see John Bell

John Bell LL.D (died 1556) was Bishop of Worcester (1539-1543), during the reign of Henry VIII of England.

Contents 1 Preface 2 Education and origins 3 Career 4 Motivations for retirement 5 Will and Legacies 6 Heraldry 7 References

[edit] Preface

The advent of movable type during the renaissance and its further innovation by Gutenberg, Faust, and Peter Schoffer, who were printing in Mainz, Germany, around 1446, marked the genesis of an era, that witnessed the liberation of the human mind of the Middle Ages. One of the first fruits of the press had become realized by the printing of the Holy Bible as translated by William Tyndale and other scholars. This knowledge, sowed by circulation throughout Europe and today’s United Kingdom helped nurture the spirit that would pour the foundation of heart, mind and conscience, needed, to support the great religious and political changes that would be reaped in the sixteenth century and beyond. The following is a brief account of a man who lived through these times. He was a Master of the English (Hospice) College in Rome, Of Counsel and defender of the King, Ecclesiastic ambassador of faith, and, a, pillar of England, before and during the Reformation.

[edit] Education and origins

John Bell LL.D was a resident of Worcester, however, there is currently no evidence that confirms that he was a native there, and therefore, his ancestry and further the gentry of stock from which he is descended can only be assumed.

He attended Balliol College, Oxford, and Cambridge where he took the degree of LL.B in 1504. Bell acquired a contemporary reputation as a learned theologian and attracted the interest of both Thomas Wolsey, then Dean of Lincoln, and Sylvestro de Gigli, then, Bishop of Worcester to Rome.

[edit] Career

In 1512, Bell was serving as a lay judge in the courts of Canterbury (who at the time were one of two governing bodies that had jurisdiction over publication) when he was recommended by Gigli in the following correspondence, for appointment to Master of the English Hospital (college).

To Andreas Ammonius of Lucca, Latin Secretary to Henry VIII:

“Thomas Coleman, Master of the English Hospital, is dead. There are no persons fit to succeed him. The Bishop of Leghlin is an idle voluptuary, Penent is a fool, John Grigh (dull), and the Suffragan of London unfit from his ignorance of the language. Thinks Master Bell, now Dean of the Arches, a more suitable person.” ¹¹

In the same year Bell attended Gigli to the Fifth Lateran Council, possibly at the suggestion of Thomas Wolsey in place of Sir Thomas Docra who had been appointed to attend but was sent elsewhere by King Henry VIII. ^{2, ODNB}

By 1518, Gigli appointed Bell Vicar-general and chancellor of the diocese of Worcester, offices that he would continue to retain under two of his successors..

After this point it is found the he held the following posts:

–1526; Collated: Warden of the church of Stratford-Upon-Avon, ¹ Preceptor of the hospital of St.Wulstans, ¹⁴ Magister, Bachelor of Civil law, acta capitularia (Chapter act book) Coventry & Lichfield Diocese.^20-x 1528 Collated: Doctor of Canon law, Lincoln Cathedral,^20-I: Doctor of Civil law, St. Pauls ^20-V Rector of Gloucestershire, Weston-sub-Edge, Lichfield, Southwell and St.Paul’s, Cathedrals ¹ 1529 Collated: Magister, Doctor of Civil law Gloucester, 1539 Collated: Archdeacon of Gloucester.^20-IV

Cardinal Wolsey would appoint Bell to the membership of the Legantine court of audience, where in 1523, he examined William Tyndall on charges of heresy.

Although Bell’s method of punishment resembled that of a disciplined schoolmaster, it should be noted that he elected to use words rather than the death penalty, to which he never resorted.

King Henry VIII, a learned and keen theologian was aware of John Bell’s abilities, at length, and made him one of his chaplains.; He then deployed him abroad on state affairs, and upon his return was one of Henry's counsellors’ (ib.). ¹

One such mission may have been to secure a religious and political relationship with the Lutheran Princes in Germany. While abroad Bell was made LL.D of some foreign university, in which his degree was incorporated at Oxford in 1531. In 1526, Bell as Official of Worcester appears frequently as a member of the court appointed by Wolsey for the trial of heretics. In 1527, he appeared as the King’s proxy. ¹

In 1528, he was consulted by the King and by Wolsey on Popes dispensation, and on the commission to Wolsey and Lorenzo Campeggio to decide the validity of his union with Catherine. ¹

During this period in a separate matter while acting in the capacity of Court Cleric, Bell drafted the Royal Letters that conveyed to Cardinal Wolsey the King’s decision in the Wilton affair, (an issue concerning the appointment of the Abbess of Wilton). Wolsey’s unconventional and delayed response did not serve to remedy his recent failure in securing an annulment from the Pope for the King’s divorce, thus accelerating the beginning of Wolsey’s end. Bell would witness this incident first hand, while he reported the King’s reaction.

The King was ‘somewhat moved’; Bell, for his part, protested that ‘I would rather than part of all of my small substance that Wolsey had acted otherwise.’ ¹³

For reasons that remain obscure, it would appear that Bell was a staunch opponent of Elinor Carey, (a close relative of the Bolyns) when he boldly argued with the king over her elevation by reporting her as “Wolsey’s commessary in the diocese of Worcester, "at time when the king was considering him for the archdeaconry of Oxford. After this incident Bell exhibited more diligence and labour while in his signal service to the King. ¹

Perhaps this success can be attributed to having been uncommonly educated at both Cambridge and Oxford, (Protestant vs. Catholic leanings 16c.). This afforded him a rare advantage by having channels of influence within England’s two schools of thought and combined with his connections with Rome proved Dr. Bell infallible during the three years he was in constant service upon the King as Henry’s first and most trusted advisor on the divorce from Catherine of Aragon. ¹

During the spring of 1529, Henry's legal team assembled the libelus (the summary of Henry's royal arguments, including Lev. 20:21) that was presented before the papal legates, where the following may be observed:

18 June 1529:

'The Queen was summoned to the great hall of the Black Friar's convent in London. The King, on a raised platform, sat at the upper end. Some distance away Catherine was given her place. The Cardinals, sitting lower than the King, flanked the royal presence, and near them the Archbishop of Canterbury and the bishops were given position. Doctor Richard Sampson, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, and Doctor Bell, afterwards Bishop of Worcester, led those who pleaded for the King. Representing the Queen was John Fisher Bishop of Rochester, and Doctor Standish, a Gray Friar and Bishop of St. Asaph.' Following a series of deliberations, the matter was appealed to Rome, primarily after Catherine's nephew, Charles V, pressured the Pope into recalling Cardinal Campeggio and Catherine was then placed in the care of Sir Edmund Bedingfield at Kimbolton Castle. ¹⁴

In 1531, primarily as a reult of the innovative suggestion of Stephen Gardiner, who thought the King's position in the divorce would be strengthened by obtaining favorable opionions from the various universities in England and abroad, Henry VIII sent Bell, together with the Bishop of Lincoln and Foxe, to canvass Oxford, for a favorable opinion concerning the King's cause; of which they successfully secured despite the danger, being pelted with stones by the popish opposition together with overcoming the strong resistance from the junior members of convocation.

In the same year he was also one of a commission including Sir Thomas Moore to assist the Archbishop in preparing the royal proclamation against William Tyndale's translation of the Scriptures and a number of heretical books. ¹

In 1537, Bell was one of the composers of the Bishop's Book or properly entitled The Institution of the Christian Man, of which he may have been laboring to formulate in alignment with Cranmer, building in lutheran positions when warranted, in order to soften certain aspects of conservative doctrine. In 1539, he succeeded Hugh Latimer as Bishop of Worcester and was consecrated by Cranmer on 17 August. In the same year he was present during the baptism of Edward VI at Hampton Court. In 1540 he was a member of the committee of convocation which pronounced the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves illegal. ¹

In 1541 Bell supported Archbishop Cranmer in the House of Lords when Cranmer was attempting to bring forward "an act for the advancement of the true religion and the abolishment of the contrary" however, this caused a great disruption within the conservative factions and Bell was obligated to withdraw his support."

This would prove to be the beginning of the end as the certain conservatives would labour together with Kentish colleagues to remove Cranmer by formal complaint, in what has come to be known as the prebendaries plot.

"In the convocation of 1542, when the bishops undertook the work of a revised translation of the New Testament, the first and second epistles to the Thessalonians were assigned to Bell." ¹

On 17 November 1543, at Hartlebury Castle, Bishop Bell unexpectedly resigned from the see of Worcester and retired to the parish of Clerkenwell, where he was priest until he died in 1556.

[edit] Motivations for retirement

"It is possible that [Bell] found his diocese more than he was able to cope with as an elderly man. He was following Latimer, who had installed a number of evangelicals in its parishes, and caught between them and the demands of religious conservatives that he reduce his diocese to order, he gave it up as beyond him." ⁷

[edit] Will and Legacies

Bell asked for a modest buriel in the parish church [of St.James, Clerkenwell]

"where I shall die after the discretion of my executors and friends without all superfluous expense and vain pomp,".." And I make and ordain the aforenamed Mr John Borne Knight the overseer of this my said testament and last will of whose good counsel and help I persuade myself most assured and my executors about the execution of the same and for his pains in this behalf my special confidence assure and trust is that he of his charity and love will be content only with my former bequest and legacy, considering my substance is so small and other my bequests so great." ³

However, despite Bell's humble request, it was thought to bury him with episcopal honours on the south side of the east end of the chancel of the parish church of St. James, Clerkenwell.

Further details of his will records friendships with Dr. John Feckenham, and Robert Morwent of Magdalen College, Oxford, and "He gave by his will 2l. to the poor of Clerkenwell, 5l. to Stratford-upon-Avon, and some legacies to Jesus chantry in St. Paul's Cathedral, desiring that ‘his soul might be prayed for.’ He was also a benefactor to Balliol College, Oxford, and to Cambridge, but especially to the former, where he provided for the maintenance of two scholars born in the diocese of Worcester." ³

"Coote says of Bishop Bell (English Civilians): ‘He died with the character of an eloquent preacher and advocate, a learned divine, and a man of integrity and beneficence.’ " ¹

[edit] Heraldry

The Arms of Bishop Bell d. 1556: Sable on a Chevron Argent between three Griffin's heads erased Or three humans heads couped Sable wreathed about the temples and ribboned Or

[edit] References

1. P.B.A, John Bell LL.D, d.1556 Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 1887. Sources: Godwin, De Præsulibus Angliæ, Camb. 1743; (William) Cavendish's Life of (Thomas) Wolsey, Singer's ed.; Chambers's Biog. Illustrations of Worcestershire; Thomas's Henry VIII, 1774; Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation; Strype's Eccl. Memorials and Life of Cranmer; Thomas's Survey of Worcester Cathedral; Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII, vols. ii., iii., iv., v., vi., and vii.
2. Andrew A. Chibi, ‘Docwra, Sir Thomas (d. 1527)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 23 May 2005
3. Barratt, N., Transcription Report, The National Archives, UK, Catalog Reference Prob. 11/38, Image Reference 144, (C) Crown Copyright
4. Worcestershire County Council
5. PRO, SP 1/113, fols. 106v-109r;LP no. 1424
6. DNB-Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, University Press, London, 1917-reprinted 1921-1922, Editors-Sir Leslie Stephen & Sir Sydney Lee, volumes: II, V, VI,VII, IX, XI, XIII
7. Summerson, H., perceptions/Corres., Dec. 2005.
8. The 1542 will of John Talbot Sheriff or Worcester
9. H[ereford] and W[orcester] R[ecord] O[ffice], Bell's Register, fol. 13;
10. Hereford and Worcester Record Office, Bishop Bell's Visitation Book
11. The Complete State Papers Domestic, 1509-1702, Series III, The State Papers Domestic for the years 1509-1547 of the reign of Henry VIII, pb. 1994-1995, Woodbridge Research Publications Int’l, reels 1-27, 29, 31, 45-50
12. The London Encyclopaedia, edited by Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, Alder & Alder, Publishers, Inc., Bethesda, MD, USA. Originally published in Great Britain by Macmillan London Limited, Reprint. 1983, 1986, pg. 623
13. Six Wives, The Queens of Henry VIII, by David Starkey, Harper Collins Publishers, 1st .U.S. edition 2000, pg. 328,334-5
14. Farrow, J., Story of Sir Thomas Moore
15. Walker, R,G, Hartlebury, Hartlebury Castle Trustees, 1987, pg.24
16. Ridley, J., Bloody Mary’s Martyrs Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, USA, First edition 2001, pg. 1, 54
17. Pearce, E.H., Hartlebury Castle, SPCK, London 1926. pg. 101
18. St. James www.jc-church.org, history of St. James*
19. Glen Redworth, "A Study in the formulation of Policy: The Genesis and Evolution Act of the Six Articles," Journal of Ecclesiastical History 37 (1986)
20. Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1300-1541, Volume I, Lincoln Diocese, compiled by H.P. F. King; Volume IV, Monastic Cathedrals (southern province), compiled by B. Jones; Volume V, St. Paul’s, London, compiled by, Joyce M. Horn; Volume X, Coventry & Lichfield Diocese, compiled by, B. Jones.
21. Lambeth Palace Library, Cranmer's Register, fols.;