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Shunamites and Nurses of the English Reformation: the Activities of Mary Glover, Niece of Hugh Latimer
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
‘Mistress Glover … you are a woman hearty in God’s cause’, wrote Nicholas Ridley in 1555 to Mary Glover of Baxterley in JL? JL Warwickshire. Hearing that her husband had been incarcerated ‘for God’s word sake’, and that ‘old father Latimer is your uncle’, Ridley commended her own zealous commitment to the reformed faith, and her assistance of others: ‘… you be hearty in God’s cause, and hearty to your master Christ, in furthering of his cause and setting forth his soldiers to his wars to the uttermost of your power’. In the past twenty-five years we have begun to determine why women on the Continent and in England were attracted to, encouraged, or inhibited the spread of religious change, but there is still much to be done to understand the role of individual women and women generally during the Reformation. Mary Glover, despite her association with prominent figures, is almost unknown to historians. The purpose of this paper is to describe a type of patronage which had important local and national implications, and a distinct role exercised by Mary Glover and others in the sixteenth and following centuries: the practical assistance which women offered to itinerant preachers.
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References
1 Miles Coverdale, comp., Certain most godly, fruitful, and comfortable letters of such true Saintes and holy Martyrs of God … (London, 1564) [STC, 5886], pp. 74-5 (hereafter Coverdale). All spellings from quotations are modernized and all abbreviations expanded in this paper. Years are reckoned to have begun on 1 January. I would like to thank Professor Patrick Collinson for his many helpful suggestions; and Dr Frank Stubbings and the staff at Emmanuel College Library, Cambridge.
2 Works on women during the Reformation include: Roelker, N. L., ‘The appeal of Calvinism to French noblewomen in the sixteenth century’, JIntH, 2 (1972), pp. 391’418 Google Scholar, and ‘The role of noblewomen in the French Reformation’, ARG, 63 (1972), pp. 168-95; Chrisman, M-U., ‘Women and the Reformation in Strasbourg 1490-1530’, ARG, 63 (1972), pp. 143’68 Google Scholar; Wyntjes, S. Marshall, ‘Women and religious choices in the sixteenth century Netherlands’, ARG, 75 (1984), pp. 276’89 Google Scholar; Collinson, P., ‘The Role of women in the English Reformation illustrated by the life and friendships of Anne Locke’, SCH, 2 (1965), pp. 258’72 Google Scholar; Aveling, J. C. H., ‘Catholic households in Yorkshire, 1580-1603’, NH, 16 (1980), pp. 85’101 Google Scholar; Damien Hanlon, Sister Joseph, These be but women’, in Carter, C. H., ed., From the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation (New York, 1965), pp. 371’400 Google Scholar.
3 Mary Glover is mentioned briefly in the fullest, but inadequate, account of her uncle’s life, Chester, A, Hugh Latimer: Apostle to the English (Philadelphia, 1954), pp. 2, 156, 186’7 CrossRefGoogle Scholar (hereafter Chester).
4 See Mark 6. 7-14.
5 See Hudson, A., The Premature Reformation: Wyclifftte Texts and Lollard History (Oxford, 1988), pp. 154’7 Google Scholar; Collinson, , ‘Locke’, p. 270 Google Scholar. This hospitality was not limited to Englishwomen. Wyntjes, , ‘Netherlands’, pp. 282—4 Google Scholar; Chrisman, , ‘Strasbourg’, pp. 156—7 Google Scholar.
6 London, PRO, SP 1/155, fols 185r-v: LP, 14 (2), no 749 (2).
7 The will of Nicholas Statham, made 2 October 1538, proved 23 October 1538, London, PRO, PROB 11/27, fol. 174r; Foxe, 5, p. 444; Brigden, S., ‘Popular disturbance and the fall of Thomas Cromwell and the reformers, 1539-1540’, Hist], 24 (1981), p. 276 Google Scholar. Garrard: London, PRO, SP, 1/104, fols 157r-v (LP, 10, no 1099); Worcester, Hereford and Worcester Record Office, MS b 716.093-BA.2648/9(ii), fol. 31 (Latimer’s Register); Charles Wriothesley, A Chronicle of England during the Reigns ofthe Tudors, from A.D. 1485 to 1559, ed. Hamilton, W. D., PCS, ns, 11 (1875), pp. 71, 114 Google Scholar. Letters: London, BL, MS Cotton Cleopatra E. IV, fols 174r-v, printed in Sermons and Remains of Hugh Latimer, Sometime Bishop of Worcester, Martyr, 1555, ed. Corrie, G. E., PS (1845), pp. 386’7 Google Scholar and 391, 396-7, 418-19 (hereafter Remains. The companion volume. Sermons by Hugh Latimer (1844), will be cited as Sermons); Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, Martyr, 1556, ed. Cox, J. E., PS (1846), pp. 374’5 Google Scholar.
8 Bernher gave information to Foxe between 1563 and 1565, and is described in the London 1570 edition of the Actes and Monumentes [STC, 11223], 2, p. 1890 as ‘a Minister and a familiar friend’ of Robert Glover. Bernher’s dedicatory episde to Katherine is in The Seven Sermons of the reuerendfather, M. Hughe Latimer… (London, 1562) [STC, 15276], unpaginated; reprinted in Sermons, pp. 311-25. Katherine Brandon, Duchess of Suffolk, Willoughby heiress of Lincolnshire, was one of the ten richest peers in England following her husband’s death in 1545. Gunn, S.J., Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, C.1484-1545 (Oxford, 1988), pp. 198’200, 208 Google Scholar. She held many advowsons in her native county, and although her patronage of reformers after that date was outstanding, H. Gareth Owen’s observation remains valid, that her role ‘… in the early Elizabethan nonconformist movement still awaits detailed investigation …’: ‘A nursery of Elizabethan nonconformity, 1567—72’, JEH, 17 (1966), p. 74.
9 An Exposition Vpon the Prophet Ionah (London, 1600) [STC, 34.5), p. 3; 1 Kgs 17. 9-24; OED, ‘nurse’ (meaning 1b).
10 Richard Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londienense, i (London, 1708), pp. 4-5; Fisher, William, A Godly Sermon preached at Paules Crosse the 31. day of October 1591 (London, 1592) [STC, 10919], sigs. C3v-C6rGoogle Scholar; Collins, Samuel, A Sermon Preached at Pavles-Crosse, Vpon the 1. of November, Being All-Saints Day, Anno 1607 (London, 1608) [STC, 5565], pp. 86’8 Google Scholar. Also, Myriell, Thomas, The Devout Sovles Search (London, 1610) [STC 18323a], pp. 80’2 Google Scholar; and Jackson, Thomas, Londons New-Yeeres Gift (London, 1609) [STC, 14303], sig. 8 Google Scholarr (for which reference I thank Professor Collinson). See Maclure, M., The Paul’s Cross Sermons, 1534-1642 (Toronto, 1958), pp. 11’12, 177 Google Scholar. See also London, BL, MS Harley 417, fol 132r. It is difficult to determine when the word Shunamite began to be applied as a synonym for hostess. In 1582, Thomas Bendey used the word ‘Shunamitess’ only in reference to the woman of Shunem. The Monvment of Matrones: conteining seuen seuerall Lamps of Virginitie (London, 1582) [STC, 1892], sixth lamp, p. 88, seventh lamp, pp. [303]-7. Newcourt’s description is similar to Walton’s of ‘the Shunamite’s house’, but Walton’s date of 1581 for the practice seems too early: The Life of Mr. Rich Hooker (London, 1665), pp. 36-42; Sisson, C.J., The Judicious Marriage of Mr. Hooker and the Birth of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity (Cambridge, 1940), pp. 18’44 Google Scholar. For John Flemming, see Sparrow, J., ‘John Donne and contemporary preachers’, in Essays and Studies by Members of The English Association, 16 (1931), p. 154 Google Scholar. Present-day Sunday morning preachers at St Paul’s are given a bottle of sherry. My thanks to die Revd Canon P. W. Ball, Canon Residentiary of St Paul’s Cathedral, for this information.
11 Ley, John, A patterne of Pietie, or The Religious life and death of that Grave and gracious Matron, Mrs. Jane Ratcliffe Widow and Citizen of Chester (London, 1640) [STC, 15567], pp. 6, 63, 104 Google Scholar. See also Nicholas Byfield’s dedicatory epistle to Mrs Ratcliffe, in The Signes or an Essay Concerning the assurance of Gods hue, and mans saluation (London, 1614), [STC, 4236]; and P. Lake, ‘Feminine piety and personal potency: the “Emancipation” of Ratcliffe’, Mrs. Jane, The Seventeenth Century, 2 (1987), pp. 143—65 Google Scholar.
12 Foxe reveals two other women, in addition to Mrs Statham, who were London nurses, and the activities of others might be cloaked under their husbands’ names. Margaret and her husband, William Ettis, of St Matthew’s parish, were cited in 1540 for supporting preachers and causing one Taverner to preach against the King’s injunctions. Ralph Clervis and his wife, with nine other men, were accused of assisting Robert Wisdom, Thomas Rose, Friar Ward, and Sir William Smith (alias Wright): Foxe, 5, pp. 444,446; the will of William Ettis, made 1 November 15 50, proved 26 September 1551, London, PRO, PROB 11/34, fols 195V-6r. For hospitality in Kent attributed to husbands in the 1540s, LP, 18 (2), p. 341. Anne Layer and Anne Rugge of Norwich are mentioned less prominently than their husbands in the dedicatory epistle of Robert Hill in A Learned and Frvitfvll Sermon, Preached in Christs Church in Norwich by Thomas Newhouse (London, 1612) [STC, 18494]. Rose Hickman’s menfolk were persecuted during Mary I’s reign for harbouring preachers. ‘Religion and politics in mid- Tudor England through the eyes of an English Protestant woman: the recollections of Rose Hickman’, ed. Dowling, M. and Shakespeare, J., BIHR, 55 (1982), pp. 98’100 Google Scholar.
13 Foxe, 6, p. 635; 7, pp. 384–402, appendix 1; 8, pp. 401–45, 429, 550.
14 One ballad is written in rough copy, starting on fol. 8r of London, BL, MS Stowe 958, continuing on fols 2v–3r. It is difficult to read, and a title or dedication has been worn from the top of leaf 8r. A few of the 35 verses have also been worn away. It was written to commemorate Mary’s death in Elizabeth’s reign (hereafter Bott, ‘Mary’). The second is written in fair copy, fols 8v–17r and bears the ride, ‘A ballad: A ballad concernynge the death of mr Robart glouer wrytone to maystrys marye glouer his wyf of a frend of heres’ (hereafter Bott, ‘Robert’), and was written soon after Robert’s execution in 1555. They were cited by Chester, p. 2, who mis-describes them, following a misreading of the beginning of ‘Mary’ found in the Catalogue of the Slowe Manuscripts in lhe British Museum, 1 (London, 1895), p. 640. Bott was godfather to Mary and Robert’s youngest son, Timothy. ‘Robert’, fols 16v–17r.
15 Foxe, 7, p. 437. It is possible that one of Mary’s brothers is referred to in a letter from John Careles, when he asked her to greet ‘your brother Hewghe a Bowrrowes and his wife’, London, BL, Additional MS 19400, fol. 70r. Bott, ‘Mary’, fol. 8r. Latimer’s other known niece was the wife of Thomas Sampson, Marian exile and Puritan divine. Whether she was Mary’s sister or cousin is unclear. Strype, , Annals, 1 (2), pp. 147, 151 Google Scholar. Berlatsky, Cf. J., ‘Marriage and family in a Tudor elite: familial patterns of Elizabethan bishops’, Journal of Family History, 3 (1978), p. 8 Google Scholar.
16 Bott, ‘Mary’, fols 8r, 31-; Coverdale, Robert to Mary, p. 527; Foxe, 7, appendix 1.
17 Rom. 16. 1;I Cor. 16. 15-17;Bott, ‘Mary’, fol. 8r. For women running the households of their clerical relatives, see P. Heath, English Parish Clergy (London, 1969), pp. 106,142; P. Collinson, Archbishop Grindal 1519-1583: The Struggle for a Reformed Church (London, 1979), p. 300.
18 Robert took his B.A. in 1538 and M.A. in 1541. They must have married after he left his fellowship in 1543: their eldest son was born in 1545: Venn, J. and Venn, J. A., Alumni Cantahrigienses, 2 (Cambridge, 1922), pp. 223’4 Google Scholar. For John, see Foxe, 7, pp. 384-5. A third brother, William, lived at Wem, in Shropshire, and might have been the author of an adulatory letter to Anne Boleyn: Foxe, 7, pp. 401-2; London, PRO, SP, 1/81, fols 66v–67r (LP, 6, no 1599).
19 Foxe, 7, p. 386; Bott, ‘Robart’, fols 16v-17r; Careles to Mary, London, BL, Additional MS 19400, fols 69r-70r; Coverdale, p. 627.
20 London, PRO, SP, 10/14/47, fols 103r-4r.
21 London, PRO, C, 85/64, items 12 and 16;BL, MS Harley 421, fols 85r-6r; Foxe, 7, pp. 397, 399.
22 Warwickshire sermons: Frvtefvll Sermons Preached by the right reuerendfather, and constant Martyr of Iesus Christ M. Hugh Latimer, comp. Augustine Bernher (London, 1571) [STC, 15277], fols 154r-9v; Remains, pp. 84-95, 419-29. Bernher: Robert to Bernher, London, BL, Additional MS 19400, fol. 80v; Chester, p. 187. Lay converts by Latimer and Bernher: Sermons, pp. 307–8. Clergy: John Olde, A confession of the most auncient and true christē old belefe … (Southwarke, 1556) [STC, 18798], sigs. A2V, E7r. Latimer and Anne, Duchess of Somerset, obtained for Olde the Warwickshire living of Cubbington in 1549. Olde, The seconde tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus upon the newe testament (London, 1549) [STC, 2854.6]; Lichfield, Lichfield Joint Record Office (hereafter LJRO), B/A/1/141V, fol. 42V. The jewel of Joy in The Catechism of Thomas Becon, ed. Ayre, J., PS (1844), pp. 424’6 Google Scholar. Foxe, Saunders:, 6, pp. 612’36 Google Scholar; Saunders, Coverdale, to Robert, and Glover, John, pp. 206’8 Google Scholar. Foxe, Bradford:, 7, appendix 1; Collinson, Grindal, p. 39 Google Scholar; Coverdale, pp. 345-57.
23 London, BL, Additional MS 19400, fols 80r-1v. Bernher’s episde to the Duchess of Suffolk, Seven Sermons; Sermons, p. 321.
24 Robert to Mary, Coverdale, p. 543; Foxe, 7, appendix 1. Similarly, Careles to Bernher, Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 260, fol. 243r. Ridley’s letter to Mary was meant to instruct her to support Robert for her own glorification: Coverdale, pp. 74-5.
25 Foxe, 7, pp. 384, 386; Olde, confession, sig.E6v.
26 Bott, ‘Robart’, fols 8v-17r; Careles to Mary, London, BL, Additional MS 19400, fols 69r-70v; compare Seven Sermons, fol. 19r; Sermons, p. 361. Careles frequendy sent greetings to Mary. BL, Additional MS 19400, fols 64r-5v, 72r-v; Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 260, fols 215r–16v, 237r-v, 242r-3v.
27 Foxe, 7, p. 400; 8, pp. 401-4; London, BL, MS Harley 421, fols 85r-6v.
28 Careles to Mary, London, BL, Additional MS 19400, fol. 70r;C. H. Garrett, The Marian Exiles: a Study in the Origins of Elizabethan Puritanism, repr. (Cambridge, 1066), pp. 238-9. n Foxe, 7, pp. 398, 401; Bernher, episde to the Duchess of Suffolk, Seven Sermons; Sermons,
29 Foxe, 7, pp. 398, 401; Bernher, episde to the Duchess of Suffolk, Seven Sermons; Sermon p. 322. Elizabeth came to the throne before the order to exhume John’s bones came into effect. Mary’s report first appears in the 2nd edn of the Actes and Monumentes, 2 (1570), p. 1892. Similarly, William Glover’s body, Foxe, 7, pp. 400–2.
30 Foxe, 8, p. 199, n. 1; Lichfield, LJRO, B/A/1/15, fols 3 iv, 42. Collinson, P., Letters of Thomas Wood, Puritan, 1566-1577, BIHR, Special Supplement no 5 (London, 1960), pp. xvii, 17 Google Scholar; Grindal, pp. 233-7; and the same author’s ‘Lectures by combination: structures and characteristics of Church life in Seventeenth-century England’, BIHR, 48 (1975), p. 188; R. OT)ay, The English Clergy (Leicester, 1979), pp. 40-3.
31 Bott, ‘Mary’, fols 2v–3r. Further examples of this convention include the tributes of William Leonard, 1589, in London, BL, MS Harley 70, fol. 2v; and Philip Srubbes, A Christall Glasse for Christian Women…the Christian death of Katherine Stubbes (London, 1612) [STC, 2338s]. I owe this suggestion to Professor Collinson. See his The Birthpangs of Protestant England (London, 1988), p. 73.
32 John Swan, A Trve and Breife Report, or Mary Glovers Vexation, and of her deliuerance by the meanes of fastinge and prayer (London, 1603) [STC, 23517]. I owe this reference also to Professor Collinson. Also, Stephen Bradwell, ‘Marie Glouers late woefull Case, together wth her ioyfull deliuerance …’ (1603), London, BL, MS Sloane 831. Bradwell or Bredwell also wrote, A Detection of Ed. Glouers hereticall confection (London, 1586) [STC, 3598], but a connection between Mary’s family and the obscure separatist Edward Glover remains to be established. See Bredwell’s TheRasingoftheFovndationsofBrownism (London, 1588) [STC, 3599];also, The Presbyterian Movement in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth as Illustrated by the Minute Book of the Dedham Classis 1582-1589, ed. Usher, R. G., CSer, ser. 3, 8 (1905), pp. 54’7 Google Scholar; Strype, , Annals, 3 (1), pp. 634’5 Google Scholar.
33 Bernher’s epistle to the Duchess of Suffolk, Seven Sermons: Sermons, pp. 324–5. See also Olde’s prologue to the Epistle of St Paul to the Ephesians, Paraphrase (unpaginated).
34 Coverdale, p. 74.
35 Bott, ‘Mary’, fol. 8r.