John Aylmer(ÆlmerorElmer;1521 – 3 June 1594) was an English bishop, constitutionalist and aGreekscholar.[1]
John Aylmer | |
|---|---|
| Bishop of London | |
 | |
| Church | Church of England |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Diocese | London |
| Elected | 12 March 1577 |
| Term ended | 3 June 1594 |
| Predecessor | Edwin Sandys |
| Successor | Richard Fletcher |
| Previous post(s) | Archdeacon of Lincoln 1562–1577 Archdeacon of Stow 1553–1554 & 1559–1562 |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 24 March 1577 |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1521 Tivetshall St Margaret,Norfolk |
| Died | 3 June 1594 (aged 72-73) Fulham Palace,London |
| Buried | St Paul's Cathedral,London |
| Nationality | English |
| Denomination | Anglican |
| Profession | Scholar |
| Alma mater | Queens' College, Cambridge |
Early life and career
editHe was born at Aylmer Hall,Tilney St. Lawrence,Norfolk. While still a boy, his precocity was noticed byHenry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset,later 1st Duke of Suffolk, who sent him toCambridge,where he seems to have become a fellow ofQueens' College.[2]About 1541 he was made chaplain to the duke, and tutor of Greek[3]to his daughter,Lady Jane Grey.[4]
His first preferment was to thearchdeaconry of Stow,in thediocese of Lincoln,but his opposition inConvocationto the doctrine oftransubstantiationled to his deprivation and to his flight intoSwitzerland.While there he wrote a reply toJohn Knox's famousBlast against the Monstrous Regiment of Women,under the title ofAn Harborowe for Faithfull and Trewe Subjects, etc.,and assisted John Foxe in translating theActs of the Martyrsinto Latin. On the accession ofElizabethhe returned to England. "God is English", Aylmer proclaimed in 1558, attempting to fill his parishioners with piety and patriotism.[5]In 1559 he resumed the Stow archdeaconry, and in 1562 he obtained that of Lincoln. He was a member of theconvocation of 1563,which reformed and settled the doctrine and discipline of theChurch of England.[4]
In 1577 he was consecratedBishop of London,and while in that position made himself notorious by his harsh treatment of all who differed from him on ecclesiastical questions, whetherPuritanor Roman Catholic. Various efforts were made to remove him to another see. He is frequently assailed in the famousMarprelate Tracts,and is characterised as "Morrell," the bad shepherd, inEdmund Spenser'sShepheard's Calendar (July).His reputation as a scholar hardly balances his inadequacy as a bishop in the transitional time in which he lived. HisLifewas written byJohn Strype(1701).[4]
He died in 1594 and was buried inSt Paul's Cathedral.He had several children; his eldest son Samuel was theHigh Sheriff of Suffolkfor 1626.[6]
Works
edit"Aylmer, likeJohn PonetandStephen Gardinerbefore him, is an important figure in the story of the reception of classical mixed government in Tudor England. "[7]John Aylmer wrote his workAn harborowe for faithful and trewe subiectes(1559), to defend the female monarchy of Elizabeth I associating "the rule of boyes and women, or effeminate persons" and on another basis; "that cytie is at pits brinks, wherein magistrate ruleth lawes, and not the lawes the magistrate: What could any kyng in Israell do in that common wealth, besides the pollycie appointed by Moyses?". His effort to familiarise his fellow countrymen with the "strange and alluring vocabulary of politics", introducing them to the classical forms and terminology, must be viewed as secondary to this primary goal.
Aylmer nevertheless described England as not "a mere monarchy, as some for lack of consideration think, nor a mere oligarchy, nor democracy, but a rule mixed of all these."1He goes on to say that in themixed state,"each one of these have or should have like authority." He argued that in the king-in-Parliament, or, in Elizabeth's case, the queen-in-Parliament, was not the "image" of a mixed state "but the thing in deed." It was in Parliament that one found the three estates: "the king or queen, which representeth the monarchy; the noble men which be the aristocracy; and the burgesses and knights the democracy." As he says, "In like manner,ifthe Parliament use their privileges: the king can ordain nothing without them. "Parliamentary restraint of a queen's feminine vices would, according to Aylmer, ameliorate the disadvantages of female monarchy.
His work, particularly his characterisation of England as a mixed monarchy, would be important to later English constitutionalists.
Notes
edit- ^Dangerous Positions; Mixed Government, the Estates of the Realm, and the Making of the "Answer to the xix propositions",Michael Mendle, University of Alabama Press, 1985. pg 49.
- ^"Aylmer, John (ALMR540J)".A Cambridge Alumni Database.University of Cambridge.
- ^Dangerous Positions,Mendle. pg 61.
- ^abcChisholm 1911.
- ^Carl Bridenbaugh,Vexed and Troubled Englishmen, 1590–1642(New York, 1968), p. 13.
- ^Fisher, Payne.The tombes, monuments, and sepulchral inscriptions, lately visible in St. Pauls.p. 115.
- ^Dangerous Positions,Mendle. pg 50.
References
edit- This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Aylmer, John".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 73.
External links
edit- Horn, J. M. (1969)."Bishops of London".Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857.Vol. 1: St. Paul's, London.Institute of Historical Research.pp. 1–4.
- Likeness in the National Portrait Gallery
- Historical Collection of the Life and Acts of John AylmerbyJohn Strype(1821 ed.)