Parker and Jonson

Matthew Parker, the future Archbishop of Canterbury (1559-1575) was born during reign of Henry VII, on August 6, 1504. He attended the University of Cambridge at Corpus Christi college and was influenced by the Cambridge reformers, who were bringing Lutheran ideas of reform to England.

Anne Boleyn appointed Parker her chaplain and also made sure he received other preferments. He survived her fall and execution, and became one of Henry VIII's chaplains. He was a moderate reformer during the reign of Henry VIII; he accepted the more conservative reforms Henry demanded in 1539 and 1540.

When Henry VIII died, Parker got married; under Edward VI he supported the efforts of John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland to continue the reformation. He became friends with Martin Bucer and preached his funeral sermon in 1551. When Mary I came to the throne, Parker lost all his benefices because he was married, but he was otherwise free and did not seek exile. Even though he had been close to Northumberland he was not arrested or harrassed in any way during Mary's reign.

Elizabeth I named him Archbishop of Canterbury in 1559; he was never involved in matters of state and never part of her Privy Counsel. He struggled throughout his tenure to maintain uniformity in the Church of England and against the puritan reformers who wished to eliminate any vestiges of Catholicism in the established Church. For instance, the issue of clerical vestments during Book of Common Prayer services involved Parker in controversy that he thought interferred with the true course of reform.

His friendship with Martin Bucer must have influenced him in this matter, for Bucer tried to stay out of the same type of controversies over vestments and the eucharist during his exile in England. As Pollard wrote of Parker in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica: "He distrusted popular enthusiasm, and he wrote in horror of the idea that “the people” should be the reformers of the Church. He was not inspiring as a leader of religion; and no dogma, no original theory of church government, no prayer-book, not even a tract or a hymn is associated with his name. The 56 volumes published by the Parker Society include only one by its eponymous hero, and that is a volume of correspondence. He was a disciplinarian, a scholar, a modest and moderate man of genuine piety and irreproachable morals."

Thomas Tallis composed nine psalm tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter: Man blest no doubt (Psalm 1); Let God arise in majesty (Psalm 68); Why fum'th in Fight (Psalm 2); O come in one to praise the Lord (Psalm 95); E'en like the hunted hind (Psalm 42); Expend, O Lord, my plaint (Psalm 5); Why brag'st in malice high (Psalm 52); God grant with grace (Psalm 67); Come Holy Ghost, eternal God (Veni Creator). Ralph Vaughn Williams used the psalm tune for "Why Fum'th in Fight" in his "Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis".

Matthew Parker, according to his alma mater, contributed greatly to Anglo-Saxon studies:

A benefactor to the University of Cambridge, Parker's greatest tangible legacy is his library of manuscripts and early printed books entrusted to Corpus Christi College in 1574. He was an avid book collector, salvaging medieval manuscripts dispersed at the dissolution of the monasteries; he was particularly keen to preserve materials relating to Anglo-Saxon England, motivated by his search for evidence of an ancient English-speaking Church independent of Rome. The extraordinary collection of documents that resulted from his efforts is still housed at Corpus Christi College, and consists of items spanning from the sixth-century Gospels of St. Augustine to sixteenth-century records relating to the English Reformation.

There's a website with many scans of materials in the Parker Library.

Ben Jonson, the poet and playwright, died on August 6, 1637. He was born circa June 11, 1572 and for 12 dangerous years, from the time he was imprisoned in 1598 until after King Henry IV of France was assassinated in 1610, Ben Jonson was a Catholic. He paid Recusancy fines, refused to take Communion in the Church of England, and faced accusations of "persuading to popery". Robert S. Miola explores Ben Jonson's conversion and recantation of his conversion in this 2001 article from Renaissance and Reformation. Miola notes that even after he began to take Communion in the Church of England, Jonson remained interested in Catholic theology and doctrine, with many Catholic books in his extensive private library, including Thomas Stapleton's book about St. Thomas the Apostle, St. Thomas a Becket, and Sir Thomas More (Tres Thomae). Jonson often referenced the Blessed Virgin Mary in distinctly Catholic tones and tropes, as in this poem for Queen Henrietta Maria, "An
Epigram to the Queen, Then Lying In" (1630):

Hail Mary, full of grace, it once was said,
And by an angel, to the blessed'st maid,
The mother of our Lord: why may not I
(Without profaneness) yet, a poet, cry
Hail Mary, full of honours, to my queen,
The mother of our prince? When was there seen
(Except the joy that the first Mary brought,
Whereby the safety of mankind was wrought)
So general a gladness to an isle,
To make the hearts of a whole nation smile,
As in this prince? Let it be lawful, so
To compare small with great, as still we owe
Glory to God. Then, hail to Mary! Spring
Of so much safety to the realm, and king.

After suffering a series of strokes, Jonson died on August 6 and was buried in Westminster Abbey on August 9, 1637. His poem "A Hymn to God the Father" is an appropriate remembrance:

Hear me, O God! 

A broken heart 

Is my best part. 

Use still thy rod, 

That I may prove 

Therein thy Love. 

If thou hadst not 

Been stern to me, 

But left me free, 

I had forgot 

Myself and thee. 

For sin's so sweet, 

As minds ill-bent 

Rarely repent, 

Until they meet 

Their punishment. 

Who more can crave 

Than thou hast done? 

That gav'st a Son, 

To free a slave, 

First made of nought; 

With all since bought. 

Sin, Death, and Hell 

His glorious name 

Quite overcame, 

Yet I rebel 

And slight the same. 

But I'll come in 

Before my loss 

Me farther toss, 

As sure to win 

Under His cross.