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The Prebendaries' Plot of 1543: a Reconsideration
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
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There are many accounts of the ‘prebendaries' plot’ of 1543 against archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Some view the event as a counterattack against advancing heresy in Canterbury diocese. Others see a ‘papist’ revolt within Cranmer's own household. Nearly all agree that the plot was a wholly clerical enterprise. They have studied the clergy alone, focusing on the prebendaries' and preachers' activities against their ordinary. Recent accounts have stressed the relationship between the prebendaries' plot and the conflict between Cranmer and bishop Stephen Gardiner. That there was factional strife in the royal council, which could easily focus on religious issues, is not in question here. What is lacking, however, in recent accounts is any consideration of the substantial involvement of a number of Kentish gentlemen and royal officials, although their part in the affair was noted in near-contemporary accounts. By following these traces we may enlarge our understanding of the intrigue of 1543 in the context of Reformation politics at the county level.
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References
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page 242 note 2 Robert Serles and Edmund Shether.
page 242 note 3 John Willoughby, vicar of Chilham, in particular.
page 242 note 4 LP, XVIII. ii. 546 (pp. 295–418). The LP calendar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge MS. 128, which is cited here, is almost always accurate and includes long sections in extenso. The sad gap in the collection of depositions and allegations which make up MS. 128 is the lack of any material from Dr. John London, who was not interrogated in Canterbury.
page 243 note 1 Ibid., 295, 311.
page 243 note 2 Ibid., 311.
page 243 note 3 Ibid., 306
page 243 note 4 Ibid., 306, 308, 302, 304–5.
page 243 note 5 Ibid., 306, 307, 308.
page 243 note 6 Ibid., 307.
page 243 note 7 Canterbury Cathedral Library MS. J/Q/335/ii. On the flourishing heresy in Canterbury in the early 1530s, see the monk-chronicler of St. Augustine's abbey: British Museum, Harleian MS. 419, fol. 112v.
page 244 note 1 LP. XVIII. ii. 546 (pp. 311, 313).
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page 246 note 2 Cranmer, Letters, 397.
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page 246 note 4 Nichols, Narratives, 253.
page 246 note 5 LP, XVIII. ii. 546(p. 325).
page 246 note 6 Ibid., 335.
page 247 note 1 Ibid., 307.
page 247 note 2 Ibid., 319.
page 247 note 3 Ibid., 360, 366.
page 247 note 4 Ibid., 341.
page 247 note 5 Ibid., 369.
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page 252 note 3 LP, XVIII. i, 623(96).
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