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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
It has been generally assumed that in the Morrell of the July eclogue of the Shepheardes Calender Spenser intended to satirize Dr. John Aylmer, bishop of London at the time of the composition and publication of this poem. Morrell's antagonist in this eclogue, Thomalin, has usually been considered a Puritan, but the Puritan so honored has been a matter of dispute among those scholars bold enough to hazard an identification. In this article I intend, first, to present in detail the grounds for Spenser's presumed dislike of Aylmer and to indicate Spenser's probable attitude towards him; second, to suggest that Dr. Thomas Cooper, bishop of Lincoln between 1571 and 1584, and definitely not a Puritan, is a more probable Thomalin.
1 These reasons are not gathered in any one book or article. See, however, DNB, and J. J. Higginson, Spenser's Shepherd's Calender in Relation to Contemporary Affairs (New York, 1912), pp. 99-111. The best treatment of Aylmer's position in the Calender is found in Percy W. Long, “Spenser and the Bishop of Rochester,” PMLA, xxxi (1916), 729-735.
2 John Strype, The History of the Life and Acts of the Most Reverend Father in God, Edmund Grindal (Oxford, 1821), p. 359.
3 John Strype, The Life and Acts of John Aylmer (Oxford, 1821), p. 15.
4 Ibid.., pp. 17-18.
5 Ibid., pp. 48-50.
6 Ibid., pp. 46-48. All of this is in pointed contrast to Archbishop Grindal's care of his woods. Grindal neither sold his timber “for his own gain, nor used any more of it than was necessary for the reparation of houses and farms,” even opposing the Queen's attempt to take some of it. Strype, Grindal, p. 357.
7 Strype, Aylmer, p. 128.
8 Ibid., p. 127.
9 Ibid., p. 15. Strype infers that Aylmer's refusal was due to his discontent in not getting a bishopric before this time.
10 For Spenser's attitude towards a married clergy, see F. M. Padelford, “Spenser and the Puritan Propaganda,” MP, xi (1913), 105. See also “May,” 75-94; and “September,” 115-116.
11 Strype, Aylmer, p. 115.
12 Strype, Grindal, p. 343.
13 Ibid., p. vi (Introduction). Leicester opposed Aylmer's attempts to get the bishopric of London in 1570, when Sandys was elevated to it. Strype, Aylmer, p. 16.
14 See, for instance, M. M. Knappen, Tudor Puritanism (Chicago, 1939), pp. 257-258.
15 Strype, Aylmer, p. 6.
16 Ibid., p. 8.
17 Ibid., p. 11.
18 Ibid., pp. 158-174.
19 Ibid., p. 168.
20 Besides the Puritan De Disciplina, already mentioned above, Aylmer was the first cleric asked to answer Campion's Ten Reasons. DNB.
21 “July,” ll. 203-204. The gloss in brackets is that given by E. K.
22 Ibid., ll. 205-206.
23 Ibid., ll. 229-230.
24 Strype, Grindal, p. 331.
25 John Strype, Annals of the Reformation, 4 vols. in 7 (Oxford, 1924), iii, ii. 155.
26 Strype, Aylmer, p. 136.
27 Ibid., p. 58. At this time, Bath and Wells was troubled by Catholics, and Norwich by Puritans.
28 Ibid., pp. 134-142.
29 Ibid., p. 185.
30 Strype, Grindal, pp. 446-447.
31 Higginson, op. cit., p. 199. With Higginson I agree that the Thomalin of “March” is not the same character as the Thomalin of “July.” The “March” Thomalin—like Spenser in “September”—is a “shepheard's boy,” not a shepherd.
32 A. F. Scott Pearson, Thomas Cartwright and Elizabethan Puritanism (Cambridge, 1925), p. 188.
33 Strype, Grindal, p. 438, gives a good summary of Grindal's position.
34 Scott Pearson, op. cit., pp. 29-30.
35 Ibid., p. 34. See also Grindal's Remains, Parker Society, pp. 304-305; and 323-324.
36 Ibid., p. 61.
37 For example, see Strype, Annals, iii. i. 254, for Cooper's use of this signature in a letter to Lord Burghley. Lincoln was often abbreviated to Lin. in ecclesiastical documents.
38 Roffen is Latin for Rochester.
39 Strype, Annals, II. ii. 36-38.
40 Mona Wilson, Sir Philip Sidney (New York, 1932), p. 38.
41 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Pepys Manuscripts, xvii (1911), 155. Both Piers and Cooper attended Magdalen College, and preceded D.D. a year apart, Piers in 1566, Cooper in 1567. Anthony A. Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. by Bliss (London, 1813), ii 169-172 of Fasti. Piers and Cooper took important parts in the disputations held for Queen Elizabeth when she visited Leicester at Oxford in 1566. Each gave an address in Latin to the visitors. John Nicols, The Progresses and Public Processions of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1788), i, 5, 9, 99 (under the year 1566).
42 Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series (1547-80), p. 173.
43 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Salisbury, 13, Addenda I (1915), 39.
44 Strype, Annals, ii. ii. 50.
45 DNB article by Rev. William Benham.
46 Strype, Annals, ii. i. 286.
47 John Strype, The Life and Acts of Mathew Parker, 3 vols. (Oxford, 1821), ii, 140.
48 Strype, Annals, ii. i. 141.
49 DNB.
50 Ibid.
51 Wood, op. cit., ii, 609.
52 DNB.
53 “E. K.'s Allusions Reconsidered,” SP, 39 (1942), 143-159.
54 D. T. Starnes, “Spenser and E. K.,” SP, 41 (1944), 181-200.
55 “Who Is E. K.?” SAB, xix (1944), 147-160; and xx (1945), 22-38, 82-94. Professor Jenkins offers a wealth of evidence that E. K. and Spenser are identical.
50 Strype, Parker, ii, 47.
57 DNB.
58 Strype, Parker, ii, 433.
59 Strype, Annals, ii. ii. 36.
60 The married life of Bishop Cooper was notoriously unhappy. His “wife was utterly profligate. He condoned her unfaithfulness again and again, refusing to be divorced when the heads of the university offered to arrange it for him, and declaring that he would not charge his conscience with so great a scandal. On one occasion his wife, in a paroxysm of fury, tore up half his Thesaurus, and threw it into the fire. He patiently set to work and rewrote it.” DNB.
61 For Cooper's position, see Strype, Annals, ii. i. 472-3. Grindal expressed these same views in his famous letter to the Queen that led to his confinement. Strype, Grindal, p. 327.
62 Strype, Annals, ii. ii. 114 and 612. See also Knappen, op. cit., p. 262.
63 “September,” 122-135.
64 Strype, Grindal, p. 264.
65 Strype, Annals, iii. i. 162.