6 Jul 1583 A.D. Edmund Grindal Dies—72nd
of 105 Archbishops of Canterbury; The
“Protestant and Reformed” ABC Who Bucked Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth 1
Morrill,
John S. “Edmund Grindal.” Encyclopedia
Britannica. N.d. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/246288/Edmund-Grindal. Accessed 31 May 2014.
Edmund Grindal, (born
1519?, St. Bees, Cumberland, Eng.—died July 6, 1583, Croyden, Surrey), English archbishop of
Canterbury whose Puritan sympathies brought him into serious conflict with
Queen Elizabeth
I.
Educated at
Magdalene and Christ’s colleges, Cambridge, he became a royal chaplain and
prebendary of Westminster in 1551 and, during the reign of Mary
I, went to the Continent on diplomatic missions relating
to religious affairs. On the accession of Elizabeth
I he returned home and the following year was nominated bishop of London, but he hesitated to accept because of his scruples about the
“ornaments” rubric in the Elizabethan prayer book, the vestments of the clergy,
and the use of wafer bread for Holy Communion. He consulted Peter Martyr, who
advised acceptance so that they might work from within for the removal of the
remaining relics of popery. As bishop of London Grindal was a thorn in the side
of Archbishop Matthew
Parker, who wished to enforce the wearing of the surplice but enjoyed little support from Grindal.
In 1570 Grindal was
made archbishop of York, and he became a determined opponent of Thomas
Cartwright and the Presbyterianizing party, which desired the abolition of the
prayer book and of episcopacy. Accordingly he was nominated to the
archbishopric of Canterbury in 1576 in the hope that he might drive a wedge
between the moderate Puritans and the new party of radical reform. He
introduced a series of moderate reforms of abuses, which might have been
effective 10 years earlier. Unfortunately he fell foul of Elizabeth in regard
to “prophesyings,” or meetings of clergy for mutual edification and study,
since he wished to regulate and continue them, whereas she wished to prevent
their meeting. Grindal thereupon addressed to the Queen a remonstrance, in
which he pointed out to her the limits of her authority in ecclesiastical
matters and exhorted her to respect that of the bishops, in terms as
unaccustomed as unwelcome to Elizabeth. She retorted by imprisoning him and by
suspending him from the exercise of his metropolitan functions. The dispute
dragged on until his death.
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