Parker, Matthew
Parker, Matthew (1504–75). Archbishop of Canterbury. Born in Norwich and educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Parker was successively chaplain to Anne Boleyn, master of Corpus Christi (1544), vice-chancellor (1545 and 1549), dean of Lincoln (1552), and archbishop. Close to Bucer and a supporter of Lady Jane Grey, he was deprived under Mary and lived in obscurity. As a diffident, scholarly man, he reluctantly agreed to the primacy at Elizabeth's request. His consecration in Lambeth palace in 1559 by four former Edwardine bishops was unusually significant, for it claimed to transmit valid succession to the Anglican episcopate despite catholic denials. Though earlier associated with Cambridge reformers, his patristic studies gave him independence, and a distaste for extreme protestantism. The major architect of the Elizabethan settlement, Parker courageously promoted theological comprehension within liturgical conformity, a middle road between Rome and calvinism. For this he revived convocation, revised the Thirty-Nine Articles (1563), initiated a new translation of the Bible, the ‘Bishops’ Bible' (1568), and published his ‘Advertisements’ (1566), enjoining the use of cope and surplice.
Revd Dr William M. Marshall
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
Parker, Matthew
