Anthony Rudd (c.1549 – 1615) was a Welsh bishop.

Life

He graduated B.A. from

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

in 1567, and M.A. in 1570. He became Dean of Gloucester in 1584, and

Bishop of St. David's The Bishop of St Davids is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St Davids. The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St Davids in Pembrokeshire, ...

in 1594. In 1596 he preached a celebrated sermon before

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". El ...

Richmond Palace Richmond Palace was a royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminster, which w ...

, in which he made extensive allusions to her approaching old age (she was 63 in 1596, and he made play of this as the

astrology Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...

, on his text “O teach us to number our days”) and physical signs of it.

Thomas Fuller Thomas Fuller (baptised 19 June 1608 – 16 August 1661) was an English churchman and historian. He is now remembered for his writings, particularly his ''Worthies of England'', published in 1662, after his death. He was a prolific author, and ...

in his ''Church History of Britain'' claims that this sermon, and a later one in 1602, offended the Queen, one of his sources being Sir John Harrington's account. Anecdotally

John Whitgift John Whitgift (c. 1530 – 29 February 1604) was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 8 ...

is supposed to have led Rudd on to preach plainly, and Rudd lost the succession as

Archbishop of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

by so doing, but Whitgift survived Elizabeth in any case. He attended the Hampton Court Conference of 1604; he was sympathetic to

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...

ism. He is buried in the church at

Llangathen Llangathen () is a community located in Carmarthenshire, Wales. The population taken at the 2011 census was 507. The parish church of St Cathen is a Grade II* listed building and houses the tomb of Anthony Rudd, an Elizabethan Bishop of St Davi ...

, where his wife erected a “bedstead” tomb. Rudd had acquired adjacent property at

Aberglasney Aberglasney House and Gardens is a medieval house and gardens set in the Tywi valley in the parish of Llangathen, Carmarthenshire, West Wales. It is owned and run by Aberglasney Restoration Trust, a registered charity. It is a Grade II* li ...

Works

The early English comedy Misogonus has been attributed to him, without complete certainty. It was acted at Trinity College between 1568 and 1574.Ian Ousby, ''The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English'' (1993), p. 635.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rudd, Anthony 1549 births 1615 deaths Bishops of St Davids Deans of Gloucester Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge 16th-century Welsh Anglican bishops 17th-century Welsh Anglican bishops