Worcester Cathedral 20190211 125208 (33747343748)

Edmund Freke (also spelled Freake or Freak; c. 1516–1591) was an English dean and bishop.

Life

He was born in

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

, and educated at

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, gaining his M.A. there c. 1550. In 1565 he was appointed Canon of the sixth stall at

St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gar ...

, a position he held until 1572. He was

Dean of Salisbury The Dean of Salisbury is the head of the chapter of Salisbury Cathedral in the Church of England. The Dean assists the archdeacon of Sarum and bishop of Ramsbury in the diocese of Salisbury. List of deans High Medieval * Walter * Osbert *?� ...

and

Dean of Rochester The Dean of Rochester is the head of the chapter of canons at Rochester Cathedral, the mother church of the Church of England Diocese of Rochester. The current dean is Philip Hesketh, who has served in that role since June 2016. List of deans ...

from 1571 to 1572 when he became

Bishop of Rochester The Bishop of Rochester is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury. The town of Rochester has the bishop's seat, at the Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was foun ...

and was simultaneously

Archdeacon of Canterbury The Archdeacon of Canterbury is a senior office-holder in the Diocese of Canterbury (a division of the Church of England Province of Canterbury). Like other archdeacons, he or she is an administrator in the diocese at large (having oversight of ...

''in commendam''. In 1575, he became

Bishop of Norwich The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The bishop of Norwich is Graham Usher. The see is in the ...

.''Concise Dictionary of National Biography'' There, unlike his predecessor

John Parkhurst John Parkhurst (c. 1512 – 2 February 1575) was an English Marian exile and from 1560 the Bishop of Norwich. Early life Born about 1512, he was son of George Parkhurst of Guildford, Surrey. He initially attended the Royal Grammar School, Guild ...

, he campaigned hard to impose uniformity in his diocese. In 1579 he tried and then burnt a Norfolk plowwright, Matthew Hamont, for heresy. In 1584, he became

Bishop of Worcester A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

. He was also appointed

Lord Almoner The Royal Almonry is a small office within the Royal Households of the United Kingdom, headed by the Lord High Almoner, an office dating from 1103. The almoner is responsible for distributing alms to the poor. The Lord High Almoner is usually a ...

, a position he held until his death.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freke, Edmund 1516 births 1591 deaths Alumni of the University of Cambridge Deans of Salisbury Bishops of Norwich Bishops of Rochester Bishops of Worcester Archdeacons of Canterbury 16th-century Church of England bishops Deans of Rochester Canons of Windsor