Joshua Bassett or Basset (c. 1641 – c.1720,

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

) was an

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academic,

Master Master or masters may refer to: Ranks or titles * Ascended master, a term used in the Theosophical religious tradition to refer to spiritually enlightened beings who in past incarnations were ordinary humans *Grandmaster (chess), National Master ...

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge Sidney Sussex College (referred to informally as "Sidney") is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. The College was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife ...

under

James II James II may refer to: * James II of Avesnes (died c. 1205), knight of the Fourth Crusade * James II of Majorca (died 1311), Lord of Montpellier * James II of Aragon (1267–1327), King of Sicily * James II, Count of La Marche (1370–1438), King C ...

. Bassett was the son of John Bassett, a merchant from

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is located north of London, north-east of Peterborough, no ...

, Norfolk. In 1657 he was admitted to

Caius College, Cambridge Gonville and Caius College, often referred to simply as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and one of th ...

, aged 16; he gained his MA in 1665 and became a fellow of Caius. He was ordained deacon in 1663 and priest of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

in 1666. King James II had him installed as Master of Sidney Sussex College by a royal mandate dated 3 January 1687, brought by Alban Francis, a Benedictine monk who functioned as Basset's chaplain. Bassett had declared himself a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

convert. The college had been founded in 1596 as an avowedly

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

foundation. The fellows of Sidney requested that their new master should take the anti-Catholic oath required by the college statutes, so a second royal mandate was issued on 12 January dispensing Bassett from taking the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. On 25 February a royal warrant exempted Bassett and other Cambridge converts from the oaths. Bassett was finally admitted as master on 7 March 1687. Bassett had a room in the Master's Lodge fitted as a Catholic chapel. The college chapel continued to be used for Anglican services, although Bassett locked the chapel door to prevent its use for the Gunpowder day service on 5 November 1687. In mid-November 1688, during the

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, Bassett fled the college. He had controversially altered various aspects of college regulations and routine before he was removed as master. One publication ''Ecclesiae Theoria Nova Dodwelliana Exposita'' (1713) bears his name on the title page but he has been proposed as author of other works, including ''Reason and Authority'' (1687) and ''Essay towards a proposal for a Catholic communion ... by a minister of the Church of England'' (1704). He is said to have died in poverty.

References

* 1641 births 1720 deaths Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Fellows of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Masters of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge {{England-academic-bio-stub