Richard Turner (reformer)
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Richard Turner (died 1565?) was an English Protestant reformer and Marian exile.


Life

Born in Staffordshire, he was educated at Magdalen College, Oxford, of which he became a Fellow. He graduated B.A. on 19 July 1524, M.A. on 12 July 1529, and B.D. on 27 January 1536, and supplicated for D.D. in 1552. On 25 January 1536 he was elected to a perpetual
chantry A chantry is an ecclesiastical term that may have either of two related meanings: # a chantry service, a Christian liturgy of prayers for the dead, which historically was an obiit, or # a chantry chapel, a building on private land, or an area i ...
in the king's college at Windsor. He was appointed by Ralph Morice,
Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build the case for the annulment of Henry ...
's secretary, to be rector of
Chartham Chartham is a village and civil parish in the Canterbury district of Kent, England. It is situated on the Ashford side of the city, and is in the North Downs area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, south west of Canterbury, England. The Great St ...
,
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, where he neglected Catholic rites.Alec Ryrie, ‘Turner, Richard (d. in or before 1565)’, ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 200

accessed 13 Feb 2010.
He was a staunch supporter of royal supremacy, and was able to avoid the dangers besetting an ecclesiastic under Henry VIII. In 1543 a bill of accusation was presented against him and others of Cranmer's chaplains and preachers at the sessions for not complying with the statute of the Six Articles (1539), Six Articles; this attack was aimed at Cranmer himself, who however possessed the favour of the king, and the indictments in consequence came to nothing. Turner was at that time living in the family of Ralph Morice. On 1 July 1545 Turner was instituted to the vicarage of St. Stephen's-by-Saltash in
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
; he has been doubtfully identified with the Richard Turner who was appointed rector of
Chipping Ongar Chipping Ongar () is a market town and former civil parish, now in the parish of Ongar, in the Epping Forest District of the county of Essex, England. It is located east of Epping, southeast of Harlow and northwest of Brentwood. In 2020 th ...
in
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in 1544, and vicar of
Hillingdon Hillingdon is an area of Uxbridge within the London Borough of Hillingdon, centred 14.2 miles (22.8 km) west of Charing Cross. It was an ancient parish in Middlesex that included the market town of Uxbridge. During the 1920s the civ ...
in
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in 1545. In July 1549, during popular unrest in
Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
against the reformers, Turner went to the rioters' camp and preached against them, narrowly escaping being hanged. Turner suggested to John Marbeck, organist at Windsor, the compilation of his concordance of the English Bible which appeared in July 1550. He had been appointed one of the
Six Preachers The college of Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral was created by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer as part of the reorganisation of the monastic Christ Church Priory into the new secular Cathedral. First mentioned in a letter of Cranmer to Thomas Crom ...
in Canterbury Cathedral in 1550.Derek Ingram Hill, ''The Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral'', Canterbury: K. H. McIntosh (1982) 19–20. On 24 December 1551 he was appointed to a prebend at Windsor, and he also about this time obtained the vicarage of Dartford in Kent. In the following year he was recommended by Cranmer for the archbishopric of Armagh, but declined, chiefly on the grounds of his ignorance of the
Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
. On the accession of Mary I of England he went into exile. In 1555, while at
Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
, he joined with other English refugees in publicly repudiating John Knox's principles on civil government. They took exception to several passages in Knox's ''Faythfull Admonition unto the professours of Gods Truthe in England'', assailing Queen Mary, Philip, and the Emperor Charles V. They drew the attention of the town authorities to Knox's views, and he was in consequence expelled. In
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he delivered lectures on the epistles to the Hebrews and to the Ephesians, and on the general epistle of St. James, which were ‘fit for the press,’ according to Anthony Wood, in 1558, but were not published. Turner returned to England on the accession of Elizabeth I, and in 1559 was restored to the vicarage of Dartford. In the following year he was selected by
Matthew Parker Matthew Parker (6 August 1504 – 17 May 1575) was an English bishop. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder (with a p ...
as a visitor to reform abuses in the two Kentish dioceses. He probably died in 1565, when he was succeeded as vicar by John Appelbie.


References

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Turner, Richard Year of birth missing 1565 deaths Clergy from Staffordshire 16th-century English Anglican priests Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford English Protestants 16th-century Protestants English chaplains Marian exiles