William Petow (or ''Peto'', ''Peyto''; – April 1558 or 1559?) was an English
Franciscan
The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
friar and, briefly, a
Cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to:
Animals
* Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae
**''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...
.
Early life
Though his parentage was long unknown, it is now established that he was the son of Edward Peyto of
Chesterton, Warwickshire
Chesterton is a small village in Warwickshire, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 123. It is about five miles south of Leamington Spa, near the villages of Harbury and Lighthorne.
Parish
The parish of Che ...
, and Goditha, daughter of Sir Thomas Throckmorton of Coughton. He was educated under the guidance from the
Grey Friars
, image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans
, abbreviation = OFM
, predecessor =
, ...
and took his degree of B. A. at the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
; but he was incorporated in Cambridge university, 1502–1503, and became M. A. there in 1505. He was elected fellow of
Queens' College, Cambridge
Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...
in 1506, and on 14 June 1510, was incorporated M. A. at Oxford.
Entering the
Observant branch of the Franciscan Order, he became known for his holiness of life, and was appointed confessor to
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
's daughter
Mary
Mary may refer to:
People
* Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name)
Religious contexts
* New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below
* Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
. Later on he was elected Provincial of England and held that office when in 1532 he denounced the King's divorce in his presence;
R. W. Chambers
Raymond Wilson Chambers (12 November 1874 – 23 April 1942) was a British literary scholar, author, librarian and academic; throughout his career he was associated with University College London (UCL).
Life
Chambers was educated at Univer ...
wrote that Peyto did not fall afoul of the statutes against prophesying evil to the king when he warned Henry of possible consequences in the future (having dogs lick his blood, as they had Ahab's, after death.), because he spoke conditionally of this happening ''if'' the king were to behave like Ahab. He was imprisoned till the end of that year, when he went abroad and spent many years at
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, and elsewhere in the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
, being active on behalf of all Catholic interests.
Exile
In 1539 Petow was included in the
Act of Attainder
A bill of attainder (also known as an act of attainder or writ of attainder or bill of penalties) is an act of a legislature declaring a person, or a group of people, guilty of some crime, and punishing them, often without a trial. As with attai ...
passed against
Cardinal Pole
Reginald Pole (12 March 1500 – 17 November 1558) was an English cardinal of the Catholic Church and the last Catholic archbishop of Canterbury, holding the office from 1556 to 1558, during the Counter-Reformation.
Early life
Pole was born a ...
and his friends (
31 Hen. 8. c. 5), but he was in Italy at the time and remained there out of the king's reach. On 30 March 1543,
Pope Paul III
Pope Paul III ( la, Paulus III; it, Paolo III; 29 February 1468 – 10 November 1549), born Alessandro Farnese, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 October 1534 to his death in November 1549.
He came to ...
nominated him
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...
, though he could not then obtain possession of his diocese. On Henry VIII's death in 1547, Petow's reputation was greatly enhanced, as reported by
Gilbert Burnet
Gilbert Burnet (18 September 1643 – 17 March 1715) was a Scottish philosopher and historian, and Bishop of Salisbury. He was fluent in Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Burnet was highly respected as a cleric, a preacher, an academic, ...
in his ''History of the Reformation of the Church of England'', when Henry's coffin, having sustained some damage from jolting along the rough roads to Windsor, was placed at the former Sion Abbey for a night, where some bodily fluids mixed with blood leaked through a cleft in the lead coffin onto the pavement; the next morning, when a workman came to repair the damage, a dog crept up and was observed licking up the fluid, in apparent fulfillment of Petow's prophecy. Nevertheless, Petow did not claim the bishopric even on the accession of the Roman Catholic Mary I in 1553, but resigned the see and retired to his old convent at
Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross.
Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich ...
.
There he remained till
Pope Paul IV
Pope Paul IV, born Gian Pietro Carafa, C.R. ( la, Paulus IV; it, Paolo IV; 28 June 1476 – 18 August 1559) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 23 May 1555 to his death in August 1559. While serving as pap ...
, who had known him in Rome and highly esteemed him, decided to create him cardinal and
papal legate
300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the pope's legate.
A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title ''legatus'') is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic ...
in place of Pole. But as Petow was very old and his powers were failing, he declined both dignities. He was, however, created cardinal on 14 June 1557, though Queen Mary would not allow him to receive the hat, and the appointment was received with public derision. It was a tradition among the Franciscans that he was pelted with stones by a London mob, and so injured that he shortly afterwards died.
[Parkinson, p. 254] Other accounts represent him as dying in France.
The date frequently assigned for his death (April, 1558) is incorrect, as on 31 October 1558, Queen Mary wrote to the pope that she had offered to reinstate him in the Bishopric of Salisbury on the death of
Bishop Capon
John Capon, ''alias'' John Salcot (died 1557) was a Benedictine monk who became bishop of Bangor, then bishop of Salisbury under Henry VIII. He is often referred to as John Salcot alias Capon (variously spelt).
He graduated B.A. from the Universi ...
, but that he had declined because of age and infirmity.
References
Further reading
*
Charles Henry Cooper, ''Athenæ Cantabrigienses'', I (Cambridge, 1858), giving new particulars as to his family and his university career
*
Anthony à Wood
Anthony Wood (17 December 1632 – 28 November 1695), who styled himself Anthony à Wood in his later writings, was an English antiquary. He was responsible for a celebrated ''Hist. and Antiq. of the Universitie of Oxon''.
Early life
Anthony W ...
, ''Athenæ Oxonienses'', ed. Bliss (London, 1813–20)
*
Anthony Parkinson, ''Collectanea Anglo-Minoritica'' (London, 1726)
*
Dodd, Charles, ''Church History'' (Brussels vere Wolverhampton, 1737–42)
*
William Maziere Brady, ''Episcopal Succession'', I, II (Rome, 1877)
*
Francis Aidan Gasquet
Francis Aidan Cardinal Gasquet (born Francis Neil Gasquet; 5 October 1846 – 5 April 1929) was an English Benedictine monk and historical scholar. He was created Cardinal in 1914.
Life
Gasquet was the third of six children of Raymond Gasquet, ...
, ''Henry VIII and the English Monasteries'' (London, 1888)
*
James Gairdner
James Gairdner (22 March 1828 – 4 November 1912) was a British historian. He specialised in 15th-century and early Tudor history, and among other tasks edited the '' Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII'' series.
Son of John Gairdn ...
in ''
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'', citing state papers but otherwise an imperfect and defective account
*
Joseph Gillow
Joseph Gillow (5 October 1850, Preston, Lancashire – 17 March 1921, Westholme, Hale, Cheshire) was an English Roman Catholic antiquary, historian and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics".
Biography
Born in Frenchwood Hous ...
, ''Bibliographical Dictionary of the English Catholics'' (London, 1885)
*
Mary Jean Stone, ''Mary the First'' (London, 1901)
*Marie Halle, ''Life of Cardinal Pole'' (London, 1910)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Petow, William
16th-century English cardinals
English Franciscans
People from Stratford-on-Avon District
1550s deaths
Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge
1483 births