William Bray (died 1644) was an English priest, chaplain to
William Laud
William Laud (; 7 October 1573 – 10 January 1645) was a bishop in the Church of England. Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by Charles I in 1633, Laud was a key advocate of Charles I's religious reforms, he was arrested by Parliament in 1640 ...
,
Archbishop of Canterbury. As licenser of publications of
John Pocklington, he was drawn into Pocklington's case before the
Long Parliament
The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...
.
Life
He matriculated at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
in 1613, moving to
Christ's College, where he graduated
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...
(BA) in 1617,
Cambridge Master of Arts
In the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, Bachelors of Arts are promoted to the degree of Master of Arts or Master in Arts (MA) on application after six or seven years' seniority as members of the university (including years as an u ...
(MA Cantab) in 1620, and
Bachelor of Divinity (BD) in 1631.
At the outset of his clerical career he was a popular lecturer in puritan London, but changing his views he became one of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury,'s chaplains in ordinary, and obtained considerable church preferment. He was rector of
St Ethelburga, London, 5 May 1632; prebendary of Mapesbury in
St Paul's Cathedral, 12 June following; and vicar of
St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. It is dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours. There has been a church on the site since at least the mediev ...
, 2 March 1633. The king presented him, on 7 May 1634, to the vicarage of
Chaldon-Herring in
Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset. Covering an area of , ...
, and in 1638 bestowed on him a canonry in
Canterbury Cathedral.
He had licensed two Laudian books by John Pocklington, on the Sabbath and church ritual; the Long Parliament required him to preach a recantation sermon at
St Margaret's, Westminster
The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, is in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster ...
. On 12 January 1643 Parliament proceeded to sequester him from the vicarage of St Martin's, and at the end of March following his books were seized; he was also imprisoned, plundered, and forced to flee from London to remote parts of the country, where, it is said, he died in 1644.
His recantation sermon was published with the title: ''A Sermon of the Blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; proving that there is therein no proper sacrifice now offered; Together with the disapproving of sundry passages in 2 Bookes set forth by Dr. Pocklington; the one called Altare Christianum, the other Sunday no Sabbath: Formerly printed with Licence. Now published by Command,' London, 1641.''
References
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bray, William (D.1644)
Year of birth missing
1644 deaths
17th-century English Anglican priests