William Petow (or ''Peto'', ''Peyto''; – April 1558 or 1559?) was an English

Franciscan , 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 = , ...

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, t ...

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 Ches ...

, 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. 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 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

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, being active on behalf of all Catholic interests.

Exile

In 1539 Petow was included in the Act of Attainder 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 academi ...

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

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. 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, but that he had declined because of age and infirmity.

Early life

Exile

References

Further reading