William Warham

Archbishop of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor · c. 1450–1532 · England

William Warham was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1503 until his death and, in the first years of Henry VIII, Lord Chancellor as well. Merle d’Aubigné pictures his crowded days: the mass, ambassadors, counsel with the king, as many as two hundred guests at his table, the courts, and his private devotions.1 He was the great patron of Erasmus,2 and from the beginning he doubted that Henry could lawfully marry his brother’s widow. Such a marriage, he warned, was “inconsistent with propriety,” and “the will of God himself is against it.”13

Yet Warham set himself against the gospel when it came in the English tongue. In 1527 he tried to buy up and destroy the remaining copies of Tyndale’s New Testament, and his money only helped pay for a better edition.4 In 1530 he presided over the royal commission that condemned Tyndale’s books,5 and on May 24 of that year he joined More, Tunstall, and Gardiner in urging the king to forbid the New Testament outright.6 When the evangelical John Lambert stood before him, Warham insisted that “images are sufficient” to “keep Christ and His saints in our remembrance.” In 1532 he presided over the trial of Hugh Latimer, begging him, “Have pity on yourself,” and three times Latimer answered, “I refuse absolutely.”7

Whoever is silent seems to consent.8 William Warhamto the Convocation of Canterbury, 1531, as reported by Merle d’Aubigné

In 1531, when Henry demanded to be named head of the church, the old archbishop proposed to add “so far as the law of Christ permits.” Convocation met his question with silence, and the clause passed.8 On February 24, 1532, Warham protested before three notaries against every act of Parliament that diminished the pope’s authority,9 but in May the clergy submitted to the king.3 He died on August 22, 1532, and Thomas Cranmer was named his successor.93

Catholic Opponents

Sources

  1. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, trans. H. White, vol. 5, bk. 17, ch. 10, on Warham as chancellor and on the Spanish marriage. ↩
  2. William Gilpin, The Lives of the Reformers, vol. 2, “Thomas Cranmer.” ↩
  3. Colin Hamer, Anne Boleyn: One Short Life That Changed the English-Speaking World (Leominster: Day One, 2007). ↩
  4. Steven J. Lawson, Pillars of Grace (AD 100–1564) (Sanford, FL: Reformation Trust, 2011), “William Tyndale.” ↩
  5. James E. McGoldrick, Luther’s English Connection (Milwaukee: Northwestern, 1979). ↩
  6. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, trans. H. White, vol. 5, bk. 20, ch. 15, on the report against heretical books, May 24, 1530. ↩
  7. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 4 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 6, ch. 14, on Lambert and Latimer before Warham. ↩
  8. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 4 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 6, ch. 9, on the Convocation of 1531. ↩
  9. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in Europe in the Time of Calvin, trans. William L. R. Cates, vol. 4 (London: Longmans, Green), bk. 6, ch. 16, on the death of Warham. ↩