Francis Kett (c. 1547–1589) was an Anglican clergyman burned for

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important religi ...

Life

Kett was born in

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, south-west of Norwich off the A11 road to London. The River Tiffey runs through. The parish, one of Norfolk's largest, includes rural areas to ...

, Norfolk, the son of Thomas and Agnes Kett, and the nephew of the rebel Robert Kett, the main instigator of

Kett's Rebellion Kett's Rebellion was a revolt in Norfolk, England during the reign of Edward VI, largely in response to the enclosure of land. It began at Wymondham on 8 July 1549 with a group of rebels destroying fences that had been put up by wealthy landowners ...

. Although Kett's father died while he was still a boy he was able to attend university thanks to support from his mother's second husband. After being admitted to

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refound ...

in 1566, Francis graduated BA from Corpus Christi College, Cambridge in 1570. After proceeding MA in 1573 he was elected a fellow of that college. At some point he also entered holy orders. In 1580 Kett resigned his fellowship and studied medicine, graduating MD in 1581, and in 1585 "Francis Kett, doctor of phisick" published 'The Glorious and Beautiful Garland of Man's Glorification, containing the godly misterie of heavenly Jerusalem', a book dedicated to Queen Elizabeth: and also in 1585 However, in 1588

Edmund Scambler Edmund Scambler (c. 1520 – 7 May 1594) was an English bishop. Life He was born at Gressingham, and was educated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, Queens' College, Cambridge and Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1542. Under Mary I of E ...

, the

Bishop of Norwich The Bishop of Norwich is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of the county of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. The bishop of Norwich is Graham Usher. The see is in t ...

, brought charges of heresy against him. Kett's views, if the charges against him were accurate, seem to have approximated to Arianism: he believed Jesus was not God but a good man who had suffered "only as Jesus already, and shall suffer hereafter as Christ" (that is, that having returned to earth Jesus would "suffer againe for the sinnes of the world" and eventually become divine). Kett also had

millenarian Millenarianism or millenarism (from Latin , "containing a thousand") is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which "all things will be changed". Millenarian ...

beliefs, claiming that "Christ is now in his human nature gathering a church in Erthe in Judea"; and that "this year of our Lord 1588 divers Jews shall be sent to divers countries to publish the new covenant". Another account reports that he also believed in psychopannychism or

soul sleep Christian mortalism is the Christian belief that the human soul is not naturally immortal and may include the belief that the soul is “sleeping” after death until the Resurrection of the Dead and the Last Judgment, a time known as the interm ...

, that the soul lapses into a state of unawareness between death and resurrection on the Day of Judgment. The puritan minister William Burton reported with horror Kett's denial of Christ's divinity, that "Christ is not God, but a good man as others be"; but he also observed that however "monstrous" Kett's beliefs he gave every appearance of being a good man, continually praising God, praying and reading the Bible. In late 1588 Scambler wrote to

Lord Burghley William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley (13 September 15204 August 1598) was an English statesman, the chief adviser of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State (1550–1553 and 1558–1572) and Lord High Treasurer from 1 ...

urging that Kett should be executed with all speed, and he was accordingly burnt to death in the ditch of

Norwich Castle Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. William the Conqueror (1066–1087) ordered its construction in the aftermath of the Norman conquest of England. The castle was used as a ...

on 14 January 1589. William Burton was a witness of his final suffering:

...when he went to the fire he was clothed in sackecloth, he went leaping and dauncing: being in the fire, above twenty times together clapping his hands, he cried nothing but blessed bee God … and so continued until the fire had consumed all his nether partes, and until he was stifled with the smoke.

It has been suggested that Kett's unorthodox opinions might have influenced the free-thinking views of Christopher Marlowe, who was also a student at Corpus Christi. However Kett's time as Fellow only overlapped the arrival of the young Marlowe by three or four months.Park Honan, ''Christopher Marlowe, Poet and Spy'', OUP, 2005, p. 79.

References

*'' Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press {{DEFAULTSORT:Kett, Francis 1547 births 1589 deaths People from Wymondham Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge 16th-century English Anglican priests People executed for heresy People executed under Elizabeth I Executed British people Executed people from Norfolk People executed by the Kingdom of England by burning Protestant martyrs of England