John Aylmer (Ælmer or Elmer; 1521 – 3 June 1594) was an English bishop, constitutionalist and a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

scholar.

Early life and career

He was born at Aylmer Hall, Tilney St. Lawrence, Norfolk. While still a boy, his precocity was noticed by

Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Suffolk, 3rd Marquess of Dorset (17 January 151723 February 1554), was an English courtier and nobleman of the Tudor period. He was the father of Lady Jane Grey, known as "the Nine Days' Queen". Origins He was born on ...

, later 1st Duke of Suffolk, who sent him to

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

, where he seems to have become a fellow of

Queens' College 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 sid ...

. About 1541 he was made chaplain to the duke, and tutor of Greek to his daughter,

Lady Jane Grey Lady Jane Grey ( 1537 – 12 February 1554), later known as Lady Jane Dudley (after her marriage) and as the "Nine Days' Queen", was an English noblewoman who claimed the throne of England and Ireland from 10 July until 19 July 1553. Jane was ...

. His first preferment was to the

archdeaconry of Stow The Archdeacon of Stow and Lindsey is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln. History The Archdeaconry of Stow is an ancient division of Lincoln diocese; the first archdeacons are recorded from around 1092 (t ...

, in the

diocese of Lincoln The Diocese of Lincoln forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England. The present diocese covers the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire. History The diocese traces its roots in an unbroken line to the Pre-Reformation Diocese of Leic ...

, but his opposition in

Convocation A convocation (from the Latin '' convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Greek ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a special purpose, mostly ecclesiastical or academic. In a ...

to the doctrine of

transubstantiation Transubstantiation (Latin: ''transubstantiatio''; Greek: μετουσίωσις '' metousiosis'') is, according to the teaching of the Catholic Church, "the change of the whole substance of bread into the substance of the Body of Christ and of ...

led to his deprivation and to his flight into

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. While there he wrote a reply to

John Knox John Knox ( gd, Iain Cnocc) (born – 24 November 1572) was a Scottish minister, Reformed theologian, and writer who was a leader of the country's Reformation. He was the founder of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Born in Giffordgat ...

's famous ''Blast against the Monstrous Regiment of Women'', under the title of ''An Harborowe for Faithfull and Trewe Subjects, etc.'', and assisted John Foxe in translating the ''Acts of the Martyrs'' into Latin. On the accession of Elizabeth he returned to England. "God is English", Aylmer proclaimed in 1558, attempting to fill his parishioners with piety and patriotism. In 1559 he resumed the Stow archdeaconry, and in 1562 he obtained that of Lincoln. He was a member of the

convocation of 1563 The Convocation of 1563 was a significant gathering of English and Welsh clerics that consolidated the Elizabethan religious settlement, and brought the ''Thirty-Nine Articles'' close to their final form (which dates from 1571). It was, more accu ...

, which reformed and settled the doctrine and discipline of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...

. In 1577 he was consecrated

Bishop of London A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

, and while in that position made himself notorious by his harsh treatment of all who differed from him on ecclesiastical questions, whether

Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become more Protestant. ...

or Roman Catholic. Various efforts were made to remove him to another see. He is frequently assailed in the famous ''

Marprelate Tracts The Marprelate Controversy was a war of pamphlets waged in England and Wales in 1588 and 1589, between a puritan writer who employed the pseudonym Martin Marprelate, and defenders of the Church of England which remained an established church. Ch ...

'', and is characterised as "Morrell," the bad shepherd, in

Edmund Spenser Edmund Spenser (; 1552/1553 – 13 January 1599) was an English poet best known for '' The Faerie Queene'', an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognized as one of the premier craftsmen o ...

's '' Shepheard's Calendar (July)''. His reputation as a scholar hardly balances his inadequacy as a bishop in the transitional time in which he lived. His ''Life'' was written by

John Strype John Strype (1 November 1643 – 11 December 1737) was an English clergyman, historian and biographer from London. He became a merchant when settling in Petticoat Lane. In his twenties, he became perpetual curate of Theydon Bois, Essex and lat ...

(1701). He died in 1594 and was buried in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

. He had several children; his eldest son Samuel was the

High Sheriff of Suffolk This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Suffolk. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown and is appointed annually (in March) by the Crown. The Sheriff was originally the principal law enforcement officer in the county a ...

for 1626.

Works

"Aylmer, like

John Ponet John Ponet (c. 1514 – August 1556), sometimes spelled John Poynet, was an English Protestant churchman and controversial writer, the bishop of Winchester and Marian exile. He is now best known as a resistance theorist who made a sustained at ...

and

Stephen Gardiner Stephen Gardiner (27 July 1483 – 12 November 1555) was an English Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I and King Philip. Early life Gardiner was ...

before him, is an important figure in the story of the reception of classical mixed government in Tudor England."''Dangerous Positions'', Mendle. pg 50. John Aylmer wrote his work ''An harborowe for faithful and trewe subiectes'' (1559), to defend the female monarchy of Elizabeth I associating "the rule of boyes and women, or effeminate persons" and on another basis; "that cytie is at pits brinks, wherein magistrate ruleth lawes, and not the lawes the magistrate: What could any kyng in Israell do in that common wealth, besides the pollycie appointed by Moyses?". His effort to familiarise his fellow countrymen with the "strange and alluring vocabulary of politics", introducing them to the classical forms and terminology, must be viewed as secondary to this primary goal. Aylmer nevertheless described England as not "a mere monarchy, as some for lack of consideration think, nor a mere oligarchy, nor democracy, but a rule mixed of all these." ¹ He goes on to say that in the mixed state, "each one of these have or should have like authority." He argued that in the king-in-Parliament, or, in Elizabeth's case, the queen-in-Parliament, was not the "image" of a mixed state "but the thing in deed." It was in Parliament that one found the three estates: "the king or queen, which representeth the monarchy; the noble men which be the aristocracy; and the burgesses and knights the democracy." As he says, "In like manner, ''if'' the Parliament use their privileges: the king can ordain nothing without them." Parliamentary restraint of a queen's feminine vices would, according to Aylmer, ameliorate the disadvantages of female monarchy. His work, particularly his characterisation of England as a mixed monarchy, would be important to later English constitutionalists.

Notes

References

External links

*
Likeness in the National Portrait Gallery''Historical Collection of the Life and Acts of John Aylmer''
by

(1821 ed.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Aylmer, John 1521 births 1594 deaths English constitutionalists Bishops of London Archdeacons of Stow 16th-century Church of England bishops People from King's Lynn and West Norfolk (district) 16th-century English writers 16th-century male writers Marian exiles Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge English male non-fiction writers 16th-century English lawyers