The college of Six Preachers of
Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Located in Canterbury, Kent, it is one of the oldest Christianity, Ch ...
was created by Archbishop
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a theologian, leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He is honoured as a Oxford Martyrs, martyr ...
as part of the reorganisation of the monastic Christ Church Priory into the new secular Cathedral.
First mentioned in a letter of Cranmer to
Thomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell (; – 28 July 1540) was an English statesman and lawyer who served as List of English chief ministers, chief minister to King Henry VIII from 1534 to 1540, when he was beheaded on orders of the king, who later blamed false cha ...
in 1540, the Six Preachers were established by the Statutes of 1541.
They were provided with houses in the Precincts but quickly became non-resident and rented out their properties.
They had the right to dine with the Dean and Canons and to sit in the stalls in the quire with the canons during services.
They were required to preach 20 sermons a year in their own parishes or in a church dependent on the Cathedral, as well as preaching in the Cathedral.
There has been an unbroken succession of Six Preachers from 1544 to the present day. In 1982 one of the twentieth-century Six Preachers, Canon
Derek Ingram Hill, marked the appointment of the 200th Six Preacher with the publication of a small book detailing the history of the institution and giving a short biography of each of its occupants.
Notable Six Preachers
*
John Scory : 1541
*
Lancelot Ridley : 1541–1554, 1560–
*
Richard Turner : 1550
*
Thomas Beccon : c. 1550
*
Rowland Taylor : 1551
*
Richard Clarke : 1602
*
Richard Culmer : 1644
*
John Cooke : 1687
*
Thomas Wise : 1711
*
John Duncombe : c.1760
*
Evelyn Levett Sutton : 1811 (see under
Charles Manners-Sutton)
*
Henry John Todd
Henry John Todd (1763–1845) was an English Anglican cleric, librarian, and scholar, known as an editor of John Milton.
He was librarian at Lambeth Palace (1803), and examined and described manuscripts, chiefly biblical, which formerly belonged ...
: 1818
*
Thomas Bartlett: 1832
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Francis Nixon : 1841
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Francis James Holland : 1859
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Randall Thomas Davidson 1882
*
Richard Hodgson : 1908
*
John A. T. Robinson
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Second Ep ...
: 1958
*
Derek Ingram Hill : 1964
*
Michael Green : 1993
*
Michael Battle : 2010
*
Tory Baucum : 2014
References
*{{cite book, last=Ingram Hill, first=Derek , author-link=Derek Ingram Hill, title=The Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral, 1541-1982: Clerical Lives from Tudor Times to the Present Day, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4ISzAAAACAAJ, year=1982, publisher=K.H. McIntosh, isbn=978-0-9502423-6-1
Canterbury Cathedral