The college of Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral was created by Archbishop

Thomas Cranmer Thomas Cranmer (2 July 1489 – 21 March 1556) was a 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 helped build the case for the annulment of Henry ...

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 (; 1485 – 28 July 1540), briefly Earl of Essex, was an English lawyer and statesman 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 kin ...

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 Canon Derek Ingram Hill (11 September 1912 – 20 October 2003) was an Anglican priest, notable as a pastor, administrator and historian, active mainly in the south-east of England and particularly in the city of Canterbury and its cathedral. Ea ...

, 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 John Scory (died 1585) was an English Dominican friar who later became a bishop in the Church of England. He was Bishop of Rochester from 1551 to 1552, and then translated to Bishop of Chichester from 1552 to 1553. He was deprived of this positio ...

: 1541 *

Lancelot Ridley Lancelot Ridley (died 1576), was an English clergyman, known as a theological writer, and rector of St James' Church, Stretham, Cambridgeshire. Life He was educated at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and proceeded BA 1523–4, and commenced MA 1527, ...

: 1541–1554, 1560– * Richard Turner : 1550 *

Thomas Beccon Thomas Beccon or Becon (c. 1511–1567) was an English cleric and Protestant reformer from Norfolk. Life Beccon was born c.1511 in Norfolk, England. He entered the University of Cambridge in March 1526-27, probably St John's College. He studi ...

: c. 1550 *

Rowland Taylor Rowland Taylor (sometimes spelled "Tayler") (6 October 1510 – 9 February 1555) was an English Protestant martyr during the Marian Persecutions. At the time of his death, he was Rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk. He was burnt at the stake at ne ...

: 1551 * Richard Clarke : 1602 *

Richard Culmer The Most Reverend Canon Richard Culmer of Canterbury (1597–1662)B.A M.A Ddiv was an English Puritan clergyman. iconoclast and Theologian. He is listed by the ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''

: 1644 * John Cooke : 1687 * Thomas Wise : 1711 * John Duncombe : c.1760 * Evelyn Levett Sutton : 1811 (see under

Charles Manners-Sutton Charles Manners-Sutton (17 February 1755 – 21 July 1828; called Charles Manners before 1762) was a bishop in the Church of England who served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1805 to 1828. Life Manners-Sutton was the fourth son of Lord G ...

) *

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 * Francis Nixon : 1841 *

Francis James Holland Francis James Holland,(20 January 1828 – 27 January 1907) was a canon in the Church of England. He was born in St. George, Middlesex, a son of Sir Henry Holland and Margaret Emma Caldwell. He went to Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge in 18 ...

: 1859 *

Randall Thomas Davidson Randall Thomas Davidson, 1st Baron Davidson of Lambeth, (7 April 1848 – 25 May 1930) was an Anglican priest who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1903 to 1928. He was the longest-serving holder of the office since the English Reformation, Re ...

1882 * Richard Hodgson : 1908 * John A. T. Robinson : 1958 *

: 1964 * Michael Green * Michael Battle : 2010 *

Tory Baucum Tory K. Baucum (born 1960) is the director for the Benedictine Center for Family Life, Atchison, Kansas, US. After 30 years of ministry as Anglican pastor, seminary and university professor, he and his wife converted to the Catholic Church. Th ...

: 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