Controversy in a Country Church
March 1547 - The village of Marldon in Devon
Let’s travel back in time to a rural church in the spring of 1547. Imagine the scene.
For once the Devon rain has eased, although the smell of damp earth lingers among the ancient dust. Shafts of sunlight fall across an intricately carved stone rood screen that links two small cenotaphs. A knight in armour and his lady stare upwards, oblivious to the echo of shuffling feet as people file in. Flickering candles light the darker recesses of the church behind the font, where many children of Marldon have joined the family of the church. But we are not here at the church, officially a chapel of ease of St John the Baptist church in Paignton, to witness a baptism. This is a much more sombre event.
On 24 March 1547 Richard Crispin’s leather shod feet make no sound as he climbs the steps to the pulpit. A hush falls over the congregation assembled for the ‘month mind’ of a man named Otho Gilbert. Otho died on 18 February, and a month later his relatives and neighbours have gathered for the traditional mass to pray for his soul and honour his memory. A sprinkling of local gentry have also made their way to the village church. Clad in fine velvet and silk, they sit amongst family retainers in good Devon wool, waiting for the preacher to begin.
Philip Nichols, a young man from Ilfracombe who has lands in South Devon and shares the Protestant beliefs of his patron, Sir Peter Carew, has a glint of hope in his eyes, a smile hovering on his lips. After King Henry’s death, things will change — he’s sure of it. But Nichols’ head goes up and he feels his face flaming when Crispin begins his sermon.
No-one challenges the preacher as he denounces Martin Luther’s ideas and upholds the traditional way of worship. Philip Nichols stomps out of the church. He can’t allow those words to go unchallenged.
Background
Crispin, a canon of Exeter Cathedral was one of the foremost conservative clerics in the west of England. He had served as chaplain to Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, and was implicated, as was Courtenay’s wife Gertrude, in the ‘Nun of Kent affair on 1534.1
Despite the separation from Rome, King Henry had remained conservative in his beliefs. By the end of his reign he had rolled back earlier, more radical reforms, creating a sort of “middle way” — effectively Catholicism without the Pope. But following King Henry’s death on 28 January conservatives like Crispin became concerned. It was clear that advisers to the young King Edward VI, led by Edward Seymour, who assumed the role of Lord Protector, would pursue a much more radical reform policy with vigour.
Many in Devon shared Crispin’s conservative views. Perhaps he thought he was ‘preaching to the converted’ in Marldon church on that March day in 1547. 2 Crispin was vicar of Harberton, some 8 miles distant. The Gilbert family presumably invited or allowed him to speak at the month mind rather than the Paignton incumbent. That suggests that they continued to hold traditional views on religion. The deceased’s in-laws, however, were definitely of the opposite view.
Otho’s widow, Katherine, was the daughter of Sir Philip Champernowne of Modbury, a man described by one historian as ‘one of the most ardent adherents to the Reformation in the South West’. 3 In his early years, Sir Philip had been closely associated with his conservative-leaning relative, Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter. However, by the time of Sir Philip’s death in 1545, the Champernownes and their close relatives, the Devon Carews, openly embraced religious reform. Philip Nichols’ sponsor, Sir Peter Carew, pictured below, was an ardent reformist. He was Katherine’s cousin.
A quarrel with far reaching consequences
On 30 April Philip Nichols wrote a carefully composed letter to Richard Crispin, refuting his doctrine and demanding that he answer several theological questions. Nichols followed up by visiting Crispin at Harberton. He reported that he found Crispin ‘gentle and charitable to talk withall’. That does not suggest a heated argument with raised voices; rather, a reasoned discussion between two men who found it impossible to resolve their different ideas. Yet, soon after the meeting, rumours were circulating. Crispin and his traditionalist supporters may have started them. Word spread that Nichols had accused Crispin of seditious preaching. Nichols wrote again, and the dispute escalated.
Meanwhile, as the summer of 1547 progressed, radical reforms, including forbidding praying with rosary beads and religious processions, and the removal of images, caused alarm and consternation among religious conservatives.
Nichols became increasingly unpopular with the traditionalists as he ramped up his criticism. By late summer, he had compiled a list of ‘articles’ about local clergy who continued to preach ‘seditious’ doctrines. He presented his list to newly appointed commissioners who were examining the extent to which local churches had embraced recent changes. Those who failed to comply faced loss of their livings, or even imprisonment. In this heated atmosphere, resentment of Nichols boiled over. His opponents accused him of deliberately provoking Crispin to make public statements that would lead to his arrest.
On 7 November, Nichols published a pamphlet detailing his enquiries. He dedicated ‘The Copie of a Letter sent to One Maister Chryspine for that he Denied ye Scriptures to be the Touchstone or Trial of All Other Doctrine, ’ to Sir Peter Carew. 4 In his pamphlet, Nichols confirmed that Sir Peter had encouraged him to dispute with Crispin. He even hinted that Sir Peter instigated the quarrel.
Given Sir Peter’s firm commitment to reform, it is plausible that he hoped to use local events in the west to influence the national agenda. Nichols’ tract landed just before Parliament convened, with Sir Peter attending as MP for Dartmouth and his uncle Gawen sitting as knight of the shire. The pamphlet was therefore at hand as evidence of resistance to reform.
Crispin and fellow conservative cathedral canon, John Moreman, were arrested and confined in the Tower of London. They remained there as events in the west of England spiralled towards open rebellion. 5
Crispin’s sermon in a quiet country church sparked a public war of words that laid bare the religious differences in southwest society. Those differences would be among the underlying causes of the so-called ‘Prayer Book Rebellion,’ just two years later.
In his excellent book ‘A Murderous Midsummer: The Western Rising of 1549,’ Mark Stoyle suggests that the dispute that began on that March day in the unlikely surroundings of a rural church was more important than historians have previously acknowledged. Crispin’s address at Otho Gilbert’s month mind lit the fuse, and Sir Peter Carew encouraged Nichols to fan the flames. Perhaps the connection between Sir Peter Carew and Otho Gilbert’s widow and her other powerful relatives also bears further consideration.
You can read more about St John the Baptist Church, Marldon, and the Gilbert family in a recent post on my website
On the trail of two Devon men, both named Otho Gilbert. Part 1: The grandfather
Part 2, coming soon to my website, will expand on the life of Otho Gilbert, whose month mind sparked a controversy.
Image of St John the Baptist chruch, Marldon, Devon, my own.
Portrait of Sir Peter Carew, Gerlach Flicke (c1545 – 1558), the National Galleries of Scotland, sourced via Wikimedia Commons.
In 1534 Elizabeth Barton, known as the ‘Nun of Kent’, was executed after being found guilty of treason following her prophecies against the marriage of King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Gertrude Courtenay, one of those who had consulted Barton, was obliged to seek forgiveness from the king. See The Holy Maid of Kent by Alan Neame, p. 280. ‘John Dering showed the revelations concerning the King’s reign to Richard Crispin, (Fellow of Oriol College, Oxford, D.d. 1531-1532, Chaplain to the Marques of Exeter.’
Sources differ as to the exact date of the month mind. In The Western Rebellion of 1549 Frances Rose Troup suggests 13 March, others say 24 March.
Christina Hallowell Garrett in her 1938 book, The Marian Exiles. Garrett does not give a source.
Sir Peter served as Sheriff of the County in 1547, followed by his uncle Gawen in 1548.
One of the demands made by the rebels in 1549 was the release of Crispin and Moreman. After a bloody battle at Clyst Heath, near Exeter, the King’s forces eventually defeated the rebels/ The two clerics remained in the Tower, where the Crispin died. Moreman was released by Queen Mary 1 in 1553.