John Clerk (Bishop)

John Clerk (* 1481 or 1482 in Suffolk ; † January 3, 1541 in London ) was an English diplomat and Bishop of Bath and Wells .

Life

Born probably the son of Clement Clerk from Much Livermere in Suffolk, Clerk received his education at Cambridge University . There he was awarded the Bachelor of Arts in 1498 and the Master of Arts in 1502 . He then went to Bologna to law study. In 1510 he received his doctorate in law there . Then he worked for Cardinal Bainbridge in Rome , as did Richard Pace at the same time , and was at the same time chamberlain at the Pontifical English College . After Bainbridge's death in 1514, Clerk returned to England and entered the service of Thomas Wolsey , then Archbishop of York . This appointed him dean of the Chapel Royal . In addition, Clerk held numerous other benefices that helped him to some prosperity.

With the appointment of Thomas Wolsey as Lord Chancellor , Clerk also stepped onto the political stage. At first he acted as a link between the King and the Lord Chancellor. In 1519 he was appointed judge at the Star Chamber and took over the post of Master of the Rolls for about a year on October 20, 1522 . Gradually he was used more and more often for diplomatic missions. As early as 1519 he made one of numerous trips to Rome to visit Luise of Savoy , the mother of the French King Francis I , on the way there . In 1520 he attended the meeting between Francis I and Henry VIII at the Camp du Drap d'Or . A year later he was entrusted with the task of handing over to Pope Leo X in Rome the treatise Defense of the Seven Sacraments , written in opposition to Martin Luther's 95 theses . His third diplomatic mission took place from 1523 to 1525. Before beginning his journey, he was made Bishop of Bath and Wells. The episcopal ordination took place in Rome. In December 1525 he left Rome and from July 1526 to September 1527 and from March to November 1528 he held the office of English ambassador to the French royal court. As a bishop, Clerk spent very little time in his diocese because of his numerous diplomatic duties . For this reason, most of the day-to-day business at the bishopric was taken care of by his brother Thomas.

In the process of the divorce of Henry VIII from Catherine of Aragon , he represented the interests of the queen together with Cuthbert Tunstall and thus opposed the king. Then he fell out of favor at first. Henceforth he was no longer selected for diplomatic missions and even had to spend a short time in prison. With his participation in the coronation ceremony of Anne Boleyn he came closer to the king again. In spite of everything, this restricted the clerk's privileges further and deprived him of various offices and possessions. As a result, he now devoted much more time to his duties as a bishop. This work shows his extremely conservative attitude towards questions of faith. From 1539, conservative currents prevailed within the church. This led to the return of clerks to the political arena. So he was commissioned to convey the news of the annulment of his marriage to Marguerite de Bourbon to Franz I of Kleve . On the way back from Nevers, however, Clerk fell seriously ill in Dunkerque and wrote his will on September 27, 1540. However, he initially recovered and was able to continue his journey.

He died on January 3rd in his home in Aldgate, London, and was buried in St Botolph’s Church.

literature

• Richard Rex: Clerk, John (1481/2? –1541) . In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, doi : 10.1093 / ref: odnb / 5615 ( online [accessed May 22, 2014]).

Web links

Wikisource: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) / John Clerk  - Sources and full texts (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Thomas Wolsey	Bishop of Bath and Wells 1523–1541	William Knight
Cuthbert Tunstall	Master of the Rolls 1522-1523	Thomas Hannibal