Richard Morison

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Sir Richard Morison (also Morrison and Morysine ) (* around 1513 ; † March 17, 1556 ) was an English humanist scholar and diplomat. He was a protégé of Thomas Cromwell , a propagandist in the service of Henry VIII and later England's ambassador to Charles V for Edward VI.

Life

Richard Morrison was the son of Thomas Morison from Hertfordshire and a daughter of Thomas Merry from Hatfield . He had a sister, Amy, who married Stephen Hales († March 27, 1574), a squire , of Newland, Warwickshire , John Hales' brother.

Morrison attended Christ Church in Oxford around 1526 and met Nicholas Udall , who became the headmaster of Eton College . He graduated from Oxford with a Baccalaureus Artium around 1527 and entered the service of Thomas Wolsey ; but left it quickly, visited Hugh Latimer in Cambridge and went to Italy to study Greek. He attended the University of Padua in 1532, met Michael Throckmorton . In Italy these young humanists had connections with a group of reformers later called "spirituali" whom Morison met through contacts with Edmund Harvel and Bishop Cosimo Gheri . He became a competent but impoverished scholar in Venice and Padua and kept an interest in literature, got Calvinist views.

In February 1536 he wrote to Thomas Cromwell that he wished to do something other than live poorly in Italy. Cromwell called him home and made an official appointment for him. Morison and Throckmorton took opposing religious positions: while Throckmorton became a follower of Reginald Poles , Morison returned to England to become Henry VIII's propagandist and produced an "anti-riot measure" in response to the Pilgrimage of Grace . Cromwell used a whole circle of "diverse fresh intelligent people", including Nicholas Udall , John Bale , John Heywood , Thomas Gibson , William Marshall , John Rastell , Thomas Starkey , Richard Taverner and John Uvedale .

On July 17, 1537, he became Canon of Yatminster in Salisbury Cathedral , benefiting from the dissolution of the English monasteries . He was given the leadership of the hospitals at St. James, Northallerton , Yorkshire , and St. Wulstan, Worcester . In 1541 the king is said to have given him the library of the Carmelites in London.

In 1546 Morison went to the Hanseatic League as an ambassador . On Henry VIII's death, he was sent to the King of Denmark to Edward VI. To announce the accession to the throne. On May 8, 1549, he was commissioned to attend Oxford University and was promoted to a Knight Bachelor before June 1550 . In 1550 Morison replaced Philip Hoby as ambassador to the Holy Roman Emperor. He went with his secretary Roger Ascham , who read Greek together every day. Morison had a lot of work, but also found time to travel in Germany with Ascham, who in 1553 published a report on their experiences called A Report of the Affaires of Germany . The Emperor often complained through Morison of the conduct towards Princess Maria ; and he generally disliked Morison, who was in the habit of reading Bernardino Ochino's sermons or Niccolò Machiavelli's works “for the sake of language” to his household .

After Edward's death, Morison was recalled. On August 5, 1553, he and Sir Philip Hoby were recalled because of an affair: They had alluded to Guildford Dudley as king in a letter . In the following year Morison retired to Strasbourg with John Cheke and Anthony Cooke , and spent his time studying under Peter Martyr , whose patron he was at Oxford. He was in Brussels at the beginning of 1555 , he is said to have also reached Italy, he died in Strasbourg on March 17, 1556.

Morison died a rich man and had begun building the Cashiobury country house in Watford , Hertfordshire.

Works

Morison wrote:

  • 'Apomaxis Calumniarum', London, 1537, an attack on Johannes Cochläus , who criticized Henry VIII and replied with 'Scopa in Araneas Ricardi Morison Angli', Leipzig, 1538.
  • a translation of the Epistle by Johannes Sturm , London, 1538.
  • 'An Invective ayenste the great detestable vice, Treason', London, 1539.
  • 'The Strategemes, Sleyghtes, and Policies of Warre, gathered together by S. Julius Frontinus', London, 1539; Translation of a work by Sextus Iulius Frontinus .
  • a translation of the work 'Ad sapientiam introductio' by Johannes Ludwig Vives , London, 1540 and 1544, dedicated to Gregory Cromwell .

Allegedly he also wrote 'Comfortable Consolation for the Birth of Prince Edward, rather than Sorrow for the Death of Queen Jane' after the death of Jane Seymour on October 24, 1537. Also, 'A Defense of Priests' Marriages' (possibly between 1549 and 1553 published). is occasionally attributed to him.

'Maxims and Sayings', Sloane MS, exist as handwriting. 1523; 'A Treatise of Faith and Justification', Harl. MS. 423 (4) and 'Account of Mary's Persecution under Edward VI', Harl. MS. 353. Morison proposed to Henry VIII that the popular Robin Hood plays be ousted in favor of anti-Catholic propaganda. His stance appears clear in a manuscript called A Discourse Touching the Reformation of the Lawes of England (1535):

“Howmoche better is it that those [Romish] plaies shulde be forbodden and deleted and others dyvysed to set forthe and declare lyvely before the peoples eies the abhomynation and wickedness of the bishop of Rome, monks, friers, nuns, and sucht like… Into the commen people thynges sooner enter by the eies, then by the eares: remembryng more better that they see then that they here. "

“How much better is it that those [Roman] games should be forbidden and erased and devised differently in order to expound and vividly explain the horror and wickedness of the Bishop of Rome, monks, nuns and the like in front of the people. Normal people reach things through their eyes rather than their ears: they remember more of what they see than what they hear. "

Marriage and offspring

Morison married Bridget Hussey, daughter of John Hussey , the Baron of Sleaford ; after Morison's death she married twice more, in 1561 Henry Manners , 2nd Earl of Rutland , and in 1566, Francis Russell , the second Earl of Bedford . With her, Morison had four children: Charles, later Sir Charles, Knight Bachelor , and three daughters: Jane married Edward, Lord Russell, son of Francis Russell; Elizabeth William Norreys and Mary Bartholomew Hales. His son had the Cashiobury country estate built in Watford , which became part of the Capel family following the marriage of Charles' daughter Elizabeth to Arthur Capell, 1st Baron Capell of Hadham . According to Anthony Wood , Morison left illegitimate children.

From his lover Lucy Peckham († July 31, 1552), the daughter of Thomas Peckham and wife of Sir George Harpers († December 12, 1558), Morrison probably had a son and three daughters. According to the "interrogation after death", carried out on October 18, 1560, these children were Marcellus Harper († February 1, 1559); Frances, who married William Patrickson; Mary, who married Bartholomew Hales, John Hales' brother; and Anne, who died unmarried.

Remarks

  1. ^ Calendar of State Papers Foreign, Edward VI: 1547–1553, William B. Turnbull (Editor), 1861, Number 338, May 5, 1551
  2. a b c d e f g h i j k l Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 39, 1894: Morison, Richard ( on the Internet , partly directly translated here, as it is now in the public domain )
  3. John and John Bernard Burke, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England , London, Scott, Webster and Geary, 236–23. ( on the internet )
  4. MA Overell, 'An English Friendship and Italian reform: Richard Morison and Michael Throckmorton, 1532-1538', The Journal of Ecclesiastical History (2006), 57: 478-493
  5. He appears on a list of Preceptors at St. Wulstan Hospital - Richard Morison from 1539 to 1540. Hospitals: Worcester , A History of the County of Worcester: Volume 2 (1971), pp. 175-179.
  6. http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/HUSSEY.htm#Bridget%20HUSSEY%20%28C.%20Rutland/C.%20Bedford%29
  7. ^ GS Fry: Abstracts of Inquisitiones Post Mortem for the City of London: Part 1 , London and Middlesex Archaeological Society 1896, pages 191-211 ( on the Internet )

literature

  • Tracey A. Sowerby: Renaissance and Reform in Tudor England: The Careers of Sir Richard Morison c.1513-1556  (= Oxford Historical Monographs). Oxford University Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0-19-958463-5 .

Web links