William Bray (priest)

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William Bray (died 1644) was an English priest, chaplain to William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. As licenser of publications of John Pocklington, he was drawn into Pocklington's case before the Long Parliament.

William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury

William Laud was an English churchman, appointed Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 during the personal rule of Charles I. Arrested in 1640, he was executed in 1645.

Archbishop of Canterbury Senior bishop of the Church of England

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th in a line which goes back more than 1400 years to Augustine of Canterbury, the "Apostle to the English", sent from Rome in the year 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams.

John Pocklington was an English Laudian clergyman and polemicist. By order of the Long Parliament, two of his works were burned in public.

Contents

Life

He matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1613, moving to Christ's College, where he graduated Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1617, Cambridge Master of Arts (MA Cantab) in 1620, and Bachelor of Divinity (BD) in 1631. [1] At the outset of his clerical career he was a popular lecturer in puritan London, but changing his views he became one of William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury,'s chaplains in ordinary, and obtained considerable church preferment. He was rector of St Ethelburga, London, 5 May 1632; prebendary of Mapesbury in St Paul's Cathedral, 12 June following; and vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, 2 March 1633. The king presented him, on 7 May 1634, to the vicarage of Chaldon-Herring in Dorset, and in 1638 bestowed on him a canonry in Canterbury Cathedral.

Trinity College, Cambridge Constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England. With around 600 undergraduates, 300 graduates, and over 180 fellows, it is the largest college in either of the Oxbridge universities by number of undergraduates. In terms of total student numbers, it is second only to Homerton College, Cambridge.

Christs College, Cambridge college of the University of Cambridge

Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as God's House. In 1505, the college was granted a new royal charter, was given a substantial endowment by Lady Margaret Beaufort, and changed its name to Christ's College, becoming the twelfth of the Cambridge colleges to be founded in its current form. The college is renowned for educating some of Cambridge's most famous alumni, including Charles Darwin and John Milton.

A Bachelor of Arts is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, sciences, or both. Bachelor of Arts programs generally take three to four years depending on the country, institution, and specific specializations, majors, or minors. The word baccalaureus should not be confused with baccalaureatus, which refers to the one- to two-year postgraduate Bachelor of Arts with Honors degree in some countries.

He had licensed two Laudian books by John Pocklington, on the Sabbath and church ritual; the Long Parliament required him to preach a recantation sermon at St Margaret's, Westminster. On 12 January 1643 Parliament proceeded to sequester him from the vicarage of St Martin's, and at the end of March following his books were seized; he was also imprisoned, plundered, and forced to flee from London to remote parts of the country, where, it is said, he died in 1644.

St Margarets, Westminster church in Westminster, London

The Church of St Margaret, Westminster Abbey, in the grounds of Westminster Abbey on Parliament Square, London, England, was, until 1972, the Anglican parish church of the House of Commons. It is dedicated to Margaret of Antioch, and forms part of a single World Heritage Site with the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey.

His recantation sermon was published with the title: A Sermon of the Blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; proving that there is therein no proper sacrifice now offered; Together with the disapproving of sundry passages in 2 Bookes set forth by Dr. Pocklington; the one called Altare Christianum, the other Sunday no Sabbath: Formerly printed with Licence. Now published by Command,' London, 1641.

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References

  1. "Bray, William (BRY613W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.

Sources

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<i>Dictionary of National Biography</i> Multi-volume reference work

The Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) was published on 23 September 2004 in 60 volumes and online, with 50,113 biographical articles covering 54,922 lives.