BULLETIN WINTER No.3 BRITISH PROVINCE OF CARMELITES OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION

Transcription

1 BULLETIN WINTER 2013 BRITISH PROVINCE OF CARMELITES OUR LADY OF THE ASSUMPTION 47 No.3

2 John Bird, Carmelite, Bishop, Parish Priest (c ) "John Birde, Doctor of Divinity, late Bishop of Chester, but now Vicar of this Parish of Great Dunmowe, was buried on the 15 th of October, 1558". These words - translated from the Latin - come from the register of Great Dunmow parish in Essex and are the final record we have of John Bird, the last provincial of the English Province before the Reformation. John Bird was born in Coventry around and joined the Carmelite community there. He must have shown good academic potential as he was sent to study at Oxford where he incepted as a doctor of theology on 20 February He was chosen to be the university preacher on the Feast of the Ascension, 28 May Bird would have remained at Oxford for a further year as magister regens in the Carmelite house of studies. Early in 1516, Bird was appointed, together with the prior of London, William Brevie, as a vicar general in the place of the prior general, Baptist of Mantua, and the two of them conducted a visitation of the province. During their visitation, Brevie and Bird issued letters of confraternity to some lay benefactors of the Order. These letters of confraternity are unique in that they are the first such letters to have been printed with blank spaces left for the names of the recipients. An unused letter is preserved in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. In August 1516, at the provincial chapter held in King's Lynn, Bird was elected provincial for a three year term. The three year term was due to a new statute which limited the period in office for provincials to three years. During his time as provincial, Bird attended the general chapter held in Siena in May 1517 and then, on his return, he presided over the provincial chapter held in August at Losenham, near Newenden in Kent. After stepping down as provincial, Bird may have become prior of Coventry as has been suggested but there is no surviving evidence for this appointment. Then at the provincial chapter held in York in 1522, Bird was re-elected provincial and the statute limiting the period in office to 16

3 three years was removed. In fact, he remained in office until the suppression of the province. A number of Bird's activities are recorded. He was in Calais in 1523 when he preached at the funeral of the Carmelite Edmund Bury. He must have acted in some capacity for the Duke of Northumberland as he is recorded in 1527 as receiving an annuity from the duke of 6 13s. +d. (10 marks). In 1531, Bird was sent to reason with Thomas Bilney who was in prison for heresy and was present at his trial. At this time, the arguments over the validity of Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon were being debated more and more openly. Bird quickly aligned himself with the king and around 1531, he wrote a treatise claiming that Catherine's earlier marriage to Henry VIII's brother rendered her marriage to Henry invalid. Bird's treatise still survives in the National Archives although sadly lacking the opening page(s). In 1534-, Bird was one of those who signed the declaration rejecting papal supremacy and affirming the king as Head of the Church in England. The following year, he was a member of the delegation sent to Queen Catherine to try and persuade her to cease using the title of queen. They were not successful. On 11 June 1537, Bird obtained a reward for his support of the king when he was named as the bishop of "Penreth" (actually Penrhudd near Llandaff) and consecrated at Lambeth Palace on 24 June. His promotion left the Carmelites in England leaderless and made the suppression of the Order much easier. He served as suffragan to the bishop of Lichfield for a while and then to the bishop of Llandaff. On 24 July 1539, Bird was promoted to the diocese of Bangor and hence became a member of the House of Lords, although he did not regularly attend the sessions of Parliament. The peak moment of Bird's career came on 4 August 1541 when he was named as the first bishop of the newly founded diocese of Chester. Although it gave Bird more status and importance, the transfer did not come without its problems. The financial endowment of the new diocese was very meagre and Bird was forced to spend a lot of his time trying to raise sufficient income to cover his expenses. In fact, when Bird was deprived of his see in March 1554 on the accession of the Catholic Queen Mary, it is said that he was in debt to the crown for 1,087 18s. 'I.d. Bird's removal from his see was due to his having married some time previously; he argued that he had taken a wife against his will and was Simply following the custom of that time. He separated from his wife and was allowed to serve as suffragan to Bishop 17

4 Bonner in the diocese of London and, on 6 Nov 1554-, he was appointed parish priest of Great Dunmow in Essex. Bird's last years were not a great success. He had lost the sight of one eye and becoming more and more infirm. In 1555 Bishop Bonner conducted a visitation of his diocese and he came to Great Dunmow in July where Bird preached a sermon in front of him. The episode is recorded by John Foxe, the great Protestant propagandist, so his account is not totally impartial. Foxe claims that Bird chose to preach on the text "You are Peter and on this rock 1 will build my Church", an appropriate Catholic text to use during the reign of Queen Mary. However, during his discourse, Bird became somewhat confused and lost track of his argument. Desperately seeking to regain his theme of Peter as the head of the Church, Bird grasped at Jesus' prophecy to Peter: "Before the cock crows, you will deny me three times" and so ended up in an even worse mess. Bishop Bonner was not pleased and made many signs and gestures for Bird to bring his homily to an end, even standing up at times, but Bird seemed to be completely unaware of Bonner's signals. John Foxe records another episode later in 1555 when Bird visited Bonner's house in Fulham bringing him presents of a bowl of apples and a bottle of wine. Bonner was interrogating Thomas Haukes who was being held there because he refused to have his child christened. Bird tried his best to convince Haukes of his errors but without success and Haukes was later burnt for heresy. In 1536, the Carmelite John Bale, who knew Bird well, wrote that he was: "A man of modest abilities, with a honeyed tongue, he was a keen disputant and a not ineffective preacher." And he added that, as Provincial he was "a particularly handsome man... but (to be deplored in such a man) he was rather remiss in correcting the faults of others, being swayed by his own good nature." After Bird returned to the Catholic faith under Queen Mary, Bale pithily commented: "I have heard that [he has] returned to his Popish vomit". In general, Bird's willingness to place his talents at the service of those in authority and to adapt his beliefs to suit the prevailing orthodoxy ensured that he obtained a succession of prestigious and lucrative appointments. 18

5 It is ironic, though, that from starting as a faithful Catholic, his path led him become a fervent reformer under Henry VIII and Edward VI before reverting back to his original orthodox Catholic belief on the accession of Queen Mary. Postscript: A Httle while ago, I made a personal pilgrimage to Great Dunmow and met two of the Church Wardens there who were repairing the west door of the church. The church is very pretty and well looked after. Sadly there is no sign of Bird's grave but his name is included in the list of rectors of the parish. One of the Church Wardens was interested in the history of the church and took my notes to use as the basis for a two part article which was published in the parish magazine. On leaving, one of the Wardens took great pleasure in giving me the present of a medieval nail, no longer needed in the west door! Richard Copsey Above: Great Dunmow Church Left: John Bird, 1st Bishop of Chester