Walter Haddon
Encyclopedia
Walter Haddon LL.D. was an English civil lawyer, much involved in church and university affairs under Edward VI, Queen Mary
, and Elizabeth I. He was a Cambridge humanist and reformer, and was highly reputed in his time as a Latinist: his controversial exchange with the Portuguese historian Jerónimo Osório attracted international attention based largely on the scholarly reputations of the protagonists.
, he was born in Buckinghamshire
. He was educated at Eton College
under Richard Cox
, and in 1533 he was elected from Eton to King's College, Cambridge
. He declined an invitation to Cardinal College, at Oxford, and proceeded B.A. at Cambridge in 1537. He was one of the scholars who about this period attended the Greek lectures read in the university by Thomas Smith
. He commenced M.A. in 1541, and read lectures on civil law for two or three years.
, then master of Benet College, he acted as an executor of his friend Martin Bucer
, and both delivered orations at his funeral in March 1551. He was appointed regius professor of civil law
, in accordance with a petition from the university, drawn up by his friend Roger Ascham
. Haddon and John Cheke
were chiefly responsible for the reform of the ecclesiastical laws, prepared under Thomas Cranmer
's superintendence, and with the advice of Peter Martyr, in accordance with an Act of Parliament of 1549. The Act directed that the scheme should be completed by 1552, but the work was not finished within the specified time. A bill introduced into the parliament of 1552 for the renewal of the commission was not carried, and Edward's death put an end to the scheme, but Haddon and Cheke's Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum appeared in 1571.
On the refusal of Stephen Gardiner
, Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
, to comply with the request of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
, Lord Protector
, to amalgamate the college with Clare Hall
, the king in February 1552 appointed Haddon to the mastership. On 8 April 1652 he, Parker, Ralph Aynsworth, then master of Peterhouse, and Thomas Lever
, master of St. John's College, Cambridge, were commissioned to settle a disputed claim to the mastership of Clare Hall. When Cheke was ill in 1552, he recommended Haddon to the king as his successor in the provostship of King's College.
At Michaelmas 1552 the king and council removed Owen Oglethorp, President of Magdalen College, Oxford
, who was opposed to further religious changes, and Haddon was appointed to succeed him. The fellows in vain petitioned the king against this breach of the college statutes. Oglethorp, finding the council inflexible, made an arrangement with Haddon, and resigned on 27 September; and Haddon was admitted President by royal mandate on 10 October. Haddon as President sold valuables from the college chapel. Some libellous verses against the president, affixed to various parts of the college, were attributed to Julius Palmer, who was expelled on the ground of "popish pranks".
A commission for Haddon's admission to practise as an advocate in the arches court of Canterbury was taken out on 9 May 1555. He was admitted a member of Gray's Inn
in 1557, and was one of the members for Thetford
, Norfolk
, in the parliament which assembled 20 January 1558. In 1557 he translated into Latin a supplicatory letter to Pope Paul IV
from the parliament of England, to dissuade him from revoking Cardinal Pole's authority as legate
.
had been displayed in a consolatory Latin poem addressed to the Princess Elizabeth on her afflictions. On her accession in 1559 he was in favour and was summoned to attend her at Hatfield
. He congratulated her in Latin verse, and was immediately constituted one of the masters of the Court of Requests
. In spite of his Protestant opinions, he was an admirer of the learning of Bishop Cuthbert Tunstal, and composed the epitaph placed on his tomb when he died that year. On 20 Junehe was appointed one of the commissioners for the visitation of the university of Cambridge and the college of Eton; and on 18 September following the queen granted him a pension. He was in the commission for administering oaths to ecclesiastics (20 October 1559); was also one of the ecclesiastical commissioners; and received from his friend, Archbishop Parker, the office of judge of the prerogative court.
In 1560 a Latin prayer-book, prepared under the superintendence of Haddon, who took a former translation by Alexander Alesius as a model, was authorised by the queen's letters patent for the use of the colleges in both universities and those of Eton and Winchester. On 22 January 1561 he was one of the royal commissioners appointed to look at the order of lessons throughout the year, to cause new calendars to be printed, to provide remedies for the decay of churches, and to prescribe some good order for collegiate churches in the use of the Latin service. He was one of those recommended by Edmund Grindal
in December 1561 for the provostship of Eton College, but the queen's choice was William Day
. In June 1562 he and Parker, at the request of the senate, induced William Cecil
to abandon his intention of resigning the chancellorship of the university of Cambridge.
In August 1564 Haddon accompanied the Queen to Cambridge, and determined the questions in law in the disputations in that faculty held in her presence. In the same year the queen granted him lands at the site of Wymondham Abbey
, Norfolk. He was at Bruges
in 1565 and 1566 with Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu
and Nicholas Wotton
, in negotiations for restoring the commercial relations between England and the Netherlands. In November 1566 he was a member of the joint committee of both houses of parliament appointed to petition the queen about her marriage.
Osório, now bishop of Silves, published in 1567 a reply. Haddon began a rejoinder, left unfinished at the time of his death, and it was ultimately completed and published by John Foxe
. There appeared, probably at Antwerp, without date, Chorus alternatim canentium, a satire in verse on the controversy between Haddon and Osório, attached to a caricature in which Haddon, Bucer, and Pietro Martire Vermigli
are represented as dogs drawing a car on which Osório is seated in triumph.
According to Edward Nares
, English Jesuits at Leuven
sought to deter Haddon from proceeding with his second confutation of Osório, by intimidation; Nares claimed wrongly that Haddon died in Flanders
, and that this had raised suspicions of foul play. Similar claims are in the biography of John Foxe published in the 1840s by George Townsend (1788–1857).
, there was a monument to his memory, with a Latin inscription preserved by Weaver.
He married, first, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Clere of Ormesby, Norfolk, by whom he had a son, Clere Haddon, who was drowned in the river Cam, probably in 1571; and secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Sutton, who survived him, and remarried Sir Henry Cobham, whom she also survived.
Mary I of England
Mary I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death.She was the only surviving child born of the ill-fated marriage of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547...
, and Elizabeth I. He was a Cambridge humanist and reformer, and was highly reputed in his time as a Latinist: his controversial exchange with the Portuguese historian Jerónimo Osório attracted international attention based largely on the scholarly reputations of the protagonists.
Early life
A son of William Haddon, by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Paul Dayrell, and brother of James HaddonJames Haddon
James Haddon , was an English divine.Haddon, brother of Walter Haddon [q. v.], proceeded B.A. in 1541 and M.A. in 1544 at Cambridge, and was one of the original fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1546. In March 1550-1 he became a licensed preacher, and about the same time was chaplain to the...
, he was born in Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan home county in South East England. The county town is Aylesbury, the largest town in the ceremonial county is Milton Keynes and largest town in the non-metropolitan county is High Wycombe....
. He was educated at Eton College
Eton College
Eton College, often referred to simply as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor"....
under Richard Cox
Richard Cox (bishop)
Richard Cox was an English clergyman, who was Dean of Westminster and Bishop of Ely.-Biography:Cox was born of obscure parentage at Whaddon, Buckinghamshire, in 1499 or 1500....
, and in 1533 he was elected from Eton to King's College, Cambridge
King's College, Cambridge
King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. The college's full name is "The King's College of our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge", but it is usually referred to simply as "King's" within the University....
. He declined an invitation to Cardinal College, at Oxford, and proceeded B.A. at Cambridge in 1537. He was one of the scholars who about this period attended the Greek lectures read in the university by Thomas Smith
Thomas Smith (diplomat)
Sir Thomas Smith was an English scholar and diplomat.He was born at Saffron Walden in Essex. He was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge, where he became a fellow in 1530, and in 1533 was appointed a public reader or professor. He lectured in the schools on natural philosophy, and on Greek in...
. He commenced M.A. in 1541, and read lectures on civil law for two or three years.
Under Edward VI
He was created doctor of laws at Cambridge in 1549, and served the office of vice-chancellor in 1549-50. A reformer in religion, with Matthew ParkerMatthew Parker
Matthew Parker was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1559 until his death in 1575. He was also an influential theologian and arguably the co-founder of Anglican theological thought....
, then master of Benet College, he acted as an executor of his friend Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer
Martin Bucer was a Protestant reformer based in Strasbourg who influenced Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican doctrines and practices. Bucer was originally a member of the Dominican Order, but after meeting and being influenced by Martin Luther in 1518 he arranged for his monastic vows to be annulled...
, and both delivered orations at his funeral in March 1551. He was appointed regius professor of civil law
Regius Professor of Civil Law (Cambridge)
The Regius Professorship of Civil Law is one of the oldest and most prestigious of the professorships at the University of Cambridge.The chair was founded by Henry VIII in 1540 with a stipend of £40 per year, and the holder is still chosen by The Crown....
, in accordance with a petition from the university, drawn up by his friend Roger Ascham
Roger Ascham
Roger Ascham was an English scholar and didactic writer, famous for his prose style, his promotion of the vernacular, and his theories of education...
. Haddon and John Cheke
John Cheke
Sir John Cheke was an English classical scholar and statesman, notable as the first Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge University....
were chiefly responsible for the reform of the ecclesiastical laws, prepared under Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
's superintendence, and with the advice of Peter Martyr, in accordance with an Act of Parliament of 1549. The Act directed that the scheme should be completed by 1552, but the work was not finished within the specified time. A bill introduced into the parliament of 1552 for the renewal of the commission was not carried, and Edward's death put an end to the scheme, but Haddon and Cheke's Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum appeared in 1571.
On the refusal of Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and politician during the English Reformation period who served as Lord Chancellor during the reign of Queen Mary I of England.-Early life:...
, Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
, to comply with the request of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, 1st Earl of Hertford, 1st Viscount Beauchamp of Hache, KG, Earl Marshal was Lord Protector of England in the period between the death of Henry VIII in 1547 and his own indictment in 1549....
, Lord Protector
Lord Protector
Lord Protector is a title used in British constitutional law for certain heads of state at different periods of history. It is also a particular title for the British Heads of State in respect to the established church...
, to amalgamate the college with Clare Hall
Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...
, the king in February 1552 appointed Haddon to the mastership. On 8 April 1652 he, Parker, Ralph Aynsworth, then master of Peterhouse, and Thomas Lever
Thomas Lever
Thomas Lever was an English Protestant reformer and Marian exile, one of the founders of the Puritan tendency in the Church of England.-Life:...
, master of St. John's College, Cambridge, were commissioned to settle a disputed claim to the mastership of Clare Hall. When Cheke was ill in 1552, he recommended Haddon to the king as his successor in the provostship of King's College.
At Michaelmas 1552 the king and council removed Owen Oglethorp, President of Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, who was opposed to further religious changes, and Haddon was appointed to succeed him. The fellows in vain petitioned the king against this breach of the college statutes. Oglethorp, finding the council inflexible, made an arrangement with Haddon, and resigned on 27 September; and Haddon was admitted President by royal mandate on 10 October. Haddon as President sold valuables from the college chapel. Some libellous verses against the president, affixed to various parts of the college, were attributed to Julius Palmer, who was expelled on the ground of "popish pranks".
Under Mary
On Mary's accession, in August 1553 Haddon wrote some Latin verses congratulating her majesty, but on 27 August he obtained leave of absence from Magdalen for a month on urgent private affairs. The following day letters were received from the Queen commanding that all injunctions contrary to the founder's statutes issued since the death of Henry VIII should be abolished; and Haddon having retired, Oglethorp was re-elected president on 31 October.A commission for Haddon's admission to practise as an advocate in the arches court of Canterbury was taken out on 9 May 1555. He was admitted a member of Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
in 1557, and was one of the members for Thetford
Thetford
Thetford is a market town and civil parish in the Breckland district of Norfolk, England. It is on the A11 road between Norwich and London, just south of Thetford Forest. The civil parish, covering an area of , has a population of 21,588.-History:...
, Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, in the parliament which assembled 20 January 1558. In 1557 he translated into Latin a supplicatory letter to Pope Paul IV
Pope Paul IV
Pope Paul IV, C.R. , né Giovanni Pietro Carafa, was Pope from 23 May 1555 until his death.-Early life:Giovanni Pietro Carafa was born in Capriglia Irpina, near Avellino, into a prominent noble family of Naples...
from the parliament of England, to dissuade him from revoking Cardinal Pole's authority as legate
Papal legate
A papal legate – from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus – is a personal representative of the pope to foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church. He is empowered on matters of Catholic Faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters....
.
Under Elizabeth
His sympathy with ProtestantismProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
had been displayed in a consolatory Latin poem addressed to the Princess Elizabeth on her afflictions. On her accession in 1559 he was in favour and was summoned to attend her at Hatfield
Hatfield House
Hatfield House is a country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of the town of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean house was built in 1611 by Robert Cecil, First Earl of Salisbury and Chief Minister to King James I and has been the home of the Cecil...
. He congratulated her in Latin verse, and was immediately constituted one of the masters of the Court of Requests
Court of Requests
The Court of Requests was a minor equity court in England and Wales. Created at an unknown date, it first became a formal tribunal with some Privy Council elements under Henry VII, hearing cases from the poor and the servants of the King. It quickly became popular due to the low cost of bringing a...
. In spite of his Protestant opinions, he was an admirer of the learning of Bishop Cuthbert Tunstal, and composed the epitaph placed on his tomb when he died that year. On 20 Junehe was appointed one of the commissioners for the visitation of the university of Cambridge and the college of Eton; and on 18 September following the queen granted him a pension. He was in the commission for administering oaths to ecclesiastics (20 October 1559); was also one of the ecclesiastical commissioners; and received from his friend, Archbishop Parker, the office of judge of the prerogative court.
In 1560 a Latin prayer-book, prepared under the superintendence of Haddon, who took a former translation by Alexander Alesius as a model, was authorised by the queen's letters patent for the use of the colleges in both universities and those of Eton and Winchester. On 22 January 1561 he was one of the royal commissioners appointed to look at the order of lessons throughout the year, to cause new calendars to be printed, to provide remedies for the decay of churches, and to prescribe some good order for collegiate churches in the use of the Latin service. He was one of those recommended by Edmund Grindal
Edmund Grindal
Edmund Grindal was an English church leader who successively held the posts of Bishop of London, Archbishop of York and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reign of Elizabeth I of England.-Early life to the death of Edward VI:...
in December 1561 for the provostship of Eton College, but the queen's choice was William Day
William Day (bishop)
William Day was an English clergyman, Provost of Eton College for many years, and at the end of his life Bishop of Winchester.-Life:...
. In June 1562 he and Parker, at the request of the senate, induced William Cecil
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley
William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley , KG was an English statesman, the chief advisor of Queen Elizabeth I for most of her reign, twice Secretary of State and Lord High Treasurer from 1572...
to abandon his intention of resigning the chancellorship of the university of Cambridge.
In August 1564 Haddon accompanied the Queen to Cambridge, and determined the questions in law in the disputations in that faculty held in her presence. In the same year the queen granted him lands at the site of Wymondham Abbey
Wymondham Abbey
Wymondham Abbey is situated in the town of Wymondham in Norfolk, England.-Background:It is the Anglican parish church of Wymondham, but it started life as a Benedictine priory....
, Norfolk. He was at Bruges
Bruges
Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
in 1565 and 1566 with Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu
Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu
Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montagu KG PC was an English peer during the Tudor period.He was the eldest son of Sir Anthony Browne...
and Nicholas Wotton
Nicholas Wotton
Nicholas Wotton was an English diplomat-Life:He was a son of Sir Robert Wotton of Boughton Malherbe, Kent, and a descendant of Nicholas Wotton, lord mayor of London in 1415 and 1430, and member of parliament for the city from 1406 to 1429.He early became vicar of Boughton Malherbe and of Sutton...
, in negotiations for restoring the commercial relations between England and the Netherlands. In November 1566 he was a member of the joint committee of both houses of parliament appointed to petition the queen about her marriage.
Controversy with Osório
In 1563 Jerónimo Osório, a Portuguese priest known as a historian, published in French and Latin an epistle to Queen Elizabeth, exhorting her to return to the communion of the Catholic Church. Haddon, by direction of the government, wrote an answer, which was printed at Paris in 1563 through the agency of Sir Thomas Smith, the English ambassador. This polemical exchange has been called the most famous religious controversy of the second half of the sixteenth century.Osório, now bishop of Silves, published in 1567 a reply. Haddon began a rejoinder, left unfinished at the time of his death, and it was ultimately completed and published by John Foxe
John Foxe
John Foxe was an English historian and martyrologist, the author of what is popularly known as Foxe's Book of Martyrs, , an account of Christian martyrs throughout Western history but emphasizing the sufferings of English Protestants and proto-Protestants from the fourteenth century through the...
. There appeared, probably at Antwerp, without date, Chorus alternatim canentium, a satire in verse on the controversy between Haddon and Osório, attached to a caricature in which Haddon, Bucer, and Pietro Martire Vermigli
Pietro Martire Vermigli
Peter Martyr Vermigli , sometimes simply Peter Martyr, was an Italian theologian of the Reformation period.-Life:...
are represented as dogs drawing a car on which Osório is seated in triumph.
According to Edward Nares
Edward Nares
Edward Nares was an English historian and theologian, and general writer.-Life:He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He was Fellow of Merton College, Oxford and became in 1813 Regius Professor of Modern History...
, English Jesuits at Leuven
Leuven
Leuven is the capital of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region, Belgium...
sought to deter Haddon from proceeding with his second confutation of Osório, by intimidation; Nares claimed wrongly that Haddon died in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
, and that this had raised suspicions of foul play. Similar claims are in the biography of John Foxe published in the 1840s by George Townsend (1788–1857).
Death and family
Haddon died in London on 21 January 1572, and was buried on the 25 January at Christ Church, Newgate Street. Until the Great Fire of LondonGreat Fire of London
The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...
, there was a monument to his memory, with a Latin inscription preserved by Weaver.
He married, first, Margaret, daughter of Sir John Clere of Ormesby, Norfolk, by whom he had a son, Clere Haddon, who was drowned in the river Cam, probably in 1571; and secondly, Anne, daughter of Sir Henry Sutton, who survived him, and remarried Sir Henry Cobham, whom she also survived.