John Aylmer (bishop)
Archdeacon of Stow 1553–1554 & 1559–1562 | |
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Alma mater | Queens' College, Cambridge |
John Aylmer (Ælmer or Elmer; 1521 – 3 June 1594) was an English bishop, constitutionalist and a Greek scholar.[1]
Early life and career
He was born at Aylmer Hall,
His first preferment was to the
In 1577 he was consecrated
He died in 1594 and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. He had several children; his eldest son Samuel was the High Sheriff of Suffolk for 1626.[5]
Works
"Aylmer, like John Ponet and Stephen Gardiner before him, is an important figure in the story of the reception of classical mixed government in Tudor England."[6] John Aylmer wrote his work An harborowe for faithful and trewe subiectes (1559), to defend the female monarchy of Elizabeth I associating "the rule of boyes and women, or effeminate persons" and on another basis; "that cytie is at pits brinks, wherein magistrate ruleth lawes, and not the lawes the magistrate: What could any kyng in Israell do in that common wealth, besides the pollycie appointed by Moyses?". His effort to familiarise his fellow countrymen with the "strange and alluring vocabulary of politics", introducing them to the classical forms and terminology, must be viewed as secondary to this primary goal.
Aylmer nevertheless described England as not "a mere monarchy, as some for lack of consideration think, nor a mere oligarchy, nor democracy, but a rule mixed of all these." 1 He goes on to say that in the mixed state, "each one of these have or should have like authority." He argued that in the king-in-Parliament, or, in Elizabeth's case, the queen-in-Parliament, was not the "image" of a mixed state "but the thing in deed." It was in Parliament that one found the three estates: "the king or queen, which representeth the monarchy; the noble men which be the aristocracy; and the burgesses and knights the democracy." As he says, "In like manner, if the Parliament use their privileges: the king can ordain nothing without them." Parliamentary restraint of a queen's feminine vices would, according to Aylmer, ameliorate the disadvantages of female monarchy.
His work, particularly his characterisation of England as a mixed monarchy, would be important to later English constitutionalists.
Notes
- ^ Dangerous Positions; Mixed Government, the Estates of the Realm, and the Making of the "Answer to the xix propositions", Michael Mendle, University of Alabama Press, 1985. pg 49.
- ^ "Aylmer, John (ALMR540J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ Dangerous Positions, Mendle. pg 61.
- ^ Carl Bridenbaugh, Vexed and Troubled Englishmen, 1590–1642 (New York, 1968), p. 13.
- ^ Fisher, Payne. The tombes, monuments, and sepulchral inscriptions, lately visible in St. Pauls. p. 115.
- ^ Dangerous Positions, Mendle. pg 50.
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Aylmer, John". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
External links
- Horn, J. M. (1969). "Bishops of London". Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1541–1857. Vol. 1: St. Paul's, London. Institute of Historical Research. pp. 1–4.
- Likeness in the National Portrait Gallery
- Historical Collection of the Life and Acts of John Aylmer by John Strype (1821 ed.)