Richard Montagu
Richard Montagu (or Mountague) (1577 – 13 April 1641) was an English
Early life
Montagu was born during
In 1610, he received the
Controversial writer
On the death, in 1614, of
In his Diatribae upon the first part of the late History of Tithes, 1621, he entered directly into the controversy of the day, in an attempt to beat John Selden on tithes. Controversy against Catholic teachers in his parish was answered in a pamphlet called A Gag for the New Gospel, by Matthew Kellison; he replied in A Gagg for the New Gospell? No. A New Gagg for an old Goose, 1624. The 'Gagg' had contained forty-seven propositions which it attributed to the Church of England. Of these Montagu only allowed eight to be her true doctrine, again demarcating Anglican doctrine on two fronts. He also issued a defensive work,[3] rebutting Marco Antonio de Dominis who charged Montagu with supporting "praying unto saints and angels in time of need". It proved a magnet for controversy, with answer after answer coming from the presses. There was a complaint from two East Anglian ministers, John Yates and Nathaniel Ward; Ward had been overseas to 1624, and it was a few years later that he became vicar of Stondon Massey, close to Stanford Rivers in Essex, and one of Thomas Hooker's anti-Laudian group.[4][5] The House of Commons referred the book to Abbot. Abbot applied for authority to the King, and remonstrated with Montagu. But James himself approved of his work. "If that is to be a Papist" he said, "so am I a Papist". The matter did not rest with the King's death.[2]
Appello
Controversy around Montagu's positions played an important part in the period 1625–9, both in publications and in political moves, and was one of the issues setting the tone for the reign of
The House of Commons took up the matter, and accused the author of dishonouring the late King (James I). A debate on the matter was followed by Montagu's committal to the custody of the serjeant-at-arms. He was, however, allowed to return to Stanford Rivers on giving a bond. Charles then made Montagu one of his chaplains, and let the Commons know on 9 July that he was displeased. On 11 July parliament was prorogued. On 2 August, when the parliament was sitting at Oxford, Montagu was too ill to attend, and after discussion in which Edward Coke and Robert Heath took part, the matter was allowed to drop. But the question was too serious to rest for long. On 16 and 17 January 1626 a conference was held by Charles's command, as the result of which the bishops of London (George Montaigne), Durham (Richard Neile), Winchester (Lancelot Andrewes), Rochester (Buckeridge), and St. David's (Laud) reported to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham that Montagu had not gone further than the doctrine of the Church of England, or what was compatible with it.
York House Conference
The January meeting was followed shortly by a watershed conference beginning 11 February, prompted by
Subsequent developments
The committee of religion renewed their censure of the Appeal, and the House of Commons voted a petition to the King that the author might be fitly punished and his book burned. The King issued a proclamation (14 June 1626) commanding silence on points of controversy. In March 1628 the House of Commons again appointed a committee of religion to inquire into the cases of Montagu,
Montagu still had the strongest supporters at court in Laud and Buckingham himself; and on the death of George Carleton, bishop of Chichester and an opponent, he was appointed to the vacant see. He was elected on 14 July 1628 and received dispensation to hold Petworth with his bishopric. On 22 August Montagu was confirmed in Bow Church. During the ceremony one Jones, a stationer, made objection to the confirmation but the objection was over-ruled as informal; and on 24 August he was consecrated at Croydon, on the same day that news came of Buckingham's assassination. A bitter pamphlet, called Anti-Montacutum, an Appeale or Remonstrance of the Orthodox Ministers of the Church of England against Richard Mountague, was published in 1629 at Edinburgh. The House of Commons again took up the matter, and attempts were made at conciliation, by the issue of the declaration prefixed to the Thirty-nine Articles and printed in the Book of Common Prayer, by a letter from Montagu to Abbot disclaiming Arminianism, by the grant of a special pardon to Montagu, and by the issue of a proclamation suppressing the Appello Caesarem.[2]
Bishop
In his diocese Montagu lived at Aldingbourne and Petworth. His process to recover the estate and manor of Selsey, Sussex was decided against him by Robert Heath, now chief justice, in the common pleas, in 1635. He was still engaged in his research into ecclesiastical history, and published several treatises. In 1638 he was at work on a book on the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which he submitted to the approval of Laud. He was also apparently at this time much mixed up in the tortuous negotiations with the papacy which were conducted through Gregorio Panzani; at the same time Montagu was asking licence for his son to visit Rome, and the matter became in the hands of William Prynne a plausible accusation of romanising.[2]
On the translation of
Works
Besides works already mentioned, Montagu wrote:[2]
- Antidiatribae ad priorern partem diatribes J. Caesaris Bulengeri, Cambridge, 1625.
- Eusebii de Demonstratione Evangelica libri decem ... omnia studio R. M. Latine facta, notis illustrata, 1628.
- Apparatus ad Origines Ecclesiasticas, Oxford, 1635.
- De Originibus Ecclesiasticis, first part, London, 1636; second part, London, 1640.
- Articles of Inquiry put forth at his Primary Visitation as Bishop of Norwich (unauthorised), Cambridge, 1638; (corrected by the bishop), London, 1638; new edition, Cambridge, 1841.
- Acts and Monuments of the Church, London, 1642.
- Versio et Notae in Photii Epistolas, London, 1651.
Notes
- ^ "Montagu, Richard (MNTG594R)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
- ^ Immediate Addresse unto God alone, first delivered in a Sermon before his Majestie at Windsore, since reuised and inlarged to a just treatise of Invocation of Saints, 1624.
- ISBN 978-0-521-52140-6. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
- doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/19031. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- ^ Kenneth Fincham, Nicholas Tyacke, Altars Restored: The Changing Face of English Religious Worship, 1547-c.1700 (2007), p. 130.
- ^ Francis J. Bremer, Tom Webster, Puritans and Puritanism in Europe and America: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia (2006), p. 2231.
- ^ Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. .
References
Attribution
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Stephen, Leslie, ed. (1886). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 7. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 206, 207.
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Montagu, Richard". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 748. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Sheila Lambert, Richard Montagu, Arminianism and Censorship, Past and Present, No. 124 (Aug. 1989), pp. 36–68.