Thomas Tenison

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Simon Dubois
ChurchChurch of England
DioceseCanterbury
In office1695–1715
PredecessorJohn Tillotson
SuccessorWilliam Wake
Orders
Consecration10 January 1692
by John Tillotson
Personal details
Born(1636-09-29)29 September 1636
Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, England
Died14 December 1715(1715-12-14) (aged 79)
London, England
NationalityEnglish
DenominationAnglican
SpouseAnne Love
EducationNorwich School
Alma materCorpus Christi College, Cambridge
difference of these arms was borne by Tennyson, the family of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) (Baron Tennyson
), the poet
Arms of Thomas Tenison showing arms of the See of Canterbury impaling arms of Tenison (Three leopard's faces jessant-de-lys overall a bend engrailed), imprint on front cover of a Book of Common Prayer, 1686, collection of University of Toronto

Thomas Tenison (29 September 1636 – 14 December 1715) was an English church leader, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1694 until his death. During his primacy, he crowned two British monarchs.

Life

He was born at Cottenham, Cambridgeshire, the son and grandson of Anglican clergymen, who were both named John Tenison; his mother was Mercy Dowsing. He was educated at Norwich School, going on to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, as a scholar on Archbishop Matthew Parker's foundation. He graduated in 1657, and was chosen fellow in 1659.[2] For a short time he studied medicine, but in 1659 was privately ordained. As curate of St Andrew the Great, Cambridge from 1662, he set an example by his devoted attention to the sufferers from the plague. In 1667 he was presented to the living of Holywell-cum-Needingworth, Huntingdonshire, by the Earl of Manchester, to whose son he had been tutor, and in 1670 to that of St Peter Mancroft, Norwich.[3]

In 1680 he received the degree of Doctor of Divinity, and was presented by King

Jesuits in the Savoy. Tenison's reputation as an enemy of Romanism led the Duke of Monmouth to send for him before his execution in 1685, when Bishops Thomas Ken and Francis Turner refused to administer holy communion; but, although Tenison spoke to him in "a softer and less peremptory manner" than the two bishops, he was, like them, not satisfied with the sufficiency of Monmouth's penitence.[3]

Under King William III, Tenison was in 1689 named a member of the ecclesiastical commission appointed to prepare matters towards a reconciliation of the Dissenters, the revision of the liturgy being specially entrusted to him. A sermon he preached on the commission was published the same year.[3]

He strongly supported, at least in public, the Glorious Revolution, though not without some private misgivings, especially concerning the ejection of Archbishop William Sancroft and the other "non-juring" bishops. Henry Hyde, 2nd Earl of Clarendon in his diary records some frank remarks made by Tenison on this subject at a dinner party in 1691:

That there had been irregularities in our settlement; that it was wished that things had been otherwise, but that we were now to make the best of it, and support this government as it was, for fear of a worse.

He preached a funeral sermon for Nell Gwyn in 1687, in which he represented her as truly penitent – a charitable judgment that did not meet with universal approval. The general liberality of Tenison's religious views won him royal favour, and, after being made Bishop of Lincoln in 1691, he was promoted to Archbishop of Canterbury in December 1694.[3]

Archbishop Tenison was one of seven Lord Justices whom King William appointed to administer the kingdom whilst he was on campaign in Europe.

Archbishop of Canterbury

He attended Queen

Mary during her last illness and preached her funeral sermon in Westminster Abbey. In 1695, when William went to take command of the army in the Netherlands, Tenison was appointed one of the seven lords justices to whom his authority was delegated.[3] After Mary's death, Tenison was one of those who persuaded the King that his long and bitter quarrel with her sister Anne must be ended, as it had weakened the authority of the Crown.[4] He was sworn in as a member of the Privy Council of England in 1695 upon his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury. This gave him the Honorific Title "The Right Honourable
" for Life.

Under Queen Anne

Along with

Sir Jonathan Trelawny, 3rd Baronet, as Bishop of Winchester: when he tried to remonstrate, the Queen cut him short with the cold remark that "the matter was decided." Only with great difficulty did he persuade her to appoint his nominee William Wake, as Bishop of Lincoln.[6]

Increasingly he lost influence to

Sir Thomas Browne's manuscript writings known as Christian Morals
.

Other works

Besides the sermons and tracts above mentioned, and various others on the "Popish" controversy, Tenison was the author of The Creed of Mr Hobbes Examined (1670) and Baconia, or Certain Genuine Remains of Lord Bacon (1679). He was one of the founders of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.[10]

Family

He married Anne, daughter of

will
he left legacies to all of Richard's five sons.

In appearance, he was described as a large, brawny, "hulking" figure, very strong when young but afflicted with gout in later life.[14]

Armorials

The personal

fleur-de-lys
entering through the mouth.

These arms are a

see of Hereford, which uses them to this day. A version of the Denys arms was also adopted by the family of the poet laureate Alfred, Lord Tennyson
, not known to have been a descendant of Archbishop Thomas Tenison.

Suspected discovery of his coffin

Here lyeth the body of Thomas Tenison, late Archbishop of Canterbury, who departed this life in peace on the XIV day of December MDCCXV (14/12/1715)
Memorial in the floor of the deconsecrated church of St Mary-at-Lambeth, which is next to the entrance of Lambeth Palace, London

In 2016, during the refurbishment of the Garden Museum,[15] which is housed at the medieval church of St Mary-at-Lambeth,[16] 30 lead coffins were found; one with an archbishop's red and gold mitre on top of it.[17] Two archbishops were identified from nameplates on their coffins; with church records revealing that a further three archbishops, including Tenison, were likely to be buried in the vault.[18]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Burkes General Armory, 1884
  2. ^ "Tenison, Thomas (TNY653T)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Chisholm 1911, p. 617.
  4. ^ Gregg, Edward Queen Anne Yale University Press 1980 p.102
  5. ^ Gregg p.206
  6. ^ Somerset, Anne Queen Anne Harper Press 2012 p.224
  7. ^ Gregg p.146
  8. ^ Gregg p.141
  9. ^ Somerset p.540
  10. ^ Chisholm 1911, pp. 617–618.
  11. ^ "Tenison, Thomas" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  12. ^ "Tenison, Edward" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  13. ^ George Stanhope, A Letter from the Prolocutor to the Reverend Dr. Edward Tenison, Archdeacon of Carmarthen, 1718
  14. ^ Somerset p.224
  15. ^ Museum web-site
  16. ^ Church of St Mary, Lambeth British History on-line
  17. ^ Times on-line
  18. ^ "Remains of five 'lost' Archbishops of Canterbury found". BBC. 16 April 2017.

References

Further reading

  • Edward Carpenter, Thomas Tenison, Archbishop of Canterbury: His Life and Times (SPCK, 1948).

External links

Church of England titles
Preceded by Bishop of Lincoln
1691–1695 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Archbishop of Canterbury
1695–1715 		Succeeded by
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