William Bray (priest)

William Bray (died 1644) was an English priest, chaplain to William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury. As licenser of publications of John Pocklington, he was drawn into Pocklington's case before the Long Parliament.

Life

He matriculated at

He had licensed two Laudian books by John Pocklington, on the Sabbath and church ritual; the Long Parliament required him to preach a recantation sermon at St Margaret's, Westminster. On 12 January 1643 Parliament proceeded to sequester him from the vicarage of St Martin's, and at the end of March following his books were seized; he was also imprisoned, plundered, and forced to flee from London to remote parts of the country, where, it is said, he died in 1644.

His recantation sermon was published with the title: A Sermon of the Blessed Sacrament of the Lord's Supper; proving that there is therein no proper sacrifice now offered; Together with the disapproving of sundry passages in 2 Bookes set forth by Dr. Pocklington; the one called Altare Christianum, the other Sunday no Sabbath: Formerly printed with Licence. Now published by Command,' London, 1641.

References

Sources

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Bray, William (d.1644)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.