William Piers (bishop)
William Piers | |
---|---|
Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University (1621–1624) | |
Orders | |
Consecration | 1630 |
Personal details | |
Born | c. 1580 |
Died | 1670 Walthamstow, Essex, England |
Buried | Walthamstow Parish Church |
Denomination | Anglican |
Parents | John Piers, Archbishop of York |
Children | William Piers, Archdeacon of Bath |
Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
William Piers (Pierse, Pierce; c. 1580–1670) was
Life
The son of William Piers or Pierse, was born at South Hinksey Oxford, and baptised in the parish church of All Saints 3 September 1580; his father was
He was heavily influenced by John King, a bishop of London, who himself had been the chaplain to Archbishop Piers, when appointed as chaplain in 1612. At Oxford he followed Arminianism and high church doctrine in William Laud's circle. He was licensed to preach, became a prebendary of St Paul's, and a reader in Divinity.
In 1615 he added to his other preferments the rectory of
It was the last of these Calvinist political Bishops John Williams of Lincoln, a former Lord Keeper, who appointed Piers to the deanery of Peterborough 9 June 1622. He was elevated in 1630 to the bishopric of Peterborough, being consecrated on 24 October. He obtained letters of dispensation to hold the rectory of Northolt and the canonry of Christ Church together with his bishopric in commendam; Northolt he soon resigned, taking the chapter living of Caistor, 27 February 1632. In October 1632 he was translated from Peterborough to Bath and Wells, with William Laud's backing. He enforced the orthodox ceremonies, and in 1633 issued orders for the positioning and railing of the communion table, being obeyed in 140 churches of the diocese, but resisted by the majority.
The churchwardens of
Piers also offended strict Sunday Sabbatarians; the judges of assize had forbidden unlawful Sunday meetings, and ordered that the prohibition should be read by the ministers in the parish church. These orders were reissued in 1632 by Justice Richardson, which Piers opposed the following year using the only available precedent St Gregory's Case. Laud, finding this interference with episcopal jurisdiction, wrote to Piers to obtain the opinion of some of the clergy of his diocese as to how the wakes were conducted. However, by 1636, only 140 of 469 in the Canterbury Province had complied with the ruling. In Somerset Fry and Wheeler, churchwardens refused to move and rail the altar. Laud excommunicated them, which deepened resentment against Arminianism.
Piers's reply to Laud upheld the old custom of wakes and church ales or
Piers was an equally determined enemy to the 'lectureships'. Secularizing preachers gave a ministry for free; but they lacked uniformity. Piers further ordered that catechising should take the place of lectures, and according to William Prynne, he boasted that, 'thank God, he had not one lecture left in his diocese'. Piers argued that Feast Days, much to puritan anger, were good for the people to enjoy at Thanksgiving and Christmas. According to Raleigh a new type of precisian puritan objected feasts on the Sabbath. Historian Jonathan Barry has demonstrated that ritualism in Somerset linked some clergy and women in outdoor ceremonies to alleged witchcraft; ministers of ejected livings dabbling with Shamanism.
The
On Laud's fall a petition was presented to the House of Commons against Piers. Within a few days of the committal of Laud to the Tower on 18 December 1640. Piers, together with Bishop
At the beginning of their imprisonment he preached to his brother prelates two sermons on 2 Cor. xii. 8–9, which were later published. Having been liberated on bail by the Lords, he and the other were again imprisoned by the Commons. He was deprived of his See by Parliament on 9 October 1646, as episcopacy was abolished for the duration of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.[4][5]
During the period to 1660 he was deprived of his status, but recovered his liberty, and lived on an estate of his own in the parish of Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire, where he married a second time. In 1660 he was restored to his bishopric. At the end of his life he left Wells and lived mainly at Walthamstow in Essex. Here he died in April 1670, in his ninetieth year, and was buried in the parish church. He left two sons by his first wife: William DD, later appointed by his father to be Archdeacon of Bath, and John, a lay prebendary of Wells, who inherited the family estate at Cuddesdon.
References
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 11 August 2008.
- ^ Walter Raleigh, "Works", 5.319
- ^ "Works," 3.243
- ^ Plant, David (2002). "Episcopalians". BCW Project. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
- JSTOR 564164.
Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Piers, William (1580-1670)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.