William Whittingham

William Whittingham (c. 1524–1579) was an English Puritan, a

Towards the end of 1552 Whittingham visited universities in Germany and Geneva. He briefly returned to England in May 1553. Whittingham had adopted radical Puritan views, but the accession of Queen Mary, the return of Anglo-Italian ecclesiastical policies of De Haeretico Comburendo in the form of Cardinal Pole's repatriation to England, and the vulnerabilities and liabilities associated with burnings-to-come (e.g. William Tyndale, 1536), anticipated persecutions, interfered with hopes of usefulness in ministerial labours. Late in August, however, he made intercession, which was ultimately successful, for the release of Peter Martyr; but after a few weeks he himself left England with difficulty by way of Dover to France.

In the spring of 1554

There exists a nearly eye-witness narrative of the conflict, published in 1575, entitled 'A Brieff Discours off the Troubles begonne at Franckford in Germany, anno Domini 1554. Abowte the Booke off Common Prayer and Ceremonies, and continued by the Englishe men theyre to thende off Q. Maries Raigne,' 1575.[2] Recent scholars have argued that Whittingham is indeed the author of the narrative.^[1]

On 16 December 1555, and again in December 1556, Whittingham was elected a Presbyterian elder; on 16 December 1558, he was ordained as a deacon, and in 1559 he succeeded Knox as Presbyterian minister at Calvin's insistence. Upon Queen Mary's death, most of the exiles at Geneva returned to England, but Whittingham remained to complete the translation of the Geneva Bible. He had laboured with other scholars in the review of earlier English editions—Tyndale's, Coverdale's, the Thomas Matthew's Bible and other versions. He had already produced a version of the New Testament, which was issued at Geneva by Conrad Badius on 10 June 1557. He also took part in the minor revisions of the Old Testament. The critical and explanatory notes were largely textual and explanatory. It was printed at Geneva by Rowland Hall in 1560; after 1611, its popularity was not lost. More than 150 editions were printed up to 1644. It was an influential version for at least one hundred years. By the 17th century, as Laudian influences would gain ascendancy, all-things-Genevan grew to be condemned.

Besides the translation of the Bible, Whittingham issued metrical versions some of

Whittingham took formal leave of the council at Geneva on 30 May 1560. In January 1561, he was appointed to attend Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford during his embassy to the French court. In the following year he became a chaplain to Ambrose Dudley, 3rd Earl of Warwick, a minister at Le Havre, then occupied by the English under Warwick. He won general praise; but William Cecil complained of his neglect of conformity to the English Book of Common Prayer. Owing to the support of Warwick and Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, another Puritan sympathizer, Whittingham was collated on 19 July 1563 to the deanery of Durham.

In keeping with his past, Whittingham took his duties seriously, holding two services a day, devoting time to his grammar school and song school, and church music. Before the outbreak of the Rising of the North in 1569 he unsuccessfully urged James Pilkington, the bishop of Durham, to put the city in a state of defence, but he was more successful at Newcastle, which resisted the rebels. In 1572, when Lord Burghley became lord treasurer, Whittingham was suggested, probably by Leicester, as his successor in the office of secretary. In 1577, Leicester also promised Whittingham aid in securing the see of York or Durham, both being vacant; but Whittingham did not press for preferment.

In 1564, Whittingham wrote a long letter to Leicester protesting against the 'old popish apparel' and the historic associations with Massing-vestments and theology. He refused to wear the

The articles against Whittingham are printed from the domestic state papers in the 'Camden Miscellany'; the charge that 'he is defamed of adulterie' is entered as 'partly proved' and that of drunkenness as 'proved;' but the real allegation against Whittingham was the alleged inadequacy and invalidity of his ordination in Geneva. He admitted to not having been ordained according to the rites of the church of England. Archbishop Sandys further added that Whittingham had not even been validly ordained even according to Genevan standards, but had been elected preacher without the imposition of hands. Huntingdon repudiated the Archbishop and suggested a stay of the proceedings against Whittingham, arguing that 'it could not but be ill-taken of all the godly learned both at home and in all the reformed churches abroad, that we should allow of the popish massing priests in our ministry, and disallow of the ministers made in a reformed church'. However Archbishop Richard Bancroft, in 'Dangerous Positions', referred to him as 'afterward unworthily Dean of Durham', and ranks him with Goodman, Gilby, and other Puritans. So does Roger L'Estrange in his violent philippic, 'The Holy Cheat'.

As the proceedings to deprive Whittingham of holy orders were proceeding, he was met with death, on 10 June 1579.^[4] He was buried in Durham Cathedral, where his tomb (ironically) was destroyed by the Presbyterian Scots in 1640. His will, dated 18 April 1579, is printed in 'Durham Wills and Inventories' (Surtees Soc. ii. 14–19).

Whittingham's wife Catherine, daughter of Louis Jaqueman, was probably born not before 1535 and married to Whittingham on 15 November 1556. Her eldest son, Zachary, was baptised on 17 August 1557, and her eldest daughter, Susanna, on 11 December 1558; both died young. Whittingham was survived by two sons, Sir Timothy and Daniel, and four daughters.

• "Whittingham, William" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.