No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Organizing Time for Secular and Religious Purposes: The Contemplacion of Sinners (1499) and the Translation of the Benedictine Rule for Women (1517) of Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
The career of Bishop Richard Fox was marked by his dedication to hard work and his obsession with the organized management of time. Fox was born about 1448 into a Lincolnshire yeoman family, was educated at local grammar schools and Oxford, was subsequently ordained, and later became a doctoral student at the University of Paris. In 1484 he joined the entourage of the exiled Henry Tudor, who recognized his ability and gave him considerable responsibility in negotiating with the French government and planning the 1485 invasion of England. After Bosworth, Fox became Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal and a member of the royal council with particular responsibility for foreign affairs. He was appointed bishop successively of Exeter, Bath and Wells, Durham, and Winchester. In 1516, he founded Corpus Christi College, Oxford, retired from politics, and returned to Winchester, where he died in 1528.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 37: The Use and Abuse of Time in Christian History , 2002 , pp. 145 - 160
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2002
References
1 Alexander, M. V. C., The First of the Tudors: A Study of Henry VII and his Reign (London, 1981), p. 24 Google Scholar.
2 Kaufman, Peter Iver, The ‘Polytyque Churche’: Religion and Early Tudor Political Culture, 1485–1516 (Macon, GA, 1986), p. 23 Google Scholar.
3 The Letters of Richard Fox, 1486–1527, ed. P. S. and Allen, H. M. (Oxford, 1929), pp. 83, 86–7 Google Scholar.
4 Bacon, Francis, The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry VII (London, 1622), p. 49 Google Scholar.
5 Drees, C.J., Authority and Dissent in the English Church (Lewiston, 1997), p. 72 Google Scholar; Kaufman, ‘Polytyque Churche’, p. 202.
6 Harrison, William, Description of England, quoted in DNB, 20, p. 150 Google Scholar.
7 Westminster, 1499. Cited hereafter as Contemplacion.
8 Goodman, Anthony, ‘Religion and warfare in the Anglo-Scottish Marches’, in Bartlett, Robert and MacKay, Angus, eds, Medieval Frontier Societies (Oxford, 1989), pp. 245–66 Google Scholar, esp. 259–61. The border problem is neatly summarized by E. F. Jacob, The Fifteenth Century (Oxford, 1961), p. 637: The problem of order in the north was not simply one of defence against the Scots, but of providing adequate civil administration.’
9 Contemplacion, sig. Cvir; J. ,Thomson, A. F., The Early Tudor Church and Society, 1485–1529 (London, 1993), p. 78 Google Scholar; Drees, Authority and Dissent, pp. 74, 78; Kaufman, ‘Polytyaue Churche’, pp. 121–2; Alexander, First of the Tudors, p. 158.
10 C. S. L. Davies, ‘Richard Fox’, forthcoming in the New DNB. Dr Davies has kindly shown me the typescript of his article.
11 Contemplacion, sig. Aiir.
12 Ibid., Prologue, sig. Aiiir.
13 Ibid., sig. Fvir.
14 Ibid., sig. Mviiir.
15 Ibid., sig. Giiir.
16 Ibid., sig. Avi-r-v.
17 Contemplacion, sig. Aiiir.
18 Ibid., sig. Aiiir.
19 Ibid., sigs Eiiir, Hviv-Iivv.
20 Ibid., sig. Biiir.
21 Ibid., sig. Fivv.
22 Ibid., sig. Eiif.
23 Ibid., sigs Cvr, Fivv.
24 Ibid., sigs Bvr-v.
25 Strictly speaking semi-Pelagianism is the doctrine that the beginning of faith is made independently of God’s grace, and that subsequently the sinner merits salvation through good works made in co-operation with divine grace.
26 Sumped: in a morass, sodden.
27 Blague: pretentious falsehood.
28 Ibid., sig. Dvv.
29 Ibid., sig. Biir.
30 Ibid., sig. Dvr.
31 London, 1517; cited hereafter by the incipit, Here begynneth. The translation of the Rule is analysed and set in context in Collett, B., ‘The civil servant and monastic reform: Richard Fox at Winchester, 1516’, in Loades, J., ed., Monastic Studies: the Continuity of Tradition (Bangor, 1991), pp. 211–28 Google Scholar.
32 Letter to Wolsey, 23 April 1516: Allen and Allen, Letters of Richard Fox, p. 83.
33 Here begynneth, Prologue.
34 McCann, Justin, ed. and tr., The Rule of Saint Benedict (London, 1952), p. 29 Google Scholar; Here begynneth, sig. Bivv.
35 McCann, Rule, pp. 20, 29; Here begynneth, sig. Bivv.
36 McCann, Rule, p. 29, amended; Here begynneth, sigs Aiir, Bivv.
37 McCann, Rule, p. 111; Here begynneth, sig. Fir.
38 Here begynneth, sig. Bivr (nos xxii and xxiii of the instruments of good works); McCann, Rule, p. 27.
39 Here begynneth, sigs Eiv-v.
40 Here begynneth, sig. Biiir.
41 Contemplacion, sig. Aiiir-v.
42 Ibid., sigs Biiir-v.
43 Here begynneth, sig. Bivr (no. xx of Instruments of good works); McCann, Rule, p. 27.
44 Lander, J. R., Government and Community: England, 1450–1509, (London, 1980), pp. 124–5 Google Scholar; Britnell, R. H., The Closing of the Middle Ages? England, 1471–1529 (Oxford, 1997), p. 152 Google Scholar; Drees, Authority and Dissent, p. 71.
45 Kaufman, ‘Polytyque Churche’, p. 120.
46 Contemplacion, sig. Cir.
47 McConica, James, ‘The rise of the undergraduate college’, in idem, ed., The History of the University of Oxford, vol. III: the Collegiate University (Oxford, 1986), pp. 17–29 Google Scholar; John Newman, The physical setting: new building and adaptation’, ibid., pp. 607–11.
48 Here begynneth, sig. Aiiir. *•> Ibid., sig. Bivv.
50 An excellent example is the Italian Benedictine monk Isidoro Chiari, of the Congregation of Santa Giustina of Padua, a Pauline scholar who addressed this question at length in his Adhortatio ad concordiam of 1536: Isidori Clarii …. Epistolae ad amicos …. accedunt duo opuscula alia (Modena, 1705), p. 197.
51 For a discussion of merit and authority, some Italian influences, and Fox’s views, see Collett, B., ‘British students at the University of Ferrara, 1480–1540’, in Bertozzi, M., ed., Alla corte degli Estensi: filosofia, arte e cultura à Ferrara nei secola XV e XVI: atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Ferrara, 5–7 marzo 1992 (Ferrara, 1994), pp. 125–46 Google Scholar.