Editing William Whittingham (section)

==Early life==
Born at [[Chester]] about 1524, he was son of William Whittingham, by his wife, a daughter of Haughton of [[Hoghton Tower]], Lancashire. In 1540, at the age of sixteen, he entered [[Brasenose College, Oxford]], graduating B.A. and being elected fellow of [[All Souls' College]] in 1545. In 1547 he became senior student of [[Christ Church, Oxford]] earning the M.A. on 5 Feb 1547–8. On 17 May 1550, he was granted leave to travel for three years to study languages and civil law. He went to France, where he spent his time chiefly at the [[University of Orleans]], but he also visited [[Lyon]] and studied at Paris, where his services as interpreter were used by the English ambassador, [[Sir John Mason]] or Sir William Pickering.

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 Vermigli|Peter Martyr]]; but after a few weeks he himself left England with difficulty by way of [[Dover]] to France.