Editing Matthew Parker (section)

==Career at Cambridge (1525{{ndash}}1547)==
[[File:Braun - map of Cambridge.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|alt=Tudor map of Cambridge|[[Georg Braun]] and [[Frans Hogenberg]]'s map of Tudor [[Cambridge]]]]

Parker was ordained as a [[deacon]] on 20 April 1527 and a priest two months later, on 15 June.{{sfn|Crankshaw|Gillespie|2004}} In September he was elected a [[fellow]] of Corpus Christi.{{sfn|Pollard|1911}} There is no evidence that he was ever involved in a public dispute at Cambridge, unlike his contemporaries.{{sfn|Kennedy|1908|p=32}} Bilney was accused of [[heresy]] in 1527 and then [[Recantation|recanted]], but was imprisoned for two years. He returned to Cambridge, regretting his recantation, and began to preach throughout Norfolk. In August 1531 he was condemned to be [[Death by burning|burnt at the stake]] as a relapsed heretic; Parker was present at his execution in Norwich on 19 August, and afterwards defended Bilney after accusations were made that he had recanted at the stake.{{sfn|Kennedy|1908|p=30}}

In around 1527,{{sfn|Kennedy|1908|p=25}} Parker was one of the Cambridge scholars whom [[Cardinal (Catholic Church)|Cardinal]] [[Thomas Wolsey]] invited to [[Christ Church, Oxford|Cardinal College]] at [[Oxford]]. Parker, like Cranmer, declined Wolsey's invitation.{{sfn|Pollard|1911}} The college had been founded in 1525 on the site of St Frideswide's Priory, and was still being built when Wolsey fell from power in 1529.<ref>{{cite web |title=Christ Church |url=https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1000441 |publisher=Historic England |access-date=22 November 2020 |ref=none |date=2020}}</ref>

Parker began his [[Master of Arts]] degree in 1528.{{sfn|Pollard|1911}} He was licensed to preach by Cranmer in 1533, and quickly became a popular preacher in and around Cambridge; none of his sermons have survived.{{sfn|Kennedy|1908|p=30}} He would have had to adhere to the ''[[Thirty-nine Articles#Ten Articles (1536)|Ten Articles]]'' enforced on the clergy during that period.{{sfn|Kennedy|1908|pp=35{{ndash}}36}}

[[File:A Lady, called Anne Boleyn, by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|thumb|left|alt=painting of Anne Boleyn|[[Hans Holbein the Younger]], ''A Lady, called Anne Boleyn'' ({{circa}}1532{{ndash}}1535), [[British Museum]]]]

After being summoned to the court of [[Anne Boleyn]] he became her [[chaplain]].{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=15}} Through her influence he was appointed [[Dean (education)|dean]] of the college of [[secular canons]] at [[Stoke-by-Clare]] in [[Suffolk]] in 1535, a post he held until 1547.{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=16}}{{sfn|Pollard|1911}} The college had been [[Secularity|secularised]] in 1514.{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=16}} The duties of the residents involved the regular performance of the [[Liturgy of the Hours|offices of the church]] and prayers for the founder's family, but little direction was provided in the statutes for other times during the day, and there was little to do for the residents beyond their daily tasks and the education of the [[choirboy]]s. It had come close to be acquired by Wolsey, but this had been prevented by the intervention of the [[Bishop of Norwich]] and Henry VIII's first wife, [[Catherine of Aragon|Catherine]].{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=17}}

He retained his fellowship at Cambridge University whilst he was dean at Stoke-by-Clare. His biographer V.J.K. Brook commented that for Parker "his new post provided him with a happy and quiet place of retirement in the country to which he became devoted"; and allowed him to pursue his enthusiasm for education and the sponsorship of new buildings.{{sfn|Brook|1962|pp=17{{ndash}}18}} At Stoke he transformed the college by introducing new statutes to ensure regular preaching occurred. Under Parker's deanship, scholars came from Cambridge to deliver lectures, greater care was taken over the education of the boy choristers, and a free grammar school for local boys was built within the precincts.{{sfn|Brook|1962|pp=18, 22}} His successful revitalisation of the college caused its reputation to spread, and he was able to protect it from being dissolved by citing the good work being done there; it retained its status until after Henry's death in 1547.{{sfn|Brook|1962|pp=20{{ndash}}21}}

Shortly before Anne Boleyn's arrest in 1536, she charged her daughter [[Elizabeth I|Elizabeth]] to Parker's care, something he honoured for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=15}} He obtained his [[Bachelor of Divinity]] in July 1535, and in 1537 was appointed chaplain to Henry; he graduated [[Doctor of Divinity]] in July 1538.{{sfn|Crankshaw|Gillespie|2004}}{{sfn|Pollard|1911}}

In 1539 he was denounced to the [[Lord Chancellor]], [[Thomas Audley, 1st Baron Audley of Walden|Thomas Audley]], by his opponents at Stoke-by-Clare,{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=19}} who accused him of heresy and using "disloyal language against Easter, relics and other details". Audley dismissed the charges and urged Parker to "go on and fear no such enemies".{{sfn|Kennedy|1908|p=36}}{{sfn|Mullinger|1895}} In 1541 was appointed to the second [[prebendary|prebend]] at [[Ely Cathedral|Ely]], a sign of royal approval.{{sfn|Brook|1962|pp=20{{ndash}}21}}

[[File:Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (27818637452).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|The chapel of [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]]]]

On 4 December 1544, on Henry's recommendation, he was elected master of Corpus Christi College. Such was his devotion towards the care of the college, he is now regarded as its second founder.{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=23}} Upon his election he began the process of putting organising its finances properly, which enabled him to repair the buildings and construct new ones' the master's Lodgings, the college halls and many of the students' rooms were improved.{{sfn|Brook|1962|p=24}} He worked hard to make Corpus Christi a centre of learning, founding new scholarships.{{sfn|Brook|1962|pp=25{{ndash}}26}}

In January 1545, after two months in the post of master of Corpus, he was elected [[Chancellor (education)#Vice-chancellor|vice-chancellor]] of the university. During his year in office he got into some trouble with the Chancellor of Cambridge University, [[Stephen Gardiner]], over a play, ''Pammachius'', performed by the students and censored by the college, which derided the old ecclesiastical system. Parker was obliged to make enquiries into the nature of the play, but then allowed to settle the matter himself on behalf of the university authorities.{{sfn|Brook|1962|pp=28{{ndash}}30}}

===Career under Edward VI===
On the passing of the [[Act of Parliament]] in 1545 enabling the king to dissolve [[chantry|chantries]] and colleges, Parker was appointed one of the commissioners for Cambridge, and their report may have saved its colleges from destruction. Stoke, however, was dissolved in the following reign, and Parker received a generous pension. He took advantage of the new reign to marry in June 1547, before clerical marriages were legalised by Parliament and Convocation, Margaret, daughter of Robert Harlestone, a [[Norfolk]] squire. They had initially planned to marry since about 1540 but had waited until it was not a felony for priests to marry.{{sfn|Bjorklund|2003|p=350}} The marriage was a happy one, although Queen Elizabeth's dislike of Margaret was later to cause Parker much distress. They had five children, of whom John and Matthew reached adulthood. During [[Kett's Rebellion]], he preached at the rebels' camp on [[Mousehold Heath|Mousehold Hill]] near Norwich, without much effect, and later encouraged his secretary, [[Alexander Neville (scholar)|Alexander Neville]], to write his history of the rising.

Parker's association with [[Protestantism]] advanced with the times, and he received higher promotion under [[John Dudley, 1st Duke of Northumberland]], than under the moderate [[Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset]]. At Cambridge, he was a friend of the German [[Protestant]] reformer [[Martin Bucer]] after he was exiled to England, and preached Bucer's funeral sermon in 1551. In 1552 he was promoted to the rich deanery of [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]].