By the early 1500’s the medieval Catholic church found itself under severe pressure. Throughout Europe, a movement was building up against the power and enormous wealth of the Church. This led to the growth of the Protestant church brought about by reformers who felt the need to bring Christianity ‘back to basics’. However it came with a great deal of pain and violence, and much of Europe became involved in religious warfare. But at the same time as Martin Luther was being excommunicated by the Pope for nailing up his condemnation of the Church of Rome, things were happening in Willingham too.
Reign of King HenryVll 1485-1509
King Henry Vlll 1509-1547
King Edward Vl 1547-1553
Queen Mary 1553–1558
The last catholic Rector of Willingham
John Rumpayne was to be the last catholic Rector of Willingham when he arrived in 1518. He had an impeccable establishment pedigree, having been educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, where he became a Fellow. At some point he was put in charge of much of the glass of Kings College Chapel. However, he does not appear to have been popular with the church hierarchy. He was excommunicated in 1521 for appearing at a Synod without wearing a surplice, although he later sought, and obtained, Absolution from the Pope. When he resigned in 1545, he did so only on condition that he was granted a house and pension. Nationally at this time England was going through a period of massive change. King Henry VIII married six wives in a vain attempt to produce a male heir; argued with the Pope over the question of divorce, dissolved the monasteries, and confiscated their enormous wealth to help fund his military ambitions and building projects.
The first protestant Rector
Lancelot Ridley arrived in Willingham as its first protestant Rector in 1545, just after Henry VIII had been excommunicated by the Pope. Ridley was a graduate of Clare College, Cambridge, and had moved in high circles at Canterbury. He knew Archbishop Cranmer well and when Canterbury Cathedral was re-founded in 1541, Ridley had been made one of its famous ‘Six Preachers.’ He came to Willingham as a distinguished protestant, having published Expositions on many of Saint Paul’s Epistles, and Saint Matthew’s Gospel. He was probably involved in the authorisation by Archbishop Cranmer in 1549 of the first English Prayer Book to replace the Latin ritual. Ridley signed the ‘Inventory of Church Goods at Willingham’ in 1553, which included two silver chalices, five copes of red velvet, green silk, white damask, blue satin and white silk, as well as four bells and a sanctus (calling) bell.
However, he came with a wife, which was to be his undoing. When Mary became Queen in 1553, she had Archbishop Cranmer burned at the stake in Oxford, and the new Archbishop took out proceedings against Lancelot Ridley for being a married clergyman. He was deprived of the living at Willingham, and even though he was said later to have ‘put away his wife’ and returned to celibacy, he was not re-appointed (although he did re-appear as Rector of Stretham a few years later). At least he wasn’t burned at the stake, like the Archbishop and many of his contemporaries.
Next time: Elizabethan Willingham