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Cerbu ("stag, deer") may refer to several villages in Romania:
Cerbu, a village in Bucium Commune, Alba County
Cerbu, a village in Albota Commune, Argeș County
Cerbu, a village in Copălău Commune, Botoşani County
Cerbu, a village in Topolog Commune, Tulcea County
Cerbu, a village in Jitia Commune, Vrancea County
See also
Cerbu River (disambiguation)
The Golden Stag Festival, called Cerbul de Aur in Romanian
|
located in the administrative territorial entity
|
{
"answer_start": [
84
],
"text": [
"Bucium"
]
}
|
Cerbu ("stag, deer") may refer to several villages in Romania:
Cerbu, a village in Bucium Commune, Alba County
Cerbu, a village in Albota Commune, Argeș County
Cerbu, a village in Copălău Commune, Botoşani County
Cerbu, a village in Topolog Commune, Tulcea County
Cerbu, a village in Jitia Commune, Vrancea County
See also
Cerbu River (disambiguation)
The Golden Stag Festival, called Cerbul de Aur in Romanian
|
native label
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Cerbu"
]
}
|
Cerbu ("stag, deer") may refer to several villages in Romania:
Cerbu, a village in Bucium Commune, Alba County
Cerbu, a village in Albota Commune, Argeș County
Cerbu, a village in Copălău Commune, Botoşani County
Cerbu, a village in Topolog Commune, Tulcea County
Cerbu, a village in Jitia Commune, Vrancea County
See also
Cerbu River (disambiguation)
The Golden Stag Festival, called Cerbul de Aur in Romanian
|
different from
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Cerbu"
]
}
|
Cerbu ("stag, deer") may refer to several villages in Romania:
Cerbu, a village in Bucium Commune, Alba County
Cerbu, a village in Albota Commune, Argeș County
Cerbu, a village in Copălău Commune, Botoşani County
Cerbu, a village in Topolog Commune, Tulcea County
Cerbu, a village in Jitia Commune, Vrancea County
See also
Cerbu River (disambiguation)
The Golden Stag Festival, called Cerbul de Aur in Romanian
|
language of work or name
|
{
"answer_start": [
404
],
"text": [
"Romanian"
]
}
|
The Chariton Review is an American literary magazine based at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. The journal was founded in 1975 by Andrew Grossbart. Jim Barnes was the editor from 1976 to 2010.Work that has appeared in Chariton Review has been short-listed for the Best American Poetry Series and The Pushcart Prize.
Among established writers whose work has appeared in The Chariton Review are David Wagoner, Michael Pettit, James Sallis, Ann Pancake, Gordon Weaver, Jacob Appel and David Lawrence.
See also
List of literary magazines
References
External links
The Chariton Review
|
publisher
|
{
"answer_start": [
62
],
"text": [
"Truman State University"
]
}
|
The Chariton Review is an American literary magazine based at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. The journal was founded in 1975 by Andrew Grossbart. Jim Barnes was the editor from 1976 to 2010.Work that has appeared in Chariton Review has been short-listed for the Best American Poetry Series and The Pushcart Prize.
Among established writers whose work has appeared in The Chariton Review are David Wagoner, Michael Pettit, James Sallis, Ann Pancake, Gordon Weaver, Jacob Appel and David Lawrence.
See also
List of literary magazines
References
External links
The Chariton Review
|
main subject
|
{
"answer_start": [
35
],
"text": [
"literary magazine"
]
}
|
The Chariton Review is an American literary magazine based at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. The journal was founded in 1975 by Andrew Grossbart. Jim Barnes was the editor from 1976 to 2010.Work that has appeared in Chariton Review has been short-listed for the Best American Poetry Series and The Pushcart Prize.
Among established writers whose work has appeared in The Chariton Review are David Wagoner, Michael Pettit, James Sallis, Ann Pancake, Gordon Weaver, Jacob Appel and David Lawrence.
See also
List of literary magazines
References
External links
The Chariton Review
|
title
|
{
"answer_start": [
4
],
"text": [
"Chariton Review"
]
}
|
María del Carmen Calleja de Pablo (1949, Seville - December 31, 2012, Seville) was a Spanish politician, belonging to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. She served as a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, elected from Jaén, 1996–2000. She also served as civil governor of Jaén province.
== References ==
|
country of citizenship
|
{
"answer_start": [
210
],
"text": [
"Spain"
]
}
|
María del Carmen Calleja de Pablo (1949, Seville - December 31, 2012, Seville) was a Spanish politician, belonging to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. She served as a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, elected from Jaén, 1996–2000. She also served as civil governor of Jaén province.
== References ==
|
member of political party
|
{
"answer_start": [
122
],
"text": [
"Spanish Socialist Workers' Party"
]
}
|
María del Carmen Calleja de Pablo (1949, Seville - December 31, 2012, Seville) was a Spanish politician, belonging to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. She served as a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, elected from Jaén, 1996–2000. She also served as civil governor of Jaén province.
== References ==
|
occupation
|
{
"answer_start": [
93
],
"text": [
"politician"
]
}
|
María del Carmen Calleja de Pablo (1949, Seville - December 31, 2012, Seville) was a Spanish politician, belonging to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. She served as a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, elected from Jaén, 1996–2000. She also served as civil governor of Jaén province.
== References ==
|
family name
|
{
"answer_start": [
17
],
"text": [
"Calleja"
]
}
|
María del Carmen Calleja de Pablo (1949, Seville - December 31, 2012, Seville) was a Spanish politician, belonging to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. She served as a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, elected from Jaén, 1996–2000. She also served as civil governor of Jaén province.
== References ==
|
given name
|
{
"answer_start": [
10
],
"text": [
"Carmen"
]
}
|
María del Carmen Calleja de Pablo (1949, Seville - December 31, 2012, Seville) was a Spanish politician, belonging to the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party. She served as a member of the Congress of Deputies of Spain, elected from Jaén, 1996–2000. She also served as civil governor of Jaén province.
== References ==
|
languages spoken, written or signed
|
{
"answer_start": [
85
],
"text": [
"Spanish"
]
}
|
Monika Simančíková (born 14 August 1995) is a Slovak former competitive figure skater. She is the 2012 Ondrej Nepela Memorial silver medalist and 2012 Slovak national champion. She qualified to the free skate at five ISU Championships, including the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.
She trained mainly in Nové Mesto nad Váhom and occasionally in Piešťany and Oberstdorf. Her mother is a figure skating coach of younger children.
Programs
Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix
References
External links
Media related to Monika Simančíková at Wikimedia Commons
Monika Simančíková at the International Skating Union
Monika Simančíková at Tracings
|
place of birth
|
{
"answer_start": [
366
],
"text": [
"Piešťany"
]
}
|
Monika Simančíková (born 14 August 1995) is a Slovak former competitive figure skater. She is the 2012 Ondrej Nepela Memorial silver medalist and 2012 Slovak national champion. She qualified to the free skate at five ISU Championships, including the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.
She trained mainly in Nové Mesto nad Váhom and occasionally in Piešťany and Oberstdorf. Her mother is a figure skating coach of younger children.
Programs
Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix
References
External links
Media related to Monika Simančíková at Wikimedia Commons
Monika Simančíková at the International Skating Union
Monika Simančíková at Tracings
|
occupation
|
{
"answer_start": [
72
],
"text": [
"figure skater"
]
}
|
Monika Simančíková (born 14 August 1995) is a Slovak former competitive figure skater. She is the 2012 Ondrej Nepela Memorial silver medalist and 2012 Slovak national champion. She qualified to the free skate at five ISU Championships, including the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.
She trained mainly in Nové Mesto nad Váhom and occasionally in Piešťany and Oberstdorf. Her mother is a figure skating coach of younger children.
Programs
Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix
References
External links
Media related to Monika Simančíková at Wikimedia Commons
Monika Simančíková at the International Skating Union
Monika Simančíková at Tracings
|
Commons category
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Monika Simančíková"
]
}
|
Monika Simančíková (born 14 August 1995) is a Slovak former competitive figure skater. She is the 2012 Ondrej Nepela Memorial silver medalist and 2012 Slovak national champion. She qualified to the free skate at five ISU Championships, including the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.
She trained mainly in Nové Mesto nad Váhom and occasionally in Piešťany and Oberstdorf. Her mother is a figure skating coach of younger children.
Programs
Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix
References
External links
Media related to Monika Simančíková at Wikimedia Commons
Monika Simančíková at the International Skating Union
Monika Simančíková at Tracings
|
sport
|
{
"answer_start": [
407
],
"text": [
"figure skating"
]
}
|
Monika Simančíková (born 14 August 1995) is a Slovak former competitive figure skater. She is the 2012 Ondrej Nepela Memorial silver medalist and 2012 Slovak national champion. She qualified to the free skate at five ISU Championships, including the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.
She trained mainly in Nové Mesto nad Váhom and occasionally in Piešťany and Oberstdorf. Her mother is a figure skating coach of younger children.
Programs
Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix
References
External links
Media related to Monika Simančíková at Wikimedia Commons
Monika Simančíková at the International Skating Union
Monika Simančíková at Tracings
|
given name
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Monika"
]
}
|
Monika Simančíková (born 14 August 1995) is a Slovak former competitive figure skater. She is the 2012 Ondrej Nepela Memorial silver medalist and 2012 Slovak national champion. She qualified to the free skate at five ISU Championships, including the 2013 World Championships in London, Ontario, Canada.
She trained mainly in Nové Mesto nad Váhom and occasionally in Piešťany and Oberstdorf. Her mother is a figure skating coach of younger children.
Programs
Competitive highlights
JGP: Junior Grand Prix
References
External links
Media related to Monika Simančíková at Wikimedia Commons
Monika Simančíková at the International Skating Union
Monika Simančíková at Tracings
|
languages spoken, written or signed
|
{
"answer_start": [
46
],
"text": [
"Slovak"
]
}
|
Nipple pain is a common symptom of pain at the nipple that occurs in women during breastfeeding after childbirth. The pain shows the highest intensity during the third to the seventh day postpartum and becomes most severe on the third day postpartum.Nipple pain can result from many conditions. Early nipple pain in breastfeeding is usually caused by improper positioning and latch while breastfeeding. Other causes may include blocked milk ducts, tongue-tie, cracked nipples and nipple infections by yeasts, bacteria or viruses. Complications in nursing women involve an increase in nipple sensitivity or breast engorgement, leading to mastitis and subsequent pain. Common diagnostic approaches include quantifying pain by the numerical rating scale (NRS) and maternal breast or infant mouth examinations.Nipple pain may hinder breastfeeding and is the most common reason for early weaning. General management such as positioning and latch adjustment and thermal intervention can be administered for pain alleviation. Appropriate treatment of nipple pain is given based on the underlying cause.
Causes
Causes of nipple pain in breastfeeding are classified into three factors: physiological, mechanical and infectious. They are interrelated and possibly happen simultaneously.
Physiological factors
Physiological changes in nursing women, including an unusual milk supply and blocked milk ducts, cause nipple or breast ache. An oversupply of breast milk is caused by overactive milk expression. Hence, the excess milk accumulates, leading to breast engorgement and pain. On the other hand, milk supply will be lowered by prolonged breastfeeding, high pumping pressure and overly vigorous breast massage. Blocked milk ducts refers to lactiferous ducts’ blockage at the nipple pore or deeper breast tissue. It hampers an adequate drainage of milk and causes breast mass, engorgement, redness, a nipple bleb and subsequent pain.
Mechanical factors
Nipple trauma
Cracked nipples, including nipple blisters and fissure, increase the nipple pain frequency and intensity during the first week postpartum. Traumas may break down the skin integrity of the nipple and serve as routes for infections. A common complication is mastitis due to bacterial infections.
Poor positioning
Poor positioning or poor latching of infants refers to the infant's inappropriate fastening onto the mother's nipple in breastfeeding. It is the most common cause of early and persistent nipple soreness. During breastfeeding, if the infant's mouth is not in the same plane as the mother's nipple and the infant's ears, shoulders and hips are not in parallel, the child cannot grasp enough portion of the nipple and areola into the mouth nor receive enough milk. The infant will sip more vigorously and thus reduce blood flow (ischemia) at the nipple which leads to vasospasm and blanched nipples.
Abnormal tongue motion
Abnormal tongue motion of infants is commonly caused by nipple confusion. When infants are given a rubber nipple and pacifier, they may sip at the maternal nipple as if it was a rubber nipple. The tongue movements used in breastfeeding and bottle-feeding are different: infants use a wave-like motion to remove breast milk in breastfeeding and thrusting action against the latex nipple to control milk flow in bottle-feeding. If the infant pinches and presses the nipple with the gums repeatedly, it creates a large friction and results in nipple soreness and bruising.
Tongue-tie
Tongue-tie (Ankyloglossia or Tight frenulum) refers to an abnormally short and thick lingual frenulum that hinders the child from curving the tongue around the nipple. Hence, the infant drains insufficient breast milk and rubs harder against the nipple which causes nipple abrasion. It leads to suboptimal weight gain in babies and mechanical nipple injuries associated with nipple soreness and pain in mothers. Other congenital mouth abnormalities like cleft palate in infants can cause nipple irritation and increase the risk of nipple dermatitis in mothers.
Infectious factors
Nursing mothers diagnosed with yeast, bacterial, viral infections or dermatitis are susceptible to nipple pain. A type of yeast infection called candidiasis caused by a type of fungus called Candida will lead to itching, erythema of the nipple and areola, burning and stabbing nipple pain. It happens when the infant's mouth is infected by a Candida species called Candida albicans, the child may transmit the yeast to the mother's nipple during breastfeeding. Bacterial infection by Staphylococcus aureus (S.aureus) will give rise to mastitis which refers to an inflammation of the mammary gland. About half of the breastfeeding mothers reporting nipple ache were infected with S.aureus. They usually experienced a sudden onset and systemic symptoms including nipple pain, fever, flu-like symptoms, myalgia and fatigue. The risk of infections increases with an inhibition of mammary gland drainage. Viral infection with Herpes simplex virus (HSV) causes nipple ulceration, soreness and pain. Infants feeding on an HSV infected nipple can develop a life-threatening complication affecting the brain called encephalitis. Breastfeeding women with dermatitis problems, including psoriasis and eczema at the nipple, suffer from erythema, scaling lesion and pain. Nursing mothers with psoriasis may develop Koebner phenomenon upon further nipple abrasion by infants in prolonged breastfeeding. Eczema at the nipple can be caused by direct chemical contact or allergic condition. It affects the areola and sometimes extends to the breast.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of nipple pain in breastfeeding can be divided into three major parts: the measurement of pain intensity, a physical examination on the breastfeeding mother and the infant to identify the cause of pain and the study of the psychological impact of pain in the breastfeeding woman.
Pain scale
Acute or chronic pain can be directly measured by pain scales such as the numerical rating scale (NRS) and visual analog scale (VAS). A serial pain scale from 0 (no pain) to 10 (worst pain imaginable) can quantify pain intensity. It can also monitor symptom improvement in nursing women who experience persistent nipple pain for at least two weeks postpartum.
Clinical examination
Nipple pain is a symptom with many possible causes. A thorough maternal breast and infant mouth inspection can help identify the specific cause and thus assign the appropriate treatment. A maternal nipple examination can be used to diagnose traumatic factors including nipple fissure, nipple blisters and infections with prominent symptoms. A breast biopsy detecting breast mass can diagnose for breast engorgement. If a breast mass is present, a core needle biopsy and diagnostic imaging are required for further assessment of underlying causes, including mastitis, blocked milk ducts, cancers and benign breast tumours called lactating adenoma. By checking the infant mouth, causes like tongue-tie, candidiasis and abnormal tongue motion can be diagnosed.
The Edinburg Postpartum Depression Scale
Nipple pain may lead to psychological problems in women. The Edinburg Postpartum (or Postnatal) Depression Scale is a set of ten questions that is commonly used for assessing postpartum depression.
Management
Generally, nipple pain levels will reduce after seven to ten days postpartum. For the constant nipple ache, painkiller can be taken by mothers to relieve the uncomfortableness while general management can be applied at the same time, mainly positioning correction, thermal intervention and breast milk drainage to prevent engorgement.
Positioning, latch and breast milk drainage
Clinically, proper positioning and latch of infants to the nipple can resolve persistent nipple pain brought by inefficient milk flow and tongue-tie, avoid nipple trauma and fissure, prevent breast mastitis and allow efficient wound healing. Mothers can place the nipple asymmetrically in the top half of the infant's mouth. On the other hand, the continuation of effective and frequent breast milk drainage, especially draining the first milk production after childbirth called colostrum, can prevent the development of mastitis and engorgement. Common practices include manual expression, pumping and pressure-relief of the areola. Tools such as effective breast pumps and lubricants can be used to achieve the goal of successful draining and prevent the blockage of milk ducts. In addition, moderating the oversupply and the rapid flow of breast milk can effectively ameliorate painful feelings. If the pain is so severe that the drainage cannot be carried out, painkillers such as ibuprofen can be taken to minimize nipple ache for successful lactation.
Thermal intervention
There are two types of common thermal intervention for nipple pain, one is a warm compress while another is a cold compress. A warm compress such as a hot tea bag compress can be applied to the breast before breastfeeding to unblock the blocked milk ducts. By common practice, the solid lump that blocks the milk ducts should be resolved after 48 to 72 hours. Otherwise, assessing other possible causes of nipple pain such as lactating adenoma or malignancy is needed. It can also be applied to breast fissure sites as the vasodilation caused by the rise in temperature allows more oxygen and nutrients to help relieve pain and boost wound healing. Applying a cold compress can resolve breast engorgement. A cold gel pack, for example, can slightly reduce nipple pain caused by breast engorgement despite the effect has not yet been proved.
Treatment
If nipple pain is not resolved effectively after general management, appropriate treatment can be directed at underlying causes. Nevertheless, except the general management mentioned before, all common therapeutic practices in treating nipple pain during breastfeeding are not proven to be effective yet.
Medication
Drugs in treating nipple ache during breastfeeding can be divided into two categories based on the ways of administration: topical application and oral medication. The table below summarises the common medicine that can be taken by patients.
Non-medication
There are three types of non-medical therapies, namely shielding by external protectors, light therapy and acupuncture. Bacterial invasion can be successfully blocked by external protectors of the nipple such as nipple shield, polyethylene film and silver cap, especially when the nipple is impaired by trauma. These protectors create a humid environment for wound recovery while defending it against bacterial infections. The silver cap consists of silver which is a natural agent with antibacterial properties. Hence it is also less likely to cause irritation. Light therapy including phototherapy and low-intensity laser therapy can treat nipple trauma as well. In the range of 630 to 1000 nm wavelength, light therapy facilitates wound recovery by promoting fibroblast proliferation, collagen synthesis, angiogenesis and growth factor production. Moreover, it can stimulate tissue regeneration, accelerate local blood flow rate through vasodilation, suppress inflammation, increase fissure healing rate, and reduce pain sensation. Recently, many review articles have suggested the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating nipple pain as it showed considerable improvement in treating breast engorgement. A 2016 Cochrane review found that a number of interventions were somewhat effective, such as hot/cold packs, Gua-Sha (scraping therapy), cabbage leaves, and proteolytic enzymes but none of the evidence supported widespread implementation.
Surgery
A minimally invasive surgical therapy called serial ultrasound-guided aspiration can be performed to treat breast mastitis in an outpatient setting, achieving a better cosmetic postoperative recovery. On the other side, nipple pain caused by tongue-tie can seek a surgical therapy called frenotomy on infants. In this surgery, the frenulum under the tongue will be clipped to improve latch and remove the restriction of tongue movement. Hence, breastfeeding efficiency can be improved. However, it may not instantly relieve nipple pain since infants probably have developed uncommon tongue movements.
Prevention
Early and effective breastfeeding can minimize the likelihood of engorgement, latch difficulties, nipple trauma and bacterial infections. The surface of the nipple and breast pumps should be sterilized to remove sources of irritants before breastfeeding or pumping of milk. It may help prevent yeast infections and cross-contamination of bacteria between family members. Ideally, cleaning baby items and mothers' underwear like boiling or disinfecting pacifiers, diapers, bras and bathing equipment frequently can prevent infections. During breastfeeding, mothers should hold infants in the correct breastfeeding position in order to prevent nipple pain brought by poor positioning.
Social and cultural implications
Nipple pain during breastfeeding may affect the family life of mothers. On average, mothers and infants need to make 36 visits to healthcare providers for nipple pain in their first year, leading to a huge household expense. Meanwhile, mothers may shorten breastfeeding duration and switch to artificial infant milk in order to prevent suffering from the pain. Besides, the painful experience may affect the relationship between parents and children as mothers may develop depression, tension and mood disturbances during breastfeeding.
== References ==
|
instance of
|
{
"answer_start": [
7
],
"text": [
"pain"
]
}
|
Daniel Leiner (May 13, 1961 – October 18, 2018) was an American film and former television director. He was best known for directing the stoner comedy films Dude, Where's My Car? and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1961. Leiner also directed a wide range of television shows, including Arrested Development, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, Felicity, Action, The Tick, Austin Stories, The Mind of the Married Man, The Sopranos, and How to Make It in America. He also directed The Office episode "WUPHF.com".
Leiner died from lung cancer on October 18, 2018, at the age of 57.
References
External links
Danny Leiner at IMDb
|
place of birth
|
{
"answer_start": [
233
],
"text": [
"Manhattan"
]
}
|
Daniel Leiner (May 13, 1961 – October 18, 2018) was an American film and former television director. He was best known for directing the stoner comedy films Dude, Where's My Car? and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1961. Leiner also directed a wide range of television shows, including Arrested Development, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, Felicity, Action, The Tick, Austin Stories, The Mind of the Married Man, The Sopranos, and How to Make It in America. He also directed The Office episode "WUPHF.com".
Leiner died from lung cancer on October 18, 2018, at the age of 57.
References
External links
Danny Leiner at IMDb
|
occupation
|
{
"answer_start": [
80
],
"text": [
"television director"
]
}
|
Daniel Leiner (May 13, 1961 – October 18, 2018) was an American film and former television director. He was best known for directing the stoner comedy films Dude, Where's My Car? and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1961. Leiner also directed a wide range of television shows, including Arrested Development, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, Felicity, Action, The Tick, Austin Stories, The Mind of the Married Man, The Sopranos, and How to Make It in America. He also directed The Office episode "WUPHF.com".
Leiner died from lung cancer on October 18, 2018, at the age of 57.
References
External links
Danny Leiner at IMDb
|
Commons category
|
{
"answer_start": [
669
],
"text": [
"Danny Leiner"
]
}
|
Daniel Leiner (May 13, 1961 – October 18, 2018) was an American film and former television director. He was best known for directing the stoner comedy films Dude, Where's My Car? and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1961. Leiner also directed a wide range of television shows, including Arrested Development, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, Felicity, Action, The Tick, Austin Stories, The Mind of the Married Man, The Sopranos, and How to Make It in America. He also directed The Office episode "WUPHF.com".
Leiner died from lung cancer on October 18, 2018, at the age of 57.
References
External links
Danny Leiner at IMDb
|
cause of death
|
{
"answer_start": [
591
],
"text": [
"lung cancer"
]
}
|
Daniel Leiner (May 13, 1961 – October 18, 2018) was an American film and former television director. He was best known for directing the stoner comedy films Dude, Where's My Car? and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1961. Leiner also directed a wide range of television shows, including Arrested Development, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, Felicity, Action, The Tick, Austin Stories, The Mind of the Married Man, The Sopranos, and How to Make It in America. He also directed The Office episode "WUPHF.com".
Leiner died from lung cancer on October 18, 2018, at the age of 57.
References
External links
Danny Leiner at IMDb
|
family name
|
{
"answer_start": [
7
],
"text": [
"Leiner"
]
}
|
Daniel Leiner (May 13, 1961 – October 18, 2018) was an American film and former television director. He was best known for directing the stoner comedy films Dude, Where's My Car? and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1961. Leiner also directed a wide range of television shows, including Arrested Development, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, Felicity, Action, The Tick, Austin Stories, The Mind of the Married Man, The Sopranos, and How to Make It in America. He also directed The Office episode "WUPHF.com".
Leiner died from lung cancer on October 18, 2018, at the age of 57.
References
External links
Danny Leiner at IMDb
|
given name
|
{
"answer_start": [
669
],
"text": [
"Danny"
]
}
|
Daniel Leiner (May 13, 1961 – October 18, 2018) was an American film and former television director. He was best known for directing the stoner comedy films Dude, Where's My Car? and Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle.
He was born in Manhattan, New York, in 1961. Leiner also directed a wide range of television shows, including Arrested Development, Everwood, Gilmore Girls, Freaks and Geeks, Sports Night, Felicity, Action, The Tick, Austin Stories, The Mind of the Married Man, The Sopranos, and How to Make It in America. He also directed The Office episode "WUPHF.com".
Leiner died from lung cancer on October 18, 2018, at the age of 57.
References
External links
Danny Leiner at IMDb
|
birth name
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Daniel Leiner"
]
}
|
Tempiute is a ghost town in Lincoln County, Nevada United States.
History
Silver was first discovered in the area in 1865. In 1868, additional silver lodes were found near the settlement. A mining district was established, but mining was difficult due to insufficient water supplies. Water had to be transported by mules from springs 12 miles away. The settlement had a population of fifty miners in 1870. When the stamp-mill in nearby Crescent was shut down in 1871, mining in Tempiute was abandoned. The post office was named Tem Piute from February 1879 until January 1881 and then again from June 1882 until January 1883.Tungsten ore was discovered nearby in 1916, but large-scale mining did not begin for another twenty years. The Lincoln Mines Company initiated mining operations in Tempiute in 1940 after building a mill. The mines were productive until the end of World War II, but declined in the next five years. After the price of tungsten rose in 1950, the mining camp was reestablished when the Wah Chang Trading Company, a New York-based tungsten importer and trading company, incorporated the entire mining district as the Black Rock Mining Company. From 1950—1956, Tempiute had a population of 700, and a school. The post Office was opened as Tempiute in February 1953 and closed in October 1957. During its most productive years, the Lincoln mine was one of the nation's primary producers of tungsten. When the price of tungsten declined in 1957, the mill was closed and the town was soon abandoned.
== References ==
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instance of
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Tempiute is a ghost town in Lincoln County, Nevada United States.
History
Silver was first discovered in the area in 1865. In 1868, additional silver lodes were found near the settlement. A mining district was established, but mining was difficult due to insufficient water supplies. Water had to be transported by mules from springs 12 miles away. The settlement had a population of fifty miners in 1870. When the stamp-mill in nearby Crescent was shut down in 1871, mining in Tempiute was abandoned. The post office was named Tem Piute from February 1879 until January 1881 and then again from June 1882 until January 1883.Tungsten ore was discovered nearby in 1916, but large-scale mining did not begin for another twenty years. The Lincoln Mines Company initiated mining operations in Tempiute in 1940 after building a mill. The mines were productive until the end of World War II, but declined in the next five years. After the price of tungsten rose in 1950, the mining camp was reestablished when the Wah Chang Trading Company, a New York-based tungsten importer and trading company, incorporated the entire mining district as the Black Rock Mining Company. From 1950—1956, Tempiute had a population of 700, and a school. The post Office was opened as Tempiute in February 1953 and closed in October 1957. During its most productive years, the Lincoln mine was one of the nation's primary producers of tungsten. When the price of tungsten declined in 1957, the mill was closed and the town was soon abandoned.
== References ==
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The International Equestrian Sports Complex (Turkmen: Halkara atçylyk sport toplumy) is the largest horse racing hippodrome in Turkmenistan. The total area of the complex is 90 hectares. The complex was opened on 29 October 2011, at a cost of US$106,800,000. The hippodrome was constructed by the Turkish company Etkin.
The circuit allows both jumps and races to take place. It is located in Ashgabat on Kopetdag Avenue, situated near the National Museum of Wildlife of Turkmenistan. It has stables for 600 horses. Along with the race track and stables, there are also 57 two-storied cottages and two family houses for 114 owners, kindergarten for 160 children, 2 markets, a playground and sports fields, as well as a social-cultural center.
With the completion of the development of the equestrian village in April 2016, the International Equestrian Sports Complex has been renamed the International Akhalteke Equestrian Complex.
References
International Equestrian Sports Complex
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Hugh Webster may refer to:
Hugh Webster (politician) (1943–2022), member of the North Carolina General Assembly
Hugh Webster (actor) (1927–1986), Scottish-born Canadian actor
Hugh Alexander Webster (1849–1926), Scottish teacher, librarian and encyclopaedist
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Hugh Webster may refer to:
Hugh Webster (politician) (1943–2022), member of the North Carolina General Assembly
Hugh Webster (actor) (1927–1986), Scottish-born Canadian actor
Hugh Alexander Webster (1849–1926), Scottish teacher, librarian and encyclopaedist
|
family name
|
{
"answer_start": [
5
],
"text": [
"Webster"
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Hugh Webster may refer to:
Hugh Webster (politician) (1943–2022), member of the North Carolina General Assembly
Hugh Webster (actor) (1927–1986), Scottish-born Canadian actor
Hugh Alexander Webster (1849–1926), Scottish teacher, librarian and encyclopaedist
|
given name
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
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"text": [
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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educated at
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1579
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"St John's College"
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Sir John Cheke (or Cheek) (16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman. One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England. He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reign was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.
Origins and earlier career
The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight. John's father, Peter Cheke of Cambridge (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to restore proper definition to the pronunciation of ancient Greek diphthongs, which by custom had become obscured. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were freshly received and understood. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham, Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations, which also won the approval of John Redman.
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College) Professor of Physick. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him, but the Bishop remained inflexible. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544 Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI of England, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his Journal), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione, prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's, and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.
On 11 May 1547, Cheke married Mary, daughter of Richard Hill (formerly Sergeant of the Wine-cellar to Henry VIII) and now stepdaughter of Sir John Mason. Cheke's religious and scholarly purpose bore fruit in the highest quarters. Gerard Langbaine the elder expressed it thus:"under God M. Cheek was a speciall instrument of the propagation of the Gospell, & that Religion which we now professe in this Kingdome. For he not only sowed the seeds of that Doctrine in the heart of Prince EDWARD, which afterwards grew up into a generall Reformation when he came to be King, but by his meanes the same saveing truth was gently instilled into the Lady ELIZABETH, by those who by his procurement were admitted to be the Guides of her younger Studies."
Edwardian statesman
Status and compromise
Upon the accession of Edward to the throne Cheke, now Schoolmaster to the King, was made a Gentleman of the Privy Chamber, being allowed an annuity of £100 from the Augmentations in August. On 1 October, he was returned to Parliament as a member for Bletchingley, Sussex, probably under the patronage of Sir Thomas Cawarden. He was very soon placed in a compromise by Thomas Seymour (brother of the Duke of Somerset), who had drafted a letter as from the King to the Lords of the Parliament House seeking their approval to separate the offices of Lord Protector and Lord Regent, and to appoint Thomas Seymour himself as Protector. He urged Cheke to pass the letter to the King and to induce him to sign it, which Cheke refused to do, stating that Lord Paget had prohibited any such dealings. At Christmas, Seymour followed this up with a gift of £40 to Cheke, half for himself and half for the King. Seymour approached the King himself without success: Edward took Cheke's advice, and refused to sign it.
On 1 April 1548 Cheke was chosen by special mandate of the King, overriding university statutes, to replace his former tutor George Day as provost of King's College. He received by purchase a large grant of lands in London and elsewhere, including the site of the former College of St John the Baptist at Stoke-by-Clare in Suffolk, in October 1548. Matthew Parker, its dean, had established a school there, and after its superstitious constitution had been dissolved he advised Cheke on its condition and maintenance.The Seymour affair came to a head in January 1548/9, when Thomas Seymour was formally charged with using improper means to influence King Edward, and Cheke became implicated as his likely accomplice. On 11 January Cheke came near to losing his office as schoolmaster to the King. Seymour confessed the gift, but on 20 February Cheke exonerated himself by an honest declaration of his dealings in the matter.
Unfortunately, Mistress Cheke offended the Duchess of Somerset in the course of these proceedings; an apology had to be made. Following Seymour's execution in March Cheke retreated to Cambridge for a time, tending his library and readjusting his circumstances, aware that he had come near to losing his position (as his letter to Peter Osborne indicates). Other royal preceptors, Sir Anthony Cooke or Dr. Cox, maintained the young King's instruction.In the Epistle to his Arte of Logique (published 1551), Thomas Wilson speaks of Cheke and Cooke as "your Maiesties teachers and Scholemaisters in all good litterature".The antiquary Francis Blomefield dates to 1550 Cheke's receipt of a 21-year lease of the manor and rectory of Rushworth, Norfolk (a former collegiate estate established by the Gonville family), which he re-leased to his brother-in-law, George Alyngton, of Stoke-by-Clare.
Religious reform: friends and rewards
In discharge of their Commission, in May–July 1549 the Bishops Goodrich of Ely and Ridley of Rochester, Sir William Paget and Sir Thomas Smith, John Cheke and two others conducted the King's Visitation of the University of Cambridge to investigate and amend statutes tending towards ignorance and Romish superstition. William Bill was now Master of St John's and vice-chancellor. On 6 May Cheke delivered the King's statute before the University Senate. Colleges were visited, complaints were heard, investigated and acted upon; two disputations (20 and 25 June) were held in the Philosophy Schools upon the question of the Real Presence in the Sacrament. Their business concluded, the congress broke up on 8 July.In that year Cheke published his lasting work The Hurt of Sedition, in the aftermath of the suppression of Kett's rebellion. This made plain his full commitment to the Edwardian reform and its authority. He was chosen one of 8 divines, among 32 Commissioners, to draw up a reform of laws for the governance of the Church. The Latin form of their report, which Cheke prepared with Walter Haddon, remained long unpublished. He returned to London, giving evidence at the examination of Bishop Bonner in September 1549, and sitting in the Parliamentary third session, towards the close of which he was granted property in Lincolnshire and Suffolk worth £118 a year for his care in the King's instruction. In April 1550, following Somerset's fall, Cheke was given licence to keep 50 retainers. In May he acquired the manor and town of Dunton Wayletts in Essex, and the manors of Preston and Hoo in Sussex, from John Poynet. He obtained for Roger Ascham the role of secretary to Sir Richard Morison's Embassy to Emperor Charles V.
Archbishop Cranmer reputedly told Cheke that he might be glad all the days of his life to have such a scholar as the Prince, "for he hathe more divinitie in his litle fynger, then all we have in al our bodies." Cheke meanwhile prepared a Latin version of the first Book of Common Prayer, the form in which Peter Martyr read it when consulted over its review by Cranmer. Peter Martyr doubted if the bishops would approve it, but Cheke foreknew the King's determination to implement it. In October 1550 his friend Martin Bucer, Cambridge Regius Professor of Divinity (who was indebted to Cheke for some favour offered by the King towards his countryman Johann Sleidan), presented him with the draft manuscript of his De Regno Christi (which remained unpublished until 1557).With Sir Thomas Smith, William Cecil, Sir Anthony Wingfield, Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Ralph Sadler, Cheke gave evidence at the interrogation and deprivation of Stephen Gardiner in January 1551. At that time he was appointed to a weighty Commission to inquire into, amend and punish heresies, renewed in the following year. Martin Bucer died in February. In May 1551 Cheke's annuity was cancelled, and in its place he received an enhanced grant of Stoke-by-Clare with its former lands and dependencies in Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, Huntingdon, etc, with other properties, worth £192 per annum, for his industry in teaching the King. He was serving as commissioner for relief in Cambridgeshire, and, having conducted a Visitation of Eton in September, he and his brother-in-law Cecil (now a Secretary of State and chancellor of the Order of the Garter) on 11 October received knighthoods, the day upon which the Earl of Warwick was created Duke of Northumberland, and others of the nobility were advanced.
Shortly thereafter Cheke took part in two important private disputations upon the Real Presence, one at Cecil's house and the second at Sir Richard Morison's, held as a preparation for the review of the Prayer Book to be conducted in 1552. Among the auditors were Sir Thomas Wroth, Sir Anthony Cooke, Lord Russell and Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, and the debate lay between Cheke, Cecil, Edmund Grindal and others, against the presence, and John Feckenham, Dr Yong and others upholding it. The matter of the debates was printed by John Strype. The commission for examination of ecclesiastical laws, as required by Act of Parliament, was issued on 12 February. At this time Cheke, who had the books and papers of Martin Bucer, was attempting to build up the royal Library, and at the death of his friend and admirer John Leland, the antiquary, in April 1552 acquired his materials for the same purpose.
Having suffered a severe inflammation of the lungs in May 1552, he held a further disputation in Cambridge upon the doctrine of the Harrowing of Hell, with Christopher Carlile, before joining a royal progress. In July 1552, he was granted a special licence to shoot at certain fowl and deer with crossbow or hand-gun; in August he was created Chamberlain of the Receipt of the King's Exchequer, in the place of Anthony Wingfield, deceased, with a lifetime authority to appoint its officers (he entered office on 12 September 1552), and was also awarded the wardship and marriage of the heir of Sir Thomas Barnardiston.In mid-September he received from Archbishop Cranmer the Forty-two Articles prepared for the revision of the Prayer-Book with the instruction to discuss them with Cecil and to set them in order. Being approved by the Convocation they were published in 1553: in the same period Cheke had apparently prepared the Latin translation of Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of 1550, and this too was published in 1553.During 1552, he was visited in London by Girolamo Cardano, who lodged with him. Cheke was, like others of his time, somewhat given to judicial astrology. John Dee claimed that Cheke had declared his 'good liking' of him to William Cecil.At least two horoscopes of Cheke's birth exist, one by Sir Thomas White and one by Cardano. Cardano's observations on Cheke were published in his De Genituris Liber.Cheke gave him some exact dates concerning events in his life, and Cardano described him as a slender, manly figure with fine skin of good colour, well-set and sharp eyes, of noble bearing, handsome and hirsute.
Apotheosis
Cheke was returned again for the Parliament of March 1553, and was at about that time a clerk of the Privy Council. In May 1553 he was further rewarded for his services to the King's education both in childhood and in youth, by the grant of the manor of Clare, Suffolk and the fees of various possessions of the Honour of Clare in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire, worth £100 per annum. As the King's health declined and the question of succession became imminent, on 2 June 1553 Cheke was sworn as one of the principal Secretaries of State and took his place in the Privy Council. If that had been in anticipation of the resignation of Sir William Petre or Sir William Cecil, in the event neither resigned and there were for that time three Secretaries, all of whom signed the Engagement of the Council written out by Petre to certify the King's appointment of the succession, and the Duke of Northumberland's Letters Patent to that effect, dated 21 June 1553.
In Edward's last weeks Sir Thomas Wroth enfeoffed Cheke, and members of his own family, with his estates to the uses of his Wroth descendants, probably anticipating the danger of dispossession.Roger Ascham wrote from Brussels to congratulate Cheke on future hopes for the King's reign, but too late. The King died on 6 July and Lady Jane Grey was proclaimed Queen on the 10th. Cheke remained as her Secretary of State and was loyal to her to the last. The council received a letter from Mary dated 9 July, from Kenninghall in Norfolk, stating her claim to the throne and demanding their loyalty. Sir John Cheke composed the reply of the same date, signed by the Lords of the council, informing her of Jane's rightful succession, of the witnessed and sealed deeds declaring the late King's will, and of their duty to her. He was present at the proclamation of Queen Mary on 19 July, hours after he had written to Lord Rich on behalf of the council to ensure his loyalty to Jane. He bowed to the inevitable.
Among the numerous arrests which followed, Sir John Cheke and the Duke of Suffolk (Queen Jane's father) were taken on 27 or 28 July 1553 and imprisoned in the Tower, articles of indictment being drawn up against him two weeks later. Cranmer, also imprisoned, wrote to Cecil for news of Cheke's welfare.Following the executions of the Duke of Northumberland and Sir John Gates on 22 August, Mary's initial response was one of clemency. Cheke was released from the Tower on 13 September 1553. He ceased to be provost of King's College, Cambridge. His office in the Exchequer was granted to Robert Strelley in November 1553 and to Henry, Lord Stafford in February 1554. Cheke's property was seized, but in the spring of 1554 he was granted licence to go abroad. By the time his pardon for offences before 1 October 1553 was granted, on 28 April 1554, he had already left England.
Marian exile
Travelling under licence in early spring 1554, Cheke took with him Sir Thomas Wroth and Sir Anthony Cooke (who were not under licence), going first in April to Strasbourg and thence to Basel. There he met Caelius Secundus Curio, a distinguished Italian humanist, who had sent books and a greeting to Cheke in 1547. Cheke explained to him his system of Greek pronunciation and entrusted to him the correspondence between himself and Stephen Gardiner on that subject. By July 1554 they were in Italy, where at Padua he gave lectures upon Demosthenes in Greek to English students, met with Sir Thomas Wylson and many others, and entertained Sir Philip Hoby. Wroth, Cheke and Cooke, with their companies, joined with the Hoby party on an excursion to Mantua and Ferrara, returning to Padua in late November.The following August, the Hobys' company having proceeded to Caldero beside Verona, Wroth and Cheke joined them there from Padua, avoiding a fresh outbreak of the plague, and they progressed north together through Rovereto, Innsbruck and Munich to Augsburg, where they arrived on 28 August 1555. After this the Hobys went on to Frankfurt, but Wroth and Cheke diverted to Strasbourg, and remained there, Cheke being chosen public Professor of the Greek tongue. During 1555 his correspondence with Bishop Gardiner on the Greek pronunciation was published at Basel by Curio without his knowledge; but not without provocation to Bishop Gardiner, now Lord Chancellor, and to his doctrine. Cheke remained in correspondence with Sir William Cecil at this time. Cheke may also have been in Emden to supervise the publication of his Latin edition of Thomas Cranmer's Defence of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ and other Reformist publications.In the spring of 1556 he visited Brussels to make a rendezvous with his wife, and, under promise of safe conduct, to meet with Lord Paget and Sir John Mason, his wife's stepfather. In the return journey, between Brussels and Antwerp, he and Sir Peter Carew were seized on 15 May 1556, by order of Philip II of Spain, and returned unceremoniously to England, where they were imprisoned in the Tower. In Cheke's words, he was "taken as it were in a whirlwind from the place he was in, and brought over sea, and never knew whither he went till he found himself in the Tower of London." John Poynet considered that Paget and Mason had treacherously arranged the arrest, causing them to be "taken by the Provost Marshall, spoiled of their horses, and clapt into a cart, their legs, arms, and bodies tyed with halters to the body of the cart, and so carried to the sea-side, and from thence into the Tower of London."
Imprisonment, recantation and death
Cheke, whose wife was allowed to attend him, was visited by two priests and by Dr John Feckenham, Dean of St Paul's, with whom he had formerly disputed. Cheke wrote to the Queen expressing his willingness to obey her laws. Feckenham attempted to intercede for him, but nothing less than a full recantation, in prescribed terms, was acceptable to Mary. The fates of so many, of John Bradford, Rowland Taylor, Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer stood newly before him. In early September 1556 he wrote a submission to the Queen which Her Majesty approved, though he was made to write it out again for having failed to mention King Philip: Feckenham sent him some notes on the real presence. He agreed to be received into the Church of Rome by Cardinal Pole, and, following a public oration by John Feckenham, made his public recantation on 4 October 1556. John Foxe continues:"Then after his recantation, hee was thorough the craftie handlyng of the catholikes, allured first to dine and company with them, at length drawen unwares to sit in place, where the pore Martyrs were brought before Boner and other Bishops to bee condemned, the remorse whereof so mightely wrought in his hart, that not longe after he lefte this mortal life. Whose fall although it was full of infirmitie, yet his rising again by repentaunce was greate, and his ende comfortable, the Lorde bee praised."
In the wake of his recantation the confiscated freehold properties in the eastern counties granted to him by King Edward VI were restored to him but immediately exchanged for other freehold lands in Suffolk, Devon and Somerset providing for an annual return of almost £250. He surrendered ownership of the Manor of Barnardiston to Queen Mary on 31 May 1557. In July 1557, living at Peter Osborne's house in Wood Street (Cheapside), he wrote to Sir Thomas Hoby thanking him for inviting his editorial comments on Hoby's translation of The Courtier (Il Cortegiano) of Baldassare Castiglione, over the Preface to which he had taken some pains. An advocate of English linguistic purism, he remarked "our own tung shold be written cleane and pure, vnmixt and vnmangeled with borowing of other tunges... For then doth our tung naturallie and praisablie vtter her meaning"; and he complimented Hoby on the 'roundness' of his 'saienges and welspeakinges'.
His brief will, providing for an annuity of £10 for his son Henry's continuing education, making his wife and his friend and kinsman Peter Osborne (husband of Cheke's niece Anne Blythe) his executors and his "deerely beloved" Sir John Mason his overseer, was written on 13 September 1557. Mylady Cheke, Mistress Osborne and his son's schoolmaster William Irelande (a distinguished early pupil of Roger Ascham's) were among the witnesses. He died, aged 43, on the same day, at Osborne's house in London, carrying, as Thomas Fuller remarked, "God's pardon and all good men's pity along with him." The will was proved on 18 January following. He was buried at St Alban, Wood Street and had a memorial inscription there, written by Walter Haddon, recorded by Gerard Langbaine:
Doctrinae CHECUS linguae{que} utrius{que} Magister
Aurea naturae fabrica morte jacet.
Non erat ė multis unus, sed praestitit unus
Omnibus, et patriae flos erat ille suae.
Gemma Britanna fuit: tam magnum nulla tulerunt
Tempora thesaurum; tempora nulla ferent.
Roger Ascham remembered him as "My dearest frend, and best master that ever I had or heard in learning, Syr I. Cheke, soch a man, as if I should live to see England breed the like againe, I feare, I should live over long..." Thomas Wilson, in the epistle prefixed to his translation of the Olynthiacs of Demosthenes (1570), has a long and interesting eulogy of Cheke; and Thomas Nashe, in a preface to Robert Greene's Menaphon (1589), called him "the Exchequer of eloquence, Sir John Cheke, a man of men, supernaturally traded in all tongues." The antiquary John Gough Nichols, who (after John Strype) developed historiographical understanding of Sir John Cheke, called him "in many respects, one of the most interesting personages of the century."
Portraits
A portrait of Sir John Cheke is attributed to Claude Corneille de Lyon. The line engraving attributed to Willem de Passe, published in 1620, might be based on an earlier portrait. The Joseph Nutting engraving published in Strype's Life of 1705 apparently derives from the same source as a later engraving by James Fittler, A.R.A., after a drawing by William Skelton, itself said to be based on an original picture at Ombersley Court, Worcestershire, formerly in possession of the Dowager Marchioness of Devonshire. The portrait formerly in the collection of the Dukes of Manchester at Kimbolton Castle was sold at Christie's in 2020.
Children
Henry Cheke (c. 1548–1586) married first Frances Radclyffe (sister of Edward Radclyffe), by whom he had three sons and two daughters, and second Frances daughter of Marmaduke Constable of York. He became a member of parliament and travelled in Italy in 1576–79. He was the translator of Francesco Negri's Italian morality play, Libero Arbitrio, as Freewyl.(Sir) Thomas Cheke, son of Henry, was also a member of parliament and settled at Pyrgo in Essex. He married Lady Essex Rich (daughter of Robert Rich, 1st Earl of Warwick), and was the father of Essex Cheke.
John Cheke (died 1580) was in the retinue of his uncle Lord Burghley for at least six years, but become impatient of his life and persuaded his master to release him so that he could take up the life of a soldier. He was killed in 1580 by a Spanish sniper during the siege of Dún An Óir (the Fort del Ore at Smerwick in the Dingle Peninsula of County Kerry). He died without issue.
Edward Cheke. He was living at his father's death, but died without issue.
Writings
See also
Secretary of State (England)
Notes
References
AttributionThis article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Cheke, Sir John". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 23.
External links
The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. by John Strype (First Edition, London 1705).
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Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
family name
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{
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7
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Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
given name
|
{
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0
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"text": [
"Andrés"
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Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
languages spoken, written or signed
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Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
mass
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{
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43
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Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
place of birth
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{
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Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
country of citizenship
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{
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53
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"text": [
"Uruguay"
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|
Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
member of sports team
|
{
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480
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"text": [
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Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
|
Commons category
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{
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0
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"text": [
"Andrés Lamas"
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|
Andrés Lamas Bervejillo (born 16 January 1984) is an Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Defensor Sporting.
Football career
Born in Montevideo, Lamas started playing professionally with local Defensor Sporting Club, remaining three seasons with the side. In 2007, he joined MKE Ankaragücü in Turkey, helping his team to the eight place in the Süper Lig but being used mostly as a backup.
Afterwards, Lamas moved to Spain and signed for Recreativo de Huelva. He made his La Liga debut on 28 September 2008, playing six minutes in a 0–1 away loss against Andalusia neighbours UD Almería, and again was played sparingly throughout the campaign, with his club eventually being relegated.
On 22 July 2009, Lamas moved to UD Las Palmas in the second division, in a season-long loan. He subsequently returned to Recre, continuing to compete in the Spanish second level but also being sidelined for almost two years after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.
References
External links
Andrés Lamas at BDFutbol
Andrés Lamas at the Turkish Football Federation
Andrés Lamas at Soccerway
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Commons Creator page
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Peter Isaacs (born 18 August 1968) is a former Jamaican soccer forward.
Youth
Isaacs grew up in Kingston and attended Wolmer's School, where he was spotted by scouts from Howard University who recruited him to play at the university. He attended Howard from 1986 to 1989, playing on the men's soccer team. In 1988, Howard went to the NCAA championship game only to fall to Indiana.[1] In 1989, Isaacs capped his collegiate career by being named a first team All American and a finalist for the Hermann Trophy.
Professional
On 26 July 1990, the Dallas Sidekicks drafted Isaacs in the first round (seventh overall) of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft. However, a month earlier, on 26 June 1990, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) had signed Isaacs to a two-year contract.[2] He remained with the team through the 1993 season, after which the team folded. He then moved to Mexican Second Division club Irapuato for the 1993–1994 season. In 1994, he was back in the U.S. playing with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of APSL. However, the Strikers folded at the end of the season. In 1995, he played for the Tampa Bay Cyclones in the USISL. On 6 April 1995, Major League Soccer signed Isaacs and in January 1996, the Kansas City Wiz selected him in the second round (sixteenth overall) of the 1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft. However, Isaacs never played for the Wiz. In 1998, he spent one season with the Miami Breakers.
International
Isaacs earned at least 15 caps with Jamaica national team, scoring four goals.
He now coaches middle school soccer and in his spare time writes articles, one which was published by the Sun Sentinel in 2009.
== References ==
|
place of birth
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{
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|
Peter Isaacs (born 18 August 1968) is a former Jamaican soccer forward.
Youth
Isaacs grew up in Kingston and attended Wolmer's School, where he was spotted by scouts from Howard University who recruited him to play at the university. He attended Howard from 1986 to 1989, playing on the men's soccer team. In 1988, Howard went to the NCAA championship game only to fall to Indiana.[1] In 1989, Isaacs capped his collegiate career by being named a first team All American and a finalist for the Hermann Trophy.
Professional
On 26 July 1990, the Dallas Sidekicks drafted Isaacs in the first round (seventh overall) of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft. However, a month earlier, on 26 June 1990, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) had signed Isaacs to a two-year contract.[2] He remained with the team through the 1993 season, after which the team folded. He then moved to Mexican Second Division club Irapuato for the 1993–1994 season. In 1994, he was back in the U.S. playing with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of APSL. However, the Strikers folded at the end of the season. In 1995, he played for the Tampa Bay Cyclones in the USISL. On 6 April 1995, Major League Soccer signed Isaacs and in January 1996, the Kansas City Wiz selected him in the second round (sixteenth overall) of the 1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft. However, Isaacs never played for the Wiz. In 1998, he spent one season with the Miami Breakers.
International
Isaacs earned at least 15 caps with Jamaica national team, scoring four goals.
He now coaches middle school soccer and in his spare time writes articles, one which was published by the Sun Sentinel in 2009.
== References ==
|
country of citizenship
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{
"answer_start": [
47
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"text": [
"Jamaica"
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}
|
Peter Isaacs (born 18 August 1968) is a former Jamaican soccer forward.
Youth
Isaacs grew up in Kingston and attended Wolmer's School, where he was spotted by scouts from Howard University who recruited him to play at the university. He attended Howard from 1986 to 1989, playing on the men's soccer team. In 1988, Howard went to the NCAA championship game only to fall to Indiana.[1] In 1989, Isaacs capped his collegiate career by being named a first team All American and a finalist for the Hermann Trophy.
Professional
On 26 July 1990, the Dallas Sidekicks drafted Isaacs in the first round (seventh overall) of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft. However, a month earlier, on 26 June 1990, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) had signed Isaacs to a two-year contract.[2] He remained with the team through the 1993 season, after which the team folded. He then moved to Mexican Second Division club Irapuato for the 1993–1994 season. In 1994, he was back in the U.S. playing with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of APSL. However, the Strikers folded at the end of the season. In 1995, he played for the Tampa Bay Cyclones in the USISL. On 6 April 1995, Major League Soccer signed Isaacs and in January 1996, the Kansas City Wiz selected him in the second round (sixteenth overall) of the 1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft. However, Isaacs never played for the Wiz. In 1998, he spent one season with the Miami Breakers.
International
Isaacs earned at least 15 caps with Jamaica national team, scoring four goals.
He now coaches middle school soccer and in his spare time writes articles, one which was published by the Sun Sentinel in 2009.
== References ==
|
member of sports team
|
{
"answer_start": [
706
],
"text": [
"San Francisco Bay Blackhawks"
]
}
|
Peter Isaacs (born 18 August 1968) is a former Jamaican soccer forward.
Youth
Isaacs grew up in Kingston and attended Wolmer's School, where he was spotted by scouts from Howard University who recruited him to play at the university. He attended Howard from 1986 to 1989, playing on the men's soccer team. In 1988, Howard went to the NCAA championship game only to fall to Indiana.[1] In 1989, Isaacs capped his collegiate career by being named a first team All American and a finalist for the Hermann Trophy.
Professional
On 26 July 1990, the Dallas Sidekicks drafted Isaacs in the first round (seventh overall) of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft. However, a month earlier, on 26 June 1990, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) had signed Isaacs to a two-year contract.[2] He remained with the team through the 1993 season, after which the team folded. He then moved to Mexican Second Division club Irapuato for the 1993–1994 season. In 1994, he was back in the U.S. playing with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of APSL. However, the Strikers folded at the end of the season. In 1995, he played for the Tampa Bay Cyclones in the USISL. On 6 April 1995, Major League Soccer signed Isaacs and in January 1996, the Kansas City Wiz selected him in the second round (sixteenth overall) of the 1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft. However, Isaacs never played for the Wiz. In 1998, he spent one season with the Miami Breakers.
International
Isaacs earned at least 15 caps with Jamaica national team, scoring four goals.
He now coaches middle school soccer and in his spare time writes articles, one which was published by the Sun Sentinel in 2009.
== References ==
|
educated at
|
{
"answer_start": [
172
],
"text": [
"Howard University"
]
}
|
Peter Isaacs (born 18 August 1968) is a former Jamaican soccer forward.
Youth
Isaacs grew up in Kingston and attended Wolmer's School, where he was spotted by scouts from Howard University who recruited him to play at the university. He attended Howard from 1986 to 1989, playing on the men's soccer team. In 1988, Howard went to the NCAA championship game only to fall to Indiana.[1] In 1989, Isaacs capped his collegiate career by being named a first team All American and a finalist for the Hermann Trophy.
Professional
On 26 July 1990, the Dallas Sidekicks drafted Isaacs in the first round (seventh overall) of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft. However, a month earlier, on 26 June 1990, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) had signed Isaacs to a two-year contract.[2] He remained with the team through the 1993 season, after which the team folded. He then moved to Mexican Second Division club Irapuato for the 1993–1994 season. In 1994, he was back in the U.S. playing with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of APSL. However, the Strikers folded at the end of the season. In 1995, he played for the Tampa Bay Cyclones in the USISL. On 6 April 1995, Major League Soccer signed Isaacs and in January 1996, the Kansas City Wiz selected him in the second round (sixteenth overall) of the 1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft. However, Isaacs never played for the Wiz. In 1998, he spent one season with the Miami Breakers.
International
Isaacs earned at least 15 caps with Jamaica national team, scoring four goals.
He now coaches middle school soccer and in his spare time writes articles, one which was published by the Sun Sentinel in 2009.
== References ==
|
position played on team / speciality
|
{
"answer_start": [
63
],
"text": [
"forward"
]
}
|
Peter Isaacs (born 18 August 1968) is a former Jamaican soccer forward.
Youth
Isaacs grew up in Kingston and attended Wolmer's School, where he was spotted by scouts from Howard University who recruited him to play at the university. He attended Howard from 1986 to 1989, playing on the men's soccer team. In 1988, Howard went to the NCAA championship game only to fall to Indiana.[1] In 1989, Isaacs capped his collegiate career by being named a first team All American and a finalist for the Hermann Trophy.
Professional
On 26 July 1990, the Dallas Sidekicks drafted Isaacs in the first round (seventh overall) of the Major Indoor Soccer League draft. However, a month earlier, on 26 June 1990, the San Francisco Bay Blackhawks of the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) had signed Isaacs to a two-year contract.[2] He remained with the team through the 1993 season, after which the team folded. He then moved to Mexican Second Division club Irapuato for the 1993–1994 season. In 1994, he was back in the U.S. playing with the Fort Lauderdale Strikers of APSL. However, the Strikers folded at the end of the season. In 1995, he played for the Tampa Bay Cyclones in the USISL. On 6 April 1995, Major League Soccer signed Isaacs and in January 1996, the Kansas City Wiz selected him in the second round (sixteenth overall) of the 1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft. However, Isaacs never played for the Wiz. In 1998, he spent one season with the Miami Breakers.
International
Isaacs earned at least 15 caps with Jamaica national team, scoring four goals.
He now coaches middle school soccer and in his spare time writes articles, one which was published by the Sun Sentinel in 2009.
== References ==
|
given name
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Peter"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
different from
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Woodford"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
Commons category
|
{
"answer_start": [
251
],
"text": [
"Woodford, Northamptonshire"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
Quora topic ID
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Woodford"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
historic county
|
{
"answer_start": [
261
],
"text": [
"Northamptonshire"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
country
|
{
"answer_start": [
32
],
"text": [
"Australia"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
instance of
|
{
"answer_start": [
426
],
"text": [
"suburb"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
located in the administrative territorial entity
|
{
"answer_start": [
52
],
"text": [
"New South Wales"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
official name
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Woodford"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
native label
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Woodford"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
number of seats in legislature
|
{
"answer_start": [
1130
],
"text": [
"1"
]
}
|
Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
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Store norske leksikon ID
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Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
|
said to be the same as
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Woodford may refer to:
Places
Australia
Woodford, New South Wales
Woodford, Queensland, a town in the Moreton Bay Region
Woodford, Victoria
Canada
Woodford, Ontario
England
Woodford, Cornwall
Woodford, Gloucestershire
Woodford, Greater Manchester
Woodford, Northamptonshire
Woodford, Somerset
Woodford, Wiltshire
Woodford cum Membris, Northamptonshire
Woodford Halse, Northamptonshire
London, England
Woodford, London, a suburb of London. It includes the districts:
South Woodford
Woodford Bridge
Woodford Green
Woodford Wells
It is served by
Woodford tube station and
South Woodford tube station
Ireland
Woodford, County Galway
Woodford River, a tributary of the River Shannon
United States
Woodford, California, Kern County
Woodford, former name of Woodfords, California, Alpine County
Woodford, Illinois
Woodford, Oklahoma
Woodford, South Carolina
Woodford, Wisconsin
Woodford, Vermont
Woodford, Virginia
Woodford (Simons Corner, Virginia), listed on the NRHP in Virginia
Woodford (mansion), Philadelphia
Woodford County, Illinois
Woodford County, Kentucky
People
Woodford (surname)
Football clubs
Woodford Town F.C. (1937)
Woodford Town F.C. (2007)
Woodford Wells F.C.
Woodford United F.C.
See also
Woodfords, California, United States
Woodford County High School (Kentucky)
Woodford County High School (London)
Woodford Lodge High School, Cheshire, England
Woodfords Club, Portland, Maine
Woodford Court, Shepherds Bush, London
Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
Woodford Hill River, Dominica
Woodford Island, Australia
Woodford Patient Capital Trust, British investment trust
Woodford Reserve, a brand of bourbon whiskey
Woodford Stakes, horse race, Kentucky
Miss Woodford, Thoroughbred racemare
Woodforde, South Australia, suburb of Adelaide
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family name identical to this given name
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The discography of Queens of the Stone Age, an American rock band, consists of seven studio albums, one live album, three extended plays, fourteen singles, three promotional singles and twenty music videos.
Queens of the Stone Age (also known as QOTSA) was formed in 1996 by guitarist and vocalist Josh Homme (formerly of Kyuss) under the name Gamma Ray. The band signed with the independent label Loosegroove Records and released the Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age extended play in 1997. In 1998, the band released its full-length debut, Queens of the Stone Age. The band subsequently signed with Interscope Records and released its first album for a major label, Rated R, which became the first Queens of the Stone Age album to chart.
In 2001, the band was joined by vocalist Mark Lanegan, and released their third album, Songs for the Deaf in 2002. The album brought the band to a new level of commercial success, and a full-fledged tour followed in support of the album. Queens of the Stone Age released a follow-up album, Lullabies to Paralyze, in 2005. The album peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, selling 97,000 copies during its first week. Two years later, the band released its fifth studio album, Era Vulgaris, which debuted and peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard 200.After a four-year hiatus, Queens of the Stone Age released ...Like Clockwork on June 4, 2013, and four more years later saw the release of Villains on August 25, 2017.
Albums
Studio albums
Live albums
Extended plays
Live extended plays
Singles
Promotional singles
Other singles
Other charted songs
Other appearances
Music videos
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Queens of the Stone Age at AllMusic
Queens of the Stone Age discography at Discogs
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instance of
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The discography of Queens of the Stone Age, an American rock band, consists of seven studio albums, one live album, three extended plays, fourteen singles, three promotional singles and twenty music videos.
Queens of the Stone Age (also known as QOTSA) was formed in 1996 by guitarist and vocalist Josh Homme (formerly of Kyuss) under the name Gamma Ray. The band signed with the independent label Loosegroove Records and released the Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age extended play in 1997. In 1998, the band released its full-length debut, Queens of the Stone Age. The band subsequently signed with Interscope Records and released its first album for a major label, Rated R, which became the first Queens of the Stone Age album to chart.
In 2001, the band was joined by vocalist Mark Lanegan, and released their third album, Songs for the Deaf in 2002. The album brought the band to a new level of commercial success, and a full-fledged tour followed in support of the album. Queens of the Stone Age released a follow-up album, Lullabies to Paralyze, in 2005. The album peaked at number five on the Billboard 200, selling 97,000 copies during its first week. Two years later, the band released its fifth studio album, Era Vulgaris, which debuted and peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard 200.After a four-year hiatus, Queens of the Stone Age released ...Like Clockwork on June 4, 2013, and four more years later saw the release of Villains on August 25, 2017.
Albums
Studio albums
Live albums
Extended plays
Live extended plays
Singles
Promotional singles
Other singles
Other charted songs
Other appearances
Music videos
Notes
References
External links
Official website
Queens of the Stone Age at AllMusic
Queens of the Stone Age discography at Discogs
|
performer
|
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Pope Pius X (Italian: Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, and for promoting liturgical reforms and scholastic theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic fraternity, is named after him.
Pius X was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Confidence; while his papal encyclical Ad diem illum took on a sense of renewal that was reflected in the motto of his pontificate. He advanced the Liturgical Movement by formulating the principle of participatio actuosa (active participation of the faithful) in his motu proprio, Tra le sollecitudini (1903). He encouraged the frequent reception of Holy Communion, and he lowered the age for First Communion, which became a lasting innovation of his papacy.Like his predecessors, he promoted Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. He vehemently opposed various 19th-century philosophies that he viewed as an intrusion of secular errors incompatible with Catholic dogma, especially modernism, which he critiqued as the synthesis of every heresy.Pius X was known for his firm demeanour and sense of personal poverty, reflected by his membership of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He regularly gave sermons from the pulpit, a rare practice at the time. After the 1908 Messina earthquake he filled the Apostolic Palace with refugees, long before the Italian government acted. He rejected any kind of favours for his family, and his close relatives chose to remain in poverty, living near Rome. He also undertook a reform of the Roman Curia with the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti consilio in 1908.
After his death, a strong cult of devotion followed his reputation for piety and holiness. He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. A statue bearing his name stands within Saint Peter's Basilica; and his birth town was renamed Riese Pio X after his death.
Early life and ministry
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Austrian Empire (now in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy), in 1835. He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto (1792–1852), the village postman, and Margherita Sanson (1813–1894). He was baptised 3 June 1835. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to school each day.
Giuseppe had three brothers and six sisters: Giuseppe Sarto (born 1834; died after six days), Angelo Sarto (1837–1916), Teresa Parolin-Sarto (1839–1920), Rosa Sarto (1841–1913), Antonia Dei Bei-Sarto (1843–1917), Maria Sarto (1846–1930), Lucia Boschin-Sarto (1848–1924), Anna Sarto (1850–1926), Pietro Sarto (born 1852; died after six months). As Pope, he rejected any kind of favours for his family: his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three single sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome, in the same way as other people of humble background.
Giuseppe, often nicknamed as "Bepi" by his mother, possessed a sprightly disposition with his natural exuberance being so great that his teacher had to often control his lively impulses with a cane to the backside. Despite this, he was an excellent student who focused on his homework before engaging in any hobbies or recreations. In the evenings after sports or games with friends, he would spend ten minutes in prayer before returning home. Sarto also served as an altar boy. By the age of ten, he had completed the two elementary classes of his village school, as well as Latin study with a local priest; henceforth Sarto had to walk four miles to the gymnasium in Castelfranco Veneto for further classes. For the next four years, he would attend Mass before breakfast and his long walk to school. He often carried his shoes to make them last longer. As a poor boy, he was often teased for his meager lunches and shabby clothes, but never complained about this to his teachers.In 1850 he received the tonsure from his parish priest, and was given a scholarship [from] the Cardinal of Venice (who his parish priest had written, asking for a scholarship for Bepi) to attend the Seminary of Padua, "where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies with distinction".
On 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest by Giovanni Antonio Farina (later canonized), and became a chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor Constantini, who was quite ill. Often, Sarto sought to improve his sermons by the advice of Constantini, who referred to one of his earliest as "rubbish". In Tombolo, Sarto's reputation for holiness grew so much amongst the people that some suggested the nickname "Don Santo".In 1867, he was named archpriest of Salzano. Here he restored the church and expanded the hospital, the funds coming from his own begging, wealth and labour. He won the people's affection when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague of the early 1870s. He was named a canon of the cathedral and chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso, also holding offices such as spiritual director and rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction. As a priest and later bishop, he often struggled over solving problems of bringing religious instruction to rural and urban youth who did not have the opportunity to attend Catholic schools. At one stage, a large stack of hay caught fire near a cottage, and when Sarto arrived he addressed the frantic people, "Don't be afraid, the fire will be put out and your house will be saved!" At that moment, the flames turned in the other direction, leaving the cottage alone. Despite his many duties, Sarto often made time for an evening walk with young children preparing their First Communion.
In 1879, Bishop Federico Maria Zinelli died, and Sarto was elected vicar-capitular to care for the diocese until the accession of a new bishop in June 1880.
After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On 10 November 1884, he was appointed bishop of Mantua by Pope Leo XIII. He was consecrated six days later in Rome in the church of Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine, Rome, by Cardinal Lucido Parocchi, assisted by Pietro Rota, and by Giovanni Maria Berengo. He was appointed to the honorary position of assistant at the pontifical throne on 19 June 1891. Sarto required papal dispensation from Pope Leo XIII before episcopal consecration as he lacked a doctorate, making him the last pope without a doctorate until Pope Francis.
When Sarto travelled back to his hometown from Rome after his consecration, he immediately went to visit his mother. There, she repeatedly kissed his ring and said to him: "But you would not have this fine ring, son, if I did not have this", showing him her wedding ring.
Cardinalate and patriarchate
Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal of the order of cardinal priests in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893. Three days later in a public consistory on 15 June, Pope Leo XIII gave him his cardinal's red galero, assigned him the titular church of San Bernardo alle Terme, and appointed him Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch, since the previous sovereign, the Emperor of Austria, had exercised that power. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of patriarch in 1894. In regard to being named as a cardinal, Sarto told a local newspaper that he felt "anxious, terrified and humiliated".After being named cardinal and before leaving for Venice, he paid his mother a visit. Overwhelmed with emotion and in tears, she asked: "My son, give your mother a last blessing", sensing that it would be the last time that they would see each other. Arriving in Venice, he was formally enthroned on 24 November 1894.
As cardinal-patriarch, Sarto avoided politics, allocating his time to social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."In April 1903, Pope Leo XIII reportedly said to Lorenzo Perosi: "Hold him very dear, Perosi, as in the future he will be able to do much for you. We firmly believe he will be our successor". As a cardinal, he was considered by the time of his papal election as one of the most prominent preachers in the Church despite his lesser fame globally. In his role as a cardinal, Sarto held membership in the congregations for Bishops and Regulars, Rites, and Indulgences and Sacred Relics.
Papal election of 1903
Leo XIII died 20 July 1903, and at the end of that month the conclave convened to elect his successor. Before the conclave, Sarto had reportedly said, "rather dead than pope", when people discussed his chances for election. In one of the meetings held just before the conclave, Cardinal Victor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot spoke with Sarto in French, however, Sarto replied in Latin, "I'm afraid I do not speak French". Lécot replied, "But if Your Eminence does not speak French you have no chance of being elected because the pope must speak French", to which Sarto said, "Deo Gratias! I have no desire to be pope".According to historians, the favorite was the late pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. On the first ballot, Rampolla received 24 votes, Gotti had 17 votes, and Sarto 5 votes. On the second ballot, Rampolla had gained five votes, as did Sarto. The next day, it seemed that Rampolla would be elected. However, the Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko from Kraków, in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph (1848–1916) of Austria-Hungary, proclaimed a veto (jus exclusivae) against Rampolla's election. Many in the conclave protested, and it was even suggested to disregard the veto.
However, the third vote had already begun, resulting in no clear winner but increasing support for Sarto, with 21 votes. The fourth vote showed Rampolla with 30 votes and Sarto with 24. It seemed clear that the cardinals were moving toward Sarto.
The following morning, the fifth vote gave Rampolla 10 votes, Gotti 2, and Sarto 50. Thus, on 4 August 1903, Sarto was elected to the pontificate. This marked the last known exercise of a papal veto by a Catholic monarch.
At first, it is reported, Sarto declined the nomination, feeling unworthy. He had been deeply saddened by the Austro-Hungarian veto and vowed to rescind these powers and excommunicate anyone who communicated such a veto during a conclave. With the cardinals asking him to reconsider, he went into solitude in the Pauline chapel, and after deep prayer he accepted the position. Cardinal Luigi Macchi announced Sarto's election at around 12:10pm.
Sarto took as his papal name Pius X, out of respect for his recent predecessors of the same name, particularly Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), who had fought against theological liberals and for papal supremacy. He explained: "As I shall suffer, I shall take the name of those Popes who also suffered". Pius X's traditional coronation took place the following Sunday, 9 August 1903. As pope, he became ex officio Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.
Pontificate
The pontificate of Pius X was noted for conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and Church law. In what became his motto, the Pope in 1903 devoted his papacy to Instaurare Omnia in Christo, "to restore all things in Christ." In his first encyclical (E supremi apostolatus, 4 October 1903), he stated his overriding policy: "We champion the authority of God. His authority and Commandments should be recognized, deferred to, and respected."
Continuing his simple origins, he wore a pectoral cross of gilded metal on the day of his coronation; and when his entourage was horrified, the new pope declared he always wore it and had brought no other with him. He was well known for reducing papal ceremonies. He also abolished the custom of the pope dining alone, since the time of Pope Urban VIII, and invited his friends to eat with him.When chided by Rome's social leaders for refusing to make his peasant sisters papal countesses, he responded: "I have made them sisters of the Pope; what more can I do for them?"He developed a reputation as being very friendly with children. He carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught them catechism. During papal audiences, he would gather children around him and talk about things that interested them. His weekly catechism lessons in the courtyard of San Damaso in the Vatican always included a special place for children, and his decision to require the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in every parish was partly motivated by a desire to save children from religious ignorance.Noted for his humility and simplicity, he declared that he had not changed personally save for his white cassock. Aides consistently needed to remind him not to wipe his pen on the white cassock, as he had previously done on his black cassock which hid stains. The new pope's schedule was quite similar each day. He rose at 4:00am before celebrating Mass at 6:00am. He was at his desk at 8:00am to receive private audiences. On his desk stood statues of John Vianney and Joan of Arc, both of whom he beatified in his papacy. At noon, he conducted a general audience with pilgrims, then had lunch at 1:00pm with his two secretaries or whomever else he invited to dine with him. Resting for a short while after lunch, Pius X would then return to work before dining at 9:00pm and a final stint of work before sleep.
Church reforms and theology
Restoration in Christ and Mariology
In his 1904 encyclical Ad diem illum, he views Mary in the context of "restoring everything in Christ".
He wrote:
Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother. Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin. She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Through a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ (S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).During Pius X's pontificate, many famed Marian images were granted a canonical coronation: Our Lady of Aparecida, Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of the Cape, Our Lady of Chiquinquira of Colombia, Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Our Lady of La Naval de Manila, Virgin of Help of Venezuela, Our Lady of Carmel of New York, the Marian icon of Santuario della Consolata and the Immaculate Conception within the Chapel of the Choir inside Saint Peter's Basilica were granted this prestigious honor.
Tra le sollecitudini and Gregorian chant
Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director". The Pope's choice of Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.
Liturgical reforms and communion
Pius X worked to increase devotion among both clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary, which he reformed considerably, and the Mass.
Besides restoring to prominence Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This also extended to children who had reached the "age of discretion", though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. He also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", by which he is still known among his devotees.
In 1910, he issued the decree Quam singulari, which changed the age at which Communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from Catholic schools, now that First Communion was carried out earlier. Pius X even personally distributed First Communion to a four-year-old boy the day after the child was presented to him and demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the meaning of the sacrament. When people would criticize Pius X for lowering the age of reception, he simply quoted the words of Jesus, "let the little children come to me".
Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, "The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the Church."He also sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause. For example, when entering his first public consistory for the creation of cardinals in November 1903, he was not carried above the crowds on the sedia gestatoria as was traditional. He arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".
Anti-modernism
Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas, 'the marriage of reason and revelation', as a response to secular 'enlightenment'. Under Pius X, neo-Thomism became the blueprint for theology.Most controversially, Pius X vigorously condemned the theological movement he termed 'Modernism', which he regarded as a heresy endangering the Catholic faith. The movement was linked especially to certain Catholic French scholars such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally rather than perhaps metaphorically true. In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. Its unwanted effects, from the traditional viewpoint, were relativism and scepticism. Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists argued that beliefs of the Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolveAnti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church. In the decree entitled Lamentabili sane exitu ("A Lamentable Departure Indeed") of 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned 65 propositions, mainly drawn from the works of Alfred Loisy and concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. That was followed by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the Anti-Modernist oath, Sacrorum antistitum. Pius X's aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about 40 clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.
Pius X's attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. Speaking of those who counseled compassion, he said: "They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can." He also instituted the Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was much criticized due to its accusations of heresy on the flimsiest evidence. This campaign was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, which distributed anti-Modernist propaganda and gathered information on "culprits". In Benigni's secret code, Pius X was known as Mama.
Catechism of Saint Pius X
In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo nimis mandated the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.The Catechism of Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal Church. The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future." The catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical Acerbo nimis of April 1905.The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908 in Italian, as Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X. An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.Asked in 2003 whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."
Reform of canon law
Canon law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws. Two of his successors worked in the commission: Giacomo della Chiesa, who became Pope Benedict XV, and Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII. This first Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, with an effective date of 19 May 1918, and remained in effect until Advent 1983.
Reform of Church administration
Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908) and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical Pieni l'animo. He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.
Church policies towards secular governments
Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 Law of Separation between church and state, by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law in his encyclicals Vehementer Nos and Gravissimo officii munere, and removed two French bishops for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the UK and Russia. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed Home Rule by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the status quo of rule by Westminster since the 1800 Union of Ireland and Great Britain) would result in Rome Rule due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics (Ultramontanism).
In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service. Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British House of Commons. The long term effect of Ne Temere in Ireland was that Irish Unionism which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as Ulster, but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today Northern Ireland. Furthermore, while historically both Protestant Irish nationalists and Catholic Unionists existed, the split over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.
As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.
Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.
Relations with the Kingdom of Italy
Initially, Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance, but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the Non Expedit, which prohibited Catholics from voting, to be relaxed. In 1905, he authorized bishops in his encyclical Il fermo proposito to offer a dispensation allowing their parishioners to exercise their legislative rights when "the supreme good of society" was at stake.
Relations with Poland and Russia
Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and in 1905 promulgated a constitution which included religious freedom, the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.
Activities for the United States
In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American Church. Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he named two American cardinals. He was very popular among American Catholics, often depicted as an ordinary man from a poor family, raised by God to the papal throne.In 1910, the pope refused an audience with former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the Methodist association in Rome, as well as with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who intended to address the same association.On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
Miracles during the pope's lifetime
Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime.
On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and Pius X then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured.Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (later the Archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after Ruffini was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the pontiff's cause for canonization.Once, a man who suffered from a paralyzed arm begged Pius X for his help. Taking his arm in his hand, the pope simply said, "have confidence in the Lord ... only have faith and the Lord will heal you". At that moment, the man could actually move his arm, calling out to the pope joyfully who simply put a finger to his lips so as not to draw any attention to what had happened, indicating that the man simply hold his peace. Another case saw an Irish girl covered in sores taken to see the pope by her mother. When Pius X saw her, he placed his hand on her head, and the sores completely disappeared. Another case saw a Roman schoolgirl contract a serious foot disease that rendered her crippled since she was only a year old. Through a friend she managed to acquire one of the pope's socks and was told that she would be healed if she wore it, which she did. At the moment she placed the sock on, the diseased foot was instantly healed. When Pius X heard about this, he laughed and said, "What a joke! I wear my own socks every day and still I suffer from constant pain in my feet!"
Other activities
In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical reforms, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. He also sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed. In 1904 Pope Pius X granted permission for diocesan seminarians to attend the College of St. Thomas. He raised the college to the status of Pontificium on 2 May 1906, thus making its degrees equivalent to those of the world's other pontifical universities. By Apostolic Letter of 8 November 1908, signed by the Supreme Pontiff on 17 November, the college was transformed into the Collegium Pontificium Internationale Angelicum. It would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.
Pius X published 16 encyclicals; among them was Vehementer nos on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly, the existence of Limbo in Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory." On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).
In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the popes, Pius X appears as Ignis Ardens or "Ardent Fire".
Declaring the tango "off-limits"
In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics. Later, in January 1914, when tango proved to be too popular to declare off-limits, Pope Pius X tried a different tack, mocking tango as "one of the dullest things imaginable", and recommending people take up dancing the furlana, a Venetian dance, instead.
Canonizations and beatifications
Pius X beatified a total of 131 individuals (including groups of martyrs and those by recognition of "cultus") and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate included Marie-Geneviève Meunier (1906), Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (1906), Valentin de Berriochoa (1906), Clair of Nantes (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).
In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom a patron saint of preachers.
Consistories
Pius X created 50 cardinals in seven consistories held during his pontificate which included noted figures of the Church during that time such as Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1907) and Pietro Gasparri (1907). In 1911, he increased American representation in the cardinalate based on the fact that the United States was expanding; the pope also named one cardinal in pectore (António Mendes Belo, whom the media accurately speculated on) in 1911 whose name he later revealed in 1914. Pius X also named as a cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV.
Among the cardinals whom he nominated came the first Brazilian-born (and the first Latin American-born; Arcoverde) and the first from the Netherlands (van Rossum) since 1523. The consistory of 1911 was the largest number of cardinals elevated at a single consistory in roughly a century.
In 1911, the pope reportedly wished to elevate Diomede Panici to the cardinalate, however, Panici died before the promotion ever took place. Furthermore, this came after Panici was originally considered but passed for the elevation by Pope Leo XIII who even had considered elevating Panici's brother. In the 1914 consistory, Pius X considered naming the Capuchin friar Armando Pietro Sabadel to the cardinalate, however, Sabadel declined the pope's invitation.
Death and burial
In 1913, Pope Pius X suffered a heart attack, and subsequently lived in the shadow of poor health. In 1914, the pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August 1914), an illness from which he would not recover, and it was reported that he suffered from a fever and lung complications. His condition was worsened by the events leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), which reportedly sent the 79-year-old into a state of melancholy. He died on Thursday, 20 August 1914, only a few hours after the death of Jesuit leader Franz Xavier Wernz, and on the very day when German forces marched into Brussels.
While the pope's condition was classified as serious, alarming symptoms did not develop until 19 August. While Pius X spent most of that day in and out of consciousness, he said at one stage, "In ancient times, the pope by a word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent". The pope shortly after received the Last Rites and eventually, an old bronchial infection that the pope had previously had in years past returned, further hastening his decline.Pius X died at 1:20am on 20 August 1914 and in a moment of lucidity just moments before he died, Pius X is reported to have said: "Now I begin to think the end is approaching. The Almighty in His inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare me the horrors which Europe is undergoing". His sister, Anna, was praying at his bedside when Pius X died. The pope's last act of life was to kiss the little crucifix that he had clasped in his hands at around 1:15am.Pius X was buried in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt below Saint Peter's Basilica. His body was laid in state on 21 August in red pontifical vestments and then interred following the Requiem Mass following his coffin lying in state on a large catafalque in the Sistine Chapel. His original tombstone bore the inscription: "Pope Pius X, poor and yet rich, gentle and humble of heart, unconquerable champion of the Catholic Faith, whose constant endeavor it was to renew all things in Christ". Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this in his burial and successive popes have continued this tradition. Pius X's tomb is located near the tombs of both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II under the altar of the Presentation.
Exhumation
On 19 May 1944, the body of Pius X was exhumed for inspection as part of the beatification process, during which the remains were found to be miraculously incorrupt. In 1959, the remains of the late pope were sent, with the permission of Pope John XXIII (himself a former Patriarch of Venice), to Venice in 1959. Before the remains were taken to Venice via a train on 11 April, Pope John XXIII led a small prayer service alongside some other cardinals. The body was exposed for the veneration of the faithful at the Basilica of Saint Mark for one month (12 April–10 May) before returning them back to the late pope's original resting place, with Cardinal Giovanni Urbani acting as the papal legate for the month-long event.
Canonization
Although Pius X's canonization took place in 1954, the events leading up to it began immediately with his death. A letter of 24 September 1916 by Monsignor Leo, Bishop of Nicotera and Tropea, referred to Pius X as "a great Saint and a great Pope." To accommodate the large number of pilgrims seeking access to his tomb, more than the crypt would hold, "a small metal cross was set into the floor of the basilica," which read Pius Papa X, "so that the faithful might kneel down directly above the tomb". Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.
Devotion to Pius X between the two world wars remained high. On 14 February 1923, in honor of the 20th anniversary of his accession to the papacy, the first moves toward his canonization began with the formal appointment of those who would carry out his cause. The event was marked by the erecting of a monument in his memory in St. Peter's Basilica. On 19 August 1939, Pope Pius XII (1939–58) delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo. On 12 February 1943, a further development of Pius X's cause was achieved, when he was declared to have displayed heroic virtues, gaining therefore the title "Venerable".
On 19 May 1944, Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination.
Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pius X remarkably well preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed. According to Jerome Dai-Gal, "all of the body" of Pius X "was in an excellent state of conservation". At the canonical recognition of his mortal body were present the Italian cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Nicola Canali.After the examination and the end of the apostolic process towards Pius X's cause, Pius XII bestowed the title of Venerable Servant of God upon Pius X. His body was exposed for 45 days (Rome was liberated by the allies during this time), before being placed back in his tomb.
Following this, the process towards beatification began, and investigations by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR) into miracles performed by intercessory work of Pius X took place. The SCR would eventually recognize two miracles. The first involved Marie-Françoise Deperras, a nun who had bone cancer and was cured on 7 December 1928 during a novena in which a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved the nun Benedetta De Maria, who had cancer, and in a novena started in 1938, she eventually touched a relic statue of Pius X and was cured.Pope Pius XII officially approved the two miracles on 11 February 1951; and on 4 March, Pius XII, in his De Tuto, declared that the Church could continue in the beatification of Pius X. His beatification took place on 3 June 1951 at St. Peter's before 23 cardinals, hundreds of bishops and archbishops, and a crowd of 100,000 faithful. During his beatification decree, Pius XII referred to Pius X as "Pope of the Eucharist", in honor of Pius X's expansion of the rite to children.
Following his beatification, on 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from its tomb to the Vatican basilica and placed under the altar of the chapel of the Presentation. The pontiff's body lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see.On 29 May 1954, less than three years after his beatification, Pius X was canonized, following the SCR's recognition of two more miracles. The first involved Francesco Belsami, an attorney from Naples who had a pulmonary abscess, who was cured upon placing a picture of Pope Pius X upon his chest. The second miracle involved Sr. Maria Ludovica Scorcia, a nun who was afflicted with a serious neurotropic virus, and who, upon several novenas, was entirely cured. The canonization Mass was presided over by Pius XII at Saint Peter's Basilica before a crowd of about 800,000 of the faithful and Church officials at St. Peter's Basilica. Pius X became the first pope to be canonized since Pius V in 1712.His canonization ceremony was taped and recorded by early television news broadcasters, including NBC.
Prayer cards often depict the sanctified pontiff with instruments of Holy Communion. In addition to being celebrated as the "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", Pius X is also the patron saint of emigrants from Treviso. He is honored in numerous parishes in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.
The number of parishes, schools, seminaries and retreat houses named after him in western countries is very large, partly because he was very well known, and his beatification and canonization in the early 1950s was during a period of time following World War II when there was a great deal of new construction in cities and population growth in the era of the baby boom, thus leading to Catholic institutional expansion that correlated with the growing society.Pius X's feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar, the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was a big supporter of his canonization, partly because he had ordained the need for its existence in every diocese and because it had received a great deal of episcopal criticism, and it was thought that by canonizing the pope who gave them their mandate, this would help inoculate against this criticism. They initiated a prayer crusade for his canonization that achieved the participation of over two million names.After the Pope's canonization, another miracle is said to have taken place when a Christian family activist named Clem Lane suffered a major heart attack and was placed in an oxygen tent, where he was given extreme unction. A relic of the Pope was placed over his tent, and he recovered to the great surprise of his doctors. A sister of Loretto at Webster College in St Louis, Missouri, claimed that her priest brother had been cured through the Pope's intercession as well.
Papal coat of arms
The personal papal arms of Pius X are composed of the traditional elements of all papal heraldry before Pope Benedict XVI: the shield, the papal tiara, and the keys. The tiara and keys are typical symbols used in the coats of arms of pontiffs, which symbolize their authority.
The shield of Pius X's coat of arms is charged in two basic parts, as it is per fess. In chief (the top part of the shield) shows the arms of the Patriarch of Venice, which Pius X was from 1893 to 1903. It consists of the Lion of Saint Mark proper and haloed in silver upon a silver-white background, displaying a book with the inscription of PAX TIBI MARCE on the left page and EVANGELISTA MEUS on the right page.
"Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Meus" (English: Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist) is the motto of Venice referring to the final resting place of Mark the Evangelist. This differed from the arms of the Republic of Venice by changing the background color from red to silver even though that did not conform to heraldic rules. Previous Patriarchs of Venice had combined their personal arms with these arms of the Patriarchate. The same chief can be seen in the arms of the later popes who were Patriarchs of Venice upon election to the See of Rome, John XXIII and John Paul I. Renditions of this part of Pius X's arms depict the lion either with or without a sword, and sometimes only one side of the book is written on.The shield displays the arms Pius X took as Bishop of Mantua: an anchor proper cast into a stormy sea (the blue and silver wavy lines), lit up by a single six-pointed star of gold. These were inspired by Hebrews Chapter 6, Versicle 19, (English: "The hope we have is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul") As Bishop Sarto, he stated that "hope is the sole companion of my life, the greatest support in uncertainty, the strongest power in situations of weakness."Although not present upon his arms, the only motto attributed to Pope Pius X is the one for which he is best remembered: Instaurare omnia in Christo (English: "To restore all things in Christ"), allegedly his last words before his death.
In fiction
The life of Pope Pius X is depicted in the 1951 movie Gli uomini non-guardano il cielo by Umberto Scarpelli. The movie is centered on the year 1914, as the Pope grieves over the threat that is incumbent and is consoled by his nephew.
A satirical depiction of Pope Pius X is presented in Flann O'Brien's novel The Hard Life, as the Irish characters travel from Dublin to Rome and gain a personal interview with the Pope, which ends very badly.
In poetry
In the poem "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire, Pope Pius X is referred to as "L'Européen le plus moderne," translated into English as "the most modern European."
See also
Cardinals created by Pius X
List of Catholic saints
List of encyclicals of Pope Pius X
List of popes
Mario Sarto, the sculptor (grandnephew)
Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
St. Pius X Seminary, Philippines
Pope Pius X, patron saint archive
Pius X High School, Nebraska, United States
St. Pius X Church, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
San Pio X alla Balduina, titular church in Rome
Notes
References
Bibliography
Bavoux, GA (1996). Le porteur de lumière [The bearer of light] (in French). Paris: Pygmalion.
Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 235–304 online
Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes 1830-1914 (2003). online pp 332–405.
Chiron, Yves (2002). Pope Saint Pius X: Restorer of The Church. Kansas City, MO: Angelus. ISBN 978-1-892331-10-6.
Cornwell, John (2008). Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14311400-0.
F. A. Forbes (1954) [Burns Oates & Washbourne 1918]. Pope St. Pius X. London: TAN.
Kühner, Hans (1960). Lexikon der Päpste [Dictionary of Popes] (in German). Frankfurt: Fischer.
Lortz, Joseph (1934). Geschichte der Kirche (in German). Munster.
Noel, Gerard (13 December 2009). Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler (Hardcover). Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-84706355-7.
Renz, Christopher J (2009). In This Light Which Gives Light: A History of the College of St. Albert the Great (1930–1980). Dominican School. ISBN 978-1-88373418-3.
Regoli, Roberto (2009). "L'elite cardinalizia dopo la fine dello stato pontificio". Archivum Historiae Pontificiae (in Italian). 47: 63–87. JSTOR 23565185.
Regoli, Roberto, ed. (2016). San Pio X. Papa riformatore di fronte alle sfide del nuovo secolo. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. ISBN 9788820997823.
Smit, JO; dal Gal, G (1951). Beato Pio X. Amsterdam: N.V. Drukkerij De Tijd.
van der Veldt, J. H. (1965). St. Pius X Pope. Boston, MA: Daughters of St. Paul.
Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1920). Pope Pius X. Rome: Vatican.
Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X [Catecism of the Christian doctrine, published by order of the High priest Saint Pius X] (in Italian). Il Sabato. 1999.
In his lifetime
Á Czaich; A. Fráter (1907). X. Pius pápa. Életének és uralkodásának története napjainkig. Budapest: Az Athenaeum.
Monsignor Hartwell de la Garde Grissell (1903). Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903. Oxford: James Parke & Co.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre (2 February 1904). "Ad diem illum". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. 5.
——— (1905). Catechism (PDF). Catholic Primer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
——— (15 April 1905a). "Acerbo Nimis". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
——— (3 July 1907). "Lamentabili Sane". Papal encyclicals. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
Schmidlin, Edward; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 17 November 2017. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons).
Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz (1907). Life of Pius X. New York: The American Catholic Publication Society.
Monsignor Anton de Waal (1904). Life of Pope Pius X. trans. Joseph William Berg. Milwaukee: The M.H. Wiltzius Co.
After his death
F. A. Forbes (1924) [1918]. Life of Pius X (2nd ed.). New York: PJ Kenedy & Sons. Merry del Val (above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him.
René Bazin (1928). Pius X. St Louis: B Herder.
Burton, Katherine (1950). The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. Longmens.
Thornton, Father Francis Beauchesne (1952). The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X. Benziger Brothers. This priest was the editor for Burton's book.
Martini, Teri (1954). The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. St Anthony Guild Press.
External links
Giuseppe Sarto – Pius X Foundation, web site of the birthplace and the Museum of St. Pius X. In the museum, which hosts Pius X's personal belongings, an exhibition describes the life of the pope.
"Pope Pius X". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre, Full text of official documents including encyclicals, Rome, IT: The Holy See
"Information about the life of Pius X". IT: Museo San Pio X.
"Canonization ceremony of Pius X" (video recording) (in German). Gloria.tv.
Leighton, David (30 April 2013). "Street Smarts: Eastside street leading to church named after Pope Pius X". Arizona Daily Star.
Works by or about Pope Pius X at Internet Archive
Works by Pope Pius X at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Literature by and about Pope Pius X in the German National Library catalogue
"bishop/bsartogm". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12137a.htm CE
Newspaper clippings about Pope Pius X in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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Pope Pius X (Italian: Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, and for promoting liturgical reforms and scholastic theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic fraternity, is named after him.
Pius X was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Confidence; while his papal encyclical Ad diem illum took on a sense of renewal that was reflected in the motto of his pontificate. He advanced the Liturgical Movement by formulating the principle of participatio actuosa (active participation of the faithful) in his motu proprio, Tra le sollecitudini (1903). He encouraged the frequent reception of Holy Communion, and he lowered the age for First Communion, which became a lasting innovation of his papacy.Like his predecessors, he promoted Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. He vehemently opposed various 19th-century philosophies that he viewed as an intrusion of secular errors incompatible with Catholic dogma, especially modernism, which he critiqued as the synthesis of every heresy.Pius X was known for his firm demeanour and sense of personal poverty, reflected by his membership of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He regularly gave sermons from the pulpit, a rare practice at the time. After the 1908 Messina earthquake he filled the Apostolic Palace with refugees, long before the Italian government acted. He rejected any kind of favours for his family, and his close relatives chose to remain in poverty, living near Rome. He also undertook a reform of the Roman Curia with the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti consilio in 1908.
After his death, a strong cult of devotion followed his reputation for piety and holiness. He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. A statue bearing his name stands within Saint Peter's Basilica; and his birth town was renamed Riese Pio X after his death.
Early life and ministry
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Austrian Empire (now in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy), in 1835. He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto (1792–1852), the village postman, and Margherita Sanson (1813–1894). He was baptised 3 June 1835. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to school each day.
Giuseppe had three brothers and six sisters: Giuseppe Sarto (born 1834; died after six days), Angelo Sarto (1837–1916), Teresa Parolin-Sarto (1839–1920), Rosa Sarto (1841–1913), Antonia Dei Bei-Sarto (1843–1917), Maria Sarto (1846–1930), Lucia Boschin-Sarto (1848–1924), Anna Sarto (1850–1926), Pietro Sarto (born 1852; died after six months). As Pope, he rejected any kind of favours for his family: his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three single sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome, in the same way as other people of humble background.
Giuseppe, often nicknamed as "Bepi" by his mother, possessed a sprightly disposition with his natural exuberance being so great that his teacher had to often control his lively impulses with a cane to the backside. Despite this, he was an excellent student who focused on his homework before engaging in any hobbies or recreations. In the evenings after sports or games with friends, he would spend ten minutes in prayer before returning home. Sarto also served as an altar boy. By the age of ten, he had completed the two elementary classes of his village school, as well as Latin study with a local priest; henceforth Sarto had to walk four miles to the gymnasium in Castelfranco Veneto for further classes. For the next four years, he would attend Mass before breakfast and his long walk to school. He often carried his shoes to make them last longer. As a poor boy, he was often teased for his meager lunches and shabby clothes, but never complained about this to his teachers.In 1850 he received the tonsure from his parish priest, and was given a scholarship [from] the Cardinal of Venice (who his parish priest had written, asking for a scholarship for Bepi) to attend the Seminary of Padua, "where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies with distinction".
On 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest by Giovanni Antonio Farina (later canonized), and became a chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor Constantini, who was quite ill. Often, Sarto sought to improve his sermons by the advice of Constantini, who referred to one of his earliest as "rubbish". In Tombolo, Sarto's reputation for holiness grew so much amongst the people that some suggested the nickname "Don Santo".In 1867, he was named archpriest of Salzano. Here he restored the church and expanded the hospital, the funds coming from his own begging, wealth and labour. He won the people's affection when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague of the early 1870s. He was named a canon of the cathedral and chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso, also holding offices such as spiritual director and rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction. As a priest and later bishop, he often struggled over solving problems of bringing religious instruction to rural and urban youth who did not have the opportunity to attend Catholic schools. At one stage, a large stack of hay caught fire near a cottage, and when Sarto arrived he addressed the frantic people, "Don't be afraid, the fire will be put out and your house will be saved!" At that moment, the flames turned in the other direction, leaving the cottage alone. Despite his many duties, Sarto often made time for an evening walk with young children preparing their First Communion.
In 1879, Bishop Federico Maria Zinelli died, and Sarto was elected vicar-capitular to care for the diocese until the accession of a new bishop in June 1880.
After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On 10 November 1884, he was appointed bishop of Mantua by Pope Leo XIII. He was consecrated six days later in Rome in the church of Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine, Rome, by Cardinal Lucido Parocchi, assisted by Pietro Rota, and by Giovanni Maria Berengo. He was appointed to the honorary position of assistant at the pontifical throne on 19 June 1891. Sarto required papal dispensation from Pope Leo XIII before episcopal consecration as he lacked a doctorate, making him the last pope without a doctorate until Pope Francis.
When Sarto travelled back to his hometown from Rome after his consecration, he immediately went to visit his mother. There, she repeatedly kissed his ring and said to him: "But you would not have this fine ring, son, if I did not have this", showing him her wedding ring.
Cardinalate and patriarchate
Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal of the order of cardinal priests in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893. Three days later in a public consistory on 15 June, Pope Leo XIII gave him his cardinal's red galero, assigned him the titular church of San Bernardo alle Terme, and appointed him Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch, since the previous sovereign, the Emperor of Austria, had exercised that power. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of patriarch in 1894. In regard to being named as a cardinal, Sarto told a local newspaper that he felt "anxious, terrified and humiliated".After being named cardinal and before leaving for Venice, he paid his mother a visit. Overwhelmed with emotion and in tears, she asked: "My son, give your mother a last blessing", sensing that it would be the last time that they would see each other. Arriving in Venice, he was formally enthroned on 24 November 1894.
As cardinal-patriarch, Sarto avoided politics, allocating his time to social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."In April 1903, Pope Leo XIII reportedly said to Lorenzo Perosi: "Hold him very dear, Perosi, as in the future he will be able to do much for you. We firmly believe he will be our successor". As a cardinal, he was considered by the time of his papal election as one of the most prominent preachers in the Church despite his lesser fame globally. In his role as a cardinal, Sarto held membership in the congregations for Bishops and Regulars, Rites, and Indulgences and Sacred Relics.
Papal election of 1903
Leo XIII died 20 July 1903, and at the end of that month the conclave convened to elect his successor. Before the conclave, Sarto had reportedly said, "rather dead than pope", when people discussed his chances for election. In one of the meetings held just before the conclave, Cardinal Victor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot spoke with Sarto in French, however, Sarto replied in Latin, "I'm afraid I do not speak French". Lécot replied, "But if Your Eminence does not speak French you have no chance of being elected because the pope must speak French", to which Sarto said, "Deo Gratias! I have no desire to be pope".According to historians, the favorite was the late pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. On the first ballot, Rampolla received 24 votes, Gotti had 17 votes, and Sarto 5 votes. On the second ballot, Rampolla had gained five votes, as did Sarto. The next day, it seemed that Rampolla would be elected. However, the Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko from Kraków, in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph (1848–1916) of Austria-Hungary, proclaimed a veto (jus exclusivae) against Rampolla's election. Many in the conclave protested, and it was even suggested to disregard the veto.
However, the third vote had already begun, resulting in no clear winner but increasing support for Sarto, with 21 votes. The fourth vote showed Rampolla with 30 votes and Sarto with 24. It seemed clear that the cardinals were moving toward Sarto.
The following morning, the fifth vote gave Rampolla 10 votes, Gotti 2, and Sarto 50. Thus, on 4 August 1903, Sarto was elected to the pontificate. This marked the last known exercise of a papal veto by a Catholic monarch.
At first, it is reported, Sarto declined the nomination, feeling unworthy. He had been deeply saddened by the Austro-Hungarian veto and vowed to rescind these powers and excommunicate anyone who communicated such a veto during a conclave. With the cardinals asking him to reconsider, he went into solitude in the Pauline chapel, and after deep prayer he accepted the position. Cardinal Luigi Macchi announced Sarto's election at around 12:10pm.
Sarto took as his papal name Pius X, out of respect for his recent predecessors of the same name, particularly Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), who had fought against theological liberals and for papal supremacy. He explained: "As I shall suffer, I shall take the name of those Popes who also suffered". Pius X's traditional coronation took place the following Sunday, 9 August 1903. As pope, he became ex officio Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.
Pontificate
The pontificate of Pius X was noted for conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and Church law. In what became his motto, the Pope in 1903 devoted his papacy to Instaurare Omnia in Christo, "to restore all things in Christ." In his first encyclical (E supremi apostolatus, 4 October 1903), he stated his overriding policy: "We champion the authority of God. His authority and Commandments should be recognized, deferred to, and respected."
Continuing his simple origins, he wore a pectoral cross of gilded metal on the day of his coronation; and when his entourage was horrified, the new pope declared he always wore it and had brought no other with him. He was well known for reducing papal ceremonies. He also abolished the custom of the pope dining alone, since the time of Pope Urban VIII, and invited his friends to eat with him.When chided by Rome's social leaders for refusing to make his peasant sisters papal countesses, he responded: "I have made them sisters of the Pope; what more can I do for them?"He developed a reputation as being very friendly with children. He carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught them catechism. During papal audiences, he would gather children around him and talk about things that interested them. His weekly catechism lessons in the courtyard of San Damaso in the Vatican always included a special place for children, and his decision to require the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in every parish was partly motivated by a desire to save children from religious ignorance.Noted for his humility and simplicity, he declared that he had not changed personally save for his white cassock. Aides consistently needed to remind him not to wipe his pen on the white cassock, as he had previously done on his black cassock which hid stains. The new pope's schedule was quite similar each day. He rose at 4:00am before celebrating Mass at 6:00am. He was at his desk at 8:00am to receive private audiences. On his desk stood statues of John Vianney and Joan of Arc, both of whom he beatified in his papacy. At noon, he conducted a general audience with pilgrims, then had lunch at 1:00pm with his two secretaries or whomever else he invited to dine with him. Resting for a short while after lunch, Pius X would then return to work before dining at 9:00pm and a final stint of work before sleep.
Church reforms and theology
Restoration in Christ and Mariology
In his 1904 encyclical Ad diem illum, he views Mary in the context of "restoring everything in Christ".
He wrote:
Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother. Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin. She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Through a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ (S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).During Pius X's pontificate, many famed Marian images were granted a canonical coronation: Our Lady of Aparecida, Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of the Cape, Our Lady of Chiquinquira of Colombia, Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Our Lady of La Naval de Manila, Virgin of Help of Venezuela, Our Lady of Carmel of New York, the Marian icon of Santuario della Consolata and the Immaculate Conception within the Chapel of the Choir inside Saint Peter's Basilica were granted this prestigious honor.
Tra le sollecitudini and Gregorian chant
Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director". The Pope's choice of Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.
Liturgical reforms and communion
Pius X worked to increase devotion among both clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary, which he reformed considerably, and the Mass.
Besides restoring to prominence Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This also extended to children who had reached the "age of discretion", though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. He also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", by which he is still known among his devotees.
In 1910, he issued the decree Quam singulari, which changed the age at which Communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from Catholic schools, now that First Communion was carried out earlier. Pius X even personally distributed First Communion to a four-year-old boy the day after the child was presented to him and demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the meaning of the sacrament. When people would criticize Pius X for lowering the age of reception, he simply quoted the words of Jesus, "let the little children come to me".
Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, "The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the Church."He also sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause. For example, when entering his first public consistory for the creation of cardinals in November 1903, he was not carried above the crowds on the sedia gestatoria as was traditional. He arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".
Anti-modernism
Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas, 'the marriage of reason and revelation', as a response to secular 'enlightenment'. Under Pius X, neo-Thomism became the blueprint for theology.Most controversially, Pius X vigorously condemned the theological movement he termed 'Modernism', which he regarded as a heresy endangering the Catholic faith. The movement was linked especially to certain Catholic French scholars such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally rather than perhaps metaphorically true. In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. Its unwanted effects, from the traditional viewpoint, were relativism and scepticism. Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists argued that beliefs of the Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolveAnti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church. In the decree entitled Lamentabili sane exitu ("A Lamentable Departure Indeed") of 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned 65 propositions, mainly drawn from the works of Alfred Loisy and concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. That was followed by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the Anti-Modernist oath, Sacrorum antistitum. Pius X's aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about 40 clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.
Pius X's attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. Speaking of those who counseled compassion, he said: "They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can." He also instituted the Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was much criticized due to its accusations of heresy on the flimsiest evidence. This campaign was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, which distributed anti-Modernist propaganda and gathered information on "culprits". In Benigni's secret code, Pius X was known as Mama.
Catechism of Saint Pius X
In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo nimis mandated the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.The Catechism of Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal Church. The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future." The catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical Acerbo nimis of April 1905.The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908 in Italian, as Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X. An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.Asked in 2003 whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."
Reform of canon law
Canon law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws. Two of his successors worked in the commission: Giacomo della Chiesa, who became Pope Benedict XV, and Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII. This first Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, with an effective date of 19 May 1918, and remained in effect until Advent 1983.
Reform of Church administration
Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908) and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical Pieni l'animo. He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.
Church policies towards secular governments
Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 Law of Separation between church and state, by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law in his encyclicals Vehementer Nos and Gravissimo officii munere, and removed two French bishops for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the UK and Russia. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed Home Rule by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the status quo of rule by Westminster since the 1800 Union of Ireland and Great Britain) would result in Rome Rule due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics (Ultramontanism).
In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service. Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British House of Commons. The long term effect of Ne Temere in Ireland was that Irish Unionism which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as Ulster, but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today Northern Ireland. Furthermore, while historically both Protestant Irish nationalists and Catholic Unionists existed, the split over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.
As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.
Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.
Relations with the Kingdom of Italy
Initially, Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance, but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the Non Expedit, which prohibited Catholics from voting, to be relaxed. In 1905, he authorized bishops in his encyclical Il fermo proposito to offer a dispensation allowing their parishioners to exercise their legislative rights when "the supreme good of society" was at stake.
Relations with Poland and Russia
Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and in 1905 promulgated a constitution which included religious freedom, the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.
Activities for the United States
In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American Church. Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he named two American cardinals. He was very popular among American Catholics, often depicted as an ordinary man from a poor family, raised by God to the papal throne.In 1910, the pope refused an audience with former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the Methodist association in Rome, as well as with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who intended to address the same association.On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
Miracles during the pope's lifetime
Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime.
On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and Pius X then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured.Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (later the Archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after Ruffini was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the pontiff's cause for canonization.Once, a man who suffered from a paralyzed arm begged Pius X for his help. Taking his arm in his hand, the pope simply said, "have confidence in the Lord ... only have faith and the Lord will heal you". At that moment, the man could actually move his arm, calling out to the pope joyfully who simply put a finger to his lips so as not to draw any attention to what had happened, indicating that the man simply hold his peace. Another case saw an Irish girl covered in sores taken to see the pope by her mother. When Pius X saw her, he placed his hand on her head, and the sores completely disappeared. Another case saw a Roman schoolgirl contract a serious foot disease that rendered her crippled since she was only a year old. Through a friend she managed to acquire one of the pope's socks and was told that she would be healed if she wore it, which she did. At the moment she placed the sock on, the diseased foot was instantly healed. When Pius X heard about this, he laughed and said, "What a joke! I wear my own socks every day and still I suffer from constant pain in my feet!"
Other activities
In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical reforms, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. He also sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed. In 1904 Pope Pius X granted permission for diocesan seminarians to attend the College of St. Thomas. He raised the college to the status of Pontificium on 2 May 1906, thus making its degrees equivalent to those of the world's other pontifical universities. By Apostolic Letter of 8 November 1908, signed by the Supreme Pontiff on 17 November, the college was transformed into the Collegium Pontificium Internationale Angelicum. It would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.
Pius X published 16 encyclicals; among them was Vehementer nos on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly, the existence of Limbo in Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory." On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).
In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the popes, Pius X appears as Ignis Ardens or "Ardent Fire".
Declaring the tango "off-limits"
In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics. Later, in January 1914, when tango proved to be too popular to declare off-limits, Pope Pius X tried a different tack, mocking tango as "one of the dullest things imaginable", and recommending people take up dancing the furlana, a Venetian dance, instead.
Canonizations and beatifications
Pius X beatified a total of 131 individuals (including groups of martyrs and those by recognition of "cultus") and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate included Marie-Geneviève Meunier (1906), Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (1906), Valentin de Berriochoa (1906), Clair of Nantes (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).
In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom a patron saint of preachers.
Consistories
Pius X created 50 cardinals in seven consistories held during his pontificate which included noted figures of the Church during that time such as Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1907) and Pietro Gasparri (1907). In 1911, he increased American representation in the cardinalate based on the fact that the United States was expanding; the pope also named one cardinal in pectore (António Mendes Belo, whom the media accurately speculated on) in 1911 whose name he later revealed in 1914. Pius X also named as a cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV.
Among the cardinals whom he nominated came the first Brazilian-born (and the first Latin American-born; Arcoverde) and the first from the Netherlands (van Rossum) since 1523. The consistory of 1911 was the largest number of cardinals elevated at a single consistory in roughly a century.
In 1911, the pope reportedly wished to elevate Diomede Panici to the cardinalate, however, Panici died before the promotion ever took place. Furthermore, this came after Panici was originally considered but passed for the elevation by Pope Leo XIII who even had considered elevating Panici's brother. In the 1914 consistory, Pius X considered naming the Capuchin friar Armando Pietro Sabadel to the cardinalate, however, Sabadel declined the pope's invitation.
Death and burial
In 1913, Pope Pius X suffered a heart attack, and subsequently lived in the shadow of poor health. In 1914, the pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August 1914), an illness from which he would not recover, and it was reported that he suffered from a fever and lung complications. His condition was worsened by the events leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), which reportedly sent the 79-year-old into a state of melancholy. He died on Thursday, 20 August 1914, only a few hours after the death of Jesuit leader Franz Xavier Wernz, and on the very day when German forces marched into Brussels.
While the pope's condition was classified as serious, alarming symptoms did not develop until 19 August. While Pius X spent most of that day in and out of consciousness, he said at one stage, "In ancient times, the pope by a word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent". The pope shortly after received the Last Rites and eventually, an old bronchial infection that the pope had previously had in years past returned, further hastening his decline.Pius X died at 1:20am on 20 August 1914 and in a moment of lucidity just moments before he died, Pius X is reported to have said: "Now I begin to think the end is approaching. The Almighty in His inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare me the horrors which Europe is undergoing". His sister, Anna, was praying at his bedside when Pius X died. The pope's last act of life was to kiss the little crucifix that he had clasped in his hands at around 1:15am.Pius X was buried in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt below Saint Peter's Basilica. His body was laid in state on 21 August in red pontifical vestments and then interred following the Requiem Mass following his coffin lying in state on a large catafalque in the Sistine Chapel. His original tombstone bore the inscription: "Pope Pius X, poor and yet rich, gentle and humble of heart, unconquerable champion of the Catholic Faith, whose constant endeavor it was to renew all things in Christ". Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this in his burial and successive popes have continued this tradition. Pius X's tomb is located near the tombs of both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II under the altar of the Presentation.
Exhumation
On 19 May 1944, the body of Pius X was exhumed for inspection as part of the beatification process, during which the remains were found to be miraculously incorrupt. In 1959, the remains of the late pope were sent, with the permission of Pope John XXIII (himself a former Patriarch of Venice), to Venice in 1959. Before the remains were taken to Venice via a train on 11 April, Pope John XXIII led a small prayer service alongside some other cardinals. The body was exposed for the veneration of the faithful at the Basilica of Saint Mark for one month (12 April–10 May) before returning them back to the late pope's original resting place, with Cardinal Giovanni Urbani acting as the papal legate for the month-long event.
Canonization
Although Pius X's canonization took place in 1954, the events leading up to it began immediately with his death. A letter of 24 September 1916 by Monsignor Leo, Bishop of Nicotera and Tropea, referred to Pius X as "a great Saint and a great Pope." To accommodate the large number of pilgrims seeking access to his tomb, more than the crypt would hold, "a small metal cross was set into the floor of the basilica," which read Pius Papa X, "so that the faithful might kneel down directly above the tomb". Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.
Devotion to Pius X between the two world wars remained high. On 14 February 1923, in honor of the 20th anniversary of his accession to the papacy, the first moves toward his canonization began with the formal appointment of those who would carry out his cause. The event was marked by the erecting of a monument in his memory in St. Peter's Basilica. On 19 August 1939, Pope Pius XII (1939–58) delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo. On 12 February 1943, a further development of Pius X's cause was achieved, when he was declared to have displayed heroic virtues, gaining therefore the title "Venerable".
On 19 May 1944, Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination.
Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pius X remarkably well preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed. According to Jerome Dai-Gal, "all of the body" of Pius X "was in an excellent state of conservation". At the canonical recognition of his mortal body were present the Italian cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Nicola Canali.After the examination and the end of the apostolic process towards Pius X's cause, Pius XII bestowed the title of Venerable Servant of God upon Pius X. His body was exposed for 45 days (Rome was liberated by the allies during this time), before being placed back in his tomb.
Following this, the process towards beatification began, and investigations by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR) into miracles performed by intercessory work of Pius X took place. The SCR would eventually recognize two miracles. The first involved Marie-Françoise Deperras, a nun who had bone cancer and was cured on 7 December 1928 during a novena in which a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved the nun Benedetta De Maria, who had cancer, and in a novena started in 1938, she eventually touched a relic statue of Pius X and was cured.Pope Pius XII officially approved the two miracles on 11 February 1951; and on 4 March, Pius XII, in his De Tuto, declared that the Church could continue in the beatification of Pius X. His beatification took place on 3 June 1951 at St. Peter's before 23 cardinals, hundreds of bishops and archbishops, and a crowd of 100,000 faithful. During his beatification decree, Pius XII referred to Pius X as "Pope of the Eucharist", in honor of Pius X's expansion of the rite to children.
Following his beatification, on 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from its tomb to the Vatican basilica and placed under the altar of the chapel of the Presentation. The pontiff's body lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see.On 29 May 1954, less than three years after his beatification, Pius X was canonized, following the SCR's recognition of two more miracles. The first involved Francesco Belsami, an attorney from Naples who had a pulmonary abscess, who was cured upon placing a picture of Pope Pius X upon his chest. The second miracle involved Sr. Maria Ludovica Scorcia, a nun who was afflicted with a serious neurotropic virus, and who, upon several novenas, was entirely cured. The canonization Mass was presided over by Pius XII at Saint Peter's Basilica before a crowd of about 800,000 of the faithful and Church officials at St. Peter's Basilica. Pius X became the first pope to be canonized since Pius V in 1712.His canonization ceremony was taped and recorded by early television news broadcasters, including NBC.
Prayer cards often depict the sanctified pontiff with instruments of Holy Communion. In addition to being celebrated as the "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", Pius X is also the patron saint of emigrants from Treviso. He is honored in numerous parishes in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.
The number of parishes, schools, seminaries and retreat houses named after him in western countries is very large, partly because he was very well known, and his beatification and canonization in the early 1950s was during a period of time following World War II when there was a great deal of new construction in cities and population growth in the era of the baby boom, thus leading to Catholic institutional expansion that correlated with the growing society.Pius X's feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar, the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was a big supporter of his canonization, partly because he had ordained the need for its existence in every diocese and because it had received a great deal of episcopal criticism, and it was thought that by canonizing the pope who gave them their mandate, this would help inoculate against this criticism. They initiated a prayer crusade for his canonization that achieved the participation of over two million names.After the Pope's canonization, another miracle is said to have taken place when a Christian family activist named Clem Lane suffered a major heart attack and was placed in an oxygen tent, where he was given extreme unction. A relic of the Pope was placed over his tent, and he recovered to the great surprise of his doctors. A sister of Loretto at Webster College in St Louis, Missouri, claimed that her priest brother had been cured through the Pope's intercession as well.
Papal coat of arms
The personal papal arms of Pius X are composed of the traditional elements of all papal heraldry before Pope Benedict XVI: the shield, the papal tiara, and the keys. The tiara and keys are typical symbols used in the coats of arms of pontiffs, which symbolize their authority.
The shield of Pius X's coat of arms is charged in two basic parts, as it is per fess. In chief (the top part of the shield) shows the arms of the Patriarch of Venice, which Pius X was from 1893 to 1903. It consists of the Lion of Saint Mark proper and haloed in silver upon a silver-white background, displaying a book with the inscription of PAX TIBI MARCE on the left page and EVANGELISTA MEUS on the right page.
"Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Meus" (English: Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist) is the motto of Venice referring to the final resting place of Mark the Evangelist. This differed from the arms of the Republic of Venice by changing the background color from red to silver even though that did not conform to heraldic rules. Previous Patriarchs of Venice had combined their personal arms with these arms of the Patriarchate. The same chief can be seen in the arms of the later popes who were Patriarchs of Venice upon election to the See of Rome, John XXIII and John Paul I. Renditions of this part of Pius X's arms depict the lion either with or without a sword, and sometimes only one side of the book is written on.The shield displays the arms Pius X took as Bishop of Mantua: an anchor proper cast into a stormy sea (the blue and silver wavy lines), lit up by a single six-pointed star of gold. These were inspired by Hebrews Chapter 6, Versicle 19, (English: "The hope we have is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul") As Bishop Sarto, he stated that "hope is the sole companion of my life, the greatest support in uncertainty, the strongest power in situations of weakness."Although not present upon his arms, the only motto attributed to Pope Pius X is the one for which he is best remembered: Instaurare omnia in Christo (English: "To restore all things in Christ"), allegedly his last words before his death.
In fiction
The life of Pope Pius X is depicted in the 1951 movie Gli uomini non-guardano il cielo by Umberto Scarpelli. The movie is centered on the year 1914, as the Pope grieves over the threat that is incumbent and is consoled by his nephew.
A satirical depiction of Pope Pius X is presented in Flann O'Brien's novel The Hard Life, as the Irish characters travel from Dublin to Rome and gain a personal interview with the Pope, which ends very badly.
In poetry
In the poem "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire, Pope Pius X is referred to as "L'Européen le plus moderne," translated into English as "the most modern European."
See also
Cardinals created by Pius X
List of Catholic saints
List of encyclicals of Pope Pius X
List of popes
Mario Sarto, the sculptor (grandnephew)
Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
St. Pius X Seminary, Philippines
Pope Pius X, patron saint archive
Pius X High School, Nebraska, United States
St. Pius X Church, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
San Pio X alla Balduina, titular church in Rome
Notes
References
Bibliography
Bavoux, GA (1996). Le porteur de lumière [The bearer of light] (in French). Paris: Pygmalion.
Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 235–304 online
Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes 1830-1914 (2003). online pp 332–405.
Chiron, Yves (2002). Pope Saint Pius X: Restorer of The Church. Kansas City, MO: Angelus. ISBN 978-1-892331-10-6.
Cornwell, John (2008). Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14311400-0.
F. A. Forbes (1954) [Burns Oates & Washbourne 1918]. Pope St. Pius X. London: TAN.
Kühner, Hans (1960). Lexikon der Päpste [Dictionary of Popes] (in German). Frankfurt: Fischer.
Lortz, Joseph (1934). Geschichte der Kirche (in German). Munster.
Noel, Gerard (13 December 2009). Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler (Hardcover). Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-84706355-7.
Renz, Christopher J (2009). In This Light Which Gives Light: A History of the College of St. Albert the Great (1930–1980). Dominican School. ISBN 978-1-88373418-3.
Regoli, Roberto (2009). "L'elite cardinalizia dopo la fine dello stato pontificio". Archivum Historiae Pontificiae (in Italian). 47: 63–87. JSTOR 23565185.
Regoli, Roberto, ed. (2016). San Pio X. Papa riformatore di fronte alle sfide del nuovo secolo. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. ISBN 9788820997823.
Smit, JO; dal Gal, G (1951). Beato Pio X. Amsterdam: N.V. Drukkerij De Tijd.
van der Veldt, J. H. (1965). St. Pius X Pope. Boston, MA: Daughters of St. Paul.
Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1920). Pope Pius X. Rome: Vatican.
Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X [Catecism of the Christian doctrine, published by order of the High priest Saint Pius X] (in Italian). Il Sabato. 1999.
In his lifetime
Á Czaich; A. Fráter (1907). X. Pius pápa. Életének és uralkodásának története napjainkig. Budapest: Az Athenaeum.
Monsignor Hartwell de la Garde Grissell (1903). Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903. Oxford: James Parke & Co.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre (2 February 1904). "Ad diem illum". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. 5.
——— (1905). Catechism (PDF). Catholic Primer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
——— (15 April 1905a). "Acerbo Nimis". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
——— (3 July 1907). "Lamentabili Sane". Papal encyclicals. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
Schmidlin, Edward; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 17 November 2017. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons).
Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz (1907). Life of Pius X. New York: The American Catholic Publication Society.
Monsignor Anton de Waal (1904). Life of Pope Pius X. trans. Joseph William Berg. Milwaukee: The M.H. Wiltzius Co.
After his death
F. A. Forbes (1924) [1918]. Life of Pius X (2nd ed.). New York: PJ Kenedy & Sons. Merry del Val (above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him.
René Bazin (1928). Pius X. St Louis: B Herder.
Burton, Katherine (1950). The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. Longmens.
Thornton, Father Francis Beauchesne (1952). The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X. Benziger Brothers. This priest was the editor for Burton's book.
Martini, Teri (1954). The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. St Anthony Guild Press.
External links
Giuseppe Sarto – Pius X Foundation, web site of the birthplace and the Museum of St. Pius X. In the museum, which hosts Pius X's personal belongings, an exhibition describes the life of the pope.
"Pope Pius X". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre, Full text of official documents including encyclicals, Rome, IT: The Holy See
"Information about the life of Pius X". IT: Museo San Pio X.
"Canonization ceremony of Pius X" (video recording) (in German). Gloria.tv.
Leighton, David (30 April 2013). "Street Smarts: Eastside street leading to church named after Pope Pius X". Arizona Daily Star.
Works by or about Pope Pius X at Internet Archive
Works by Pope Pius X at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Literature by and about Pope Pius X in the German National Library catalogue
"bishop/bsartogm". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12137a.htm CE
Newspaper clippings about Pope Pius X in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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Pope Pius X (Italian: Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, and for promoting liturgical reforms and scholastic theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic fraternity, is named after him.
Pius X was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Confidence; while his papal encyclical Ad diem illum took on a sense of renewal that was reflected in the motto of his pontificate. He advanced the Liturgical Movement by formulating the principle of participatio actuosa (active participation of the faithful) in his motu proprio, Tra le sollecitudini (1903). He encouraged the frequent reception of Holy Communion, and he lowered the age for First Communion, which became a lasting innovation of his papacy.Like his predecessors, he promoted Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. He vehemently opposed various 19th-century philosophies that he viewed as an intrusion of secular errors incompatible with Catholic dogma, especially modernism, which he critiqued as the synthesis of every heresy.Pius X was known for his firm demeanour and sense of personal poverty, reflected by his membership of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He regularly gave sermons from the pulpit, a rare practice at the time. After the 1908 Messina earthquake he filled the Apostolic Palace with refugees, long before the Italian government acted. He rejected any kind of favours for his family, and his close relatives chose to remain in poverty, living near Rome. He also undertook a reform of the Roman Curia with the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti consilio in 1908.
After his death, a strong cult of devotion followed his reputation for piety and holiness. He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. A statue bearing his name stands within Saint Peter's Basilica; and his birth town was renamed Riese Pio X after his death.
Early life and ministry
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Austrian Empire (now in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy), in 1835. He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto (1792–1852), the village postman, and Margherita Sanson (1813–1894). He was baptised 3 June 1835. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to school each day.
Giuseppe had three brothers and six sisters: Giuseppe Sarto (born 1834; died after six days), Angelo Sarto (1837–1916), Teresa Parolin-Sarto (1839–1920), Rosa Sarto (1841–1913), Antonia Dei Bei-Sarto (1843–1917), Maria Sarto (1846–1930), Lucia Boschin-Sarto (1848–1924), Anna Sarto (1850–1926), Pietro Sarto (born 1852; died after six months). As Pope, he rejected any kind of favours for his family: his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three single sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome, in the same way as other people of humble background.
Giuseppe, often nicknamed as "Bepi" by his mother, possessed a sprightly disposition with his natural exuberance being so great that his teacher had to often control his lively impulses with a cane to the backside. Despite this, he was an excellent student who focused on his homework before engaging in any hobbies or recreations. In the evenings after sports or games with friends, he would spend ten minutes in prayer before returning home. Sarto also served as an altar boy. By the age of ten, he had completed the two elementary classes of his village school, as well as Latin study with a local priest; henceforth Sarto had to walk four miles to the gymnasium in Castelfranco Veneto for further classes. For the next four years, he would attend Mass before breakfast and his long walk to school. He often carried his shoes to make them last longer. As a poor boy, he was often teased for his meager lunches and shabby clothes, but never complained about this to his teachers.In 1850 he received the tonsure from his parish priest, and was given a scholarship [from] the Cardinal of Venice (who his parish priest had written, asking for a scholarship for Bepi) to attend the Seminary of Padua, "where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies with distinction".
On 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest by Giovanni Antonio Farina (later canonized), and became a chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor Constantini, who was quite ill. Often, Sarto sought to improve his sermons by the advice of Constantini, who referred to one of his earliest as "rubbish". In Tombolo, Sarto's reputation for holiness grew so much amongst the people that some suggested the nickname "Don Santo".In 1867, he was named archpriest of Salzano. Here he restored the church and expanded the hospital, the funds coming from his own begging, wealth and labour. He won the people's affection when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague of the early 1870s. He was named a canon of the cathedral and chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso, also holding offices such as spiritual director and rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction. As a priest and later bishop, he often struggled over solving problems of bringing religious instruction to rural and urban youth who did not have the opportunity to attend Catholic schools. At one stage, a large stack of hay caught fire near a cottage, and when Sarto arrived he addressed the frantic people, "Don't be afraid, the fire will be put out and your house will be saved!" At that moment, the flames turned in the other direction, leaving the cottage alone. Despite his many duties, Sarto often made time for an evening walk with young children preparing their First Communion.
In 1879, Bishop Federico Maria Zinelli died, and Sarto was elected vicar-capitular to care for the diocese until the accession of a new bishop in June 1880.
After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On 10 November 1884, he was appointed bishop of Mantua by Pope Leo XIII. He was consecrated six days later in Rome in the church of Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine, Rome, by Cardinal Lucido Parocchi, assisted by Pietro Rota, and by Giovanni Maria Berengo. He was appointed to the honorary position of assistant at the pontifical throne on 19 June 1891. Sarto required papal dispensation from Pope Leo XIII before episcopal consecration as he lacked a doctorate, making him the last pope without a doctorate until Pope Francis.
When Sarto travelled back to his hometown from Rome after his consecration, he immediately went to visit his mother. There, she repeatedly kissed his ring and said to him: "But you would not have this fine ring, son, if I did not have this", showing him her wedding ring.
Cardinalate and patriarchate
Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal of the order of cardinal priests in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893. Three days later in a public consistory on 15 June, Pope Leo XIII gave him his cardinal's red galero, assigned him the titular church of San Bernardo alle Terme, and appointed him Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch, since the previous sovereign, the Emperor of Austria, had exercised that power. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of patriarch in 1894. In regard to being named as a cardinal, Sarto told a local newspaper that he felt "anxious, terrified and humiliated".After being named cardinal and before leaving for Venice, he paid his mother a visit. Overwhelmed with emotion and in tears, she asked: "My son, give your mother a last blessing", sensing that it would be the last time that they would see each other. Arriving in Venice, he was formally enthroned on 24 November 1894.
As cardinal-patriarch, Sarto avoided politics, allocating his time to social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."In April 1903, Pope Leo XIII reportedly said to Lorenzo Perosi: "Hold him very dear, Perosi, as in the future he will be able to do much for you. We firmly believe he will be our successor". As a cardinal, he was considered by the time of his papal election as one of the most prominent preachers in the Church despite his lesser fame globally. In his role as a cardinal, Sarto held membership in the congregations for Bishops and Regulars, Rites, and Indulgences and Sacred Relics.
Papal election of 1903
Leo XIII died 20 July 1903, and at the end of that month the conclave convened to elect his successor. Before the conclave, Sarto had reportedly said, "rather dead than pope", when people discussed his chances for election. In one of the meetings held just before the conclave, Cardinal Victor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot spoke with Sarto in French, however, Sarto replied in Latin, "I'm afraid I do not speak French". Lécot replied, "But if Your Eminence does not speak French you have no chance of being elected because the pope must speak French", to which Sarto said, "Deo Gratias! I have no desire to be pope".According to historians, the favorite was the late pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. On the first ballot, Rampolla received 24 votes, Gotti had 17 votes, and Sarto 5 votes. On the second ballot, Rampolla had gained five votes, as did Sarto. The next day, it seemed that Rampolla would be elected. However, the Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko from Kraków, in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph (1848–1916) of Austria-Hungary, proclaimed a veto (jus exclusivae) against Rampolla's election. Many in the conclave protested, and it was even suggested to disregard the veto.
However, the third vote had already begun, resulting in no clear winner but increasing support for Sarto, with 21 votes. The fourth vote showed Rampolla with 30 votes and Sarto with 24. It seemed clear that the cardinals were moving toward Sarto.
The following morning, the fifth vote gave Rampolla 10 votes, Gotti 2, and Sarto 50. Thus, on 4 August 1903, Sarto was elected to the pontificate. This marked the last known exercise of a papal veto by a Catholic monarch.
At first, it is reported, Sarto declined the nomination, feeling unworthy. He had been deeply saddened by the Austro-Hungarian veto and vowed to rescind these powers and excommunicate anyone who communicated such a veto during a conclave. With the cardinals asking him to reconsider, he went into solitude in the Pauline chapel, and after deep prayer he accepted the position. Cardinal Luigi Macchi announced Sarto's election at around 12:10pm.
Sarto took as his papal name Pius X, out of respect for his recent predecessors of the same name, particularly Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), who had fought against theological liberals and for papal supremacy. He explained: "As I shall suffer, I shall take the name of those Popes who also suffered". Pius X's traditional coronation took place the following Sunday, 9 August 1903. As pope, he became ex officio Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.
Pontificate
The pontificate of Pius X was noted for conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and Church law. In what became his motto, the Pope in 1903 devoted his papacy to Instaurare Omnia in Christo, "to restore all things in Christ." In his first encyclical (E supremi apostolatus, 4 October 1903), he stated his overriding policy: "We champion the authority of God. His authority and Commandments should be recognized, deferred to, and respected."
Continuing his simple origins, he wore a pectoral cross of gilded metal on the day of his coronation; and when his entourage was horrified, the new pope declared he always wore it and had brought no other with him. He was well known for reducing papal ceremonies. He also abolished the custom of the pope dining alone, since the time of Pope Urban VIII, and invited his friends to eat with him.When chided by Rome's social leaders for refusing to make his peasant sisters papal countesses, he responded: "I have made them sisters of the Pope; what more can I do for them?"He developed a reputation as being very friendly with children. He carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught them catechism. During papal audiences, he would gather children around him and talk about things that interested them. His weekly catechism lessons in the courtyard of San Damaso in the Vatican always included a special place for children, and his decision to require the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in every parish was partly motivated by a desire to save children from religious ignorance.Noted for his humility and simplicity, he declared that he had not changed personally save for his white cassock. Aides consistently needed to remind him not to wipe his pen on the white cassock, as he had previously done on his black cassock which hid stains. The new pope's schedule was quite similar each day. He rose at 4:00am before celebrating Mass at 6:00am. He was at his desk at 8:00am to receive private audiences. On his desk stood statues of John Vianney and Joan of Arc, both of whom he beatified in his papacy. At noon, he conducted a general audience with pilgrims, then had lunch at 1:00pm with his two secretaries or whomever else he invited to dine with him. Resting for a short while after lunch, Pius X would then return to work before dining at 9:00pm and a final stint of work before sleep.
Church reforms and theology
Restoration in Christ and Mariology
In his 1904 encyclical Ad diem illum, he views Mary in the context of "restoring everything in Christ".
He wrote:
Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother. Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin. She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Through a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ (S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).During Pius X's pontificate, many famed Marian images were granted a canonical coronation: Our Lady of Aparecida, Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of the Cape, Our Lady of Chiquinquira of Colombia, Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Our Lady of La Naval de Manila, Virgin of Help of Venezuela, Our Lady of Carmel of New York, the Marian icon of Santuario della Consolata and the Immaculate Conception within the Chapel of the Choir inside Saint Peter's Basilica were granted this prestigious honor.
Tra le sollecitudini and Gregorian chant
Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director". The Pope's choice of Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.
Liturgical reforms and communion
Pius X worked to increase devotion among both clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary, which he reformed considerably, and the Mass.
Besides restoring to prominence Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This also extended to children who had reached the "age of discretion", though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. He also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", by which he is still known among his devotees.
In 1910, he issued the decree Quam singulari, which changed the age at which Communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from Catholic schools, now that First Communion was carried out earlier. Pius X even personally distributed First Communion to a four-year-old boy the day after the child was presented to him and demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the meaning of the sacrament. When people would criticize Pius X for lowering the age of reception, he simply quoted the words of Jesus, "let the little children come to me".
Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, "The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the Church."He also sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause. For example, when entering his first public consistory for the creation of cardinals in November 1903, he was not carried above the crowds on the sedia gestatoria as was traditional. He arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".
Anti-modernism
Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas, 'the marriage of reason and revelation', as a response to secular 'enlightenment'. Under Pius X, neo-Thomism became the blueprint for theology.Most controversially, Pius X vigorously condemned the theological movement he termed 'Modernism', which he regarded as a heresy endangering the Catholic faith. The movement was linked especially to certain Catholic French scholars such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally rather than perhaps metaphorically true. In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. Its unwanted effects, from the traditional viewpoint, were relativism and scepticism. Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists argued that beliefs of the Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolveAnti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church. In the decree entitled Lamentabili sane exitu ("A Lamentable Departure Indeed") of 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned 65 propositions, mainly drawn from the works of Alfred Loisy and concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. That was followed by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the Anti-Modernist oath, Sacrorum antistitum. Pius X's aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about 40 clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.
Pius X's attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. Speaking of those who counseled compassion, he said: "They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can." He also instituted the Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was much criticized due to its accusations of heresy on the flimsiest evidence. This campaign was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, which distributed anti-Modernist propaganda and gathered information on "culprits". In Benigni's secret code, Pius X was known as Mama.
Catechism of Saint Pius X
In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo nimis mandated the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.The Catechism of Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal Church. The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future." The catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical Acerbo nimis of April 1905.The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908 in Italian, as Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X. An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.Asked in 2003 whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."
Reform of canon law
Canon law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws. Two of his successors worked in the commission: Giacomo della Chiesa, who became Pope Benedict XV, and Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII. This first Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, with an effective date of 19 May 1918, and remained in effect until Advent 1983.
Reform of Church administration
Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908) and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical Pieni l'animo. He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.
Church policies towards secular governments
Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 Law of Separation between church and state, by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law in his encyclicals Vehementer Nos and Gravissimo officii munere, and removed two French bishops for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the UK and Russia. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed Home Rule by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the status quo of rule by Westminster since the 1800 Union of Ireland and Great Britain) would result in Rome Rule due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics (Ultramontanism).
In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service. Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British House of Commons. The long term effect of Ne Temere in Ireland was that Irish Unionism which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as Ulster, but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today Northern Ireland. Furthermore, while historically both Protestant Irish nationalists and Catholic Unionists existed, the split over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.
As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.
Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.
Relations with the Kingdom of Italy
Initially, Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance, but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the Non Expedit, which prohibited Catholics from voting, to be relaxed. In 1905, he authorized bishops in his encyclical Il fermo proposito to offer a dispensation allowing their parishioners to exercise their legislative rights when "the supreme good of society" was at stake.
Relations with Poland and Russia
Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and in 1905 promulgated a constitution which included religious freedom, the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.
Activities for the United States
In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American Church. Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he named two American cardinals. He was very popular among American Catholics, often depicted as an ordinary man from a poor family, raised by God to the papal throne.In 1910, the pope refused an audience with former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the Methodist association in Rome, as well as with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who intended to address the same association.On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
Miracles during the pope's lifetime
Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime.
On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and Pius X then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured.Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (later the Archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after Ruffini was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the pontiff's cause for canonization.Once, a man who suffered from a paralyzed arm begged Pius X for his help. Taking his arm in his hand, the pope simply said, "have confidence in the Lord ... only have faith and the Lord will heal you". At that moment, the man could actually move his arm, calling out to the pope joyfully who simply put a finger to his lips so as not to draw any attention to what had happened, indicating that the man simply hold his peace. Another case saw an Irish girl covered in sores taken to see the pope by her mother. When Pius X saw her, he placed his hand on her head, and the sores completely disappeared. Another case saw a Roman schoolgirl contract a serious foot disease that rendered her crippled since she was only a year old. Through a friend she managed to acquire one of the pope's socks and was told that she would be healed if she wore it, which she did. At the moment she placed the sock on, the diseased foot was instantly healed. When Pius X heard about this, he laughed and said, "What a joke! I wear my own socks every day and still I suffer from constant pain in my feet!"
Other activities
In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical reforms, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. He also sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed. In 1904 Pope Pius X granted permission for diocesan seminarians to attend the College of St. Thomas. He raised the college to the status of Pontificium on 2 May 1906, thus making its degrees equivalent to those of the world's other pontifical universities. By Apostolic Letter of 8 November 1908, signed by the Supreme Pontiff on 17 November, the college was transformed into the Collegium Pontificium Internationale Angelicum. It would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.
Pius X published 16 encyclicals; among them was Vehementer nos on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly, the existence of Limbo in Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory." On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).
In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the popes, Pius X appears as Ignis Ardens or "Ardent Fire".
Declaring the tango "off-limits"
In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics. Later, in January 1914, when tango proved to be too popular to declare off-limits, Pope Pius X tried a different tack, mocking tango as "one of the dullest things imaginable", and recommending people take up dancing the furlana, a Venetian dance, instead.
Canonizations and beatifications
Pius X beatified a total of 131 individuals (including groups of martyrs and those by recognition of "cultus") and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate included Marie-Geneviève Meunier (1906), Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (1906), Valentin de Berriochoa (1906), Clair of Nantes (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).
In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom a patron saint of preachers.
Consistories
Pius X created 50 cardinals in seven consistories held during his pontificate which included noted figures of the Church during that time such as Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1907) and Pietro Gasparri (1907). In 1911, he increased American representation in the cardinalate based on the fact that the United States was expanding; the pope also named one cardinal in pectore (António Mendes Belo, whom the media accurately speculated on) in 1911 whose name he later revealed in 1914. Pius X also named as a cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV.
Among the cardinals whom he nominated came the first Brazilian-born (and the first Latin American-born; Arcoverde) and the first from the Netherlands (van Rossum) since 1523. The consistory of 1911 was the largest number of cardinals elevated at a single consistory in roughly a century.
In 1911, the pope reportedly wished to elevate Diomede Panici to the cardinalate, however, Panici died before the promotion ever took place. Furthermore, this came after Panici was originally considered but passed for the elevation by Pope Leo XIII who even had considered elevating Panici's brother. In the 1914 consistory, Pius X considered naming the Capuchin friar Armando Pietro Sabadel to the cardinalate, however, Sabadel declined the pope's invitation.
Death and burial
In 1913, Pope Pius X suffered a heart attack, and subsequently lived in the shadow of poor health. In 1914, the pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August 1914), an illness from which he would not recover, and it was reported that he suffered from a fever and lung complications. His condition was worsened by the events leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), which reportedly sent the 79-year-old into a state of melancholy. He died on Thursday, 20 August 1914, only a few hours after the death of Jesuit leader Franz Xavier Wernz, and on the very day when German forces marched into Brussels.
While the pope's condition was classified as serious, alarming symptoms did not develop until 19 August. While Pius X spent most of that day in and out of consciousness, he said at one stage, "In ancient times, the pope by a word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent". The pope shortly after received the Last Rites and eventually, an old bronchial infection that the pope had previously had in years past returned, further hastening his decline.Pius X died at 1:20am on 20 August 1914 and in a moment of lucidity just moments before he died, Pius X is reported to have said: "Now I begin to think the end is approaching. The Almighty in His inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare me the horrors which Europe is undergoing". His sister, Anna, was praying at his bedside when Pius X died. The pope's last act of life was to kiss the little crucifix that he had clasped in his hands at around 1:15am.Pius X was buried in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt below Saint Peter's Basilica. His body was laid in state on 21 August in red pontifical vestments and then interred following the Requiem Mass following his coffin lying in state on a large catafalque in the Sistine Chapel. His original tombstone bore the inscription: "Pope Pius X, poor and yet rich, gentle and humble of heart, unconquerable champion of the Catholic Faith, whose constant endeavor it was to renew all things in Christ". Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this in his burial and successive popes have continued this tradition. Pius X's tomb is located near the tombs of both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II under the altar of the Presentation.
Exhumation
On 19 May 1944, the body of Pius X was exhumed for inspection as part of the beatification process, during which the remains were found to be miraculously incorrupt. In 1959, the remains of the late pope were sent, with the permission of Pope John XXIII (himself a former Patriarch of Venice), to Venice in 1959. Before the remains were taken to Venice via a train on 11 April, Pope John XXIII led a small prayer service alongside some other cardinals. The body was exposed for the veneration of the faithful at the Basilica of Saint Mark for one month (12 April–10 May) before returning them back to the late pope's original resting place, with Cardinal Giovanni Urbani acting as the papal legate for the month-long event.
Canonization
Although Pius X's canonization took place in 1954, the events leading up to it began immediately with his death. A letter of 24 September 1916 by Monsignor Leo, Bishop of Nicotera and Tropea, referred to Pius X as "a great Saint and a great Pope." To accommodate the large number of pilgrims seeking access to his tomb, more than the crypt would hold, "a small metal cross was set into the floor of the basilica," which read Pius Papa X, "so that the faithful might kneel down directly above the tomb". Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.
Devotion to Pius X between the two world wars remained high. On 14 February 1923, in honor of the 20th anniversary of his accession to the papacy, the first moves toward his canonization began with the formal appointment of those who would carry out his cause. The event was marked by the erecting of a monument in his memory in St. Peter's Basilica. On 19 August 1939, Pope Pius XII (1939–58) delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo. On 12 February 1943, a further development of Pius X's cause was achieved, when he was declared to have displayed heroic virtues, gaining therefore the title "Venerable".
On 19 May 1944, Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination.
Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pius X remarkably well preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed. According to Jerome Dai-Gal, "all of the body" of Pius X "was in an excellent state of conservation". At the canonical recognition of his mortal body were present the Italian cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Nicola Canali.After the examination and the end of the apostolic process towards Pius X's cause, Pius XII bestowed the title of Venerable Servant of God upon Pius X. His body was exposed for 45 days (Rome was liberated by the allies during this time), before being placed back in his tomb.
Following this, the process towards beatification began, and investigations by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR) into miracles performed by intercessory work of Pius X took place. The SCR would eventually recognize two miracles. The first involved Marie-Françoise Deperras, a nun who had bone cancer and was cured on 7 December 1928 during a novena in which a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved the nun Benedetta De Maria, who had cancer, and in a novena started in 1938, she eventually touched a relic statue of Pius X and was cured.Pope Pius XII officially approved the two miracles on 11 February 1951; and on 4 March, Pius XII, in his De Tuto, declared that the Church could continue in the beatification of Pius X. His beatification took place on 3 June 1951 at St. Peter's before 23 cardinals, hundreds of bishops and archbishops, and a crowd of 100,000 faithful. During his beatification decree, Pius XII referred to Pius X as "Pope of the Eucharist", in honor of Pius X's expansion of the rite to children.
Following his beatification, on 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from its tomb to the Vatican basilica and placed under the altar of the chapel of the Presentation. The pontiff's body lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see.On 29 May 1954, less than three years after his beatification, Pius X was canonized, following the SCR's recognition of two more miracles. The first involved Francesco Belsami, an attorney from Naples who had a pulmonary abscess, who was cured upon placing a picture of Pope Pius X upon his chest. The second miracle involved Sr. Maria Ludovica Scorcia, a nun who was afflicted with a serious neurotropic virus, and who, upon several novenas, was entirely cured. The canonization Mass was presided over by Pius XII at Saint Peter's Basilica before a crowd of about 800,000 of the faithful and Church officials at St. Peter's Basilica. Pius X became the first pope to be canonized since Pius V in 1712.His canonization ceremony was taped and recorded by early television news broadcasters, including NBC.
Prayer cards often depict the sanctified pontiff with instruments of Holy Communion. In addition to being celebrated as the "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", Pius X is also the patron saint of emigrants from Treviso. He is honored in numerous parishes in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.
The number of parishes, schools, seminaries and retreat houses named after him in western countries is very large, partly because he was very well known, and his beatification and canonization in the early 1950s was during a period of time following World War II when there was a great deal of new construction in cities and population growth in the era of the baby boom, thus leading to Catholic institutional expansion that correlated with the growing society.Pius X's feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar, the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was a big supporter of his canonization, partly because he had ordained the need for its existence in every diocese and because it had received a great deal of episcopal criticism, and it was thought that by canonizing the pope who gave them their mandate, this would help inoculate against this criticism. They initiated a prayer crusade for his canonization that achieved the participation of over two million names.After the Pope's canonization, another miracle is said to have taken place when a Christian family activist named Clem Lane suffered a major heart attack and was placed in an oxygen tent, where he was given extreme unction. A relic of the Pope was placed over his tent, and he recovered to the great surprise of his doctors. A sister of Loretto at Webster College in St Louis, Missouri, claimed that her priest brother had been cured through the Pope's intercession as well.
Papal coat of arms
The personal papal arms of Pius X are composed of the traditional elements of all papal heraldry before Pope Benedict XVI: the shield, the papal tiara, and the keys. The tiara and keys are typical symbols used in the coats of arms of pontiffs, which symbolize their authority.
The shield of Pius X's coat of arms is charged in two basic parts, as it is per fess. In chief (the top part of the shield) shows the arms of the Patriarch of Venice, which Pius X was from 1893 to 1903. It consists of the Lion of Saint Mark proper and haloed in silver upon a silver-white background, displaying a book with the inscription of PAX TIBI MARCE on the left page and EVANGELISTA MEUS on the right page.
"Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Meus" (English: Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist) is the motto of Venice referring to the final resting place of Mark the Evangelist. This differed from the arms of the Republic of Venice by changing the background color from red to silver even though that did not conform to heraldic rules. Previous Patriarchs of Venice had combined their personal arms with these arms of the Patriarchate. The same chief can be seen in the arms of the later popes who were Patriarchs of Venice upon election to the See of Rome, John XXIII and John Paul I. Renditions of this part of Pius X's arms depict the lion either with or without a sword, and sometimes only one side of the book is written on.The shield displays the arms Pius X took as Bishop of Mantua: an anchor proper cast into a stormy sea (the blue and silver wavy lines), lit up by a single six-pointed star of gold. These were inspired by Hebrews Chapter 6, Versicle 19, (English: "The hope we have is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul") As Bishop Sarto, he stated that "hope is the sole companion of my life, the greatest support in uncertainty, the strongest power in situations of weakness."Although not present upon his arms, the only motto attributed to Pope Pius X is the one for which he is best remembered: Instaurare omnia in Christo (English: "To restore all things in Christ"), allegedly his last words before his death.
In fiction
The life of Pope Pius X is depicted in the 1951 movie Gli uomini non-guardano il cielo by Umberto Scarpelli. The movie is centered on the year 1914, as the Pope grieves over the threat that is incumbent and is consoled by his nephew.
A satirical depiction of Pope Pius X is presented in Flann O'Brien's novel The Hard Life, as the Irish characters travel from Dublin to Rome and gain a personal interview with the Pope, which ends very badly.
In poetry
In the poem "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire, Pope Pius X is referred to as "L'Européen le plus moderne," translated into English as "the most modern European."
See also
Cardinals created by Pius X
List of Catholic saints
List of encyclicals of Pope Pius X
List of popes
Mario Sarto, the sculptor (grandnephew)
Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
St. Pius X Seminary, Philippines
Pope Pius X, patron saint archive
Pius X High School, Nebraska, United States
St. Pius X Church, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
San Pio X alla Balduina, titular church in Rome
Notes
References
Bibliography
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Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 235–304 online
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In his lifetime
Á Czaich; A. Fráter (1907). X. Pius pápa. Életének és uralkodásának története napjainkig. Budapest: Az Athenaeum.
Monsignor Hartwell de la Garde Grissell (1903). Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903. Oxford: James Parke & Co.
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——— (1905). Catechism (PDF). Catholic Primer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
——— (15 April 1905a). "Acerbo Nimis". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
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Schmidlin, Edward; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 17 November 2017. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons).
Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz (1907). Life of Pius X. New York: The American Catholic Publication Society.
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After his death
F. A. Forbes (1924) [1918]. Life of Pius X (2nd ed.). New York: PJ Kenedy & Sons. Merry del Val (above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him.
René Bazin (1928). Pius X. St Louis: B Herder.
Burton, Katherine (1950). The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. Longmens.
Thornton, Father Francis Beauchesne (1952). The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X. Benziger Brothers. This priest was the editor for Burton's book.
Martini, Teri (1954). The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. St Anthony Guild Press.
External links
Giuseppe Sarto – Pius X Foundation, web site of the birthplace and the Museum of St. Pius X. In the museum, which hosts Pius X's personal belongings, an exhibition describes the life of the pope.
"Pope Pius X". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre, Full text of official documents including encyclicals, Rome, IT: The Holy See
"Information about the life of Pius X". IT: Museo San Pio X.
"Canonization ceremony of Pius X" (video recording) (in German). Gloria.tv.
Leighton, David (30 April 2013). "Street Smarts: Eastside street leading to church named after Pope Pius X". Arizona Daily Star.
Works by or about Pope Pius X at Internet Archive
Works by Pope Pius X at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Literature by and about Pope Pius X in the German National Library catalogue
"bishop/bsartogm". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12137a.htm CE
Newspaper clippings about Pope Pius X in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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Pope Pius X (Italian: Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, and for promoting liturgical reforms and scholastic theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic fraternity, is named after him.
Pius X was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Confidence; while his papal encyclical Ad diem illum took on a sense of renewal that was reflected in the motto of his pontificate. He advanced the Liturgical Movement by formulating the principle of participatio actuosa (active participation of the faithful) in his motu proprio, Tra le sollecitudini (1903). He encouraged the frequent reception of Holy Communion, and he lowered the age for First Communion, which became a lasting innovation of his papacy.Like his predecessors, he promoted Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. He vehemently opposed various 19th-century philosophies that he viewed as an intrusion of secular errors incompatible with Catholic dogma, especially modernism, which he critiqued as the synthesis of every heresy.Pius X was known for his firm demeanour and sense of personal poverty, reflected by his membership of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He regularly gave sermons from the pulpit, a rare practice at the time. After the 1908 Messina earthquake he filled the Apostolic Palace with refugees, long before the Italian government acted. He rejected any kind of favours for his family, and his close relatives chose to remain in poverty, living near Rome. He also undertook a reform of the Roman Curia with the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti consilio in 1908.
After his death, a strong cult of devotion followed his reputation for piety and holiness. He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. A statue bearing his name stands within Saint Peter's Basilica; and his birth town was renamed Riese Pio X after his death.
Early life and ministry
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Austrian Empire (now in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy), in 1835. He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto (1792–1852), the village postman, and Margherita Sanson (1813–1894). He was baptised 3 June 1835. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to school each day.
Giuseppe had three brothers and six sisters: Giuseppe Sarto (born 1834; died after six days), Angelo Sarto (1837–1916), Teresa Parolin-Sarto (1839–1920), Rosa Sarto (1841–1913), Antonia Dei Bei-Sarto (1843–1917), Maria Sarto (1846–1930), Lucia Boschin-Sarto (1848–1924), Anna Sarto (1850–1926), Pietro Sarto (born 1852; died after six months). As Pope, he rejected any kind of favours for his family: his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three single sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome, in the same way as other people of humble background.
Giuseppe, often nicknamed as "Bepi" by his mother, possessed a sprightly disposition with his natural exuberance being so great that his teacher had to often control his lively impulses with a cane to the backside. Despite this, he was an excellent student who focused on his homework before engaging in any hobbies or recreations. In the evenings after sports or games with friends, he would spend ten minutes in prayer before returning home. Sarto also served as an altar boy. By the age of ten, he had completed the two elementary classes of his village school, as well as Latin study with a local priest; henceforth Sarto had to walk four miles to the gymnasium in Castelfranco Veneto for further classes. For the next four years, he would attend Mass before breakfast and his long walk to school. He often carried his shoes to make them last longer. As a poor boy, he was often teased for his meager lunches and shabby clothes, but never complained about this to his teachers.In 1850 he received the tonsure from his parish priest, and was given a scholarship [from] the Cardinal of Venice (who his parish priest had written, asking for a scholarship for Bepi) to attend the Seminary of Padua, "where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies with distinction".
On 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest by Giovanni Antonio Farina (later canonized), and became a chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor Constantini, who was quite ill. Often, Sarto sought to improve his sermons by the advice of Constantini, who referred to one of his earliest as "rubbish". In Tombolo, Sarto's reputation for holiness grew so much amongst the people that some suggested the nickname "Don Santo".In 1867, he was named archpriest of Salzano. Here he restored the church and expanded the hospital, the funds coming from his own begging, wealth and labour. He won the people's affection when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague of the early 1870s. He was named a canon of the cathedral and chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso, also holding offices such as spiritual director and rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction. As a priest and later bishop, he often struggled over solving problems of bringing religious instruction to rural and urban youth who did not have the opportunity to attend Catholic schools. At one stage, a large stack of hay caught fire near a cottage, and when Sarto arrived he addressed the frantic people, "Don't be afraid, the fire will be put out and your house will be saved!" At that moment, the flames turned in the other direction, leaving the cottage alone. Despite his many duties, Sarto often made time for an evening walk with young children preparing their First Communion.
In 1879, Bishop Federico Maria Zinelli died, and Sarto was elected vicar-capitular to care for the diocese until the accession of a new bishop in June 1880.
After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On 10 November 1884, he was appointed bishop of Mantua by Pope Leo XIII. He was consecrated six days later in Rome in the church of Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine, Rome, by Cardinal Lucido Parocchi, assisted by Pietro Rota, and by Giovanni Maria Berengo. He was appointed to the honorary position of assistant at the pontifical throne on 19 June 1891. Sarto required papal dispensation from Pope Leo XIII before episcopal consecration as he lacked a doctorate, making him the last pope without a doctorate until Pope Francis.
When Sarto travelled back to his hometown from Rome after his consecration, he immediately went to visit his mother. There, she repeatedly kissed his ring and said to him: "But you would not have this fine ring, son, if I did not have this", showing him her wedding ring.
Cardinalate and patriarchate
Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal of the order of cardinal priests in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893. Three days later in a public consistory on 15 June, Pope Leo XIII gave him his cardinal's red galero, assigned him the titular church of San Bernardo alle Terme, and appointed him Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch, since the previous sovereign, the Emperor of Austria, had exercised that power. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of patriarch in 1894. In regard to being named as a cardinal, Sarto told a local newspaper that he felt "anxious, terrified and humiliated".After being named cardinal and before leaving for Venice, he paid his mother a visit. Overwhelmed with emotion and in tears, she asked: "My son, give your mother a last blessing", sensing that it would be the last time that they would see each other. Arriving in Venice, he was formally enthroned on 24 November 1894.
As cardinal-patriarch, Sarto avoided politics, allocating his time to social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."In April 1903, Pope Leo XIII reportedly said to Lorenzo Perosi: "Hold him very dear, Perosi, as in the future he will be able to do much for you. We firmly believe he will be our successor". As a cardinal, he was considered by the time of his papal election as one of the most prominent preachers in the Church despite his lesser fame globally. In his role as a cardinal, Sarto held membership in the congregations for Bishops and Regulars, Rites, and Indulgences and Sacred Relics.
Papal election of 1903
Leo XIII died 20 July 1903, and at the end of that month the conclave convened to elect his successor. Before the conclave, Sarto had reportedly said, "rather dead than pope", when people discussed his chances for election. In one of the meetings held just before the conclave, Cardinal Victor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot spoke with Sarto in French, however, Sarto replied in Latin, "I'm afraid I do not speak French". Lécot replied, "But if Your Eminence does not speak French you have no chance of being elected because the pope must speak French", to which Sarto said, "Deo Gratias! I have no desire to be pope".According to historians, the favorite was the late pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. On the first ballot, Rampolla received 24 votes, Gotti had 17 votes, and Sarto 5 votes. On the second ballot, Rampolla had gained five votes, as did Sarto. The next day, it seemed that Rampolla would be elected. However, the Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko from Kraków, in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph (1848–1916) of Austria-Hungary, proclaimed a veto (jus exclusivae) against Rampolla's election. Many in the conclave protested, and it was even suggested to disregard the veto.
However, the third vote had already begun, resulting in no clear winner but increasing support for Sarto, with 21 votes. The fourth vote showed Rampolla with 30 votes and Sarto with 24. It seemed clear that the cardinals were moving toward Sarto.
The following morning, the fifth vote gave Rampolla 10 votes, Gotti 2, and Sarto 50. Thus, on 4 August 1903, Sarto was elected to the pontificate. This marked the last known exercise of a papal veto by a Catholic monarch.
At first, it is reported, Sarto declined the nomination, feeling unworthy. He had been deeply saddened by the Austro-Hungarian veto and vowed to rescind these powers and excommunicate anyone who communicated such a veto during a conclave. With the cardinals asking him to reconsider, he went into solitude in the Pauline chapel, and after deep prayer he accepted the position. Cardinal Luigi Macchi announced Sarto's election at around 12:10pm.
Sarto took as his papal name Pius X, out of respect for his recent predecessors of the same name, particularly Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), who had fought against theological liberals and for papal supremacy. He explained: "As I shall suffer, I shall take the name of those Popes who also suffered". Pius X's traditional coronation took place the following Sunday, 9 August 1903. As pope, he became ex officio Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.
Pontificate
The pontificate of Pius X was noted for conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and Church law. In what became his motto, the Pope in 1903 devoted his papacy to Instaurare Omnia in Christo, "to restore all things in Christ." In his first encyclical (E supremi apostolatus, 4 October 1903), he stated his overriding policy: "We champion the authority of God. His authority and Commandments should be recognized, deferred to, and respected."
Continuing his simple origins, he wore a pectoral cross of gilded metal on the day of his coronation; and when his entourage was horrified, the new pope declared he always wore it and had brought no other with him. He was well known for reducing papal ceremonies. He also abolished the custom of the pope dining alone, since the time of Pope Urban VIII, and invited his friends to eat with him.When chided by Rome's social leaders for refusing to make his peasant sisters papal countesses, he responded: "I have made them sisters of the Pope; what more can I do for them?"He developed a reputation as being very friendly with children. He carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught them catechism. During papal audiences, he would gather children around him and talk about things that interested them. His weekly catechism lessons in the courtyard of San Damaso in the Vatican always included a special place for children, and his decision to require the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in every parish was partly motivated by a desire to save children from religious ignorance.Noted for his humility and simplicity, he declared that he had not changed personally save for his white cassock. Aides consistently needed to remind him not to wipe his pen on the white cassock, as he had previously done on his black cassock which hid stains. The new pope's schedule was quite similar each day. He rose at 4:00am before celebrating Mass at 6:00am. He was at his desk at 8:00am to receive private audiences. On his desk stood statues of John Vianney and Joan of Arc, both of whom he beatified in his papacy. At noon, he conducted a general audience with pilgrims, then had lunch at 1:00pm with his two secretaries or whomever else he invited to dine with him. Resting for a short while after lunch, Pius X would then return to work before dining at 9:00pm and a final stint of work before sleep.
Church reforms and theology
Restoration in Christ and Mariology
In his 1904 encyclical Ad diem illum, he views Mary in the context of "restoring everything in Christ".
He wrote:
Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother. Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin. She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Through a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ (S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).During Pius X's pontificate, many famed Marian images were granted a canonical coronation: Our Lady of Aparecida, Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of the Cape, Our Lady of Chiquinquira of Colombia, Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Our Lady of La Naval de Manila, Virgin of Help of Venezuela, Our Lady of Carmel of New York, the Marian icon of Santuario della Consolata and the Immaculate Conception within the Chapel of the Choir inside Saint Peter's Basilica were granted this prestigious honor.
Tra le sollecitudini and Gregorian chant
Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director". The Pope's choice of Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.
Liturgical reforms and communion
Pius X worked to increase devotion among both clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary, which he reformed considerably, and the Mass.
Besides restoring to prominence Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This also extended to children who had reached the "age of discretion", though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. He also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", by which he is still known among his devotees.
In 1910, he issued the decree Quam singulari, which changed the age at which Communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from Catholic schools, now that First Communion was carried out earlier. Pius X even personally distributed First Communion to a four-year-old boy the day after the child was presented to him and demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the meaning of the sacrament. When people would criticize Pius X for lowering the age of reception, he simply quoted the words of Jesus, "let the little children come to me".
Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, "The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the Church."He also sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause. For example, when entering his first public consistory for the creation of cardinals in November 1903, he was not carried above the crowds on the sedia gestatoria as was traditional. He arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".
Anti-modernism
Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas, 'the marriage of reason and revelation', as a response to secular 'enlightenment'. Under Pius X, neo-Thomism became the blueprint for theology.Most controversially, Pius X vigorously condemned the theological movement he termed 'Modernism', which he regarded as a heresy endangering the Catholic faith. The movement was linked especially to certain Catholic French scholars such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally rather than perhaps metaphorically true. In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. Its unwanted effects, from the traditional viewpoint, were relativism and scepticism. Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists argued that beliefs of the Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolveAnti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church. In the decree entitled Lamentabili sane exitu ("A Lamentable Departure Indeed") of 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned 65 propositions, mainly drawn from the works of Alfred Loisy and concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. That was followed by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the Anti-Modernist oath, Sacrorum antistitum. Pius X's aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about 40 clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.
Pius X's attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. Speaking of those who counseled compassion, he said: "They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can." He also instituted the Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was much criticized due to its accusations of heresy on the flimsiest evidence. This campaign was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, which distributed anti-Modernist propaganda and gathered information on "culprits". In Benigni's secret code, Pius X was known as Mama.
Catechism of Saint Pius X
In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo nimis mandated the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.The Catechism of Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal Church. The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future." The catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical Acerbo nimis of April 1905.The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908 in Italian, as Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X. An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.Asked in 2003 whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."
Reform of canon law
Canon law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws. Two of his successors worked in the commission: Giacomo della Chiesa, who became Pope Benedict XV, and Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII. This first Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, with an effective date of 19 May 1918, and remained in effect until Advent 1983.
Reform of Church administration
Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908) and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical Pieni l'animo. He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.
Church policies towards secular governments
Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 Law of Separation between church and state, by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law in his encyclicals Vehementer Nos and Gravissimo officii munere, and removed two French bishops for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the UK and Russia. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed Home Rule by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the status quo of rule by Westminster since the 1800 Union of Ireland and Great Britain) would result in Rome Rule due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics (Ultramontanism).
In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service. Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British House of Commons. The long term effect of Ne Temere in Ireland was that Irish Unionism which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as Ulster, but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today Northern Ireland. Furthermore, while historically both Protestant Irish nationalists and Catholic Unionists existed, the split over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.
As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.
Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.
Relations with the Kingdom of Italy
Initially, Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance, but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the Non Expedit, which prohibited Catholics from voting, to be relaxed. In 1905, he authorized bishops in his encyclical Il fermo proposito to offer a dispensation allowing their parishioners to exercise their legislative rights when "the supreme good of society" was at stake.
Relations with Poland and Russia
Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and in 1905 promulgated a constitution which included religious freedom, the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.
Activities for the United States
In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American Church. Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he named two American cardinals. He was very popular among American Catholics, often depicted as an ordinary man from a poor family, raised by God to the papal throne.In 1910, the pope refused an audience with former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the Methodist association in Rome, as well as with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who intended to address the same association.On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
Miracles during the pope's lifetime
Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime.
On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and Pius X then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured.Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (later the Archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after Ruffini was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the pontiff's cause for canonization.Once, a man who suffered from a paralyzed arm begged Pius X for his help. Taking his arm in his hand, the pope simply said, "have confidence in the Lord ... only have faith and the Lord will heal you". At that moment, the man could actually move his arm, calling out to the pope joyfully who simply put a finger to his lips so as not to draw any attention to what had happened, indicating that the man simply hold his peace. Another case saw an Irish girl covered in sores taken to see the pope by her mother. When Pius X saw her, he placed his hand on her head, and the sores completely disappeared. Another case saw a Roman schoolgirl contract a serious foot disease that rendered her crippled since she was only a year old. Through a friend she managed to acquire one of the pope's socks and was told that she would be healed if she wore it, which she did. At the moment she placed the sock on, the diseased foot was instantly healed. When Pius X heard about this, he laughed and said, "What a joke! I wear my own socks every day and still I suffer from constant pain in my feet!"
Other activities
In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical reforms, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. He also sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed. In 1904 Pope Pius X granted permission for diocesan seminarians to attend the College of St. Thomas. He raised the college to the status of Pontificium on 2 May 1906, thus making its degrees equivalent to those of the world's other pontifical universities. By Apostolic Letter of 8 November 1908, signed by the Supreme Pontiff on 17 November, the college was transformed into the Collegium Pontificium Internationale Angelicum. It would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.
Pius X published 16 encyclicals; among them was Vehementer nos on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly, the existence of Limbo in Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory." On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).
In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the popes, Pius X appears as Ignis Ardens or "Ardent Fire".
Declaring the tango "off-limits"
In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics. Later, in January 1914, when tango proved to be too popular to declare off-limits, Pope Pius X tried a different tack, mocking tango as "one of the dullest things imaginable", and recommending people take up dancing the furlana, a Venetian dance, instead.
Canonizations and beatifications
Pius X beatified a total of 131 individuals (including groups of martyrs and those by recognition of "cultus") and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate included Marie-Geneviève Meunier (1906), Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (1906), Valentin de Berriochoa (1906), Clair of Nantes (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).
In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom a patron saint of preachers.
Consistories
Pius X created 50 cardinals in seven consistories held during his pontificate which included noted figures of the Church during that time such as Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1907) and Pietro Gasparri (1907). In 1911, he increased American representation in the cardinalate based on the fact that the United States was expanding; the pope also named one cardinal in pectore (António Mendes Belo, whom the media accurately speculated on) in 1911 whose name he later revealed in 1914. Pius X also named as a cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV.
Among the cardinals whom he nominated came the first Brazilian-born (and the first Latin American-born; Arcoverde) and the first from the Netherlands (van Rossum) since 1523. The consistory of 1911 was the largest number of cardinals elevated at a single consistory in roughly a century.
In 1911, the pope reportedly wished to elevate Diomede Panici to the cardinalate, however, Panici died before the promotion ever took place. Furthermore, this came after Panici was originally considered but passed for the elevation by Pope Leo XIII who even had considered elevating Panici's brother. In the 1914 consistory, Pius X considered naming the Capuchin friar Armando Pietro Sabadel to the cardinalate, however, Sabadel declined the pope's invitation.
Death and burial
In 1913, Pope Pius X suffered a heart attack, and subsequently lived in the shadow of poor health. In 1914, the pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August 1914), an illness from which he would not recover, and it was reported that he suffered from a fever and lung complications. His condition was worsened by the events leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), which reportedly sent the 79-year-old into a state of melancholy. He died on Thursday, 20 August 1914, only a few hours after the death of Jesuit leader Franz Xavier Wernz, and on the very day when German forces marched into Brussels.
While the pope's condition was classified as serious, alarming symptoms did not develop until 19 August. While Pius X spent most of that day in and out of consciousness, he said at one stage, "In ancient times, the pope by a word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent". The pope shortly after received the Last Rites and eventually, an old bronchial infection that the pope had previously had in years past returned, further hastening his decline.Pius X died at 1:20am on 20 August 1914 and in a moment of lucidity just moments before he died, Pius X is reported to have said: "Now I begin to think the end is approaching. The Almighty in His inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare me the horrors which Europe is undergoing". His sister, Anna, was praying at his bedside when Pius X died. The pope's last act of life was to kiss the little crucifix that he had clasped in his hands at around 1:15am.Pius X was buried in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt below Saint Peter's Basilica. His body was laid in state on 21 August in red pontifical vestments and then interred following the Requiem Mass following his coffin lying in state on a large catafalque in the Sistine Chapel. His original tombstone bore the inscription: "Pope Pius X, poor and yet rich, gentle and humble of heart, unconquerable champion of the Catholic Faith, whose constant endeavor it was to renew all things in Christ". Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this in his burial and successive popes have continued this tradition. Pius X's tomb is located near the tombs of both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II under the altar of the Presentation.
Exhumation
On 19 May 1944, the body of Pius X was exhumed for inspection as part of the beatification process, during which the remains were found to be miraculously incorrupt. In 1959, the remains of the late pope were sent, with the permission of Pope John XXIII (himself a former Patriarch of Venice), to Venice in 1959. Before the remains were taken to Venice via a train on 11 April, Pope John XXIII led a small prayer service alongside some other cardinals. The body was exposed for the veneration of the faithful at the Basilica of Saint Mark for one month (12 April–10 May) before returning them back to the late pope's original resting place, with Cardinal Giovanni Urbani acting as the papal legate for the month-long event.
Canonization
Although Pius X's canonization took place in 1954, the events leading up to it began immediately with his death. A letter of 24 September 1916 by Monsignor Leo, Bishop of Nicotera and Tropea, referred to Pius X as "a great Saint and a great Pope." To accommodate the large number of pilgrims seeking access to his tomb, more than the crypt would hold, "a small metal cross was set into the floor of the basilica," which read Pius Papa X, "so that the faithful might kneel down directly above the tomb". Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.
Devotion to Pius X between the two world wars remained high. On 14 February 1923, in honor of the 20th anniversary of his accession to the papacy, the first moves toward his canonization began with the formal appointment of those who would carry out his cause. The event was marked by the erecting of a monument in his memory in St. Peter's Basilica. On 19 August 1939, Pope Pius XII (1939–58) delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo. On 12 February 1943, a further development of Pius X's cause was achieved, when he was declared to have displayed heroic virtues, gaining therefore the title "Venerable".
On 19 May 1944, Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination.
Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pius X remarkably well preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed. According to Jerome Dai-Gal, "all of the body" of Pius X "was in an excellent state of conservation". At the canonical recognition of his mortal body were present the Italian cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Nicola Canali.After the examination and the end of the apostolic process towards Pius X's cause, Pius XII bestowed the title of Venerable Servant of God upon Pius X. His body was exposed for 45 days (Rome was liberated by the allies during this time), before being placed back in his tomb.
Following this, the process towards beatification began, and investigations by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR) into miracles performed by intercessory work of Pius X took place. The SCR would eventually recognize two miracles. The first involved Marie-Françoise Deperras, a nun who had bone cancer and was cured on 7 December 1928 during a novena in which a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved the nun Benedetta De Maria, who had cancer, and in a novena started in 1938, she eventually touched a relic statue of Pius X and was cured.Pope Pius XII officially approved the two miracles on 11 February 1951; and on 4 March, Pius XII, in his De Tuto, declared that the Church could continue in the beatification of Pius X. His beatification took place on 3 June 1951 at St. Peter's before 23 cardinals, hundreds of bishops and archbishops, and a crowd of 100,000 faithful. During his beatification decree, Pius XII referred to Pius X as "Pope of the Eucharist", in honor of Pius X's expansion of the rite to children.
Following his beatification, on 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from its tomb to the Vatican basilica and placed under the altar of the chapel of the Presentation. The pontiff's body lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see.On 29 May 1954, less than three years after his beatification, Pius X was canonized, following the SCR's recognition of two more miracles. The first involved Francesco Belsami, an attorney from Naples who had a pulmonary abscess, who was cured upon placing a picture of Pope Pius X upon his chest. The second miracle involved Sr. Maria Ludovica Scorcia, a nun who was afflicted with a serious neurotropic virus, and who, upon several novenas, was entirely cured. The canonization Mass was presided over by Pius XII at Saint Peter's Basilica before a crowd of about 800,000 of the faithful and Church officials at St. Peter's Basilica. Pius X became the first pope to be canonized since Pius V in 1712.His canonization ceremony was taped and recorded by early television news broadcasters, including NBC.
Prayer cards often depict the sanctified pontiff with instruments of Holy Communion. In addition to being celebrated as the "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", Pius X is also the patron saint of emigrants from Treviso. He is honored in numerous parishes in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.
The number of parishes, schools, seminaries and retreat houses named after him in western countries is very large, partly because he was very well known, and his beatification and canonization in the early 1950s was during a period of time following World War II when there was a great deal of new construction in cities and population growth in the era of the baby boom, thus leading to Catholic institutional expansion that correlated with the growing society.Pius X's feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar, the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was a big supporter of his canonization, partly because he had ordained the need for its existence in every diocese and because it had received a great deal of episcopal criticism, and it was thought that by canonizing the pope who gave them their mandate, this would help inoculate against this criticism. They initiated a prayer crusade for his canonization that achieved the participation of over two million names.After the Pope's canonization, another miracle is said to have taken place when a Christian family activist named Clem Lane suffered a major heart attack and was placed in an oxygen tent, where he was given extreme unction. A relic of the Pope was placed over his tent, and he recovered to the great surprise of his doctors. A sister of Loretto at Webster College in St Louis, Missouri, claimed that her priest brother had been cured through the Pope's intercession as well.
Papal coat of arms
The personal papal arms of Pius X are composed of the traditional elements of all papal heraldry before Pope Benedict XVI: the shield, the papal tiara, and the keys. The tiara and keys are typical symbols used in the coats of arms of pontiffs, which symbolize their authority.
The shield of Pius X's coat of arms is charged in two basic parts, as it is per fess. In chief (the top part of the shield) shows the arms of the Patriarch of Venice, which Pius X was from 1893 to 1903. It consists of the Lion of Saint Mark proper and haloed in silver upon a silver-white background, displaying a book with the inscription of PAX TIBI MARCE on the left page and EVANGELISTA MEUS on the right page.
"Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Meus" (English: Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist) is the motto of Venice referring to the final resting place of Mark the Evangelist. This differed from the arms of the Republic of Venice by changing the background color from red to silver even though that did not conform to heraldic rules. Previous Patriarchs of Venice had combined their personal arms with these arms of the Patriarchate. The same chief can be seen in the arms of the later popes who were Patriarchs of Venice upon election to the See of Rome, John XXIII and John Paul I. Renditions of this part of Pius X's arms depict the lion either with or without a sword, and sometimes only one side of the book is written on.The shield displays the arms Pius X took as Bishop of Mantua: an anchor proper cast into a stormy sea (the blue and silver wavy lines), lit up by a single six-pointed star of gold. These were inspired by Hebrews Chapter 6, Versicle 19, (English: "The hope we have is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul") As Bishop Sarto, he stated that "hope is the sole companion of my life, the greatest support in uncertainty, the strongest power in situations of weakness."Although not present upon his arms, the only motto attributed to Pope Pius X is the one for which he is best remembered: Instaurare omnia in Christo (English: "To restore all things in Christ"), allegedly his last words before his death.
In fiction
The life of Pope Pius X is depicted in the 1951 movie Gli uomini non-guardano il cielo by Umberto Scarpelli. The movie is centered on the year 1914, as the Pope grieves over the threat that is incumbent and is consoled by his nephew.
A satirical depiction of Pope Pius X is presented in Flann O'Brien's novel The Hard Life, as the Irish characters travel from Dublin to Rome and gain a personal interview with the Pope, which ends very badly.
In poetry
In the poem "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire, Pope Pius X is referred to as "L'Européen le plus moderne," translated into English as "the most modern European."
See also
Cardinals created by Pius X
List of Catholic saints
List of encyclicals of Pope Pius X
List of popes
Mario Sarto, the sculptor (grandnephew)
Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
St. Pius X Seminary, Philippines
Pope Pius X, patron saint archive
Pius X High School, Nebraska, United States
St. Pius X Church, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
San Pio X alla Balduina, titular church in Rome
Notes
References
Bibliography
Bavoux, GA (1996). Le porteur de lumière [The bearer of light] (in French). Paris: Pygmalion.
Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 235–304 online
Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes 1830-1914 (2003). online pp 332–405.
Chiron, Yves (2002). Pope Saint Pius X: Restorer of The Church. Kansas City, MO: Angelus. ISBN 978-1-892331-10-6.
Cornwell, John (2008). Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14311400-0.
F. A. Forbes (1954) [Burns Oates & Washbourne 1918]. Pope St. Pius X. London: TAN.
Kühner, Hans (1960). Lexikon der Päpste [Dictionary of Popes] (in German). Frankfurt: Fischer.
Lortz, Joseph (1934). Geschichte der Kirche (in German). Munster.
Noel, Gerard (13 December 2009). Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler (Hardcover). Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-84706355-7.
Renz, Christopher J (2009). In This Light Which Gives Light: A History of the College of St. Albert the Great (1930–1980). Dominican School. ISBN 978-1-88373418-3.
Regoli, Roberto (2009). "L'elite cardinalizia dopo la fine dello stato pontificio". Archivum Historiae Pontificiae (in Italian). 47: 63–87. JSTOR 23565185.
Regoli, Roberto, ed. (2016). San Pio X. Papa riformatore di fronte alle sfide del nuovo secolo. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. ISBN 9788820997823.
Smit, JO; dal Gal, G (1951). Beato Pio X. Amsterdam: N.V. Drukkerij De Tijd.
van der Veldt, J. H. (1965). St. Pius X Pope. Boston, MA: Daughters of St. Paul.
Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1920). Pope Pius X. Rome: Vatican.
Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X [Catecism of the Christian doctrine, published by order of the High priest Saint Pius X] (in Italian). Il Sabato. 1999.
In his lifetime
Á Czaich; A. Fráter (1907). X. Pius pápa. Életének és uralkodásának története napjainkig. Budapest: Az Athenaeum.
Monsignor Hartwell de la Garde Grissell (1903). Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903. Oxford: James Parke & Co.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre (2 February 1904). "Ad diem illum". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. 5.
——— (1905). Catechism (PDF). Catholic Primer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
——— (15 April 1905a). "Acerbo Nimis". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
——— (3 July 1907). "Lamentabili Sane". Papal encyclicals. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
Schmidlin, Edward; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 17 November 2017. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons).
Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz (1907). Life of Pius X. New York: The American Catholic Publication Society.
Monsignor Anton de Waal (1904). Life of Pope Pius X. trans. Joseph William Berg. Milwaukee: The M.H. Wiltzius Co.
After his death
F. A. Forbes (1924) [1918]. Life of Pius X (2nd ed.). New York: PJ Kenedy & Sons. Merry del Val (above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him.
René Bazin (1928). Pius X. St Louis: B Herder.
Burton, Katherine (1950). The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. Longmens.
Thornton, Father Francis Beauchesne (1952). The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X. Benziger Brothers. This priest was the editor for Burton's book.
Martini, Teri (1954). The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. St Anthony Guild Press.
External links
Giuseppe Sarto – Pius X Foundation, web site of the birthplace and the Museum of St. Pius X. In the museum, which hosts Pius X's personal belongings, an exhibition describes the life of the pope.
"Pope Pius X". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre, Full text of official documents including encyclicals, Rome, IT: The Holy See
"Information about the life of Pius X". IT: Museo San Pio X.
"Canonization ceremony of Pius X" (video recording) (in German). Gloria.tv.
Leighton, David (30 April 2013). "Street Smarts: Eastside street leading to church named after Pope Pius X". Arizona Daily Star.
Works by or about Pope Pius X at Internet Archive
Works by Pope Pius X at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Literature by and about Pope Pius X in the German National Library catalogue
"bishop/bsartogm". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12137a.htm CE
Newspaper clippings about Pope Pius X in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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Pope Pius X (Italian: Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, and for promoting liturgical reforms and scholastic theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic fraternity, is named after him.
Pius X was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Confidence; while his papal encyclical Ad diem illum took on a sense of renewal that was reflected in the motto of his pontificate. He advanced the Liturgical Movement by formulating the principle of participatio actuosa (active participation of the faithful) in his motu proprio, Tra le sollecitudini (1903). He encouraged the frequent reception of Holy Communion, and he lowered the age for First Communion, which became a lasting innovation of his papacy.Like his predecessors, he promoted Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. He vehemently opposed various 19th-century philosophies that he viewed as an intrusion of secular errors incompatible with Catholic dogma, especially modernism, which he critiqued as the synthesis of every heresy.Pius X was known for his firm demeanour and sense of personal poverty, reflected by his membership of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He regularly gave sermons from the pulpit, a rare practice at the time. After the 1908 Messina earthquake he filled the Apostolic Palace with refugees, long before the Italian government acted. He rejected any kind of favours for his family, and his close relatives chose to remain in poverty, living near Rome. He also undertook a reform of the Roman Curia with the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti consilio in 1908.
After his death, a strong cult of devotion followed his reputation for piety and holiness. He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. A statue bearing his name stands within Saint Peter's Basilica; and his birth town was renamed Riese Pio X after his death.
Early life and ministry
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Austrian Empire (now in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy), in 1835. He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto (1792–1852), the village postman, and Margherita Sanson (1813–1894). He was baptised 3 June 1835. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to school each day.
Giuseppe had three brothers and six sisters: Giuseppe Sarto (born 1834; died after six days), Angelo Sarto (1837–1916), Teresa Parolin-Sarto (1839–1920), Rosa Sarto (1841–1913), Antonia Dei Bei-Sarto (1843–1917), Maria Sarto (1846–1930), Lucia Boschin-Sarto (1848–1924), Anna Sarto (1850–1926), Pietro Sarto (born 1852; died after six months). As Pope, he rejected any kind of favours for his family: his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three single sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome, in the same way as other people of humble background.
Giuseppe, often nicknamed as "Bepi" by his mother, possessed a sprightly disposition with his natural exuberance being so great that his teacher had to often control his lively impulses with a cane to the backside. Despite this, he was an excellent student who focused on his homework before engaging in any hobbies or recreations. In the evenings after sports or games with friends, he would spend ten minutes in prayer before returning home. Sarto also served as an altar boy. By the age of ten, he had completed the two elementary classes of his village school, as well as Latin study with a local priest; henceforth Sarto had to walk four miles to the gymnasium in Castelfranco Veneto for further classes. For the next four years, he would attend Mass before breakfast and his long walk to school. He often carried his shoes to make them last longer. As a poor boy, he was often teased for his meager lunches and shabby clothes, but never complained about this to his teachers.In 1850 he received the tonsure from his parish priest, and was given a scholarship [from] the Cardinal of Venice (who his parish priest had written, asking for a scholarship for Bepi) to attend the Seminary of Padua, "where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies with distinction".
On 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest by Giovanni Antonio Farina (later canonized), and became a chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor Constantini, who was quite ill. Often, Sarto sought to improve his sermons by the advice of Constantini, who referred to one of his earliest as "rubbish". In Tombolo, Sarto's reputation for holiness grew so much amongst the people that some suggested the nickname "Don Santo".In 1867, he was named archpriest of Salzano. Here he restored the church and expanded the hospital, the funds coming from his own begging, wealth and labour. He won the people's affection when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague of the early 1870s. He was named a canon of the cathedral and chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso, also holding offices such as spiritual director and rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction. As a priest and later bishop, he often struggled over solving problems of bringing religious instruction to rural and urban youth who did not have the opportunity to attend Catholic schools. At one stage, a large stack of hay caught fire near a cottage, and when Sarto arrived he addressed the frantic people, "Don't be afraid, the fire will be put out and your house will be saved!" At that moment, the flames turned in the other direction, leaving the cottage alone. Despite his many duties, Sarto often made time for an evening walk with young children preparing their First Communion.
In 1879, Bishop Federico Maria Zinelli died, and Sarto was elected vicar-capitular to care for the diocese until the accession of a new bishop in June 1880.
After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On 10 November 1884, he was appointed bishop of Mantua by Pope Leo XIII. He was consecrated six days later in Rome in the church of Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine, Rome, by Cardinal Lucido Parocchi, assisted by Pietro Rota, and by Giovanni Maria Berengo. He was appointed to the honorary position of assistant at the pontifical throne on 19 June 1891. Sarto required papal dispensation from Pope Leo XIII before episcopal consecration as he lacked a doctorate, making him the last pope without a doctorate until Pope Francis.
When Sarto travelled back to his hometown from Rome after his consecration, he immediately went to visit his mother. There, she repeatedly kissed his ring and said to him: "But you would not have this fine ring, son, if I did not have this", showing him her wedding ring.
Cardinalate and patriarchate
Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal of the order of cardinal priests in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893. Three days later in a public consistory on 15 June, Pope Leo XIII gave him his cardinal's red galero, assigned him the titular church of San Bernardo alle Terme, and appointed him Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch, since the previous sovereign, the Emperor of Austria, had exercised that power. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of patriarch in 1894. In regard to being named as a cardinal, Sarto told a local newspaper that he felt "anxious, terrified and humiliated".After being named cardinal and before leaving for Venice, he paid his mother a visit. Overwhelmed with emotion and in tears, she asked: "My son, give your mother a last blessing", sensing that it would be the last time that they would see each other. Arriving in Venice, he was formally enthroned on 24 November 1894.
As cardinal-patriarch, Sarto avoided politics, allocating his time to social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."In April 1903, Pope Leo XIII reportedly said to Lorenzo Perosi: "Hold him very dear, Perosi, as in the future he will be able to do much for you. We firmly believe he will be our successor". As a cardinal, he was considered by the time of his papal election as one of the most prominent preachers in the Church despite his lesser fame globally. In his role as a cardinal, Sarto held membership in the congregations for Bishops and Regulars, Rites, and Indulgences and Sacred Relics.
Papal election of 1903
Leo XIII died 20 July 1903, and at the end of that month the conclave convened to elect his successor. Before the conclave, Sarto had reportedly said, "rather dead than pope", when people discussed his chances for election. In one of the meetings held just before the conclave, Cardinal Victor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot spoke with Sarto in French, however, Sarto replied in Latin, "I'm afraid I do not speak French". Lécot replied, "But if Your Eminence does not speak French you have no chance of being elected because the pope must speak French", to which Sarto said, "Deo Gratias! I have no desire to be pope".According to historians, the favorite was the late pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. On the first ballot, Rampolla received 24 votes, Gotti had 17 votes, and Sarto 5 votes. On the second ballot, Rampolla had gained five votes, as did Sarto. The next day, it seemed that Rampolla would be elected. However, the Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko from Kraków, in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph (1848–1916) of Austria-Hungary, proclaimed a veto (jus exclusivae) against Rampolla's election. Many in the conclave protested, and it was even suggested to disregard the veto.
However, the third vote had already begun, resulting in no clear winner but increasing support for Sarto, with 21 votes. The fourth vote showed Rampolla with 30 votes and Sarto with 24. It seemed clear that the cardinals were moving toward Sarto.
The following morning, the fifth vote gave Rampolla 10 votes, Gotti 2, and Sarto 50. Thus, on 4 August 1903, Sarto was elected to the pontificate. This marked the last known exercise of a papal veto by a Catholic monarch.
At first, it is reported, Sarto declined the nomination, feeling unworthy. He had been deeply saddened by the Austro-Hungarian veto and vowed to rescind these powers and excommunicate anyone who communicated such a veto during a conclave. With the cardinals asking him to reconsider, he went into solitude in the Pauline chapel, and after deep prayer he accepted the position. Cardinal Luigi Macchi announced Sarto's election at around 12:10pm.
Sarto took as his papal name Pius X, out of respect for his recent predecessors of the same name, particularly Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), who had fought against theological liberals and for papal supremacy. He explained: "As I shall suffer, I shall take the name of those Popes who also suffered". Pius X's traditional coronation took place the following Sunday, 9 August 1903. As pope, he became ex officio Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.
Pontificate
The pontificate of Pius X was noted for conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and Church law. In what became his motto, the Pope in 1903 devoted his papacy to Instaurare Omnia in Christo, "to restore all things in Christ." In his first encyclical (E supremi apostolatus, 4 October 1903), he stated his overriding policy: "We champion the authority of God. His authority and Commandments should be recognized, deferred to, and respected."
Continuing his simple origins, he wore a pectoral cross of gilded metal on the day of his coronation; and when his entourage was horrified, the new pope declared he always wore it and had brought no other with him. He was well known for reducing papal ceremonies. He also abolished the custom of the pope dining alone, since the time of Pope Urban VIII, and invited his friends to eat with him.When chided by Rome's social leaders for refusing to make his peasant sisters papal countesses, he responded: "I have made them sisters of the Pope; what more can I do for them?"He developed a reputation as being very friendly with children. He carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught them catechism. During papal audiences, he would gather children around him and talk about things that interested them. His weekly catechism lessons in the courtyard of San Damaso in the Vatican always included a special place for children, and his decision to require the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in every parish was partly motivated by a desire to save children from religious ignorance.Noted for his humility and simplicity, he declared that he had not changed personally save for his white cassock. Aides consistently needed to remind him not to wipe his pen on the white cassock, as he had previously done on his black cassock which hid stains. The new pope's schedule was quite similar each day. He rose at 4:00am before celebrating Mass at 6:00am. He was at his desk at 8:00am to receive private audiences. On his desk stood statues of John Vianney and Joan of Arc, both of whom he beatified in his papacy. At noon, he conducted a general audience with pilgrims, then had lunch at 1:00pm with his two secretaries or whomever else he invited to dine with him. Resting for a short while after lunch, Pius X would then return to work before dining at 9:00pm and a final stint of work before sleep.
Church reforms and theology
Restoration in Christ and Mariology
In his 1904 encyclical Ad diem illum, he views Mary in the context of "restoring everything in Christ".
He wrote:
Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother. Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin. She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Through a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ (S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).During Pius X's pontificate, many famed Marian images were granted a canonical coronation: Our Lady of Aparecida, Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of the Cape, Our Lady of Chiquinquira of Colombia, Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Our Lady of La Naval de Manila, Virgin of Help of Venezuela, Our Lady of Carmel of New York, the Marian icon of Santuario della Consolata and the Immaculate Conception within the Chapel of the Choir inside Saint Peter's Basilica were granted this prestigious honor.
Tra le sollecitudini and Gregorian chant
Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director". The Pope's choice of Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.
Liturgical reforms and communion
Pius X worked to increase devotion among both clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary, which he reformed considerably, and the Mass.
Besides restoring to prominence Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This also extended to children who had reached the "age of discretion", though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. He also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", by which he is still known among his devotees.
In 1910, he issued the decree Quam singulari, which changed the age at which Communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from Catholic schools, now that First Communion was carried out earlier. Pius X even personally distributed First Communion to a four-year-old boy the day after the child was presented to him and demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the meaning of the sacrament. When people would criticize Pius X for lowering the age of reception, he simply quoted the words of Jesus, "let the little children come to me".
Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, "The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the Church."He also sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause. For example, when entering his first public consistory for the creation of cardinals in November 1903, he was not carried above the crowds on the sedia gestatoria as was traditional. He arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".
Anti-modernism
Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas, 'the marriage of reason and revelation', as a response to secular 'enlightenment'. Under Pius X, neo-Thomism became the blueprint for theology.Most controversially, Pius X vigorously condemned the theological movement he termed 'Modernism', which he regarded as a heresy endangering the Catholic faith. The movement was linked especially to certain Catholic French scholars such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally rather than perhaps metaphorically true. In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. Its unwanted effects, from the traditional viewpoint, were relativism and scepticism. Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists argued that beliefs of the Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolveAnti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church. In the decree entitled Lamentabili sane exitu ("A Lamentable Departure Indeed") of 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned 65 propositions, mainly drawn from the works of Alfred Loisy and concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. That was followed by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the Anti-Modernist oath, Sacrorum antistitum. Pius X's aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about 40 clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.
Pius X's attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. Speaking of those who counseled compassion, he said: "They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can." He also instituted the Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was much criticized due to its accusations of heresy on the flimsiest evidence. This campaign was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, which distributed anti-Modernist propaganda and gathered information on "culprits". In Benigni's secret code, Pius X was known as Mama.
Catechism of Saint Pius X
In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo nimis mandated the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.The Catechism of Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal Church. The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future." The catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical Acerbo nimis of April 1905.The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908 in Italian, as Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X. An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.Asked in 2003 whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."
Reform of canon law
Canon law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws. Two of his successors worked in the commission: Giacomo della Chiesa, who became Pope Benedict XV, and Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII. This first Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, with an effective date of 19 May 1918, and remained in effect until Advent 1983.
Reform of Church administration
Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908) and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical Pieni l'animo. He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.
Church policies towards secular governments
Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 Law of Separation between church and state, by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law in his encyclicals Vehementer Nos and Gravissimo officii munere, and removed two French bishops for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the UK and Russia. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed Home Rule by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the status quo of rule by Westminster since the 1800 Union of Ireland and Great Britain) would result in Rome Rule due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics (Ultramontanism).
In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service. Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British House of Commons. The long term effect of Ne Temere in Ireland was that Irish Unionism which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as Ulster, but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today Northern Ireland. Furthermore, while historically both Protestant Irish nationalists and Catholic Unionists existed, the split over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.
As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.
Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.
Relations with the Kingdom of Italy
Initially, Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance, but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the Non Expedit, which prohibited Catholics from voting, to be relaxed. In 1905, he authorized bishops in his encyclical Il fermo proposito to offer a dispensation allowing their parishioners to exercise their legislative rights when "the supreme good of society" was at stake.
Relations with Poland and Russia
Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and in 1905 promulgated a constitution which included religious freedom, the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.
Activities for the United States
In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American Church. Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he named two American cardinals. He was very popular among American Catholics, often depicted as an ordinary man from a poor family, raised by God to the papal throne.In 1910, the pope refused an audience with former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the Methodist association in Rome, as well as with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who intended to address the same association.On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
Miracles during the pope's lifetime
Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime.
On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and Pius X then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured.Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (later the Archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after Ruffini was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the pontiff's cause for canonization.Once, a man who suffered from a paralyzed arm begged Pius X for his help. Taking his arm in his hand, the pope simply said, "have confidence in the Lord ... only have faith and the Lord will heal you". At that moment, the man could actually move his arm, calling out to the pope joyfully who simply put a finger to his lips so as not to draw any attention to what had happened, indicating that the man simply hold his peace. Another case saw an Irish girl covered in sores taken to see the pope by her mother. When Pius X saw her, he placed his hand on her head, and the sores completely disappeared. Another case saw a Roman schoolgirl contract a serious foot disease that rendered her crippled since she was only a year old. Through a friend she managed to acquire one of the pope's socks and was told that she would be healed if she wore it, which she did. At the moment she placed the sock on, the diseased foot was instantly healed. When Pius X heard about this, he laughed and said, "What a joke! I wear my own socks every day and still I suffer from constant pain in my feet!"
Other activities
In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical reforms, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. He also sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed. In 1904 Pope Pius X granted permission for diocesan seminarians to attend the College of St. Thomas. He raised the college to the status of Pontificium on 2 May 1906, thus making its degrees equivalent to those of the world's other pontifical universities. By Apostolic Letter of 8 November 1908, signed by the Supreme Pontiff on 17 November, the college was transformed into the Collegium Pontificium Internationale Angelicum. It would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.
Pius X published 16 encyclicals; among them was Vehementer nos on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly, the existence of Limbo in Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory." On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).
In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the popes, Pius X appears as Ignis Ardens or "Ardent Fire".
Declaring the tango "off-limits"
In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics. Later, in January 1914, when tango proved to be too popular to declare off-limits, Pope Pius X tried a different tack, mocking tango as "one of the dullest things imaginable", and recommending people take up dancing the furlana, a Venetian dance, instead.
Canonizations and beatifications
Pius X beatified a total of 131 individuals (including groups of martyrs and those by recognition of "cultus") and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate included Marie-Geneviève Meunier (1906), Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (1906), Valentin de Berriochoa (1906), Clair of Nantes (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).
In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom a patron saint of preachers.
Consistories
Pius X created 50 cardinals in seven consistories held during his pontificate which included noted figures of the Church during that time such as Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1907) and Pietro Gasparri (1907). In 1911, he increased American representation in the cardinalate based on the fact that the United States was expanding; the pope also named one cardinal in pectore (António Mendes Belo, whom the media accurately speculated on) in 1911 whose name he later revealed in 1914. Pius X also named as a cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV.
Among the cardinals whom he nominated came the first Brazilian-born (and the first Latin American-born; Arcoverde) and the first from the Netherlands (van Rossum) since 1523. The consistory of 1911 was the largest number of cardinals elevated at a single consistory in roughly a century.
In 1911, the pope reportedly wished to elevate Diomede Panici to the cardinalate, however, Panici died before the promotion ever took place. Furthermore, this came after Panici was originally considered but passed for the elevation by Pope Leo XIII who even had considered elevating Panici's brother. In the 1914 consistory, Pius X considered naming the Capuchin friar Armando Pietro Sabadel to the cardinalate, however, Sabadel declined the pope's invitation.
Death and burial
In 1913, Pope Pius X suffered a heart attack, and subsequently lived in the shadow of poor health. In 1914, the pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August 1914), an illness from which he would not recover, and it was reported that he suffered from a fever and lung complications. His condition was worsened by the events leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), which reportedly sent the 79-year-old into a state of melancholy. He died on Thursday, 20 August 1914, only a few hours after the death of Jesuit leader Franz Xavier Wernz, and on the very day when German forces marched into Brussels.
While the pope's condition was classified as serious, alarming symptoms did not develop until 19 August. While Pius X spent most of that day in and out of consciousness, he said at one stage, "In ancient times, the pope by a word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent". The pope shortly after received the Last Rites and eventually, an old bronchial infection that the pope had previously had in years past returned, further hastening his decline.Pius X died at 1:20am on 20 August 1914 and in a moment of lucidity just moments before he died, Pius X is reported to have said: "Now I begin to think the end is approaching. The Almighty in His inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare me the horrors which Europe is undergoing". His sister, Anna, was praying at his bedside when Pius X died. The pope's last act of life was to kiss the little crucifix that he had clasped in his hands at around 1:15am.Pius X was buried in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt below Saint Peter's Basilica. His body was laid in state on 21 August in red pontifical vestments and then interred following the Requiem Mass following his coffin lying in state on a large catafalque in the Sistine Chapel. His original tombstone bore the inscription: "Pope Pius X, poor and yet rich, gentle and humble of heart, unconquerable champion of the Catholic Faith, whose constant endeavor it was to renew all things in Christ". Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this in his burial and successive popes have continued this tradition. Pius X's tomb is located near the tombs of both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II under the altar of the Presentation.
Exhumation
On 19 May 1944, the body of Pius X was exhumed for inspection as part of the beatification process, during which the remains were found to be miraculously incorrupt. In 1959, the remains of the late pope were sent, with the permission of Pope John XXIII (himself a former Patriarch of Venice), to Venice in 1959. Before the remains were taken to Venice via a train on 11 April, Pope John XXIII led a small prayer service alongside some other cardinals. The body was exposed for the veneration of the faithful at the Basilica of Saint Mark for one month (12 April–10 May) before returning them back to the late pope's original resting place, with Cardinal Giovanni Urbani acting as the papal legate for the month-long event.
Canonization
Although Pius X's canonization took place in 1954, the events leading up to it began immediately with his death. A letter of 24 September 1916 by Monsignor Leo, Bishop of Nicotera and Tropea, referred to Pius X as "a great Saint and a great Pope." To accommodate the large number of pilgrims seeking access to his tomb, more than the crypt would hold, "a small metal cross was set into the floor of the basilica," which read Pius Papa X, "so that the faithful might kneel down directly above the tomb". Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.
Devotion to Pius X between the two world wars remained high. On 14 February 1923, in honor of the 20th anniversary of his accession to the papacy, the first moves toward his canonization began with the formal appointment of those who would carry out his cause. The event was marked by the erecting of a monument in his memory in St. Peter's Basilica. On 19 August 1939, Pope Pius XII (1939–58) delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo. On 12 February 1943, a further development of Pius X's cause was achieved, when he was declared to have displayed heroic virtues, gaining therefore the title "Venerable".
On 19 May 1944, Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination.
Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pius X remarkably well preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed. According to Jerome Dai-Gal, "all of the body" of Pius X "was in an excellent state of conservation". At the canonical recognition of his mortal body were present the Italian cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Nicola Canali.After the examination and the end of the apostolic process towards Pius X's cause, Pius XII bestowed the title of Venerable Servant of God upon Pius X. His body was exposed for 45 days (Rome was liberated by the allies during this time), before being placed back in his tomb.
Following this, the process towards beatification began, and investigations by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR) into miracles performed by intercessory work of Pius X took place. The SCR would eventually recognize two miracles. The first involved Marie-Françoise Deperras, a nun who had bone cancer and was cured on 7 December 1928 during a novena in which a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved the nun Benedetta De Maria, who had cancer, and in a novena started in 1938, she eventually touched a relic statue of Pius X and was cured.Pope Pius XII officially approved the two miracles on 11 February 1951; and on 4 March, Pius XII, in his De Tuto, declared that the Church could continue in the beatification of Pius X. His beatification took place on 3 June 1951 at St. Peter's before 23 cardinals, hundreds of bishops and archbishops, and a crowd of 100,000 faithful. During his beatification decree, Pius XII referred to Pius X as "Pope of the Eucharist", in honor of Pius X's expansion of the rite to children.
Following his beatification, on 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from its tomb to the Vatican basilica and placed under the altar of the chapel of the Presentation. The pontiff's body lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see.On 29 May 1954, less than three years after his beatification, Pius X was canonized, following the SCR's recognition of two more miracles. The first involved Francesco Belsami, an attorney from Naples who had a pulmonary abscess, who was cured upon placing a picture of Pope Pius X upon his chest. The second miracle involved Sr. Maria Ludovica Scorcia, a nun who was afflicted with a serious neurotropic virus, and who, upon several novenas, was entirely cured. The canonization Mass was presided over by Pius XII at Saint Peter's Basilica before a crowd of about 800,000 of the faithful and Church officials at St. Peter's Basilica. Pius X became the first pope to be canonized since Pius V in 1712.His canonization ceremony was taped and recorded by early television news broadcasters, including NBC.
Prayer cards often depict the sanctified pontiff with instruments of Holy Communion. In addition to being celebrated as the "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", Pius X is also the patron saint of emigrants from Treviso. He is honored in numerous parishes in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.
The number of parishes, schools, seminaries and retreat houses named after him in western countries is very large, partly because he was very well known, and his beatification and canonization in the early 1950s was during a period of time following World War II when there was a great deal of new construction in cities and population growth in the era of the baby boom, thus leading to Catholic institutional expansion that correlated with the growing society.Pius X's feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar, the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was a big supporter of his canonization, partly because he had ordained the need for its existence in every diocese and because it had received a great deal of episcopal criticism, and it was thought that by canonizing the pope who gave them their mandate, this would help inoculate against this criticism. They initiated a prayer crusade for his canonization that achieved the participation of over two million names.After the Pope's canonization, another miracle is said to have taken place when a Christian family activist named Clem Lane suffered a major heart attack and was placed in an oxygen tent, where he was given extreme unction. A relic of the Pope was placed over his tent, and he recovered to the great surprise of his doctors. A sister of Loretto at Webster College in St Louis, Missouri, claimed that her priest brother had been cured through the Pope's intercession as well.
Papal coat of arms
The personal papal arms of Pius X are composed of the traditional elements of all papal heraldry before Pope Benedict XVI: the shield, the papal tiara, and the keys. The tiara and keys are typical symbols used in the coats of arms of pontiffs, which symbolize their authority.
The shield of Pius X's coat of arms is charged in two basic parts, as it is per fess. In chief (the top part of the shield) shows the arms of the Patriarch of Venice, which Pius X was from 1893 to 1903. It consists of the Lion of Saint Mark proper and haloed in silver upon a silver-white background, displaying a book with the inscription of PAX TIBI MARCE on the left page and EVANGELISTA MEUS on the right page.
"Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Meus" (English: Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist) is the motto of Venice referring to the final resting place of Mark the Evangelist. This differed from the arms of the Republic of Venice by changing the background color from red to silver even though that did not conform to heraldic rules. Previous Patriarchs of Venice had combined their personal arms with these arms of the Patriarchate. The same chief can be seen in the arms of the later popes who were Patriarchs of Venice upon election to the See of Rome, John XXIII and John Paul I. Renditions of this part of Pius X's arms depict the lion either with or without a sword, and sometimes only one side of the book is written on.The shield displays the arms Pius X took as Bishop of Mantua: an anchor proper cast into a stormy sea (the blue and silver wavy lines), lit up by a single six-pointed star of gold. These were inspired by Hebrews Chapter 6, Versicle 19, (English: "The hope we have is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul") As Bishop Sarto, he stated that "hope is the sole companion of my life, the greatest support in uncertainty, the strongest power in situations of weakness."Although not present upon his arms, the only motto attributed to Pope Pius X is the one for which he is best remembered: Instaurare omnia in Christo (English: "To restore all things in Christ"), allegedly his last words before his death.
In fiction
The life of Pope Pius X is depicted in the 1951 movie Gli uomini non-guardano il cielo by Umberto Scarpelli. The movie is centered on the year 1914, as the Pope grieves over the threat that is incumbent and is consoled by his nephew.
A satirical depiction of Pope Pius X is presented in Flann O'Brien's novel The Hard Life, as the Irish characters travel from Dublin to Rome and gain a personal interview with the Pope, which ends very badly.
In poetry
In the poem "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire, Pope Pius X is referred to as "L'Européen le plus moderne," translated into English as "the most modern European."
See also
Cardinals created by Pius X
List of Catholic saints
List of encyclicals of Pope Pius X
List of popes
Mario Sarto, the sculptor (grandnephew)
Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
St. Pius X Seminary, Philippines
Pope Pius X, patron saint archive
Pius X High School, Nebraska, United States
St. Pius X Church, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
San Pio X alla Balduina, titular church in Rome
Notes
References
Bibliography
Bavoux, GA (1996). Le porteur de lumière [The bearer of light] (in French). Paris: Pygmalion.
Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 235–304 online
Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes 1830-1914 (2003). online pp 332–405.
Chiron, Yves (2002). Pope Saint Pius X: Restorer of The Church. Kansas City, MO: Angelus. ISBN 978-1-892331-10-6.
Cornwell, John (2008). Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14311400-0.
F. A. Forbes (1954) [Burns Oates & Washbourne 1918]. Pope St. Pius X. London: TAN.
Kühner, Hans (1960). Lexikon der Päpste [Dictionary of Popes] (in German). Frankfurt: Fischer.
Lortz, Joseph (1934). Geschichte der Kirche (in German). Munster.
Noel, Gerard (13 December 2009). Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler (Hardcover). Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-84706355-7.
Renz, Christopher J (2009). In This Light Which Gives Light: A History of the College of St. Albert the Great (1930–1980). Dominican School. ISBN 978-1-88373418-3.
Regoli, Roberto (2009). "L'elite cardinalizia dopo la fine dello stato pontificio". Archivum Historiae Pontificiae (in Italian). 47: 63–87. JSTOR 23565185.
Regoli, Roberto, ed. (2016). San Pio X. Papa riformatore di fronte alle sfide del nuovo secolo. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. ISBN 9788820997823.
Smit, JO; dal Gal, G (1951). Beato Pio X. Amsterdam: N.V. Drukkerij De Tijd.
van der Veldt, J. H. (1965). St. Pius X Pope. Boston, MA: Daughters of St. Paul.
Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1920). Pope Pius X. Rome: Vatican.
Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X [Catecism of the Christian doctrine, published by order of the High priest Saint Pius X] (in Italian). Il Sabato. 1999.
In his lifetime
Á Czaich; A. Fráter (1907). X. Pius pápa. Életének és uralkodásának története napjainkig. Budapest: Az Athenaeum.
Monsignor Hartwell de la Garde Grissell (1903). Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903. Oxford: James Parke & Co.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre (2 February 1904). "Ad diem illum". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. 5.
——— (1905). Catechism (PDF). Catholic Primer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
——— (15 April 1905a). "Acerbo Nimis". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
——— (3 July 1907). "Lamentabili Sane". Papal encyclicals. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
Schmidlin, Edward; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 17 November 2017. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons).
Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz (1907). Life of Pius X. New York: The American Catholic Publication Society.
Monsignor Anton de Waal (1904). Life of Pope Pius X. trans. Joseph William Berg. Milwaukee: The M.H. Wiltzius Co.
After his death
F. A. Forbes (1924) [1918]. Life of Pius X (2nd ed.). New York: PJ Kenedy & Sons. Merry del Val (above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him.
René Bazin (1928). Pius X. St Louis: B Herder.
Burton, Katherine (1950). The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. Longmens.
Thornton, Father Francis Beauchesne (1952). The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X. Benziger Brothers. This priest was the editor for Burton's book.
Martini, Teri (1954). The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. St Anthony Guild Press.
External links
Giuseppe Sarto – Pius X Foundation, web site of the birthplace and the Museum of St. Pius X. In the museum, which hosts Pius X's personal belongings, an exhibition describes the life of the pope.
"Pope Pius X". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre, Full text of official documents including encyclicals, Rome, IT: The Holy See
"Information about the life of Pius X". IT: Museo San Pio X.
"Canonization ceremony of Pius X" (video recording) (in German). Gloria.tv.
Leighton, David (30 April 2013). "Street Smarts: Eastside street leading to church named after Pope Pius X". Arizona Daily Star.
Works by or about Pope Pius X at Internet Archive
Works by Pope Pius X at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Literature by and about Pope Pius X in the German National Library catalogue
"bishop/bsartogm". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12137a.htm CE
Newspaper clippings about Pope Pius X in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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Pope Pius X (Italian: Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, and for promoting liturgical reforms and scholastic theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church. The Society of Saint Pius X, a traditionalist Catholic fraternity, is named after him.
Pius X was devoted to the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of Our Lady of Confidence; while his papal encyclical Ad diem illum took on a sense of renewal that was reflected in the motto of his pontificate. He advanced the Liturgical Movement by formulating the principle of participatio actuosa (active participation of the faithful) in his motu proprio, Tra le sollecitudini (1903). He encouraged the frequent reception of Holy Communion, and he lowered the age for First Communion, which became a lasting innovation of his papacy.Like his predecessors, he promoted Thomism as the principal philosophical method to be taught in Catholic institutions. He vehemently opposed various 19th-century philosophies that he viewed as an intrusion of secular errors incompatible with Catholic dogma, especially modernism, which he critiqued as the synthesis of every heresy.Pius X was known for his firm demeanour and sense of personal poverty, reflected by his membership of the Third Order of Saint Francis. He regularly gave sermons from the pulpit, a rare practice at the time. After the 1908 Messina earthquake he filled the Apostolic Palace with refugees, long before the Italian government acted. He rejected any kind of favours for his family, and his close relatives chose to remain in poverty, living near Rome. He also undertook a reform of the Roman Curia with the Apostolic Constitution Sapienti consilio in 1908.
After his death, a strong cult of devotion followed his reputation for piety and holiness. He was beatified in 1951 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII. A statue bearing his name stands within Saint Peter's Basilica; and his birth town was renamed Riese Pio X after his death.
Early life and ministry
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto was born in Riese, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia, Austrian Empire (now in the province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy), in 1835. He was the second born of ten children of Giovanni Battista Sarto (1792–1852), the village postman, and Margherita Sanson (1813–1894). He was baptised 3 June 1835. Though poor, his parents valued education, and Giuseppe walked 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) to school each day.
Giuseppe had three brothers and six sisters: Giuseppe Sarto (born 1834; died after six days), Angelo Sarto (1837–1916), Teresa Parolin-Sarto (1839–1920), Rosa Sarto (1841–1913), Antonia Dei Bei-Sarto (1843–1917), Maria Sarto (1846–1930), Lucia Boschin-Sarto (1848–1924), Anna Sarto (1850–1926), Pietro Sarto (born 1852; died after six months). As Pope, he rejected any kind of favours for his family: his brother remained a postal clerk, his favourite nephew stayed on as village priest, and his three single sisters lived together close to poverty in Rome, in the same way as other people of humble background.
Giuseppe, often nicknamed as "Bepi" by his mother, possessed a sprightly disposition with his natural exuberance being so great that his teacher had to often control his lively impulses with a cane to the backside. Despite this, he was an excellent student who focused on his homework before engaging in any hobbies or recreations. In the evenings after sports or games with friends, he would spend ten minutes in prayer before returning home. Sarto also served as an altar boy. By the age of ten, he had completed the two elementary classes of his village school, as well as Latin study with a local priest; henceforth Sarto had to walk four miles to the gymnasium in Castelfranco Veneto for further classes. For the next four years, he would attend Mass before breakfast and his long walk to school. He often carried his shoes to make them last longer. As a poor boy, he was often teased for his meager lunches and shabby clothes, but never complained about this to his teachers.In 1850 he received the tonsure from his parish priest, and was given a scholarship [from] the Cardinal of Venice (who his parish priest had written, asking for a scholarship for Bepi) to attend the Seminary of Padua, "where he finished his classical, philosophical, and theological studies with distinction".
On 18 September 1858, Sarto was ordained a priest by Giovanni Antonio Farina (later canonized), and became a chaplain at Tombolo. While there, Sarto expanded his knowledge of theology, studying both Thomas Aquinas and canon law, while carrying out most of the functions of the parish pastor Constantini, who was quite ill. Often, Sarto sought to improve his sermons by the advice of Constantini, who referred to one of his earliest as "rubbish". In Tombolo, Sarto's reputation for holiness grew so much amongst the people that some suggested the nickname "Don Santo".In 1867, he was named archpriest of Salzano. Here he restored the church and expanded the hospital, the funds coming from his own begging, wealth and labour. He won the people's affection when he worked to assist the sick during the cholera plague of the early 1870s. He was named a canon of the cathedral and chancellor of the Diocese of Treviso, also holding offices such as spiritual director and rector of the Treviso seminary, and examiner of the clergy. As chancellor he made it possible for public school students to receive religious instruction. As a priest and later bishop, he often struggled over solving problems of bringing religious instruction to rural and urban youth who did not have the opportunity to attend Catholic schools. At one stage, a large stack of hay caught fire near a cottage, and when Sarto arrived he addressed the frantic people, "Don't be afraid, the fire will be put out and your house will be saved!" At that moment, the flames turned in the other direction, leaving the cottage alone. Despite his many duties, Sarto often made time for an evening walk with young children preparing their First Communion.
In 1879, Bishop Federico Maria Zinelli died, and Sarto was elected vicar-capitular to care for the diocese until the accession of a new bishop in June 1880.
After 1880, Sarto taught dogmatic theology and moral theology at the seminary in Treviso. On 10 November 1884, he was appointed bishop of Mantua by Pope Leo XIII. He was consecrated six days later in Rome in the church of Sant'Apollinare alle Terme Neroniane-Alessandrine, Rome, by Cardinal Lucido Parocchi, assisted by Pietro Rota, and by Giovanni Maria Berengo. He was appointed to the honorary position of assistant at the pontifical throne on 19 June 1891. Sarto required papal dispensation from Pope Leo XIII before episcopal consecration as he lacked a doctorate, making him the last pope without a doctorate until Pope Francis.
When Sarto travelled back to his hometown from Rome after his consecration, he immediately went to visit his mother. There, she repeatedly kissed his ring and said to him: "But you would not have this fine ring, son, if I did not have this", showing him her wedding ring.
Cardinalate and patriarchate
Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal of the order of cardinal priests in a secret consistory on 12 June 1893. Three days later in a public consistory on 15 June, Pope Leo XIII gave him his cardinal's red galero, assigned him the titular church of San Bernardo alle Terme, and appointed him Patriarch of Venice. This caused difficulty, however, as the government of the reunified Italy claimed the right to nominate the Patriarch, since the previous sovereign, the Emperor of Austria, had exercised that power. The poor relations between the Roman Curia and the Italian civil government since the annexation of the Papal States in 1870 placed additional strain on the appointment. The number of vacant sees soon grew to 30. Sarto was finally permitted to assume the position of patriarch in 1894. In regard to being named as a cardinal, Sarto told a local newspaper that he felt "anxious, terrified and humiliated".After being named cardinal and before leaving for Venice, he paid his mother a visit. Overwhelmed with emotion and in tears, she asked: "My son, give your mother a last blessing", sensing that it would be the last time that they would see each other. Arriving in Venice, he was formally enthroned on 24 November 1894.
As cardinal-patriarch, Sarto avoided politics, allocating his time to social works and strengthening parochial banks. However, in his first pastoral letter to the Venetians, Sarto argued that in matters pertaining to the pope, "There should be no questions, no subtleties, no opposing of personal rights to his rights, but only obedience."In April 1903, Pope Leo XIII reportedly said to Lorenzo Perosi: "Hold him very dear, Perosi, as in the future he will be able to do much for you. We firmly believe he will be our successor". As a cardinal, he was considered by the time of his papal election as one of the most prominent preachers in the Church despite his lesser fame globally. In his role as a cardinal, Sarto held membership in the congregations for Bishops and Regulars, Rites, and Indulgences and Sacred Relics.
Papal election of 1903
Leo XIII died 20 July 1903, and at the end of that month the conclave convened to elect his successor. Before the conclave, Sarto had reportedly said, "rather dead than pope", when people discussed his chances for election. In one of the meetings held just before the conclave, Cardinal Victor-Lucien-Sulpice Lécot spoke with Sarto in French, however, Sarto replied in Latin, "I'm afraid I do not speak French". Lécot replied, "But if Your Eminence does not speak French you have no chance of being elected because the pope must speak French", to which Sarto said, "Deo Gratias! I have no desire to be pope".According to historians, the favorite was the late pope's secretary of state, Cardinal Mariano Rampolla. On the first ballot, Rampolla received 24 votes, Gotti had 17 votes, and Sarto 5 votes. On the second ballot, Rampolla had gained five votes, as did Sarto. The next day, it seemed that Rampolla would be elected. However, the Polish Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko from Kraków, in the name of Emperor Franz Joseph (1848–1916) of Austria-Hungary, proclaimed a veto (jus exclusivae) against Rampolla's election. Many in the conclave protested, and it was even suggested to disregard the veto.
However, the third vote had already begun, resulting in no clear winner but increasing support for Sarto, with 21 votes. The fourth vote showed Rampolla with 30 votes and Sarto with 24. It seemed clear that the cardinals were moving toward Sarto.
The following morning, the fifth vote gave Rampolla 10 votes, Gotti 2, and Sarto 50. Thus, on 4 August 1903, Sarto was elected to the pontificate. This marked the last known exercise of a papal veto by a Catholic monarch.
At first, it is reported, Sarto declined the nomination, feeling unworthy. He had been deeply saddened by the Austro-Hungarian veto and vowed to rescind these powers and excommunicate anyone who communicated such a veto during a conclave. With the cardinals asking him to reconsider, he went into solitude in the Pauline chapel, and after deep prayer he accepted the position. Cardinal Luigi Macchi announced Sarto's election at around 12:10pm.
Sarto took as his papal name Pius X, out of respect for his recent predecessors of the same name, particularly Pope Pius IX (1846–1878), who had fought against theological liberals and for papal supremacy. He explained: "As I shall suffer, I shall take the name of those Popes who also suffered". Pius X's traditional coronation took place the following Sunday, 9 August 1903. As pope, he became ex officio Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, prefect of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, and prefect of the Sacred Consistorial Congregation.
Pontificate
The pontificate of Pius X was noted for conservative theology and reforms in liturgy and Church law. In what became his motto, the Pope in 1903 devoted his papacy to Instaurare Omnia in Christo, "to restore all things in Christ." In his first encyclical (E supremi apostolatus, 4 October 1903), he stated his overriding policy: "We champion the authority of God. His authority and Commandments should be recognized, deferred to, and respected."
Continuing his simple origins, he wore a pectoral cross of gilded metal on the day of his coronation; and when his entourage was horrified, the new pope declared he always wore it and had brought no other with him. He was well known for reducing papal ceremonies. He also abolished the custom of the pope dining alone, since the time of Pope Urban VIII, and invited his friends to eat with him.When chided by Rome's social leaders for refusing to make his peasant sisters papal countesses, he responded: "I have made them sisters of the Pope; what more can I do for them?"He developed a reputation as being very friendly with children. He carried candy in his pockets for the street urchins in Mantua and Venice, and taught them catechism. During papal audiences, he would gather children around him and talk about things that interested them. His weekly catechism lessons in the courtyard of San Damaso in the Vatican always included a special place for children, and his decision to require the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine in every parish was partly motivated by a desire to save children from religious ignorance.Noted for his humility and simplicity, he declared that he had not changed personally save for his white cassock. Aides consistently needed to remind him not to wipe his pen on the white cassock, as he had previously done on his black cassock which hid stains. The new pope's schedule was quite similar each day. He rose at 4:00am before celebrating Mass at 6:00am. He was at his desk at 8:00am to receive private audiences. On his desk stood statues of John Vianney and Joan of Arc, both of whom he beatified in his papacy. At noon, he conducted a general audience with pilgrims, then had lunch at 1:00pm with his two secretaries or whomever else he invited to dine with him. Resting for a short while after lunch, Pius X would then return to work before dining at 9:00pm and a final stint of work before sleep.
Church reforms and theology
Restoration in Christ and Mariology
In his 1904 encyclical Ad diem illum, he views Mary in the context of "restoring everything in Christ".
He wrote:
Spiritually we all are her children and she is the mother of us, therefore, she is to be revered like a mother. Christ is the Word made Flesh and the Savior of mankind. He had a physical body like every other man: and as savior of the human family, he had a spiritual and mystical body, the Church. This, the Pope argues has consequences for our view of the Blessed Virgin. She did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also, by giving him her human nature, that He might be the Redeemer of men. Mary, carrying the Savior within her, also carried all those whose life was contained in the life of the Savior. Therefore, all the faithful united to Christ, are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones from the womb of Mary like a body united to its head. Through a spiritual and mystical fashion, all are children of Mary, and she is their Mother. Mother, spiritually, but truly Mother of the members of Christ (S. Aug. L. de S. Virginitate, c. 6).During Pius X's pontificate, many famed Marian images were granted a canonical coronation: Our Lady of Aparecida, Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of the Cape, Our Lady of Chiquinquira of Colombia, Our Lady of San Juan de los Lagos, Our Lady of La Naval de Manila, Virgin of Help of Venezuela, Our Lady of Carmel of New York, the Marian icon of Santuario della Consolata and the Immaculate Conception within the Chapel of the Choir inside Saint Peter's Basilica were granted this prestigious honor.
Tra le sollecitudini and Gregorian chant
Within three months of his coronation, Pius X published his motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini. Classical and Baroque compositions had long been favoured over Gregorian chant in ecclesiastical music. The Pope announced a return to earlier musical styles, championed by Lorenzo Perosi. Since 1898, Perosi had been Director of the Sistine Chapel Choir, a title which Pius X upgraded to "Perpetual Director". The Pope's choice of Joseph Pothier to supervise the new editions of chant led to the official adoption of the Solesmes edition of Gregorian chant.
Liturgical reforms and communion
Pius X worked to increase devotion among both clergy and laity, particularly in the Breviary, which he reformed considerably, and the Mass.
Besides restoring to prominence Gregorian Chant, he placed a renewed liturgical emphasis on the Eucharist, saying, "Holy Communion is the shortest and safest way to Heaven." To this end, he encouraged frequent reception of Holy Communion. This also extended to children who had reached the "age of discretion", though he did not permit the ancient Eastern practice of infant communion. He also emphasized frequent recourse to the Sacrament of Penance so that Holy Communion would be received worthily. Pius X's devotion to the Eucharist would eventually earn him the honorific of "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", by which he is still known among his devotees.
In 1910, he issued the decree Quam singulari, which changed the age at which Communion could be received from 12 to 7 years old, the age of discretion. The pope lowered the age because he wished to impress the event on the minds of children and stimulate their parents to new religious observance; this decree was found unwelcome in some places due to the belief that parents would withdraw their children early from Catholic schools, now that First Communion was carried out earlier. Pius X even personally distributed First Communion to a four-year-old boy the day after the child was presented to him and demonstrated an exceptional understanding of the meaning of the sacrament. When people would criticize Pius X for lowering the age of reception, he simply quoted the words of Jesus, "let the little children come to me".
Pius X said in his 1903 motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini, "The primary and indispensable source of the true Christian spirit is participation in the most holy mysteries and in the public, official prayer of the Church."He also sought to modify papal ceremonies to underscore their religious significance by eliminating occasions for applause. For example, when entering his first public consistory for the creation of cardinals in November 1903, he was not carried above the crowds on the sedia gestatoria as was traditional. He arrived on foot wearing a cope and mitre at the end of the procession of prelates "almost hidden behind the double line of Palatine Guards through which he passed".
Anti-modernism
Pope Leo XIII had sought to revive the inheritance of Thomas Aquinas, 'the marriage of reason and revelation', as a response to secular 'enlightenment'. Under Pius X, neo-Thomism became the blueprint for theology.Most controversially, Pius X vigorously condemned the theological movement he termed 'Modernism', which he regarded as a heresy endangering the Catholic faith. The movement was linked especially to certain Catholic French scholars such as Louis Duchesne, who questioned the belief that God acts in a direct way in the affairs of humanity, and Alfred Loisy, who denied that some parts of Scripture were literally rather than perhaps metaphorically true. In contradiction to Thomas Aquinas they argued that there was an unbridgeable gap between natural and supernatural knowledge. Its unwanted effects, from the traditional viewpoint, were relativism and scepticism. Modernism and relativism, in terms of their presence in the Church, were theological trends that tried to assimilate modern philosophers like Immanuel Kant as well as rationalism into Catholic theology. Modernists argued that beliefs of the Church have evolved throughout its history and continue to evolveAnti-Modernists viewed these notions as contrary to the dogmas and traditions of the Catholic Church. In the decree entitled Lamentabili sane exitu ("A Lamentable Departure Indeed") of 3 July 1907, Pius X formally condemned 65 propositions, mainly drawn from the works of Alfred Loisy and concerning the nature of the Church, revelation, biblical exegesis, the sacraments, and the divinity of Christ. That was followed by the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis (or "Feeding the Lord's Flock"), which characterized Modernism as the "synthesis of all heresies." Following these, Pius X ordered that all clerics take the Anti-Modernist oath, Sacrorum antistitum. Pius X's aggressive stance against Modernism caused some disruption within the Church. Although only about 40 clerics refused to take the oath, Catholic scholarship with Modernistic tendencies was substantially discouraged. Theologians who wished to pursue lines of inquiry in line with Secularism, Modernism, or Relativism had to stop, or face conflict with the papacy, and possibly even excommunication.
Pius X's attitude toward the Modernists was uncompromising. Speaking of those who counseled compassion, he said: "They want them to be treated with oil, soap and caresses. But they should be beaten with fists. In a duel, you don't count or measure the blows, you strike as you can." He also instituted the Sodalitium Pianum (or League of Pius V), an anti-Modernist network of informants, which was much criticized due to its accusations of heresy on the flimsiest evidence. This campaign was run by Umberto Benigni in the Department of Extraordinary Affairs in the Secretariat of State, which distributed anti-Modernist propaganda and gathered information on "culprits". In Benigni's secret code, Pius X was known as Mama.
Catechism of Saint Pius X
In 1905, Pius X in his letter Acerbo nimis mandated the establishment of the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine (catechism class) in every parish in the world.The Catechism of Pius X is his realisation of a simple, plain, brief, popular catechism for uniform use throughout the whole world; it was used in the ecclesiastical province of Rome and for some years in other parts of Italy; it was not, however, prescribed for use throughout the universal Church. The characteristics of Pius X were "simplicity of exposition and depth of content. Also because of this, Pius X's catechism might have friends in the future." The catechism was extolled as a method of religious teaching in his encyclical Acerbo nimis of April 1905.The Catechism of Saint Pius X was issued in 1908 in Italian, as Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X. An English translation runs to more than 115 pages.Asked in 2003 whether the almost 100-year-old Catechism of Saint Pius X was still valid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger said: "The faith as such is always the same. Hence the Catechism of Saint Pius X always preserves its value. Whereas ways of transmitting the contents of the faith can change instead. And hence one may wonder whether the Catechism of Saint Pius X can in that sense still be considered valid today."
Reform of canon law
Canon law in the Catholic Church varied from region to region with no overall prescriptions. On 19 March 1904, Pope Pius X named a commission of cardinals to draft a universal set of laws. Two of his successors worked in the commission: Giacomo della Chiesa, who became Pope Benedict XV, and Eugenio Pacelli, who became Pope Pius XII. This first Code of Canon Law was promulgated by Benedict XV on 27 May 1917, with an effective date of 19 May 1918, and remained in effect until Advent 1983.
Reform of Church administration
Pius X reformed the Roman Curia with the constitution Sapienti Consilio (29 June 1908) and specified new rules enforcing a bishop's oversight of seminaries in the encyclical Pieni l'animo. He established regional seminaries (closing some smaller ones), and promulgated a new plan of seminary study. He also barred clergy from administering social organizations.
Church policies towards secular governments
Pius X reversed the accommodating approach of Leo XIII towards secular governments, appointing Rafael Merry del Val as Cardinal Secretary of State (Merry del Val would later have his own cause opened for canonization in 1953, but still has not been beatified). When the French president Émile Loubet visited the Italian monarch Victor Emmanuel III (1900–1946), Pius X, still refusing to accept the annexation of the papal territories by Italy, reproached the French president for the visit and refused to meet him. This led to a diplomatic break with France and to the 1905 Law of Separation between church and state, by which the Church lost government funding in France. The pope denounced this law in his encyclicals Vehementer Nos and Gravissimo officii munere, and removed two French bishops for recognising the Third Republic. Eventually, France expelled the Jesuits and broke off diplomatic relations with the Vatican.
The Pope adopted a similar position toward secular governments in Portugal, Ireland, Poland, Ethiopia, and in other states with large Catholic populations. His opposition to international relations with Italy angered the secular powers of these countries, as well as a few others like the UK and Russia. In Ireland, Protestants increasingly worried that a proposed Home Rule by an Irish parliament representing the Catholic majority (rather than the status quo of rule by Westminster since the 1800 Union of Ireland and Great Britain) would result in Rome Rule due to Pius X's uncompromising stance being followed by Irish Catholics (Ultramontanism).
In 1908, the papal decree Ne Temere came into effect which complicated mixed marriages. Marriages not performed by a Catholic priest were declared legal but sacramentally invalid, worrying some Protestants that the Church would counsel separation for couples married in a Protestant church or by civil service. Priests were given discretion to refuse mixed marriages or to lay conditions upon them, commonly including a requirement that the children be raised Catholic. The decree proved particularly divisive in Ireland, which its large Protestant minority, contributing indirectly to the subsequent political conflict there and provoking debates in the British House of Commons. The long term effect of Ne Temere in Ireland was that Irish Unionism which had had strongholds in Dublin as well as Ulster, but existed to some extent on the entire island of Ireland, declined overall and became virtually exclusively a phenomenon of what is today Northern Ireland. Furthermore, while historically both Protestant Irish nationalists and Catholic Unionists existed, the split over who should rule Northern Ireland eventually came to almost exactly match the confessional divide.
As secular authority challenged the papacy, Pius X became more aggressive. He suspended the Opera dei Congressi, which coordinated the work of Catholic associations in Italy, as well as condemning Le Sillon, a French social movement that tried to reconcile the Church with liberal political views. He also opposed trade unions that were not exclusively Catholic.
Pius X partially lifted decrees prohibiting Italian Catholics from voting, but he never recognised the Italian government.
Relations with the Kingdom of Italy
Initially, Pius maintained his prisoner in the Vatican stance, but with the rise of socialism he began to allow the Non Expedit, which prohibited Catholics from voting, to be relaxed. In 1905, he authorized bishops in his encyclical Il fermo proposito to offer a dispensation allowing their parishioners to exercise their legislative rights when "the supreme good of society" was at stake.
Relations with Poland and Russia
Under Pius X, the traditionally difficult situation of Polish Catholics in Russia did not improve. Although Nicholas II of Russia issued a decree 22 February 1903, promising religious freedom for the Catholic Church, and in 1905 promulgated a constitution which included religious freedom, the Russian Orthodox Church felt threatened and insisted on stiff interpretations. Papal decrees were not permitted and contacts with the Vatican remained outlawed.
Activities for the United States
In 1908, Pius X lifted the United States out of its missionary status, in recognition of the growth of the American Church. Fifteen new dioceses were created in the US during his pontificate, and he named two American cardinals. He was very popular among American Catholics, often depicted as an ordinary man from a poor family, raised by God to the papal throne.In 1910, the pope refused an audience with former Vice-President Charles W. Fairbanks, who had addressed the Methodist association in Rome, as well as with former President Theodore Roosevelt, who intended to address the same association.On 8 July 1914, Pope Pius X approved the request of Cardinal James Gibbons to invoke the patronage of the Immaculate Conception for the construction site of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC.
Miracles during the pope's lifetime
Other than the stories of miracles performed through the pope's intercession after his death, there are also stories of miracles performed by the pope during his lifetime.
On one occasion, during a papal audience, Pius X was holding a paralyzed child who wriggled free from his arms and then ran around the room. On another occasion, a couple (who had made confession to him while he was bishop of Mantua) with a two-year-old child with meningitis wrote to the pope and Pius X then wrote back to them to hope and pray. Two days later, the child was cured.Cardinal Ernesto Ruffini (later the Archbishop of Palermo) had visited the pope after Ruffini was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and the pope had told him to go back to the seminary and that he would be fine. Ruffini gave this story to the investigators of the pontiff's cause for canonization.Once, a man who suffered from a paralyzed arm begged Pius X for his help. Taking his arm in his hand, the pope simply said, "have confidence in the Lord ... only have faith and the Lord will heal you". At that moment, the man could actually move his arm, calling out to the pope joyfully who simply put a finger to his lips so as not to draw any attention to what had happened, indicating that the man simply hold his peace. Another case saw an Irish girl covered in sores taken to see the pope by her mother. When Pius X saw her, he placed his hand on her head, and the sores completely disappeared. Another case saw a Roman schoolgirl contract a serious foot disease that rendered her crippled since she was only a year old. Through a friend she managed to acquire one of the pope's socks and was told that she would be healed if she wore it, which she did. At the moment she placed the sock on, the diseased foot was instantly healed. When Pius X heard about this, he laughed and said, "What a joke! I wear my own socks every day and still I suffer from constant pain in my feet!"
Other activities
In addition to the political defense of the Church, liturgical reforms, anti-modernism, and the beginning of the codification of canon law, the papacy of Pius X saw the reorganisation of the Roman Curia. He also sought to update the education of priests, seminaries and their curricula were reformed. In 1904 Pope Pius X granted permission for diocesan seminarians to attend the College of St. Thomas. He raised the college to the status of Pontificium on 2 May 1906, thus making its degrees equivalent to those of the world's other pontifical universities. By Apostolic Letter of 8 November 1908, signed by the Supreme Pontiff on 17 November, the college was transformed into the Collegium Pontificium Internationale Angelicum. It would become the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum in 1963.
Pius X published 16 encyclicals; among them was Vehementer nos on 11 February 1906, which condemned the 1905 French law on the separation of the State and the Church. Pius X also confirmed, though not infallibly, the existence of Limbo in Catholic theology in his 1905 Catechism, saying that the unbaptized "do not have the joy of God but neither do they suffer... they do not deserve Paradise, but neither do they deserve Hell or Purgatory." On 23 November 1903, Pius X issued a papal directive, a motu proprio, that banned women from singing in church choirs (i.e. the architectural choir).
In the Prophecy of St. Malachy, the collection of 112 prophecies about the popes, Pius X appears as Ignis Ardens or "Ardent Fire".
Declaring the tango "off-limits"
In November 1913, Pope Pius X declared tango dancing as immoral and off-limits to Catholics. Later, in January 1914, when tango proved to be too popular to declare off-limits, Pope Pius X tried a different tack, mocking tango as "one of the dullest things imaginable", and recommending people take up dancing the furlana, a Venetian dance, instead.
Canonizations and beatifications
Pius X beatified a total of 131 individuals (including groups of martyrs and those by recognition of "cultus") and canonized four. Those beatified during his pontificate included Marie-Geneviève Meunier (1906), Rose-Chrétien de la Neuville (1906), Valentin de Berriochoa (1906), Clair of Nantes (1907), Zdislava Berka (1907), John Bosco (1907), John of Ruysbroeck (1908), Andrew Nam Thung (1909), Agatha Lin (1909), Agnes De (1909), Joan of Arc (1909), and John Eudes (1909). Those canonized by him were Alexander Sauli (1904), Gerard Majella (1904), Clement Mary Hofbauer (1909), and Joseph Oriol (1909).
In 1908 Pope Pius X named John Chrysostom a patron saint of preachers.
Consistories
Pius X created 50 cardinals in seven consistories held during his pontificate which included noted figures of the Church during that time such as Désiré-Joseph Mercier (1907) and Pietro Gasparri (1907). In 1911, he increased American representation in the cardinalate based on the fact that the United States was expanding; the pope also named one cardinal in pectore (António Mendes Belo, whom the media accurately speculated on) in 1911 whose name he later revealed in 1914. Pius X also named as a cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, his immediate successor, Pope Benedict XV.
Among the cardinals whom he nominated came the first Brazilian-born (and the first Latin American-born; Arcoverde) and the first from the Netherlands (van Rossum) since 1523. The consistory of 1911 was the largest number of cardinals elevated at a single consistory in roughly a century.
In 1911, the pope reportedly wished to elevate Diomede Panici to the cardinalate, however, Panici died before the promotion ever took place. Furthermore, this came after Panici was originally considered but passed for the elevation by Pope Leo XIII who even had considered elevating Panici's brother. In the 1914 consistory, Pius X considered naming the Capuchin friar Armando Pietro Sabadel to the cardinalate, however, Sabadel declined the pope's invitation.
Death and burial
In 1913, Pope Pius X suffered a heart attack, and subsequently lived in the shadow of poor health. In 1914, the pope fell ill on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August 1914), an illness from which he would not recover, and it was reported that he suffered from a fever and lung complications. His condition was worsened by the events leading to the outbreak of World War I (1914–1918), which reportedly sent the 79-year-old into a state of melancholy. He died on Thursday, 20 August 1914, only a few hours after the death of Jesuit leader Franz Xavier Wernz, and on the very day when German forces marched into Brussels.
While the pope's condition was classified as serious, alarming symptoms did not develop until 19 August. While Pius X spent most of that day in and out of consciousness, he said at one stage, "In ancient times, the pope by a word might have stayed the slaughter, but now he is impotent". The pope shortly after received the Last Rites and eventually, an old bronchial infection that the pope had previously had in years past returned, further hastening his decline.Pius X died at 1:20am on 20 August 1914 and in a moment of lucidity just moments before he died, Pius X is reported to have said: "Now I begin to think the end is approaching. The Almighty in His inexhaustible goodness wishes to spare me the horrors which Europe is undergoing". His sister, Anna, was praying at his bedside when Pius X died. The pope's last act of life was to kiss the little crucifix that he had clasped in his hands at around 1:15am.Pius X was buried in a simple and unadorned tomb in the crypt below Saint Peter's Basilica. His body was laid in state on 21 August in red pontifical vestments and then interred following the Requiem Mass following his coffin lying in state on a large catafalque in the Sistine Chapel. His original tombstone bore the inscription: "Pope Pius X, poor and yet rich, gentle and humble of heart, unconquerable champion of the Catholic Faith, whose constant endeavor it was to renew all things in Christ". Papal physicians had been in the habit of removing organs to aid the embalming process. Pius X expressly prohibited this in his burial and successive popes have continued this tradition. Pius X's tomb is located near the tombs of both Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II under the altar of the Presentation.
Exhumation
On 19 May 1944, the body of Pius X was exhumed for inspection as part of the beatification process, during which the remains were found to be miraculously incorrupt. In 1959, the remains of the late pope were sent, with the permission of Pope John XXIII (himself a former Patriarch of Venice), to Venice in 1959. Before the remains were taken to Venice via a train on 11 April, Pope John XXIII led a small prayer service alongside some other cardinals. The body was exposed for the veneration of the faithful at the Basilica of Saint Mark for one month (12 April–10 May) before returning them back to the late pope's original resting place, with Cardinal Giovanni Urbani acting as the papal legate for the month-long event.
Canonization
Although Pius X's canonization took place in 1954, the events leading up to it began immediately with his death. A letter of 24 September 1916 by Monsignor Leo, Bishop of Nicotera and Tropea, referred to Pius X as "a great Saint and a great Pope." To accommodate the large number of pilgrims seeking access to his tomb, more than the crypt would hold, "a small metal cross was set into the floor of the basilica," which read Pius Papa X, "so that the faithful might kneel down directly above the tomb". Masses were held near his tomb until 1930.
Devotion to Pius X between the two world wars remained high. On 14 February 1923, in honor of the 20th anniversary of his accession to the papacy, the first moves toward his canonization began with the formal appointment of those who would carry out his cause. The event was marked by the erecting of a monument in his memory in St. Peter's Basilica. On 19 August 1939, Pope Pius XII (1939–58) delivered a tribute to Pius X at Castel Gandolfo. On 12 February 1943, a further development of Pius X's cause was achieved, when he was declared to have displayed heroic virtues, gaining therefore the title "Venerable".
On 19 May 1944, Pius X's coffin was exhumed and was taken to the Chapel of the Holy Crucifix in St. Peter's Basilica for the canonical examination.
Upon opening the coffin, the examiners found the body of Pius X remarkably well preserved, despite the fact that he had died 30 years before and had made wishes not to be embalmed. According to Jerome Dai-Gal, "all of the body" of Pius X "was in an excellent state of conservation". At the canonical recognition of his mortal body were present the Italian cardinals Alfredo Ottaviani and Nicola Canali.After the examination and the end of the apostolic process towards Pius X's cause, Pius XII bestowed the title of Venerable Servant of God upon Pius X. His body was exposed for 45 days (Rome was liberated by the allies during this time), before being placed back in his tomb.
Following this, the process towards beatification began, and investigations by the Sacred Congregation of Rites (SCR) into miracles performed by intercessory work of Pius X took place. The SCR would eventually recognize two miracles. The first involved Marie-Françoise Deperras, a nun who had bone cancer and was cured on 7 December 1928 during a novena in which a relic of Pius X was placed on her chest. The second involved the nun Benedetta De Maria, who had cancer, and in a novena started in 1938, she eventually touched a relic statue of Pius X and was cured.Pope Pius XII officially approved the two miracles on 11 February 1951; and on 4 March, Pius XII, in his De Tuto, declared that the Church could continue in the beatification of Pius X. His beatification took place on 3 June 1951 at St. Peter's before 23 cardinals, hundreds of bishops and archbishops, and a crowd of 100,000 faithful. During his beatification decree, Pius XII referred to Pius X as "Pope of the Eucharist", in honor of Pius X's expansion of the rite to children.
Following his beatification, on 17 February 1952, Pius X's body was transferred from its tomb to the Vatican basilica and placed under the altar of the chapel of the Presentation. The pontiff's body lies within a glass and bronze-work sarcophagus for the faithful to see.On 29 May 1954, less than three years after his beatification, Pius X was canonized, following the SCR's recognition of two more miracles. The first involved Francesco Belsami, an attorney from Naples who had a pulmonary abscess, who was cured upon placing a picture of Pope Pius X upon his chest. The second miracle involved Sr. Maria Ludovica Scorcia, a nun who was afflicted with a serious neurotropic virus, and who, upon several novenas, was entirely cured. The canonization Mass was presided over by Pius XII at Saint Peter's Basilica before a crowd of about 800,000 of the faithful and Church officials at St. Peter's Basilica. Pius X became the first pope to be canonized since Pius V in 1712.His canonization ceremony was taped and recorded by early television news broadcasters, including NBC.
Prayer cards often depict the sanctified pontiff with instruments of Holy Communion. In addition to being celebrated as the "Pope of the Blessed Sacrament", Pius X is also the patron saint of emigrants from Treviso. He is honored in numerous parishes in Italy, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the United States.
The number of parishes, schools, seminaries and retreat houses named after him in western countries is very large, partly because he was very well known, and his beatification and canonization in the early 1950s was during a period of time following World War II when there was a great deal of new construction in cities and population growth in the era of the baby boom, thus leading to Catholic institutional expansion that correlated with the growing society.Pius X's feast day was assigned in 1955 to 3 September, to be celebrated as a Double. It remained thus for 15 years. In the 1960 calendar, the rank was changed to Third-Class Feast. The rank in the General Roman Calendar since 1969 is that of Memorial and the feast day is obligatorily celebrated on 21 August, closer to the day of his death (20 August, impeded by the feast day of St Bernard).The Confraternity of Christian Doctrine was a big supporter of his canonization, partly because he had ordained the need for its existence in every diocese and because it had received a great deal of episcopal criticism, and it was thought that by canonizing the pope who gave them their mandate, this would help inoculate against this criticism. They initiated a prayer crusade for his canonization that achieved the participation of over two million names.After the Pope's canonization, another miracle is said to have taken place when a Christian family activist named Clem Lane suffered a major heart attack and was placed in an oxygen tent, where he was given extreme unction. A relic of the Pope was placed over his tent, and he recovered to the great surprise of his doctors. A sister of Loretto at Webster College in St Louis, Missouri, claimed that her priest brother had been cured through the Pope's intercession as well.
Papal coat of arms
The personal papal arms of Pius X are composed of the traditional elements of all papal heraldry before Pope Benedict XVI: the shield, the papal tiara, and the keys. The tiara and keys are typical symbols used in the coats of arms of pontiffs, which symbolize their authority.
The shield of Pius X's coat of arms is charged in two basic parts, as it is per fess. In chief (the top part of the shield) shows the arms of the Patriarch of Venice, which Pius X was from 1893 to 1903. It consists of the Lion of Saint Mark proper and haloed in silver upon a silver-white background, displaying a book with the inscription of PAX TIBI MARCE on the left page and EVANGELISTA MEUS on the right page.
"Pax tibi Marce Evangelista Meus" (English: Peace to you, Mark, my evangelist) is the motto of Venice referring to the final resting place of Mark the Evangelist. This differed from the arms of the Republic of Venice by changing the background color from red to silver even though that did not conform to heraldic rules. Previous Patriarchs of Venice had combined their personal arms with these arms of the Patriarchate. The same chief can be seen in the arms of the later popes who were Patriarchs of Venice upon election to the See of Rome, John XXIII and John Paul I. Renditions of this part of Pius X's arms depict the lion either with or without a sword, and sometimes only one side of the book is written on.The shield displays the arms Pius X took as Bishop of Mantua: an anchor proper cast into a stormy sea (the blue and silver wavy lines), lit up by a single six-pointed star of gold. These were inspired by Hebrews Chapter 6, Versicle 19, (English: "The hope we have is the sure and steadfast anchor of the soul") As Bishop Sarto, he stated that "hope is the sole companion of my life, the greatest support in uncertainty, the strongest power in situations of weakness."Although not present upon his arms, the only motto attributed to Pope Pius X is the one for which he is best remembered: Instaurare omnia in Christo (English: "To restore all things in Christ"), allegedly his last words before his death.
In fiction
The life of Pope Pius X is depicted in the 1951 movie Gli uomini non-guardano il cielo by Umberto Scarpelli. The movie is centered on the year 1914, as the Pope grieves over the threat that is incumbent and is consoled by his nephew.
A satirical depiction of Pope Pius X is presented in Flann O'Brien's novel The Hard Life, as the Irish characters travel from Dublin to Rome and gain a personal interview with the Pope, which ends very badly.
In poetry
In the poem "Zone" by Guillaume Apollinaire, Pope Pius X is referred to as "L'Européen le plus moderne," translated into English as "the most modern European."
See also
Cardinals created by Pius X
List of Catholic saints
List of encyclicals of Pope Pius X
List of popes
Mario Sarto, the sculptor (grandnephew)
Reform of the Roman Breviary by Pope Pius X
St. Pius X Seminary, Philippines
Pope Pius X, patron saint archive
Pius X High School, Nebraska, United States
St. Pius X Church, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
San Pio X alla Balduina, titular church in Rome
Notes
References
Bibliography
Bavoux, GA (1996). Le porteur de lumière [The bearer of light] (in French). Paris: Pygmalion.
Browne-Olf, Lillian. Their Name Is Pius (1941) pp 235–304 online
Chadwick, Owen. A History of the Popes 1830-1914 (2003). online pp 332–405.
Chiron, Yves (2002). Pope Saint Pius X: Restorer of The Church. Kansas City, MO: Angelus. ISBN 978-1-892331-10-6.
Cornwell, John (2008). Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII. Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14311400-0.
F. A. Forbes (1954) [Burns Oates & Washbourne 1918]. Pope St. Pius X. London: TAN.
Kühner, Hans (1960). Lexikon der Päpste [Dictionary of Popes] (in German). Frankfurt: Fischer.
Lortz, Joseph (1934). Geschichte der Kirche (in German). Munster.
Noel, Gerard (13 December 2009). Pius XII: The Hound of Hitler (Hardcover). Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-84706355-7.
Renz, Christopher J (2009). In This Light Which Gives Light: A History of the College of St. Albert the Great (1930–1980). Dominican School. ISBN 978-1-88373418-3.
Regoli, Roberto (2009). "L'elite cardinalizia dopo la fine dello stato pontificio". Archivum Historiae Pontificiae (in Italian). 47: 63–87. JSTOR 23565185.
Regoli, Roberto, ed. (2016). San Pio X. Papa riformatore di fronte alle sfide del nuovo secolo. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana. ISBN 9788820997823.
Smit, JO; dal Gal, G (1951). Beato Pio X. Amsterdam: N.V. Drukkerij De Tijd.
van der Veldt, J. H. (1965). St. Pius X Pope. Boston, MA: Daughters of St. Paul.
Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val (1920). Pope Pius X. Rome: Vatican.
Catechismo della dottrina Cristiana, Pubblicato per Ordine del Sommo Pontifice San Pio X [Catecism of the Christian doctrine, published by order of the High priest Saint Pius X] (in Italian). Il Sabato. 1999.
In his lifetime
Á Czaich; A. Fráter (1907). X. Pius pápa. Életének és uralkodásának története napjainkig. Budapest: Az Athenaeum.
Monsignor Hartwell de la Garde Grissell (1903). Sede Vacante: Being a Diary Written During the Conclave of 1903. Oxford: James Parke & Co.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre (2 February 1904). "Ad diem illum". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. 5.
——— (1905). Catechism (PDF). Catholic Primer. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 23 June 2008.
——— (15 April 1905a). "Acerbo Nimis". Rome, IT: Vatican Publishing House. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
——— (3 July 1907). "Lamentabili Sane". Papal encyclicals. Retrieved 23 June 2013.
Schmidlin, Edward; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness, Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. Retrieved 17 November 2017. (this was an apologetic work intended for American audiences, where criticism of 'popery' was very common in society, and it contained a preface by James Cardinal Gibbons).
Monsignor E. Canon Schmitz (1907). Life of Pius X. New York: The American Catholic Publication Society.
Monsignor Anton de Waal (1904). Life of Pope Pius X. trans. Joseph William Berg. Milwaukee: The M.H. Wiltzius Co.
After his death
F. A. Forbes (1924) [1918]. Life of Pius X (2nd ed.). New York: PJ Kenedy & Sons. Merry del Val (above) considered this work to be the most authoritative written on him.
René Bazin (1928). Pius X. St Louis: B Herder.
Burton, Katherine (1950). The Great Mantle: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto. Longmens.
Thornton, Father Francis Beauchesne (1952). The Burning Flame: The Life of Pius X. Benziger Brothers. This priest was the editor for Burton's book.
Martini, Teri (1954). The Fisherman's Ring: The Life of Giuseppe Sarto, The Children's Pope. St Anthony Guild Press.
External links
Giuseppe Sarto – Pius X Foundation, web site of the birthplace and the Museum of St. Pius X. In the museum, which hosts Pius X's personal belongings, an exhibition describes the life of the pope.
"Pope Pius X". The Catholic Encyclopedia. New Advent.
Sarto, Giuseppe Melchiorre, Full text of official documents including encyclicals, Rome, IT: The Holy See
"Information about the life of Pius X". IT: Museo San Pio X.
"Canonization ceremony of Pius X" (video recording) (in German). Gloria.tv.
Leighton, David (30 April 2013). "Street Smarts: Eastside street leading to church named after Pope Pius X". Arizona Daily Star.
Works by or about Pope Pius X at Internet Archive
Works by Pope Pius X at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
Literature by and about Pope Pius X in the German National Library catalogue
"bishop/bsartogm". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12137a.htm CE
Newspaper clippings about Pope Pius X in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
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Paseo de Roxas is a prime commercial artery in the Makati Central Business District of Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a two- to six-lane avenue that cuts through the middle of the business district connecting San Lorenzo Village in the west to Bel-Air Village in the east.
Starting at its western terminus at Antonio S. Arnaiz Avenue (Pasay Road), Paseo de Roxas crosses into Legaspi Village passing by the Greenbelt mall complex, the Asian Institute of Management, as well as several low to mid rise office and residential towers. As it passes by Salcedo Village east of Ayala Avenue, the buildings give way to high rises on the north side and the entire length of the Ayala Triangle Gardens on the south. Past the intersection with Makati Avenue, Paseo de Roxas skirts the northern side of Urdaneta Village. It then crosses Gil Puyat Avenue and Jupiter Street before entering the gated Bel-Air Village, where it ends at its intersection with Mercedes and Hydra Streets.
The avenue was named after Ayala Corporation founder Domingo Róxas of the Zobel de Ayala family that owns the land. It was the site of the old Nielson Field airport where the avenue's section east of Ayala Avenue served as a runway along with Ayala Avenue. Paseo de Roxas also has short extensions into the gated San Lorenzo Village as Edades Street and in the gated Bel-Air Village as Hydra Street.
Notable landmarks
Paseo de Roxas is the address of the Asian Institute of Management, which occupies a full block on the north side of the street between Benavidez and Gamboa Streets across from Greenbelt. The street also hosts the headquarters of a number of banks, notably the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Chinabank, Citibank Philippines, and PSBank. The intersection of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue is framed by The Enterprise Center Tower 1, Ayala Tower One, the former site of BPI Building (to be replaced by the future BPI Headquarters) and Insular Life Building which featured the Philippine Stock Exchange LED Display, the first and longest curved-type LED display in Southeast Asia.Paseo de Roxas is also home to a number of other skyscrapers such as the Philamlife Tower, Zuellig Building, One Roxas Triangle, Lepanto Building and The Residences at Greenbelt's Manila Tower. Across the street from the Ayala Triangle Gardens is the Paseo Center which houses a Rustan's Supermarket and a flagship branch of Anytime Fitness.
== References ==
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Paseo de Roxas is a prime commercial artery in the Makati Central Business District of Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a two- to six-lane avenue that cuts through the middle of the business district connecting San Lorenzo Village in the west to Bel-Air Village in the east.
Starting at its western terminus at Antonio S. Arnaiz Avenue (Pasay Road), Paseo de Roxas crosses into Legaspi Village passing by the Greenbelt mall complex, the Asian Institute of Management, as well as several low to mid rise office and residential towers. As it passes by Salcedo Village east of Ayala Avenue, the buildings give way to high rises on the north side and the entire length of the Ayala Triangle Gardens on the south. Past the intersection with Makati Avenue, Paseo de Roxas skirts the northern side of Urdaneta Village. It then crosses Gil Puyat Avenue and Jupiter Street before entering the gated Bel-Air Village, where it ends at its intersection with Mercedes and Hydra Streets.
The avenue was named after Ayala Corporation founder Domingo Róxas of the Zobel de Ayala family that owns the land. It was the site of the old Nielson Field airport where the avenue's section east of Ayala Avenue served as a runway along with Ayala Avenue. Paseo de Roxas also has short extensions into the gated San Lorenzo Village as Edades Street and in the gated Bel-Air Village as Hydra Street.
Notable landmarks
Paseo de Roxas is the address of the Asian Institute of Management, which occupies a full block on the north side of the street between Benavidez and Gamboa Streets across from Greenbelt. The street also hosts the headquarters of a number of banks, notably the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Chinabank, Citibank Philippines, and PSBank. The intersection of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue is framed by The Enterprise Center Tower 1, Ayala Tower One, the former site of BPI Building (to be replaced by the future BPI Headquarters) and Insular Life Building which featured the Philippine Stock Exchange LED Display, the first and longest curved-type LED display in Southeast Asia.Paseo de Roxas is also home to a number of other skyscrapers such as the Philamlife Tower, Zuellig Building, One Roxas Triangle, Lepanto Building and The Residences at Greenbelt's Manila Tower. Across the street from the Ayala Triangle Gardens is the Paseo Center which houses a Rustan's Supermarket and a flagship branch of Anytime Fitness.
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Paseo de Roxas is a prime commercial artery in the Makati Central Business District of Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a two- to six-lane avenue that cuts through the middle of the business district connecting San Lorenzo Village in the west to Bel-Air Village in the east.
Starting at its western terminus at Antonio S. Arnaiz Avenue (Pasay Road), Paseo de Roxas crosses into Legaspi Village passing by the Greenbelt mall complex, the Asian Institute of Management, as well as several low to mid rise office and residential towers. As it passes by Salcedo Village east of Ayala Avenue, the buildings give way to high rises on the north side and the entire length of the Ayala Triangle Gardens on the south. Past the intersection with Makati Avenue, Paseo de Roxas skirts the northern side of Urdaneta Village. It then crosses Gil Puyat Avenue and Jupiter Street before entering the gated Bel-Air Village, where it ends at its intersection with Mercedes and Hydra Streets.
The avenue was named after Ayala Corporation founder Domingo Róxas of the Zobel de Ayala family that owns the land. It was the site of the old Nielson Field airport where the avenue's section east of Ayala Avenue served as a runway along with Ayala Avenue. Paseo de Roxas also has short extensions into the gated San Lorenzo Village as Edades Street and in the gated Bel-Air Village as Hydra Street.
Notable landmarks
Paseo de Roxas is the address of the Asian Institute of Management, which occupies a full block on the north side of the street between Benavidez and Gamboa Streets across from Greenbelt. The street also hosts the headquarters of a number of banks, notably the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Chinabank, Citibank Philippines, and PSBank. The intersection of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue is framed by The Enterprise Center Tower 1, Ayala Tower One, the former site of BPI Building (to be replaced by the future BPI Headquarters) and Insular Life Building which featured the Philippine Stock Exchange LED Display, the first and longest curved-type LED display in Southeast Asia.Paseo de Roxas is also home to a number of other skyscrapers such as the Philamlife Tower, Zuellig Building, One Roxas Triangle, Lepanto Building and The Residences at Greenbelt's Manila Tower. Across the street from the Ayala Triangle Gardens is the Paseo Center which houses a Rustan's Supermarket and a flagship branch of Anytime Fitness.
== References ==
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|
Paseo de Roxas is a prime commercial artery in the Makati Central Business District of Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a two- to six-lane avenue that cuts through the middle of the business district connecting San Lorenzo Village in the west to Bel-Air Village in the east.
Starting at its western terminus at Antonio S. Arnaiz Avenue (Pasay Road), Paseo de Roxas crosses into Legaspi Village passing by the Greenbelt mall complex, the Asian Institute of Management, as well as several low to mid rise office and residential towers. As it passes by Salcedo Village east of Ayala Avenue, the buildings give way to high rises on the north side and the entire length of the Ayala Triangle Gardens on the south. Past the intersection with Makati Avenue, Paseo de Roxas skirts the northern side of Urdaneta Village. It then crosses Gil Puyat Avenue and Jupiter Street before entering the gated Bel-Air Village, where it ends at its intersection with Mercedes and Hydra Streets.
The avenue was named after Ayala Corporation founder Domingo Róxas of the Zobel de Ayala family that owns the land. It was the site of the old Nielson Field airport where the avenue's section east of Ayala Avenue served as a runway along with Ayala Avenue. Paseo de Roxas also has short extensions into the gated San Lorenzo Village as Edades Street and in the gated Bel-Air Village as Hydra Street.
Notable landmarks
Paseo de Roxas is the address of the Asian Institute of Management, which occupies a full block on the north side of the street between Benavidez and Gamboa Streets across from Greenbelt. The street also hosts the headquarters of a number of banks, notably the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), Chinabank, Citibank Philippines, and PSBank. The intersection of Paseo de Roxas and Ayala Avenue is framed by The Enterprise Center Tower 1, Ayala Tower One, the former site of BPI Building (to be replaced by the future BPI Headquarters) and Insular Life Building which featured the Philippine Stock Exchange LED Display, the first and longest curved-type LED display in Southeast Asia.Paseo de Roxas is also home to a number of other skyscrapers such as the Philamlife Tower, Zuellig Building, One Roxas Triangle, Lepanto Building and The Residences at Greenbelt's Manila Tower. Across the street from the Ayala Triangle Gardens is the Paseo Center which houses a Rustan's Supermarket and a flagship branch of Anytime Fitness.
== References ==
|
Commons category
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Paseo de Roxas"
]
}
|
1846 in archaeology
Explorations
Johann Georg Ramsauer discovers a large prehistoric cemetery near Hallstatt.
Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis find and describe Serpent Mound in Ohio.
Excavations
The Rev. John Wilson publishes "Antiquities found at Woodperry, Oxon", an early account of excavations at a medieval village site (in Oxfordshire, England).
Finds
The Stele of Arniadas is found at the necropolis of the Corfu Palaiopolis.
Events
August 10 - The Smithsonian Institution is founded in Washington, D.C.
The Cambrian Archaeological Association is founded in Wales by Harry Longueville Jones and John Williams (Ab Ithel) and launches its journal Archaeologia Cambrensis.
The French School at Athens is founded.
Publications
Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes first publishes his discoveries over the previous two decades of a worked flint implement in the context of elephant and rhinoceros remains in the gravels of the Somme valley
John Disney publishes first edition of Museum Disneianum
Journal of the British Archaeological Association first published
Births
February 19 - Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, French Orientalist (d. 1923)
Deaths
See also
List of years in archaeology
1845 in archaeology
1847 in archaeology
== References ==
|
follows
|
{
"answer_start": [
1201
],
"text": [
"1845 in archaeology"
]
}
|
1846 in archaeology
Explorations
Johann Georg Ramsauer discovers a large prehistoric cemetery near Hallstatt.
Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis find and describe Serpent Mound in Ohio.
Excavations
The Rev. John Wilson publishes "Antiquities found at Woodperry, Oxon", an early account of excavations at a medieval village site (in Oxfordshire, England).
Finds
The Stele of Arniadas is found at the necropolis of the Corfu Palaiopolis.
Events
August 10 - The Smithsonian Institution is founded in Washington, D.C.
The Cambrian Archaeological Association is founded in Wales by Harry Longueville Jones and John Williams (Ab Ithel) and launches its journal Archaeologia Cambrensis.
The French School at Athens is founded.
Publications
Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes first publishes his discoveries over the previous two decades of a worked flint implement in the context of elephant and rhinoceros remains in the gravels of the Somme valley
John Disney publishes first edition of Museum Disneianum
Journal of the British Archaeological Association first published
Births
February 19 - Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, French Orientalist (d. 1923)
Deaths
See also
List of years in archaeology
1845 in archaeology
1847 in archaeology
== References ==
|
followed by
|
{
"answer_start": [
1221
],
"text": [
"1847 in archaeology"
]
}
|
1846 in archaeology
Explorations
Johann Georg Ramsauer discovers a large prehistoric cemetery near Hallstatt.
Ephraim Squier and Edwin Davis find and describe Serpent Mound in Ohio.
Excavations
The Rev. John Wilson publishes "Antiquities found at Woodperry, Oxon", an early account of excavations at a medieval village site (in Oxfordshire, England).
Finds
The Stele of Arniadas is found at the necropolis of the Corfu Palaiopolis.
Events
August 10 - The Smithsonian Institution is founded in Washington, D.C.
The Cambrian Archaeological Association is founded in Wales by Harry Longueville Jones and John Williams (Ab Ithel) and launches its journal Archaeologia Cambrensis.
The French School at Athens is founded.
Publications
Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes first publishes his discoveries over the previous two decades of a worked flint implement in the context of elephant and rhinoceros remains in the gravels of the Somme valley
John Disney publishes first edition of Museum Disneianum
Journal of the British Archaeological Association first published
Births
February 19 - Charles Simon Clermont-Ganneau, French Orientalist (d. 1923)
Deaths
See also
List of years in archaeology
1845 in archaeology
1847 in archaeology
== References ==
|
facet of
|
{
"answer_start": [
8
],
"text": [
"archaeology"
]
}
|
Xie Xianqi (born 28 December 1960) is a Chinese blasting expert who is dean of Institute of Explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology at Jianghan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, formerly served as chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd., Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company.
Biography
Xie was born in Honghu, Hubei, on 28 December 1960. He enlisted in the People's Liberation Army in November 1979, and was despatched to the National Defense Construction Office of the 69th Army in Beijing Military Region. In 1984, he was admitted to PLA Engineering Corps Command College, where he majored in mine blasting. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer management and application from PLA Naval University of Engineering in 1996 and master's degree in mining engineering from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 2005, respectively.In April 1988, he became deputy director of Blasting Laboratory of the Institute of Science and Technology, Wuhan Municipal Engineering Corporation. In December 1992 he became deputy general manager of Wuhan Blasting Company, rising to general manager in November 2004. He rose to become chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company in December 2004. In May 2015, he was appointed chairman of Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd., concurrently serving as chairman of Wuhan Blasting Company. In November 2018, he was hired by Jianghan University as dean of Institute of explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology.
Honours and awards
27 November 2017 Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE)
== References ==
|
place of birth
|
{
"answer_start": [
393
],
"text": [
"Honghu"
]
}
|
Xie Xianqi (born 28 December 1960) is a Chinese blasting expert who is dean of Institute of Explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology at Jianghan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, formerly served as chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd., Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company.
Biography
Xie was born in Honghu, Hubei, on 28 December 1960. He enlisted in the People's Liberation Army in November 1979, and was despatched to the National Defense Construction Office of the 69th Army in Beijing Military Region. In 1984, he was admitted to PLA Engineering Corps Command College, where he majored in mine blasting. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer management and application from PLA Naval University of Engineering in 1996 and master's degree in mining engineering from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 2005, respectively.In April 1988, he became deputy director of Blasting Laboratory of the Institute of Science and Technology, Wuhan Municipal Engineering Corporation. In December 1992 he became deputy general manager of Wuhan Blasting Company, rising to general manager in November 2004. He rose to become chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company in December 2004. In May 2015, he was appointed chairman of Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd., concurrently serving as chairman of Wuhan Blasting Company. In November 2018, he was hired by Jianghan University as dean of Institute of explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology.
Honours and awards
27 November 2017 Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE)
== References ==
|
educated at
|
{
"answer_start": [
868
],
"text": [
"Wuhan University of Science and Technology"
]
}
|
Xie Xianqi (born 28 December 1960) is a Chinese blasting expert who is dean of Institute of Explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology at Jianghan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, formerly served as chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd., Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company.
Biography
Xie was born in Honghu, Hubei, on 28 December 1960. He enlisted in the People's Liberation Army in November 1979, and was despatched to the National Defense Construction Office of the 69th Army in Beijing Military Region. In 1984, he was admitted to PLA Engineering Corps Command College, where he majored in mine blasting. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer management and application from PLA Naval University of Engineering in 1996 and master's degree in mining engineering from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 2005, respectively.In April 1988, he became deputy director of Blasting Laboratory of the Institute of Science and Technology, Wuhan Municipal Engineering Corporation. In December 1992 he became deputy general manager of Wuhan Blasting Company, rising to general manager in November 2004. He rose to become chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company in December 2004. In May 2015, he was appointed chairman of Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd., concurrently serving as chairman of Wuhan Blasting Company. In November 2018, he was hired by Jianghan University as dean of Institute of explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology.
Honours and awards
27 November 2017 Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE)
== References ==
|
occupation
|
{
"answer_start": [
851
],
"text": [
"engineer"
]
}
|
Xie Xianqi (born 28 December 1960) is a Chinese blasting expert who is dean of Institute of Explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology at Jianghan University and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, formerly served as chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd., Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company.
Biography
Xie was born in Honghu, Hubei, on 28 December 1960. He enlisted in the People's Liberation Army in November 1979, and was despatched to the National Defense Construction Office of the 69th Army in Beijing Military Region. In 1984, he was admitted to PLA Engineering Corps Command College, where he majored in mine blasting. He earned his bachelor's degree in computer management and application from PLA Naval University of Engineering in 1996 and master's degree in mining engineering from Wuhan University of Science and Technology in 2005, respectively.In April 1988, he became deputy director of Blasting Laboratory of the Institute of Science and Technology, Wuhan Municipal Engineering Corporation. In December 1992 he became deputy general manager of Wuhan Blasting Company, rising to general manager in November 2004. He rose to become chairman of Wuhan Municipal Construction Group Co., Ltd. and Wuhan Blasting Company in December 2004. In May 2015, he was appointed chairman of Wuhan Airport Development Group Co., Ltd., concurrently serving as chairman of Wuhan Blasting Company. In November 2018, he was hired by Jianghan University as dean of Institute of explosion and Engineering Blasting Technology.
Honours and awards
27 November 2017 Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE)
== References ==
|
family name
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Xie"
]
}
|
Lough Boderg (Irish: Loch Bó Dearg) is a lake on the River Shannon in County Roscommon and County Leitrim, Ireland.
Description
Logh Boderg is a large lough with a surface area of about 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) which is on the River Shannon, between Kilmore, County Roscommon and Annaduff in County Leitrim. The woodland of Derrycarne which were part of the lands owned by the Nesbitt family in the early 1800s sit on the shores of the Lough, the paths there give access to the lough's shoreline.
History and legend
The lake's name is Irish for "Lake of the red cow." Lough Boderg is separated from Lough Bofin ("Lake of the white cow") by the Derrycarne Narrows. There is a legend on how the loughs got their names, the story goes that a mermaid was found in the water of one of the loughs and taken to a nearby farmhouse. The people in the farmhouse were kind to her and to pay them back for their kindness the mermaid began to tell fortunes. The mermaid predicted that if the people put her back in the water, in the eve of May day, which was soon, that they would be generously repaid one year later. The people did as she said, placed her back in the water and said goodbye. A year to the day, they returned to the place where they had put the mermaid back in the water and were astonished to see two cows coming out of the water, a red one and a white one.Túathal Techtmar used Lough Boderg as one of the traditional boundaries of the ancient Kingdom of Meath: "From Loch-Bo-Deirg to Birra [Birr], From Sena [Shannon] eastward to the sea."
Recreation
Lough Boderg is a noted fishery for bream, rudd, roach, northern pike, eel and perch.The North Shannon Motor Yacht Club is based on Lough Boderg.
See also
List of loughs in Ireland
== References ==
|
instance of
|
{
"answer_start": [
41
],
"text": [
"lake"
]
}
|
Lough Boderg (Irish: Loch Bó Dearg) is a lake on the River Shannon in County Roscommon and County Leitrim, Ireland.
Description
Logh Boderg is a large lough with a surface area of about 1,200 hectares (3,000 acres) which is on the River Shannon, between Kilmore, County Roscommon and Annaduff in County Leitrim. The woodland of Derrycarne which were part of the lands owned by the Nesbitt family in the early 1800s sit on the shores of the Lough, the paths there give access to the lough's shoreline.
History and legend
The lake's name is Irish for "Lake of the red cow." Lough Boderg is separated from Lough Bofin ("Lake of the white cow") by the Derrycarne Narrows. There is a legend on how the loughs got their names, the story goes that a mermaid was found in the water of one of the loughs and taken to a nearby farmhouse. The people in the farmhouse were kind to her and to pay them back for their kindness the mermaid began to tell fortunes. The mermaid predicted that if the people put her back in the water, in the eve of May day, which was soon, that they would be generously repaid one year later. The people did as she said, placed her back in the water and said goodbye. A year to the day, they returned to the place where they had put the mermaid back in the water and were astonished to see two cows coming out of the water, a red one and a white one.Túathal Techtmar used Lough Boderg as one of the traditional boundaries of the ancient Kingdom of Meath: "From Loch-Bo-Deirg to Birra [Birr], From Sena [Shannon] eastward to the sea."
Recreation
Lough Boderg is a noted fishery for bream, rudd, roach, northern pike, eel and perch.The North Shannon Motor Yacht Club is based on Lough Boderg.
See also
List of loughs in Ireland
== References ==
|
historic county
|
{
"answer_start": [
91
],
"text": [
"County Leitrim"
]
}
|
Liviu Mihai (born 17 May 1977 in Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County) is a retired Romanian professional football player.
External links
Liviu Mihai at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
Liviu Mihai at Soccerway
|
place of birth
|
{
"answer_start": [
33
],
"text": [
"Cluj-Napoca"
]
}
|
Liviu Mihai (born 17 May 1977 in Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County) is a retired Romanian professional football player.
External links
Liviu Mihai at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
Liviu Mihai at Soccerway
|
country of citizenship
|
{
"answer_start": [
72
],
"text": [
"Romania"
]
}
|
Liviu Mihai (born 17 May 1977 in Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County) is a retired Romanian professional football player.
External links
Liviu Mihai at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
Liviu Mihai at Soccerway
|
family name
|
{
"answer_start": [
6
],
"text": [
"Mihai"
]
}
|
Liviu Mihai (born 17 May 1977 in Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County) is a retired Romanian professional football player.
External links
Liviu Mihai at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
Liviu Mihai at Soccerway
|
given name
|
{
"answer_start": [
0
],
"text": [
"Liviu"
]
}
|
Liviu Mihai (born 17 May 1977 in Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County) is a retired Romanian professional football player.
External links
Liviu Mihai at RomanianSoccer.ro (in Romanian)
Liviu Mihai at Soccerway
|
languages spoken, written or signed
|
{
"answer_start": [
72
],
"text": [
"Romanian"
]
}
|
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