A Reformation Survivor: the Case of Archbishop Nicholas Heath, Lord Chancellor of England, and the Rule of Women

Abstract

SIXTEENTH-CENTURY England was a patriarchal hierarchy ruled for more than half a century by a minor and two women. It was also a society where a man of humble birth might rise to become simultaneously archbishop of York and lord chancellor. Such defiance of the natural order conjures up the image of Thomas Wolsey. The focus of this paper is also an archbishop of York and lord chancellor, but one who remains virtually anonymous. After a career marked by accommodation to royal authority, but consistent adherence to Catholic doctrine, Nicholas Heath, speaking to the House of Lords, declared Elizabeth I unfit to serve as head of the church because of her gender. Despite his temerity, Heath was allowed a quiet retirement and died peacefully on his own estate on good terms with the queen he had tried to bar from ecclesiastical office. A survivor of the complex twists of the English reformations, Heath provides an excellent example of the phenomenon, noted by Jonathan Wright, by which martyrs, exiles, and recusants receive more attention than conformists, temporizers, and survivors. 1 At the time Nicholas Heath rose to speak in Parliament in the spring of 1559, the deaths of Queen Mary and Archbishop of Canterbury Reginald Pole had left him the leading Catholic cleric in the realm. Throughout the Tudor era, Heath's own theology had undergone testing, but he never wavered in his commitment to traditional Catholic beliefs. Heath clung to the real presence of the traditional Mass as the central mystery of the Christian faith. 2 Sympathetic to Henry VIII as head of the church, and to modest reforms, but not to Protestant innovations, Joel Berlatsky is a professor of history at Wilkes University.Heath consistently accepted constituted political authority. In the reign of Edward VI, Heath balked at moves toward a Protestant Church of England and as a result lost his ecclesiastical and civil offices. The death of Edward VI saw the Catholic Queen Mary elevate Heath to high positions in church and state, leaving him the standard bearer for the old faith when Elizabeth ascended the throne. It was in this capacity that, speaking for all Catholics and patriarchal Protestants, he addressed the House of Lords in 1559. Examining his speech in the context of his career and societal attitudes toward female governance, and recognizing that while Heath questioned Elizabeth's right to govern the English church, he never questioned her right to govern the English state, illustrates the challenges of and possibilities for surviving the English reformations of the sixteenth century.The forceful oration Heath delivered represented Catholic rejection of female and lay supremacy in religious matters. 3 Though several different versions of the speech exist, his arguments are not in doubt. Speaking before a House of Lords that sympathized with his position, Heath stated what he saw as the repercussions of "forsaking the sea of Rome." Included were the rejection of all general councils, the exclusion of canon and ecclesiastical laws, alienation f...