Genealogy and History of Ed & Gayle [Fuess] Denné:Information about Stephen Gardiner
Stephen Gardiner (b. 1483, d. Nov 12, 1555)
Notes for Stephen Gardiner:Gardiner, Stephen, 1493?–1555, English prelate.
He studied civil and canon law, and became Master of Trinity Hall, Cambridge.He became secretary to Thomas (later Cardinal) Wolsey and later secured the favor of Henry VIII by a mission to Rome to further the king's plans for divorce from Katharine of Aragón.He was made bishop of Winchester (1531) and wrote De vera obedientia (On true obedience) (1535), justifying the royal supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs.
Thomas Cromwell's fall was in part due to him, and he was the probable author of the Six Articles (1539), which reaffirmed the king's adherence to medieval church doctrines as against those of the Reformation. .
Gardiner allied with conservative religious faction led by the Duke of Norfolk, and played a part in the fall of Thomas Cromwell, he was deprived of his bishopric and was imprisoned in the Tower of London during Edward VI's reign for 5 years.
---In 1550, Gardiner was deprived of his bishopric, to which, however, he was restored on the accession of Mary Tudor in 1553. Aug 23, 1553 he became Lord Chancellor of England and Mary's chief advisor. .
In September of that same year, the great seal was delivered to him and, on 1st October, he placed the crown on the head of Queen Mary. His share in the Marian persecutions need here only be alluded to. Although it is probable that the number of victims has been greatly exaggerated and that the personal cruelty of Gardiner and Bonner was less ferocious than is usually the fashion to represent it, there can be little doubt but that the former, at least, deserves much of the odium which popular hatred has cast upon his name. "His malice," says Fuller, "was like what is commonly said of white powder, which surely discharged the bullet, yet made no report, being secret in all his acts of cruelty. This made him often chide Bonner, calling him "ass," though not so much for killing poor people, as for not doing it more cunningly."
Great ill-will existed between Gardiner and Cardinal Pole, to which it is said that Cranmer owed the preservation of his life for some months. His execution did not, at all events, take place until after Gardiner's death, which occurred at Westminster in 1555. "I have sinned with Peter," he is said to have exclaimed on his deathbed, " but I have not wept with him." The story told by Fox, that Gardiner refused to dine on the day of the burning of Ridley and Latimer, until he heard from his servants posted along the road, that the faggots were kindled about them, and that whilst at table he was seized with mortal illness, has been effectively disproved. After lying in state at Southwark, he was conveyed to Winchester in a cart, hung with black and having his effigy in episcopal robes placed without it. His chantry chapel may still be seen on the north side of the altar at Winchester Cathedral. **
--- Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal --Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester
More About Stephen Gardiner:
Burial: Unknown, Saint Edmunds, Suffolk, England.
Children of Stephen Gardiner and Margaret Grey are:
- +George Gardiner, b. 1510, Berwick-on-Tweed247, d. date unknown.