PARKER, MATTHEW, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
Arms.—Gu., on a chevron between 3 keys erect arg., as many estoiles of the field. The estoiles were an augmentation added in 1559. Parker.
[New Testament. London, 1574.]
Matthew Parker (born 6th August 1504, died 17th May 1575) was educated at Cambridge, and in 1527 he took orders and became a Fellow of his College, and quickly made a name as a powerful preacher. In 1537 he was made Chaplain to the King and a Prebendary of Ely. He became Master of his old College, St. Benet's (Corpus Christi), in 1544. In 1552 he was Dean of Lincoln, but on Mary's accession he lost that and his other preferments on the ground of his being married.
During all Queen Mary's reign Dr. Parker kept himself well out of the way, but when Elizabeth came to the throne he was sought out and in 1559 consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury, being the second Protestant Archbishop of that See.
Archbishop Parker concerned himself much with literature, and wrote several valuable books. He had much to do with the Book of Common Prayer, and also with the revisal of the then existing translation of the Bible, the edition finally issued by him being known as the "Bishop's Bible." He founded the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1572, and bequeathed a large number of books and manuscripts to the University of Cambridge and to his old College.
Archbishop Parker had a staff of workmen in his own house, part of which was fully equipped for their use. His work De Antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae, of which it is said no two copies are alike, as the Archbishop made some alterations in the proofs every time they were submitted to him, is said to have been printed at the Archbishop's press by John Day. Some of his books are beautifully bound in embroidered velvet, also supposed to have been done in his own house. In one of his letters to Lord Burghley, he says that he has in his house "Paynters, Lymners, Wryters, and Book-Bynders." It is possible that several of the fine bindings made for Queen Elizabeth and for Lord Burghley were really made in the Archbishop's workshop.
