Soon afterwards he was summoned to answer for his opinion before Convocation. He appealed to the King, and Henry quickly brought the bishops to submission by an assertion of the royal supremacy and a threat of praemunire[1740]. Standish thus won the goodwill of the court; he possessed the confidence of the people. The feeling against foreign traders was now very bitter in London, and in 1517 one John Lincoln, acting as spokesman of the citizens, urged the warden of the Franciscans
‘to take part with the commonalty against the strangers’
in a sermon he was to deliver on Easter Monday[1741]. Standish refused, wisely, as the event showed; for an inflammatory sermon the next day resulted in a serious riot. In 1518 Standish obtained the bishopric of St. Asaph by royal influence, in spite of the opposition of Wolsey[1742]. In 1524 he was sent as royal ambassador to Denmark[1743]. In 1528 he was one of the ‘counsellors appointed for the hearing of poor men’s causes in the King’s Court of Requests’[1744].
His administration of his diocese was not altogether blameless. His Vicar-General, Sir Robert ap Rice, was indicted for extortions on the King’s tenants in 1533, and relatives of Sir Robert had, three years previously, been indicted for maintaining thieves and had not yet been punished[1745].
But Standish is best known as a champion, probably the foremost champion, of the ‘Old Learning’ in England. He was, there can be little doubt, the Franciscan theologian who in 1516 tried to organize a combined critical attack on the writings of Erasmus[1746]. It was some years later—in 1520—that he preached at Paul’s Cross against Erasmus’ edition of the New Testament, and inveighed against his writings in conversation at court[1747]. He consequently became the object of the famous scholar’s satire and invective, and his memory has suffered accordingly.
In 1528, when the royal divorce suit was proceeding, he became Katharine’s chief counsellor, being apparently chosen by the queen herself[1748]. During the long trial, however, he showed little of the boldness which characterised Fisher’s conduct, and Katharine seems not unreasonably to have entertained some suspicion of his sincerity[1749]. He was present at the coronation of Anne Boleyn, June 1533[1750]. That he was willing to admit the royal supremacy[1751] is not surprising. He proposed to add to the King’s Articles (which required the surrender, by Convocation, of the legislative powers of the clergy), the words:
‘Provided that the King allow those constitutions which are not contrary to the law of God or of the realm to be put in execution as before[1752].’
He died on July 9th, 1535[1753]. His will is dated July 3rd, 1535[1754]. He desired to be buried ‘inter fratres Minores’ (London?).
‘Item pro sepultura mea quadraginta libras. Item pro Tumba erigenda xiijli. vjs viijd in ecclesia fratrum minorum ubi contigerit corpus meum quiescere. Item pro exhibicione scolarium in Universitate Oxonie quadraginta libras. Item pro edificatione Insule ecclesie fratrum Minorum Oxonie quadraginta libras.’
His bequest of £5 to buy books for the Oxford Franciscans, and his appointment of two executors to distribute his own library should make us hesitate to accept unreservedly the charge of ‘gross ignorance’ which Erasmus brings against him[1755]. Among other legacies may be noticed £40 to the Church of St. Asaph ‘pro pavimento chori,’ 20 marcs to the Carmelites of Denbigh ‘to build their cloister,’ £10 to the Minorites of London for thirty trentals, £40 to the parish church of ‘Standisshe,’ and a messuage in ‘Wrixham’ to Nicholas Rygbye. The will was not allowed to pass uncontested; ‘for the law is plain, that when a religious man is made a bishop, he cannot make a will’[1756]. Cromwell seems to have exacted heavy fines from the executors and legatees[1757].