TAVERNER. 189 RtellAnoTAVE RNER, A. M.-=-This distrngutsnea person was born at Brisley in Norfolk, in the year 1505, and educated first in Bennet college, Cambridge, then in the universityof Oxford. The famous Cardinal Wolsey having founded a new college at the latter place,. furnished it with all the best scholars in the nation ; among whom were Taverner, Tindal, Frith, Goodman, and many others. Here Mr. Taverner and his brethren were soon called to the trial of their faith. Theywere men of good learning and grave judgments, and Mr. Taverner was famous for his knowledge of music ; but conferring together about the corruptions of the church, they were presently accused to the cardinal, and cast into prison. Theywere confined in a deep cell under the college, where salt fish was wont to be preserved ; so that by the filthiness and infection of the place, several of themsoon lost their lives. Mr. Taverner, however, escaped the fatal malady. Though he was accused of hiding one Mr. Clark's books under the boards of his school, the cardinal, on account of his music, exempted him, saying, " He is only a musician ;" and so he was released.+ He had a good knowledge of the Greek language, philosophy, and divinity ; but about thistime he removed or wasexpelled from the university, and became a student at the inns of court. Here, when he read any thing in the law, he made his quotations in Greek. In the year 1534, he was taken under the patronage of Lord Cromwell, principal secretary toHenry VIII.; by whose recommendation the king after- wards made him one of the clerks of the signet. This place he kept till the accession of Queen Mary, having been held in high esteem by King Henry, Edward VI., and the Duke of Somerset, the lord protector. In the year 1539, he published " ARecognition or Cor- rection of the Bible after the best Exemplars." It was printed in folio, dedicated to the king, and allowed to be publicly read in the churches. But upon the fall of Lord Cromwell, in 1540, the bishops causing the printers of the Bible in English to be cast into prison and punished, Mr. Taverner, as the reward of his labours, was sent to the CardinalWolsey possessed, for some years, all that power andgrandeur which could be enjoyed by. the greatest favourite, and most absolute mi- nister, under anarbitrary prince. He exercisedas absolute a power in the church, as he had done in the state. His abilities were equal to his great offices, but these were by no means equal to his ambition. He was the only man that ever had the ascendancy of Henry VIII, but afterwards fell into disgrace.--Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. i. ,FodesIVIartyrs, vol. ii. p. 209, 251.
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