ARCHDEACON HARPSFIELD'S VISITATION RETURNS INTRODUCTION (1) Nicholas Harpsfield : His Life and Writings Archdeacon Nicholas Harpsfield was the son of John Harpsfield, citizen and draper of London. The family originated in Hertfordshire and were entitled to bear arms . The facts of his life are fully discussed by Professor A. W. Chambers in the introduction to his own and Dr. Elsie Hitchcock's edition of Harpsfield's Life of More (Early English Text Society, 1932) . The editors seem unaware of the records of his visitations preserved in the Dean and Chapter Library at Canterbury. Harpsfield was born in London in 1519 and in 1529 admitted scholar of Winchester. was his brother John, three years .the senior, who was appointed Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford not Nicholas, as is stated by Wood. Both studied at New College ; both became archdeacons (one of London, the other of Canterbury) ; and in 1550 both joined the group of Edwardian Catholic exiles centred at Louvain. Four years later, on 31 March 1554, Nicholas Harpsfield replaced Edmund Cranmer as Archdeacon of Canterbury, and on 16 July took the degree of D.C.L. at Oxford. Even before his arrival in England Cardinal Pole had conveyed to the archdeacon certain powers of absolving from heresy , together with faculties for delegating to other priests. The Cardinal was welcomed by him at Canterbury in a long and enthusiastic address, which moved the audience to tears. As commissioner for the checking of heresy he played an important role. Lord Acton and Professor Chambers have defended Harpsfield against charges of cruelty levelled by Foxe. In the one or two instances in the 1557 Register where the scribe indicates the Archdeacon's personal attitude to a religious offender , it is certainly towards leniency, though within the bounds of the law.
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From the beginning of Elizabeth's reign the two brothers were
imprisoned in the Fleet. Shortly after 19 August 1574 they were released on bail in order to go to Bath for the sake of their health. From 12 Novemberthey appeared before the Star Chamber and thereafter frequently until 29 November of the following year, when John alone appeared , asking that his brother might be excused on the ground of illness . Nicholas died shortly afterwards, on 18 December , the fourth Sunday in Advent, 1575 a date which must now replace the inaccurate one (1583) of Pits . John Harpsfield died three years later, on 19 August 1578. In the Upper Reading Room of the Bodleian is a portrait inscribed
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" NICHOLAUS HARPSFELDUS ARCHIDIACONUS CANTNAIRENSIS ." is not certain, however , that it is his. The first of Harpsfield's works to be printed was the Six Dialogues , or, to give it its full title, Dialogi sex, contra summi pontificatus , monasticae vitae , Sanctorum , sacrarum imaginum oppugnatores, et pseudo martyres . Two editions were printed at Antwerp, in 1566 and 1573. The captive author for his own protection disguised his identity under the pseudonym of Alan Cope. The work is mainly doctrinal anddirected particularly against the Centuriators of Magdeburg ; but in the sixth dialogue , as the title might indicate, he takes account of the martyrs of his countryman, Foxe , and also certain of that writer's inaccuracies . For example , he shews that Marbecke , the organist and composer, was pardoned and still alive. Foxe corrected this error subsequently.
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