Mathew Parker’s Pulpit

Matthew Parker, chaplain to Anne Boleyn and later archbishop of Canterbury under Elizabeth I.

Matthew Parker was chaplain to Anne Boleyn and later archbishop of Canterbury under Elizabeth I. In 1535, Queen Anne Boleyn appointed Parker dean of the collegiate church of Stoke by Clare and took a keen interest in his reforms that included,

‘as well as regular preaching, the appointment of a lecturer on the Bible to teach four days a week in English and Latin, a new grammar school with a well-paid master and facilities for fee-paying as well as free pupils, and finally eight or ten choral scholarships, which could lead to a six-year bursary at Cambridge.’ (Ives, Pg. 286)

Anne Boleyn was designated the new founder of the college and as Eric Ives points out,

‘Here was the model of what the redeployment of Church endowments might have achieved.’ (Pg. 286-7)

Anne Boleyn supported various learned institutions and I think would have achieved some wonderful things in this area had she reigned for longer.

In 1536, when Anne realised that the tide was turning against her, she asked Matthew Parker to ensure that Elizabeth would be well looked after. Clearly Parker was a man Anne Boleyn admired and trusted.

Matthew Parker’s Pulpit

The main house was almost entirely rebuilt in the seventeenth century and today operates as an independent school. However, the nearby church, St John the Baptist, retains some of its original features and houses some medieval stained glass, sixteenth century wall paintings and Matthew Parker’s pulpit!

This photograph is courtesy of Simon from  www.suffolkchurches.com and may not be reproduced without prior permission.