Richard Field
Encyclopedia
Richard Field was an English
ecclesiological
theologian associated with the work of Richard Hooker. Whereas Hooker, eight years Field's senior, had written his Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity to defend conformity against non-conformity, Field's major work, Of the Church (1606/10), was a defence of the Protestant Church of England
under its Elizabethan settlement against the charge of Romanist opponents that it was no church at all.
Field maintained that Anglican piety and polity continued the pre-Tridentine
Catholic
conciliar
tradition. He argued that all the essential doctrinal points of Protestantism had been averred and defended constantly by certain theologians of the Roman Church throughout the preceding centuries, but that this fact had been increasingly overshadowed by the influence of the prevailing papist faction. Thus in essence, when viewed according to its roots in the apostolic gospel as defended by the decreasing minority of faithful spokesmen, the Church of Rome had always been a Protestant Church - but that this had been overwhelmed by the ever worsening papist/Romanist (Field used both terms) errors.
Although in his personality he was known as having an amiable and peacable disposition, his writings against the papists, particularly Robert Bellarmine
and Stapleton, rose to heights of implacable polemicism.
in Hertfordshire
, where his father had an estate. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and was sent by his father to Oxford at the age of sixteen (1577). There is one piece of flimsy evidence that he matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford
, but Magdalen Hall, Oxford is more likely. Here he certainly took his B.A. degree, 18 November 1581, and M.A., 2 June 1584, and was appointed as catechism lecturer, where his reputation was such that John Rainolds
and many others came to hear him. He was considered one of the best disputants in the university. His father wanted him to marry and not be ordained. But Field returned to Oxford, and after a residence of seven years, and until he took his degree of B.D. 14 Jan. 1592, he was made divinity reader of Winchester Cathedral
.
In 1594 he was chosen divinity lecturer to Lincoln's Inn
, and soon after was presented by Richard Kingsmill, a bencher of the Inn, to the parish of Burghclere
, Hampshire
, near Kingsmill's home at Highclere
. He turned down the wealthier living of St. Andrews, Holborn, and continued for the rest of his life as rector of Burghclere. On 7 December 1596 he proceeded to the degree of D.D., being at that time of The Queen's College.
In September 1598 he received a letter from the Lord Chamberlain, George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon
, desiring him to come and preach a probationary sermon before Queen Elizabeth on the 23rd. He was subsequently appointed one of the royal chaplains in ordinary, and received a grant of the next vacant prebend at Windsor. This grant is dated 30 March 1602, and he succeeded to the vacancy, and was installed 3 August 1604. He was joined in a special commission with William Paulet, 4th Marquess of Winchester
, Thomas Bilson
, and others, for ecclesiastical causes within the diocese of Winchester
; and in another to exercise all spiritual jurisdiction in the said diocese with John Whitgift
, Bilson and others, by James I, 1603, to whom he was also chaplain, and by whom he was invited to the Hampton Court conference
of January 1604. When King James came to Oxford in 1605, Field disputed with John Aglionby
before the king, and was praised by Nathaniel Brent
.
In 1610 he was made Dean of Gloucester, but never resided there, preaching a few times a year to large audiences. He chiefly resided at Burghclere and Windsor; he was on intimate terms with Sir Henry Savile
and Sir Henry Nevill. Field may have been a friend of Richard Hooker, perhaps introduced by John Spencer
. The king discussed theology with him, and once planned to send him to Germany to settle the differences between Lutherans and Calvinists; and made Field one of the fellows of the intended but ill-fated Chelsea College
, and on hearing of his death, expressed his regret in the words, 'I should have done more for that man.'
On 14 October 1614 his wife died, leaving him six sons and a daughter. After two years he married again, but little more than a month later, on 15 November 1616, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy
and died. He was buried in the chapel of St. George's, Windsor, below the choir. A black marble slab was laid over his grave (no longer present), and an inscription in brass recording his death and that of his first wife, Elizabeth Harris.
literature attacked what he saw as the elevation of Scholastic
opinion into articles of necessary faith, and the emergence of an exalted view of the Roman primacy
over the conciliar authority. He concluded that modern Roman Catholicism was echoing the errors of Donatism in its claim to exclusive purity. Field was also at the forefront of the (ultimately successful) argument that Anglicanism should accept the decrees of the first seven ecumenical councils as binding.
His major work Of the Church was first published in 1606. This contained only the first four of the five intended books. In 1610 was printed the fifth book. A second edition was edited by Nathaniel Field, the author's son, and dedicated to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
. This edition is charged by the Scots in their Canterburian's Self-conviction, 1641. with having additions made by Archbishop William Laud
. The third edition was printed by William Turner (1635). A modern edition was published by the Ecclesiastical History Society, Cambridge, 1847–52, 4 vols., reprinted without the EHS imprimatur, 1853.
In 1604 Field had published a sermon on Jude 3.
At his death Field had apparently commenced a work entitled A View of the Controversies in Religion, which in these last times have caused the Lamentable Divisions in the Christian World. Only the preface (or perhaps an interim draft thereof), and a few preliminary notes, were completed, and these were printed in his 'Life', by his son Nathaniel. This latter was published by John Le Neve
in 1716. From a copy of this life, interleaved with manuscript additions from the author's rough draft by the editor (Le Neve), and some notes by White Kennett
, Richard Gough
drew up the 'Life of Field,' which was printed in an edition of the Biographia Britannica
. Chalmers, in his Biographical Dictionary, transcribed the article and preserved it.
's nephew, and Isaak Walton's aunt. Of Field's sons, Nathaniel was prebendary of Chichester and rector of Stourton. Richard was M.D. and died single in 1638 (not 1696 as is sometimes said - the Richard Field who died in 1696 was son of Field's son Nathaniel). Giles died in 1629, aged 21, and is buried at New College Oxford with a memorial tablet in the cloisters. His eldest son John took his B.A. at Trinity College, Oxford in 1614; his other, youngest sons were Josias and Anthonie; his daughter Judith married the son of Field's second wife.
Kingdom of England
The Kingdom of England was, from 927 to 1707, a sovereign state to the northwest of continental Europe. At its height, the Kingdom of England spanned the southern two-thirds of the island of Great Britain and several smaller outlying islands; what today comprises the legal jurisdiction of England...
ecclesiological
Ecclesiology
Today, ecclesiology usually refers to the theological study of the Christian church. However when the word was coined in the late 1830s, it was defined as the science of the building and decoration of churches and it is still, though rarely, used in this sense.In its theological sense, ecclesiology...
theologian associated with the work of Richard Hooker. Whereas Hooker, eight years Field's senior, had written his Lawes of Ecclesiastical Polity to defend conformity against non-conformity, Field's major work, Of the Church (1606/10), was a defence of the Protestant Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
under its Elizabethan settlement against the charge of Romanist opponents that it was no church at all.
Field maintained that Anglican piety and polity continued the pre-Tridentine
Council of Trent
The Council of Trent was the 16th-century Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. It is considered to be one of the Church's most important councils. It convened in Trent between December 13, 1545, and December 4, 1563 in twenty-five sessions for three periods...
Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
conciliar
Ecumenical council
An ecumenical council is a conference of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice....
tradition. He argued that all the essential doctrinal points of Protestantism had been averred and defended constantly by certain theologians of the Roman Church throughout the preceding centuries, but that this fact had been increasingly overshadowed by the influence of the prevailing papist faction. Thus in essence, when viewed according to its roots in the apostolic gospel as defended by the decreasing minority of faithful spokesmen, the Church of Rome had always been a Protestant Church - but that this had been overwhelmed by the ever worsening papist/Romanist (Field used both terms) errors.
Although in his personality he was known as having an amiable and peacable disposition, his writings against the papists, particularly Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine
Robert Bellarmine was an Italian Jesuit and a Cardinal of the Catholic Church. He was one of the most important figures in the Counter-Reformation...
and Stapleton, rose to heights of implacable polemicism.
Life
Field was born 15 October 1561, at Hemel HempsteadHemel Hempstead
Hemel Hempstead is a town in Hertfordshire in the East of England, to the north west of London and part of the Greater London Urban Area. The population at the 2001 Census was 81,143 ....
in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, where his father had an estate. He was educated at Berkhamsted School and was sent by his father to Oxford at the age of sixteen (1577). There is one piece of flimsy evidence that he matriculated at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record...
, but Magdalen Hall, Oxford is more likely. Here he certainly took his B.A. degree, 18 November 1581, and M.A., 2 June 1584, and was appointed as catechism lecturer, where his reputation was such that John Rainolds
John Rainolds
John Rainolds , English divine, was born about Michaelmas 1549 at Pinhoe, near Exeter.He was educated at Merton and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, becoming a fellow of the latter in 1568. In 1572-73 he was appointed reader in Greek, and his lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric laid the sure basis of...
and many others came to hear him. He was considered one of the best disputants in the university. His father wanted him to marry and not be ordained. But Field returned to Oxford, and after a residence of seven years, and until he took his degree of B.D. 14 Jan. 1592, he was made divinity reader of Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral
Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe...
.
In 1594 he was chosen divinity lecturer to Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
, and soon after was presented by Richard Kingsmill, a bencher of the Inn, to the parish of Burghclere
Burghclere
Burghclere is a village and civil parish in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. According to the 2001 census it had a population of 1,138...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, near Kingsmill's home at Highclere
Highclere
Highclere is a village and civil parish situated in the North Wessex Downs in the Basingstoke and Deane district of Hampshire, England. It lies in the northern part of the county, near the Berkshire border. It is most famous for being the location of Highclere Castle....
. He turned down the wealthier living of St. Andrews, Holborn, and continued for the rest of his life as rector of Burghclere. On 7 December 1596 he proceeded to the degree of D.D., being at that time of The Queen's College.
In September 1598 he received a letter from the Lord Chamberlain, George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon
George Carey, 2nd Baron Hunsdon KG was the eldest son of Henry Carey, 1st Baron Hunsdon and Anne Morgan. His father was first cousin to Elizabeth I of England....
, desiring him to come and preach a probationary sermon before Queen Elizabeth on the 23rd. He was subsequently appointed one of the royal chaplains in ordinary, and received a grant of the next vacant prebend at Windsor. This grant is dated 30 March 1602, and he succeeded to the vacancy, and was installed 3 August 1604. He was joined in a special commission with William Paulet, 4th Marquess of Winchester
William Paulet, 4th Marquess of Winchester
William Paulet, 4th Marquess of Winchester was the son of William Paulet, 3rd Marquess of Winchester and Agnes Howard. He married Lady Lucy Cecil, daughter of Sir Thomas Cecil, 1st Earl of Exeter and Dorothy Neville...
, Thomas Bilson
Thomas Bilson
Thomas Bilson was an Anglican Bishop of Worcester and Bishop of Winchester. He, along with Miles Smith, oversaw the final edit and printing of the King James Bible. He is buried in Westminster Abbey in plot 232 between the tombs of Richard the Second and Edward the Third...
, and others, for ecclesiastical causes within the diocese of Winchester
Diocese of Winchester
The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England.Founded in 676, it is one of the oldest and largest of the dioceses in England.The area of the diocese incorporates:...
; and in another to exercise all spiritual jurisdiction in the said diocese with John Whitgift
John Whitgift
John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...
, Bilson and others, by James I, 1603, to whom he was also chaplain, and by whom he was invited to the Hampton Court conference
Hampton Court Conference
The Hampton Court Conference was a meeting in January 1604, convened at Hampton Court Palace, for discussion between King James I of England and representatives of the Church of England, including leading English Puritans.-Attendance:...
of January 1604. When King James came to Oxford in 1605, Field disputed with John Aglionby
John Aglionby
John Aglionby was an eminent divine, of an ancient family whose name was De Aguilon, corrupted into Aglionby. The son of Edward Aglionby and Elizabeth Musgrave, of Crookdayke, was admitted a student of Queen's College, Oxford, in 1583...
before the king, and was praised by Nathaniel Brent
Nathaniel Brent
-Life:He was the son of Anchor Brent of Little Wolford, Warwickshire, where he was born about 1573. He became 'portionist,' or postmaster, of Merton College, Oxford, in 1589; proceeded B.A. on 20 June 1593; was admitted probationer fellow there in 1594, and took the degree of M.A. on 31 October 1598...
.
In 1610 he was made Dean of Gloucester, but never resided there, preaching a few times a year to large audiences. He chiefly resided at Burghclere and Windsor; he was on intimate terms with Sir Henry Savile
Sir Henry Savile
Sir Henry Savile was an English scholar, Warden of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Eton.-Life:He was the son of Henry Savile of Bradley, near Halifax in Yorkshire, England, a member of an old county family, the Saviles of Methley, and of his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ramsden.He was...
and Sir Henry Nevill. Field may have been a friend of Richard Hooker, perhaps introduced by John Spencer
John Spencer
-Earls:*John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer *John Spencer, 3rd Earl Spencer , British politician*John Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer , British politician...
. The king discussed theology with him, and once planned to send him to Germany to settle the differences between Lutherans and Calvinists; and made Field one of the fellows of the intended but ill-fated Chelsea College
Chelsea College (17th century)
Chelsea College was a polemical college founded in London in 1609. This establishment was intended to centralize controversial writing against Catholicism, and was the idea of Matthew Sutcliffe, Dean of Exeter, who was the first Provost...
, and on hearing of his death, expressed his regret in the words, 'I should have done more for that man.'
On 14 October 1614 his wife died, leaving him six sons and a daughter. After two years he married again, but little more than a month later, on 15 November 1616, he was seized with a fit of apoplexy
Apoplexy
Apoplexy is a medical term, which can be used to describe 'bleeding' in a stroke . Without further specification, it is rather outdated in use. Today it is used only for specific conditions, such as pituitary apoplexy and ovarian apoplexy. In common speech, it is used non-medically to mean a state...
and died. He was buried in the chapel of St. George's, Windsor, below the choir. A black marble slab was laid over his grave (no longer present), and an inscription in brass recording his death and that of his first wife, Elizabeth Harris.
Works
Field's apologeticApologetics
Apologetics is the discipline of defending a position through the systematic use of reason. Early Christian writers Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of reason. Early Christian writers...
literature attacked what he saw as the elevation of Scholastic
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by the academics of medieval universities in Europe from about 1100–1500, and a program of employing that method in articulating and defending orthodoxy in an increasingly pluralistic context...
opinion into articles of necessary faith, and the emergence of an exalted view of the Roman primacy
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
over the conciliar authority. He concluded that modern Roman Catholicism was echoing the errors of Donatism in its claim to exclusive purity. Field was also at the forefront of the (ultimately successful) argument that Anglicanism should accept the decrees of the first seven ecumenical councils as binding.
His major work Of the Church was first published in 1606. This contained only the first four of the five intended books. In 1610 was printed the fifth book. A second edition was edited by Nathaniel Field, the author's son, and dedicated to George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham
George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham KG was the favourite, claimed by some to be the lover, of King James I of England. Despite a very patchy political and military record, he remained at the height of royal favour for the first two years of the reign of Charles I, until he was assassinated...
. This edition is charged by the Scots in their Canterburian's Self-conviction, 1641. with having additions made by Archbishop William Laud
William Laud
William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
. The third edition was printed by William Turner (1635). A modern edition was published by the Ecclesiastical History Society, Cambridge, 1847–52, 4 vols., reprinted without the EHS imprimatur, 1853.
In 1604 Field had published a sermon on Jude 3.
At his death Field had apparently commenced a work entitled A View of the Controversies in Religion, which in these last times have caused the Lamentable Divisions in the Christian World. Only the preface (or perhaps an interim draft thereof), and a few preliminary notes, were completed, and these were printed in his 'Life', by his son Nathaniel. This latter was published by John Le Neve
John Le Neve
John Le Neve was an English antiquary, known for his Fasti Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, a work of English church biography that has seen several subsequent editions.-Life:...
in 1716. From a copy of this life, interleaved with manuscript additions from the author's rough draft by the editor (Le Neve), and some notes by White Kennett
White Kennett
White Kennett was an English bishop and antiquarian.-Life:He was born at Dover. He was educated at Westminster School and at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where, while an undergraduate, he published several translations of Latin works, including Erasmus' In Praise of Folly.Kennett was vicar of...
, Richard Gough
Richard Gough (antiquarian)
Richard Gough was an English antiquarian.He was born in London, where his father was a wealthy M.P. and director of the British East India Company. In 1751 he entered Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he began his work on British topography, published in 1768...
drew up the 'Life of Field,' which was printed in an edition of the Biographia Britannica
Biographia Britannica
Biographia Britannica was a multi-volume biographical compendium, "the most ambitious attempt in the latter half of the eighteenth century to document the lives of notable British men and women". The first edition, edited by William Oldys, appeared in 6 volumes between 1747 and 1766...
. Chalmers, in his Biographical Dictionary, transcribed the article and preserved it.
Family
On 9 April 1594 he married Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Richard Harris, fellow of New College and rector of Hardwick, Buckinghamshire. His second wife was John Spencer's widow Dorothy, daughter of Thomas Cranmer, the archbishopThomas Cranmer
Thomas Cranmer was a leader of the English Reformation and Archbishop of Canterbury during the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI and, for a short time, Mary I. He helped build a favourable case for Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon which resulted in the separation of the English Church from...
's nephew, and Isaak Walton's aunt. Of Field's sons, Nathaniel was prebendary of Chichester and rector of Stourton. Richard was M.D. and died single in 1638 (not 1696 as is sometimes said - the Richard Field who died in 1696 was son of Field's son Nathaniel). Giles died in 1629, aged 21, and is buried at New College Oxford with a memorial tablet in the cloisters. His eldest son John took his B.A. at Trinity College, Oxford in 1614; his other, youngest sons were Josias and Anthonie; his daughter Judith married the son of Field's second wife.
Further reading
- Andrew Pyle (editor), Dictionary of Seventeenth Century British Philosophers (2000), article on Field, pp. 300–1.
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004), article on Field.
- Paul Avis, Anglicanism and the Christian Church, 2nd edition, chapter on Field.
- Vernon Wilkins, Richard Field, DD, 1561-1616, Of the Church, Five Books - on Ministerial Orders and Bishops, in Churchman, Vol. 114, No. 3, Autumn 2000.
- Anthony Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, Philip Bliss edition, article on Field.
- Chalmers, Alexander, 1759-1834, The General Biographical Dictionary, Volume XIV, London 1814, p.279ff, article on Field.