John Bell (Bishop of Worcester)
|
|
- For other men with the same name, see John Bell
John Bell LL.D (died 1556) was the Bishop of Worcester during the reign of Henry VIII of England. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1504 he took the degree of LL.B at Cambridge University.
During the reign of Henry VIII and the Reformation, he held several ecclesiastical posts. Bell was among those sent to Rome by Henry VIII to the Lateran council. Bell was made one of Henry VIII's chaplins. He was employed by him in various ways in furthering his divorce from Catharine of Aragon. In 1527 he appeared as the King's proxy and in 1528 was consulted by the King and by Cardinal Wolsey on the matter of the Pope's dispensation and on the commission to Wolsey and Lorenzo Cardinal Campeggio to decide the validity of his union to Catharine. In 1529, Dr. Bell appeared as King's counsel and led those who pleaded for the King before legatees in Blackfriars Hall; and further, he was one of a commission including Sir Thomas More to assist the Archbishop in preparing royal proclamation against William Tyndale's translation of the Scriptures and a number of heretical books.
In 1537 he was one of the composers of the Bishop's Book. In 1539, Bell succeded Hugh Latimer as Bishop of Worcester and assisted with the baptism of Edward VI at Hampton Court. In 1540 he was a member of the committee of convocation which pronounced the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves illegal. During the following period until 1543 he was engaged along with others to assist the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer, with the preparation of the King's Book. When Henry died in 1547, Edward was nine years of age, and Bell then assisted the two regents who governed in turn. When Mary came to power, he was among the Protestant leaders caught in the political turmoil of her reign. John Bell died in 1556.
Source: Oxford DNB, pb. 1925