The Renaissance

Abstract

ALABASTER, William. English. Born in Hadleigh, Suffolk, 27 January 1568. Educated at Westminster School, London; Trinity College, Cambridge (Queen’s Scholar), 1584, Fellow, 1589, M.A., 1591; ordained Anglican priest. Married Katherine Fludd in 1618. Chaplain to Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, 1596–97. Converted to Roman Catholicism, 1597, and arrested and deprived of Anglican orders, 1598; broke parole, went to Rome and enrolled in the English College; returned to England in 1599 and was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later in Framlingham Castle, Suffolk; pardoned on the accession of James I, but was imprisoned again in 1606; travelled in the Low Countries in 1606; at the English College, Rome, 1609; imprisoned by the Inquisition, 1609, declared heretical and fled to England, where he recanted of Catholicism, then recanted his recantation, then recanted again; created Doctor of Divinity at Cambridge in 1614, and given the rich living of Therfield, Hertfordshire; later a chaplain to James I. Died 28 April 1640.