- William Rugg
William Rugg (also Rugge, Repps, Reppes) (died 1550) was an English
Benedictine theologian, andbishop of Norwich from 1536 to 1549.Life
He was born in
Northrepps ,Norfolk . [http://www.origins.org.uk/genuki/NFK/places/n/northrepps/white1883.shtml]He was a
Doctor of Divinity ofGonville Hall, Cambridge in 1513. The Carthusian Thomas Spencer (died 1529) wrote "A Trialogus betweenThomas Bilney ,Hugh Latimer and William Repps", in which Rugg appears to balance two reformers. [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40928] [Attribution by Bale: Robert W. Dunning, "The West-Country Carthusians" p. 37. Christopher Harper-Bill (editor), "Religious Belief and Ecclesiastical Careers in Late Medieval England: Proceedings of the Conference Held at Strawberry Hill, Easter, 1989" (1991).]He became Abbot of
St Benet's Abbey in 1530."Concise Dictionary of National Biography"] . He retained the abbey "in commendam " on being appointed bishop of Norwich; the community there was suppressed in 1539. [David Knowles , "The Religious Orders in England" (1979 edition), p. 390.] [http://pastscape.english-heritage.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=133454]He was one of the authors of "
The Bishops' Book " of 1537. [http://www.hrionline.ac.uk/johnfoxe/apparatus/person_glossaryR.html] A theological conservative, he was one of the group trying, without success, to have the Book include material defendingpilgrimage s. [Diarmaid MacCulloch, "Cranmer" (1997), p. 190.] He disputed publicly with Robert Watson, an early evangelical Protestant, in 1539, on the topic offree will . [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-35026882_ITM]Resignation
He resigned his diocese in 1549. Reasons given are financial problems, and royal anger at his sloth in opposing
Kett's Rebellion (which may have amounted to sympathy). [ [http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/retrieve/2115/etd1747.pdf (PDF)] , p. 59.]Gilbert Burnet claimed that the see was needed as place to moveThomas Thirlby ,bishop of Westminster , so that Nicholas Ridley could be translated from Rochester, to becomebishop of London . [Gilbert Burnet, "The History of the Reformation of the Church of England" (1829), p. 309.] Rugge had in fact long been a thorn inThomas Cranmer 's flesh, and after Kett was put down he was eased out in disgrace, but pardoned and pensioned off. [Diarmaid MacCulloch, "Cranmer" (1997), p. 456-7.]Notes
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