Rectors of Aldington

Indexing the Hussey collection has begun, and revealed some colourful Rectors of Aldington. John Noble, one of the Library Volunteers writes, “After reading this, you may conclude that subsequent Rectors of Aldington determined to live a quiet and sober life!”

John Allen, rector 1510–1511, became Cardinal Wolsey’s henchman in the early suppression of smaller monasteries, which rendered him odious to the people. Rewarded by elevation to the Archbishopric of Dublin, he was barbarously murdered at Clontarf on 28 July 1534, his brains being beaten out with a club.

Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam, rector 1511–1512. Archbishop Warham offered him the living, but Erasmus initially declined since “he was not sufficiently versed in English but a barbarian speaking a foreign tongue”, but was persuaded to accept. He resigned in 1512 upon appointment to a Professorship at Oxford. Before leaving, he astutely arranged a pension of £20 per annum should be paid to him out of the living.

Robert Masters, rector 1514–1558. He had as a parishioner Elizabeth Bolton, a young girl subject to fits and trances during which she saw visions and uttered prophecies. In 1525, she entered a nunnery and became known as the holy Maid of Kent. In 1533 she began to denounce King Henry VIII and his conduct towards his Queen about the proposed divorce. Thomas Cromwell ordered that everyone who had at any time been privy to her prophecies should be arrested and condemned to death, including Masters. The charges were knowing her to be an imposter and aiding and abetting her to their own advantage.

Masters, and the others implicated, were placed upon a high platform at St Paul’s Cross, London, and put to public humiliation before a vast concourse of spectators, Bolton reading a confession of guilt. Bolton, two monks, and a priest, were hanged at Tyburn. Masters, although condemned, was imprisoned for a further four months, then by Royal Grant (1534/35) received pardon and remission of his attainder with restoration of his goods and possessions.

Meanwhile, Erasmus complained that his £20 was not being paid!!