Reginald Pecock

2025-06-22T06:56:40Z

220.235.240.231:

{{short description|15th-century Bishop of Chichester and Bishop of St Asaph}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| name = Reginald Pecock
| title = [[Bishop of Chichester]]
| image = Chichestercathedralwindowwilfredluffapeacock (cropped Reginald Pecock).jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| religion = Catholic
| appointed = 23 March 1450
| term_end = about 1461
| predecessor = [[Adam Moleyns]]
| successor = [[John Arundel (bishop of Chichester)|John Arundel]]
| ordination = 1421
| ordinated_by =
| consecration = 14 June 1444
| consecrated_by =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date = [[Wiktionary:circa|c.]] 1461
| death_place = [[Thorney Abbey]]
| previous_post = [[Bishop of St. Asaph]]
}}

'''Reginald Pecock''' (or '''Peacock'''; [[Wiktionary:circa|c.]] 1395 – c. 1461) was a Welsh prelate, [[Scholasticism|scholastic]], and writer.

==Life==

Pecock was probably born in [[Laugharne]]<ref>Lloyd, John Edward, ed. (1935), A History of Carmarthenshire, I (1st ed.), Cardiff: London Carmarthenshire Society. p 443</ref> and was educated at [[Oriel College, Oxford]].

Having been ordained a priest of the Catholic Church in 1421, Pecock secured a mastership at [[Whittington College, London]], in 1431 where he was also parish priest of St. Michael Paternoster Royal, the adjacent parish church.{{citation needed|date=June 2012}} On 14 June 1444 he was consecrated as [[Bishop of St Asaph]],<ref name=Handbook296>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 296</ref> and translated as [[Bishop of Chichester]] on 23 March 1450.<ref name=Handbook239>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 239</ref> In 1454 he became a member of the privy council.

He wrote books of both a pedagogical and polemical nature. His pedagogical books, in which he proposes a wholly new catechism include ''The Donet'', ''The Follower to the Donet'', and ''The Rule of Christian Religion''. He joined the debate on Christian doctrine in his ''Repressing of Over Mich Wyting'' [blaming] ''the Clergie'', 1449, and ''Book of Faith'', 1456. These were both more cogent than the Lollard tenets, and sought to stay the Lollard movement by setting aside ecclesiastical infallibility, and taking the appeal to Scripture and reason alone.<ref>Alexander Gordon ''Heads of English Unitarian History'' 1895</ref> It was principally Pecock's appeal to reason and his attack on the primacy of episcopal authority for which he was deprived in 1458.

In attacking the Lollards, Pecock put forward the following religious views: he asserted that the [[Scriptures]] were not the only standard of right and wrong; he questioned some of the articles of the [[creed]] and the infallibility of the Church; he wished "bi cleer witte drawe men into consente of trewe feith otherwise than bi fire and swerd or hangement" and in general he exalted the authority of reason. Owing to these views, the [[archbishop of Canterbury]], [[Thomas Bourchier (bishop)|Thomas Bourchier]], ordered his writings to be examined. This was done and he was found guilty of [[heresy]].

Pecock was removed from the privy council and he publicly (at [[St Paul's Cross]], 4 December 1457), renounced his opinions in accordance with his previously stated opinion about the need for obedience in all matters to the Church hierarchy. Pecock, who has been called "the most prolific English [[theology|theologian]] of the 15th century",<ref>Reginald Pecock and Vernacular Theology in Pre-Reformation England, Jennifer Anh-Thư Tran Smith, Univ of Los Angeles 2012, p.ii</ref> was then forced to resign his bishopric in January 1459,<ref name=Handbook239/> and was removed to [[Thorney Abbey]] in Cambridgeshire, where he doubtless remained{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}} until his death about 1461.<ref name=Handbook239/>

[[File:Chichestercathedralwindowwilfredluffapeacock.jpg|thumb|Stained glass window in Chichester Cathedral depicting Reginald Peacock, [[Ralph de Luffa|Ralph of Luffa]] and Wilfrid, all Bishops of Chichester]]
The bishop's chief work is the famous ''Represser of over-much weeting [blaming] of the Clergie'', which was issued c. 1449–1455. In addition to its great importance in the history of the Lollard movement the ''Represser'' has an exceptional interest as a model of the English of the time, Pecock being one of the first writers to use the [[vernacular]]. In thought and style alike it is the work of a man of learning and ability.

A biography of Pecock is added to the edition of the ''Repressor'' published by [[Churchill Babington]] for the [[Rolls Series]] in 1860.

==Extant works==
*''The Repressing of Over Mich Wyting of the Clergie (The Repressor of Over Much Blaming of the Clergy)'',(1449); ed.Churchill Babington; Longman, Green and Roberts, (2 vols, London, 1860).
*''The Book of Faith'' (1456), ed. J. L. Morison, (Glasgow, 1909).
*''The Donet'', ed. E. V. Hitchcock, (London, 1921).
*''The Follower of the Donet'', ed. E. V. Hitchcock (Oxford, 1971).
*''The Reule of Crysten Religioun'', by Reginald Pecock ... now first edited from Pierpont Morgan Ms. 519, by William Cabell Greet; London, H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1927; & New York, 1971); Millwood, N.Y., Kraus Reprint, 1987.

==Citations==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* {{EB1911|wstitle = Pecock, Reginald|volume=21|page=33}}
* {{cite book |author1=Fryde, E. B. |author2=Greenway, D. E. |author3=Porter, S. |author4=Roy, I. |title=Handbook of British Chronology|edition=Third revised |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1996 |isbn=0-521-56350-X }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|ca}}
{{s-bef| before=[[John Low (bishop)|John Lowe]]}}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Bishop of St. Asaph]]| years=1444–1450}}
{{s-aft| after=[[Thomas Bird (bishop)|Thomas Bird]] }}
{{s-bef| before=[[Adam Moleyns]] }}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Bishop of Chichester]] | years=1450–1459}}
{{s-aft| after=[[John Arundel (bishop of Chichester)|John Arundel]] }}
{{s-end}}

{{Bishops of Chichester}}
{{Authority control}}

{{Use British English|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pecock, Reginald}}
[[Category:1395 births]]
[[Category:1460 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Laugharne]]
[[Category:Bishops of Chichester]]
[[Category:Bishops of St Asaph]]
[[Category:Alumni of Oriel College, Oxford]]
[[Category:15th-century Roman Catholic bishops in England]]
[[Category:15th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Wales]]
[[Category:Welsh bishops]]
[[Category:15th-century Welsh clergy]]

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Reginald Pecock