Editing Nicholas Heath

{{Short description|Archbishop of York (1555–1559) and Lord Chancellor (1555–1558)}}
{{other people}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2011}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2020}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| honorific-prefix = [[The Most Reverend]]
| name = Nicholas Heath
| honorific-suffix = 
| archbishop_of = [[Archbishop of York]]
| image = Nicholas Heath by Hans Eworth.jpg
| imagesize = 
| alt = 
| church = [[Roman Catholic]]
| caption = Portrait by [[Hans Eworth]]
| enthroned = 1555
| ended = 1559
| predecessor = [[Robert Holgate]]
| successor = [[Thomas Young, Archbishop of York|Thomas Young]]
| consecration = 4 April 1540
| consecrated_by = [[Stephen Gardiner]]
| birth_date = {{circa|1501}}
| birth_place = [[London]], [[Kingdom of England|England]]
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1578|1501}}
| death_place = [[Chobham, Surrey]]
| buried = [[Chobham, Surrey]]
}}

{{Portal|Christianity}}

'''Nicholas Heath''' ({{circa|1501}}–1578) was the last Roman Catholic [[archbishop of York]] and [[Lord Chancellor]]. He previously served as [[bishop of Worcester]].

==Life==
Heath was born in London and graduated BA at Oxford in 1519.<ref>[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/alumni-oxon/1500-1714/pp679-705 Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714]</ref> He then migrated to [[Christ's College, Cambridge]], where he graduated BA in 1520, MA in 1522, and was elected fellow in 1524.<ref>{{acad|id=HT519N|name=Heath, Nicholas}}</ref> After holding minor preferments he was appointed [[archdeacon of Stafford]] in 1534 and graduated DD in 1535. He then accompanied [[Edward Foxe|Edward Fox]], bishop of Hereford, on his mission to promote a theological and political understanding with the [[Martin Luther|Lutheran]] princes of Germany. His selection for this duty implies a readiness on Heath's part to proceed some distance along the path of reform; but his dealings with the Lutherans did not confirm this tendency, and Heath's subsequent career was closely associated with adherence to Roman Catholicism.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911 |wstitle=Heath, Nicholas |volume=13 |pages = 157&ndash;158 |inline=1 |first=Albert Frederick |last=Pollard |author-link=Albert Pollard}}</ref>

In 1539, the year of the [[Six Articles (1539)|Six Articles]], he was made bishop of Rochester, and in 1543 he succeeded [[John Bell, Bishop of Worcester|John Bell]] at Worcester. His Catholicism, however, was arguably of a less rigid type than [[Stephen Gardiner|Gardiner]]'s and [[Edmund Bonner|Bonner]]'s; he felt something of the force in some quarters of the national antipathy to foreign influence, whether ecclesiastical or secular, and was always impressed by the necessity of national unity, so far as was possible, in matters of faith. Apparently he made no difficulty about carrying out the earlier reforms of [[Edward VI of England|Edward VI]], and he accepted the first [[Book of Common Prayer (1549)|''Book of Common Prayer'']] after it had been modified by the [[House of Lords]] in a Catholic direction.<ref name=EB1911/>

His definite breach with the [[English Reformation]] occurred on grounds which, four centuries later, [[Pope Leo XIII|Leo XIII]] would claim that the Anglican priesthood was not valid. The question was over the [[1550 ordinal]]. Heath refused to accept it, was imprisoned, and in 1551 deprived of his bishopric. On Mary's accession he was released and restored, and made president of the [[Council of Wales and the Marches]]. In 1555 he was promoted to the archbishopric of York, which he did much to enrich; he built [[York House, Strand|York House]] on the [[Strand, London]]. After Gardiner's death he was appointed [[lord chancellor]], probably on [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[Reginald Pole]]'s recommendation; for Heath, like Pole himself, disliked the Spanish party in England. Unlike Pole, however, he seems to have been averse to the harsher aspects of [[Mary I of England|Mary]]'s reign, and no Protestants were burnt in his diocese. He exercised, however, little influence on Mary's secular or ecclesiastical policy.<ref name=EB1911/>

On Mary's death Heath as chancellor at once proclaimed [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth]]. Like [[Thomas More|Sir Thomas More]] he held that it was entirely within the competence of the national state, represented by parliament, to determine questions of the succession to the throne; and although Elizabeth did not renew his commission as lord chancellor, he continued to sit in the privy council for two months until the government had determined to complete the breach with the Roman Catholic Church; and as late as April 1559 he assisted the government by helping to arrange the [[Westminster Conference 1559|Westminster Conference]], and attempting to establish some common ground between his co-religionists and the emerging Elizabethan settlement. He refused to crown Elizabeth, however, because she would not have the coronation service accompanied with the elevation of the Host; and ecclesiastical ceremonies and doctrine could not, in Heath's view, be altered or abrogated by any mere national authority.<ref name=EB1911/>

Hence he steadily resisted Elizabeth's acts of supremacy and uniformity, although he had acquiesced in the acts of 1534 and 1549. Like others of Henry's bishops, he had been convinced by the events of Edward VI's reign that Sir Thomas More was right and [[Henry VIII of England|Henry VIII]] was wrong in their attitude towards the claims of the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church. He was therefore necessarily deprived of his archbishopric in 1559, but he remained loyal to Elizabeth; and after a temporary confinement he was suffered to pass the remaining nineteen years of his life in peace and quiet, never attending public worship and sometimes hearing mass in private. The queen visited him more than once at his house at [[Chobham, Surrey]]; he died and was buried there at the end of 1578.<ref name=EB1911/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

===Authorities===
*''Letters and Papers of Henry VIII.'';
*''Acts of the Privy Council'';
*''Cal. State Papers, Domestic, Addenda, Spanish and Venetian'';
*Kemp, ''Loseley Manuscripts'';
*[[James Anthony Froude]], ''History'';
*[[Gilbert Burnet|Burnet]], Collier, [[Richard Watson Dixon|Dixon]] and Frere's Church Histories;
*[[John Strype]], ''Works'' (General Index);
*''Parker Soc. Publications'' (Gough's Index);

{{S-start}}
{{S-off}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Stephen Gardiner]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Lord Chancellor|Lord High Chancellor of England]]|years=1555–1558}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Nicholas Bacon (courtier)|Sir Nicholas Bacon]]|as=[[Lord Keeper of the Great Seal]]}}
{{S-rel|en}}
{{S-bef|before=[[John Hilsey]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Rochester]]|years=1539–1543}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Henry Holbeach]]}}
{{S-bef|before=[[John Bell, Bishop of Worcester|John Bell]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Worcester]]|years=1543–1551}}
{{S-aft|after=[[John Hooper (bishop)|John Hooper]]}}
{{S-bef|before=[[John Hooper (bishop)|John Hooper]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Bishop of Worcester]]|years=1554–1555}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Richard Pate (bishop)|Richard Pate]]}}
{{S-bef | before = [[William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1551 creation)|1st Earl of Pembroke]]}}
{{S-ttl| title  = [[Lord President of Wales and the Marches]]| years  = 1555–1558}}
{{S-aft | after  = [[William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke (1551 creation)|1st Earl of Pembroke]]}}
{{S-bef|before=[[Robert Holgate]]}}
{{S-ttl|title=[[Archbishop of York]]|years=1555–1559}}
{{S-aft|after=[[Thomas Young, Archbishop of York|Thomas Young]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{House of Tudor Lord Chancellors}}
{{Bishops of Rochester}}
{{Archbishops of York}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heath, Nicholas}}
[[Category:Archbishops of York]]
[[Category:Lord chancellors of England]]
[[Category:16th-century English Roman Catholic archbishops]]
[[Category:Archdeacons of Stafford]]
[[Category:People from Chobham, Surrey]]
[[Category:Anglican clergy from London]]
[[Category:Alumni of Christ's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1578 deaths]]