The Roman Church had fallen and with it Glasney. So Penryn was back to where it started ecclesiastically: simply a Parish Church - one that shared its living with a neighbouring parish. The Chapel within the Borough had also gone and in its place was the new Town Hall [fn1]. There were no daughter chapels, no dissenters and no reactionary Churches to provide any opposition. Just one Church the Church of England! Penryn, along with the rest of the Country, had simply changed masters: from Rome to Canterbury.
Although Henry disbanded the monasteries, the ecclesiastical lands in Cornwall and elsewhere, including Penryn, still belonged to the See of Exeter, which now paid homage to the King.
Towards the end of his reign, Henry put pressure upon Bishop Veysey to lease away the possessions of his See on very unfavourable terms. When John Killigrew was building Pendennis Castle he made suit to the King to have the lease of Penryn Foreign (which included about half of St Gluvias, Mylor, Budock, Mawnan, Budock Vean in Constantine, Manaccan and the fief of Mudgeon in St Martin's) and Minster. At receiving this request, Henry wrote a polite but forthright letter to Veysey and the Dean and Chapter for them to pass these leases (the manors “being far from you and nigh unto our said Castle") for a ninety-nine year period. Veysey recorded it in the Bishop's Register as “in obedience to a request made by the King”. [fn2]
In 1564 the Killigrews also took over the Larne lease of tithes that formerly belonged to Glasney - this included the rectories of Sithney, St Gluvias and St Allen; plus tithes of hay and corn in Zennor, corn and fruit in Mylor, Mabe and St Just-in-Penwith; corn in Feock, Kenwyn and Kea; plus certain lands and sheaves (i.e. tithe corn) in St Enoder. The lease was for a period of twenty one years at a rent of £132.12.8d. Winston Graham also refers to this: "This John Killigrew ...had married a rich woman, Elizabeth Trewinnard, and had gained much from the dissolution of the monasteries; so that his lands and properties extended from the River Fal to the Helford Passage and he held the tithes of sixteen parishes and had an incoming of about £6000 a year.” [fn3]
With this land and influence, the Killigrews wielded the secular power that had previously been in the hands of the Catholic Church; and from their castle, that commanded the mouth of the River Fal, they could effectively control the lands and waters of Penryn, in a far more effective way than the far-off See in Exeter could ever achieve.
During the short reign of Edward VI (1547-1553), the Church of England began to sort out its powers, doctrines and rituals. In 1548, orders were issued that meant that changes were to be made in the Services held in the Parish Churches of England. No longer would candles be blessed on Candlemas; or ashes be used on Ash Wednesday. Palms were even forbidden on Palm Sunday. The superstitious images were removed; the Lord’s Supper was to be observed in Protestant fashion, and the Clergy were allowed to be married.
In 1549 the first English Prayer Book came into being to replace the old Latin Liturgy, although it retained the old mass vestments with much of the old theology. But the Cornish did not like it; and not because most of them could not read English either. But because this was a change and the Cornish did not like changes.
The change of language in the Liturgy was the first thing that made the people of Cornwall realise that the Reformation involved change. So once again they gathered at Bodmin, and marched onto Exeter, under the leadership of Sir Humphrey Arundell[fn4] to siege the city. They wanted the old Latin Service with its accustomed ritual and the restoration of the old devotions. They also wanted the gentry to have only a limited number of servants, and for them to restore half of the monastic lands they had obtained. They did not want to see a return to the Roman jurisdiction, just a return to the old ways.
Despite the plea from the Cornish, who were mercilessly cut down at Fenny Bridges by Lord Russell[fn5], a second Prayer Book was introduced in 1552. This tried to bring the theology of the new Church into line with that of the Reformed Continental Churches, and less like that of the Church of Rome. In this new Prayer Book, the "people were taught that Justification was by faith without the deeds of law, and that every heavy-laden sinner on earth had the right to go straight to the Lord Jesus for remission of sins, without waiting for Pope or priest, confession or absolution, masses or extreme unction."[fn6]
In 1553, King Edward died and was succeeded by Queen Mary, the Roman Catholic daughter of Henry and Catherine of Aragon. Mary saw her task as restoring England to the Papal See. With this in mind, one of her first acts was to prohibit all preaching and printing that did not meet her approval. The Protestant Prayer Book was abandoned; and Church Services returned to the Latin Liturgy and the old rites. She also reintroduced the laws against heretics and had 286 Clergymen (including Cranmer and his Protestant Bishops) burnt at the stake.
Although over twelve hundred clergymen were deposed for being married, the Vicar of St Gluvias, John Denys, seemed to have retained his position through Revolution, reaction and Counter Revolution presumably because he just ‘moved with the times’.
Mary unwillingly bore the title 'Supreme Head’ until 1554 when she sought Parliament to remove it; and although she was able to reverse many of the Protestant changes made by her father and brother, she did not dare suggest the restoration of the monastic lands and endowments, to which new owners, including the Killigrews, greedily clung on to.
The Counter Revolution came in 1558 when Catholic Mary died, and the daughter of Henry and Anne Bolyn, Elizabeth, came to the throne restoring the Protestant Church of England. She immediately reversed all the decisions of Mary: the Acts against heretics were repealed, and in 1562 she drew up the Thirty Nine Articles which established the future doctrine of the Church of England.
Nearly all of Mary's Catholic bishops refused to accept the supremacy of Elizabeth, so they were deprived of their office; but amongst the lower ranks of clergy the changes meant very little difference, and most of them[fn7] took the oath, accepted the new order and used the English Prayer Book.
Despite all that was happening in London, the people of Cornwall had settled down to the normal routines and seasons of life after their disastrous ‘Crusade’ to Exeter in the 1530's, losing interest in matters of religious differences. In fact, despite the fines for non-attendance, many did not go to Church at all, and in 1560 the Bishop of Exeter complained that there were “many atheists in his diocese, and many papists, especially near the Cornish coast, and there was a slender observance of Sabbath and Holy Days.”[fn8]
Winston Graham again highlights the mood of the Church in the Penryn area at this time, with a description of a Service taken by William Sharrock, who was Vicar of St Gluvias and Budock from 1574 to 1608:
"The next day was Sunday, we all walked as was customary to Budock Church, my father and mother leading the way followed by the other members of the family, then the children, with our servants in a long crocodile behind. Mr Garrock, the Vicar, by mischance[fn9] chose as a text of his sermon, St Mark Chapter 3 verse 27: ‘No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man, and then he will spoil his house'. My father slept through most of it, but I know I dared not because we should be examined on the content of the sermon by Parson Merther that evening and whipped if we could not give a fair outline, and I was In no position to court further trouble. When the sermon was over my father yawned and said in a loud voice to uncle Simon, ‘Let us not tarry for the prayers’ and so elbowed his way out. Perhaps he had not slept so soundly after all, for over dinner he was downright in his criticism of the state of the clergy. Will Garrock, he said, was an ignorant unlettered scoundrel better suited to keep taproom than a church. Hawken of Philleigh, he knew for a fact, spent all his days and nights dicing and wenching; it was said that the parson at St lssey had burnt it in the hand for felony; and Arscott of Cubert was a drunkard and kept a whore and six bastards. It was time there was a clean sweep in the church pluralists, felons and ignorant rogues.”[fn10]
So once again the Church needed a clean sweep, and sure enough one was one the way, but quite yet (and not as John Killigrew visualised it) - in the form of the Puritanism of the following Century.
Throughout the history of the Church, one of its aims has been to provide education for the children of the Parish. In Penryn, at the time of the Reformation, there were two Grammar Schools: one of which was attached to Glasney College, and the other was established by the Order of the English Bridgettines of Synon Abbey. Both schools, however, were closed the time of the Dissolution with much regret. "If the ample revenues of the establishment (Glasney College) and its buildings had been refounded instead of being abolished by Edward VI, Cornwall would have had a Public School comparable to Wykeham's great foundation at Wincester."[fn11]
A new Grammar School was in fact opened during the reign of Elizabeth 1, as recorded by a plaque in St Gluvias Church:
"GRAMMAR SCHOOL - endowed by Queen Elizabeth with the annual stipend of £6.18.0d secured under an Act of the 22nd of Charles 2nd by deed of June 5th 1677, payable at the Land Revenue Office, London, for which three boys may be taught free."
Later John Penrose, St Gluvias' famous Evangelical Vicar (1741_1776) wrote, "The only Public School anywise endowed in Penryn is a Latin School endowed by Queen Elizabeth. The endowment is £6.13.4d per annum. The master is obliged for it to teach the children of the Borough free; but at present only one accepts this Privilege. The Latin boys are brought to church almost all Wednesdays and Fridays. The Masters of the Latin and Writing Schools and the Mistresses of the Reading Schools bring their scholars to church at such times (every Friday) to be instructed and I examine one school each Friday."
By 1771, there were no Masters left at the school, and Penrose had to take charge of the eight pupils himself. The school closed in 1801, and an attempt to revive it in 1827, failed.
Finally two further references from Winston Graham's novel that involved St Gluvias Church in the Killigrew battles with the good townsfolk of Penryn in the 1570s: “Parson Merther came in with terrible news of happenings in Penryn. An old man buried yesterday had been dug out of his grave and his fingers cut off for the rings he wore. What was worse, the corpse had been carded out of his grave and left in a sitting position in one of the front pews of the Church where a woman this morning had found it almost to the loss of her reason.” But a few weeks earlier: “We went back that night and broke open the door of the church. I climbed up to the belfry and cut the four bell ropes so that but one strand of each remained. Some of the ringers would likely fall on their scuts at the next practice. We splashed time-wash on the walls, carried out the pews and chairs and dropped them in the mud of the river. We rounded up a flock of sheep, drove them into the church and shut the door on them. Then we dug a pit outside the door and went home."
Fiction yes, but certainly an insight into what was going on in the town and district at this time!
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fn1: Interesting to note, however, is that on Sunday mornings the bell in the Town Hall is still rung to call the people of Penryn to worship - but to worship at St Gluvias Church.
fn2: Taken from "Tudor Cornwall" by A L Rowse
fn3: Also from "The Grove of Eagles"
fn4: Arundell actually held the Manor of Penryn Town and Borough
fn5: Arundell was captured and taken to London, where he was executed. His Manor of Penryn Town and Borough was returned to the Crown.
fn6: The words of Bishop J C Ryle
fn7: Including Mr Denys of St Gluvias of course
fn8: Taken from "The Church in Cornwall" H Miles Brown
fn9: ‘mischance’ because John Killigrew had plundered a ship in Penryn Creek during the previous week.
fn10: Taken from "The Grove of Eagles" by Winston Graham
fn11: Charles Henderson - Quoted by Roddis in "Penryn"
