Dr Richard Gwent (died 1543) was a senior ecclesiastical jurist, pluralist cleric and administrator through the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII.
Of south Welsh origins, as a Doctor of both laws in the University of Oxford he rose swiftly to become Dean of the Arches and Archdeacon of London and of Brecon, and later of Huntingdon.
An instrument of policy rather than a prime mover, he helped to implement major reforms including the King's Supremacy, took the surrender of some larger monasteries in the western English borders, and was Prolocutor of the lower house in three important Ecclesiastical Convocations of the period.
His long association with Cranmer brought him closely into the process of Reform, but in his duty of service to various masters his personal religious sympathies are not fully apparent.
[10] In 1529 he acted as a junior advocate on behalf of Catherine of Aragon,[11] in the hearings before Wolsey and Lorenzo Campeggio: during that time Gwent's advice was considered important enough, on a certain occasion, that he was fetched from Gloucester and Llanthony to consult with the Queen at Woodstock over letters brought from Rome.
[12] Gwent, however, avoided the royal displeasure incurred by John Fisher, who led the Queen's defence, and in March 1530 received the Westminster Abbey presentation to St Leonard, Foster Lane, London.
The vacancy required a principal official who could be depended upon while the successor was chosen, and (although the office was usually in the Archbishop's gift) Cromwell seized the opportunity to appoint Dr Gwent as Dean of the Arches and Master of the Prerogative in the Consistory court of the Province of Canterbury in September 1532.
[21] Gwent witnessed Cranmer's questioning, in friendly guise, of the visionary Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent, and wrote to Cromwell that they would deliver her to him when enough damning evidence had been gathered.
In readiness for this action, and in anticipation of the Act of Supremacy, a commission of 32 senior persons, 16 from the upper and lower houses of parliament and 16 clergy, was enacted to ensure that none of the canons, constitutions and ordinances of the English Church were prejudicial to the prerogative royal or repugnant to the laws of the realm, and to abolish or to reform the existing canon law as necessary, subject to the legislative authority of the King.
Cromwell deposed that Gwent's licence to hear and conclude cases in the Archbishop's court, including matters of probate and matrimony, should subsist under the King's authority.
[45] Receiving Cranmer's mandate, Gwent introduced this formula (with the royal clause) for a definitive Sentence upon probate: ...per nos Ricardum Gwent Archi'm London ad infrascripta auctoritate Illustrissimi et Invictissimi in xpo principis et d'ni n'ri D'ni Henrici octavi dei gra' Anglie et ffrancie Regis fidei defensoris D'ni Hibern' et in terris supremi ecclie Anglicane sub xpo capitis, ... (...by us Richard Gwent, Archdeacon of London, under the below-written authority of the most Illustrious and Victorious-in-Christ, our prince and lord the Lord Henry the eighth, by the grace of god King of England and France, defender of the faith, Lord of Ireland, and on earth the supreme head of the English church under Christ, ...)[46]His name appears in various judgments of marital affairs:[47] he decreed the divorce of Sir Thomas Pope from Elizabeth Gunston in 1536.
[48] Although Gwent was not directly active in the closure of the smaller monasteries, in his tour of the Chichester diocese in 1535 he had written to Cromwell deploring the houses where there were only three or four inmates, often unable to read Latin, and urged that they should be brought together in larger groups where they could be properly instructed and go about their duties.
[56] In May 1537, with Thomas Bedyll, Archdeacon of Cornwall, he renewed the pressure upon the monks of the London Charterhouse to accept the Supremacy, with the result that some acceded and the remainder were consigned to the Newgate with fatal consequences.
[57][58] Meanwhile, he was drawn into disputes in the St David's diocese surrounding the bishop, William Barlow (a strongly reformist representative of Cromwell's policy) and his Chapter, who were of more conservative views.
[60] In May 1538, when friar John Forrest (formerly confessor to Catherine of Aragon), having denied the King's supremacy, refused to perform his penance at Paul's Cross, Gwent entreated him to do so, and "opened unto him the indignation of God and dampnation of his bodie and soule perpetuallie, and also have a temporall death by brenning as all heretickes should have by the lawes of this realme."
[66] In May 1539, the king signifying to parliament his demand for religious uniformity, the Duke of Norfolk presented a form of the Six Articles (an affirmation of traditional teachings) to the Lords, which (after debate and revision) Cromwell proposed to the lower house of Convocation on 2 June.
[68] So they were constrained to do, but the intentions of Cromwell and Cranmer towards deeper tolerance for reform intensified the political hostility of Bishop Gardiner and the Duke of Norfolk towards them.
He first received the surrender of Godstow Abbey from his former patron, abbess Kateryn Bulkeley, to whom he assigned a pension,[70] but who felt herself ill-used by Dr London.
[76] The king's disappointment in his marriage in January 1540 to Anne of Cleves fatally exposed Cromwell, its architect, to the intrigues of his enemies, and the speedy resolution of an annulment was sought.
[84] These sessions being concluded (in which Gwent had a prominent role), Bonner's Letter of Admonition to all readers of the Bible, and his injunctions to his clergy, were issued later in the same year.
[88] The various revised sections were passed from the Bishops to Dr Gwent, who read them before the clergy of the lower house and received their comments and approval.
[94] The King granted a special dispensation to Dr Gwent to wear his bonnet in the royal presence, since he had certain infirmities in his head which made it dangerous for it to be uncovered.
Holding three archdeaconries, three prebends and six rectories (including Walton in the Wirrall, Newchurch and North Wingfield), Gwent was at pains to explain that he had received little in dilapidations in his various preferments and had little to pass on to his successors.
Dr Richard Gwent died at the end of July 1543, and his desire was to be buried in the middle of St Paul's Cathedral, "directly before the Sacrament which hanges alway at the highe aulter in Pawles".
[103] Thomas Gwent was licensed in February 1547 to alienate "a messuage, five acres and two pastures called "Stones" alias "Gregos", formerly two islands in Llantrisham in the marches of Wales" (Llantrisant on the river Usk), to James Gunter of London, gentleman.
[106] Before 1548 Thomas Gwent (gentleman) acquired copyhold of Buckland manor (including Burhill) in Gloucestershire, near Evesham, which had been conveyed by Gloucester Abbey in 1535/36 to James and Joan Apparry and their daughters, and by them to Sir Henry Jerningham, later Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard to Queen Mary.
[109] Whether this was the same Thomas Gwent, scholar of Oxford, warden of the free chapel of St Cenydd at Llangennith, Glamorgan, who appears in a suit against Llewys Wyllyams of c. 1540, is not clear.