He was appointed by Ralph Morice, Thomas Cranmer's secretary, to be rector of Chartham, Kent, where he neglected Catholic rites.
In July 1549, during popular unrest in Kent against the reformers, Turner went to the rioters' camp and preached against them, narrowly escaping being hanged.
Turner suggested to John Marbeck, organist at Windsor, the compilation of his concordance of the English Bible which appeared in July 1550.
In the following year he was recommended by Cranmer for the archbishopric of Armagh, but declined, chiefly on the grounds of his ignorance of the Irish language.
In 1555, while at Frankfurt, he joined with other English refugees in publicly repudiating John Knox's principles on civil government.