William Downham
A month earlier the queen’s sister, Princess Elizabeth, had returned to her childhood home at the Old Palace in Hatfield following a year’s detention, and it was probably at this point Downham became one of her chaplains and was appointed Rector of the nearby parish of Ayot St Peter.
[6] In his service as chaplain he displayed some adroitness, ostensibly adhering to the doctrine and practices of the Roman Church while allowing Elizabeth to perceive him as a candidate for preferment within a Protestant foundation.
[10] Later in the year he was, alongside Bishops Edmund Grindal and Richard Cox, one of the ecclesiastical commissioners who laid down the rules for dealing with ousted papist clergy, sparing them prosecution and imprisonment but placing restrictions on their movement and requiring security for their future quiet behaviour.
[11] He was still in daily attendance on the queen in November 1561, by which date Archbishop Young had commenced a six-month metropolitan visitation of Chester diocese that automatically suspended Downham's episcopal authority.
[14] In July 1562 a special ecclesiastical commission for Chester diocese was established under Downham's presidency, with power to impose fines and sentences of imprisonment for breach of church discipline.
[17] Goodman had, with John Knox, been co-pastor of the English church in exile at Geneva during Queen Mary's reign and afterwards was presented to the living of Aldford by Sir Edward Fitton.
[18] Struggles for influence within the commission undermined its effectiveness as an instrument of governance but, from its inception, Downham was as assiduous in attending its sessions as he was regular in his presence at proceedings of his consistory court.
[22] On 3 February 1568, probably in response to intelligence foreshadowing the Rising of the North, the queen directed Lord Derby, Downham, and their fellow ecclesiastical commissioners to apprehend all persons who "under the pretence of religion draw sundry gentlemen from their allegiance".
She called on him to root out deprived clergy who were being secretly harboured by recusant gentry in the remoter parts of his diocese and to ensure that all parishes were provided with "honest and well learned curates".
[37] Downing was buried in the choir of Chester Cathedral where a brass plate on his tomb carried the date 3 December 1577, probably the day of his burial because his death is generally said to have occurred in November that year.
He considered the laity of his diocese to be inherently tractable, believed in the power of prayer as a unifying force, and regarded skilled preaching as the means of bringing "many obstinate and wilful people into conformity and obedience".
[40] It has been suggested his conciliatory approach may have served to preserve order through most of his diocese during the Northern Rebellion,[41] but the extent of outward conformity he was able to secure belied the underlying strength and proliferation of Roman Catholic sentiment that became manifest after his death.
