John Redman

or Redmayne, descended from those of his name in Yorkshire, was near allied to Cuthb. Tonstall Bishop of Durham, by whose counsel and advice he became conversant from his Childhood in the Study of Learning. At the first Foundation of Corp. Ch. Coll. he was a Student (p)(p) Ut in quibusd. Excerptis sive collect. Tho. Cati Antiquarii Oxon. MS. quondam in bib. Tho. Allen. there for some time under the care and government of Mr. J. Claymond the first President: Thence he went to Paris, where he improved his Studies till he was 21 Years of Age. Afterwards returning to his native Country of England, he settled in St. Johns Coll. in Cambridge, where by his and Joh. Cheeks example of excellency in learning, of godliness in living, of diligence in studying, of counsel in exhorting by good order in all things, were bred up so many learned Men in that one Coll. as ’twas thought by (*)(*) Rog. Ascham in his School-master, &c. edit. 1589. fol. 19. b. one, the whole University of Lovaine in many Years was never able to afford. In 1537, he commenced Doctor of Divinity, and about that time was made Orator of that University, and afterwards the first Master or Head of Trinity Coll. and a Dignitary in the Church. But that which is most observable, is that when he came first to that University, being then very well vers’d in the Greek and Lat. tongues, and adorn’d with knowledge by the diligent reading of Cicero, it so fell out, that Joh. Cheek and Tho. Smyth (being at that time young Men, but afterwards Knights) were stirred up with a kind of emulation of his parts, and the honor that was daily done unto him. Whereupon being very desirous to follow that which he had gained, and then did profess and teach; they threw aside their sordid barbarisms, and applied themselves to the Eloquence of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. The truth is, by Redman’s profound knowledge in the Tongues, Humanity and Divinity, he obtained many admirers, and thereby gained Proselytes to the great advantage of the refinement of the Gr. and Lat. Tongues in the University of Cambridge. He hath written,

Opus de justificatione. Antw. 1555. qu.

Hymnus in quo peccator justificationem quaerens, rudi imagine describitur. Printed with the former work.

The complaint of Grace; containing in it much godly learning, and verity of matter. Lond. 1556. in oct. published by Tho. Smith Servant to Qu. Mary. This, I suppose, is the same Book with that which Bale and Pits intitle De gratia, lib. 1. translated into English by Joh. Young of Cambridge. This Dr. Redman also took pains in compiling the first edition of the Liturgie, or Common-prayer, in the Year 1549. and dying in the College of Westminster (of which he was Prebendary) was buried in the North Isle of the Abby-Church there dedicated to St. Peter, about the latter end of Nov. 1551 in Fifteen hundred fifty and one, aged 52. See more of him in Lelands (q)(q) Pag. 46. Encomia, and in the Epistles (r)(r) Lib. 1. ep. 5. of Roger Ascham his sometimes friend and crony, as also in Joh. Fox his Book of Acts and Monuments of the Church, &c. where you’ll find (s)(s) In the Year 1551. his conference or communication had with Rich. Wilks, 2. Nov. 1551 the Doctor being then sick at Westminster; and another conference with Mr. Alex. Nowell then Schoolmaster in Westminster and certain others, with notes of his censure and judgment touching certain points of Christ’s Religion; which was made when the Doctor laid on his Death-bed. Whether this John Redmayne was Archdeacon of Taunton, and Preb. of Mylverton in the Church of Wells, in the time of Ed. 6. I cannot justly say, because he died in 1551, and that those Dignities were not fill’d up till May 1554. when then John Fitz-James was collated to them per mortem Johannis Redmayne See more in the Fasti, an. 1508. 1524. and 1543.