William Rugge (bishop)

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The Right Reverend William Rugge
Bishop of Norwich
Church	Church of England
Diocese	Diocese of Norwich
Term ended	1549 (resignation)
Predecessor	Richard Nykke
Successor	Thomas Thirlby
Other post(s)	Abbot of St Benet's Abbey (1530–1539)
Orders
Consecration	c. 1536
Personal details
Born	Northrepps, Norfolk
Died	1550
Denomination	Catholic (Anglican)
Alma mater	Gonville Hall, Cambridge

William Rugge (also Rugg, Repps, Reppes; died 1550) was an English Benedictine theologian, and bishop of Norwich from 1536 to 1549.

Life

He was born in Northrepps, Norfolk.^[1]

He was a Doctor of Divinity of Gonville Hall, Cambridge in 1513.^[2] The Carthusian Thomas Spencer (died 1529) wrote A Trialogus between Thomas Bilney, Hugh Latimer and William Repps, in which Rugge appears to balance two reformers.^[3]^[4]

He became Abbot of St Benet's Abbey in 1530.^[5] He retained the abbey in commendam on being appointed bishop of Norwich; the community there was suppressed in 1539.^[6]^[7]

He was one of the authors of The Bishops' Book of 1537.^[8] A theological conservative, he was one of the group trying, without success, to have the Book include material defending pilgrimages.^[9] He disputed publicly with Robert Watson, an early evangelical Protestant, in 1539, on the topic of free will.^[10]

Resignation

He resigned his diocese in 1549. Reasons given are financial problems,^[5] and royal anger at his sloth in opposing Kett's Rebellion (which may have amounted to sympathy).^[11] Gilbert Burnet claimed that the see was needed as place to move Thomas Thirlby, bishop of Westminster, so that Nicholas Ridley could be translated from Rochester, to become bishop of London.^[12] Rugge had in fact long been a thorn in Thomas Cranmer's flesh, and after Kett was put down he was eased out in disgrace, but pardoned and pensioned off.^[13]

Notes

^ "GENUKI: Norfolk: Genealogy: Towns and Parishes: Northrepps: White's 1883". Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
^ "Rugg, William (RG508W)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
^ "Houses of Carthusian monks: The priory of Hinton | British History Online". Archived from the original on 29 October 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
^ Attribution by Bale: Robert W. Dunning, The West-Country Carthusians p. 37. Christopher Harper-Bill (editor), Religious Belief and Ecclesiastical Careers in Late Medieval England: Proceedings of the Conference Held at Strawberry Hill, Easter, 1989 (1991).
^ ^a ^b Concise Dictionary of National Biography
^ David Knowles, The Religious Orders in England (1979 edition), p. 390.
^ Historic England. "Monument No. 133454". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 8 October 2008.
^ "John Foxe's Book of Martyrs". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 8 October 2008.
^ Diarmaid MacCulloch, Cranmer (1997), p. 190.
^ http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-35026882_ITM ^{[dead link‍]}
^ (PDF) Archived 2006-04-21 at the Wayback Machine, p. 59.
^ Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England (1829), p. 309.
^ Diarmaid MacCulloch, Cranmer (1997), p. 456-7.

Church of England titles
Preceded by Richard Nykke	Bishop of Norwich 1536–1549	Succeeded by Thomas Thirlby

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