Wednesday, November 12, 2025

It is the 12th of November 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It matters who tells the story. The line between history and propaganda can be pretty thin- especially when the issues at hand are religion and politics and especially during times of great upheaval. 

Such is the reminder when someone is known primarily from a book like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. We’ve referenced this best seller before- John Foxe’s collection of Christian martyrs, primarily consisting of Protestants in the British Isles. And being a best seller did no favors for the legacy and reputation of a man right in the middle of the complicated English Reformation: Stephen Gardiner, who died on this day in 1555. The Bishop’s final days were portrayed by Foxe as thus:

“In the following month, died Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester and lord chancellor of England. This papistical monster was born at Bury, in Suffolk, and partly educated at Cambridge. Ambitious, cruel, and bigoted, he served any cause; he first espoused the king's part in the affair of Anne Boleyn: upon the establishment of the Reformation he declared the supremacy of the pope an execrable tenet; and when Queen Mary came to the crown, he entered into all her papistical bigoted views, and became a second time bishop of Winchester….

It was on the afternoon of the day when those faithful soldiers of Christ, Ridley and Latimer, perished, that Gardiner sat down with a joyful heart to dinner. Scarcely had he taken a few mouthfuls, when he was seized with illness, and carried to his bed, where he lingered fifteen days in great torment, unable in any wise to evacuate, and burnt with a devouring fever, that terminated in death. Execrated by all good Christians, we pray the Father of mercies, that he may receive that mercy above he never imparted below.”

As he was twice bishop of Winchester- under Henry and Mary, Foxe would call him “Wily Winchester”.

Born sometime in the 1480s, Gardiner excelled at Cambridge in the early 1520s when it was a hotbed of Reformation ideas. He was made secretary to Cardinal Wolsey in 1525 and was sent, in 1528, to Pope Clement VII to negotiate the annulment of Henry’s first marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Gardiner would be given the position of Henry’s principal secretary in 1529 and made bishop of Winchester.

In 1532, with the death of the Archbishop Warham, Gardiner seemed the obvious choice for Canterbury, but was skipped over in favor of Thomas Cranmer. Gardiner would pen his 1535 “On True Obedience,” which tried to balance his conservative allegiance to the crown with Protestant sensibilities. However, he would come to favor the very Catholic Six Articles, which required English citizens to confess Catholic doctrine. These proved very unpopular, and when Henry’s Protestant son Edward ascended the throne, Gardiner found himself in the Tower of London.

When Edward died and Mary became next in line (the first ever queen regnant in English history), not only was Gardiner freed, he was given his position back and was the one to crown her at Westminster in 1553. 

Despite his increasingly Catholic sympathies, he was suspicious of Papal power mixed with Habsburg influence. He upset the Queen by opposing her marriage to Philip of Spain. He was further vilified by Protestants on account of his persecution and burning of Robert Barnes and his full-throated support of the public execution of heretics. In a note both ironic and tragic, his own nephew was arrested for denying royal supremacy and was hanged, drawn, and quartered.

As for his last days, the story Foxe tells of a long and painful death is likely embellished, as are stories of his being poisoned. Catholic hagiography has him saying on his deathbed, in reference to his time dallying with Henry and the Protestants, “like Peter I have erred, unlike Peter I have not wept”- somewhat cryptic.

Fun facts about Gardiner- his palace at Winchester had a prison nicknamed “the Clink,” which would give prisons their nickname. He also hosted Erasmus at Cambridge in the 1520s and, in their later correspondence, remained the Dutch humanist of their time together and of the salads which Gardiner made and Erasmus allegedly loved. I have, unfortunately, been unable to discover what kind of salad it was.

Was he “Execrated by all good Christians”- that’s a stretch from our boy Foxe- but he was complicated and stuck between confessions and amidst the game of thrones that was 16th-century England. Stephen Gardiner, Wily Winchester if you must- died on this, the 12th of November in 1555.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and John 5:

24 “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. 25 Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. 26 For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. 27 And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 12th of November 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose salad rankings go Caesar, Wedge, then Cobb… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who can’t stress enough that your salad is only as good as the lettuce, and iceberg is usually the worst… at least pepper in some rocket or butter lettuce- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.