+ Bishop THOMAS WATSON OF LINCOLN, 1584

PEACEMAKER

Biography

A BRILLIANT scholar, master of St. John's College, Cambridge, he took the oath of Supremacy under Henry VIII, but maintained in all other points the Catholic faith, and for preaching in its defence was imprisoned for a time by the Protector Somerset, together with Bishop Goodman, whose chaplain he was. By order of Mary he preached before her at Paul's Cross, and refuted the contradictions of the new teaching. Promoted Dean of Durham and Bishop of Lincoln, he was imprisoned by Elizabeth for contempt and contumacy, and began a long course of suffering either in public or private custody. He writes to Cecil, October 6, 1578, that two infirmities drove him to crave for succour—blindness and lameness. He had lost one of his eyes, and the other was so weak he could scarce see the meat on the table. His lameness was due to sciatica in both his thighs. His last confinement was at Wisbeach (the Castle, used as a special prison for Catholics shown here but eighty years later)

where he used all his influence, in the strife then prevailing, to promote peace and charity, and with great success. He died September 27, 1584, having proved by twenty years of bonds his repentance for his early fall.

"I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you." —1 COR. i. 10.