Prebendaries' Plot

The Prebendaries' Plot was an English Catholic movement of the early 1540s, aimed at 'outing' Thomas Cranmer as overly evangelical, ousting him from office as archbishop of Canterbury, and thus revealing, stopping and rolling back evangelical Protestantism's rise in Kent and influence in the royal court.

It is named after the five prebendary canons of Canterbury Cathedral (including William Hadleigh, a monk at Christchurch Canterbury prior to the monastery's dissolution) who formed its core. Others involved were two holders of the new cathedral office of "six preacher" (created in 1541), along with various local non-cathedral priests and Kentish gentlemen (eg Thomas Moyle, Edward Thwaites and Cyriac Pettit). Simultaneous agitation at the court in Windsor, and the conspiracy in general, was led by Stephen Gardiner, bishop of Winchester,

Henry VIII's chaplain Richard Cox was charged with investigating it, and his success (240 priests and 60 laypeople of both sexes were accused of involvement) led to his being made Cranmer's chancellor.

Sources

• Ethan H. Shagan, Popular Politics and the English Reformation, page 199-204
• Brian M. Hogben, 'Preaching and Reformation in Henrician Kent', Archaeologia Cantiana 101 (1984), p1690-185
• Eamon Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars, chapter 12
• Diarmid MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, chapter 8
• M.I. Zell, 'The Prebendaries' Plot'
• Clark, English Provincial Society, chapter 2