Richard Cheyney

Richard Cheyney (1513 – 29 April 1579) was an English churchman, bishop of Gloucester from 1562. Opposed to Calvinism, he was an isolated and embattled bishop of the reign of Elizabeth, though able to keep his see. Life Born in London, according to John Strype, he was a scholar of Christ's College, Cambridge, where he proceeded BA in 1529. In 1530 he was elected fellow of Pembroke Hall; was ordained subdeacon 24 February 1532, and priest 21 September 1534; and commenced MA(Cantab) in 1532 and BD in 1540. He supported Sir John Cheke in the controversy on Greek pronunciation. He received over time the livings of Halford, Warwickshire (1547), Maids Moreton, Buckinghamshire (1558), and Bishop's Hampton, Herefordshire (1559), of Plainsford, Gloucestershire, and . He was a court in Edward VI's reign, and on 3 February 1552 he was appointed archdeacon of Hereford, and afterwards one of the keepers of the spiritualities of the see of Hereford during a vacancy. As archdeacon he attended the convocation of Canterbury at the beginning of the reign of Queen Mary (October 1553); according to Heylyn few of the Edwardian clergy were present. By the command of the queen the convocation proceeded to vote a proposition declaratory of transubstantiation in the Eucharist. Against this six divines offered to dispute, the five known being: Walter Phillips, dean of Rochester; James Haddon, dean of Exeter; John Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester; John Aylmer, archdeacon of Stow; and Cheyney. Haddon and Aylmer were reluctant to comply with the conditions proposed for the discussion, but Cheyney who held Lutheran views on the subject began, and, the others afterwards coming to his assistance, it continued for four days. His disputation is printed in John Foxe's Acts and Monuments. He resigned his archdeaconry in 1557, and became canon of Gloucester 14 November 1558; he had retired for a time to his living of Halford in the diocese of Worcester, under Richard Pate, one of those exempt from executions for heresy under Queen Mary. Cheyney paid a priest to perform the services. On the accession of Elizabeth I Cheyney went on a preaching tour, and during his absence on this work the ecclesiastical visitors employed to carry out the queen's injunctions of 1559 visited Halford, where they found the rector absent, and the priest in charge a probable Catholic. They amerced the absent incumbent and seized his corn.