Bishop, William

Bishop, William, bishop of Chalcedon in partibus infidelium, and vicar apostolical of the pope in England, the first English Romanist bishop after the Reformation, was born at Brayles, in Warwickshire, in 1553, and educated at Oxford, Rheims, and Rome. He was then sent missionary to England, but was arrested at Dover, and confined in London till the end of 1584. On his release he retired to Paris, but returned to England in 1591. The Romish party in England had long desired a bishop, but the Jesuit Parsons (q.v.) desired to rule, through Blackwell (q.v.), as archpriest, and it was not till Parsons's death that the pope agreed to appoint Dr. Bishop to the apiscopacy. After his- ordination as bishop (1623) he created a chapter and nominated grand vicars, archdeacons, and rural deans in most of the counties. He died April 16, 1624, and left an edition of the work of Pits, or Pitseus, De Illistribus Anglice Scriptoribus (1623), and others, named in Wood, Athena Oxon,vol. ii.-Landon, Eccles. Dictionary, s.v.; Hook, Eccles. Biog. ii, 452.