Thomas Langley (priest)

Thomas Langley (died 1581) was an English churchman and canon of Winchester Cathedral.

Life[]

Langley was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge, graduating B.A. in 1537–8.^[1] He was chaplain to Archbishop Cranmer, and vicar of Headcorn, Kent, in 1548, and may be identical with the Thomas Langley, Protestant reformer and exile, who was admitted into the English church and congregation at Geneva in 1556. Langley was rector of Boughton Malherbe, Kent, from 1557 to 6 October 1559, when Queen Elizabeth presented him to a canonry at Winchester. He was installed on 15 October following. On 7 December 1559 he was presented by the crown to the rectory of Welford, Berkshire.

After twelve years' study he was admitted B.D. at Oxford on 15 July 1560, without having previously taken his master's degree. In 1563 Langley was instituted to the vicarage of Wanborough, Wiltshire, on the presentation of the dean and chapter of Winchester, and held this license until his death, which took place before 31 December 1581. In his will, dated 22 December 1581, and proved 30 January 1582, he expresses a wish to be buried in the chancel of Wanborough Church.

Works[]

He published:

• An Abridgement of the notable Woorke of Polidore Vergile, conteignyng the deuisers ... of Artes, Ministeries, Feactes, & Civill Ordinaunces, as of Rites and Ceremonies commo[n]ly vsed in the Churche, London, printed by Richard Grafton 16 April 1546; other editions are dated 25 January 1546[–7], 1551, [1570], and 1659, 8vo. This is an abridged English version of Polydore Vergil's De Inventoribus Rerum. Langley worked on one of the late Latin editions, and abridged his original by about two-thirds.
• Of the Christian Sabboth, a Godlye Treatise of Mayster Julius of Milayne, translated out of Italian into English by Thomas Langley, London (William Reddell), 1552.
• Latin verses in praise of the author and his work prefixed to William Cuningham's Cosmographical Glasse, 1559.

References[]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Langley, Thomas (d.1581)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.