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The Names in Chronological Order


Richard Foxe, 1448-1528: Bishop of Winchester, 1501-1528. 
Before Winchester he was successively Bishop of Exeter, Bath and Wells, and Durham. He also became Lord Privy Seal. He founded Corpus Christi College, Oxford, and was a senior statesman under Henry VII and Henry VIII.

Thomas Wolsey, 1473-1530: Bishop of Winchester, 1529–1530.
Royal chaplain to Henry VII; secretary to Richard Foxe (above). Under Henry VIII he became almoner, privy councillor, and in 1515 Lord Chancellor and Cardinal. Subsequently bishop of Lincoln, archbishop of York, bishop of Durham, and in 1529 bishop of Winchester.

Stephen Gardiner, 1483-1555: Bishop of Winchester (First Term), 1531–1551.
Gardiner was secretary to cardinal Wolsey when Wolsey was secretary to Henry VIII, and Gardiner himself later became the king's secretary. A canon lawyer, he was prominent in Henry VIII's divorce negotiations. For his efforts in that case he was made bishop of Winchester. He was deprived of his office under king Edward VI, and spent most of Edward's reign imprisoned in the Tower.

John Ponet, 1514-1556: Bishop of Winchester, 1551–1553.
A humanist and professor of Greek, Ponet was bishop of Rochester before becoming bishop of Winchester. A protestant reformer, he was exiled upon the accession of Queen Mary. He settled in Strasburg where he became a citizen in 1555; he died there.

Stephen Gardiner, 1483-1555: Bishop of Winchester (Restored), 1553–1555.
Upon the accession of queen Mary, Gardiner was released from prison and restored to his bishopric. He served as her Lord Chancellor for the rest of his life. Upon his death he was temporarily buried in a vault at the church of St Mary Overie, until his body was conveyed to Winchester Cathedral for interment.

John White, 1510-1560: Bishop of Winchester, 1556–1559.
White was a Headmaster and Warden of Winchester College during the English Reformation. He remained staunchly Roman Catholic, serving his mentor Stephen Gardiner. He became bishop of Lincoln and finally bishop of Winchester during the reign of Queen Mary. He was active in the Marian persecutions, and presided over public executions of Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer in 1555. He fell sharply out of favor when Mary died; soon after Elizabeth I's accession he was deprived of his bishopric and imprisoned in the Tower. White was the final Roman Catholic bishop of the see.

Robert Horne, c.1520-1580: Bishop of Winchester, 1561–1580.
Made dean of Durham in 1551, and prebend of York in 1552, Horne fled to Germany upon the accession of Mary. Fixing his residence at Frankfort, he became the head of the episcopal party there. On returning to England he was made bishop of Winchester, and estabished Elizabethan Protestantism in the diocese. He died in Southwark on 1 June 1580.

John Watson, 1520-1584: Bishop of Winchester, 1580–1584.
Watson became Dean of Winchester (head of Winchester Cathedral) in 1573, a position he held until he became bishop in 1580. He graduated as Doctor of Medicine from Oxford in 1575 and practised medicine until he later took holy orders. According to Strype, Watson's remissness as bishop encouraged the growth of recusancy in the Winchester diocese.

Thomas Cooper, 1517-1594: Bishop of Winchester, 1584–1594.
An early book of his, the Thesaurus, generally known as Cooper's Dictionary, attracted favorable attention even from queen Elizabeth. Cooper having been ordained about 1559, he was made dean of Christ Church, and later dean of Gloucester. He was elected bishop of Lincoln in 1571, then translated to Winchester in 1584. Cooper was a stout controversialist; he defended the Church of England against the Roman Catholics on the one hand and against the Puritans and the Martin Marprelate writings on the other. He is thought by some to have taken part in the persecution of religious recusants in his diocese. He died at Winchester on 29 April 1594. William Shakespeare is believed by some to have used Cooper's Thesaurus in the creation of some of his poems and plays.

William Wickham, 1539-1595: Bishop of Winchester, 1595.
Wickham was a royal chaplain before 1574, and owed his career largely to the influence of Lord Burghley. After holding successive canonries at Westminster Abbey and at St George's Chapel, Windsor, he became Bishop of Lincoln in 1584. He preached at the funeral of Mary, Queen of Scots, in 1587; his prayer for her led him to be attacked by Martin Marprelate. Appointed bishop of Winchester in 1595, he died soon after at Winchester Palace, and was buried at St Saviour church.

William Day, 1529-1596: Bishop of Winchester, 1596.
Day's offices include Provost of Eton College, Archdeacon of Nottingham, Dean of Windsor, and, from 1584, Registrar of the Order of the Garter. He became bishop of Winchester in 1596, but held the office for less than a year before dying in 1596.

Thomas Bilson, 1547-1616: Bishop of Winchester, 1597-1616.
Born in Winchester, Bilson was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. Shortly after his ordination he was made prebendary of Winchester and headmaster of the college there until 1579, and then warden until 1596 when he was made bishop of Worcester. Subsequently he paid a £400 annuity to queen Elizabeth to secure his appointment to the wealthy see of Winchester. His appointment was bracketed by theatrical events. In 1596 Francis Langley built the Swan playhouse, in 1597 Thomas Bilson became bishop of Winchester, and in 1598 another playhouse, the Globe, was built. Bilson was in charge of the completion of the Authorized Version (the King James Bible), for which he was final reviser. In 1605 he bought the manor of West Mapledurham in Hampshire. Several of his pamphlets on religious topics were published.

James Montague, 1568-1618: Bishop of Winchester, 1616-1618.
Family connections with the Sidneys enabled Montague to become in 1596 the first Master of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, for which he laid the foundation stone. His Calvinist views brought him to the notice of king James, and in 1603 he became dean of the Chapel Royal and dean of Lichfield. Subsequently he became dean of Worcester, then bishop of Bath and Wells, after which he became Bishop of Winchester. He edited king James's various published writings, his introductions noted for their sycophancy.

Lancelot Andrewes, 1555-1626: Bishop of Winchester, 1619-1626.
Ordained a priest in 1580, Andrewes soon attracted notice. In the year of the Armada, he became vicar of St Giles, Cripplegate, in the City of London. Francis Walsingham's influence secured him an appointment as prebendary of St Pancras in St Paul's Cathedral. He subsequently became master of Pembroke College, as well as a chaplain to John Whitgift, the archbishop of Canterbury. During the reign of king James, he (with Thomas Bilson) oversaw the translation of the King James Version of the Bible (the Authorized Version). Under James he served successively as bishop of Chichester, bishop of Ely, and bishop of Winchester. He died in Winchester Palace, and is buried in St Saviour's Church.

Richard Neile, 1562-1640: Bishop of Winchester, 1628-1632.
A beneficiary of Burghley family patronage, Neile became chaplain to Lord Burghley, and later to his son Robert Cecil, first earl of Salisbury. He was appointed Master of the Savoy in 1602, and in July 1603 Clerk of the Closet, a position he would hold until 1632. In 1605 he was installed Dean of Westminster, resigning the deanery in 1610. He held successively the bishoprics of Rochester, Lichfield and Coventry, Lincoln, Durham, and Winchester, and the archbishopric of York. No other cleric has held so many bishoprics. He became a privy councillor in 1627, and sat regularly in the courts of Star Chamber and High Commission.

Walter Curle, 1575-1647: Bishop of Winchester, 1632-1646.
Curle was bishop of Rochester in 1628, and bishop of Bath and Wells from 1629 to 1632. His translation created the vacancy of Rector of Bemerton that gave the poet George Herbert a living there. He was dean of Lichfield 1622 to 1628, and bishop of Winchester from 1632 to 1646. When in 1645 Parliamentary forces under Oliver Cromwell captured Winchester, Curle went into exile at Soberton in Hampshire. He was deprived of his see when the Long Parliament officially abolished episcopacy during the English Civil War.

Vacancy:
There was no bishop of Winchester from 1646 to 1660, the episcopacy having been abolished during the Commonwealth.

Brian Duppa, 1589-1662: Bishop of Winchester, 1660-1662.
Curle was vice-chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1632. He became chaplain to Edward Sackville, 4th Earl of Dorset, who as his patron helped him become Dean of Christ Church. He was chaplain to Charles I from 1634, and tutor to his two sons. Duppa was made Bishop of Chichester in 1638. From the start of the Civil War until death he lived much more quietly at Richmond, as bishop of Salisbury from 1641. He was one of the few Anglican bishops to remain alive throughout the Interregnum to retake their Sees at the Restoration. He was deprived of the see of Salisbury by parliament in 1646, and episcopacy was abolished for the duration of the Commonwealth and the Protectorate. In 1660, on the restoration of the monarchy, Duppa was briefly restored to Salisbury, but swiftly made Lord Almoner and bishop of Winchester. He died two years later.

George Morley, 1598-1684: Bishop of Winchester, 1662-1684.
In 1640 Morley was presented to the sinecure living of Hartfield, Sussex, and in the following year he was made canon of Christ Church, Oxford and exchanged Hartfield for the rectory of Mildenhall, Wiltshire. Preaching before the House of Commons in 1642, his sermon gave offence, and when in 1647 he took a prominent part in resisting the parliamentary visitation of Oxford University he was deprived of his canonry and living. Leaving England, he joined the court of Charles II, and became one of the leading clergy at The Hague. In 1660, on the Restoration, he regained his canonry, and soon became dean of Christ Church. In the same year, he became bishop of Worcester. At the Savoy Conference of 1661 he was chief representative of the bishops. He was translated to the see of Winchester in 1662 and made dean of the Chapel Royal in 1663, a position he held until dismissed by Charles II in 1668.