Dean
Through Richard Bancroft's recommendation Morton was appointed one of the king's chaplains, and in 1606 became Dean of Gloucester, and, on the nomination of his former patron, Lord Eure, the lord president, member of the Council of the Marches. On accepting the deanery he offered to resign the living of Long Marston in favour of his friend John Donne, not yet in holy orders, but the offer was declined. In the same year he visited Oxford, where he was admitted to an ad eundem degree on 12 July. On this occasion he met eminent theologians, such as John King, John Rainolds, Henry Airey, and Daniel Featley.
In 1609 James I made him Dean of Winchester, where Thomas Bilson, who conferred on him the living of Alresford. At Winchester he became the intimate friend of Arthur Lake, then master of St. Cross, and of John Harmar, head-master of Winchester School. In 1610 he preached the sermon ad clerum at the opening of Convocation. When in London he lodged at the deanery of St Paul's Cathedral with John Overall, in whose house he enjoyed the society of Isaac Casaubon, who became a friend; and met Abraham Scultetus, Giovanni Diodati, and Pierre Du Moulin. On Casaubon's death in 1614 Morton had a monument erected to him in Westminster Abbey at his own cost. Among his associates from abroad at a later period were Friedrich Spanheim and Marco Antonio De Dominis.
In 1610 he was nominated to one of the seventeen fellowships in Chelsea College. Preferments then followed: in July of the same year he was collated by Archbishop Tobias Matthew to the canonry of Husthwait in York Minster. In 1615, on the death of George Lloyd, the king nominated him bishop of Chester; his consecration was delayed till 7 July 1616. The ceremony, of unusual stateliness, was performed at Lambeth Palace by Archbishop George Abbot, assisted by the primate of Ireland, the Bishop of Caithness, and others. While the palace at Chester was readied he stayed with Sir Christopher Hatton at Clay Hall, Essex, where he was seriously ill. He had resigned Alresford, but during his episcopate he held the living of Stopford, given him by the king in commendam.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Morton (bishop)
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