Academic Career and The "purging" of Undercover Papists
And so Watson bided his time. He took his Master's degree in 1537 and became a lecturer, then Dean of his college. However, with Thomas Cromwell as Chancellor after 1535, and Stephen Gardiner after 1540, the hunting and purging of undercover papists continued. Nicholas Metcalf, Master of St. John’s since 1518, was forced to resign in 1537. The next Master, George Day, was also denounced as a papist in 1538. Cromwell then had one of his own men, John Taylor (1503-1554), "elected by force." He was the first avowed anti-papist "reformer" to become Master of St. John's College.
When Taylor introduced a stiff vetting process for students and staff, Watson was one of twenty fellows to protest, but to no avail. When Cromwell was arraigned and executed for heresy in 1540, Taylor was also arrested. He was held for a while, but promised to conform to Henry’s Six Articles. Heresy charges were dropped, and he resumed his office as Master. But Lutheranism was on the increase. After Watson took his divinity degree in 1543, he began to emerge as one of the College's foremost champions and preachers of the Old Faith.
By 1545, with mounting hostility from Taylor and others, Watson consulted the Chancellor, Stephen Gardiner. Gardiner, like Henry, was dismayed that anti-papal sentiment was becoming anti-Catholic as well. While he had supported the king’s efforts to overthrow papal authority in favour of royal supremacy, he was now alarmed at where this might lead. Gardiner saw in Watson a kindred spirit and invited him to be his domestic chaplain – one of his personal aides. So in 1545 Watson joined the familia of the Bishop of Winchester; he was no longer subject to Taylor, and now had the Chancellor's authority and support for his preaching. In 1546 Taylor was forced to resign as Master of St John's. Under Edward VI he would follow Henry Holbeach as the second (married) Protestant Bishop of Lincoln.
Watson worked side by side with Gardiner during Henry's last two years, trying to keep the Church in England Catholic. In the process he became widely known as a powerful advocate for the Old Faith. In spite of this, during the last months of his reign, Henry ordered the execution of three papists for questioning his royal supremacy, and the burning of three Lutherans for questioning his Catholic doctrine.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Watson (bishop Of Lincoln)
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