Thomas Watson (bishop of Lincoln) - England Returns To The Catholic Faith Under Mary's Reign

England Returns To The Catholic Faith Under Mary's Reign

When Mary came to the throne in August 1553, she immediately released Gardiner and restored him to his offices as Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of Cambridge University. On Gardiner’s advice she chose Watson to formally announce her intention to restore England to the Catholic Faith. On 20 August 1553, a great gathering was called at St Paul's Cross In the presence of the Queen, members of the court, bishops, dignitaries, nobility, the Lord Mayor and aldermen of London, representatives of the crafts and trades, and with a military guard, Thomas Watson stood to preach. It was more of a manifesto than a sermon. He referred to the confusion lately spread by Protestant preachers to whom people should no longer listen. He asked them not to seek new doctrines or a new faith, nor to build a new church or new temple. He exhorted them rather to return to the old faith, the faith of their fathers, and to help their Queen to restore the old temple. His sermon made a great impression, preparing the way for what was to come.

Gardiner then sent Watson back to Cambridge with full authority to restore the University’s former statutes and traditions. He was welcomed back and elected Master of his old College, St. John's on 28 September 1553. He confronted those Protestant members of the Convocation who had expelled and excluded Catholics and turned the tables on them. He reinstated the statutes of John Fisher, and committed the University to restoring and observing former Catholic traditions, customs and liturgies.

Durham Cathedral was in a state of chaos, and on November 18 he was elected its third Dean. Prior Hugh Whitehead, elected first Dean in 1540, had kept Durham Catholic under Henry VIII. At Edward's accession he had been called to London and ordered to introduce the reformed religion, but he collapsed and died and was buried near the Tower of London. Somerset then sent two "commissioners" to Durham. The author of the Rites names them as Dr. Harvy, Dr. Whitby and Dr. Horne and describes their mission "to deface all popish ornaments", not only in the Cathedral, but in surrounding churches. Robert Horne, Watson's old adversary, had been appointed Dean in 1551. Now in 1553 Watson was sent to replace him, and Horne retired abroad.

In April 1554 he went to Oxford to dispute or reason with Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, now charged with heresy. He was asked to examine other "heretics", including Bishop Hooper and John Rogers, but was also in great demand for preaching. He was even summoned to preach before the Queen, which he did on March 17 and April 14 in "Two Notable Sermons." The first was "Concerning the Real Presence of Christ's Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament" and the second "The Mass which is the Sacrifice of the New Testament". He argued that the aarly fathers, the great doctors, and the councils of the Church witnessed to the truth of Catholic Eucharistic teaching. He argued that the three bedrocks of the Church had always been the scriptures, unbroken tradition, and the apostolic magisterium. Scripture alone was not enough, as sectarianism and fragmentation of religious belief after Luther had demonstrated.