Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/158

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editions appearing between that date and 1640. It was the bible on which most Englishmen in Elizabethan England were brought up, and even after the appearance of the authorised version continued to be the favourite bible in puritan households.

Besides the translation of the Bible, Whittingham while at Geneva turned into metre various of the Psalms. Seven of these were included among the fifty-one psalms published at Geneva in 1556 as part of the service-book which Whittingham and his colleagues had been appointed to draw up at Frankfort; the others were revised versions of Sternhold's psalms. A metrical rendering of the Ten Commandments by Whittingham is appended. Another edition in 1558, now lost, is believed to have contained nine fresh psalms by Whittingham; these were reprinted in the edition of 1561, to which Whittingham also contributed a version of the ‘Song of Simeon’ and two of the Lord's Prayer (for other editions see Julian, Dict. of Hymnology, pp. 857–61). Besides these Whittingham translated four psalms in the Scottish psalter, which do not appear in any English edition. ‘His influence on the psalter was, in the first place, that of scholarly revision of the work of Sternhold, and of Hopkins's seven early psalms from his knowledge of Hebrew; and, in the second, imitation of French metres’ (ib. p. 861). Whittingham also wrote a preface to Ridley's ‘Brief Declaration of the Lord's Supper’ (Geneva? 1555, 8vo), revised for press Knox's work on predestination, which was published at Geneva in 1560 (Knox, Works, Bannatyne Club, v. 15* sqq.), and contributed a dedicatory epistle to Goodman's ‘How Superior Powers ought to be obeyed’ (Geneva, 1558, 8vo), in which views similar to Knox's were adopted with regard to the ‘regiment of women.’

Whittingham took formal leave of the council at Geneva on 30 May 1560 (extract from council-book in Original Letters, Parker Soc. p. 765 n.). Soon after his return to England he was in January 1560–1 appointed to attend on Francis Russell, second earl of Bedford, during his embassy to the French court. In the following year he became chaplain to Ambrose Dudley, earl of Warwick [q. v.], and one of the ministers at Havre or Newhaven, which was then occupied by the English under Warwick. His religious zeal, and other services of a more warlike character at the siege of Havre, won him general praise (see Cal. State Papers, For. 1561–3, passim); but Cecil was obliged to complain of his neglect of conformity to the English prayer-book (Camden Miscellany, vi. 14–18). Neither his puritanism, however, nor the dislike Elizabeth felt towards him for his share in Goodman's book prevented his being collated on 19 July 1563 to the deanery of Durham, a promotion which he owed to the strenuous support of Warwick and Leicester. On his way to Durham he preached before the queen at Windsor on 2 Sept. 1563.

Unlike many deans of Elizabeth's reign, when deaneries, being sine cura animarum, were regarded as semi-secular preferments, Whittingham took his religious duties seriously, holding two services a day, devoting much time to his grammar school and song school (Lansd. MS. 7, art. 12), and being ‘very carefull to provide the best songs and anthems that could be got out of the queen's chappell, to furnish the quire with all, himselfe being skillfull in musick.’ Before the outbreak of the northern rebellion in 1569 he vainly urged Pilkington, the bishop of Durham, to put the city in a state of defence, but he was more successful at Newcastle, which resisted the rebels. In 1572, when Burghley became lord treasurer, Whittingham was suggested, probably by Leicester, as his successor in the office of secretary. In 1577 Leicester also promised Whittingham his aid in securing the see of York or Durham, both of which were vacant; but the dean refused to prosecute his suit.

Meanwhile Whittingham's iconoclastic proceedings in the cathedral, a list of which is given by Wood, had offended the higher church party. As early as 1564 he had written a long letter to Leicester (printed in Strype's Parker, iii. 76–84) protesting against the ‘old popish apparel,’ and proceedings had in 1566 been taken against him for refusing to wear the surplice and cope (Camden Miscellany, vi. 22); Whittingham eventually gave way, alleging Calvin's advice not to leave the ministry ‘for these externall matters of order.’ In 1577, however, he incurred the enmity of Edwin Sandys [q. v.], the new archbishop of York, by resisting his claim to visit Durham Cathedral (ib. pp. 26–7; Injunctions and Eccl. Proc. of Bishop Barnes, p. 65, Surtees Soc.). According to Hutchinson (Durham, ii. 143–52) and Strype (Annals, ii. ii. 167) a commission, which does not appear on the patent or close rolls, had been issued in 1576 or 1577 to examine matters of complaint against him, but had proved ineffectual because the Earl of Huntingdon and Matthew Hutton (1529–1606) [q. v.] sided with the dean against the third commissioner, Sandys. A fresh commission was issued on