end of his life he was put on the Court of High Commission with the
express purpose of answering the charges of the Presbyterians. His life
was thus one devoted not only to the duties of a bishop, visitations, the
Pentecost convocation of the diocesan clergy, the meetings of Parliament,
but also his obligations as a writer. The keeping of his palace, as
described by Folkerzheimer gives the impression of diffidence about the
affairs of court, though it seems that Jewel was truly desirous for the
betterment of his diocese. Jewel never married, and perhaps he thought
himself not of the disposition or the mettle of Boethius, who confessed
that he never found marriage a hindrance to his studies. Certainly
Elizabeth preferred Jewel and all her clergy celibate, never letting
Parliament change Mary’s law forbidding clerical marriage, the law only
being changed under James I in 1604. According to the Injunctions,
clergy could marry, though only with the consent of their ordinary, and
that of two justices of the peace from the shire of the woman’s
residence.^43 In the middle of the twentieth century, having lived in
Mompesson House for most of the war, the bishop moved his lodgings
to the South Canonry, the building within the Close most removed from
the cathedral itself, and the episcopal palace was then made into the
cathedral school. The reason for this move was that the palace was far
too large for a family home.
The best picture we have of Jewel’s life in Salisbury comes from
Herman Folkerzheimer, a student from Zurich, who, though apparently
of some means even affected a vagabond life. He had been in France, but
then took to the road with the beginning of the Wars of Religion, leaving
New Rochelle for London, having enough money upon his arrival to buy
a horse. By 8 July 1562 he had found his way to Salisbury.^44
Folkerzheimer left a remarkable picture of Jewel as a host, and his
peculiar provision for Folkerzheimer leaves doubt whether Jewel’s earlier
blandishments of poverty were entirely accurate. Doubtless Jewel’s
munificence may have seemed liberal to a vagabond student, yet
Folkerzheimer was not without means. Since Folkerzheimer had never
been to Salisbury, what his account reveals exactly of what Elizabeth had
left to the bishop may not be an accurate gauge of what episcopal life in
Salisbury had come to. Regardless, Jewel assigned two youths to the
Zuricher, boys acquainted with French, who showed him around town.
The town impressed him, but more importantly, ‘although the whole of
the city belongs to the bishop, his domestic arrangements delighted me
216 JOHN JEWEL AND THE ENGLISH NATIONAL CHURCH
(^43) Hardy and Gee, Documents, p. 431. Injunction XXIX.
(^44) Ibid., pp. 1256–57. Jewel apparently must have been on wonderful terms with Josiah
Simler, for he goes into great detail of how he laughs every time he remembers him,
hobbled by his gout, supported by his crutches, the picture of old age, and after such a vital
youth.
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