Sir John Cheke (or Cheek; 16 June 1514 – 13 September 1557) was an English classical scholar and statesman.J. Strype, The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke, Kt. (original 1705), New Edition, corrected by the Author (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1821) . One of the foremost teachers of his age, and the first Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Cambridge, he played a great part in the revival of Greek learning in England.See an extensive study in Paul S. Needham, 'Sir John Cheke at Cambridge and Court', 2 vols., PhD Dissertation, Harvard University (1971). He was tutor to Prince Edward, the future King Edward VI, and also sometimes to Princess Elizabeth. Of strongly Reformist sympathy in religious affairs, his public career as provost of King's College, Cambridge, Member of Parliament and briefly as Secretary of State during King Edward's reignS.R. Johnson, 'Cheke, John (1514–57), of Cambridge and London', in S.T. Bindoff (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1509–1558 (Secker & Warburg, 1982), History of Parliament online. was brought to a close by the accession of Queen Mary in 1553.See J.F. McDiarmid, '"To content god quietlie": The Troubles of Sir John Cheke under Queen Mary', in V. Westbrook & E. Evendon (eds.), Catholic Renewal and Protestant Resistance in Marian England, Catholic Christendom 1300–1700 (Routledge, 2016). See notes at pp. 224 ff. He went into voluntary exile abroad, at first under royal licence (which he overstayed). He was captured and imprisoned in 1556, and recanted his faith to avoid death by burning. He died not long afterward, reportedly regretting his decision.A. Bryson, 'Cheke, Sir John (1514–1557), humanist, royal tutor, and administrator', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004, online edition 2008).
Origins and earlier career The Cheke or Cheeke family is said to have originated in Northamptonshire and to be descended from Sir William de Butevillar. At the time of John's birth, the family seat had been, for more than a century, at Mottistone in the Isle of Wight.'Cheeke', in W.C. Metcalfe (ed.), The Visitations of Essex in 1552, 1558, 1570, 1612 and 1634, 2 Vols, Harleian Society XIII-XIV (1878–79), I (1634 Mundy Visitation, addition in MS), pp. 176-77. Also 'Cheeke' in W.H. Rylands (ed.), Pedigrees from the Visitation of Hampshire 1530, with additions from 1575, 1622 and 1634, Harleian Society LXIV (1913), pp. 53–54 (at p. 54), from Harley MS 1544, Fols. 51b, 52. John's father, Peter Cheke of CambridgeThe Pirgo connection, although stated by P.W. Hasler, ('Cecil, Thomas (1542–1623), of Burghley House, Lincs. and Wimbledon, Surr.', in P.W. Hasler (ed.), The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1558–1603 (from Boydell & Brewer, 1981), History of Parliament online) is not supported by other sources at this date. (the son of Robert Cheke of Mottistone), was Esquire Bedell of the University of Cambridge from 1509 until his death in 1529. John's mother was Agnes Duffield, daughter of Andrew Duffield of Cambridge: John was born in that city in 1514, and had five sisters, Ann, Alice, Elizabeth, Magdalen, and Mary. His grammatical education was begun by John Morgan, M.A.C.H. Cooper & T. Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses, I: 1500–1585 (Deighton, Bell & Co/Macmillan & Co, Cambridge 1858), pp. 166-170. He was educated at St John's College, where he proceeded to receive a B.A. in 1529, and obtained a Fellowship. He commenced with an M.A. in 1533.J. Venn and J.A. Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I.i (Cambridge University Press, 1922), p. 328. His tutor was George Day, who became an opponent of the Edwardian Reformation.Johnson, 'Cheke, Sir John', History of Parliament (online). Accessed 22 January 2023.
At university, Cheke, and his friend, Thomas Smith (a student of Civil Law at Queens' College), were thought so outstanding that each was granted an exhibition by King Henry to support them in their studies. Both were largely impressed by the classical learning of John Redman, who had studied in Paris, and sought to emulate him. Both Queens' College (where the influence of Erasmus remained) and St John's fostered Reformist principles which Cheke and Smith embraced.J. Strype, The Life of the Learned Sir Thomas Smith, Kt., D.C.L., New Edition with corrections and additions by the author (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1820), pp. 8-9.
During the early 1530s Cheke and Smith studied together privately to import English phonological conventions onto ancient Greek letters. The language itself, its cadences and inflexions of meaning, thereby gained new life in the English-speaking world and the works of the ancient scholars and orators were made more familiar to English speakers. Smith, giving Greek lectures from 1533, around 1535 began to make public trial of these effects, and soon gained a following. Smith's student John Poynet, succeeding his tutor, maintained the new pronunciation in his lectures: both Cheke and Smith began to coach students in their method, and the Plutus of Aristophanes was acted at St. John's in the new manner.Strype, The Life of the learned Sir Thomas Smith, pp. 8-14. After Poynet as Greek Reader came Roger Ascham,For Ascham's letters to Cheke, see J.A. Giles, The Whole Works of Roger Ascham, Vol. I Part I: Life, &c., and Letters (John Russell Smith, London 1865), passim. Cheke's student, who read Isocrates, at first disputing but afterwards coming round fully to the innovations,Strype, The Life of the learned Sir Thomas Smith, p. 13 (Internet Archive). which also won the approval of John Redman.Strype, The Life of the learned Sir Thomas Smith, p. 18 (Internet Archive).
Academic manoeuvres
Through the mediation of Matthew Parker, Cheke obtained the support of Anne Boleyn for his student William Bill to continue his studies.Strype, Life of the learned Sir John Cheke, pp. 8-9. After a year as Master of St John's, and as University Vice-Chancellor, George Day was appointed by King Henry to be provost of King's College in 1538, Smith having become University Orator in 1537 in succession to him.'Day, George', in Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, I.ii (Cambridge University Press, 1922) p. 22. In 1540, at the King's creation of the Regius Professorships, Smith was made Professor of Law, Cheke Professor of Greek, and John Blythe (of King's College)Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses, I.i, p. 171. Professor of Physick.Strype, Life of the learned Sir Thomas Smith, pp. 10-14. Blythe married Alice, one of Cheke's sisters, before 1536, and in 1541 William Cecil (afterwards Lord Burleigh), Cheke's distinguished student, married Mary Cheke, another.Metcalfe, Visitations of Essex; Rylands, Visitation of Hampshire. (Mary Cecil died two years later, leaving Cecil with a son, Thomas Cecil.) In 1542 one "Mistress Cheke" was still resident in the Cheke home at Market Hill, Cambridge.Will of William Sabyn, Sergeant at the arms of Ipswich, Suffolk (PCC 1543, Spert quire).
In June 1542, Bishop Gardiner, as chancellor of the university, issued his Edict to all who recognized his authority that the sounds customarily used for the pronunciation of Greek or Latin should not be changed by anyone, and gave a list of them with phonetic explanations. He pronounced severe and potentially exclusionist penalties at all levels of the academic hierarchy for those who contravened this ruling, and further wrote to the vice-chancellor requiring that his edict be observed.J. Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials: Relating Chiefly to Religion and the Reformation of it, 3 Vols (John Wyat, London 1721), I, Appendix of records and originals, No. CXVI, pp. 326-27. Cheke, as one of the principal targets of Gardiner's disapproval, entered into a correspondence of seven letters with him,De Pronuntiatione Graecae potissimum linguae disputationes cum Stephano Vuintoniensi episcopo, septem contrariis epistolis comprehensae (N. Episcopium iuniorem, Basel 1555); full page-views at Münchener Digitalisierungszentrum. Reprint, ed. R.C. Alston, Collection of facsimile reprints, No. 2, Scholar Press (1968). but the Bishop remained inflexible.Strype, Life of the learned Sir John Cheke, pp. 15-19. However the seeds of his method had been sown, and took root. At that time the letters remained unpublished.
In that year Cheke was incorporated M.A. at the University of Oxford, being made a canon of King Henry VIII's College.Cooper, Athenae Cantabrigienses, pp. 166-170. In 1544 he succeeded Smith as Public Orator in the University of Cambridge.Alumni Cantabrigienses, I.i, p. 328. Day, consecrated Bishop of Chichester in 1543, remained provost of King's.Alumni Cantabrigienses, I.ii, p. 22. At this time Cheke prepared his Latin translation (dedicated to the King) of the De Apparatu Bellico of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI, often sharing and talking over his work with Roger Ascham.R. Ascham, 'Toxophilus, the Schole of Shootinge contayned in two bookes' (orig. In aedibus Edouardi Whytchurch, London 1545), in W.A. Wright (ed.), Roger Ascham: English Works (Cambridge University Press 1904), pp. vii-xx, 1-119, at pp. 45-46. Thomas Hoby was then one of his pupils.E. Powell (ed.), The Travels and Life of Sir Thomas Hoby, Kt., of Bisham Abbey, written by himself. 1547–1564 (Royal Historical Society, London 1902), pp. x-xi. Cheke's reading and thought in the Greek Histories, and his use of them to extract examples of policy and conduct, can be studied in his annotations to print copies (from the Aldine Press) of Herodotus and Thucydides.St. Johns's College, Cambridge, shelfmark Aa.4.48, see J. Harmer, 'Sir John Cheke's Greek Books', Centre for Material Texts (Cambridge, June 2010), website.
In 1543 and 1545, his Latin versions of the homilies of St John Chrysostom were published, opening with a letter of dedication to his patron the King. On 10 June 1544Cheke told Girolamo Cardano he was selected on 10 June (see below), but he commenced in July: J.G. Nichols, 'Biographical Memoir of King Edward the Sixth', in Literary Remains of King Edward the Sixth, Roxburghe Club (J.B. Nichols and Son, London 1857), I, p. xxxix. Cheke was appointed tutor to the future King Edward VI, as a supplement to his tutor Dr Richard Cox, to teach him "of toungues, of the scripture, of philosophie and all liberal sciences" (as the Prince wrote in his JournalBritish Library, Cotton MS Nero C.X, fol. 11r.), and commenced his duties at Hampton Court soon afterwards. At the Prince's invitation, the young Henry Hastings shared in his studies.C. Cross, The Puritan Earl. The Life of Henry Hastings, Third Earl of Huntingdon, 1536–1595 (Macmillan, London 1966), pp. 9-10. Roger Ascham felt strongly Cheke's absence from the university, where his example was so inspirational.Ascham (ed. Wright), Toxophilus, pp. 45-46. Special interest has been found in Cheke's lengthy preface to his Latin translation of Plutarch's De Superstitione,University College, Oxford, MS 171 (in Bodleian Library). prepared as a New Year's gift for the King in 1545 or 1546.J.A. McDiarmid, 'John Cheke's Preface to "De Superstitione",' Journal of Ecclesiastical History Vol. 48 Issue 1, January 1997 (Cambridge University Press), pp. 100-120 (Cambridge Core).
Edward's tutor in French, the Huguenot Jean Belmain, was Cheke's nephew by marriage.D. MacCulloch, Tudor Church Militant: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation (Penguin UK, 2017), at note 35. Ascham's pupil William Grindal was, at his recommendation to Cheke, chosen to read Greek to Princess Elizabeth, until his untimely death in 1548.Strype, Life of the learned Sir John Cheke, p. 9. By that time William Bill was Master of St John's,'Bill, William', Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses I.i, p. 151. and John Redman Master of the newly-founded Trinity College (1546), in which Bill succeeded him in 1551.T. Wright and H. Longueville Jones, Memorials of Cambridge. A Series of Views by J. Le Keux, with Historical and Descriptive Accounts, 2 Vols (Tilt & Bogue, London 1841), I, pp. 22-23.