Dr Richard Gwent (died 1543) was a senior ecclesiastical jurist, pluralist cleric and administrator through the period of the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII. Of south Welsh origins, as a Doctor of both laws in the University of Oxford he rose swiftly to become Dean of the Arches and Archdeacon of London and of Brecon, and later of Huntingdon. He became an important figure in the operations of Thomas Cromwell, was a witness to Thomas Cranmer's private protestation on becoming Archbishop of Canterbury, and was Cranmer's Commissary and legal draftsman. He was an advocate on behalf of Katherine of Aragon in the proceedings against her, and helped to deliver the decree of annulment against Anne of Cleves.G. Williams, 'Gwent, Richard (d. 1543), clergyman and canon lawyer', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)
A royal chaplain, he helped to arrange a peace treaty with Scotland, and steered the revision of the Canon Law and other textual reforms. An instrument of policy rather than a prime mover, he helped to implement major reforms including the King's Supremacy, took the surrender of some larger monasteries in the western English borders, and was Prolocutor of the lower house in three important Ecclesiastical Convocations of the period. He was also involved in the identification and interrogation of heretics. His long association with Cranmer brought him closely into the process of Reform, but in his duty of service to various masters his personal religious sympathies are not fully apparent.G. Williams, "Two neglected London-Welsh clerics: Richard Whitford and Richard Gwent", Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (1961), pp. 23–43, at pp. 33–43 (Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru); and in Welsh Reformation Essays (University of Wales Press, Cardiff 1967).
Life Origins and education Richard Gwent and his brothers Thomas Gwent and John Gwent were the sons of a Monmouthshire farmer. Elected Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1515,Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714, Greenhill-Gysby he supplicated for Bachelor of Civil Law on 17 December 1518 and for Bachelor of Canon Law on 22 January following, and was admitted for the latter on 28 February (1518/19). He supplicated for Doctor of Canon Law on 20 March 1522/23, was licensed for Doctor of Civil Law on 1 August 1524 and admitted to the latter on 3 April 1525.C. W. Boase, Register of the University of Oxford Vol. I: 1449–63; 1505–71 (Oxford Historical Society/Clarendon Press, Oxford 1885), p. 107 (Internet Archive)."Gwent, Richard", in J. Foster (ed.), Alumni Oxonienses 1500–1714 (Oxford 1891), pp. 600–25 (British History Online, accessed 27 December 2018). He had previously been presented by the abbess and convent of Godstow to the vicarage of St Giles in Oxford, but resigned that benefice in April 1524.W.H. Turner, Selections from the Records of the City of Oxford (James Parker & Co., London/Oxford 1880), p. 52 (Internet Archive).
Advocate in London For a while Gwent acted as chief moderator of the canon law school at Oxford University. He was admitted to Doctors' Commons on 20 April 1526,G.D. Squibb, Doctors' Commons. A History of the College of Advocates and Doctors of Law (Oxford 1977), p. 143. moving to London to practise as an ecclesiastical advocate.J.S. Brewer (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 4: 1524–1530 (London, 1875), p. 1498, no. 3307 (1527). Presented to the Canterbury living of Tangmere, Sussex in April 1528, he is thought to have entered the service of Cardinal Wolsey, thereby becoming known to Thomas Cromwell.Williams, "Two neglected London-Welsh clerics", pp. 33–34. In 1529 he acted as a junior advocate on behalf of Catherine of Aragon,Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. 4: 1524–1530, p. 2571, no. 5768; p. 2624, no. 5866 (1529) (British History Online). in the hearings before Wolsey and Lorenzo Campeggio: during that time Gwent's advice was considered important enough, on a certain occasion, that he was fetched from Gloucester and Llanthony to consult with the Queen at Woodstock over letters brought from Rome.J. Gairdner and R. H. Brodie (eds), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 14 Part 1: January–July 1539 (HMSO, London 1894), p. 71, no. 190, section 10.5 (British History Online). Gwent, however, avoided the royal displeasure incurred by John Fisher, who led the Queen's defence, and in March 1530 received the Westminster Abbey presentation to St Leonard, Foster Lane, London.R. Newcourt, Repertorium Ecclesiasticum Parochiale Londinense (Benjamin Motte, for Baker, Tooke, Parker, Bowyer and Clements, London 1708), pp. 392–94 (Google).
Dean of the Arches Gwent may have been transferred from Wolsey's household to the service of the King when that prelate fell:Williams, "Two neglected London-Welsh clerics", p. 34, citing G. R. Elton, The Tudor Revolution in Government (C.U.P., 1953), p. 82. by 1532 he had become a chaplain to the King. He was admitted to the prebend of Pipa Parva in the church of Lichfield in October 1531, but exchanged it for that of Longdon (a Lichfield peculiar) in the following December. During 1532 his name arises in Cromwell's correspondence, and he became prominent among the royal advisors.J. Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 5: 1531–1532 (HMSO, London 1880), pp. 644, no. 1530; 692, no. 1672 (British History Online).
This decisive turn in Gwent's career came with the death of Archbishop William Warham of Canterbury, who had held the see since 1504. The vacancy required a principal official who could be depended upon while the successor was chosen, and (although the office was usually in the Archbishop's gift) Cromwell seized the opportunity to appoint Dr Gwent as Dean of the Arches and Master of the Prerogative in the Consistory court of the Province of Canterbury in September 1532.Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. 5: 1531–1532, p. 574, no. 1326 (British History Online). Among his first duties as Doctor of the Decretals was to hear the oaths of the Duke of Norfolk, Sir Andrew Windsor, John Cockes (archbishop's Chancellor) and others, executors in the probate of Archbishop Warham.Will and Codicil of William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury (P.C.C. 1532, Thower quire). Transcript in J. G. Nichols and J. Bruce (eds), Wills From Doctor's Commons. A Selection from the wills of eminent persons proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Camden Society vol. LXXXIII (1863), pp. 21–27 (Internet Archive).
Cranmer's protestation Gwent was therefore in office when Thomas Cranmer was selected to succeed as Archbishop in October 1532 and consecrated in March 1533. Cranmer, having received papal preconization, at his consecration was to make his formal statement of obedience to the pope at Westminster. Before doing so, and foreseeing what services would be expected from him, with the king's approval he summoned John Tregonwell, Thomas Bedyll, John Cockes and Richard Gwent to St Stephen's Chapel at Westminster to witness his private protestation that he would not bind himself to anything contrary to the law of God, or prejudicial to the king's rights, or to anything which might prevent necessary reforms in the Church of England. The King's prothonotary Richard Watkins drew up a legal instrument to this effect which they attested, but which was not recited publicly at the consecration.N. P. Wiseman, "Review: Lingard's History of England", The Dublin Review, Vol. XII: February and May 1842 (C. Dolman, London 1842), pp. 295–362, at pp. 337–41 (Google).See J. Strype, Memorials of Archbishop Cranmer, Ecclesiastical History Society, 3 vols (Oxford 1848), I, pp. 490–97 (Google).H. Jenkins, The Remains of Thomas Cranmer, 4 vols (Oxford University Press, 1833), IV, pp. 247–51 (Google).
In a certain case of the 1530s the Wardens of the Bridge Works in the City of London complained in Chancery that Gwent, as advocate, had formerly acted on behalf of Stratford Langthorne Abbey to demand tithes for a mill in West Ham which were traditionally payable to the Wardens. Their complaint was that as a judge, now Dean of the Arches, he proposed to affirm a judgement for the abbot in the same matter: they sought not only relief from the abbot's claim but also a writ of prohibition against Gwent proceeding in it.The National Archives (UK), Crull v Abbot of Stratford, ref. C 1/699/26. View original at AALT.
Gwent witnessed Cranmer's questioning, in friendly guise, of the visionary Elizabeth Barton, the nun of Kent, and wrote to Cromwell that they would deliver her to him when enough damning evidence had been gathered.J. Gairdner (ed.), Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Vol. 6: 1533 (HMSO, London 1882), p. 418, no. 967 (British History Online). In December 1533 he was commissioned to conduct the Visitation of St Gregory's Priory, St Sepulchre's Priory and St James's Hospital, Canterbury, Faversham Abbey and Wingham College (Kent), and also of the rural deaneries of Canterbury, Westbere and Sandwich.P. Ayris and D. Selwyn, Thomas Cranmer: Churchman and Scholar (Boydell Press, Woodbridge 1993), p. 122 (Google), citing Lambeth Palace Library, Carte Antique et Miscellanee, vol. XII, no. 56. Soon afterwards he was in Lichfield to oversee the consecration of Rowland Lee as bishop according to the true precedents.Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, Vol. 6: 1533, p. 642, no. 1579 (British History Online).
In relation to his Lichfield prebend he was instituted to Bebington (Cheshire) in 1531 (holding until 1543, perhaps leased to David Pole);D. H. Jones, The Church in Chester, 1300–1540, Chetham Society Remains, Series 3, vol 7 (Manchester University Press, 1957), p. 157 (Internet Archive), citing Lichfield Register, Vol. XIV, fol. 66. he occupied the vicariate of Bakewell (Derbyshire) from 1533 until 1537;J. C. Cox, Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire, IV (Bemrose and Sons, London 1879), p. 493 (Internet Archive). and was presented to North Wingfield (Derbyshire) in 1534Cox, Notes on the Churches of Derbyshire, I (1875), pp. 417–21; IV (1879), p. 486 (Internet Archive). and to Walton-on-the-Hill (Lancashire) at the end of 1535 (both held until 1543).'The parish of Walton on the Hill: Introduction, church and charities', in W. Farrer and J. Brownbill (eds), A History of the County of Lancaster, Vol. 3 (HMSO, London 1907), pp. 5–11, at note 45 (British History Online), citing Lichfield Episcopal registers XIII-XIV, fol. 35. He may also occur as vicar of Leek (Staffordshire) between 1533 and 1541.W.N. Landor, Staffordshire Incumbents and Parochial Records 1530–1680, William Salt Archaeological Society, for 1915 (London 1916), pp. 146–47 (Internet Archive). He held the rectory of St Peter and St Paul, Newchurch, Kent, from 1533 until 1543. at p. 465, citing Cranmer's Register, fol. 389 v.
Supremacy and the Canon law