Thomas Watson (bishop of Lincoln)

Thomas Watson (1515–1584) was a Catholic Bishop, notable among Catholics for his descriptions of the Protestant Reformation.

Watson was born near Durham in 1515 at a time when England was still a Catholic country .

Watson grew up in a monastic world at Nun Stainton, near Durham. Little about his earliest schooling is known, but for entrance to Cambridge University, he would have studied at Durham's Priory School. The Rites of Durham, written in about 1593, recalls life in Durham Cathedral before the Dissolution. Watson describes the school, and the last schoolmaster, Robert Hartburne, as a venerable and learned monk, always looking for a bright pupil who was "apt to learning, and did apply his book, and had a pregnant wit with all" to groom for university entrance.

Watson grew up in Durham. He left for St John's College, Cambridge in 1529. The majority of staff and students, under their Chancellor, John Fisher, were clerics or future clerics. Watson received his B.A. in 1532/3 and his M.A. in 1536.

In 1536, the 21-year-old Watson was required to swear an oath of allegiance to King Henry VIII following the king's rejection of the Catholic Church. The oath included the following phrase:

In response to his oath of allegiance to Henry VIII, Watson wrote an unpublished five-act play. The play, written in Latin verse and completed at around 1540, was based on Absalom's revolt against his father David described in the Old Testament. The manuscript was hidden and lost until it was rediscovered among 16th century humanist manuscripts in the British Museum in 1963.

Absalom was written "in trew imitation" of a classical tragedy, but with a contemporary twist. In language and style it imitates Aristotle, Horace or Seneca, and yet in content the biblical story merges with events taking place all around. The story begins with a prince quarrelling with his father. The issue concerns his brother and their relationship with a princess. Absalom demands a particular ruling from his father, but David cannot comply. Absalom decides to act in defiance of his father, and David censures him. Absalom flies into a rage, and furiously begins to undermine and then deny his father's authority.

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