Julins Palmer

Julins Palmer (died 1556) was an English Protestant martyr. His name Julins was apparently a form of Joscelin, and has been generally misspelt Julius.

Early life

He was born in Warwickshire, at Coventry, but at an early age entered Magdalen College School, Oxford, where he was for some time a pupil of John Harley, afterwards Bishop of Hereford. He was the son of Roger Palmer, mercer or upholsterer, who was sheriff of Coventry in 1525 and mayor in 1533.

Under Edward VI

Palmer then became clerk at Magdalen College, and graduated B.A. in March 1548; in 1549 he was elected fellow. In 1550 he was appointed reader in logic. He soon attracted notice by his uncompromising Roman Catholic opinions, and in 1552 was accused of having written libellous verses on the president, Walter Haddon. Palmer denied the charge, but attacked the reformers with such vehemence that his name was struck off the list of fellows before July. He then became a tutor in the household of Sir Francis Knollys.

Under Mary I

On the accession of Mary Palmer was restored to his fellowship, but a perusal of Calvin's ‘Institutes’ began to unsettle his religious opinions, and his orthodoxy was further shaken by reading Peter Martyr's ‘Commentary on the First Epistle to the Corinthians’ and by witnessing the execution of Ridley and Latimer, which he strongly denounced. He now became as vehement a Protestant as he had before been Roman Catholic, absented himself from mass, and made a point of walking out whenever obnoxious ceremonies occurred in the church service. He avoided a second expulsion from his fellowship by voluntarily leaving Oxford, and obtained the grant of a mastership in Reading School. He was not long left in peace, for his study was searched by some of his enemies, and various anti-Roman catholic manuscripts discovered, including a poem called ‘Epicedium,’ written in answer to an epitaph on Gardiner by Peter Morwen. They threatened to inform against him unless he at once left Reading. Palmer sought shelter with his mother, who, after her husband's death, had retired to Eynsham, but she refused it on account of his heretical opinions. He now apparently obtained letters from the president of Magdalen, Arthur Cole, recommending him for a mastership in a school in Gloucestershire; but an incautious visit to Reading to secure his manuscripts and arrears of pay led to his arrest. He was brought before the mayor, Robert Bowyer, and then taken to Newbury. Here he was examined before the consistory of Dr. Jeffrey on 16 July 1556, and, after refusing to subscribe certain articles drawn up for him, was condemned to be burnt. The sentence was carried out on the following morning at the sandpits, which tradition identifies with some pits near the town on the Enborne road. Besides his answer to Morwen, John Strype attributes to Palmer various fugitive pieces, which were never printed and are not known to be extant.

Further reading

• Bloxam, John Rouse (1857). A Register of the Presidents, Fellows, Demies, Instructors in Grammar and in Music, Chaplains, Clerks, Choristers and other members of Saint Mary Magdalen College. Vol. II. Oxford: J. H. Parker, H. Hammans. p. xlvi., lii, lvii, 7–38; Volume III pp 105–6; Volume IV p 135n.;
• Carwithen, John Bayley Somers (1829). The History of the Church of England. Vol. I. London: Baldwin and Cradock. p. 457.;
• Colvile, Frederick Leigh (1870). The Worthies of Warwickshire who lived between 1500 and 1800. Warwick: Henry T. Cooke and Son. pp. 561–4.;
• Foxe, John (1868). The church historians of England : Reformation period :the Acts and Monuments of John Foxe. Vol. VIII. London: George Seeley. pp. 201–19., 721–2;
• Foxe, John (1888). Adam Clarke (ed.). Foxe's Book of Martyrs: Being a History of the Persecution of the Protestants; Carefully Compiled from Original Documents in the Government State Paper Offices, and Known as the 'Acts and Monuments' of the Christian Church. London: Ward, Lock and Company. pp. 767–74.;
• Fuller, Thomas (1662). The History of the Worthies of England. Vol. III. London: F.G.W.L. and W.G. p. 120.
• Fuller, Thomas (1845). Brewer, John Sherren (ed.). The Church History of Britain. Vol. II. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 466., Volume IV p. 181;
• Harleian Manuscript 425 - "A Book in folio containing more of the Papers of Mr. John Fox, and bought of Mr. Strype" - "10. An Anſwere to a Slander untimely reported by Mr. Foxe in a certen Boke intytuled the ſeconde Volume of the Eccleſiaſticall Hyſtorye; conteynynge the Actes & Monuments of Martyres: whych was broughte unto hym (as yt may be ſuppoſed) by ſome uncharytable & malycyous ſlaunderer agaynſte Thomas Thackhame Myniſter: wherby yt maye well appere unto the gentle Reader both howe much the Wryter off that Hyſtorye hathe bene abuſed, and howe wrongfullye the ſayed Thomas Thackham hathe bene ſlaundered (as though he had been an Informer againſt Julins Palmer the Martyr) 11. Reply to an undiſcrete Anſwer made by one Tho. Thackham, ſometime of Reading, againſt the Story of Julins Palmer, Martyr, A. D. 1571"- Imperfect" ;
• "Martyrs at Newbury, 1556". Notes and Queries. 6th series. I: 43. 10 January 1880. Retrieved 10 December 2017. In response to 5th series. Volume XII: 427. 29 November 1879.
• McClintock, John; Strong, James (1877). Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical Literature. Vol. VII. New York: Harper and Brothers. p. 597.;
• Nichols, John Gough (1859). Narratives of the Days of the Reformation. Camden Society. pp. 85–131., 341;
• Ridley, Glocester (1763). The life of Dr. Nicholas Ridley, sometime Bishop of London, shewing the plan and progress of the Reformation in which he was a principal instrument and suffered martyrdom for it in the reign of Queen Mary. London: J. Whiston & B. White and R. & J. Dodsley. p. 670.;
• Soames, Henry (1828). The History of the Reformation of the Church of England. Vol. IV. London: C & J Rivington. pp. 474–6.;
• Strype, John (1824). Annals of the reformation and establishment of religion, and other various occurrences in the Church of England, during Queen Elizabeth's happy reign : together with an appendix of original papers of state, records, and letters. Volume III. Vol. Part I. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 737., Volume III. Part II. p 512,
• Strype, John (1822). Ecclesiastical memorials, relating chiefly to religion, and the reformation of it, and the emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII, King Edward VI and Queen Mary I, with large appendixes, containing original papers, records, &c. Volume III. Vol. Part I. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 82., 574–85;
• Wood, Anthony (1815). Bliss, Philip (ed.). Fasti Oxoniensis, or Annals of the University of Oxford. Vol. Part I. London: F.C and J. Rivington and others. p. 125., 232;
• Wordsworth, Christopher (1853). Ecclesiastical biography : or, Lives of eminent men connected with the history of religion in England ; from the commencement of the Reformation to the Revolution. Vol. III. London: Francis & John Rivington. pp. 125–6.;

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Pollard, Albert Frederick (1895). "Palmer, Julins". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 43. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 145.