Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morwen, John
MORWEN, MORING, or MORVEN, JOHN (1518?–1561?), divine, born about 1518, was a Devonshire man of a good family (Visitations of Devon, Harl. Soc., p. 193). Going to Oxford, he was placed under a relative, Robert Morwen [q. v.], the president of Corpus Christi College, and under Morwen's influence he adopted reactionary religious views. He was scholar of the college 1535, fellow 1539, graduated B.A. 1538, proceeded M. A. 1543, and B.D. 1552. Becoming a noted Greek scholar, he was appointed reader in that language in his college. Among his pupils was Jewel. Seeing how things went in Edward VI's time, he is said to have studied physic, but this, though confirmed by an entry in the registers, seems at variance with the fact of his graduation in divinity. When Mary came to the throne Morwen became prominent. He was secretary to Bonner, and assisted in the trials of heretics (cf. Foxe, Acts and Monuments, vi. 721). On Good Friday 1557 he preached at St. Paul's Cross. In 1558 he became a prebendary of St. Paul's, and received the livings of St. Martin's Ludgate, Copford, Asheldam, and Whickam Bishops, all in London diocese. He lost all at Elizabeth's accession, and was put in the Fleet for preaching at Ludgate in favour of the mass. He was released on submission, and perhaps was protected by William Roper, son-in-law to More, whose daughter he taught; but he was again in trouble in 1561 for scattering a libel in Cheshire—that is to say a reply to Pilkington's sermon about the fire at St. Paul's, which Romanists considered as a portent. From this time he disappeared.
Morwen contributed epitaphs in Greek and Latin on Henry and Charles Brandon to the collection issued in 1551, and published a Latin epitaph on Gardiner in 1555 (London, 4to), which Hearne reprinted in his 'Curious Discourses.' Julines Palmer [q. v.], who was burnt in 1556, composed a reply an 'epicedium' to the epitaph on Gardiner, and it was found when his study was searched. Bodleian MS. 439 contains opuscula in Greek and Latin by Morwen. Translations from Greek into Latin of 'The Lives of Artemius and other Saints,' dedicated to Queen Mary, form MS. Reg. 13, B, x, in the British Museum.
[Wood's Athenæ, ed. Bliss, i. 195; Le Neve's Fasti, ii. 384, 560, iii. 565; Prince's Worthies of Devon, p. 454; Narratives of the Reformation (Camd. Soc.), p. 84; Churton's Life of Alexander Nowell, pp. 52, 61; Dixon's Hist, of Church of England, iv. 182, 348, 687; Strype's Memorials, in. ii. 2, 29; Annals, i. i. 60, 61, 253, 414; Casley's Cat. Royal MSS. 221.]