St. Gilbert of Sempringham, prior of Watton, Yorkshire, and vicar of Cadney, Lincolnshire. At Cadney he had some dispute with Sir Francis Ascough, which caused him to go to London, where he became one of the chaplains of Henry VIII. In after years, when he was president of the council of the north, it is said that he had to decide a suit in which Ascough was concerned, and that he upheld the cause of his former adversary, as justice required, remarking that he was beholden to him, for had he not been driven to go to London he had lived a poor priest all his days. Being elected bishop of Llandaff, on the resignation of George de Athequa in 1537, he was consecrated on 25 March in the lady chapel of the Blackfriars church by the Bishop of Rochester, receiving the king's license to hold the mastership of Sempringham and the priory of Watton in commendam. In this year he commenced D.D. by special grace. As bishop of Llandaff he took part in composing ‘The Institution of a Christian Man.’ He was one of the council of the north, and much assisted Cuthbert Tunstall, bishop of Durham, the president. In July 1538 he succeeded Tunstall as president of the council; he resided at York in the house pertaining to his office, was fully employed in secular business, and especially in the transactions between England and Scotland in 1540 and the following years. He signed the surrender of Watton 9 Dec. 1540, and in exchange for the income accruing to him as ‘sole master and prior’ of the twenty-four Gilbertine houses received a grant for life of all the lands of Watton with the patronage of its benefices, the clear income being assessed at about 360l. (MS. State Papers, Mary, 1555, vi. 84; Monasticon, vi. 954). On 29 June 1541 he had a special grant of arms, viz. or, a bend between two bulls' heads couped sable, on a chief argent, two bars gules surmounted of a crutch staff in bend azure (the arms given by Drake appear to be those of Robert Waldby, archbishop of York, 1397–8). On 10 Jan. 1545 he was translated to York, taking the oaths of renunciation and supremacy, and receiving the pall at the hands of Archbishop Cranmer in Lambeth Chapel, a special service being performed at this unique ceremony. Immediately after his translation he alienated to the king sixty-seven manors belonging to his see, receiving in exchange thirty-three impropriations and advowsons which came to the crown by the dissolution of the northern monasteries. While by these and other like measures he much impoverished his see, he became personally the wealthiest prelate in England. On 24 Oct. 1546 he received letters patent for the foundation of three grammar schools at York, Old Malton, and Hemsworth, each to be a separate corporation with a master and usher, the statutes to be framed by the archbishop, who ordained that Latin, Greek, and Hebrew should be taught free; the parents paid a quarterly sum for instruction in English, writing, and arithmetic. On 15 June 1549 Holgate was married after banns to Barbara, daughter of Roger Wentworth. It was said that they had been privately married at an earlier date (Drake). The insurrection in Yorkshire gave him some trouble, but (he afterwards asserted to the king, Edward VI) it was put down by the local forces without charge. Eight persons were executed (MS. State Papers, Mary, u.s.) About this time he had some disputes with the Earl of Warwick, afterwards Duke of Northumberland [see Dudley, John], for, according to his own account, he refused to ‘forbear the order of justice’ in the case of ‘dyvers light persons offenders,’ and also thwarted Dudley with respect to some property which he desired to acquire. These disputes cost him the loss of the presidency of the council, which he held for twelve years. In 1551 one Anthony Norman complained to the privy council that Holgate's wife had previously been married to himself, and claimed that she should be restored, and on 12 Nov. the council appointed three commissioners to inquire into the matter and report accordingly (Council Book, Harl. MS. 352, 206). It appears that their report was in the archbishop's favour, for in a grant from the crown, dated 27 May 1553, Barbara is described as his wife. This grant directed that the manor of Scrooby, in the northern part of Nottinghamshire, which Holgate purchased for about 630l., was to be added to the property of his see after the deaths of himself and his wife. He favoured the doctrines and practices of the foreign reformers, and on 15 Aug. 1552 issued injunctions to the chapter of York ordering the delivery of divinity lectures for the instruction of the inferior officers of the cathedral, and the reading and learning by heart of the scriptures by the vicars choral, who were to be examined constantly in them, and to have each an English testament. He further arranged a cycle of Sunday preachers, and forbade the playing of the organ during service, and all singing except plain song. All the canopy work containing images of saints was to be removed, the carving and images behind the high altar were to be pulled down and texts painted up instead. The library was to be furnished with the ancient fathers, together with works by Calvin and Bullinger (Ornsby). In May 1553 Holgate was sent for to attend the king
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