at Caius College, proceeded B.D. in 1509, and commenced D.D. in 1513. When Bishop Nix visited the monastery of Norwich on 27 April 1514, Rugg was the sacrist there, and preached the Latin sermon usually delivered on such occasions. The disclosures made at this visitation give a bad impression of the state of discipline in the house. According to the almost invariable practice, on his becoming a monk professed at Norwich, he dropped his surname, and was distinguished by the name of his birthplace, by which he was commonly, but by no means always, known. In 1520 he appears as prior of the cell of Yarmouth. Six years later he was sub-prior of Norwich, and a charge of undue familiarity with ‘the wardroper's wife’ was preferred against him, but apparently without foundation. In 1530 (April 26) he was installed abbot of St. Bennet's, Hulme, a mitred abbey, which gave him a seat in the House of Lords. The abbey was visited by Bishop Nix on 14 June 1532; the discipline was found to be very lax, and the monastery was in debt more than six hundred pounds—that is, the outstanding liabilities amounted to rather more than a year's net income. Rugg took a prominent part in obtaining the judgment of the university of Cambridge in favour of the divorce of the king from Queen Catherine; and on 7 June 1534 he, with twenty-five of the monks of St. Bennet, signed the attestation that ‘the Bishop of Rome had no authority in England.’ At the death of Bishop Nix on 14 Jan. 1536, an act of parliament was passed whereby the ancient barony and revenues of the see were transferred to the king, and the estates of the abbey of Hulme and of the priory of Hickling were handed over as a new endowment for the bishopric of Norwich. Hereupon Rugg was nominated bishop, and consecrated apparently (for there is some doubt upon the exact date) on 11 June 1536. That same summer his name appears among the signatories to the ‘Reasons to justify princes in summoning a General Council, and not the Pope of Rome by his sole authority.’ He was concerned in the compilation of the Bishops' Book, and in 1539 he took part in the debate on the Six Articles. On the question of whether there were two or seven sacraments, he sided with the king against Cranmer. In August 1538 he was commissioned to dispute with one of the observant friars—Antony Browne—who persisted in denying the king's supremacy. He did his best to induce the poor man to recant, but in vain (Gasquet, Henry VIII and the Engl. Monast. ii. 250–3). In 1540 he was one of three commissioners for dealing with charges of heresy. For his conduct in this capacity he was accused of cruelty, and nothing we hear of of him tends to lessen the unfavourable impression which his contemporaries conceived regarding him. The later years of his life appear to have been much troubled by his financial embarrassments; he was heavily in debt, and was compelled at last to resign his bishopric about Christmas 1549, receiving an annuity of 200l., to be paid quarterly, and a discharge from all liability for dilapidations and waste in his diocese. He survived his resignation some nine months, died 21 Sept. 1550, and was buried in Norwich Cathedral. He appears never to have married.
[Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr.; Visitations of the Diocese of Norwich, Camden Soc. 1888; Blomefield's Hist. of Norfolk, iii. 347; Registrum Sacrum Anglicanum, ed. Stubbs, 1858; Letters and Papers of Henry VIII. vols. vii. xi. xii.; Strype's Mem. II. ii. 170; Strype's Cranmer, ii. 1045.]
RUGGE, ROBERT (d. 1410), chancellor of the university of Oxford. [See Rygge.]
RUGGE, THOMAS (d. 1672?), diarist, was a descendant of John Rugge, who was created archdeacon of Wells in place of John Cotterell in 1572; John Rugge was noted for his knowledge of civil law, which he studied in Germany; became vicar of Wynford in 1573, a canon of Westminster in 1576, and died in 1581. Thomas was born in London, and was a citizen throughout the civil war. In 1659 he commenced his manuscript diary, entitled ‘Mercurius Politicus Redivivus, or a collection of the most materiall Occurances and Transactions in Publick Affairs. Since Anno Dom. 1659 until [28 March 1672] serving as an annuall diurnall for future Satisfaction and Information. Together with a Table,’ &c. The table is imperfect, but the headlines to each page serve as some indication of the contents, comprised in two large quarto volumes. The diary seems to have been compiled from news-sheets, much after the manner of Narcissus Luttrell. It is fullest in the accounts it gives of doings in London, and a good half is occupied with the events of 1661–2. It ceases abruptly in 1672, when it is supposed that Rugge died. The diary has never been printed, and its independent interest is not indeed great. But it corroborates Pepys in many particulars, and it was used by Lingard during the compilation of the last volume of his ‘History.’ It belonged in 1693 to Thomas Grey, second earl of Stamford [q. v.], and was purchased by the British Museum (where it now
