ioo The Botanical Renaissance [ch. 



6. The Herbal in England. 



The greatest name among British herbalists of the 

 Renaissance period is that of William Turner, physician 

 and divine, the " Father of British Botany." He was a 

 north-countryman, a native of Morpeth in Northumberland, 

 where he was born probably between 1510 and 151 5. He 

 received his education at what is now Pembroke College, 

 Cambridge. Pembroke deserves to be especially held in 

 honour by botanists, for a hundred years later, Nehemiah 

 Grew, who was as pre-eminent among British botanists of 

 the seventeenth century as Turner was among those of the 

 sixteenth, also became a student at this college. 



Like so many of the early botanists, William Turner 

 was closely associated with the Reformation. He embraced 

 the views of his friends and instructors at Cambridge, 

 Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, and fought for the 

 reformed faith throughout his life, both with pen and by word 

 of mouth. His caustic wit was also used, with almost equal 

 vehemence, to attack the abuses which crept into his own 

 party. A ban was put upon his writings in the reign of 

 Henry VIII, and for a time he suffered imprisonment, but, 

 when Edward VI came to the throne, his fortunes improved, 

 and, after a long and tedious period of waiting for prefer- 

 ment, he obtained the Deanery of Wells. Difficulty in 

 ejecting the previous Dean caused much delay in obtaining 

 possession of the house, and Turner lamented bitterly that, 

 in the small and crowded temporary lodging, " i can not go 

 to my booke for y e crying of childer & noyse y' is made in 

 my chamber." 



A clergyman's life must have been full of unwelcome 

 vicissitudes in those days, if Turner's career was at all 

 typical. During Mary's reign he was a fugitive, and the 

 former Dean of Wells was reinstated. However, when 

 Elizabeth ascended the throne, the position was reversed, 

 and Turner came back to Wells, "the usurper," as he calls 

 his rival, being ejected. But his triumph was short-lived, 

 for in 1564 he was suspended for nonconformity. His 

 controversial methods were violent in the extreme, and he 

 seems to have been a thorn in the flesh of his superiors. 



