John Islip

John Islip (1464 –1532) was abbot of the monastery of Westminster, London, in Tudor times.

Biography Islip was doubtless a member of the family which rose to ecclesiastical importance in the person of Archbishop Simon Islip. John entered the monastery of Westminster about 1480, and showed his administrative capacity in minor offices, till in 1498 he was elected prior, and on 27 October 1500 abbot of Westminster. The first business which he undertook was to claim for the abbey of Westminster the possession of the body of Henry VI, for whose canonisation Henry VII was pressing at Rome. The claim was disputed by Windsor and Chertsey Abbey, and the question was argued before the privy council, which decided in favour of Westminster. Henry VI's remains were removed from Windsor at a cost of £500. Islip had next to advise Henry VII in his plan for removing the old lady chapel of the abbey church and the erection instead of the chapel which still bears Henry VII's name. The old building was pulled down, and on 24 January 1503 Islip laid the foundation-stone of the new structure. The indentures between the king and Abbot Islip relating to the foundation of Henry VII's chantry and the regulation of its services are in the Harleian MS. 1498. They are splendidly engrossed, and have two initial letters which represent the king giving the document to Islip and the monks who kneel before him. The face of Islip is so strongly marked that it seems to be a real portrait.

Islip seems to have discharged carefully the duties of his office. In 1511 he held a visitation of the dependent priory of Malvern, and repeated it in 1516, when he suspended the prior. His capacity for business led Henry VIII to appoint him a member of the privy council, probably on his departure to France in 1513, as Islip's name first appears attached to a letter in September of that year. Islip was further one of the triers of petitions to parliament, and was on the commission of the peace for Middlesex. Still Islip's dignified position did not protect him from the authority of Wolsey, who showed his determination to use his legatine power by a severe visitation of Westminster in 1518; and again in 1525, when the monastery had to pay a hundred marks for the expenses of the visitation. In the same year we find Islip acting as Wolsey's commissioner in the affairs of the monastery of Glastonbury. In 1527 Islip, as president of the English Benedictines, issued a commission to the Abbot of Gloucester for the visitation of the abbey of Malmesbury, where there had been a rebellion of the monks against their abbot.