John Longland

John Longland (1473 – 7 May 1547) was an English cleric. He was Dean of Salisbury from 1514 to 1521 and Bishop of Lincoln from 1521 to his death in 1547.

Career He was made a Demy at Magdalen College, Oxford in 1491 and became a Fellow. He was King Henry VIII's confessor and was said to have been one of those who first persuaded the King that he should annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

In 1519 he was appointed Canon of the sixth stall at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, a position he held until 1520. He was also Lord Almoner from c.1521. He was consecrated a bishop on 5 May 1521, by William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester; Nicholas West, Bishop of Ely; and John Vesey, Bishop of Exeter.

During the English Reformation, he was among the conservative bishops, recognizing Transubstantiation. His conservatism is attested to by his complaint in 1536 to Thomas Cromwell about Protestant preachers in his diocese. Longland is referred to by John Foxe, the controversial Protestant martyrologist, as "a fierce and cruel vexer of the faithful, poor servants of Christ." Foxe claimed that Longland violently constrained men, women, and maidens to testify against one another, and that he delivered some over to the secular arm to be burned.