He was born at Aylmer Hall,
Tilney St. Lawrence, Norfolk. While still a boy, his precocity was noticed by
Henry Grey, 3rd Marquess of Dorset, later 1st Duke of Suffolk, who sent him to
Cambridge, where he seems to have become a fellow of
Queens' College. About 1541 he was made chaplain to the duke, and tutor of Greek to his daughter,
Lady Jane Grey. His first preferment was to the
archdeaconry of Stow, in the
diocese of Lincoln, but his opposition in
Convocation to the doctrine of
transubstantiation led to his deprivation and to his flight into
Switzerland. While there he wrote a reply to
John Knox's famous
Blast against the Monstrous Regiment of Women, under the title of
An Harborowe for Faithfull and Trewe Subjects, etc., and assisted John Foxe in translating the
Acts of the Martyrs into Latin. On the accession of
Elizabeth he returned to England. "God is English", Aylmer proclaimed in 1558, attempting to fill his parishioners with piety and patriotism. In 1559 he resumed the Stow archdeaconry, and in 1562 he obtained that of Lincoln. He was a member of the
convocation of 1563, which reformed and settled the doctrine and discipline of the
Church of England. In 1577 he was consecrated
Bishop of London, and while in that position made himself notorious by his harsh treatment of all who differed from him on ecclesiastical questions, whether
Puritan or Roman Catholic. Various efforts were made to remove him to another see. He is frequently assailed in the famous
Marprelate Tracts, and is characterised as "Morrell," the bad shepherd, in
Edmund Spenser's ''
Shepheard's Calendar (July). His reputation as a scholar hardly balances his inadequacy as a bishop in the transitional time in which he lived. His Life'' was written by
John Strype (1701). He died in 1594 and was buried in
St Paul's Cathedral. He had several children. His eldest son
Samuel Aylmer was the
High Sheriff of Suffolk for 1626. His eldest daughter Judith was the paternal grandmother of
Sir Thomas Lynch, thrice
Governor of Jamaica. ==Works==