He was educated at the
University of Oxford, where he was admitted Bachelor of Canon Law in 1548. During the reign of
Mary I he became almoner and secretary to
Cardinal Pole, prebendary of York, rector of
Orpington (Kent), and dean of
Shoreham and
Croydon, and chancellor of the prerogative court of Canterbury. In 1556 he was made rector of
Corwen in the
Diocese of St Asaph, and on the death of the
Bishop of Bangor in 1558 was nominated to the vacant see, but was never consecrated, owing to the change of religion under
Elizabeth I. Surrendering all his preferments, he accompanied
Thomas Goldwell,
Bishop of St Asaph, to Rome, where they resided in the English hospital, of which Clynnog was
camerarius in 1567. In 1578 he was made its warden. At the same time
Pope Gregory XIII ordered the hospital to be converted into a college, until England should return to the Catholic Church. The warden was made the first rector of the college by the pope; but
Cardinal Allen judged him unfit, though he described him as "an honest and friendly man and a great advancer of the students' and seminaries' cause" (Letter to
Owen Lewis, 12 May 1579). Despite his personal good qualities he did not prove a competent ruler. He was accused of unduly favouring his fellow-countrymen at the expense of the English students, who numbered thirty-three as against seven Welsh students. Allen wrote, "Mischief and murder had like to have been committed in ipso collegio" (letter cited above). The students, having unsuccessfully appealed to the Pope, left the college; finally, in April 1579, the Pope appointed
Alfonso Agazzari, S. J., rector, leaving Clynnog still warden of the hospital. He retired, however, in 1580 to
Rouen, where he took ship for Spain, but was lost at sea, drowned early in 1581 on a sea voyage to Spain. In contemporary documents he is frequently referred to as "Dr. Morrice". ==Works==