Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 10.djvu/188

 question a good pennyworth.’ Cheke was returned as member for Bletchingley to the parliament which assembled on 8 Nov. 1547, and he represented the same constituency in the parliament of 1 March 1552–3 (, Notitia Parliamentaria, vol. iii. pt. i. pp. 14, 21). He was elected provost of King's College, Cambridge, on 1 April 1548, after the resignation of George Day, bishop of Chichester, who held the provostship in commendam, and Cheke was elected by virtue of a mandamus from the crown, dispensing with three qualifications required in a head of that college, that he should be a doctor, a priest, and on the foundation. It may fairly be concluded from the terms of this document that Cheke was not in holy orders. The vice-provost and fellows were reluctant to comply with the mandamus, but eventually yielded to the royal command. Cheke did not return to Cambridge till May 1549, when he was in temporary disgrace at court; for in a letter addressed from King's College to his friend, Peter Osborne, he speaks of enjoying the calm of quietness after having been tossed with storms, and having felt ‘ambition’s bitter gall’ (, Memoir of Edward VI, p. 50). He continued to hold the provostship of King's College till the beginning of Queen Mary’s reign, when he resigned it.

In the summer of 1549 he acted as one of the visitors for the reformation of the university (, Annals of Cambridge, ii. 23–5, 97, 32; Domestic State Papers, Edward VI, vol. v. art. 13). He also at this period composed an expostulation addressed to the rebels who had taken up arms in most of the counties in England. In October 1549 he was one of the thirty-two commissioners appointed to examine the old ecclesiastical law books, and was with seven divines selected to draw thence a body of laws for the government of the church. His name again occurs among the divines in a new commission for the same purpose, issued on 10 Feb. 1551–2, so that there can be little doubt that prior to the date of the first commission he had taken orders (, Cleke, pp. 43, 44; Literary Remains of Edward VI, ed. Nichols, ii. 3981. The new ecclesiastical laws drawn up by the commissioners were translated into elegant Latin by Cheke and Dr. Walter Haddon.

Cheke returned to court in the winter of 1549, and met there with great uneasiness on account of some offence given by his wife to Anne, duchess of Somerset, whose dependent she was. He himself was with others charged with having suggested bad counsels to the Duke of Somerset, and with having afterwards betrayed him. But he continued to enjoy the royal favour, and became the great patron of religious and learned men, both English and foreign. Ridley, bishop of London knowing Cheke's zeal for the reformation, styled him ‘one of Christ's special advocates, and one of his principal proctors.’ He was examined as a witness against Bishop Bonner in 1549, and against Bishop Gardiner in 1550. In or before the latter year he was constituted one of the gentlemen of the privy chamber, and he continued to act as tutor to the king, over whom he exercised great influence. His favour and patronage were eagerly sought by the courtiers, and the king's ambassador in Germany used to write to him privately every week, as well as to the privy council. In 1551 he gave great offence to his former admirer, Ridley, because he failed to procure for that prelate the disposal of the prebend of Cantrells, which had been appropriated by the king towards the maintenance of the royal stables (, Godly Letters of Saintes and Martyrs, p. 683).

On 11 Oct. 1552 Cheke received the honour of knighthood (, Heroωlogia, p. 53; Literary Remains of Edward VI, ii. 352). To enable him to support his rank, the king made him a grant of the manor of Stoke, near Clare, Suffolk, and other property at Spalding and Sandon. Soon afterwards he took a leading part in two disputations respecting the sacrament of the altar, with Feckenham, Young, and Watson. The first of these was held at the house of Secretary Cecil on 25 Nov., and the second at the house of Sir Richard Morysin on 3 Dec.

In May 1552 he had an alarming attack of illness. In a valedictory letter to Edward VI, written from what he believed to be his death-bed, he exhorted the king to listen to faithful advisers, and, after thanking him for various favours, concluded with a supplication on behalf of the late provost of King's College, Mr. George Day, bishop of Chichester, who was then in the custody of Bishop Goodrich, and for whose services as his tutor Cheke had never been able to show his gratitude. When the physicians despaired of his recovery, the king said to them, ‘No, he will not die at this time, for this morning I begged his life from God in my prayers, and obtained it.’ Contrary to all expectation, Cheke recovered before long, and was quite well again in August. At the commencement at Cambridge this year he held a public disputation with [q. v.] on the subject of Christ’s descent into hell. He was on 25 Aug. appointed for life one of the chamberlains of the exchequer (Domestic State Papers, Edward VI, vol. xiv. art. 67). He was also clerk of the council, and on 2 June