{{Short description|English Franciscan; Bishop of St Asaph}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} '''Henry Standish'''<ref>Henricus Standicius, Stenditius.</ref> (c. 1475–1535) was an English Franciscan, who became Bishop of St. Asaph.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=32456 In 1518]</ref> He is known as an opponent of Erasmus in particular, and humanists in general.
He was a Doctor of Divinity of the University of Oxford.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://users.bart.nl/~roestb/franciscan/franauth.htm#HenricusStandicius |title=Before 1509 |access-date=16 March 2007 |archive-date=20 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220131705/http://users.bart.nl/~roestb/franciscan/franauth.htm#HenricusStandicius |url-status=dead }}</ref> He was Guardian of the Franciscan Friary in London, and in 1505 Franciscan minister provincial for England.<ref>David Knowles, ''The Religious Orders in England'' (1959) III p.53.</ref> He preached for Henry VIII.
In 1515 Richard Kidderminster, Abbot of Winchcombe, attacked a 1512 Act of Parliament restricting the benefit of clergy, to those in major orders. The House of Lords refused to pass the bill from the Commons that would renew the law, which was close to expiration. Standish defended it,<ref>[http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=3339], [http://turnabout.ath.cx:8000/node/31] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070318114616/http://turnabout.ath.cx:8000/node/31 |date=2007-03-18 }}.</ref> and won the decision, at a meeting called at Blackfriars of a royal committee called to look into the issue. Anti-clerical feelings were running high at the time, in the case of Richard Hunne, with its coroner's jury verdict of murder in a bishop's prison from February 1515. Convocation then proceeded with charges of heresy against Standish. In the end the King’s influence was brought to bear: the charges against Standish were not pressed, but the Act was not renewed in the Lords.<ref>Knowles, p.54.</ref> Thomas Wolsey asked to have the case sent for papal judgement, but was overruled.<ref>[http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/wolseybio.htm England Under The Tudors: Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (1473?-1530)<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
Standish was consecrated a bishop on 6 July 1518, by William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, assisted by Robert Sherborne, Bishop of Chichester, and John Young, suffragan bishop of London.<ref>Perceval, Arthur Philip. ''An Apology for the Doctrine of Apostolical Succession: With an Appendix, on the English Orders.'' second edition (London: Rivington, 1841) [https://books.google.com/books?id=bkROAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA188 p. 188].</ref> His criticisms of the ''Greek New Testament'' of Erasmus was part of a wider controversy around 1520, that drew in Edward Lee, Archbishop of York.<ref>S. Goldhill,[http://assets.cambridge.org/97805218/12283/sample/9780521812283ws.pdf PDF ''Who Needs Greek?''], Cambridge University Press 2002, p. 30.</ref> Erasmus hit back satirically. Standish is described as ''essentially a combatant and an inheritor of the tradition of the friars of Wyclif's day, at once opposed to doctrinal innovations and clerical privilege'',<ref>Knowles p.53.</ref> and ''a conservative of the type of Stokesley and Tunstall''.<ref>Knowles p.55.</ref> He was classed also with Richard Fitzjames and Edmund Birkhead, as an opponent to the English humanism of John Colet.
He was one of the court who convicted Thomas Bilney of heresy. In 1528 he acted as one of the counsel for Catherine of Aragon in her divorce case.<ref>[http://www.historyonthenet.com/Chronology/timelinecatherine.htm]; Knowles p.54.</ref> He was one of the group of clerics targeted in 1530 by Henry VIII with ''praemunire'' charges.
He held the Lancashire parish of Standish, right at the end of his life.<ref>[http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=53094#n63 The parish of Standish | British History Online]</ref>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Standish, Henry}} Category:1535 deaths Category:Bishops of St Asaph Category:English Franciscans Category:Year of birth uncertain Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford Category:16th-century English Roman Catholic bishops