1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/May, William

MAY, or Mey(e), WILLIAM (d. 1560), English divine, was the brother of John May, bishop of Carlisle. He was educated at Cambridge, where he was a fellow of Trinity Hall, and in 1537, president of Queen’s College. May heartily supported the Reformation, signed the Ten Articles in 1536, and helped in the production of The Institution of a Christian Man. He had close connexion with the diocese of Ely, being successively chancellor, vicar-general and prebendary. In 1545 he was made a prebendary of St Paul’s, and in the following year dean. His favourable report on the Cambridge colleges saved them from dissolution. He was dispossessed during the reign of Mary, but restored to the deanery on Elizabeth’s accession. He died on the day of his election to the archbishopric of York.