Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Mallett, Francis
MALLETT, FRANCIS, D.D. (d. 1570), dean of Lincoln, was educated at the university of Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. 1522, M.A. 1525, B.D. 1534, D.D. 1535. He gained the confidence of Cranmer; became his chaplain, and subsequently, through the influence of Thomas Cromwell, he was appointed to the mastership of Michael House in 1533. In 1536 and again in 1540 he was made vice-chancellor, as one who would offer no effectual opposition to the designs of Cromwell for the pillage of the university and its colleges. He was, however, tardy in delivering up the foundation deeds of his own college in compliance with the royal injunctions. Cranmer wrote to Cromwell, 18 Jan. 1536, to excuse him on the ground of the large amount of preaching in the diocese of Canterbury he had required of him, but promising speedy compliance (Cranmer, Works, Parker Soc., Ep. 166, ii. 318–19). In 1538 he had become chaplain to Cromwell himself, and was employed by him, under Cranmer's directions, at Ford Abbey, Dorset, in the preparation of a service-book, which is thought by Dr. Jenkyns to have been the revised breviary published in 1541 and 1544 (ib. p. 366, Ep. 223; Jenkyns, Remains of Archbishop Cranmer, i. 241; Collier, Eccl. Hist. v. 106 sq.; Strype, Eccl. Mem. i. i. 580). Cranmer earnestly commended him to Cromwell's notice for some church preferment which might help ‘his small and poor living’ (Cranmer, Works, new ser.), and praised ‘his good qualities, right judgment in learning, and discreet wisdom.’ Cranmer's advocacy was not fruitless. On 13 Dec. 1543 he was nominated by patent to a canonry at Windsor, and in 1544 to the prebendal stall of Yatton in Wells Cathedral, resigning the vicarage of Rothwell, Yorkshire, which he had previously held. About this time he was introduced to the Princess Mary, and completed for her the translation of the paraphrase of Erasmus on the Gospel of St. John, which, to please her father, she had undertaken, but which her health did not allow her to complete (Strype, Memorials, ii. i. 46). He became her chaplain, and in that capacity was involved in the miserable squabbles concerning ‘the Lady Mary's Mass’ which disfigured the reign of Edward VI. He was charged in 1550 with ‘overstepping the allowed limit’ by saying mass to the princess's household when she was not present in person, and on 20 April 1551 was committed to the Tower (ib. p. 447; Dixon, Hist. of the Church of England, iii. 241, 299, 305–7). It being found impossible to overcome Mary's firmness, and the emperor having made the continuance of her mass a question of peace and war, Mallett and the other prisoners were eventually released and allowed to return to their mistress. According to Le Neve he was appointed to the seventh stall in Westminster Abbey on 31 March 1553, and transferred to the sixth stall 7 April 1554. It is, however, most unlikely that so determined an adherent of the old catholic faith should have received such preferment from the young king and his councillors, and it is more probable that the record of the earlier appointment is erroneous, and that the later, which is stated in Rymer to have been made by the queen herself—Edward VI having died on 6 July 1553—was his first and only nomination to a stall in the abbey (Rymer, Fœdera, xv. 382). Other rewards speedily followed. On the deprivation of Matthew Parker on account of his being a married man, the deanery of Lincoln was conferred by Mary on her faithful chaplain on 29 May 1554, and he held it till his death (Strype, Parker, i. 65; Annals, iv. 613). He was also collated to the prebendal stall of St. Martin's in Lincoln Cathedral on 18 Dec. 1556, and to that of Corringham on 28 Jan. 1556–7, the latter by mandate from Cardinal Pole. On 2 March 1554–5 he received from the queen the mastership of the Hospital of St. Katherine by the Tower, and he was her almoner on, if not before, 3 Sept. 1556. On the death of Salcot (otherwise Capon) he was nominated by Mary on 14 Oct. 1558 to the bishopric of Salisbury, and as bishop-designate had the custody of the temporalities of the see granted him (Rymer, Fœdera, xv. 488). The death of Mary, who bequeathed him 200l. for masses for her soul, within a month of his nomination, 17 Nov. 1558, prevented the fulfilment of her purpose, which was quietly set aside by her successor, who appointed Jewel to the vacant see. Mallett, however, conformed to the changed order of things and retained his deanery, though he resigned the mastership of St. Katherine's. He also held the benefices of Ashbourne and Wirksworth in Derbyshire, which were in his gift as dean, and in 1560 leased the rectories of these churches to Sir Thomas Cokayne for eighty years, with power of renewal to his descendants. He was also rector of South Leverton, Nottinghamshire. In 1562 he signed the articles of the church by proxy (Strype, Annals, i. i. 490), and in a letter of uncertain date to Archbishop Parker defended himself from the charge of preaching unsound doctrine with regard to the number of the sacraments. He died at Normanton on 16 Dec. 1570.
[Strype's Annals, i. i. 66, 490, 492, iv. 613; Memorials, ii. i. 46, 447, iii. ii. 136; Parker, i. 63; Rymer's Fœdera, xiv. 760, xv. 92, 382, 488; Cranmer's Works (Parker Society), ii. 318, 366; Cranmer's Remains, ed. Jenkyns, i. 241–2; Mullinger's Hist. of Univ. of Cambridge, ii. 11; Dixon's Hist. of Church of England, iii. 241, 299, 305–7; Cooper's Athenæ Cantabr. i. 290.]