Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Young, John (1514-1580)
YOUNG, JOHN (1514–1580), master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, born in 1514, is said to have been a native of Yorkshire. He was educated at Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1535-6, M.A. in 1539, and B.D. in 1546. He was elected fellow of St. John's College in 1536, but on 19 Dec. 1546 he was nominated by the charter of foundation an original member of Trinity College. Foster attributes to him the tenure of a number of minor ecclesiastical preferments between 1536 and 1546, but the name was too common to make any certainty possible. He was one of the witnesses present at Gardiner's famous sermon at St. Paul's on 1 July 1548, and in June 1549 took part on the catholic side in the disputations before Ridley at Cambridge. A year later he was one of the disputants against Bucer, whom he subsequently attacked in a course of lectures on Timothy, and in February 1550-1 he was accused before the privy council of stirring up opposition to the king's religious proceedings. On 25 Nov. and 3 Dec. following he took part in the disputations on the Eucharist in Cecil's and Sir Richard Morison's houses.
At Queen Mary's accession Young's services in behalf of the old religion were recognised by his creation as D.D. at Cambridge in 1553. incorporation at Oxford on 14 April 1554, and appointment as master of Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, on Ridley's deprivation, and canon of Ely in succession to Matthew Parker (12 April 1554). He was vice-chancellor of Cambridge from 1553 to 1555, when he became regius professor of divinity. In this capacity he delivered a series of lectures entitled 'Enarrationes Joelis prophetae,' which he dedicated to Cardinal Pole, and which are now extant in the Bodleian Library (Rawlinson MS. C. 45). He was sent to dispute with Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer at Oxford in 1554, took an active part in the measures for reducing his own university to the catholic faith, and preached at St. Paul's on 14 and 21 Feb. 1556-7, and at St. Mary Spital on 20 April.
After Elizabeth's accession he was deprived of his mastership by the university visitors on 20 July 1559, and committed to prison in the Counter, Wood Street, London, for refusing the oath. He was transferred to the Marshalsea before 1574, being temporarily released on 13 June of that year on surety of Gregory Young, grocer, of London, probably his brother; and in 1575 he was allowed to spend the summer at Bath for his health's sake. On 28 July 1577 he was transferred to the custody of the dean of Canterbury, but, the dean's persuasion having no effect upon his religious views, he was on 18 Feb. 1577-8 committed to the queen's bench. In 1580 he was removed to Wisbech, where he is said to have died in October of 'that year. In an inscription on a portrait belonging to Cambridge University (Cat. Tudor Exhib. No. 273) he is said to have died in 1579.
Young's various disputations with Bucer and others are extant in Corpus Christi Coll. Cambr. MS. 102; others of a like nature are printed in Foxe's 'Actes and Monuments.' The only separately published work by Young appears to have been his 'De Schismate . . . liber unus,' Louvain, 1573, 8vo; republished Douay, 1603. He must be distinguished from John Young (1534?-1605) [q. v.], master of Pembroke Hall, and afterwards bishop of Rochester.
[Besides the numerous authorities cited in Cooper's Athenae Cantabr. (i. 427-8), see Lit. Remains of Edward VI (Roxburghe Club); Dasent's Acts of the Privy Council, 1571-5 pp. 253, 369, 1577-8 pp. 4, 168; Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 5843, p. 429; and Dixon's Hist. Church of England.]