Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Essex, and the Countess of Oxford, he was summoned before Cranmer, Shaxton, and Latimer on a charge of saying that it was sinful to pray to saints. Latimer on this occasion was 'very extreme' against him (Latimer, Works, Parker Soc., vol. i. pp. xvii, xxxii), but he was very quickly discharged. In 1538 Lambert heard a sermon by Dr. Taylor, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, at St. Peter's, Cornhill, and, disagreeing with the doctrine put forth, had some discussion on transubstantiation with the preacher, who by the advice of Barnes carried the matter before the archbishop. Lambert appealed from the archbishop's court to the king, who resolved to hear the case in person. The matter excited the more attention as Lambert was branded as a 'sacramentary,' and the king desired to disavow any connection with the foreign drift of opinion on the subject. Accordingly Lambert was examined on 16 Nov. 1538 in Westminster Hall before the peers. The unfortunate man disputed for five hours with ten bishops and the king, and at last, being tired out with standing and consequently saying little, was condemned to death by Cromwell for denying the real presence. He suffered a few days later at Smithfield, having first breakfasted at Cromwell's house. The legend that Cromwell asked his forgiveness is probably unauthentic, but Cranmer afterwards acknowledged, in his examination before Brookes, that when he condemned Lambert he maintained the Roman doctrine. While in prison at Lanmbeth before his trial Lambert was helped by one Collins, a crazy man who was afterwards burnt, and at this tune he in said to have written 'A Treatyse made by John Lambert vnto Kvnge Henry the VIII concerninge hys opynyon in the sacramēt of the aultre as they call it, or Supper of the Lorde as the Scripture nameth it. Anno do. 1538.' Bale printed the work at Marburg about 1547. Lambert is also credifted with various translations of the works of Erasmus into English.
[Froude's Hist. of Engl. iii. 152, &c; Strype's Cranmer, pp. 92. 93, 664; Foxe's Acts and Mon. v. 181; Cooper's Athenæ Contabr. i. 61 (where he is called Nichols) Wright's Three Chapters of Suppr. Letters (Camden Soc.), pp. 35, 37, 38; Tyndale's Works, Answer to More's Dialogue, p. 197, Cranmer's Works, ii. 218, Bale's Select Works, p. 394, Zurich Letters, 3rd ser. p. 201, all in the Parker Society: Tanner's Bibl. Brit.]
LAMBERT, JOHN (1619–1683), soldier, was baptised on 7 Nov. 1619 at Calton, near Malham Tarn, in Yorkshire, where his father resided (Whitaker, History of Craven, ed. Morant, p. 268), According to Whitelocke he studied law in one of the inns of court, but his name does not appear in any printed admission-lists (Memorial, ed, 1853, ii. 163). On 10 Sept. 1639 he married Frances, daughter of Sir William Lister, knight, of Thornton in Craven, Yorkshire (pedigree of Lambert of Calton, Whitaker, p. 256). When the civil war began, Lambert took up arms for the parliament in the army under the command of Lord Fairfax. Colonel Lambert is said to have 'carried himself very bravely' in the sally from Hull on 11 Oct, 1643, and he is praised by Sir Thomas Fairfax for his services with the parliamentary horse at the battle of Nantwich on 25 Jan. 1644. In March 1644 Lambert and his regiment were quartered at Bradford. On 5 March he beat up the royalists' quarters, and took two hundred prisoners. A few days later he repulsed the attempt of Colonel John Bellasis, the king's governor of York, to recapture Bradford (Rushworth, v. 303, 617; Vicars, God's Ark, pp. 40, 168, 199; Fairfax Correspondence, iii. 94; Diary of Sir Henry Slingsby, ed. Parsons, p. 103). At the battle of Marston Moor Lambert's regiment was part of the cavalry of the right wing which was routed by Goring, but Lambert himself, with Sir Thomas Fairfax and five or six troops, cut their way through the enemy, and joined the victorious left wing under Cromwell (Vicars, God's Ark, p. 274; A full Relation of fie late Victory … on Marston Moor, sent by Captain Stewart, 1644, p. 7). When parliament sent for Fairfax to command the new model army, Lambert, then commissary-general of Fairfax's army, was ordered to take charge of the forces in the north during his absence (Commons' Journals, iv, 27; Whitelocke, i. 369). But this appointment was only temporary, as Colonel Poyntz was ultimately made commander of the northern army. In March 1645, when Langdole raised the siege of Pontefract, Lambert was wounded in attempting to cover the siege (ib. p, 403). As the war in Yorkshire was ended he sought employent in the new model, and succeeded in January 1546 to the command of the foot regiment which had been Colonel Montagu's, He was one of the negotiators of the treaty of Truro (14 March 1646), and of the capitulations of Exeter and Oxford (Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva, ed, 1854, pp. 236, 244, 258). It is evident that he was from the first regarded as an officer of exceptional capacity, and specially selected for semi-political employments.
The dispute between the army and the parliament in 1647 brought Lambert into still greater prominence. In the meetings between the officers and parliamentary commissioners during April and May 1647 he
