It is remarkable that of the two queens buried at Peterborough, the body of one has been removed to Westminster by the orders of her son, and that a similar removal had been previously designed for the body of the other.  Queen Katherine’s daughter, Queen Mary, left directions in her will that “the body of the virtuous Lady and my most dere and well-beloved mother of happy memory, Queen Kateryn, which lyeth now buried at Peterborowh,” should be removed and laid near the place of her own sepulture, and that honourable monuments should be made for both.  It would have been a singular coincidence if this intention had been carried out.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORY OF THE DIOCESE.

The Abbey Church was converted into the Cathedral of the newly-founded diocese of Peterborough by deed bearing date September 4, 1541.  The counties of Northampton and Rutland were the limits of the new see.  The king’s original plan for the establishment of bishoprics out of the confiscated estates of monastic establishments was too generous to be put into practice.  He designed the foundation of no less than twenty-one new sees.  In this scheme Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire were assigned to the diocese of Peterborough; and, considering the situation of the new cathedral, this would have been a more satisfactory arrangement than the one which was ultimately carried out.  The only change that has been made in the limits of the diocese is that, in the year 1839, the county of Leicester was detached from the see of Lincoln and joined to Peterborough.

As has been said above, the first bishop was =John Chambers= (1541-1556).  He was consecrated[35] in the minster on the 23rd of October 1541, by Thomas (Thirlby), Bishop of Ely, Robert (Blyth), Bishop of Down, last Abbot of Thorney, Suffragan of Ely, and Thomas (Hallam or Swillington), Bishop of Philadelphia, Suffragan of Lincoln.  Strype has an account of his costly funeral.  The two memorials to him in the church had been erected by himself in his lifetime.

=David Pole= (1556-1559) is generally held to have been a relative (some say a nephew) of Cardinal Reginald Pole.  He was Dean of the Arches.  He was not consecrated till August 1557, and so held the bishopric less than two years, being deprived by Queen Elizabeth in June 1559.  He lived quietly in London till his death in 1568.

=Edmund Scambler= (1560-1584) in the Roman index of books prohibited is called Pseudo-Episcopus, no doubt because there was another Bishop of Peterborough, Pole, still living.  He alienated many of the lands and manors of his bishopric to the queen and to her courtiers; and as a reward he was translated to Norwich, where he died ten years later.

=Richard Howland= (1584-1600) was Master of Magdalene, and afterwards of S. John’s, Cambridge.  He was present at the funeral of Mary Queen of Scots.  He was buried at the upper end of the choir, but no stone or monument exists to his memory.