John Véron

John Véron (died 1563) was a French Protestant controversialist and preacher, known for his activities in England.

Life

He styled himself Senonensis, implying he was born at or near Sens. He studied at Orléans in 1534, and about 1536 settled in England: his letters of denisation, 2 July 1544, state that he had been eight years in that country, that he had been a student at Cambridge (apparently without graduating), and that he was, and intended continuing to be, a tutor.

In 1550 he had moved to Worcester. On 21 August 1551 he was ordained deacon by Nicholas Ridley at Fulham, and on the 29th of the same month he received priest's orders. He was instituted on 3 January 1552 to the rectory of St Alphage, Cripplegate. He witnessed, or was in some way implicated in, the uproar at Paul's Cross, which led on 16 August 1553 to the arrest of John Bradford; Véron was also committed to the Tower of London, both being styled seditious preachers. Ridley, writing to Bradford in 1554, inquired for Véron, who in 1554 was deprived of his benefice and remained a prisoner till Queen Elizabeth's accession.

On his release he became a preacher at Paul's Cross, was appointed prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral on 8 November 1559, rector of St Martin, Ludgate, on 8 March 1560, and vicar of St Sepulchre on 21 October 1560, preferments he held till his death. On 8 October 1559 he preached before the queen at Whitehall, when he urged that Protestant bishops should retain the old temporalities of their sees, so as to live in proper style. Aspersions were cast on his character, and on 2 November 1561 a man did penance at Paul's Cross for calumniating Véron, while on the 23rd of the same month Henry Machyn had also publicly to apologise. John Strype describes him as a courageous and eloquent preacher.

On 1 March 1562 Véron certified to the privy council the accuracy of a translation of a French pamphlet against Catholicism, which there was an idea of publishing in England. He died on 9 April 1563, and was buried in St. Paul's, but seems to have had no tombstone.

Works

Most of his works were in dialogue form. In 1548 he published a volume entitled Certyne Litel Treaties set forth by J. V. for the erudition and learnyng of the symple and ignorant peopell, London. It included The Five abominable Blasphemies contained in the Mass, an English translation of Heinrich Bullinger's treatise against the Anabaptists, The Byble the Word of God, No Humane Lymmes the Father hath, and The Masse is an Idol. In 1550 he dedicated to Sir John Yorke The godly Sayings of the ancient Fathers on the Sacrament (Worcester; reprinted 1846). There he also translated Huldrych Zwingli's Short Pathway to the Understanding of the Scriptures, dedicated to Sir Arthur Darcy, and Bullinger on Infant Baptism. The Ymage of both Pastours appeared at London in 1550. He published while in the Tower a translation of Bullinger's Dialogue between a Libertine and a Christian.

About 1560 Véron published A moste necessary treatise of free wil not onlye against the Papists, but also against the Anabaptists (London); and in 1561 The Huntynge of Purgatorye to Death (London), an adaptation of works of Pierre Viret^[1] dedicated to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford, and The Overthrow of the Justification of Works, dedicated to James Blount, 6th Baron Mountjoy. He was also the author of A frutefull Treatise of Predestination … with an Apology of the same … whereunto are added … a very necessary boke against the free wyll men, and another of the true justification of faith and the good workes proceadynge of the same (London, 1563?), dedicated to the queen; A strong defence of the Marryage of Pryestes, and A strong Battery against the Idolatrous Invocation of the dead Saintes (London, 1562).

John Awdelay (fl. 1559–1577) wrote some verses to his memory, and in 1575 Rodolphus Waddington published a Latin-English Dictionary which Véron had left in manuscript.

References

•  "Véron, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Notes

1. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Véron, Jean (d. 1563), religious writer and translator and Church of England clergyman by Carrie Euler.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Véron, John". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.