John Clement

born before 1500; died 1 July 1572 in Mechlin, Belgium. Was an English Roman Catholic physician and humanist. He was tutor to Thomas More's children, and became President of the College of Physicians.

He was educated at St. Paul's School, London. Thomas More admitted Clement as one of his household to help in the education of his children and to assist him in linguistic studies.

In 1519 we find Clement at Cardinal College (later Corpus Christi College), Oxford, when Cardinal Wolsey constituted him the Rhetoric Reader in the university; later he became professor of Greek there. IN 1526 John Clement married Margaret Giggs, the daughter of Thomas Giggs. After the death of her mother, Margaret lived and studied with More's family who lived next door in Bucklersbury, Cheapside, London. Although sometimes called an adopted daughter, a Ward, or a foster-sister for Margaret More, the arrangement was never formalised.

Applying himself to the study of medicine, John Clement was admitted as a Fellow of the College of Physicians (1 February 1528), and was chosen by Henry VIII to attend Wolsey when the latter was dangerously ill at Esher (1529). He was consiliarius of the college from 1529 to 1531, in 1547, and again from 1556 to 1558. He held the office of president in 1544, and that of censor in 1555.

After the accession of Edward VI of England he retired to Louvain to escape persecution for his Catholicism; he was exempted from the general pardon granted by Edward. He returned to England in Mary Tudor's reign and practised his profession in Essex, but fled abroad again when Elizabeth of England came to the throne.

Mechlin was his last place of exile. He lies buried in the cathedral church of St. Rumbold in that city.

He wrote: "Epigrammatum et aliorum carminum liber"; and also translated from Greek into Latin:

(1) "The Epistles of St. Gregory Nazianzen";

(2) "The Homilies of Nicephorus Callistus concerning the Greek Saints";

(3) "The Epistles of Pope Celestine I to Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria".

Notes

1.^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography, article Margaret Clement.

2.^ http://associationtrencavel.tripod.com/sirthomasmore/id2.html

References: Attribution: This article incorporates text from "The Family and Descendants of St. Thomas More", by Martin Wood. Published in the UK by 'Gracewing. April 2008. Also a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "John Clement". Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. The entry cites: Charles Dodd, Church History (Brussels, 1737–1742), I, 202;

John Pits, De Angliae Scriptoribus (Paris, 1619), 767;

Anthony à Wood, Athenae Oxonienses, ed. Bliss (London, 1813–1820), I, 401;

Robinson, Registers of St. Paul's School (London, s. d.), 19;

Munk, College of Physicians (London, 1878), I, 26.