PARKER, MATTEW. - Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, b. at Norwich on 6 Aug. 1504, d. in May 1575; he became chaplain to Anne Boleyn in 1535, and vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1545.
He was led to follow Anglican tendencies, and in 1547, as soon as the marriage of the clergy had been legalized, he married the daughter of the zealous reformer Harleston; this did not prevent him from maintaining a position hostile to the sale of ecclesiastical property. Queen Elizabeth appointed him Archbishop of Canterbury in 1559, and P. effectively contributed to the organization and discipline of the Anglican Church, coming into conflict (1565) with the Puritans, especially over the manner of dress during the celebration of the Eucharist: the controversy dragged on for a long time, to the great displeasure of P., who felt that he could not live long enough to resolve a problem so important for the consolidation of the Reformation in England. In 1572 he wrote the De antiquitate Britannicae Ecclesiae.