THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
position is best illustrated in a booklet entitled Epistola Theobaldi Billicani ad Joanncm Hubelium qua Mo de eucharistia cogitandi mater iam conscripsit (1528) which remained unnoticed.
Billican, of whom so much had been expected, was now avoided by both parties. In 1529 he applied to Heidelberg University for the doctorate, presenting at the same time a confession in which he acrimoniously rejected Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Anabaptist doctrine, and expressed his firm belief in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Bein<r refused by the faculty, he married a woman of wealth, and, regardless of what had taken place, he had the boldness to ask Melanchthon to procure him the doctorate at Wittenberg. The latter replied, " [The authorities] advance no one before he has set forth his doctrinal views " (CR, i, 1112). Since he was repelled by the Reformers and not fully trusted by the Roman Catholics, Billican's position became untenable, and so in 1535 he left Nordlingen and went to Heidelberg, where he commenced the study of jurisprudence. He was made licentiate in jurisprudence and for a time took the place of a professor who was disabled on account of sickness. When in 1543 that professor died and Billican sought the position, the entire faculty opposed his nomination, but through the influence of Margaret von der Layen, whose " chancellor " he- was considered, he was permitted to give independent lectures on law. On account of his relations with Margaret, the elector Frederick II deposed Billican from his office July 26, 1544, and ordered him to leave Heidelberg. He went to Marburg and was made professor of rhetoric, a position which he held till his death. (T. Kolde.)
Bibliography: G. Veesenmeyer, Kleine Beytrage zur Geschichte des Reichstags zu Augsburg, 1530, pp. 59 sqq., Nuremberg, 1830; A. Steichele, Das Bislum Augsburg, iii, 947 sqq., Augsburg, 1872; T. Keim, Die Stellung der schwabischen Kirchen zur zwinglisch-lutherischen Spaltung, in TJB, xiv, 1894; C. Geyer, Die Nordlinger evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1S96.
BILNEY (BYLNEY), THOMAS: Early English Protestant; b. of a Norfolk family about 1495; burned at the stake at Norwich Aug. 19, 1531. He studied at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and gave up law for theology and was ordained priest in 1519. He adopted the belief in justification by faith alone and was a leader in a company of Cambridge men who were inclined to the views of the Reformation; Hu?!i Latimer was added to the number by Bilney's influence and became his lifelong friend. Concerning the mass, transubstantiation, and the powers of the pope and the Church, Bilney remained orthodox; but he preached unremittingly in Cambridge, London, and neighboring counties, denouncing the invocation of saints and relic-worship, pilgrimages and fastings, at the same time leading a most austere life and devoted to deeds of charity. He was arrested and confined in the Tower Nov. 25, 1527; brought to trial, he denied having wittingly taught the doctrines of Luther, but was finally persuaded to abjure his alleged heresies and as penance was kept imprisoned for more than a year. Released in 1529, he went back to Cambridge, suffered much from remorse for his abjuration, and
in 1531 resumed preaching, but was immediately arrested, and was executed as a relapsed heretic.
Bibliography: The sources for a life are in Letters and Papers of the Reign of Henry VIII., vol. v, ed. James
Gairdner, in Record Publications, London, 1863-80. Consult also C. H. Cooper, Athenai Cantabrigienses, i, 42, ib 1858; DNB, v, 40-43.
BILSON, THOMAS: Bishop of Winchester; b. at Winchester 1546 or 1547; d. there June 18 1616. He studied at New College, Oxford (B.A.', 1566; M.A., 1570; B.D., 1579; D.D., 1581); was made prebend of Winchester 1576, and became warden of the college there; was consecrated bishop of Worcester 1596, translated to Winchester 1597. He was a noted preacher, a man of much learning, and defended the Church of England against both Roman Catholics and Puritans. At the command of Queen Elizabeth he wrote The True Difference between Christian Subjection and Unchristian Rebellion (Oxford, 1585), in answer to Cardinal William Allen's Defence of the English Catholics (Ingoldstadt. 1584), and The Survey of Christ's Sufferings for Man's Redemption and of his Descent to Hades or Hell for our Deliverance (London, 1604), a reply to the Brownist Henry Jacob; in The Perpetual Government of Christ's Church (1593; new ed., with memoir, Oxford, 1842) he defended episcopacy. With Dr. Miles Smith he revised the King James translation of the Bible before its publication, and he added the summaries of contents at the head of each chapter.
Bibliography: A. a Wood, Athence Oxonienses, ed. P. Bliss, ii, 169-171, 4 vols., London, 1813-20; DNB, v, 43-44.