May, John (d. 1598), bishop of Carlisle
by Henry Summerson

May, John (d. 1598), bishop of Carlisle, was allegedly a native of Suffolk.William May, who died in 1560 as archbishop-elect of York, is commonly described as John's elder brother, but in the light of his bequest of divinity books ‘to Mr John Meye my nephew’ (Searle, 293) seems more likely to have been his uncle. John May was educated at Cambridge, matriculating in 1544 at Queens' College, where he was a scholar from 1545 until 1550, when he graduated BA. He subsequently proceeded MA in 1553, BTh in 1560, and DTh in 1564. Elected a fellow of Queens' in 1550, he was college bursar in 1554–5. He is also recorded as staging plays in the college, where in the late 1550s he was accused of being overfond of cards and dice. That he remained in Cambridge during Mary's reign does not seem to have been held against him afterwards, for in 1559 he was appointed master of St Catharine's College. He was remembered there a century later as a model of prudence and integrity, probably thanks to his efforts to improve the management of the college finances. He was vice-chancellor of the university in 1569–70, a time of great theological controversy in Cambridge. His firm stand against Thomas Cartwright earned him the wrath of the godly, but doubtless stood him in good stead with their opponents, led by John Whitgift.

Elevation to the episcopate came in 1577. Following the death of James Pilkington of Durham on 23 January 1576, Richard Barnes of Carlisle was moved east across the Pennines, and May was promoted to replace him. His patron in this was George Talbot, sixth earl of Shrewsbury, who lobbied the earls of Leicester and Sussex on May's behalf. The queen's congé d'élire was granted on 17 May 1577, he was formally elected by the Carlisle chapter on 12 June 1577, the royal assent was given on 9 August, and he was consecrated at Fulham by the bishop of London on 29 September. Enthroned by proxy in his cathedral on 2 January 1578, he resigned his Cambridge mastership.


May involved himself in local government as convention required, as JP and member of the council of the north, and sometimes worked with the warden of the west march to keep the peace on the borders. Occasionally he received news of Scottish affairs which he passed on to Shrewsbury. He seems to have been a conscientious bishop who resided at his episcopal residence of Rose Castle almost without interruption; occasionally recorded at York or Durham, he never attended parliament. His primary visitation of his chapter was conducted with notable thoroughness, and he dealt effectively with routine matters like dilapidated buildings and disputes over stalls in parish churches. His greatest problem, the low quality of the resident ministry, arose from the poverty of his see, its distance from centres of learning, and the great size of many of the parishes, which were often subdivided into poorly endowed chapelries. In 1580 May himself granted parochial rights to the chapel of Matterdale in Greystoke parish. His successor, Henry Robinson, criticized ‘the great facility of my predecessor in committing the charge of souls to such as were presented by those who care not how silly the clerk be, so themselves may enjoy the fat of the living’ (CSP dom., 1598–1601, 362–3). The charge of carelessness seems to have been less than fair. Although graduate ministers remained a minority, and would long do so, the number of university-trained incumbents (including some from the bishop's own former college of St Catharine's) certainly increased during May's episcopate, and their distribution was not limited to the wealthier livings.

May waged a continuous campaign against recusancy. He was examining die-hard Catholics early in 1584, while in 1590 he revived the constableship of Rose Castle and employed its holder to pursue seminaries. A year later he is recorded as examining the Douai-trained priest James Clayton, who subsequently died in prison under sentence of death. Early in 1597 it was May himself who feared death. About to set out to arrest another seminary, Christopher Robinson, he completed his will on 5 March in terms giving vivid expression to his fears—