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SirChristopher Trychay
Pronunciation	Trickee
Died	1574
Occupation	Vicar
Known for	Churchwardens' accounts
Religion	Christianity
Church	Catholic Church (until 1534) Church of England (from 1534)
Congregations served	Morebath (1520–1574)
Signature

Sir Christopher Trychay (died 1574) was an English priest who served as the vicar of Morebath's parish from 1520 until his death in 1574. While in Morebath, Trychay maintained detailed churchwardens' accounts that detailed the parish's transition from a medieval Catholic congregation into a Protestant Church of England one. These accounts have survived, being reprinted and utilized in two award-winning books by historian Eamon Duffy.

Trychay's accounts survive to the present in the Exeter Library. They were edited and reprinted by a later vicar of Morebath, J. Erskine Binney, in 1904. Duffy utilized Trychay's accounts in both his 1992 The Stripping of the Altars and his 2001 The Voices of Morebath. Trychay's accounts have been credited with enhancing the modern understanding of the period of religious and political upheaval he experienced.

Biography

After being ordained a Catholic priest, Trychay was assigned in 1520 as vicar of Morebath's parish. Trychay remained at Morebath until his death in 1574. Through the duration of his time as vicar, he maintained meticulous churchwardens' accounts that detail parish life.

During his early ministry, Trychay was like many medieval Catholic priests. Trychay spent 20 years introducing the cult of Saint Sidwell to Morebath he and the parish obeyed orders to enforce the English Reformation's rejection of such practices. While Trychay and his congregation generally accepted applying government policies on religion – spanning from Henry VIII's split from Rome through Mary I's restoration of Catholicism to Elizabeth I's Protestant religious settlement – his accounts record that he and the parish sent five men in support of the failed Prayer Book Rebellion in 1549. Trychay showed further resistance to implementing the Reformation in initially refraining from disposing of recently acquired vestments when they were prohibited under Edward VI. He welcomed the brief reversion to Catholicism under Mary I.

Legacy

Trychay's churchwardens’ accounts are among the few surviving records of Morebath in the 16th century, as most other records were destroyed during the Exeter Blitz of World War II. Religious history scholars view Trychay's records as beneficial in understanding the period of religious and political upheaval that he lived through.

J. Erskine Binney, a late Victorian-era vicar of Morbath, compiled and reprinted Trychay's churchwardens' accounts in 1904. While Binney had sorted the original manuscript records, they were later dropped and then randomly rebound at Exeter Library. Irish historian of British religion Eamon Duffy utilized Binney's edition and the original manuscript in compiling The Voices of Morebath. Duffy had first encountered Trychay's churchwardens' accounts while performing research for what became his 1992 book, The Stripping of the Altars. The Stripping of the Altars won the Longman-History Today Book of the Year Award. The Voices of Morebath won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature.

Notes

1. Catholic priests were referred to with the formal title of Sir, rather than the modern title of Father that was popularized in the late 19th century. Trychay is pronounced "Trickey".
2. Another clergyman, F. W. Weaver, contributed a glossarial index to Binney's edition.

References

Citations

1. ^ Collinson 2002
2. Inman 2019
3. ^ O'Brien 2022
4. Pindar 2003
5. Lewis 2001
6. Wooding 2001
7. Binney 1904
8. Cooper 2002
9. Tucker 2007; Collinson 2002; Murphy 2002
10. ^ Carlson 2003
11. Yale

Sources

• Binney, J. Erskine, ed. (1904). The Accounts of the Wardens of the Parish of Morebath, Devon. 1520–1573. Exeter: James G. Commin – via archive.org.
• Carlson, Eric Josef (2003). "The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village. By Eamon Duffy. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2001. xvi + 232 pp. $22.50 cloth". Church History. 72 (3): 662–664. doi:10.1017/S0009640700100605.
• Collinson, Patrick (25 April 2002). "Through Trychay's Eyes". London Review of Books. 24 (8). Archived from the original on 11 July 2024. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
• * Cooper, J. P. D. (Fall 2002). "The Voices of Morebath (Book Review)". Sixteenth Century Journal. 33 (3): 932–934. doi:10.2307/4144110.
• Inman, Anne (16 August 2019). "Should we be calling priests 'Father'?". The Tablet. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
• Lewis, Paul (28 October 2001). "Pope or King?". Book Review/Section 7. The New York Times. p. 17. Archived from the original on 11 July 2024. Retrieved 11 July 2024.
• O'Brien, Sheilagh Ilona (10 March 2022). "The European Reformations: what do the stories of everyday people tell us?". Anglican Focus. Anglican Church Southern Queensland. Archived from the original on 11 July 2024. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
• Murphy, Francesca (2002). "The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village by Eamon Duffy, Yale University Press, 2001. Pp. xv + 232, £16.95 hbk". New Blackfriars. 83 (982): 588. doi:10.1017/S0028428900019922.
• Pindar, Ian (3 May 2003). "Reformation song: Ian Pindar on The Voices of Morebath". Books. The Guardian. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
• Tucker, Eric G. (2007). "Eamon Duffy". Guide to Literary Masters & Their Works. Salem Press.
• Wooding, Lucy (December 2001). "Review of The Voices of Morebath: Reformation and Rebellion in an English Village". Reviews in History. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 7 January 2025.
• "The Stripping of the Altars". yalebooks.co.uk. Yale University Press. Retrieved 7 January 2025.

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