AYLMER, JOHN, bishop of London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, was born in the year 1521 at Aylmerhall, in the parish of Tilney, in the county of Norfolk. Whilst a boy, he was distinguished for his quick parts by the Marquis of Dorset, afterwards Duke of Suffolk, who sent him to Cambridge, and made him his chaplain, and tutor to his children. One of these children was the accomplished and unfortunate Lady Jane Grey, whose extraordinary proficiency in the Greek and Latin languages reflects no small honour on her preceptor Aylmer. His first preferment was to the archdeaconry of Stow, in the diocese of Lincoln; which gave him a seat in the convocation held in the first year of Queen Mary, where he resolutely opposed the return to popery, to which the generality of the clergy were inclined. He was soon after obliged to fly his country and take shelter among the Protestants in Switzerland. While here he wrote a reply to Knox's famous Blast against the monstrous Regiment of Women, under the title of An Harborage for Faithfull and Trew Subjects, &c. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth he returned to England. In 1562 he obtained the archdeaconry of Lincoln, and was a member of the famous synod of that year, which reformed
and settled the doctrine and discipline of the Church of England. In 1576 he was consecrated bishop of London. He died in 1594.