Bernard Gilpin (1517 – 4 March 1583), “was an Oxford theologian and then an influential clergyman in the emerging Church of England spanning the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Jane, Mary and Elizabeth I. He was known as the ‘Apostle of the North’, for his work in the wilds of northern England.”
Vicar of Norton on Tees
“In November 1552 he was presented to the vicarage of Norton on Tees, in the diocese of Durham. Persons appointed to livings in Royal patronage at that time were required to preach before the King, that there might be an opportunity of ascertaining their orthodoxy. Accordingly, on the first Sunday after Epiphany 1553 Gilpin went to Greenwich to preach in the Royal presence. His sermon on sacrilege is extant and displays the high ideal he had formed of the clerical office.”
