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John Willock (d. 1585), the Scottish reformer who served as chaplain to Henry Grey in England before returning to lead the Reformation in Scotland, wrote this letter to Heinrich Bullinger in 1552. He explains that he passed through Oxford on 11 May, and that John ab Ulmis would not stop urging him to write. He thanks Bullinger warmly for mentioning him in the preface addressed to their prince, and reports that the prince received Bullinger’s gift with great gratitude, adding that Bullinger had acted not only honourably but usefully and piously.
Willock ends by putting questions of marriage law to Bullinger: whether a marriage contracted without the knowledge or against the will of parents is lawful and true, and whether those so married live lawfully if they remain together or may separate at the parents’ wish; and what should be done when a woman leaves her husband for another. The letter shows the network of Bullinger’s English and Scottish friends around the Grey household, and the practical questions of discipline on which the reformers in England sought Zurich’s advice.
About this edition. The Latin text comes from Corpus Corporum, the Latin text repository of the University of Zurich (edition: Institut für Schweizerische Reformationsgeschichte, Institut für Computerlinguistik, Universität Zürich. The online edition is based on the cited book…), reused with attribution for non-commercial purposes (CC BY-NC-SA). Every word has been analyzed with LatinCy, a neural language model for Latin — click or tap any word for its dictionary form, part of speech, and complete morphology, together with the full entry from Lewis & Short’s A Latin Dictionary.