James Brooks (bishop)

{{Infobox Christian leader

| type = Bishop

| birth_date = May 1512

| death_date = 7 September 1558

| title = Bishop of Gloucester

| predecessor = John Hooper

| church = Roman Catholic

| successor = Richard Cheyney

| birth_place = Hampshire, England

| buried = Gloucester Cathedral

| enthroned = 6 July 1554

| term_end = 1558

| honorific_prefix = The Right Reverend

| consecration = 1 April 1554

| consecrated_by = Edmund Bonner

}}

James Brooks (or Brookes) (May 1512 – 7 September 1558) was an English Catholic clergyman and Bishop of Gloucester.{{cite ODNB|id=3565|title=Brooks, James|first=Caroline|last=Litzenberger}}

Life

Born in May 1512, in Hampshire, southern England, Brooks became a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1532, took the B.A. that same year and in 1546 the D.D. He was Master of Balliol College, Oxford in the years 1547–1555.{{cite book | editor=Salter, H. E. |editor2=Lobel, Mary D. | title=A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3: The University of Oxford | publisher=Victoria County History |year=1954 | pages=82–95 |url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=63873 | chapter=Balliol College| access-date=27 July 2011}} He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford during 1552–3.{{cite web|url=http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/vc/position/previousvice-chancellors/|title=Previous Vice-Chancellors|publisher=University of Oxford, UK|access-date=27 July 2011|archive-date=19 April 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140419085125/https://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/vc/position/previousvice-chancellors/|url-status=dead}}{{cite book|title=The Historical Register of the University of Oxford|author=University of Oxford|author-link=University of Oxford| publisher=Clarendon Press| location=Oxford | year=1888 | pages=21–27|url=http://www.ebooksread.com/authors-eng/university-of-oxford/the-historical-register-of-the-university-of-oxford-completed-to-the-end-of-tri-hci/page-2-the-historical-register-of-the-university-of-oxford-completed-to-the-end-of-tri-hci.shtml|chapter=Vice-Chancellors | access-date=27 July 2011}}

Widely known as an eloquent preacher, with the deprivation of John Hooper on the accession of Queen Mary, Brooks succeeded him as Bishop of Gloucester by papal provision in 1554 and was consecrated on 1 April.

In 1555, Brooks was one of the papal sub-delegates in the Royal Commission for the trial of the Oxford Martyrs, Thomas Cranmer, Hugh Latimer, and Nicholas Ridley. Brooks was a man not only of learning but also of integrity. He refused to degrade Ridley, probably on the ground that Ridley's consecration in 1547 had been according to the invalid form which was established by law very soon after that date. If, as the Protestant polemicist John Foxe asserts, Brooks refused to degrade Latimer as well, his position may have been based upon the fact that Latimer had lived for several years as a simple clergyman.

Brooks died in July or August 1558. He was buried in Gloucester Cathedral, but without a monument.