The Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology
Sermons
by Mark Frank
volume one
Biographical Notice of Dr. Frank
[Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1849]
[pp v-vi]
MARK FRANK, the author of the following sermons, was born at Brickhill in
Buckinghamshire, in 1613. In July, 1627, he was admitted into Pembroke Hall, Cambridge; of
which society he became a Foundation Scholar in 1630; and after graduating in Arts, a
Fellow in 1634. In 1641 he took the degree of Bachelor in Divinity; and we find him soon
after preaching before the civic authorities of London a Sermon, which attracted the
notice of King Charles I. Three years after this, while holding the office of Treasurer in
his College, the peaceful tenour of his academical life was abruptly cut short by the
authority, then dominant and triumphant, of the rebellious Parliament. When the Earl of
Manchester, accompanied by his two Puritan chaplains, Ash and Good, required of the
"malignant" members of the University, as the sole condition of retaining their
posts, the subscription of the Solemn League and Covenant, Mr. Frank was associated with
the Master of his College, Dr. Benjamin Laney, Dean of Rochester, and many worthy
confessors of other colleges, Cosins, Sterne, Comber, &c., as a determined recusant of
the unlawful imposition. He was in consequence ejected from his Fellowship, and compelled
in three days to quit the University of Cambridge altogether.
The period of deprivation and adversity, from 1644 to 1660, was borne by our confessor,
as by other faithful sons of the Church, with patience and constancy. On the restoration
of King Charles II., he was not only reinstated in his lost Fellowship, but obtained in
the same year, 1660, the further dignity of Archdeacon of S. Albans, and Treasurer of the
Chapter of S. Paul's. In the following year, he took the degree of Doctor in Divinity; in
April, 1662, became a Prebendary of S. Paul's; and in August of the same year, succeeded
Dr. Laney, who had been advanced to the See of Peterborough, as Master of Pembroke Hall in
Cambridge. He was, at the same time, Chaplain to Archbishop Sheldon; and in February,
1663, he was inducted to the Rectory of Barley, in Hertfordshire. Dr. Frank died in 1664,
and was buried near the north door of the old Cathedral of S. Paul's. The inscription,
though defaced by the great fire of the following year, and since entirely obliterated,
has been preserved in the records of his College, and is as follows:
SUB HOC MARMORE TUMULATUR
DOCTRINA PIETAS ET CHARITAS
QUIPPE MONUMENTUM EST
ILIUS MARCI FRANK, S.T.P.
REVERENDISSIMO GILBERTO ARCHIEPISCOPO CANTUARIENSI
A SACRIS
STI. ALBANI ARCHDIACONI
HUJUS ECCLESIAE THESAURARII ET PRAEBENDARII
AULAE PEMBROCHIANAE CANTABRIG. PRAEFECTI
CUJUS
VIRTUTEM HUMILITATEM ELOQUENTIAM
IN SINGULISQUE SAGACITATEM
DICTIS METIRI NON LICEAT
DICAT POSTERITAS
OBIIT AETATIS ANNO LI.
SALUTIS HUMANAE MDCLXIV
, 1849. W.H.M.