Career
We know very little of his early life, but when he was ordained by Edmund Grindal in 1566 at the age of 21, he was called a bachelor of arts of Christ Church, Oxford. Field"s ordination was irregular, as the canonical age for ordination in the British church was 24 (or 23, if the person shows an unusual gift). In 1568, he became a lecturer, curate, and schoolmaster in London, which was his native city.
He was insistent on changing the Acting of Uniformity to purge what he regarded as Roman Catholic tendencies in British practice.
When he was unable to effect any changes, he wrote A View of Popish Abuses yet remaining in the English Church in 1572. The tract is bitter and harsh in its satire and complaint, and it was published abroad with Thomas Wilcox"s Admonition to Parliament.
Both Wilcox and Field were sentenced to a year"s imprisonment for the publication and breaking the Acting of Uniformity. Field was undeterred.
In 1585, he again drew legal sanction and was barred from preaching, but this punishment was less than that which had been sought, as Field had friends on the Queen"s Council surrounding Elizabeth.
He is probably the author of some of the Marprelate Tracts.
