Taverner, John

(ca. 1490-1545)

   The most important musician of England in the first half of the 16th century. He began as a boy cho-rister at Tattershall near Lincoln and from 1525 to 1530 was organist and choir director at the new Cardinal College, Oxford. He wrote eight masses and numerous Latin motets. His mass Gloria tibi Trini-tas was reportedly performed at the great diplomatic conference at Calais known as the Field of the Cloth of Gold in 1520. It is impor-tant in the history of English music later in the century because the cantus firmus of the Benedictus at the words "in nomine Domini" be-came the basis for instrumental variations by his successors that as a group are called In nomine. Taverner was attracted by Protestant be-liefs and briefly imprisoned in 1528 but later participated under the direction of the king's chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, in the dis-solution of the English monasteries.