12: The English Reformation (Needs more)

INTRODUCTION

How many of you are fans of Downton Abbey?

Have you ever wondered why the estate of an English nobleman is sometimes called an “abbey?”

Well, the answer to that question is found in the history of the English Reformation so before we’re through today you’ll have the answer to that question if you don’t already know.

BACKGROUND

We’ve spent the last two class sessions talking about the reformation in continental Europe.

What are some things that were instrumental in that movement happening when and how it did?

The Reformation came to Germany when a monk named Martin Luther had his eyes opened to the truth of scripture causing him to question the teachings of the Catholic Church and to take a stand against papal excesses such as indulgences.

It came to Switzerland when Ulrich Zwingli, under the influence of Renaissance humanist scholarship, studied the New Testament in the original language and brought its message to the people.

While there was much ground laid in England by godly men and women that helped bring about the Reformation there, the catalyst for it was very different than in Germany and Switzerland.

The Reformation began in earnest in England because Henry VIII wanted a divorce – or better said, an annulment.

This morning we’re going to look at the English reformation by looking at the reigns of four monarchs because the English reformation more than some of the others was a top-down affair.

· Henry VIII

· Edward VI (Jane Grey)

· Mary I (“Bloody” Mary)

· Elizabeth I

In each of those we’ll see a significant development for the English church that occurred during their reign.

We’ll really see the truth of Psalm 21:1 in today’s study:

The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.

Kings and queens make decisions, often for selfish or ungodly reasons (think pharaoh) yet the Lord grows His church and causes His gospel to spread not in spite of their decisions but often directly because of them.

What man intends for selfishness and evil, God intends for the good of His people and the glory of His name.

THE REIGN OF HENRY VIII

Henry was the second Tudor monarch. The Tudors came to the throne after Henry’s father, Henry VII, killed Richard III at the battle of Bosworth Field ending the reign of the House of York. Up until this point the English throne had often been decided by murder or war, the most famous struggle being the War of the Roses between the houses of Lancaster and York. Richard III is the last English monarch to die in battle.

Because of this, Henry was keen to have a legitimate male heir whose claim to the throne was clear and unquestioned. That little bit of background helps us understand his actions.

Henry was not the heir originally. His older brother Arthur was. Arthur had been married to a Spanish princess, Katherine of Aragon (Daughter of Ferdinand & Isabella), for the purposes of a political alliance with Spain. However, Arthur died and because he and Katherine had no children, Henry became the heir (he was only 15 when they married and died 6 months after the marriage).

Henry VII, eager to cement his alliance with Spain (and keep the bride’s dowry) wanted the new heir, the future Henry VIII, to marry Katherine.

The problem was canon law forbade a man marrying his brother’s widow.

What was needed, and this is important for future events, was a papal dispensation – which they received.

Unfortunately, Henry and Katherine’s marriage was not happy and did not produce a male heir. They did have one child, Mary, who will play a role in our story later but no son. So, several years into his reign, Henry, sought a way to rid himself of Katherine and marry someone else.

Neither Katherine nor the church would have agreed to a divorce so what he sought was an annulment, basically a declaration that the marriage had never been valid (they had been married 24 years at this point).

For this, he needed, guess what?

Another papal dispensation. And he needed a dispensation that said the earlier papal dispensation was wrong.

There were other problems as well preventing the pope from granting such a dispensation.

The current pope, Clement VII was under the thumb of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

While firmly in the Catholic fold, Charles was not of the opinion that he owed his office to the pope or that he was under the pope’s authority in political matters. He had gone so far at one point as to attack Rome causing the pope to flee for his life. Charles was also one of Luther’s main opponents in Europe.

So why would these things prevent Henry VIII getting his annulment?

Charles V was Katherine’s nephew and she had already appealed to him to save her from dishonor.[i]

By granting the annulment the pope would have alienated a politically strong emperor who was holding the line against the protestant reformation in Europe.

So for basically political reasons the pope said no.

Henry, however, was used to getting his way and was just as motivated to have a male heir (and by this time the lovely Anne Boleyn), as the pope was not to offend Charles V so we’re at loggerheads.

Henry’s advisors suggested several courses of action but the one he liked best was to simply declare himself head of the church in England and then he could do as he pleased with his marriage.

This was not completely without precedent in England. There was already a law on the books that forbade the English clergy from appealing to the pope unless the king was consulted first and was in agreement. So, to some degree the king was not completely under the pope’s authority even in ecclesiastical matters. However, it’s quite another thing to claim the king is the head of the English church, which is what ended up being done.

The final break took place in 1534. Parliament, acting on Henry’s instruction, passed laws forbidding payments to Rome and claiming them for the crown. Parliament also gave Henry the annulment he wanted and declared his daughter Mary no longer the legitimate heir. They also made Henry the “supreme head” of the Church of England. This was the “Act of Supremacy.”

To make sure everyone understood he was serious, they also passed a law that said calling the king a schismatic or a heretic was treason.[ii]

By this time, Henry had secretly married Anne Boleyn and one of his first acts as head of the church was to legitimize their marriage – after which the pope excommunicated him.

Henry and Anne had a daughter, Elizabeth, but no son. After three years of marriage, Henry accused her of adultery and had her beheaded.

His next wife, Jane Seymour, one of Anne’s ladies in waiting, finally gave Henry the male heir he wanted, a son named Edward. Sadly, Jane died from postnatal complications 12 days after Edward was born so she and Henry were married only a bit over a year.

The stage is now set for the next three English monarchs, all Henry’s children and all with a different impact on the church.

Henry married three more times before he died in 1547.

CONTRIBUTION TO THE REFORMATION

Henry was not sympathetic at all to the protestant cause. He had even at one point published a pamphlet against Luther that had caused Pope Leo X to grant him the title “defender of the faith.”

Henry was more concerned about the rights of the sovereign vis-a-vis the pope than he was a theological reformation. However, the Lord used this to set the wheels of reformation rolling in England. During Henry’s reign, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury who was an advocate of theological reform, had the Bible translated into English and by royal decree an English Bible was placed in every church in the kingdom. Justo Gonzalez says:

“This was a powerful weapon in the hands of the advocates of reform, who went from place to place drawing attention to those passages of Scripture that supported their teaching and goals.”[iii]

This likely would not have happened had England stayed in the Roman Catholic fold, which likely would have happened if Henry & Katherine had a passel of kids, among them sons, in their 24 year marriage.

So what about Downton Abbey?

In England, as elsewhere on the continent, the Roman Catholic Church owned a great deal of property, much of it in the hands of monastic communities.

Once Henry was head of the church, he had all this land at his disposal. In a series of events known as the “dissolution of the monasteries” Henry appropriated this property and either kept it for the crown, sold it or gave it away to those whom he wanted to favor. Many of these properties were income-producing estates with houses, churches and even whole villages attached to them. These then became the private estates of the nobility and as a consequence there are still several English estates with “abbey” in their name because they were formerly properties of Roman Catholic monastic orders.

THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI

When Henry died, his nine-year-old son Edward became king.

Edward was surrounded by advisors who were decidedly reformed, not just for political purposes but also apparently out of theological conviction - including the Duke of Somerset who acted as regent for the young king.

The main achievement of his reign for the English church was the Book of Common Prayer written by Thomas Cranmer. This, for the first time, gave the English people a worship liturgy in the English language.[iv]

This was revised at least once during Edward’s reign and you can see from the revision that the English church was moving in the direction of the continental reformation. As an example the wording associated with communion was changed from:

“The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life.”

To:

“Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart by faith with thanksgiving.”

Also during Edward’s reign, the communion cup was restored to the laity, clergy were allowed to marry and images were removed from churches.[v]

Unfortunately, after only six years on the throne and before this reformed bent could be consolidated and firmly established, Edward died in 1553.

As the king lay dying, he nominated his cousin, Lady Jane Grey, as his successor – probably at the instigation and with the support of some of his advisors. This, however, went against the laws of succession and so was shot down by the Privy Council who proclaimed Mary Tudor as queen. Jane was “queen” for only nine days after which she was imprisoned in the Tower of London and later executed for treason.

THE REIGN OF MARY I

When Mary came to the throne things changed. The reformation that had been gaining ground quickly lost what had been gained and began going backwards.

Mary had always been a Roman Catholic and had no intention of changing. For her the reformation had meant nothing but heartache and the dishonoring of her mother. In fact, if she admitted that Henry VIII was correct, she was also admitting that she was illegitimate.

So, Mary began to aggressively return England to the Roman Catholic fold.

Her reign began in 1553 and in 1554 England was officially returned to Rome and the English church placed under the leadership of the pope.

All of the reforms of the previous years were undone. Feast days to the saints were restored, married priests were ordered to give up their wives, etc.[vi]Open persecution of Protestants soon began as well.

Mary earned her nickname of “Bloody” Mary due to the martyrdom of some 300 Protestants who refused to convert back to Catholicism among them Thomas Cranmer and Bishops Latimer and Ridley.

Cranmer was persuaded to sign a recantation that Mary used as propaganda against the Protestants. But this recantation was apparently due to fear for his life or other duress. He later recanted of his recantation and when about to be burned at the stake famously thrust his hand into the fire to be burned first because that was the hand that had signed the document denying the faith:

“They were written contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, to save my life if it might be…And forasmuch as I have written many things contrary to what I believe in my heart, my hand shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire it shall first be burned. As for the Pope, I refuse him, for Christ’s enemy and antichrist, with all his false doctrine.”

Mercifully for the Protestant cause, Mary died in 1558 after only five years on the throne. Though she had married Philip II of Spain, they had no children. Her half-sister Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, succeeded Mary.

The contribution of Mary I to the reformation was that in trying to undo it she strengthened the resolve of many of the reformers.

THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH I

Elizabeth’s reign began much as Mary’s had but in reverse.

If she admitted her half-sister was correct in returning England to Rome, she would have to admit that her father had been wrong to put away Katherine of Aragon and marry her mother Anne Boleyn, making Elizabeth illegitimate and calling into question her right to rule.

Pope Paul IV anticipated this and offered to declare Elizabeth the legitimate daughter of Henry if she would keep England in the Roman Catholic fold. Again, the pope is making a political decision basically agreeing to grant Henry’s annulment in arrears.

Elizabeth, however, completely ignored him and even recalled the English ambassador to Rome to send a message regarding her inclinations towards the Roman church.

Though there were certainly political motives, many historians believe Elizabeth was also protestant by conviction as well.

Elizabeth’s Protestantism, however, was not extreme – meaning she was not in the camp of the Swiss reformers, for example. She pursued what’s been described as a middle way between the Roman Catholic Church and Protestantism – although theologically it was truly Protestant. This became known as the “Elizabethan settlement.”

While she had no desire to return to Rome, neither did she desire to have the various Protestant factions fighting with one another and causing disunity. Much like Constantine centuries before, Elizabeth saw a unified church and a unified kingdom as two sides of the same coin, as indeed they probably were during this era. It was hard to have political unity without religious unity in an age when those two things were so closely aligned.

THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES

This is most clearly seen in the “Thirty-nine Articles of Religion” which were compiled during her reign.

Justin Holcomb in his book “Know the Creeds and Councils” says:

“The best way to describe them (the 39 Articles) might be as a short set of statements intended to set out Anglican theology as differing from the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant dissenters, Calvinists, Anabaptists and Lutherans.”[vii]

Again, this was a “middle way” between the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church and the dismissal of all church tradition as seen in the radical Protestant sects of the day such as the Anabaptists.[viii]

(read examples from page126-27 of Holcomb)

This spirit of accommodation and of a “middle way” continues to be characteristic of Anglicanism until today. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it has led to the subordination of scriptural truth to unity in the church, at least in the United Kingdom and the United States (where Anglicanism is represented by the Episcopal Church). However, to their credit, the “big tent” of Anglicanism can still claim many orthodox churches in places like Africa.

One final note, it was during Elizabeth’s reign that the last serious attempt to return England to the Roman Church was made.

How many have heard of the Spanish Armada?

This was an attempt is 1588 by Phillip II of Spain to send an invasion force to England, overthrow Elizabeth and return the island to the Roman Catholic faith, under his leadership, of course.

Unfortunately for Phillip, the weather, or perhaps better-said, divine providence, was not on his side. Before they could engage with the English, storms delayed them giving the English much needed time to prepare. Then the English with their superior long-range cannons defeated the Spanish in one of the most important sea battles in history. The Spanish were forced to return to Spain by sailing around Scotland and Ireland during which more ships were lost. When they finally returned to Spain the fleet had been reduced by half and 15,000 men had been lost.

This victory catapulted Elizabeth to popularity and gave England status as a world-class sea power – something she would capitalize on for several centuries and that would lead to the British Empire, the greatest empire the world has ever known.

Elizabeth died in 1603 having reigned 45 years.

[i]The Story of Christianity, Gonzalez, p.72 [ii] Gonzalez, p.73 [iii] Ibid [iv] Gonzalez, p. 76 [v]Ibid [vi]Gonzalez, p.77 [vii]Know the Creeds & Councils, Holcomb, p. 123 [viii]Holcomb, p. 125