Cranmer's enduring legacy

Cranmer being burned at the stake

When Edward was succeeded by Mary, it was clear that the English Reformation could not continue on the course Cranmer has set, or even maintain its current position. A return to a more Roman outlook was inevitable. "Half Spanish, the daughter and confidante of Catherine of Aragon, sometimes treated by her father as a bastard, Mary grew up with an attachment to Rome so fervent as to be fanatical." 

Now it was the Protestants rather than the Catholics who found themselves the subject of heresy trials. Many were freely allowed to go to the strongholds of Reform in Europe as Mary and her ministers began to overturn the Edwardian Reforms.

However Mary could not bring about a complete restoration as in the 20 years since the dissolution, land had been disposed of and many monks and nuns had died or moved to Catholic Europe. Rosman observes "Her own [Mary's] faith centred on the offering of Christ in the Mass, and it was this above all that she wished to reinstate."

In December 1554 three old statutes against heresy were re-established and the burning (as a last resort) of Protestants began, Earning her the nickname Bloody Mary. With Pole having returned from Rome to absolve parliament and assume the title of Archbishop of Canterbury, and former bishops in gaol refusing to recant, it was only a matter of time before Hooper, Ridley, Latimer and eventually Cranmer faced their fate at the stake.

The end of 1558 and the beginning of 1559 not only saw the death of both Mary and Pole but also a good number of their supporting bishops. By the time of Mary's death, much had been achieved in terms of introducing a reformed Catholicism to England, "Marian Catholicism was at one with the larger Counter-Reformation" Duffy comments.

However, when Elizabeth acceded to the throne the way was clear for a restoration of Protestant England and the opportunity of Cranmer's legacy to find new life. However, as Chadwick notes: "....historians still argue whether, in making England Protestant during 1559, the queen and her advisers were pushing a reluctant Parliament or whether the house of Commons was pushing a reluctant queen." It seems clear that there was a general lack of enthusiasm to face a situation of religious reversal for the third time in a decade!

The Elizabethan settlement

Rodes summarises the main achievements of the restoration of the Reformation by Elizabeth as being:

1. "The supreme headship was restored .... but shorn of some of the exuberant caesaropapism of Henry's rhetoric."
   
   
2. "The liturgy was established as it had been planned in the last year of Edward's reign."
   
   
3. "The punishment of heresy was limited to doctrines expressly denounced in scripture or in the early general councils."
   
   
4. "First fruits, tenths, and appropriated rectories in royal hands, all of which had been renounced by Mary, were resumed."

Under Elizabeth much of the "feel and content" of Reformation England as it had been under her half-brother was restored. What was new was that in ensuring that legislation was speedily drawn up, passed and implemented, new structures and procedures were introduced. These innovations in turn helped to begin the process of institutionalising the Reformed Church of England.

Carter, writing in the 1920's - the date here is significant because of the Church was riding high on the resurgent Catholic wave of the Oxford Movement - talks of a new interpretation placed on the extent of reforms introduced by the Elizabethan Settlement. He strongly sees them as being neither the adoption of the "Genevan" position, nor of a Papist Catholicism but as being a middle course which he designates "Protestant Catholicism".

Sheils outlines the overturning of the view espoused by Carter by the publication of Neale's work (1950's) on the Parliament's of Elizabeth. Neale held that Elizabeth was in fact cautious and would have preferred a return to the less radical 1549 BCP but was pushed by a group of radical MP's ('the Puritan Choir') towards a more extreme position of adopting a Prayer Book along the lines of the one produced by Calvinist exiles in Frankfurt. In true "Anglican tradition", the resulting compromise was full of ambiguity and fuelled much of the conflict between the establishment and the Puritans well into the next century.

Under Elizabeth, a constant stream of measures were passed to strengthen the return to a Reformed position. To simply attempt to re-establish the status quo as it had prevailed under Edward would have ignored the continuing developments on the continent and failed to learn the lessons to be gleaned from Cranmer's time. In essence however, the Elizabethan Settlement chose to anchor itself in a modestly modified 1552 BCP and embrace the doctrines and practices it contained. The Reformation continued on essentially Cranmerian lines. "The religious settlement of Elizabeth, long characterised by the description 'via media', had the status for many generations as the foundation of the Anglican Church. The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity and the Royal Injunctions of 1559 were, with the addition of the 39 Articles of 1563 and the Authorised Version of the Bible of 1611, the distinctive attributes of Anglicanism, an episcopal protestantism purged of the errors of Rome yet free from the excesses of the more radical Protestant sects." Sheils observes.

The 'modern' view amongst historians is not to see the Carter and Neale positions as being mutually exclusive, but to see Elizabeth, ably supported by her new Archbishop Parker "who did much to form the character of the Elizabethan church", steering a delicate middle course - in a style that was very similar to Cranmer's when he was at the helm.

The 1559 Act of Uniformity re-established the 1552 BCP with the following changes:

1. The restoration of the 1549 Words of Administration which were now combined with those of the 1552 BCP. This reintroduced an ambiguity that allowed parallel interpretations on the sensitive question of "presence" by Roman Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists alike.
   
   
2. The so-called "Black Rubric" on the Declaration on Kneeling was quietly omitted.
   
   
3. "The 'Ornaments Rubric' dealing with vesture of ministers lost its plain text of 1552 and became a stamping ground for controversialists."

Considering the scope for change that was possible, these are very minor amendments and the resulting Prayer Book can be described as nothing but the doctrinal and liturgical re-establishment of "Edwardian Anglicanism". In 1563 the 39 Articles were passed by Convocation and these were eventually passed by Parliament in 1571. Pressure for further reform continued from both sides of the debate, Elizabeth however resisted and thus ensured the maintenance of the via media course.

Jewel's Apology

Haugaard writes: "An Apology of the Church of England by John Jewel stands as the single major theological treatise of the earlier years of the Elizabethan church." To appreciate the reasoning behind this laudable conclusion, both the book itself and the context that gave rise to its publication require examination.

As was so often the case with the English Reformation, the prevailing political climate at this time was a strong influence on the course of the Reform. As stated above, a large degree of uncertainty and ambiguity accompanied the beginning of Elizabeth's reign as Europe looked on to see which way the Church would go. 

Elizabeth herself greatly contributed to this by retaining a cross or crucifix in the royal chapel which caused Jewel, then Bishop of Salisbury, to write the following to Peter Martyr: "Religion among us is in the same state which I have often described to you before. The doctrine is everywhere most pure; but as to ceremonies and maskings, there is little often too much foolery. That little silver cross, of ill-omened origin, still maintains its place in the Queen's chapel. Wretched me! This thing will soon be drawn into a precedent." (Quoted by Booty in his introduction to Jewel's Apology on p. ix as coming from the Parker Society edition of the Zürich letters.)

Furthermore, in maintaining a middle line, Elizabeth in her dealings with foreign ambassadors would say things in one way to those from a Reformed country and in another way to those from a Catholic country. Even though the general drift was firmly towards a Reformed position, this ambiguity made it impossible for alliances to be forged as potential allies were uncertain about England's true intentions. The plight of Throckmorton is a good example that is well documented in the surviving correspondence of the day. As Ambassador to France his frustration is evident as he reported to Cecil that French Roman Catholics had "marvelled why the clergy of England did not fortify the ceremonies, rites and observations retained in their church with the authority of the ancient writers and the examples of the old churches."

During this time, a Papal nuncio was waiting in Brussels for permission to enter England and deliver an invitation to the Council of Trent. Although there is every indication that Elizabeth genuinely sought a coming together of the true catholic Church, she had already reported to Throckmorton in Paris that she could never support a Council "where none shall voice but the clergy that be sworn to the Pope." 

Events in England unintentionally raised the expectation of a greater inclination towards things Roman and to settle the matter the Queen had no choice but to refuse entry of the nuncio. The official grounds given were that both old and new laws would be broken, that the Queen's security would be threatened and that rebellion would be likely.

The first mention of the Apology is in a letter from Cecil to Throckmorton dated the 8 May 1561 in which Cecil states "I have caused an apology to be written, but not printed, in the name of the whole clergy, which surely is wisely, learnedly, eloquently, and gravely written; but which I stay the publishing of it until it may be further pondered, for so is it requisite." In the letter, Cecil confirms that the author is Jewel and ties its writing directly to the episode of the nuncio's attempted visit. It is therefore not surprising, that the Apology deals extensively with the authority and function of Councils among a range of wider issues.

Booty makes an important observation: "It was to the issue of papal supremacy that the religious controversies of the sixteenth century continually returned. That the arguments over the Pope were inclined toward violence and invective, and are therefore offensive to modern students, is attributable to the fact that the combatants were fighting for their spiritual lives at a time when this was of ultimate concern."

The central basis of Jewel's Apology is his appeal to the Father's to justify the reasonableness of the English Church's Reforms in terms of the Church having "returned to the apostles and old catholic fathers" and to highlight the Roman position which he described as having departed "from God's word, from Christ's commandments, from the apostles' ordinances, from the primitive church's examples, from the old fathers' and councils' orders." Haugaard suggests that Jewel's use of the Fathers may have been influenced by Cranmer's writings.

Jewel discussed in detail the three-fold ministry of bishops, priests and deacons and Christ's role as the only mediator between man [sic] and God. He also wrote at length on justification by faith and that faith was the key to a proper understanding of the eucharist "For, although we do not touch the body of Christ with teeth and mouth, yet we hold him fast and eat him by faith."

Although the first copies of the book appeared in May 1561, Jewel continued to revise it right up until its official publication on 1 January 1562. From Elizabeth's accession up until Convocation passed the 39 Articles in 1563, Jewel's Apology (in its various forms) was the only definitive statement of the English Church's position and doctrine. "The volume became the standard defence of the Church of England for the next thirty years" Sheils states. It was also translated into French, Italian, Dutch and Spanish.

The Book of Homilies

The Privy Council of the 1547 Parliament ...ordered all clerics with insufficient ability and education for preaching to read each Sunday from the newly issued Book of Homilies. These instructional sermons expressed a theological orientation far closer to that of continental reformers than the teaching of any book previously authorised in England. The collection was edited by Cranmer who had suggested the idea as early as 1539. Cranmer also wrote at least five of sermons.

The first six homilies were particularly Protestant in outlook and dealt with the perspicuity and sufficiency of scripture; the radical sinfulness of man; justification by faith alone; evangelical faith and sanctification.

The book was withdrawn by Mary but re-established under Elizabeth in 1559 when a new edition was printed with a preface written by Elizabeth containing similar instructions as the Edwardian edition. The Elizabethan edition promised a second volume and even suggested titles. This new volume was authorised by the 39 Articles passed by Convocation and instead of a tightly worded preface detailing the correct usage of the homilies, contained an anonymous "Admonition to all Ministers Ecclesiastical". This did not require the minister to read the homilies through in order but allowed the minister to use discretion and as appropriate include homilies with a seasonal content.

From 1570, the title page explicitly declared that the book was "set out by authority of the Queen's Majesty", but failed to give the wholehearted royal endorsement lavished on the reissued Edwardian edition. This is perhaps because one of the homilies preached against the "little silver cross" that remained her chapel.
"Neither it, nor its earlier companion, could claim officially to define doctrine in the English Church, but thousands of Englishmen grew up and lived their lives with the weekly sound of its contents droning past their ears and occasionally impressing its teaching upon their minds writes Haugaard.

These homilies continued to unpack and reinforce the via media of the Church of England and formed a part of the safeguards against extremism and a dissipation of the Reformed "Anglican"  doctrine that was finally enjoying the benefits of a period of protracted stability.