Rethinking Catholicism in Reformation England (Oxford Historical Monographs)

OXFORD HISTORICAL

MONOGRAPHS

EDITORS R. R. DAVIES J. H A R R I S A. J. NICHOLLS

R. J. W. EVANS H. M. M A Y R - H A R T I N G J. ROBERTSON SIR K E I T H THOMAS

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Rethinking Catholicism in Reformation England LUCY E. C. WOODING

CLARENDON PRESS • O X F O R D

This book has "been printed digitally and produced in a standard specification in order to ensure its continuing availability

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York Lucy E. C. Wooding 2000 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) Reprinted 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 0-19-820865-0

For my parents

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THE best part of completing a book is being able to thank the quantities of colleagues, friends, and relations who have helped and encouraged during an often painful and always arduous process. Particularly heartfelt thanks are due to Susan Brigden, who supervised the thesis which formed the basis for this book, and who has since acted as sub-editor. I am extremely lucky to have had as a guide someone who is at the same time such a fastidious and imaginative scholar, and such a loyal friend. I must also record my affectionate debt to Conrad and Elizabeth Russell, without whose encouragement and inspiration this book would probably never have been finished. The many exasperations of the academic world pale into insignificance beside the privilege of working alongside such intellectual excellence and such liberal kindness. Peter Marshall has shown especial benevolence in giving of his time and expertise, and I have benefited a great deal from his advice and encouragement. I was very fortunate in my examiners, Professor John Bossy and Dr James McConica, who pointed the way at the beginning of the process of revision. Colleagues at Queen's University, Belfast, and King's College, London, have been very supportive, particularly Professor David Hempton, who still manages to impart inspiration and advice despite being some thousands of miles away. The Tudor and Stuart Seminar at the Institute of Historical Research has provided an invaluable context in which to air and refine some of these ideas, and I am very grateful for all the help I have received there. Other scholars have given the benefit of their wisdom and judgement, including Ian Archer, George Bernard, Christopher Haigh, Eamon Duffy, Steve Gunn, and Diarmaid MacCulloch, and I thank them too. I would also like to thank the many students from whom I have learned so much. In Belfast the study of religious history has a particular poignancy. The students there taught me a great deal about the difficulties of being caught between conflicting faiths. In London, those who have struggled through the Reformation special subject have also taught me far more than they realize. The last few years have been made bearable by some extraordinarily faithful friends. Those who happen also to be academics have

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supplied particularly valuable sympathy and advice, as well as bearing the brunt of the angst, and here I am much indebted to Tony Claydon, Jeremy Gregory, and Mark Philpott. Sage advice and encouragement also came from Michael Sean, to whom I am very grateful. For more general support, criticism, argument, and affection, I am forever indebted to many other friends, but perhaps especially to Mark, who arrived at the eleventh hour, but has still helped a great deal. Most fundamentally of all, I must thank my parents, for their unquestioning support, constant generosity, and for setting such high standards in their own lives as could not fail to inspire. This book is dedicated to them, with all my love and gratitude.

L.E.C.W. Oxford 1999

CONTENTS Abbreviations

X

Introduction

I

1. From Humanism to Reformation

16

2. The Henrician Vision

49

3. The Henrician Legacy

82

4. Catholic Renewal

114

5. Reformed and Catholic Doctrine

152

6. Defending the Faith

181

7. Scholasticism Revisited

223

Conclusion

269

Bibliography

273

Index

297

ABBREVIATIONS ARG BIHR CS CWE DNB EETS EHR HJ JBS JEH ODCC PP PS RH RSTC

SCH TRHS

Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research Camden Society The Collected Works of Erasmus (Toronto, 1979- ) Dictionary of National Biography, ed. L. Stephen and S. Lee, 63 vols. (London, 1885-1900). Early English Text Society English Historical Review Historical Journal Journal of British Studies Journal of Ecclesiastical History The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, 2nd edn., ed. F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone (Oxford, 1974). Past and Present Parker Society Recusant History A Short Title Catalogue of Books printed in England, Scotland and Ireland and of English Books Printed Abroad before the year 1640, ed. A. W. Pollard and G. R. Redgrave, revised by W. A. Jackson and F. S. Ferguson, completed by K. F. Pantzer, Bibliographical Society, 3 vols. (1976-91). Studies in Church History Transactions of the Royal Historical Society

Note: In extracts from sixteenth-century printed books, contractions have been expanded, but otherwise the spelling and punctuation has been left as in the original.

Introduction THE Reformation is usually seen as being first and foremost a conflict, a savage struggle between two unyielding religious identities. The rival faiths are depicted chiefly in terms of their conflicting dogmas, in a war which had as many political as spiritual dimensions, and from which the only legacy was one of division. This emphasis upon conflict has always dominated views of the Reformation, and it has nearly always dictated the terms of the historical debate on the subject. Historians of the Reformation are entangled, unconsciously or sometimes wilfully, in attempts to defend, as much as explain, either the Catholicism or the Protestantism of the sixteenth century. It is uncanny how historical endeavours to evaluate the achievements of one or other grouping frequently read like declarations in favour of the belief systems or ecclesiastical institutions involved. Despite the advances of revisionism, there is still a Whiggish legacy influencing our perceptions of the English Reformation. We may no longer accept the inevitability of Protestant superiority, but we are still inclined to insist on the inevitability of religious conflict in terms we recognize, and in so doing tend to write Reformation history as if the identities in that struggle were clear from the very first. Clearly conflict was an integral part of the English Reformation, and it would be absurd to deny it. Yet to concentrate upon it is often to risk making assumptions about the polarities of belief involved, with unfortunate consequences. First, there is a grave danger that we end up with a stereotype of the religious identities involved. An 'ideal type' of Catholicism or Protestantism might be of use to the theologian, but it is usually an obstacle to the historian. And yet Reformation history can still be written in terms of 'Catholic' or 'Protestant' advance, frequently without any attempt to clarify exactly what those terms might have meant in practice, and ignoring the subtleties and variations within those traditions. This is particularly the case when it comes to Catholic history, in which assumptions about what constituted 'orthodoxy' are commonplace, frequently dictated by the concerns of a later era, or based on the attitudes of a church establishment at odds with popular belief and practice.1 1

This tendency has been impressively routed, however, by some recent work, particularly A. Walsham, Church Papists: Catholicism, Conformity and Confessional Polemic in Early

2

Introduction

Secondly, there is the problem that we can lose sight of the Reformation as a corporate endeavour, a widespread desire for a purified faith, which could produce as much consensus as it could conflict. It is important to see the common objectives shared and developed by those who were ultimately to end up as members of different churches. The debate goes on as to whether or not the bid for a purer faith worked.2 Yet the bid for a more intellectualized faith does seem at least to have had some success, as ideological concerns became increasingly central to the experience of Protestant and Catholic alike. This was an era when the development of religious ideas was peculiarly influential in the workings of both politics and society. The sixteenth century, despite the risk of exile or martyrdom, was undoubtedly a great age to be a scholar with an interest in religion. This book attempts to shed some light on how the English Reformation was created and inspired by looking at a single strand of intellectual development, namely English Catholic thought, within the formative years from the 15305 to the beginning of the 15708. It takes the view that the progress of Catholicism was as much a part of the English Reformation as the emergence of Protestantism, and should be studied as part of a wider movement of religious development, as well as in terms of the emerging religious divide. The sources used for this study were the large number of religious works published in English by Catholic writers during this period. The aim was to concentrate on domestic developments, and the novel use that was being made of the vernacular, in itself a key part of reformist trends. To write in English was to declare an interest in the work of religious regeneration that was such a key preoccupation of the age. For this reason the focus is, for the most part, on works written in English for the population at home, rather than on the Latin works which often belonged to a slightly different context, being written as Modern England (Woodbridge, 1993); M. Questier, Conversion, Politics and Religion in England, 1580-1625 (Cambridge, 1996). 2 P. Marshall (ed.), The Impact of the English Reformation 1500-1640 (London, 1997); N. Tyacke (ed.), England's Long Reformation, 1500-1800 (London, 1998); C. Haigh, English Reformations: Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors (Oxford, 1993); E. Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580 (New Haven and London, 1992); D. MacCulloch, 'The Myth of the English Reformation', JBS 30 (1991), 1-19; S. Brigden, London and the Reformation (Oxford, 1989); A. G. Dickens, The English Reformation, 2nd edn. (London, 1989); P. Collinson, The Birthptings of Protestant England (Basingstoke, 1988); C. Haigh (ed.), The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge, 1987); J. J. Scarisbrick, The Reformation and the English People (Oxford, 1984); J. Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, tr. J. Moiser (1977).

Introduction

3

contributions to the wider international debates. These vernacular works demonstrate the deployment as well as the development of new ideas, and give at least some idea of the interface between religious ideology and popular practice. Reformation writers were anxious to communicate their religious ideas to the world at large, and made concerted efforts to make those communications intelligible. Their vernacular works sketch out the world they were trying to build, in the language and idiom of the people they were trying to reach.3 In the haste to secure a definition of Catholic or Protestant identities, it is easy to forget the earlier and more interesting— because more ambiguous and opaque—stages of Reformation thought. This book begins at the point where domestic developments began to take a uniquely diverse direction under Henry VIII, and concludes at the point around 1570 when English Catholicism was losing some of its distinctive identity and becoming more dominated by the ideas of international Catholicism. It focuses on the turbulent and confusing era when ideas were still being worked out, when English Catholics and Protestants alike were still groping for certainties to cling to in the fog of religious speculation and debate. It argues that Catholicism in this period was far more complex, changeable, and eclectic than is usually appreciated.4 What made a 'Catholic' or a 'Protestant' in this era was often more a case of self-definition than adherence to a clear set of doctrines. It is possible to go some way towards defining Catholics on the grounds of their loyalty to the Mass, but this adherence could be described in a variety of terms; equally, Protestants would emphasize 'justification by faith alone', but would often interpret the doctrine in a range of different ways. The terms 'Catholic' and 'Protestant' are used throughout, therefore, but only to indicate a commitment on the part of the individual, rather than an acceptance of a distinct set of beliefs. In the early years of Reformation there was no such thing as unequivocal religious orthodoxy. The reason that the complexity of Reformation Catholic thought has rarely been comprehended is because the history of English Catholicism is especially vulnerable to those preconceptions perpetuated by the historical debate. England's post-Reformation experience 3

R. Rex, 'The New Learning', JEH 44 (1993), 28. Two recent works have made a partial study of this era in Catholic development: P. O'Grady, Henry VIII anil the Conforming Catholics (Collegeville, Minn., 1990); E. A. Macek, The Loyal Opposition: Tudor Traditionalist Polemics, 1535—1558 (New York, 1996). 4

4

Introduction

of variegated Protestantism left historians more closely attuned to the nuances within Protestant opinion, and less likely to appreciate the true nature of Catholicism amidst the snares and delusions of historical parody. As a result, the working model of Catholic thought has often owed more to nineteenth-century phobias than sixteenthcentury realities. Meanwhile, on the other side of the confessional divide, Catholic historians have wrought similar damage by a different route, determinedly seeking validation for their own views by portraying a Catholic past in tune with their contemporary ideas and practices. Our ideas about Catholicism have thus been based on either negligent or wishful misunderstanding. It is vital to understand that Catholic identity is not a given, but has historically passed through many variations and diversifications, as some recent work has appreciated.5 This is particularly the case in the period discussed by this book, during which English Catholicism strayed away both from the papal fold, and from the dogmatic definitions of theologians. The desertion from Rome may have been Henry VIII's idea, but the ideological justification for it was supplied by many of the leading Catholics of the time, headed by men such as Stephen Gardiner, Cuthbert Tunstall, and Edmund Bonner, whom history has branded as traitors to their cause. The return to Rome under Mary, under the auspices of these same churchmen and their colleagues, has usually been seen as unsuccessful, although its failures have been interpreted in various ways. Not until the reign of Elizabeth was the authority of the Pope reinstated in the English Catholic world-view, and only then did some, though by no means all, English Catholics begin to behave more as modern Catholics might expect. There was therefore a period of some thirty or more years when English Catholicism went its own way, refusing to fit the stereotype of its own or any subsequent age. The perception of these years has usually been that English Catholics deserted their principles when they abandoned the papacy, and that this was an era of compromise and shame. This has also been seen as a period of abject failure for English Catholicism in the parishes. Revisionist history has capably corrected this latter impression, and there is nowadays a far wider appreciation of how Catholic belief and practice survived and fought back against the implemens Walsham, Church Papists; Questier, Conversion, Politics and Religion; Delumeau, Catholicism between Luiher and Voltaire; J. Bossy, The English Catholic Community 1570—1850 (London, 1975).

Introduction

5

6

tation of Protestantism. Yet there is still no clear understanding of the ways in which Catholicism advanced and adapted itself during this period. Those who argue so convincingly for the 'survival' of English Catholicism can still tend to use the same parodies of Catholic thought used by those who dismissed it as defunct after the 15305. They either perpetrate a hazy, and very partial notion of late medieval Catholicism, preoccupied with good works, purgatory, and the saints, or sketch out a more rigid outline based on the preoccupations of recusant Catholics under Elizabeth. Mid-Tudor Catholicism is therefore either censured for failing to display some of the fervent devotions of the late fifteenth-century, or criticized for falling short of Counter-Reformation enthusiasm. It is never really appreciated on its own terms. Yet despite the desire of nearly every religious tradition to claim unbroken continuity with its apostolic past, religious identities are in actuality clearly susceptible to variegation and adaptation. They are perhaps particularly prone to manipulation by intellectuals with a populist vision, and abidingly subject to political influences. Both intellectual and political influences were unusually strong during the 15308 and 15405. As the reign of Henry VIII unfolded, reforming currents which were already well-established within Catholic thought were taken up and used to forge some of the chief justifications for the royal supremacy over the Church. This gave an already popular reforming agenda even greater prominence, and led to it shaping much of Henry's subsequent reformation. Catholicism was reformulated in line with the peculiar needs of the Henrician polity. It was moulded, on the one hand, by the King, eager to endorse doctrines both Catholic and reformed, and, on the other hand, by Catholic churchmen and scholars anxious to maintain their hold on the Church in England. It is therefore important to appreciate that it was possible to remain loyal to the Catholic faith and to Henry VIII at one and the same time. The papacy did not have the centrality within Catholicism that it has achieved, or at least claimed, in other ages. It has not always been understood that Tudor Catholics could be at once passionate in defence of their creed, and embarrassed or ambivalent with regard to its institutional form. Yet the sixteenth century, like many other ages of reconstruction, was a time when the contrast between spiritual 6 Scarisbrick, Reformation and the English People; Duffy, Stripping of the Altars; Haigh, English Reformations.

6

Introduction

ideal and material reality was constantly illustrated, lamented, and made the object of attempts at renewal. To all Renaissance scholars the gulf between the aim and the actuality was only too apparent. Equally, to all Reformation historians, the division between the official definition of faith and the reality of popular religion becomes all the more apparent with each successive wave of research.7 Somewhere between these two realizations is the place for this particular brand of English Catholicism, which was at odds with its institutional authorities, but still rooted in the practicalities of religious life. Those defending the English Catholic Church were anxious that it should survive, prepared to reconfigure their views in the light of criticism, and concerned to preserve the continuities of parish religion. This was a Catholicism that cared passionately about the Mass, but also cared deeply about reform, which applied the sacred duty of obedience to the monarch rather than the Pope. Its outlook was more concerned with practically perpetuating the English Church than with conforming to the expectations of Rome. It may not have fitted the mould, but it was a vigorous strain of Catholicism nonetheless. And since this was a slightly different sort of Catholicism, it was perpetuated by a slightly different sort of Catholic. It has been usual to regard those Catholics who followed Henry VIII and supported the Royal Supremacy as unprincipled careerists, men of dubious integrity and intellectually shallow. Thomas More and John Fisher, who opposed the King and were both martyred and canonized in consequence, are generally seen as being superior in both their Catholic loyalties and their mental acuity: they perceived the ruination of Catholicism that would follow from the break with Rome where lesser souls were confused, or misled by worldly ambition. After their deaths, English Catholicism is held to have entered a twilight zone from which it did not really emerge until the Elizabethan recusant community began to produce individuals such as Edmund Campion or Margaret Clitherow to follow the example of More and Fisher. The passionate hagiographies of the recusant tradition left little room for those who did not embrace the stark principles of the martyrs. Yet it is possible to be a devoted Catholic without having to be a martyr. Perhaps nearly three hundred years of proscription has ' C. Marsh, Popular Religion in Sixteenth-Century England (Basingstoke, 1998); M. Aston, Faith and Fire: Popular and Unpopular Religion, 1350-1600 (London, 1993); E. Cameron, 'For Reasoned Faith or Embattled Creed? Religion for the People in Early Modern Europe', TRHS 6th series, 8 (1998), 165-87.

Introduction

7

genuinely given the English Catholic tradition the perceptions of a nonconformist church, which vilifies all collaboration with the Establishment as a contamination of the true message. Sixteenthcentury Catholics who conformed under Henry VIII have certainly been condemned for their lack of true nonconformist purity. Yet without them English Catholicism might have been altogether eclipsed. Those English Catholics who did not aspire to martyrdom were trying to keep their church together, seeing schism as a more dangerous risk than compromise, and trying to avoid such schism through their collaboration with the monarchy. Henry VIII's actions may have been the result of a variety of influences, but his formal pronouncements and formulations of doctrine put forward a form of Catholicism, albeit a reconfigured one. Those who wanted to defend their Catholic faith had to do it on Henry VIII's terms, and since the King had trumpeted his reliance on Scripture and his zeal for reformation, dutiful Catholics had little choice but to follow suit. But they did this not just for the sake of their careers, but more importantly for the sake of the faith itself. If the Protestants could fit within Henry's matrix more avidly than they, then the cause of Catholicism was lost, and it was under this imperative that Gardiner, Tunstall, Bonner, and others were to work. Their ongoing defence of Catholicism has been dismissed as time-serving, but it was on its own terms heroic. Rather than condemn or ignore the Catholics who remained loyal to Henry VIII, we should appreciate their strong arguments for following the King's lead over the Royal Supremacy. Not only was obedience to princes in itself a sacred obligation, but the biblical renewal that was proposed was in many ways exactly what informed Catholic opinion had been pleading for. The papacy they rejected was notoriously corrupt, and it took great mental agility, on the part of those who clung to it like More, to make it seem a force for good within the Church. Those Catholics who felt More and Fisher had overreacted to the Royal Supremacy, among whom we might include Erasmus, were able to see a defensible Catholic position in this Henrician Church.8 Stephen Gardiner's De Vera Obedientia of 1535 may have been an attempt to recover Henry's favour, but it also provided the biblical and reforming parameters within which English 8 J. K. McConica, English Humanists and Reformation Politics (Oxford, 1965), 150 n. and appendix II; Erasmus, Epistolae, 3048 and 3049 in Opus epistolarum Erasmi, ed. P. S. Allen and H. M. Allen (12 vols., Oxford, 1906—58), xi. 214-22.

8

Introduction

Catholics could accept the new order. Henrician Catholicism, as well as being a brave and practical attempt to preserve the faith, could arguably be just as idealistic as its more papalist alternative. More and his associates did not have the monopoly on Utopian visions of how the true church should appear. In the white heat of the Henrician reformation, then, a new strain of Catholic thought was developed, strengthened by official pronouncement, and reaffirmed in its reforming tendencies. We are used to evaluating the strength of Catholic commitment in terms of loyalty to the papacy, adherence to the doctrine of purgatory, or devotion to the saints. Yet many Catholics of the early Reformation years were more likely to see the strengths of their creed as stemming from its scriptural basis, its reforming zeal, and its reliance on the inspiration of faith. They felt less need to cling to the past than to embrace the future with all its potential for improvement. They were humanists who embraced Erasmus's evangelical enthusiasm for Scripture, his call for reform, and his notion of a Christ-centred piety which emphasized the grace of God rather than the works of man. They held a shared understanding of the need to transmit their preoccupations to the world at large, particularly through writing in the vernacular. The works written in English which form the basis of this study were therefore, at least in part, a fulfilment of this humanist imperative. Those Catholics who imbibed the Erasmian message, many of whom then went on to forward it in their writing, were the product of humanism in the universities. They were part of a single generation, educated side by side with those who were to become the pioneers of English Protestantism, with whom they shared their enthusiasm for renewal on the basis of Scripture. Their outlook was one of immense optimism, and initially they had little appreciation of the potential for division contained in these new ideas. Erasmus had said of religious differences, 'if we have that simple and clear eye of the Gospel, if the house of our soul has the lamp of pure faith set on the lampstand, those petty matters will easily be dispersed as if they were shadows. If the rule of Christian charity is at hand, everything else will easily conform to it.'9 This was a generation of scholars who were prepared to do battle with the powers of darkness rather than with one another, and they shared a general consensus on the 9 Erasmus to Albert of Brandenburg, in J. C. Olin (cd.), Christian Humanism and the Reformation (Gloucester, Mass., 1973), 117.

Introduction

g

need for reformation. They were to pursue that reformation in very different ways, but nonetheless, they were all part of the same movement, building on the same foundations. These Catholic writers, then, just as much as their Protestant counterparts, owed an enormous debt to Erasmus. English translations of his works proliferated and he was cited equally by English Protestants and Catholics in defence of their views throughout the early years of Reformation. It seems clear that the influence of Erasmian humanism was established long before the King's matrimonial difficulties loomed. Yet English Catholicism was to move to a stage beyond Erasmianism. The break with Rome ensured that humanist ideas were transplanted from the universities into the harsh glare of the political world. Although humanism was in vogue at Court and in the universities from the earliest years of Henry VIIFs reign, it was in many ways an esoteric concern, an intellectual fashion, a pious trend. It was the huge upheaval of 'the King's Great Matter' that catapulted humanist scholars to the centre of government and turned humanism from an intellectual and often light-hearted enthusiasm into a deadly serious policy. The redefinition of Catholic orthodoxy by Henry VIII during and after the break with Rome rested heavily on these humanist ideas. Henry thus helped to reconfigure Catholic understanding along reformist lines. Anyone who wished to perpetuate their Catholic faith had henceforth to accept the King's redefinition of that faith. Thus Catholic reformism had taken a step beyond its humanist origins. Henry VIII was once viewed as at least some sort of Protestant, which is one reason why the Catholicism of those who supported his Supremacy has often been seen as an insincere and shabby thing. Yet Henry VIII's religion has recently been recast in a different light.10 If we put his humanist justification of the Supremacy alongside his biblical pose as an Old Testament king, and weigh up his zeal for reform against his conservatism with regard to the doctrines of 10 V. Murphy, 'The Literature and Propaganda of Henry VIII's First Divorce', in D. MacCulloch (ed.), The Reign of Henry VIII (Basingstoke, 1995); E. Surtz and V. Murphy (eds.), The Divorce Tracts of Henry VIII (Angers: Moreana, 1988); G. Bedouelle and P. Le Gal (eds.), Le 'Divorce' du Rot Henry VIII (Geneva, 1987); R. Rex, Henry VIII and the English Reformation (London, 1993); G. W. Bernard, 'The Making of Religious Policy, 1533-1546: Henry VIII and the Search for the Middle Way', HJ 41 (1998), 321—49; G. Redworth, 'Whatever Happened to the English Reformation?', History Today, 37 (Oct. 1987), 29—36; G. W. Bernard, 'The Piety of Henry VIII', in N. Scott Amos, A. Pettegree, and H. van Nierop (eds.), The Education of a Christian Society (Aldershot, 1999).

io

Introduction

salvation and the Eucharist, he begins to accord with many of the tenets of Catholic humanism. It would be hard to claim that Henry VIII was ever entirely consistent in his religion. Yet he does seem to have been most at home with a faith at once Catholic and evangelical. He remained open to the influence of anyone who also fitted this description. It has to be remembered that the 'radicals' or 'evangelicals' who were encouraged by Henry in the crucial years when the Supremacy was being established were characterized by little more than their fervent biblicism, and although many later became Protestants just as many remained Catholic. In any case, Henry VIII's own religious vision was near enough to Catholic humanism for the leading Catholics of the time to take advantage of the resemblance, and build upon it. This particular aspect of existing Catholic thought was thus the one which received most attention during the 15305 and 15405, turning English Catholicism into a more scriptural faith with strong reformist preoccupations. That this was a definite sea-change, rather than merely an intelligent attempt at camouflage, is proved perhaps less by the works of Henry VIII's reign than by the works which emerged during Mary I's reign. The vernacular religious literature of the years between 1553 and 1558 had no need to disguise any papal allegiance; it could, had it wanted, have displayed overt papalism and a return to the polemical stance of the 15205, and indeed, one or two writers did take this approach. On the whole, however, Marian literature confirmed the biblical and reforming stance within Catholic thought. Its characteristic features were nearly all based upon the key elements of Henrician Catholicism, and for the most part it avoided the question of papal authority, preferring to concentrate on the authority of Scripture. Portrayals of Henry VIII in the literature of Mary's reign were of a great Catholic prince, and many writers emphasized his devotion and piety, especially praising him for his championing of the Bible. The idea of Henry VIII as a godly and reforming prince may have been created for cynical political reasons, but it had taken firm root within English Catholic consciousness. In this approach, even after the return to Roman obedience, Marian Catholic works were still at odds with the official papal line. That they remained at variance with the attitudes of their Cardinal Archbishop and papal legate is particularly evident in their view of the papacy. Even in his more reformist days, Pole had been a staunch defender of papal primacy. In his first attack on Henry's Royal

Introduction

11

Supremacy he had said 'I can conceive of no greater injury you could inflict upon the Church than to abolish the head of this Church from the face of the earth. You do exactly this when you deny that the Roman Pontiff is the one head of the Church on earth, the Vicar of Christ.'11 His submission to papal authority had been deepened by his subsequent experience, and it seems that he came to England firmly resolved to perpetuate his notions of obedience.12 English Catholicism was not, however, cast in the same mould. Where possible all mention of papal authority was avoided, and in the formulations of doctrine and devotion which appeared under Mary, Catholic writers were more likely to borrow from Henrician and even Edwardian Protestant works than from continental ideas of orthodoxy. This was illustrated by the close correlation between the Edwardian and Marian books of homilies, and by the use of Protestant prayers in the Marian primers.13 The reforming potential within English Catholic thought achieved its fullest expression during Mary's reign, and the works of these years are notable for their attempts to fulfil one of the basic humanist objectives by providing religious instruction in the vernacular. There was clearly a consensus on the importance of communicating with the 'simple and unlearned', and many of the Marian works were given their distinctive emphases by this purpose. It was this Erasmian approach which explains why Marian authors avoided writing works of polemic to concentrate instead on works of instruction. The absence of Catholic polemic was not because the Catholic authors fell short of Protestant levels of enthusiasm, but because they focused their energies elsewhere. Once again, negative judgements of Marian Catholicism have come from using inappropriate criteria against which to measure levels of devotion and dedication. Even though the Council of Trent had been in session in 1545-7, an^ again in 1551—2, these English Catholics were still using a Reformation rather than a Counter-Reformation agenda. Within that context they showed every sign of assiduous intellectual vigour. This form of reformed and biblical Catholic understanding was not, therefore, abandoned easily even when Mary I was dead. In the early years of Elizabeth's reign, the scholarly Catholic community relocated, almost in its entirety, to Louvain, and the literary output 11 12 13

J. G. Dwyer (ed.), Pole's Defense of the Unity of the Church (Westminster, Md., 1965), 9. D. Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy (Cambridge, 1972), 251—81. Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, 533-7, 539-42.

12

Introduction

of the 15605 was prolific. These works continued to use the vernacular, and in many senses persisted with the work begun under Mary, providing religious instruction for the more unlearned laity. They also perpetuated some of the same ideas about Scripture, faith and reform, and continued to work with a notion of church authority based on consensus rather than hierarchy. The force and validity of the Henrician vision were still being felt even thirty years after its inception. Yet ultimately the more reformist strain within English Catholic thought was doomed to failure, extinguished by the stresses and strains of the Elizabethan experience. The works of the 15605 show how a process of readjustment was taking place as the English Catholics began to appreciate the fragility of their intellectual position, and started to move more towards a closer affinity with the Counter-Reformation church. In part this was a response to the general drive for uniformity launched by the post-Tridentine papacy, but it was also a response to domestic developments in England. The stance taken by the Elizabethan regime, and by those who wrote in defence of it, hastened the consolidation of the confessional divide. The humanist nuances of the previous decades were lost as Catholic thought began to turn upon a different axis. By the latter part of the century English Catholicism needed martyrs more than scholars, and recusancy was more interested in solidarity than scholarly debate. Historical evaluations of Tudor Catholicism have often been based on criteria extracted from the preoccupations of these later Elizabethan Catholics. The works which began to emerge around 1570 adopted a much more Counter-Reformation tone, with much greater deference to papal authority, and a far greater reliance on church tradition than on Scripture. The catch-phrase of these thinkers might have been the remark of St Augustine they frequently quoted, 'I should not beleue the very Ghospel it selfe, vnlesse the Catholike Churches authoritie did compel me.'14 The humanist understanding of biblical supremacy had lost its former prominence in English Catholic thought. The literary objectives shifted also. Works concerning doctrine were increasingly written in Latin, since English Catholicism now had a continental base, and a more international focus. The campaign to educate, rather than merely dictate to, the 'simple and unlearned' was abandoned, and doctrinal speculation and 14 Cited, for example, by Richard Bristow, A Briefe Treatise of diverse plaine and sure Tpayes tnfinde out the trulhe in this doubtful and dangerous time of Heresie (1574), fo. 174*'.

Introduction

13

elucidation were removed to a safe distance by this return to Latin. This was in part because of the practicalities of exile, but also because the concerns of international scholars were increasingly deemed unfit for popular consumption. The vernacular was deployed instead in purely polemical works, or in the martyrologies which accompanied the missionary efforts of the 15705 onwards. The reformist heritage was not entirely lost, but it was subsumed within more dominant strains of Catholic thought. Thus the concerns of the previous generation were eclipsed as Elizabethan Catholics struggled with the anomalies of their position as either exiles or recusants. The reformist elements within English Catholic thought seem to have been vanquished fairly thoroughly by the mid-point of Elizabeth's reign, although they undoubtedly continued to influence Catholic practice in its less official manifestations.15 This book is therefore a study of a set of ideas and ideals which either failed, or at least went underground. Yet these developments within English Catholicism are nonetheless a significant indication of the breadth of the Reformation experience. They bear witness to the strength of humanist influence, the success of Henrician propaganda, and the continuing vigour of a Catholic tradition which was no less dedicated for all it was responsive to new ideas. They illustrate the attempt of intellectuals to bridge the gap between academic formulation and parish devotion, and the defeat of those same intellectuals by the exigencies of statecraft and the post-Reformation insistence on uniformity. This study also raises some questions about the relationship between Catholic and Protestant thought in these Reformation years. Contemporary debate still carries echoes of sixteenth-century polemic; no longer perhaps liable to attack directly the religion of one or other tradition, but still inclined to dismiss or diminish its historical importance. Studies of one still too often decry the achievements of the other. But the Catholic and Protestant traditions existed side by side in England through the formative years of Reformation, and to see them as polarities in a single conflict is to parody their relationship. Both were diverse and living creeds, constantly adapting to the changing circumstances of the sixteenth century. Catholic and Protestant traditions were not diametrically opposed, although they had some partisan supporters who might have wished it. They were 15

Bossy, English Catholic Community 1570—1850, 35-48.

14

Introduction

interrelated at many different points in their development, drawing on the same humanist background, sharing the same enthusiasm for the rediscovery of Scripture, using some of the same emphases in their views of faith and its popular manifestations. There is no point in pursuing either a traditional or a revisionist interpretation of the Reformation if the process of change, adaptation, and mutual influence in the various traditions is not properly appreciated. In the realm of ideas, at least, the two traditions are only comprehensible when viewed as part of a single movement of religious change. For this reason, although the terms 'Protestant' and 'Catholic' are still used in this book, they refer to an identity which was based less on doctrinal definition than on the self-perception of the protagonists. Identification as 'Protestant' or 'Catholic' might not be a question of religious beliefs so much as a statement about political affiliations. In a sense, the Reformation in this period was less about the creation of a confessional divide, or the antagonisms of rival churches, than about a range of responses to a single reformist impulse. In this period, nearly everyone who thought about religion was in some sense an evangelical. The variations came in the different responses to the task of spreading the word. It could, of course, be argued that any resemblance between Protestant and Catholic thought was a studied attempt by Catholics to win back popular approval. This view would maintain that the reformist elements within Catholicism were little more than windowdressing for the sake of political or polemical advantage, to earn either Henry VIIFs approval, or the assent of those undecided in their loyalties. Yet this view is not only based on the questionable supposition that Protestantism was the more popular creed, but also fails to appreciate the extent to which both traditions were building on a common humanist foundation. It relies on false assumptions about Catholic orthodoxy in the pre-Reformation period, presupposing that there was a concrete and clearly defined notion of what constituted Catholicism, and that any deviation from that norm, if not actual heresy, could only be a calculated gesture. Yet on this basis Erasmus himself would have to have been either a heretic or a cynic, neither of which even comes close as a description. It has to be remembered that no single definition of Catholic orthodoxy existed before the Reformation, and that the fifteenth-century had left a rich heritage of intellectual pluralism. There was plenty of precedent for variety within Catholic thought. The idea that Catholics adopted a reformist

Introduction

15

stance for purely cosmetic purposes also fails to explain why those who took this stance under Henry VIII, when it might admittedly have been politic, took a similar stance under Mary, when it was unnecessary, and under Elizabeth, when it was hopeless. The clarity of the confessional divide should not be overestimated; Catholics as much as Protestants saw the value of reform and acted accordingly, even as they opposed Protestantism on other fronts. We can be slow to appreciate that those who are at odds with their institutional churches are often those who have the greatest and most passionate faith, the strongest principles. The kind of Catholicism studied here has usually been condemned for failing to conform to a set of standards assumed to represent Catholic orthodoxy. It is hoped that this book will illustrate the arbitrary nature of those standards, and the extent to which they are inapplicable to Catholicism during the English Reformation. It may perhaps also shed some doubt on the glib use of religious labels in general, in an era when religious identities were being reworked and reformed. These mid-Tudor Catholics may not fit the mould cast from later perceptions of Catholicism, but they were in most profound earnest in their defence of the faith. Nor were their efforts necessarily fated to end in failure. Though by 1600 the European churches were putting their faith in dogmatic definition and insistent uniformity, the history of the sixteenth century as a whole might suggest that strength was as likely to lie in flexibility and breadth of opinion. Religious identity is more complex than we would like to think, and perhaps true religious fervour must be in at least some sense subversive.

I

From Humanism to Reformation . . . the state of the churche dyd neuer desyre more your endeuours.1 THE beginning of the sixteenth century spoke the language of every evangelical age; impassioned, idealistic, and naive. Churchmen, scholars, and writers all announced the arrival of a new understanding of the Christian message, and tried eagerly to spread the word as widely as they could. They were preoccupied with the ideas of renaissance, renewal, and reform, which they propagated with an assured conviction that they would make a difference. The intellectual intensity of the time was such that the possibilities seemed endless. Treatises, sermons, and letters all rejoiced in the rediscovery of Scripture and urged the cleansing of church and society from corruption. The rhetoric of change was full of vigour. This wave of ideas, which combined evangelical enthusiasm with classical scholarship and a distinctive and earnest brand of piety, is usually described as Christian humanism. It was an intellectual movement which took itself very seriously. Yet, paradoxically, such seriousness and dedication has done humanist thinkers no favours historically, since it has only encouraged the tendency to underestimate their influence. Modern thinkers, upon encountering rhetoric, are too easily disposed to label it empty. Humanist writing was at the same time excited, and imprecise—at least when compared with the dogmatism of later Reformation thinkers—and so has been easy to dismiss. This chapter argues that the importance of humanism needs to be appreciated anew, partly for its own sake, and partly because the subsequent unfolding of the English Reformation makes no sense without an understanding of the intellectual foundations which humanism was to supply. In particular, an awareness of how fundamentally Tudor Catholicism was shaped 1 John Colet, The sermon of doctor Colete / made to the Conuocation at Paulis (London, 1530?), Sig. Aiir.

From Humanism to Reformation

17

by humanist ideology can cast new light on subsequent sixteenthcentury developments. There are several reasons why we have tended to neglect humanism. The first is surely the legacy of the Whiggish view of Reformation. Humanist thought was traditionally seen as merely the early stages of Protestant advance, rather than a movement in itself. There were good excuses for this. Humanists aimed to rediscover Scripture by reviving the study of the ancient biblical languages, Hebrew and Greek. They tried to apply rigorous standards of translation and literary criticism to uncover biblical meanings long obscured by the contortions and errors of the Vulgate. They spoke hopefully of educating the laity and reforming the clergy to new levels of piety and understanding. And they criticized medieval traditions which to them seemed superstitious, calling for a new and evangelical appreciation of the transforming powers of faith. On cursory inspection, all of this seems very close to Protestant thought. It was easy to misinterpret: the same misunderstanding that led the bishop of London to accuse John Colet of heresy, allowed John Foxe (perhaps more wilfully) to include him and commend him in his Acts and Monuments for his 'ripeness of judgement'.2 It is easy to see how humanism is usually seen as a brief, slightly vague prelude to the full development of a more magisterial Protestant movement.3 Yet we might do better to turn this around, and see humanism as the more weighty movement, with Protestantism diminished to the role of a later appendage. For not just Protestantism, but every other intellectual advance of the sixteenth century was to echo the ideas of the humanists. When we can comprehend that English Catholics drew as heavily on humanist writings as their Protestant counterparts, we might begin to see how it was the older movement which had the more widespread appeal. This seems even more important when it is appreciated that nearly every official Tudor formulation of doctrine rested heavily on accepted humanist ideology. Humanist views on Scripture, piety, and reform provided the common ground for thinkers of a wide array of persuasions. Just as political parties might squabble over their differences, yet accept a common foundation of 2 M. Aston, Lollards and Reformers (London, 1984), 213-14. John Foxe, Ads and Monuments, ed. S. R. Cattley and G. Townsend (8 vols, 1837-41), iv. 246. 3 R. Rex, 'The Role of English Humanists in the Reformation up to 1559', in N. Scott Amos, A. Pettegree, and H. van Nierop (eds.), The Education of a Christian Society (Aldershot, 1999), 19—21.

18

From Humanism to Reformation

democratic principle, so humanism provided the ideals which later Reformation wrangles were to acknowledge as sacrosanct. The Tudors knew they could not go wrong by seeking humanist justification for their policies, because humanist ideology was so universally admired and accepted. Humanism, far from being just a quiet prelude to Protestantism, had laid the intellectual foundations for the sixteenth century. Everything that came thereafter had to conform to the shape of those foundations. Unfortunately, the language used by humanist thinkers has been far from helpful in appreciating the movement's true importance. It was not just that it was idealistic. In speaking the language of revival and reform, it continually emphasized its own newness. Reading humanist books and letters, it is easy to think that the author's change of heart had happened only yesterday. The impression is thus given, that humanism flourished only briefly at the start of the century, before Reformation developments overtook it and rendered it irrelevant. Yet humanist trends and preoccupations had long been established in English thought. In the schools, universities, and publications of the fifteenth century, humanism was well entrenched. Much of what we classify as 'late-medieval piety', upon closer examination, bears the unmistakable signs of humanist thinking.4 The preoccupations of scholars, however, are not always easily perceived or understood by the world at large. They need a particular cause to bring them into the light of public appreciation. The final reason why we have failed to appreciate the contribution made by humanism must lie in the uneasy relationship between the world of ideas and the world of politics. Humanism was well established as a set of intellectual concerns and religious objectives, but it was only in the particular and peculiar circumstances of Henry VIII's reign that it suddenly achieved national importance. When it was still a purely scholarly concern, it might well be argued that it was of limited influence, restricted to the intellectual world of the few who had leisure enough to engage in study. Indeed many humanists at court were able to survive through their sheer unimportance, whilst politicians fell from power.5 But the importance of humanism was suddenly to crystallize in the 15205 and 15305. The reform movement 4 M. Aston, 'The Northern Renaissance', in Faith and Fire: Popular and Unpopular Religion, 1350-1600 (London, 1993), 155-217; S. E. Ozment (ed.), The Reformation in Medieval Perspective (Chicago, 1971). 5 M. Bowling, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII (London, 1986), 3-5.

From Humanism to Reformation

19

in England was to be given quite unprecedented and unexpected influence and focus when humanism was drawn into Henry VIII's construction of the Royal Supremacy. Henry's break with Rome was more than just a heavy-handed appropriation of the power to decide his own marital problems. It was an assumption of imperial status, and a claim to control the church in spiritual as well as administrative terms. Its justification is best described not as Protestantism, nor indeed as Catholicism-withoutthe-pope, but as reformation in its broadest, non-denominational sense. The ideas used to fortify the Supremacy were already present in political and religious discourse before the crisis began, and in part were to dictate the shape of the eventual settlement. Henry required a justification for his actions which had at least some sort of intellectual coherence, and he found it in the universities—indeed, it is perhaps notable how lavishly he rewarded Thomas Cranmer for the characteristically humanist suggestion that he look there.6 But the ideas he adopted brought with them a set of religious aspirations which became hitched to the king's ecclesiastical ambitions. Henry could not have the divorce, nor the authority which he craved, without also accepting some of the key tenets of the humanist vision. Suddenly, the concerns of the scholarly world were at the centre of political discourse. Humanism had moved from the cloister to the court. This was the point at which humanism became reformation. This was the shift from an educational approach to an ideology of reform.7 Where once this array of progressive ideas had been restricted to the world of scholars, it now became the business of politicians, and, most particularly, the especial concern of the King. For the rest of the sixteenth century, questions of doctrinal definition and pious attempts at reform were to remain central to the political process. This was the direct legacy of Henry VIII's religio-political decisions. The Royal Supremacy wrought a great transformation in the business of Tudor politics by interweaving religious concerns with the most central issues of political authority. Henry's children had little choice but to accept this state of affairs, and knew that to retain political credibility, they had to follow their father's lead in the matter of reformist propaganda. 6

D. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (New Haven and London, 1996), 45—8. G. W. Bernard, 'The Piety of Henry VHP, in Amos, Pettegree, and van Nierop (eds.), Education of a Christian Society, 79. 7

2o

From Humanism to Reformation

This chapter deals with the moment at which that Supremacy was instituted, looking at the flood of ideas which Henry was to channel in order to sweep away papal jurisdiction. It catches these ideas at just the moment when they were beginning to move into the public domain, through use of the printing press and through greater exposure at Court. In part, this move into print seems to have been in response to the royal example. Henry VIII was already playing the part of the theologian in 1521 with the publication of his work against Luther.8 Preconceptions and misunderstandings about the nature of the break with Rome have prevented us from appreciating how the King's stance as a pious reformer in the 15305 was not a sudden break with the past, but was in large part a continuation of his endeavours in the 15205. It should be noted how the scholars he drafted in to help conquer heresy in the 15208 were frequently the same as those mustered later to overpower the pretensions of Rome. Faced by either threat, the automatic response was to mobilize the best intellectual forces available. That it was humanism which Henry VIII relied on to defeat Clement VII as much as Luther, shows both the status of the movement, and its independence from early Protestantism. Only by understanding the basic principles of humanism can we make sense of what happened next. It has been said that humanism in England made only halting progress compared with its spread on the continent, and that it should not be viewed as a homogeneous and integrated movement.9 The disparate and varied nature of humanist ideology is undeniable, but such a criticism misses the point of a set of ideas denned by its individualism and its range of vision. Humanism was not designed to be an integrated movement. It always included a range of different emphases. Under Henry VIII it was to achieve all the integration and edge of which it was capable when he moulded its chief themes into a more coherent reformist agenda. But in studying humanism in its preReformation form, the aim is not to attempt a spuriously clear outline from what was in fact an amorphous array of available opinions. The objective is to understand the accumulation of humanist ideas from 8 Henry VIII, Assertio Septem Sacramentorum (1521). See also R. Rex, 'The English Campaign against Luther in the 15205', TRHS, 5th series, 39 (1989), 85-106. * A. Fox, 'Facts and Fallacies: Interpreting English Humanism', and 'English Humanism and the Body Politic', in A. Fox and J. A. Guy (eds.), Reassessing the Henrician Age (Oxford, 1986).

From Humanism to Reformation

21

which Henry VIII and his scholarly advisers could make their selection. And despite the variation of interpretations within humanism, there were still many recurring themes which were to provide a fairly coherent basis for the Henrician formulations. The first of these themes was the return to Scripture. More than anything else, perhaps, humanism was about the rediscovery of the Bible. The almost tiresome insistence on Verbum Dei which was later to characterize Henry VIII's settlement was a direct reflection of existing humanist enthusiasm. Erasmus explained what was happening in his Enchiridion, a work that appeared in many English editions. I dyd se the comen people of christendome / not onely in effecte / but also in opinyons to be corrupted. I consydered the moste parte of those whiche professe them selues to be pastours and doctours, to abuse the tytles of Christ to their propre aduantage . . . And in suche great derkenesse, in suche great troublous rufflynge of the worlde, in so great dyuersyte of mens opynions / whyther shulde we rather flye for socour than to the very great and sure anker of Christes doctryne / whiche is the gospell?10

The uncovering of Scripture was trumpeted as the greatest achievement of the leading humanist scholars. Gentian Hervet, writing a preface to a translation of Erasmus in 1533, described the whole work of humanist reform as originating from the efforts of Erasmus to show forth the Gospel. He is the man that whan in his fyrst dayes trouth was far hyd in the depe veines of the grounde / and more ouer it was prohibited as a thyng being worthy deth that no man shulde for her enquere, he dyd nat suffre the worlde to be confounded with suche a marueylous darknes, and either he hath dygged vp many lymmes of trouth / or at the lest he hath restored vs free libertie to serche her.11

And Erasmus in turn praised Colet for the same pioneering work when he described his reforms as dean of St Paul's. Here that excellent man, as though summoned to work and not to enjoy preferment, restored the discipline of his chapter, which was in decay, and introduced the innovation of preaching every festival in his cathedral, besides 10 Erasmus, Desiderius, Enchiridion militis christiani, English translation (1533), ed. A. M. O'Donnell, EETS 282 (Oxford, 1981), n. Erasmus had originally contributed this explanation in the preface of 1518. 11 Erasmus, De immensa dei misericordia, translated by Gentian Hervet (London, 1533), Sig. A if.

22

From Humanism to Reformation

the special sermons which he preached from time to time in the Chapel Royal and other places. Moreover, in his own church he did not choose a text at random from the Gospels or the apostolic Epistles, but put forward some one subject, which he pursued in several sermons until he finished it, for example the Gospel of St Matthew, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer.12 Perhaps more than anything else, the new intellectual trends of the time were marked out by this fierce dedication to Scripture. Biblicism is often assumed to be an indication of Protestantism, so it can come as a shock to read Catholic writers consumed with excitement at the rediscovery of Scripture, basing all their arguments on scriptural texts, and using literal interpretation of those texts to prove their point. Yet this became integral to Catholic writing in this period, and the habit was one acquired from the humanists. Central to the task of uncovering God's Word was the sense of conducting a mission to the populace. Thus another key theme within humanism was the defeat of 'superstition', for it was believed that by spreading the Gospel to the 'simple and unlearned' in their own tongue, ignorance and error would be swept away. When Gentian Hervet published a translation of a sermon by Erasmus in 1533, there was a faintly triumphant note as he wrote, 'nowe euery man as wel rude as learned may haue this sermon of the mercy of god as common vnto him as the mercy of god it selfe is'.13 By the wielding of Scripture in the vernacular the forces of darkness might be defeated. Hervet described the work of the devil, who 'bicause he seeth that from our simple & stedfaste beleue he can nat bryng vs away / he goth about to bring vs in to an odious supersticiousnes / and bicause he seeth that that man can nat do amisse / that vpon the mercy of god setteth his holle truth / he persuadeth rude and ignorant soles to set their trust vpon vaine thynges, that they shulde set only vpon god.'14 The antidote to such superstition and empty ceremony was the true understanding of Scripture. So the humanist effort was not restricted to scholarly pursuits and the world of the intellectual elites. Its clear objective was the education and salvation of simple folk, and this aim was to unleash a flood of vernacular literature. Much of this had overtones, perhaps, of well-meaning but overly vague and idealistic attempts to spread enlightenment—the conceit of every intellectual with a mission. Yet 12 13 14

CWE, viii. 235. Erasmus, De immensa dei misericordia, Sig. A ij r . Ibid., Sig. A iiij'.

From Humanism to Reformation

23

there was often a clear-sighted and charitable exposition of the limitations of popular religion. One illustration of this was when Richard Whitford warned householders to protect their families and servants from the superstitious delusions of magic. And here (good and deuoute Christians) be well ware / and warne all youres of these supersticyous wytchcraftes and charmes that ben moche vsed / and done decyue many persones / that (for the vnlawfull loue vnto the helthe of theyr bodies / of theyr chylder / or beestes / or other goodes lost or stolen) wyll go seke wysemen or wysewomen (for so they done call the deuyls proctours that done vse suche wytchcraftes and charmes) then done they seke I say / and put them selfe subiecte vnto the false god the deuyll and his cerimonyes . . . And yet the symple people done suppose and wene they do nothynge offende therin.'5

There was a powerful awareness in the works of the time that the religious attitudes of the laity were in a state of flux. Colet noted this, and clearly differentiated it from heresy, which was a separate matter. 'In this tyme also we perceyue contradiction of the laye people.'16 Richard Whitford felt the problem was obvious. 'The decaye of religion in this present tyme of our age (pytie to say) is euident.'17 The drastic conditions of the age seemed to necessitate a vigorous response, for which the vernacular was the most valuable instrument. It has to be understood how much the use of English involved the breaking of a powerful taboo. In the fifteenth century, vernacular literature, particularly vernacular Scripture, often had immediate associations with Lollardy, and there were equivalent sixteenthcentury links between use of the vernacular and Lutheranism. Yet some of the first products of the printing press were vernacular religious works, and as time wore on the urgency of the humanist mission overcame the more unfortunate associations, albeit with at times some diffidence. John Fisher in 1508 gave a slightly defensive explanation of his publication of an English treatise on the penitential psalms, feeling the need to justify his work with an emphatic appeal to antiquity, claiming inspiration from 'the fruytfull and noble translacyons compyled and translated in tyme past by many famous and excellent doctours grounded on scrypture by hye auctoryte'.18 15

Richard Whitford, A Werke for homhnlden (London, 1530), Sig. C if. Colet, Sermon . . . made to the Conuocation, Sig. B iiiv. 17 Richard Whitford, Here begynneth the boke called the Pype I or Tonne I of the lyfe of perfection (London, 1532), fo. iiir. 18 John Fisher, This treatyse concernynge the fruytful saynges of Dauyd the kynge and prophete in the seuen penytencyall psalmes (London, 1508, 1509), Sig. aa i v . 16

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From Humanism to Reformation

And Richard Whitford gave this explanation of how he came to publish A Werke for housholders. Where I had sent forth this poore lesson vnto a pryuate persone and specyall frende: the copy therof came vnto the syght of certeyn deuoute persones / that were (as they sayde) well contented therwith / and edified therby. So that they instantly requyred me / to put it newly forth in commune: supposyng in theyr deuoute mynde / it shulde be vnto other persones / as it semed vnto them / edificatyue and profitable. I beseche our lord / it so may be. And that you wolde not ascribe it vnto any presumption in me / but rather vnto theyr deuocyon and charyte."

This was in part the requisite bashfulness customary in an author's preface, but there was also a sense of venturing onto new territory with this advance into English print. The boldness of the humanists in levelling criticism at contemporary abuses was also a considered and self-conscious move. In the colloquy by Erasmus, translated in 1534 as The dyaloge called Farms, one of the characters records the superstitious antics of the friars around the deathbed of a friend. The other character in the dialogue asks him if he is not anxious to keep such a performance a secret? But his friend says not. 'For yf these thynges be godly whiche I shewe, it is theyr profet that the people do know them / yf they be otherwyse, so many as be good among them, wyll gyue me thankes whiche have shewed forthe such, wherby some correcte with shame, may refrayne lyke dedes.'20 In particular, he too is concerned for the understanding of the simple folk. 'Also such as be symple, may take hede lest they be drawen in to like errour / for there be amonge this sorte great wyse men, and very godly, whiche hathe often complayned to me, that by the supersticion improbyte or lewdnes of a fewe, the hole order / is brought to hatred of good men.'21 Of paramount importance, then, in this humanist vision of the future, was the extirpation of error, and the instruction of the simple and unlearned, to be achieved through a close adherence to Scripture. These themes were to become essential elements in Reformation thought. Yet the rhetoric of change and transformation should not be allowed to mislead. For all that the humanists were breaking taboos, their ideas had more medieval precedent than their own rhetoric 19

Whitford, Werke for housholders, Sig. A i v . Erasmus, The dyaloge called Fumis (London, 1534), facsimile, ed. R. R. Allen (Chicago, 1969), 3921 Ibid. 39. 211

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25

might admit. Reformation studies still like to assume a fairly clean break between late medieval thinking and the ideas of Renaissance and Reformation and historical works which do question this kind of division tend to be arguing for the survival of traditional medieval attitudes.22 Yet there seems to be an equally clear case for arguing that many of the humanist ideas which formed a basis for Reformation belong more in the fifteenth than sixteenth century. Perhaps the most powerful illustration of this comes from the great devotional work of the late medieval period, The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis. This work was to be published repeatedly in England during the sixteenth century, by Reformation thinkers of both Protestant and Catholic persuasion.23 It first appeared in translation in 1504, with Lady Margaret Beaufort responsible for the translation of book IV. The second English edition was in 1531, often ascribed to the humanist monk Richard Whitford. This work could appeal, then, to those who combined a loyalty to old patterns of devotion with an enthusiasm for humanist advance. And as the century unfolded, reformers of every hue seemed able to recognize in this work sentiments which were fundamental to their religious understanding. This suggests the existence of a broad current of reform ideas from which later more divergent attitudes could draw inspiration, retaining a footing on the common ground of reformism even as they looked towards more polarized extremes. The essence of the Imitation of Christ was a plea for a simple understanding of biblical truth. 'Blessed is that simplicity which rejects obscure inquiry and advances along the sure and open road of God's Commandments.'24 The humanist impatience with scholasticism is prefigured in its distrust of intellectualism. Attempts to appear learned were seen as an obstacle to true piety: 'curiosity often hinders us in the reading of the Scriptures, for we try to examine and dispute over matters that we should pass over and accept in simplicity. If you desire to profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faith, and have no concern to appear learned.'25 The work is trenchant in its criticism of those who seek to obscure the simple and evident truths of the faith. 'Lofty words do not make a man just or holy; but a good life 22

Duffy, Stripping of the Altars. D. Crane, 'English translations of the Imilatio Christi in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries', RH 13 (1975-6), 79-100. It should be noted that Protestant versions omitted book iv, on the subject of the sacrament of the altar. 24 Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ (Penguin edition, 1952), 216. 25 Ibid. 33. 23

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makes him dear to God. I would far rather feel contrition than be able to define it.'26 There were illustrations of how the reading of Scripture, and indeed printed works generally, might revive true faith. Chapter V explained how to read the Scriptures. In the holy Scriptures, truth is to be looked for rather than fair phrases. All sacred scriptures should be read in the spirit in which they were written. In them, therefore, we should seek food for our souls rather than subtleties of speech, and we should as readily read simple and devout books as those that are lofty and profound. Do not be influenced by the importance of the writer, and whether his learning be great or small, but let the love of pure truth draw you to read. Do not inquire, 'Who said this?' but pay attention to what is said. Men pass away, but the word of the Lord endures for ever.27 The veneration of the sacrament locates this book in part deep within the devotional trends of the pre-Reformation Church. And yet, in a passage which seems to bridge past practice and future trends, the work takes the sacrament and Scripture together as the two foundation stones of faith.28 'You have therefore given me in my weakness Your sacred Body to be the refreshment of my soul and body, and have set Your Word as a lamp to my feet. Without these two, I cannot rightly live; for the Word of God is the light of my soul, and Your Sacrament is the bread of my life.'29 The Imitation of Christ has many elements which seem to belong to a world more distant from that of the reformers, perhaps particularly the affective devotion which pours out a wealth of emotional language in gratitude to God. It also took the kind of exalted view of priesthood that was to be shared by Colet, Melton, and More, although not so exalted that it forgets to remind all priests of their obligation to be pure, simple, and chaste.30 Yet other elements prefigured humanist arguments. There was repeated denigration of the knowledge of those considered wise by the world. Thomas a Kempis gave his Christ these words to speak. 'My son, hear My words. They 26

Ibid. 27. Ibid. 33. The fifteenth-century tract Dives and Pauper had insisted that it was more profitable to hear a sermon than to attend Mass. See P. Marshall, The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1994), 88. Dives and Pauper was printed in 1534. Its views on the abuse of image-worship were capable of causing alarm among church authorities: see Aston, Lollards and Reformers, 96, 208, 211. 29 Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, 205. 30 Ibid. 206. 27 28

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are of surpassing sweetness, and excel all the learning of the philosophers and wise men of this world. My words are spirit and life, not to be weighed by man's understanding. They are not to be quoted for vain pleasure, but are to be heard in silence, and received with all humility and love.'31 An impatience with the obfuscations of scholastic theology was to be a common feature of humanist works in this period. Many writers condemned and ridiculed those who obscured the simple and radical truths of the gospel in a haze of excessive learning and rhetorical flourishes. Colet voiced this view with reference to the clergy. 'Hit is nat inough for a priste (after my iugement) to construe a collette / to put forth a question / or to answere to a sopheme: but moche more a good / a pure / and a holy life / approued maners / metely lernynge of holye scripture / some knowlege of the sacramentes. Chiefly and aboue all thyng / the feare of god / and loue of the heuenly lyfe.'32 The Imitation saw the main offence of such scholarship to be the smokescreen it created between man and true learning. This is illustrated by the language of the 1503 version as it rendered the same instructions on how to read Scripture from chapter V. The principall thynge that we shall iquyre in sc[r]ipture is charite and nat elygance in speche and we shulde endeuour our selfe to rede the scripture with as greate feruour of sprete as it was receyued first And wisdome wolde we shulde folowe those autores and bokes where we may haue most swete and profitable fedynge for owre sowle. The same of sotell phylosophers the knowlege of poetes and retorike as smoke or fume vanissheth awey: but the truthe of god abydeth withoute ende.33 So Christian humanism, despite its claims to be a break with the past, had deep roots in the middle ages.34 Medieval piety had already broadened to admit many reforming elements. The value of vernacular literature was already known to Margery Kempe, who was well acquainted with devotional works of the time and determined to tell her own story in English.35 The Brigittine monastery at Syon, whilst 31

Ibid. 93 Colet, Sermon . . . made to the Conuocation, Sig. B viv. 33 Thomas a Kempis, A full deuoute and gostely treatyse of the Imytacyon and folowynge the blessed lyfe of our moste mercyful Savyour cryste . . . (London, 1503), Sig. A v'~v. 34 R. R. Post, The Modern Devotion: Confrontation with Reformation and Humanism (Leiden, 1968); E. F. Jacob, 'Gerard Groote and the beginnings of the "New Devotion" in the Low Countries', JEH 3 (1952) 40—57; M. Aston, 'The Northern Renaissance', in Faith and Fire: Popular and Unpopular Religion, /.J5o-/6oo (London, 1993), 169-77. 3 > The Book of Margery Kempe (Penguin, 1985), 75. 32

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the centre of many devotional practices the humanists would term superstitious, was nonetheless willing to welcome a translation of its devotions into English, including many passages of Scripture.36 The translator explained, 'forasmoche as many of you, though ye can synge and rede, yet ye can not se what the meanynge therof ys: therefore . . . I haue drawen youre legende and all youre seruyce in to Englyshe'.37 He too saw the need to explain religious beliefs in the vernacular for the simple. 'And in many places where the nakyd letter is thoughe yt be set in englyshe, ys not easy for some symple soulles to vnderstonde; I expounde yt and declare yt more openly'.38 And the pioneering nature of this was clear from his complaints about the problems he had encountered. 'Yt is not lyght for euery man to drawe eny longe thyng from latyn into oure Englyshe tongue. For there ys many wordes in Latyn that we haue no propre englyssh accordynge therto.'39 He too felt the need to appeal rather defensively to the experience of the fathers. 'I am not wyser then was seint Hierome that in the drawying of holy scripture from other langage in to latyn, sayth how he was compellyd at eche boke to answere to the bakbytinge of them that depraued his laboure.'40 So medieval precedents had already smoothed the way for humanist advance. The connection between the devotio moderna and later humanist thinking was in particular expressed in person by Erasmus, who had been educated by the Brethren of the Common Life, and whose antipathy to the order could not conceal his debt to their spirituality. Erasmus may have been a foreigner, but he was to his friends at least an honorary Englishman. He himself seemed to find the country as convivial a home for learning as the humanist heartland of Italy. I find here a climate at once agreeable and extremely healthy, and such a quantity of intellectual refinement and scholarship, not of the usual pedantic and trivial kind either, but profound and learned and truly classical, in both Latin and Greek, that I have little longing left for Italy, except for the sake of visiting it ... It is marvellous to see what an extensive and rich crop of 36 J. Rhodes ('Syon Abbey and its Religious Publications in the Sixteenth Century', JEH 44 (1993)) explains the wealth of religious literature produced at Syon (14-24), but also details some of the indulgences and pardons that could be obtained there (12-14). 37 The myroure of oure ladye, ed. J. H. Blunt (EETS, extra series 19, 1873), 2. 38 Ibid. 3. 39 Ibid. 7. 40 Ibid. 8.

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ancient learning is springing up here in England; and therefore ought you all the more to hurry home.41 The country of Colet, Linacre, Grocyn, and More, which offered the patronage, not just of Mountjoy, but of an impressively educated court circle, provided an encouraging environment for the frail and impoverished scholar, and inspiration for the Enchiridion and Praise of Folly. Indeed, his contact with the English reformers seems to have helped Erasmus towards the discovery of a new approach to his own reform objectives.42 The preoccupations of humanism were to develop into their own, specifically English, application, yet the writings of Erasmus remained a constant source of inspiration and his name was always treated with great reverence—'the incomparable lerned man', as Richard Taverner later described him.43 Even when the Protestants began to claim Erasmus as an intellectual forerunner of Protestantism, there remained a clearly Catholic endorsement of him, which defended both his orthodoxy and the importance of his criticisms of the Church. His stature among his contemporaries is illustrated in a work by Germane Gardiner, nephew to the more famous Stephen Gardiner, who wrote A letter of a yonge gentylman named mayster Germen Gardynare, wryten to a frend of his, wherin men may se the demeanour & heresy of John Fryth late burned. This work was conservative in intent and content, describing Frith's arrogance and errors, discussing the patristic backing for the doctrines, such as transubstantiation, which Frith denied. Yet the younger Gardiner was happy to include Erasmus in the category of the most venerable of the church Fathers. He was describing how heretics tended to claim one doctor in particular, to pervert their meaning to their heretical ends. He argued that the Arians had twisted the words of Origen, that the Donatists had abused the words of Cyprian, and (separating those who took a 'mystical' view of the sacrament from Lutherans) 'these mystycall heretykes with saynt Austayne euyll vnderstanden, and all the rable of Luthers secte, wyth wordes mysse taken among some wrytynges of Erasmus'.44 41

Erasmus to Robert Fisher, CWE, i. 235-6. P. I. Kaufman, 'John Colet and Erasmus' Enchiridion', in Church History, 46 (1977), 296-312; L.-E. Halkin, Erasmus: A Critical Biography (English edition, Oxford, 1993), 30; J. C. Olin, Six Essays on Erasmus (New York, 1979), 3. 43 Proverbes or Adagies gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Richarde Taverner (London, 1539), preface. 44 Germain Gardiner, A letter of a yonge gentylman (London, 1534), fo. xxvir. 42

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Unconsciously to award Erasmus patristic status in this way was very much in keeping with the general veneration of the humanist reformer which can be found in nearly all works of this time. Fully aware of the use which was being made of Erasmus by more Protestant writers, humanist writers retaining their Catholic loyalties still quoted and translated Erasmus with enthusiasm, defending him against those who condemned him whilst pointing out his moderation to those who wanted to take his radicalism too far. The anonymous translator of The dyaloge called Funus, published in 1534, reproduced in his preface the defence of the colloquy which Erasmus himself had included in De Militate Colloquiorum. The dialogue in question was deeply critical of the superstitions surrounding death, and provided a sharply satirical description of corrupt friars arguing over a dying man. The translator in his preface insisted, however, on the love which Erasmus had for the Church, even whilst he criticized its corruption and errors. Here in I suppose good reder the intent of our autour, in this sayd dyaloge was to shew rather a loue towarde relygyon and all good relygious men, whiche thing caused me the rather to traduct this mater in to our englysshe tonge / than as some (whose iugementes I do not gretely regarde) sayth that he wryteth agaynst them / ferre dyfferyng from the opynyon and mynde of the good relygious father saynt Hierome, in whose mouthe this saynge was often, where vice is but generally rebuked there no persone hath iniury or wronge.45

This defence of Erasmus concluded by scolding those who could not accept faithful criticism, but reacted angrily against those who tried to do them some good. The translator suggested that this was more like following 'the example of the unkynd Grekes agaynst theyr good and valyaunt captayn Agamemnon, than (as we sholde all) the chrysten charyte'.46 Humanists were insistent that Erasmus remained one of their number, and fought to defend his reputation. Much, then, that was integral to Erasmus's writing became central in humanist thought. More than any other writer, it was Erasmus who took the scriptural imperatives uncovered by humanist scholarship and applied them to the practical reform of the church. The dyaloge called Funus expressed very well his distress at the inadequacies of the clergy. It described the deaths of two men. George lies dying as friars and the village priest abuse one another around him— 45 46

Erasmus, Dyaloge called Funus, 2.1—2. Ibid. 22.

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he has confessed to a Franciscan, but the priest insists that he must hear his confession, and refuses to give him the last rites until he has. The funeral arrangements are elaborate, the family is all dispersed into a variety of religious orders, and at the last he believes his sins forgiven by securing a papal indulgence, which leaves him thinking all his works are justified, even though in life he was a soldier and extortioner. He dies wearing the coat of a grey friar, believing that the devil has no power over those who die thus. By contrast, the truly godly way to die is illustrated by the second man, Cornelius, who dies in simple state, gives his money to the poor, not to religious orders, and who prior to his death lies reading scripture or hearing it read aloud to him. This man receives the sacrament, but without confession, having no scruples left, and after his death has as simple a funeral as any pauper. When asked about bells, trentals, obits—all the mechanisms of death in the pre-Reformation church—he refuses them all. 'Than answered he thus, my curate, I shal do neuer the worse, if no bell at all knoll for me. If it wyll please you to synge one bare masse for me it shalbe more than nede.'47 Where his friend had sought the comfort of a papal indulgence, Cornelius shrinks from the thought. 'God forfend that I armed with merytes, and bulles, sholde prouoke my lorde god, to come in to iugement with his bondman / being certayne of this: that all which be lyuynge, / shall not be iustyfied in his syght, I do appele therfore from his iustyce, to his mercy / for so moche as it is without measure, and ineffable.'48 And as his end approaches, Cornelius asks for various passages of Scripture to be read to him, in a way which shows he has a thorough and devout knowledge of the Bible. The Erasmian ideal, therefore, was a man who based his life on Scripture and simplicity, who studied the Bible with zeal and dedication, and who rejected the fripperies and ceremonies of the Church for the sake of true religion. This ideal was taken up and vigorously defended by English authors. Humanism was all the more powerful an influence because it was so easily grafted onto existing ideas of reform and renewal. It was not so much a challenge to existing Catholic attitudes as a natural progression from some of the more vibrant elements already existing in the pluralistic world of fifteenth-century devotion. This is quite clearly illustrated in the work of Richard Whitford, perhaps the most popular Catholic author of the 15308 after Erasmus. Whitford was a 47 48

Ibid. 42. Ibid.

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Brigittine monk from Syon, a staunch defender of the monastic life and an eloquent critic of Protestant heresies. Classed by some as a humanist, his work differed from that of the more obvious Erasmians, being far more coloured by his monastic setting, and showing far more tolerance for traditional patterns of religious observance. This is illustrated by the ascription to him of the translation of Imitatio Christi, discussed earlier. Yet he was also an innovative author of religious works, who wrote prolifically in the vernacular, and launched a distinctive literary initiative to reinvigorate the faith of the laity. He had personal links with the Christian humanists, with Erasmus as well as More and Fisher, yet his literary approach was different in emphasis, most immediately because it was primarily focused on religious devotion. His work is a fascinating blend of different elements which illustrates the depth and variety in Catholic thought on the eve of Reformation. Perhaps the most interesting work by Whitford was A Werke for housholders, published in 1530. In many ways this work was traditional in its approach, akin to the manuals of preparation for confession that were an established genre of the time. Like them, it led the reader through Paternoster, Ave, and Creed, and a discussion of the seven 'deadly' sins and seven corporal works of mercy. But it also had several more radical features. These included the very fact of it being written in the vernacular and for specific application to the laity but it was also interesting in its use of Scripture—with literal interpretation and translation. Its concern for the education and reinvigoration of the laity was illustrated by its down-to-earth approach and regard for the simple, as well as by its emphasis on the responsibilities of the householder with regard to education. The overall tone of the work was one of evangelical excitement, and a commitment to renewal of the faith. The work's use of Scripture was extensive, and often added weight to a point by emphasizing that it was 'the very text and letter of the holy scripture'. Copious citations from Scripture were given, first in Latin, then in English translation. There were also some examples of literal interpretation. In his discussion of the commandments Whitford asserted that swearing was the bringer of sickness, because of a passage from Ecclesiasticus, chapter 23—'The customable swerer / shall euer be full of iniquyte and synne / and the plage of the vengeaunce of god shall contynually hange ouer that house.'49 Yet this +9

Whitford, Werke for housholders, Sig. C iij r .

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very literalist use of Scripture was then illustrated with three cautionary tales of men who were stricken terribly after swearing, giving dramatic point to his theme in a way that was characteristic of medieval legends. Whitford also put great emphasis on the importance of sermons. He went so far as to assert that sermons were more important than the Mass, if a choice had to be made between the two. In this he no doubt reflected in part the emphasis laid by the Brigittine order on preaching to both religious and layfolk, but he also was giving priority to the individual's hearing of God's Word above the formalities of attendance at Mass. He instructed the householder to make sure that all the members of the household be within call on a Sunday, in case there was a sermon to be heard. 'For yf there be a sermon any tyme of the day / let them be there present all that ben not occupyed in nedeful and lawful busynes / all other layde on parte / let them euer kepe the prechynges / rather than the masse / yf (by case) they man not here bothe.'50 Whitford showed a fatherly concern for the simple and uneducated. He provided a form of words for confession,—'For I have knowen many come into confession / that coude not tell how to do / or what to saye there.'51 He also warned against the dangers of regarding informal contracts as valid marriages, stressing that it was necessary to marry properly, with two witnesses present, to secure a lawful union. The work was also immensely practical in tone, and in the added A breue / or shorte monicyon or counseyle of the cure and gouernaunce of a housholde, there was advice on how to deal with servants, neighbours, dogs, horses, and even instructions on how to organize the household finances, what to drink, and what to wear. In its downto-earth advice and solicitude for the simple, this work gave new resonance to the established literary forms. Furthermore, the paternalism implicit in this work echoed some of the more classically inspired manuals of advice to rulers, but on a simple and homely level. Whitford clearly viewed the householder as a vital conduit through which religious instruction might be passed on. Having explained the Paternoster, Ave, and Creed, bit by bit, he suggested that these passages be read everyday at meals. This was applying monastic practice to the lives of the laity. He also suggested that these fundamentals be taught to those who were too old and 50 51

Ibid., Sig. D iiij'-v. Ibid., Sig. F i'.

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abashed to admit their ignorance, or to those who said the words without thought. By following this advice, the head of the household could become an instrument of evangelical zeal within his own home and parish. The message was 'sanctity begins at home'. Thus we read of the householder enjoined to keep a wary eye on his charges at Church. And whan you ben at the chirche / do nothynge els but that you came for / and loke ofttymes vpon them that ben under your charge / that all they be occupyed / lyke (at the leest) unto deuoute chrystyans. For the chirche (as our sauyour saythe) is a place of prayer / not of clatterynge and talkynge. And charge them also to kepe theyr syght in the chirche cloce vpon theyr bokes or bedes. And whyle they ben yonge / let them vse euer to knele / stande / or syt / and neuer to walke in the chirche. And let them here the masse quyetly and devoutly / moche parte knelynge/ But at the gospell / at the preface / and at the Pater noster teche them to stande / and to make curtsy at this worde Jesus as the preest dothe.52 The evangelical message also included the householder's responsibility for the education of children, servants, and even friends and neighbours. There was an echo in this of the humanist concern for education. How be it we thynke it not sufficient nor ynough for you to lyue well your selfe / but that all other Christians also lyue the better for you and by your example / and specyally those that you haue in charge and gouernaunce / that is to say / your childer and seruauntes. And me semeth it shuld also be a good pastyme and moche merytoryous / for you that can rede / to gader your neyghbours aboute you on the holy day / specyally the yonge sorte / and rede to them this poore lesson. For therin ben suche thenges as they ben bounde to knowe / or can saye / that is / the Pater noster / the Aue maria / and the Crede / with suche other thynges as done folowe.53 This work of Whitford's appeared in print in 1530, and was symptomatic of the concern for reform and renewal expressed in the literature published that year. Ideas long held, and often expressed quietly, were beginning to appear more pointedly in print and in the vernacular. The most obvious example of this is Colet's Convocation sermon, which was printed in English around 1530, although it had been delivered, and then printed in Latin, almost twenty years before. Here is a clear case of an existing humanist statement, already 52 53

Ibid., Sig. D iif-D iiij'. Ibid., Sig. B iv-B if.

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well-known in scholarly circles, being given new force by the use of printed English. Colet's entire sermon was a ringing declaration of the obligation to embrace reform. 'Wherfore I came hyther to day fathers / to warne you / that in this your councell / with all your mynde / ye thynke vpon the reformation of the churche.'54 He had urged change at two levels: first, an improvement in the standards of clerical behaviour, but perhaps more importantly, he saw this as needing to be rooted in a regeneration of faith: 'be you reformed in the newnes of your vnderstandynge'.55 He made it clear that reform of the church was imperative. But Colet in 1512 had been speaking to the cream of the English clergy. The reiteration of his demands for a wider audience made the sermon into a far more arresting propaganda piece. Yet the ideas that Colet was using were already well established within the intellectual world of the humanists. An exalted idea of the obligations of the priesthood, and a willingness to voice vigorous, even savage, criticism of abuses, had long been widespread. It is notable, for example, how much of Chaucer's work appeared from England's first printing press, under the auspices of William Caxton. Such themes can be found in the more subdued exchanges of private scholars from this time. Also around 1530, Robert Joseph, a scholar of Oxford and monk of Evesham, was writing to John Feckenham about his approaching ordination. Tempus in foribus esse cepit quo ad sacerdotalem apicem es provehendus. Magna dignitas sacerdocium, verum nunquam ita ut nostris temporibus pedibus conculcatum proque vili habitum. Sed maius peccatum habent, qui huiuscemodi rei auctores sese prebuerint. Nunc tibi gestus vultusque capiendus est novus, nunc alieno more vivendum, nunc spargende (iuxta proverbium) nuces, nunc evacuanda que sunt parvuli, nunc sumendus gladius spiritus quod est verbum Dei.56 [The time is approaching when you will be exalted to the state of the priesthood. The priesthood is a great dignity, truly never so trampled on and vilified than in these times. But those who will themselves have been the author of things of this sort bear the greater sin. Now you will have to adopt a new behaviour, a new way of life, and put away the things of a child, and take up the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.] 54

Colet, Sermon . . . made to the Conuocation, Sig. A iiv. Ibid., Sig. B vr. 56 The Letter Book of Robert Joseph, ed. H. Aveling and W. A. Pantin (Oxford Historical Society, new series 19; 1967), 108. 55

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The career of John Feckenham as loyal Catholic, renowned preacher, diligent reformer, and devoted pastoral worker, suggests that he shared Joseph's vision of the priesthood. Feckenham was also deeply respected by his Protestant opponents for the virtues he embodied.57 The idea of pastoral responsibility and the necessity of improved standards in ministry were preoccupations shared by Catholic and Protestant churchmen in England, and in later years both were to use the phraseology of humanism to describe these objectives. So Colet's stern admonition to the clergy was only one of many voicings of a theme which was to recur throughout the sixteenth century in Catholic writing as much as Protestant. He had made it clear that the clergy bore a special responsibility for religious revival, 'bicause that nothynge hath so disfigured the face of the churche / as hath the facion of seculer and worldly lyuynge in clerkes and prestes'.58 These ideas often received more lively and satirical treatment. When Thomas More's daughter published a translation of Erasmus's treatise on the Paternoster, the preface defended the education of women against various criticisms, including the view that teaching women Latin and Greek would only encourage them to consort too much with priests. The author observed sarcastically that teaching women such languages was in fact a good way to protect them from priestly company. 'I suppose nowe a dayes a man coude nat deuyse a better waye to kepe his wyfe safe from them / than if he teche her the latyn and greke tonge / and suche good sciences as are written in them: the whiche nowe most parte of preestes . . . abhorre and flye from: ye / as faste in a maner / as they flye from beggars / that aske them almesse in the strete.'59 Such were the more informal beginnings of ideas about priestly regeneration, which were in due course to become central to official policy. Humanists ensured that the need for a reformed clergy was also echoed in the foundation charters of many of the schools and colleges established at this time. Colet's own foundation of St Paul's expressed his anxieties about the future of the clergy. But it was only when it was taken into the hands of the monarchy that clerical reform became such a central priority. It was this that ensured that every set of visitation articles issued under 57

DNB, vi. 1147-9. Colct, Sermon . . . made to the Conuvcatwn, Sig. A iiiv. Erasmus, A deuout treatise vpon the Pater nosier . . ., translated by Margaret Roper (1526?), Sig. a ivr. 5S 59

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the Tudors looked to secure the education and purification of the clerical estate.60 It might take a lifetime to provide a definite description of humanism in England, and the conclusion might well be that this was a movement which defies definition. The discussion of humanist traits so far has only been meant as a prelude. Yet it should be clear that humanist ideology had the potential to transform the religion of the age. In putting such clear and repeated emphasis on Scripture, the defeat of superstition and the reform of abuses, humanist thinkers and writers had laid the foundations for every subsequent reform initiative of the sixteenth century. Most particularly, they had provided powerful inspiration for the monarch of the time. Henry VIII's claim to be a humanist monarch was far from mere posturing. Long before the break with Rome he had done everything he could to build a humanist establishment, in schools, in the universities, and at Court.61 When Lady Margaret Beaufort founded her new colleges at Cambridge; when Fox produced his humanist statutes for Corpus Christi College, Oxford in 1516; when the first public Greek lecture was established at Cambridge in 1517 or when Erasmus produced works for the students at St Paul's school, they were responding to the consensus of informed opinion which called for greater educational resources.62 When the Court backed Erasmus's Novum Instmmentum of 1516, and Henry VIII, Colet, and Fisher all resolved to start studying Greek; when Colet gave his famous sermons on the Pauline epistles and Gospels; when Wolsey tried to obtain Greek manuscripts once owned by Bessarion for his foundation of Cardinal College, they were endorsing the new enthusiasm for New Testament studies.63 In educated and influential circles a strong body of opinion was emerging to back such humanist objectives. 60 W. H. Frere and W. M. Kennedy (eds.), Visitation Articles and Injunctions of the Period of the Reformation, 3 vols. (Alcuin Club Collections xiv, xv, xvi; 1910). 61 J. K. McConica, English Humanists and Reformation Politics (Oxford, 1965); N. Orme, Education in the West of England 1066—1548 (Exeter, 1976); J. K. McConica (ed.), The History of the University of Oxford, iii (Oxford, 1986); Dowling, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII; Fox and Guy (eds), Reassessing the Henrician Age; R. Rex, The Theology of John Fisher (Cambridge, 1991); M. K. Jones and M. G. Underwood, The King's Mother: Lady Margaret Beaufort, Countess of Richmond and Derby (Cambridge, 1992). 62 Ibid. 202—31; G. R. M. Ward, Foundation Statutes of Bishop Fox for Corpus Christi College, with a Life of the Founder (1843); Dowling, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII, 26; Halkin, Erasmus: A Critical Biography, 38 and J. B. Gleason, John Colet (Berkeley, 1989), 217-34. 63 Dowling, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII, 20-2, 79; S. Brigden, London and the Reformation (Oxford, 1989), 69-70; McConica, History of the University of Oxford, iii. 31.

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The tendency to see Henry VIII as striking a blow for Protestantism when he broke with Rome in 1533 has obscured the extent to which Henrician changes were only a more powerful version of religious trends already well entrenched. Humanism had already set in place an agenda of scholarly preoccupations and idealistic hopes of religious reform. Much of the so-called 'revolution' of the 15308, in terms of religion, was already underway before the divorce crisis. The dissolution of the monasteries, for example, is usually regarded as a sharp break with tradition and an attack on the old religion. Yet in fact it conformed to a general pattern of dissolving monasteries in order to channel endowments into other religious foundations. It was the venerable and pious Catholic Lady Margaret Beaufort who set the precedent of dissolving monastic institutions in order to endow the new university colleges.64 Her grandson may have gone far beyond this, ensuring the complete abolition of the monasteries, largely to fund his military ambitions, but he did use a little of the money to found new colleges and bishoprics, and more importantly, emphasized this in the attendant propaganda. The need to champion Scripture, reverse superstition, banish idolatry—all key elements in the policies of the 15305—had already been firmly asserted by the humanists. The question was how far discussion could now be transmuted into action. For this the humanists put their faith in the presence of Henry VIII on the throne. The flurry of scholarly excitement which had greeted his accession illustrates the extent to which he was expected to uphold the cause of Scripture and reform. Even Thomas More, who was deeply cynical about the values of secular power, abandoned satire to be enthusiastically optimistic about the new monarch.65 The humanist cast of the new Court was further enhanced by Queen Catherine, who brought from Spain her own commitment to scholarly reform, and had Vives draw up a plan of education for her daughter. Both King and Queen were warm in their support for Erasmus, and encouraged and defended the humanist innovations in the universities. Yet it was only in the 15205 that the practical and political importance of humanism began to be fully realized, and it was at this point that the movement took on a new complexion. The ideas of the time were beginning to achieve a scope beyond educational improvements 64 65

Jones and Underwood, The King's Mother, 202-31. A. Fox, Thomas More: History and Providence (Oxford, 1982), 45-9.

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and devotional enthusiasm. The ideas of the humanists were being moulded into a more dynamic programme of reform by the possibility of practical application. Henry had used the humanist establishment and their intellectual skills in 1521, to help him write the Assertio Septem Sacramentorum, with gratifying results. This gave scholars and churchmen a new idea of the potential of such ideology, and gave the King a new source of strength. The flood of printed literature which began in the 15208, and which was to reach a crescendo in the 15308, was a testimony to the new-found intensity of the reforming ideas which the humanists had first publicized. This was, however, no longer 'humanism' pure and simple. It was an ideology with a new edge and a new application. It might best be described as 'reformism'. Reform was no longer an alluring idea, but a concrete possibility. This reformism moved humanist ideology to a new position of power and influence. The classic humanist dilemma had once been over the choice between spiritual sanctity and worldly influence; much of Thomas More's early work had revealed how torn he felt between the world of the cloister and the world of secular office.66 But by the later stages of the 15208, this kind of anxiety was outdated as humanist ideology appeared more and more as a tool of government. Spiritual values were to be applied within the secular realm. The conflict was resolved, and reformism was the fruit of this compromise. The next chapter will discuss the practical application of the reformist agenda. There were two themes, however, which were to achieve particular significance within the reformist imagination, and these deserve discussion inside the context of their humanist origins. The first of these was the question of faith, the second, godly kingship. The first of these themes had benefited from the Erasmian insistence on inner conviction rather than outward ceremony, which meant that the importance of faith was often emphasized above all else. This was often the corollary of any criticism of superstition, or any reproof of the clergy. More's translation of the life of Pico della Mirandola described his 'feruent love to God' and emphasized the contrast between superstitious ceremonial and the true piety of Mirandola's devotional life. 'Of outward obseruances he gaue no very great force, we speake not of those obseruances, which the churche 66

Ibid., ch. i .

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commaundeth to be obserued: for in those he was diligent: but we speake of those ceremonies, which folke bryng up setting the very seruice of god aside . . . But in the inward affectes of the mynde he cleued to god with very feruent loue, and deuocion.'67 The description of Colet by Erasmus provided a similar description. 'There was no class of men to whom he was more hostile than bishops who behaved like wolves instead of shepherds, and none of whom he spoke more harshly, because they appealed to the people with liturgy and ceremonies and solemn benedictions and indulgences while serving the world, which means glory and gain, with all their hearts.'68 The enemies of true devotion were seen in the ceremonies and outward observances of traditional church practice. 'Inward affection of the mind' was the antidote to this, the fruit of Scripture, and thus one of the central aspects of the humanist message. It was felt to be imperative to turn people's minds from empty formulaic acts of worship and focus their minds and hearts inwardly on the grace that was given by God. In this humanist works prefigured some of the great Reformation debates on salvation and faith. 'Justification by faith alone' was to be the result of Luther's breakthrough, but Christian humanism was quite capable of leading theologians to very similar conclusions by a Catholic route. The experiences of Pole, Contarini, and the Italian humanists who were wedded to the Beneficio di Cristo give a European example of this kind of theological progression.69 Similarly, some of the early English writing on the subject of faith presaged the later importance of this theme for Reformation thought. When the godly Cornelius of The dyaloge called Funus lay dying, he condemned the vain practice of buying another man's prayers, or trying to profit by another's merits, in what was both a straightforward attack on the use of indulgences, and a fervent emphasis on the salvation that comes through Christ alone. 'Haboundaunce of merytes floweth ouer in Chryst / and also I trust that the prayers and merytes of all chrysten men, (yf I be a lyuynge membre) dooth prouffyte me.'70 Similarly, when Gentian Hervet wrote his preface to the 1533 translation of the sermon by Erasmus, De immensa misericordia dei, 67 Thomas More, 'Life of Picus, Earl of Mirandula' in The workes of Sir T. More . . . (London, 1557), 8. 68 Erasmus to Justas Jonas, 1521, CWE, viii. 239. 69 D. Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter Reformation (Cambridge, 1972); A. McGrath, lustitia Dei (Cambridge, 1986), ii. 61-2. 70 Erasmus, Dyaloge called Funus, 42.

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4

he saw its central message as the stress which it placed on grace rather than good works. 'This littel treatise of the mercy of god teacheth a man to ascribe nothyng to hym selfe / but all to gether to the mercy of god / seing that the fre wyl it selfe that we be in dewed with all / is the fre gyfte of almighty god / and except it were by him made clerer / it shuld be so darke with the rust of the original synne, that the image of vertue in it shulde neuer be fast printed.'71 The emphasis upon the degeneracy of man and the importance of grace in the process of salvation was developed at length in the work of Erasmus and it found an immediate sympathetic echo among English writers. It was an emphasis which had its roots in the Augustinian revival influencing both Catholic and Protestant reformers, as well as in the reforming idealism of the humanists.72 The sermon translated by Hervet urged charity to one's brother as being more virtuous than any prayers, fasting, or vigils, and put a heavy emphasis upon the corrupt state of man and the saving power of divine grace. 'Many seme rightous amonge men / before god no man is iuste',73 said Erasmus, before going on to expand upon the wretchedness of man. Against this he put the munificence of the grace of God, and the gifts of God. If that any go about to claime any part of this to hym selfe / Paule the apostle wyll by and by crie out agaynst hym / yelding all these thynges to the grace of god. All his pistils sounde out the worde of grace: whiche as oft as thou hereste understande the mercy of god to thee commended. Of grace it is / that we be purged from synne / through grace we beleue / of grace it is that by his spirite charite is spredde in our hartes / wherby we do good workes. For we be nat sufficient by our selfe / as of our selfe: but al our ablenes cometh from god.74 This work not only placed such emphasis on the saving power of grace, but actually included outright condemnation of those who trusted in good works, with a warning against presumption, that could separate a man from God. Where good works were performed, the sermon stressed that prayers, fasting and so on were less pleasing to God than the love of one's neighbour. Yet even charity towards others 71

Erasmus, De immensa dei misericordia, Sig. A iij'. SeeJ. Pelikan, Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700) (Chicago, 1984); H. A. Oberman, The Dawn of the Reformation (Edinburgh, 1992); A. McGrath, 'Humanist Elements in the Early Reformed Doctrine of Justification', ARC 73 (1982), 5-20. 73 Erasmus, De immensa dei misericordia, Sig. Eiij v . 74 Ibid., Sig. Gv. 72

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was itself a gift from God. 'What resteth now most dere brethern / but that we must beseche the mercy of our lorde / to graunt vs that we may be mercifull to our neyghbour.'75 This emphasis upon grace was in clear contrast to the more traditional works which still pushed for salvation through good deeds. John Fisher, for example, had published a treatise in 1508 which, although it displayed impressive biblical scholarship, still gave a rather mechanistic view of the process of salvation, with great emphasis on the importance of penitential works. 'But almyghty god wyl neuer haue mercy on them that forsake his grace and tourne themselfe away from hym but yf they wyll be turned agayne to hym by penaunce.'76 His discussion of the righteous described them as satisfying God with their works. 'They be called Recti corde that haue made satysfaccyon so plentefully that god can aske no more of them.'77 His recollections of Lady Margaret Beaufort, appended to this work, depicted her chances of salvation fully in accordance with the contemporary reliance on prayers, sacraments, indulgences, and other works, which encouraged him to think she was in heaven. For yf the herty prayer of many persones Yf her owne contynuall prayer in her lyf tyme. yf the sacramentes of the chirche orderly taken, yf indulgences and pardons graunted by diuers popes / yf true repentaunce and teeres / yf fayth and deuocyon in criste Jhesu / yf charyte to her neyghbours / yf pyte upon the poore / yf forgyuenes of iniuries / or yf good werkes be auaylable / as doubtles they be / grete lyklyhode and almoost certayne conjecture we may take by them / and all these that soo it is in dede.78 There was still plenty of room within Catholic thought for a more old-fashioned approach to salvation. Yet the enthusiasm for the more reformed approach was growing swiftly. The Erasmian emphasis upon grace was increasingly taken up by English writers in their works produced around 1530. It used a Christocentric understanding of salvation which had obvious similarities with emerging Protestant ideas of justification. In due course any resemblance between the Protestant and reformed Catholic understanding would be lost over the question of forensic justification, and the issue of whether the righteousness displayed by man 75

Ibid., Sig. M v v .

Fisher, This treatyse concernynge the fruytful saynges of Dauytl, Sig. aa viiiv. Ibid., Sig. dd iiiiv. 78 Fisher, A mornynge remembraunce had at the moneth mynde of the noble prynces Margarete countesse of Rychemonde and Darbye (London, 1509), Sig. B \f~*. 16

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after justification was imputed or inherent.79 In the popular understanding, this was to express itself in a difference between a Protestant emphasis on faith alone, and a Catholic insistence on a faith which manifested itself through works, a difference which was already being expressed at the popular level and in some of the Reformation controversies.80 The precursor of these more divided opinions, however, was the general humanist awareness of the need to rethink the issue of divine grace, and reformulate the rhetoric of salvation. The same emphasis can be found in Richard Whitford's work. Whitford was uncompromising in his denunciation of the Lutheran heresy. Yet he placed a strong emphasis upon the frailty of the human will, the unworthiness of human nature, and the total dependence of the human race on the grace of God. His prayers expressed this: 'thou knowest (good lorde) that I am a frayle person / infirme / feble and weyke / and (of my selfe) prone and redy / in thought / worde / and dede unto euyll'.81 He made the point particularly clearly as he went on to plead for divine clemency. And yet (good lord) where thou knowest also that I am but rude and vnlerned / without wytte / wysdom and due knowlege of the and thy lawes / all igno raunt and as an ydiote or foole in all good and spiritual! understandynge / I beseche the (good lorde god) that art the essencyall sone of god the father / and vnto whome is appropriate all wytte and wysdome / all scyence / connynge and knowlege / and al ryght perceyuynge and understandynge / that thou wylt graunt me the due knowlege of thy selfe by ryghte and true feyth . and the knowlege of all thy benefites and gyftes done to me and al mankynde / and grace dewly to thank the for them.82 This is not to suggest that there was anything unconventional about Whitford's doctrine. He himself uttered vigorous warning against newfangled doctrine. Fyrst good deuoute Christians I beseche you gyue no credence unto these false heretykes / that done depraue and set nought by confession / nor by this holy sacrament of penaunce. For I acerteyn you those persones what so 79 See McGrath, lustitia Dei, ii, chs. 6 and 7, for a detailed explanation of the theological differences developed during this period. See also McGrath, 'Humanist Elements in the Early Reformed Doctrine of Justification', 17-20, for an account of how the humanist influences on the reformed doctrine of justification were largely eradicated by the doctrine of forensic justification. 8(1 One might consider the example of Barnes' ideas on justification. See Brigden, London and the Reformation, 264—5. 81 Whitford, Werke for housholders, Sig. A iiv. 82 Ibid., Sig. A iij'.

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euer they be / that (after theyr baptisme and chrystendom) haue done any deedly synne / can neuer be in the state of saluacyon without the feyth and wyll of confession.83

Nonetheless the stress on man's unworthiness was a common feature of the didactic Catholic works of the time, and it echoed the words of the humanists on the degeneracy of man. It was preparing the way towards a different understanding of the theology of grace. The second theme of paramount importance for reformism was the ideal of godly kingship. The range of humanist ideas and emphases all revolved around the theme of religious regeneration according to the authority of Scripture. It was the idea of a different authority to that of the Papacy that was to prove so attractive to Henry VIII; so too the idea that the task of reform should be a national concern. Humanism had fought hard to gain Court patronage, with conspicuous success. Erasmus in his description of Colet's preaching noted the composition of his congregation. 'And he had a large audience, including most of the leading men in his native city and in the king's court.'84 The humanist idea of civic responsibility for religious regeneration often envisaged a particular role in this for the godly prince.8s The lure of this idea for Henry VIII perhaps explains his enthusiasm for humanism, and in particular the sudden heightening of his commitment around 1530. But it also explains why he had to accept the whole reform package in order to exploit with conviction the notions of kingly religious authority which it included. When Richard Taverner published his translation of Erasmus's proverbs he described the task as beyond his slender wit, but explained that he had completed it nonetheless, 'for your sakes and for the loue I beare to the furtheraunce and adourment of my natyue countrey'.86 Humanists had a vision of a brighter future, in which the spread of education and the increase of scriptural knowledge and genuine piety would transform Christendom. Alongside this extravagant vista, however, many of the humanists were also working hard towards the regeneration of their own country. Their aspirations stood the greatest chance of success if they could gain the backing of a 83

Ibid., Sig. F ir. CWE, viii. 235. 85 R. Rex, 'The Role of English Humanists in the Reformation up to 1559', in Amos, Pettegree, and van Nierop (eds.), Education of a Christian Society, 35—40. 86 Praverbes or Adagies gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Richarde Taverner, preface. 84

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Christian prince who might single-handedly defend a nation's greatness and revitalize its piety. The works of Sir Thomas Elyot illustrated the confluence of these intellectual trends. As scholar, translator, and diplomat, Elyot was excellently placed to explicate the concerns of the time.87 He served the King in pursuit of the divorce, whilst remaining close friends with Thomas More, and despite the demands of his political life found time in 1538 to bring out a Latin-English dictionary. His most famous work, The Boke called the Governour published in 1531, eloquently expressed the political idealism of the humanists. His work °f JSSS) Of the knowledeg whiche maketh a wise man, also sought to promote both religious and political integrity. His preface explained his motivation in writing such a work. 'God, vnto whome all mens hartis be opened, and the wyll of manne speakethe, is my wytnes, that to the desire of knowlege, wherunto I have hither to ben euer of my nature disposed / I haue ioyned a constant intent to profyte therby to my natural countrey. Wherunto acordyng to the sentence of Tully, we be most specially bounden.'88 The work was a series of moral tales concerning philosophy and politics, in the classical form of a dialogue, combining religious and political moralities. That the work was meant to reprove as much as edify is clear from the defensive tone of the preface, in which Elyot also tried to defend his earlier book. Both books display a kind of zeal for the correction of vice. He pointed out how much Henry VIII had welcomed the earlier book, and compared him with the Emperor who had deliberately sought out a citizen renowned for telling men their faults in order to become a better ruler. He also denounced those who had thought him presumptuous for criticizing the faults of others. The conclusion to the preface drew all these threads together. 'And leuynge malycious reders with their incurable fury, I wyll say vnto god the wordes of the Catholike Churche in the booke of Sapience: To knowe the good lorde is perfecte Justice / And to knowe thy Justyce and vertue is the very roote of Immortalite: And therin is the knowlege that is very wysedome.'89 Such ideas on political responsibility and moral regeneration reached their zenith in the idea of the 'godly prince', which was why 87 G. Walker, 'Dialogue, Resistance and Accommodation: Conservative Literary Responses to the Henrieian Reformation', in Amos, Pettegree, and van Nierop, Education of a Christian Society, 91—8. 88 Thomas Elyot, Of the knowledeg whiche maketh a wise man (London, 1533), Sig. A 2'. 89 Ibid., Sig. A yr.

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the humanists made so much of the 'mirrors for princes' tradition. Around 1530, Thomas Paynell produced a translation from Agapetus on the same theme. He called it The preceptes teachyng a prynce or a noble estate his duetie. This work had been written in Greek for the emperor Justinian, and the translation was dedicated to Erasmus's own patron, Lord Mountjoy, then Chamberlain to the Queen. It opened with an address which might have been written with Henry VIII in mind, reflecting as it did his longing for imperial status, his sense of representing God to his subjects, and the idea of kingship as a sacred responsibility. Consyderyge o myghty Emperour thou hast the highest and honorableste dignite of all dignites: thou shuldest honour and worshyp hym aboue all other / whiche hath reputed the worthy of suche honour. For why / god in likenes of his celestiall empere / hath delyuered to the / the sceptre and gouernaunce of this worlde / to instructe and teache thy subiectes to kepe iustice / and to punyshe them / whiche persuade the contrary / folowynge and obeyenge his lawes and his preceptis / and orderynge thy subiectes as right and equite requirethe.90 This was an approach which magnified the ruler's greatness even as it placed on him the solemn obligation to act with godly integrity. It pointed out that when a subject did something hurtful it was bad enough, but it was far worse when a prince acted badly, for then he might hurt the whole community. The duties of the king were therefore immense. 'O man loke and knowe thou / that the higher thou art by goddis helpe in dignite; so moche thou arte more in his dette.'91 The work also included one other standard element. This was the encouragement to pay sober attention to the sort of advice being given. 'Bicause of this high and worldly empere thou art harde to be spoken with all : and yet by reason of suche power thou shuldest humiliate thy selfe: and therfore ye spedilier admyt poure men to thy speche and presence . . . For loke howe we order other / so of god we shal be ordred.'92 This involved being wary of sycophants. 'Thou shalt flie and withstande the entycyng communicacion of flatterers / as thou woldeste eschewe a sort of rauening crowes. For crowes pecke out the corporal eies: but flatterers blinde the understandynge of mans soule / whan they wyll nat suffre hym to perceyue the trouthe of 90 Agapetus, The preceptes teachyng a prynce or a- noble estate his duetie (London, 1530?), translated by Thomas Paynell, Sig. a iiii". 91 Ibid., Sig. a v1. 92 Ibid., Sig. a vi'.

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93

thynges.' And Paynell had chosen to translate a tract which located the source of all true understanding, the inspiration for good governance, within Scripture. 'Therfore we mortal men specially are taught and instructed with holy scripture / to knowe our selfe. For who that knoweth hym selfe / shall knowe god . . . he is goddis seruant / that doth nothyng contrary to goddis commandement'94 This was an ideal of kingship both classical and Scriptural. Two years later a translation by Gentian Hervet followed a similar theme, Xenophons treatise of house holde. This too had the commonwealth in mind, for having explained that it was prepared at the behest of Geoffrey Pole, the preface added, 'whiche boke for the welthe of this realme, I deme very profitable to be redde.'95 This too was in the form of a dialogue, a discussion of the 'science' of ordering a household which was in effect an exploration of the theme of good governance. Its hero was the sort of man who commanded, not by physical strength, but by intellectual greatness. 'And he may be called a very great man in dede, the whiche doth very greatte actes, more by prudence and wisedome, than through the strength of his body.'96 Such a man, who could inspire enthusiasm among those who worked for him by his very presence, was truly kingly: 'but he the whiche whan they [the labourers] do se hym, they be all moued and styrred up, and have a greatte corage and desire one to do better than another, and a feruente mynde to be praysed above al, I say that that man hath som thinge of the disposition longynge to a kynge.'97 Such majesty could only come as a gift from God, and with the benefit of good education. 'I say, he that wyll be able to do it, had nede to be very wel instructed, and eke to be of a good gentyll nature, and that is moste of all to have a very greate grace and gyfte of god. For me thynketh this grace cometh not all of man, to rule and gouerne so, that men very gladly wyll be obedient, but it is rather a special gifte of almighty god: and he graunteth it vnto them that be indowed with vertue and temperaunce'98 In this blueprint for good governance, which brought together the words of the imperial past, the religious zeal of the present, and the 93

Ibid., Sig. a viir~v. Ibid., Sig. a iiiiv. 95 Xenophon (translated Gentian Hervet), Xenophons treatise of house holde (London, 1532), preface. 96 Ibid., fo. 63'. 97 Ibid., fo. 63\ 98 Ibid., fo. 63V. 94

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desire for an educated and moral commonwealth in the future, the stage was set for Henry VIII's own personal ambition to play the godly and reforming prince. As the 'King's Great Matter' began to dominate political life in the years between 1527 and 1536, vernacular religious literature was full of suggestions for change and renewal. For the most part these works were Catholic in their doctrinal leanings. The attempt to provide Henry VIII with a solution to his difficulties was not by any means a sign of Protestant sympathies. The boundaries of Catholic thought at this point were broad enough to contain an array of reform ideas, particularly those inspired by the various humanist preoccupations. It was from this pool of ideas that Flenry VIII was himself to borrow in constructing his Supremacy, and these were the literary trends which were to be yet further developed in defence of that Supremacy. Of all the possible different emphases within English Catholic thought, these were to prove most influential in the formative years ahead.

2

The Henrician Vision Amongst other cures committed unto this our princely office, whereunto it hath pleased God of his infinite mercy and goodness to call us, we have always esteemed and thought (as we also yet esteem and think) this to be most chief, most ponderous, and of most weight, that his holy word and commandments may sincerely, without let or hinderance, be of our subjects truly believed, and reverently kept and observed . . .'

RELIGIOUS renewal was a force for change in England long before Henry VIII came to the throne, but it was Henry, in his search for a new church settlement, who was to bring reforming influences to bear on the future of the nation. In so doing he was to set in train a great number of developments; one of these was to set a new agenda for English Catholicism. As the world of Christian scholarship became inextricably involved with the world of politics, Henry both shaped the reformist Catholic tradition and was shaped by it. The break with Rome was the beginning of a new and interesting, albeit dangerous, era in English Catholic history. Catholics who wished to preserve their faith, unless they took refuge in casuistry, had of necessity to accept the King's new understanding of Catholicism.2 With the King adopting the part of religious leader, church reform became a necessary part of royal business, and religious thinkers of various hues all struggled to exert their influence on ecclesiastical policy. In their efforts to persuade Henry VIII that he was still a Catholic at heart, many English Catholics were busily reconfiguring their own notions of orthodoxy. Those determined to assert, explain, and defend Catholicism were compelled to take a very different approach 1 From the preface to 'Articles About Religion . . . (the 'Ten Articles'), printed in C. Lloyd (ed.), Formularies of Faith put forward by authority during the reign of Henry VIII (Oxford, 1856), 3. 2 For an account of the strategy of dissimulation, see P. Marshall, 'Papist as Heretic: The Burning of John Forest, 1538', HJ 41 (1998), 361-71.

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The Henrician Vision

from that of the 1520s.3 The transformation they wrought in Catholic thought was to be a significant one. This was not merely a valiant attempt at a rearguard action. The reformulation of English Catholic attitudes was not just a cosmetic attempt to placate an awkward and arbitrary ruler. There were many elements within Henry's church policies which struck an immediate chord within the Catholic tradition, and which fitted in very well with some of the existing ideas about reform and renewal. Certain key concepts of the Henrician Reformation, in particular the concentration upon the Bible, had already become deeply entrenched within reformed Catholic thought. Although some strands of Catholic thought suffered a defeat at the hands of Henry VIII, many of the more humanist strands were taken up and woven into a thicker and more resilient conception of a reformed yet Catholic Church. So where more conservative writers were martyred, or at least marginalized, some of the more reformist Catholics began to take a leading role in the 15305 and 15405. Of all the enigmas in the English Reformation, the motivations and intentions of King Henry VIII remain some of the most difficult to elucidate. This chapter argues that his religious policies had far more coherence and continuity than is often acknowledged, and that although they were in large part constructed for political reasons, they also had a serious ideological dimension.4 If we try to force the Henrician formulations into the categories of 'Protestant' or 'Catholic' as they came to be understood later in the century, they show little coherence. Judged by later standards of orthodoxy, they do indeed seem vague and vacillating. But judged within the context of their time, and the ideological imperatives of the English reform movement, some integrity begins to emerge. There was a distinct Henrician vision of the church, which went beyond the issue of the Supremacy alone. It can be seen that right from the start of the King's 'Great Matter', the authority of Scripture was a moving force, and a strong reform ideology informed the attempts to limit clerical and papal power. Once the Royal Supremacy was achieved, it was 3 R. Rex, 'The English Campaign against Luther in the 15205', TRHS, 5th series, 39 (1989), 85-106. 4 G. W. Bernard, 'The Making of Religious Policy, 1533-1546: Henry VIII and the Search for the Middle Way', HJ 41 (1998), 321-49, argues that Henrician policy involved the consistent pursuit of a fairly clear reforming agenda. See also G. Redworth, 'Whatever Happened to the English Reformation?', History Today, 37 (Oct. 1987), 29—36.

The Henrician Vision

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made intelligible to Court and country in terms of a religious reformation neither Protestant, nor Catholic in the 'traditional' sense, but based on the contemporary reform ideas already discussed, which it took on to a new stage of development. The defeat of superstition, the education of the people, and the construction of a godly commonwealth were the themes on which Henrician policy built.5 Above all, the primacy of Scripture was the keynote of Henrician policy. Henry's excuse for turning his world upside down was that he was obeying the imperative of God's word, and his propaganda made it clear that everyone else was expected to appreciate this cause as defensible, indeed urgent. Verbum Dei was at the root of all his religious formulations. Such an approach had deep roots in Christian humanism, but it went beyond a purely humanist programme, not in essentials so much as in a change of emphases. The emphasis upon Scripture grew to majestic proportions, marginalizing some of the other elements of the humanist programme. The preoccupation with education in the humanities was transmuted into a more pressing concern with educating the populace at large into an appreciation of Henry's actions. Literary production began to make even more use of the vernacular. The anticlerical and antischolastic themes moved from the general to the particular as immediate targets for criticism emerged. In general, the wider interests of the humanist movement became more focused into a specific reform programme. There was now a chance to discover what rediscovered Scripture could achieve in practical terms, where before the discussion had revolved around speculations as to its power. And the ideal of the godly prince came suddenly into sharp and immediate focus, as Henry VIII prepared to take on the mantle prepared for him by years of humanist scholarship. The Henrician Reformation was a thing in itself; neither failed Catholicism, nor inadequate Protestantism, but a vigorous movement based on a particular vision. Protestants and Catholics alike struggled to accommodate themselves within its boundaries. It should be noted that illustrations of those themes central to the Henrician Church have been taken from a range of works which might broadly be termed 'evangelical'; some by writers who subsequently became Protestant, others by those who stayed Catholic, and some by writers 5 P. Marshall, 'The Rood of Boxley, the Blood of Hailes and the Defence of the Henrician Church', JEH 46 (1995), 680-96, illustrates the development of these themes in Henrician propaganda.

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who continue to elude categorization. Whatever the private opinions of any individual author, certain views were known to be a necessary part of any work which hoped to please the King. These views thus began to form a key part of Catholic thought, not least since Henry's combination of enthusiastic biblicism and doctrinal conservatism in any case closely resembled the existing ideas of the Catholic humanists. Henrician Catholics who accepted these views not only ensured their own survival, but also safeguarded the perpetuation of their faith. But this process of adaptation had a profound effect upon that faith, and reshaped it in line with the particular emphases of Henrician church policy. English Catholicism, then, was compelled to find a new niche within this royal programme of reform, where it moved to a stage beyond Erasmianism. Obviously there were others who exploited the Henrician policies, and Cromwellian Protestantism found that it too could build on the foundations laid by the Supremacy. But the Church that Henry VIII was building was peculiarly suited to developing the potential within reforming Catholicism. It was all at once scriptural and sacramental, evangelical yet devout, anticlerical and antischolastic yet trying desperately to be inclusive. It trumpeted the cleansing power of God's Word whilst firmly retaining the Mass. It attacked idolatry whilst allowing the correct use of images. It denounced superstition whilst holding on to devotional traditions. It was a Church at once Catholic and reformed, and it was to give a new lease of life to English Catholicism. Godly Prince and Godly Reformation Henry VIII broke with Rome gradually, and painfully, through a series of events that began in 1527 and were not entirely concluded even by 1536. At the root of the problem, it must be acknowledged, was dynastic insecurity. It was Henry's dread of civil war that powered the campaign for the annulment, raised as he was on memories of the Wars of the Roses. The ecstatic public celebrations which he ordered after the death of Richard de la Pole in 1525, showed how strong was his fear of a renewed dynastic conflict.6 Similarly, it is notable how in 1536 the anti-papal campaign was given greater impetus when Reginald Pole's opposition to the break seemed to add 6

R. Rex, Henry VIII and the English Reformation (London, 1993), 7.

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frightening Yorkist overtones to the resistance to the divorce. That said, many of the ideas used to justify the break with Rome had been attractive to Henry before I527.8 In the furore of the Hunne case, Henry had trumpeted his sovereignty over the Church, pronouncing that canon law, unless demonstrably based on divine law, required the seal of royal approval.9 The angry declamation that 'the Kings of England in time past have never had any superior but God alone' was a presage of things to come.10 This was also a monarch prepared to rewrite the terms of his own sovereignty, from insisting on 'your majesty' as a term of address, to reshaping the terms of his coronation oath.11 But just as the new form of address was not formalized until 1534-5, so we might suspect that the changes to the coronation oath also belonged to those years. It seems unlikely that Henry would have advanced as far as the Royal Supremacy without the incentive supplied by his anxiety about the succession.12 Once the 'King's Great Matter' was underway, however, the development of a supporting ideology was swift, perhaps in part influenced by Anne Boleyn's own evangelical tendencies, but also drawing from the humanism now well-established in the scholarly world.13 It has been convincingly illustrated how, from the very beginning of this tortuous process, Henry was determined to pursue a course which attacked the Pope's authority on the grounds of higher Scriptural authority.14 His challenge to the papacy was based on a claim to hold a better understanding of divine law, and it was a challenge which owed its impetus and direction to Henry himself. From the first, therefore, he was assuming the mantle of religious leader. Humanist scholars were obviously going to be his most useful allies in this endeavour. This was clear from the start when the first of the controversialists to support his case, the Hebrew lecturer Robert 7

Conrad Russell, The Crisis of Parliaments (London, 1971), 101. S. J. Gunn, Early Tudor Government, 1485-1558 (Basingstoke, 1995), 163-6; G. W. Bernard, 'The Piety of Henry VIIF, in N. Scott Amos, A. Pettegree, and H. van Nierop (eds.), The Education of a Christian Society (Aldershot, 1999), 63—6. * Robert Keilway, Reports d'ascuns Cases (1688), 180-5. 10 Ibid. 185. 11 Gunn, Early Tudor Government, 164; L. G. Wickham Legg, English Coronation Records (Westminster, 1901), 240—1. 12 See E. Ives, Anne Boleyn (Oxford, 1986), 155-6, describing the catalytic effect of the crisis in bringing together ideas already present in the King's mind. 13 Ibid. 42-3, 302-31. 14 V. Murphy, 'The Literature and Propaganda of Henry VIII's First Divorce', in D. MacCulloch (ed.), The Reign of Henry VIII (Basingstoke, 1995), 135-58. 8

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Wakefield, managed to apply the famous passage of Leviticus even more closely to the King's own scruples.15 The use of a whole team of scholars to argue his case, with the production of a series of books supplying patristic, conciliar, and historical justifications for his actions, most famously the Collectanea satis copiosa, illustrates how much this was a war of ideas. The way in which the authorities for the King's case were arranged, in a hierarchy which placed Scripture at the top, and scholastics at the bottom, was also a demonstration of the humanist view of religious authority.16 Implicit, and sometimes explicit, in Henry's actions from the very first, therefore, was a challenge not just to one papal ruling, but to papal authority itself. Moreover, since this challenge was based on a key tenet of the humanist understanding, namely the authority of Scripture, it also implied the corollary of that understanding, that the time had come to reform the Church in accordance with Scripture. Henry's somewhat vague appreciation of his vaunted 'imperial' status, which seemed to him to give him power over the Church, was a departure from the usual view of 'imperial monarchy', but one which coincided quite neatly with the general direction of the arguments being deployed on his behalf.17 Finally, the fact that so much of this debate was conducted in published works indicates the terms on which Henry wished to prove his case. He dressed his shabby matrimonial intentions up in the dignified apparel of religious reformation. Having assumed this garb, he thereafter had to wear it with an air. This was not a problem, as Henry found he liked the mantle of religious leader, and from the beginning seemed to believe his own propaganda, playing the Old Testament King with great conviction.18 In a sense this was a role for which he had already auditioned, since at the root of many of Henry VIIFs actions was his own conception of himself as a zealous Christian and a religious scholar. In his interweaving of kingship with the defence of the faith, we might see a self-conscious attempt to imitate Henry V, the predecessor he so idolized.19 His passionate enthusiasm for a Crusade, voiced in 1519, had 15

Ibid. 138-9. See E. Surtz and V. Murphy (eds.), The Divorce Tracts of Henry VIII (Angers: Moreana, 1988); N. Pocock, Records of the Reformation: The Divorce 1527-1535 (2 vols.; Oxford, 1870), ii. 385-421. 17 Rex points out the unprecedented nature of Henry's imperial claims as regards church headship in Henry VIII and the English Reformation, 13—14. 18 Ibid. 173-5. 19 C. Allmand in G. Harriss, Henry V: The Practice of Kingship (Oxford, 1985), 119-20. 16

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perhaps been sublimated into his writing of Assertio Septem Sacramentorum.20 Certainly he always seemed to have some burning desire to distinguish himself in the performance of his religious duties. The writing of the work against Luther had given particular weight to this self-perception and was only the first of many attempts to offer a definition of Christian belief, a task for which he felt himself to be peculiarly well qualified. This perception was also reinforced by the views of his contemporaries and fellow-scholars, hungry, in varying degrees, for both religious regeneration and some royal patronage. Even as a child, Henry had impressed Erasmus with his learning, and in the 15205 they were still complimentary about one another's achievements.21 When Erasmus wrote of his hopes for the new age he saw dawning, Henry VIII had his place in this vision of the future. I feel the summons to a sure and certain hope that besides high moral standards and Christian piety, the reformed and genuine study of literature and the liberal disciplines may be partly reborn and partly find new lustre; the more so, since this object is now pursued with equal enthusiasm in different regions of the world, in Rome by Pope Leo, in Spain by the Cardinal of Toledo, in England by King Henry, eighth of that name who is something of a scholar himself.22 Many assumed that the Assertio had itself been the work of Erasmus, who commented that this was perhaps hardly surprising, considering Henry's own scholarship, and the humanist emphases in his education.23 The ground had already been prepared for some sort of dramatic gesture in the King's church policy. With the inception of the Royal Supremacy, therefore, the pretensions of the monarch and the aspirations of the scholarly world were welded together in a fast and furious campaign which, it was hoped, would not only save the dynasty, but might, from another perspective, also save the Church. The long-established ideal of the godly prince began to find concrete and immediate expression in Henry's ideas for his headship of the Church. Humanist writers found their hopes of preferment, as much as their hopes of religious regeneration, tied to the justification and service of the Supremacy. In this 20

See J. J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (Harmondsworth, 1968) 145—7. L.-E. Halkin, Erasmus: A Critical Biography (Oxford, 1993), 49-50; Bernard, 'The Piety of Henry VIH', in Amos, Pettegree, and van Nierop (eds.), Education of a Christian Society, 83—7. 22 CWE, iv. 263. 23 P. S. Allen (ed.), Erasmi Epistolae, viii. 129 (epistle no. 2143). 21

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unexpectedly intimate partnership, Catholic thinkers, on the one hand, were compelled to accept some radical views of church authority, and Henry, on the other, was compelled to accept the task of church reform. The vast array of literature which accompanied the 'King's Great Matter' thus pointed the way for the future understanding of both kingship and faith. From this propaganda it is possible to discover the emphases which English Catholics were now required to perpetuate. Some of the propaganda works had a more Protestant agenda, others showed Catholic leanings, but from both we can gather an idea of the acceptable face of Henrician religion. Themes which had been present before the break with Rome reappeared, but with a different slant. The educational emphasis, and the concern for the simple and uneducated, was reiterated, but this time to put decent apparel on otherwise naked propaganda. The exalted cause of spiritual renewal was now to go hand in hand with the insistent popularization of the Supremacy. The exposition of the Creed, which Erasmus wrote for Sir Thomas Boleyn, was published in both Latin and English versions in 1533. The writer addressed his patron in the preface. 'And I do knowe also wel enough / that you do not requyre of me / to take this lytle laboure / for your owne cause: whiche do not nede any instructyon or informacyon of me. But you do desyre it for other more ignoraunte and unlerned persones.'24 This worthy objective was now hitched to the political developments which made Boleyn's daughter Queen. The sense of the advance into the vernacular as a pioneering innovation also took on a new set of associations. To the aim of defeating obscurantist scholasticism was now added the need to make an even more devastating defeat of papal pretensions. One translator, writing a rather defensive apologia for his translation of a key anti-papal work, equated those who would sneer at his scholarly deficiencies with those who would disapprove of its message. He saw the use of the vernacular very much as a blow struck against scholasticism, and challenged his opponents to reply in kind. I hertely pray the gentle reader, to take it in good parte, and to correcte and amende it where nede is. To dysprayse the doyng of it, I iudge it no hygh poynt of learnynge. And to translate it but meanely, I thynke it some 24 Erasmus, A playne and godly exposytion or declaration of the commune Crede (London, 1533), f°- 2'.

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learnynge. This dare I be bolde to say, that from the iniust and lyenge carpours, and pryuy detractours, there commeth nothynge in to lyght, neyther by preachyng, ne yet by wrytyng, yt sauoureth or hath any taste of vertue or learnynge, I wolde gladly that suche whysperers and blowers in mennes eares, wolde preache, wryte and sette forth sermons, and bokes of vertue and good learnynge and in the same (aswell without makynge of fayned and untrue escuses) as without theyr olde accustomed crafty iugglynges truly declare and publysshe the worde of god and shewe them selues, to be suche in theyr hertes (as of ryght, and duety, by the worde of god) they shulde euer haue ben.23

New vigour, therefore, was imparted to the task of writing vernacular works of instruction. The Erasmian principle was taken up and reapplied, but this time in English. The letter to Volz which formed a preface to the Enchiridion was translated with it in the first English version in 1533. In this Erasmus had drawn a comparison between the value of his own small work, and that of great scholarly tomes. Howe can it be that these great volumes instructe us to lyue well and after a christen maner / whiche a man in all his lyfe can not have layser ones to loke over. In lyke maner as if a phisycien shulde prescribe unto him that lyeth sicke in parell of deth, to rede lacobus de partibus / or suche other huge volumes / sayeng that there he shulde fynde remedy for his disease: but in the meane tyme the pacyent dyeth / wantynge presente remedy wherwith he myght be holpen.26

The wide array of English publications which appeared in the 15308 took this kind of justification and made it their own. Above all, the rediscovery of Scripture now had all the weight of royal approval behind it. Works were selected for translation which condemned not just papal corruption, but the accretions of error which biblical study could now disperse. One such, published in 1534, explained 'The summe and effecte of this worke is this, It declareth that ye begynnynge of Idolatrye did springe and ryse of the philosophiers, whiche through manyfolde dissensions haue couered ye scriptures, and through ye fraudes of Sathan haue brought forthe newe goddes.'27 In its description of papal iniquity, worldly pretension 25

Marsilius of Padua, The defence of peace (London, 1535), fo. i". Erasmus, Enchiridion militis christiani, English translation (1533), ed. A. M. O'Donnell, EETS 282 (Oxford, 1981), 7. 27 Joachim von Watt, A worke entytled of the olde god and the newe (trans, by William Turner from H. Dulichius's Latin version of the German original) (London, 1534), Sig. A iiv-A iiir. 26

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was linked to the despite of Scripture as an explanation for their degradation. For those men, whyche in tymes afore passed, were the moste stronge pyller of all christen men, in contempte and martyrdome: nowe beinge alienated and turned from the holy scriptures, had taken upon them worldely and earthely busynesses / of creatynge emperours and kynges / of drawynge kyngedomes and lordshyps unto them selues / sechinge and goynge about to get royall and proude tytles, offeryng forth their feete to be kyssed.28 The preface to Marsilius of Padua's Defence of Peace, another translation, made a similar point. 'With our scholyes, gloses commentes, and interpretacyons, we haue taken away and destroyed well nere all the whole scrypture of god. S[c]rypture is not perauenture ouertourned and destroyed / but beynge as it were dombe, in a maner speaketh no more.'29 The neglect of the Gospel was described as the single cause of all that was wrong in the world. 'To what thynge (Chrysten reader) thynkest thou, that we ought to blame this so dyuerse, so manyfolde, so contynuall treble of all thynges in the worlde? or wherof iudgest thou all this to belonge / wherof els, but that we haue greuously offended and hurte the truthe of the Gospell.' And the translator's marginal gloss drove this point home even further. 'The despysinge and settynge at nought of godes worde: is the cause of all the present euylles in the worlde.'30 The ideal of the godly prince who was to right this wrong therefore became particularly insistent. Thomas Elyot described the attributes of the good ruler. 'For by hym Justice is nourished, necessitee is relieued, and the publike weale maynteyned, true religion stablished, vice repressed, andVertue increaced: whiche without Authoritee maie not be brought vnto passe.'31 This posited an approach to kingship which, whilst it spoke the language of subservience to divine will, in fact enormously increased the king's power to act—indeed his obligation to act—as long as he was seen to be in accordance with that divine will. On these terms Henry was happy to receive the admonitions of the various tracts of the time. The treatise of Agapetus translated by Paynell around 1530 spoke solemnly to the ruler of his religious duty. 'Consyderynge than that this power is gyuen the by 28

Ibid., Sig. G ii'. Marsilius of Padua, The defence of peace, fo. 6'. 30 Ibid., fo. 2 V . See S. Lockwood, 'Marsilius of Padua and the Case for the Royal Ecclesiastical Supremacy', TRHS, 6th series, i (1991), 89—119. 31 Thomas Elyot, A Preservative agaynste deth (London, 1545?), Sig. C vv. 29

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almighty god / of the whiche in our behalfe thou haddest great nede: thou shake wyll and do nothynge / but as god (that hath gyuen the suche faculte and power) wylleth and commaundeth.'32 It also made it clear that not just kingly virtue, but spiritual advancement was to be sought. The work ended with an exhortation to aim high. 'Be never careles prince most excellent. & as they yt go up a ladder stint nat til they come to ye highest ronge or grice: so you desiring to have virtu / shuldest never cesse tyl you come to ye kingdome of heuen.'33 Kingship was portrayed as a kind of spiritual discipline, a path to sanctity. It was also clear that such a view of kingship put the king in absolute command. 'As the gouernour of a shyppe in tempest doth watche diligently bothe for his owne sauegarde and his: so an emperour muste kepe suche diligent watche / that equite and iustice be in surete: and so strongely repelle the vehement wawes [waves] of iniquite / that the boot of his worldly commonwelth be nat scushed and broken with the wawes of wickednes.'34 This notion of royal power as encompassing spiritual as well as temporal headship was, of course, neatly expressed in the Henrician understanding of imperial power. The role of emperor, so obviously the antidote to papal supremacy, was one the King had long found particularly beguiling, as witnessed by the changes he made to his coronation oath, which used the idea of 'imperial sovereignty' and insisted that the Church held its liberties from the crown.35 When the translation of Marsilius of Padua's Defensor Pads appeared in 1535, to defend the notion that spiritual as well as temporal power should belong to the King, the English translator explained how this work had come to be written in the course of the quarrel between the 'proude bysshoppes of Rome' and 'the most gentle prynce and Emperour Lewes of Bauary', implicitly casting Henry VIII in the role of the latter. Nowe because this good Emperour Lewes moued no lesse with pyte towardes his louyng subiectes, then with a true loue and zele towardes the worde of god, and his moste godly honour, wolde not permyt and suffre the sayd bysshops of Rome to consume, wast, and deuoure (after ye accustomed maner of theyr wycked and ungracyous predecessours) therefore (I saye) 32 Agapetus, The preceptes teachyng a prynce or a noble estate his duetie (London, 1530?), trans. Thomas Paynell, Sig. a vv. 33 Ibid., Sig. c iiiiT. 34 Ibid., Sig. a iiiiv. 35 Russell, Crisis of Parliaments, 70-1; Gunn, Early Tudor Government, 165—6.

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arose betwyxte the sayd Emperoure and the sayd bysshops a greuous and an intolerable tragedy.36

In similar vein, the humanist discovery that the Donation of Constantine was a forgery was swiftly exploited. Gardiner wondered sarcastically of the opponents to the divorce, 'shall they now take refuge to ther own cronicles, writen for ther own profitt . . . to prove the gifte of the Realme of englonde, sometyme made to the churche of Rome? whiche gifte is as true, and of as myche authorite, as thatt gifte, which the most holy muniments, of that holy see witnessyth to haue byn made of Constantinus to Siluester.'37 It was also this link with the imperial theme that helped reinforce the point that the headship of the Church went further than merely legal or administrative control, but extended to matters of faith. Gardiner described the duty of the King, 'whose office is / to take charge / not only of humayne maters / but muche more of divine maters', and from his comparison with Justinian it was clear that this extended to doctrine: 'who did euer disallowe Justinianes facte / that made lawes / concerning the glorious Trinitie / and the catholike faithe . . . ?'38 This claim to spiritual headship was not made all at once; even the Act in Restraint of Appeals allowed appeals to the papacy concerning heresy. Yet for most of the crisis it was possible to read clear spiritual implications into the King's case. The writers of those works published in conjunction with the crisis certainly saw spiritual ramifications there, and chose their words accordingly. In his rejection of the papacy, it might be argued that Henry VIII was not dispensing with papal power so much as taking a version of it into his own hands, as contemporaries observed, and as Protestant commentators deplored.39 But in Henry's own mind, and more importantly in his propaganda, he was dismissing all worldly authorities to hang instead on the authority of Scripture. He neatly appropriated the reformist view that men needed to turn from obeying the laws of men to obeying those of God. This view had been given expression by Erasmus, who said patient obedience was all very well, but should not extend to obeying laws contrary to Christ. 36

Marsilius of Padua, The defence of peace, fo. i'. Stephen Gardiner, Si sedes ilia, in P. Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State (Cambridge, 1930), 38-41. The forgery had been exposed in the previous century by Nicholas of Cusa, Lorenzo Valla, and in England by Bishop Reginald Pecock, ODCC, 419. 38 Gardiner, De Vera Obedienlia, in Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State, 116-17. 3y Rex, Henry VIII and the English Reformation, 14. 37

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And who so euer doth tollerate and suffre those men whiche by subtyle, cruell, and ymperyous / teachyng that thyng whiche maketh not for religyon / but for theyr tyrannye: he vseth the pacyence mete for a christen man / so [long] that these thynges whiche they commaunde, be not vtterly wycked and contrary to Chrystes doctryne: for than it shall be conuenient to haue that answere of thapostles at hande: we must rather be obedient unto god, than to any man.40 This particular emphasis was an adroit piece of self-justification. The end result was to augment the authority of the monarch, but the rhetoric insisted that the sole objective was to show proper obedience to the authority of God. Since, Henry argued, God had commanded obedience to princes, to obey the law of princes was thus to obey God. This was taken to its ultimate and rather absurd conclusion by Gardiner in his confrontation with Bucer over clerical marriage. His treatise, Contemptum humanae legis, argued that to obey the prince was to worship God, noting that 'in the Scriptures . . . no word is more frequent than "obey"'.41 He took this further to argue that 'the commonwealth is more disordered by the contempt of human laws, than by some transgression of divine law'.42 The treatise maintained that to transgress divine law was inevitable, since humankind remained flawed, but unless based on contempt of that law, such transgression was not so threatening to society as those who questioned secular authority. To deny secular authority was a more wilful offence against the divine command. Gardiner condemned the Protestants for having put gospel law and secular law at odds with one another, when in fact (he argued) secular law came from God through the God-given authority of secular princes. He was thus able to maintain that the Protestants were effectively taking the place of the Pope by asserting a rival authority to that of the King. 'You adorn the authority of princes with magnificent words, yet only so long as they accommodate their laws to your own decisions, and follow your judgement in religious matters. You have not abolished the authority of Rome throughout the world, but you have appropriated it to yourselves, and transferred it to Wittenberg.'43 The 4(1 Erasmus, Enchiridion, 28. This translation has been ascribed to Tyndale, but the attribution has been found to be unreliable. See A. M. O'Donnell's discussion of this in the introduction to EETS 282, pp. xlix—liii. 41 Stephen Gardiner, Contemptum humanae legis, in Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State, 177. 42 Ibid. 209. 43 Ibid.

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argument was a convoluted one. Yet the literary consequence was immediate: to emphasize Henry VIII's headship of the Church required a simultaneous endorsement of scriptural authority. Henry may have been chiefly interested in extending his own control, but he had to live up to his own propaganda. By appropriating the idea of an authority superior to the papacy, he had to accept the array of other reform ideas that came with that notion, if he was to play his part convincingly. As the idea of the godly prince reached a new level of exaltation, and Henry VIII began to see himself as 'vicarius Dei', God's representative on earth, he acquired both new powers and new obligations. His involvement in the many religious formulations produced between 1536 and 1543 was particularly thorough, as he continued the sacralization of his kingly role, and assumed the war against idolatry and superstition that went along with his role as Old Testament King. This was reflected in the vernacular literature. The task of defeating superstition was paramount. Works were published in which the aim of the author was to show what god is, and his worde: that men myght come to the knowlege of them bothe, what faythe is, and what hope and charyte are, whense we sholde seche and desyre our helth and saluacion, and in the mean season he putteth forth and sheweth merueilous goodly counsayles, by whiche the chrysten relygeon maye be suckered and holpen, whiche is sore sycke and accombred with superstycyons.44

When Richard Taverner provided translation and explanation of Erasmus's proverbs in 1539, he turned the discussion of the need for each man to follow his own calling into an encomium of the King, and a comment on Henry's closeness to God. There be kynges, there be Cardinalles, there be Bishops, Prelates and sondry other officers and magistrates in Christendome, which do all by vicares and deputies, but them selves lyue in moost ydelnes and in all kyndes of pleasure lyke popes, Wold god these wolde take exemple of our moost vigilant prince and soueraygne lord kynge Henry the eyght, who not only setteth vigilant deputies and ministers under hym, but also loketh him selfe right busely upon his charge committted unto him of god.4'1

44

Watt, A worke entytled of the aide god and the newe, Sig. A vi1'. Proverbes or Adagies gathered out of the Chiliades of Erasmus by Richarde Taverner (London, 1539), fo. viii". 45

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Since the Supremacy incorporated more than just political convenience, and was based upon a conception of religious regeneration directed by the monarch and deriving its authority from Scripture, a new zeal in religious policy was necessary. The parameters of this policy were already established. Biblical authority was the rock on which Henry planned to build his Church, with the need for obedience to the monarch seen as an extension of the obligation to obey Christ. The 'Bishop of Rome' was no longer to be described as head of the Church because this was a position he had tried to usurp from Christ, and so criticism of papal pretensions was frequently strengthened by a discourse on the subject of Christ's headship of the Church. Starkey encouraged his readers to an appreciation of this: 'let us with one fayth in hym in perfyt concorde and vnitie with sure truste and hope hange vppon him as vppon the only hede of al christianitie'.46 This defeat of the papacy had been brought about by the divine word. Edward Fox described how this had triumphed over the disorder that had prevailed before: the people habandonyng the obedience due to theyr souerayn Lyege lorde and Kyng, dyd in stead of hym adhere . . . to an vsurper and tyrant, who not onely kepe theyr bodyes, but theyr soules also in most myserable seruytude and subiection, I meane that Antechrist and head of al abhomination the Bisshop of Rome whose bondage and thraldom that we be now delyuered and made fre. The hole cause and benefyte is to be ascrybed to the illustration and setting furth of goddes holy worde.47 An agenda had thus been established for the Henrician changes. As has recently been argued, Henry VIII's reforms possessed a far clearer set of objectives and emphases than has traditionally been appreciated.48 There was more consistency between the Ten and Six Articles, the Bishops' and King's Books, than we are used to acknowledging. The Henrician formulations sought renewal and reform without challenging accepted Catholic doctrine. In the Ten Articles of 1536, still sometimes given the label 'Protestant', a progressive and reforming intention could thus be combined with unequivocally Catholic doctrine. Despite their borrowing from the Wittenberg 46

88r.

47

Thomas Starkey, An exhortation to the people . . . (London, 1536), RSTC 23236, fo.

Edward Fox, Opus eximium (1534), trans. Henry, Lord Stafford, as The true dyfferens betwen the regal! power and the ecclesiastical! power, Sig. A ii'. 48 Bernard, 'The Making of Religious Policy' and 'The Piety of Henry VHP, in Amos, Pettegree, and van Nierop (eds), The Education of a Christian Society.

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Articles, the Ten Articles were clearly trying to embrace the motives rather than the conclusions of Lutheranism.49 As the preamble stated, they were an attempt to secure 'unity and agreement' and quell any tendencies to 'dissent and discord'.50 Their foundation was 'the whole body and canon of the Bible'.51 In terms of doctrine, they were in no way at odds with Catholicism. They may have discussed only three of the sacraments, but they did not deny the other four. Baptism was held to bestow grace, even upon infants. Anabaptists and Pelagians were equally reproved. Penance was held to be necessary to salvation, and 'under the same form and figure of bread and wine the very selfsame body and blood of Christ is corporally, really, and in the very substance exhibited, distributed, and received'.52 Justification was attained 'by contrition and faith joined with charity', and it was made clear that, although works could not of themselves procure salvation, 'God requireth to be in us not only inward contrition, perfect faith, and charity . . . but also he requireth and commandeth us, that after we be justified we must also have good works'. Faith and works were inseparable: 'for although acceptation to everlasting life be conjoined with justification, yet our good works be necessarily required to the attaining of everlasting life'.53 These doctrinal statements may have been radical by comparison with the works-based piety of an earlier generation, but they were in no way incompatible with Catholic attitudes in the 15308. The second half of the Ten Articles, which were about traditional ceremonies such as honouring images, saints, and praying for the dead, are in line with this approach. They defended Catholic practice, but primarily on the grounds of Scripture rather than purely on tradition. The article on images made its basis in Scripture clear from the opening sentence. 'As touching images, truth it is that the same have been used in the Old Testament, and also for the great abuses of them sometimes destroyed and put down: and in the New Testament they have been also allowed, as good authors do declare.'54 Contemporary practice had to be ruled by biblical precedent. 49 D. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (New Haven and London, 1996), 161-6, discusses the Ten Articles from a slightly different perspective. 30 Lloyd (ed.), Formularies of Faith, 3. 51 Ibid. 5. 52 Ibid. ii. 53 Ibid. 12. 54 Ibid. 13.

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Scripture became the touchstone for all awkward questions of doctrine. The authors of the Institution of a Christian Man, or 'Bishops' Book', noted in their preface the brief that had led to its creation: 'your highness commanded us now of late to assemble ourselves together, and upon the diligent search and perusing of holy scripture, to set forth a plain and sincere doctrine'.55 Six years later, the preface to the 'King's Book', written by the King himself, explained at even more length Henry's view of his mission, and how far he had fulfilled it. Like as in the time of darkness and ignorance, finding our people seduced and drawn from the truth by hypocrisy and superstition, we by the help of God and his word have travailed to purge and cleanse our realm from the apparent enormities of the same; wherein, by opening of God's truth, with setting forth and publishing of the scriptures, our labours (thanks be to God) have not been void and frustrate.56

Although the 'King's Book' set out to curb more extreme advances in religious reform and to reprove Protestantism, it in no way reneged on earlier declarations of biblicism. Indeed, it identified the errors of the time as stemming from 'an inclination to sinister understanding of scripture, presumption, arrogancy, carnal liberty and contention'. If there was a difference between the Ten and Six Articles, it was chiefly that the first prescribed where the second proscribed. But the Henrician reformation never questioned for a moment that the true understanding of Scripture was the necessary foundation for true faith. The chief emphases of the Henrician formulations thus had immediate resonance for existing Catholic thought. Some of the aspects of Henry's policy which most distressed his more Protestant subjects were those which chimed in with Catholic reform ideas. Part of the rhetoric behind the dissolution of the monasteries was the King's intention to found new bishoprics, and the act for these new foundations of 1539 gave Henry's own account of his intentions. Forasmuch as it is not unknown the slothful and ungodly life which hath been used amongst all those sort which have borne the name of religious folk, and to the intent that from henceforth many of them might be turned to better use as hereafter shall follow, whereby God's word might the better be set forth, children brought up in learning, clerks nourished in the universities, old servants decayed to have livings, almshouses for poor folk 55

Ibid. 23.

5fl

Ibid. 215.

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to be sustained in, readers of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin to have good stipend, daily alms to be ministered, mending of highways, exhibition for ministers of the church. It is thought therefore unto the King's Highness most expedient and necessary that more bishoprics collegiate and cathedral churches shall be established, instead of these aforesaid religious houses.57 Here were the key elements of the Henrician vision: the correction of past error, the championing of 'God's word', humanist education, and pious charity. These components were maintained in all the formulations produced between 1533 and Henry's death. Thus, Henrician propaganda encouraged dedication to Scripture, and the defeat of superstition, whilst at the same time holding people back from extremes which went beyond the Henrician ideal. Richard Taverner in his work of 1540 held fast to the evangelical approach— the title-page bore the quotation 'Euangelium est virtus Dei in salutem omni credenti. The Gospell is the power of God, to the saluacion of euery faythfull Christen man.' He made it clear, however, that his was a temperate message, criticizing how 'sundry lyght persons at thys daye, contrary to the mynde and sentence of the auncient doctours and also agaynst the expectacion of moderate wryters of thys tyme, do wonderfully wreste all that they reade into the worste sense in mayntenaunce of theyr carnal libertie'. His explanation of how his homilies should be understood is a simple statement of the extent of Henrician innovation. Ye shall not learne here to despise Gods lawes and mans, nor the decent and laudable ceremonies and rytes of the churche. Here is taught no lawles libertie to do what you luste, but obedience to God and to hys commaundementes, obedience to the kynges maiestie and to his lawes, obedience to the holsome tradicions of the churche. The sacrament of the aultar, the sacrament of penaunce with the other sacramentes of the church be here not heretically contemned, but catholikely auaunced. Fayth is here not so nakedly extolled, but that good workes also be necessarily requered to be in a christen man. Neyther yet be good workes here in suche sorte magnified, that fayth whiche ought to be the foundacion of the christen religion is defrauded of her due place.58 57

104. 58

C. H. Williams (ed.), English Historical Documents 1485-1558 (London, 1967), no.

Richard Taverner, Poslils on the Epistles and Gospels (London, 1540), ed. E. Cardwell (1841), 228.

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Taverner has been seen as a Cromwellian Protestant trimming his sails to suit the newly conservative wind, and in a sense he was. As an outright statement of doctrine, however, this passage does not differ in its stated essentials from any other official Henrician pronouncement. Although emphases and insinuations might vary, the stated doctrinal viewpoint of Henry VIII's reign remained largely consistent. The Henrician vision, then, could be viewed as essentially a Catholic one, not least by the King himself when it suited him. But this was a progressive understanding of Catholicism based on Scripture, denying not just papal power but all the corruptions of scholasticism, and insisting on the purification of the church and the extirpation of superstition. It was a vision that was evangelical in inspiration whilst remaining Catholic in belief, and difficulties of interpretation are lessened once it is realized that evangelical Catholicism was a movement in its own right, and with its own principles. For Catholics to support Henry VIII was not a betrayal of their faith, and indeed could even be taken as a mark of their zeal for its regeneration. Henrician Catholicism The religious policies which Henry developed, with such personal attention, helped to establish a new working model of Catholic orthodoxy which followed the distinctive Henrician emphases. The generation of scholars called upon to defend the break with Rome had already been educated within the precepts of humanism when this tendency was reinforced in the most emphatic manner by Henry VIII's assertion of scriptural primacy and reform. Catholicism now had to follow this line or perish, but since it had already been equipped to take a biblicist stance, the advances here were swift. The works written in defence of the Supremacy lauded it as a reform in line with biblical principles, and although their support of the Supremacy was new, the appeals to Scripture they used in justification came quite naturally. The opening words of Stephen Gardiner's De Vera Obedientia established the pattern which others were to follow, when he described Scripture as the plumbline with which the church was to be put straight.

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As I considered and secretely waied in my self the present state of ordres in the churche of Englande wherin / whan I sawe that very many thinges, which (whether it were longe of men or of times) haue bene of longe season confusely iombled together somthinges blemished / and somthinges decayed / and almost turned quite vpside downe / were by the perfite lyne and plummet of Goddes worde / called again / layde a newe / and restored vnto the auncient foundacions of Goddes worke: anon came into my minde . . . the inuincible power and excellencie of goddes vnfailing truthe.59

The idea of returning to 'ancient foundations' by using the 'perfect line and plummet of God's word' was to become the fundamental rationale behind much subsequent Catholic writing. Thus it was that Bonner's preface to De Vera Obedientia described Henry as 'by the providence of God born to defend the Gospel'. There was an emphatic Catholic endorsement of the biblicist language so beloved of the King. It is hard to tell how much of a shift in Catholic opinion was involved here. Gardiner described his own realization of the corruption of the Church, illuminated by Scripture, in terms of a Damascus road experience, 'euen as a mannes eies being dulled with darkenes / are wont to be amased at sodayne brightenes / whan the light breaketh out'. His perhaps wry statement that 'I had not the gift / that Paule vndoubtedly had / who / as sone as God had ouer throwne him / fell downe / and spake the wordes of obedience',60 was presumably meant to account for his initial resistance to Henry's actions. One wonders if he felt any happier with himself in the role of St Paul than he did with Henry VIII as the voice of divine revelation. Yet Gardiner was a humanist in the 15203 long before Henry's marriage difficulties required him to be.61 He sustained an interest in reform throughout his life. It seems probable that it was not Henry's biblicism that bothered him but the use the King was making of it, most particularly his offences against the authority of the priesthood. Certainly Gardiner's most outspoken opposition seems to have been to the Supplication against the Ordinaries, which he justified in a letter of 1532. Whilst regretting his offence, he explained that he had done what he held to be right, and supported what he believed to be true, 'soo gret a numbre of learned men affirmying it soo 59

Gardiner, De Vera Obedientia, in Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State, 69. Ibid. 71. D. MacCulloch, 'Two Dons in Politics: Thomas Cranmer and Stephen Gardiner, 1503-1533', HJ 31 (1994), 1-22. 60 61

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precisely to be true, that was in the answer alleged concerning Goddes lawe; specially considering your Highnes booke against Luther, in myn understanding, most playnly approvith it'. He also insisted that it was up to Henry to prove him wrong. 'The contrary wherof, if your Grace canne nowe prove, yet I, not lerned in divinite, ne knowing any parte of your Graces proves, am, I trust, without cause of blame in that bihaulf.' He did regret clerical shortcomings. 'It were pitie we lyved if, soo litel expressing our love to God in our deades, we shuld abuse His name and auctorite to your Highnes displeasour, of whom we have receyved soo many benefites.' Yet he defended his authority as a priest. 'On the other parte, if it be Goddes auctorite to us alotted, thowe we cannot use it condignely, yet we cannot geve it awaye; and it is noo lesse daungier to the receyvour thenne to the gever, as your Highnes of your high wisedom canne consider.'62 It would seem that the central issue for Gardiner was clerical authority. It would also seem that he was fully capable of taking a moral stance where necessary. Such a stance earned the King's displeasure, and Gardiner's absence from Court, and De Vera Obedientia has always been taken as an unprincipled attempt to work a way back into royal favour. But the intention behind the work does not impair its intellectual coherence. Gardiner developed an ideological context for the Supremacy which was intellectually viable and which in time seems to have become morally acceptable to him. It is important to remember, that obedience to the King was an essential part of religious duty, in itself a sacred obligation. Thomas Cranmer, on trial in a different sense, appealed to this same principle as a justification for his apparent inconsistencies.63 The biblicism behind the Supremacy was certainly its best justification, and formed the basis for Gardiner's reproach of the papacy. 'Only let them considre / that at leynght truthe hathe the victorie / and that the light of the Gospell / is now come in place of darkenes: and that the light reproueth the thinges that are not allowable.'64 So for those English Catholics who learned to embrace the Supremacy, the task was made easier because they were already disposed to embrace the Gospel. It must have helped that so many of the foundations of this biblicist point of view had been laid by 62 63 64

Gardiner, Letters, no. 36, p. 49. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, 575-7. Gardiner, De Vera Obedientia, in Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State, 157.

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Erasmus. In the Enchiridion he had described Scripture in terms of pure water, in a work which was made available in English for the first time in 1533. The water metaphor was one he had himself borrowed from Scripture, where ofte mencion is made . . . of welles / fountaynes / and ryuers / by whiche is signyfied nothyng els, but that we ought to enquyre and serche diligently for misteryes hydde in scripture. What signyfyeth water hydde in the vaynes of the erth but mystery covered or hyd in the litterall sence? What meaneth the same conueyed abrode but mistery opened and expouned? Whiche beyng spred and dilated bothe wyde and brode / to the edyfyeng of the herers / what cause is there why it myght not be called a ryuer?63 Gardiner used the same watery imagery, derived from a passage of Isaiah, but perhaps also influenced by Erasmus, to give his explanation of how truth could only be found in Scripture: 'who so euer seketh it in any other place / and goth about to fette [fetch] it out of mennes puddles and quallmyres / and not out of the most pure and cleare fountayne it selfe / they drawe and bringe vp now and than / I wote not what / fowle and myrye geare / vneffectual and to no purpose / for the quenching of mennes thirstie desires.'66 This passage of Isaiah, and others which used water as a metaphor, were often used in descriptions of the return ad fontes—the return to Scripture, the original fount of knowledge—by Catholic and Protestant works alike. Cranmer in 1547 was to use the same image. 'Let us diligently searche for the welle of lyfe, in the bokes of the new and olde testament, & not ronne to the stinkinge podelles of mennes tradicions.'67 It seems to have been a theme whose Erasmian connotations were well understood. Gentian Hervet used it to praise the contribution of Erasmus to the rediscovery of Scripture, in another work from 1533. 'The clere springes of the holy scripture, that the Philistines had so troubled, so marred, and so defiled, that no man coude drynk or haue the true tast of the water, thei be nowe by his labour and diligence to their olde purenesse and cleannesse so restored, that no spotte nor erthly filth in theim remaineth.'68 De Vera Obedientia was written in Latin, but other authors took a similar approach as they wrote in English for a national audience, 63 66 61

Erasmus, Enchiridion, 45. Gardiner, De Vera Obedientia, in Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State, 73. Certain Sermons, or Homilies, appoynted by the kynges Maiestie (London, 1547),

sig. 6}". 68

Erasmus, De immensa dei misericordia, trans. Gentian Hervet (London, 1533), Sig. A ij v .

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presenting a scriptural justification for the Supremacy. Thomas Starkey used the same metaphor of a plumbline, arguing that 'the lyne of our obedience is reasone it selfe, the verye worde and sonne of God by Christe to vs declared, the wylle of god in his scriptures opened. By this lyne and rule we must square our affection, to this al reason and affection of man set apart, we must be obedient.'69 Edward Fox, writing in 1534, also used an argument similar to that of Gardiner, translated into this English version in 1548. Among other great Plages that this Realme of Englande encreced whylest the scryptures were vnknowen . . . there was none greater than that by mere ignorance of godes worde by a long processe of yeres, falshed was receyued for trouthe, euyll for good, superstytion for true religyon. Wherof ensued no lesse peryll to oure selues than manyfest disorder in the publike estate and gouernaunce.70 Whatever the political advantages of the Royal Supremacy, it has to be understood that the ideological foundations of this view of authority were solid ones, drawing on a wealth of medieval precedent but inspired by the more recent developments which questioned the reliability of papal authority and emphasized instead the weight of Scripture and of history.71 Catholics could in all conscience accept the justification they were being offered. And if this seems at odds with the essentials of Catholicism, this is in part because of the anachronistic assumption that Catholicism was a reactionary and conservative creed, and partly because of the supposition that Henry VIIFs actions were innately radical. In practice, Catholicism around 1530 was a dynamic and developing creed with strong reform ideas, capable of incorporating much of what Henry VIII was professing. Furthermore, the ideology behind the Supremacy, in true Renaissance style, was itself extremely conservative, appealing as it did to an ancient set of attitudes, and holding its detractors as representatives of a modern and corrupt outlook. This was made manifest by such publications as A worke entytled of the aide god and the newe I of the aide fay the and the newe, of the olde doctryne and the newe I or orygynall begynnynge of Idolatrye. This work, translated from the 69

Starkey, An exhortation to the people, fo. 5". Fox, Opus eximium, trans. Stafford, as The true dyfferens, Sig. A ii'. W. Ullmann, 'This Realm of England is an Empire', JEH 30 (1979), 175-203; G. Nicholson, 'The Act of Appeals and the English Reformation', in C. Cross, D. M. Loades, and J. J. Scarisbrick (eds.), Law and Government under the Tudors (Cambridge, 1988). 70 71

~]2

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German work by Joachim von Watt,72 combined an attack on papal tyranny with an endorsement of spiritual regeneration. The 'old' was the purer faith to which the world was now returning, the 'new' was the corruption of more recent times. In both its refusal of the charge of novelty, and its view of the reform process, it was an apt delineation of the Henrician understanding, rejoicing 'that in the steede of Idolles: Christe hym selfe is restored agayne vnto vs / and in the stede of the lawe: is restored grace / and for the flesshe is restored the spyryte / and in stede of ceremonies: the true honour and worshyppynge of god / and in stede of grosse and carnall workes / are restored the very workes of god'.73 This was a rejection of modernity in favour of a supposedly more ancient creed, which was of course a key element of all reformed thinking, but which may have been particularly useful for Henry's purposes. Within this type of understanding, Catholics could be committed to reform, and embrace the rhetoric of the Supremacy, without having to abandon their conservatism in matters of doctrine. Renaissance zeal was based on a move backwards, not forwards, and the sixteenth-century idea of progress was a nostalgic one. Henry VIII appealed not to a new authority, but to one he forthrightly asserted as far older and more venerable than any other. It was therefore possible to support the break with Rome on the grounds of an appeal to tradition, rather than the rejection of tradition. This line of argument was vigorously developed in all the Supremacy literature, but perhaps especially strongly voiced by Catholic writers. Doctrinal conservatism was portrayed as being at one with the notion of royal supremacy. The Supremacy could in fact be seen as the best defence against innovation, if its innately authoritarian nature was understood. This explains the almost obsessive emphasis upon obedience evident in nearly all Henrician Catholic publications. The King himself emphasized the need for obedience constantly, illustrating his own morbid fears of losing control, but when his sentiments were echoed by Catholic writers it was also a defence against unwanted alteration. It is frequently assumed that the best defenders of the break with Rome would naturally be Protestants, sympathetic as they were to all that undermined papal authority. Yet in a sense they were limited by their fixation on anti-papal themes. 72

McConica, English Humanists and Reformation Politics, 138. '3 Watt, A ntorke entytled of the olde god and the newe, Sig. A viiv.

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Where they emphasized the negative qualities of the papacy, Catholic authors were better equipped to give a positive defence of the Supremacy. For them it stood as the guarantor of true doctrine, where to the Protestants it might be more of an obstacle to their doctrinal objectives. The ability of Catholic authors to be at once supportive of the Supremacy and conservative in their doctrinal stance was not, then, a contradiction in terms, but a reaffirmation of their humanist conception of progress as being a return to a more ancient and venerable outlook. Thus, Gardiner could be vigorous in his defence of both Henry VIII and the conservative principle. His emphasis on obedience was summed up in his preface to the reader in A Detection of the Devils Sophistrie, published in 1546, where he lamented the iniquity of the age, and warned against relying on individual rather than official judgement. Byleue not euery spirite, and mystruste thyne owne judgement aboue the reache of thy capacite . . . Be desyrouse of the very truth, and seke it as thou art ordered, by the direction of Christes Churche, and not as deceytful teachers wold leade the, by theyr secrete wayes. Folowe God and his mynisters, whome he ordereth to rule, and rather conforme knowlege to agree with obedience, where Goddes truthe repugneth not vnto it, then with violation of obedience, which is a displeasaunt fault, to enterprise the subuersion of Goddes honour and glorie.74 Church authority had thus been reinforced in a new, and possibly more dependable guise. Henry VIII was arguably a far more plausible 'defender of the faith' than the papacy of the 15305. This was the line taken, at least, by royal propaganda. The idea of Henry's Catholic orthodoxy was reinforced by works such as the English translation of Charles V's ordinances against Lutheran heresy.75 Ten years later, Charles V's utterances could also be put to good use, as another translation showed, The answer of Charles the fyft Emperour . . . vnto the letters conuocatorye of Paule the thyrde bishop of Rome, concernynge a general! councell. The preface urged readers to note Charles V's 'gentlenes' towards the bishop of Rome, 'that proude and wycked tyraunt'. This echoed the note struck by the tract itself, 74 Stephen Gardiner, A detection of the deuils sophistrie, wherwith he robbeth the unlearned people, of the true byleef, in the Sacrament of the aulter (London, 1546), Sig. A ii'. 75 These ben the ordynaunces that the emperour caused to be red to the estates (London, IS32?).

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which was one of dignified reproach. The Emperor reminded Paul III 'that all oure actions haue respecte vnto the profyte of the Christen publyke weale and that we alwaye haue done oure dylygence, that we myght remedye those euels whyche be proponed in youre letters, and chiefely haue applyed al oure care and studye that the Christen publyque weale myght be vnyted in a catholike Concorde.'76 No doubt the point was that Henry VIII might himself have said the same. The words of an emperor expressing both his high-minded Catholic zeal and his indignation at papal transgressions were tailor-made for the King's situation. They reinforced Henry's own pose as the sorrowful observer of papal iniquity. He might equally have uttered the Emperor's demand that the Pope repent and take responsibility for his mistakes. 'Let that sorowe be declared of you openly vnto all menne, whiche you shall take mooste iustely for so greate myseries wherewyth the Christen publique weale is vexed and conflycted.'77 Henrician Catholic apologists for the break with Rome could thus still hold on to some measure of doctrinal conservatism even as they endorsed Henrician evangelicalism, since for them the return to the Gospel was itself a return to tradition. This was perhaps reflected, albeit in a more private context, when Gardiner wrote to Thomas Smith, enforcing the decision that Greek pronunciation should not be changed at Cambridge. Smith and his associates had claimed that the pronunciation commonly used was corrupt, and should be restored to its ancient condition. Gardiner's reply took issue with his argument that the change was justifiable, but more importantly made it a question of public authority, categorizing the campaign as a form of radicalism for its own sake. His most damning criticism of Smith was that 'it was highly disgraceful for you, who are a professor of law, holding a position of public responsibility among your students, to request of me what it was not lawful for me to grant'.78 The scholarly detail of Gardiner's argument aside, the signficance of the letter is its attitude to change, in which it appealed to Erasmus. Consider the reply which Erasmus gave to Philip Melanchthon, a young man addicted to introducing innovations, when Melanchthon was making a proposal to him by letter that Scotus should be cast out . . . and that the whole scholastic theology should to that extent be overthrown. The wise 76 77 78

The answer of Charles the fyft Emperour . . . (London, 1543), Sig. a ij v . Ibid., Sig. b vv. Gardiner, Letters, no. 63, p. no.

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Erasmus replied that when he had determined upon a better theology to substitute for it, and not till then, would he consult about altering the scholastic theology.79 A subsequent letter to John Edmunds, the Vice-Chancellor, dealt sternly with those who had eaten flesh in Lent. 'I wyl not suffer the Universite with thiese dissolute maners to be corrupte,' wrote Gardiner. 'Londes have not been geven ne lectures founded for any such evel purpose.' And returning to the subject of Greek pronunciation, he noted how 'necessary it is to brydle the arrogance of yought', and appealing to the notion of uniformity. 'The Kinges Majestic hath, by the inspiration of the Holy goost, componed al matiers of religion; which uniformite I praye God it may in that and al other thinges extende unto us; and forgetting al that is past goo forth in agrement as though ther had been noo such matier.' He summed up with some vehemence. 'I wyl withstand fansyes, even in pronunciation, and fight with thenemye of quiet at the first entree.'80 This kind of conservatism was in no way diminished, but rather enhanced by Gardiner's reliance on the Royal Supremacy. The parameters of Catholic thought were being reconfigured. One interesting illustration of its new boundaries came from a work twice issued, in 1531 and again in 1553, to demonstrate Catholic orthodoxy. Its writer, William Barlow, was on both occasions required to repent of former Protestant convictions, and the work was taken as proof of conformity by both Henry VIII and Mary. His recantation of heresy and endorsement of true religion therefore makes interesting reading. He attacked Luther, not on grounds of his opposition to the Church, but because he was not scriptural enough, it being taken as read that true doctrine was defined by Scripture. Many thynges whyche are put forth vnder the tytle of the worde of God, is not his true worde in effecte, no more than all those whiche beare the name of Christen men, be not al chrysten men in trouth and dede. Man lyueth not onely by breade sayth scripture, but in euery worde that commeth oute of the mouth of god. Mark here christen reders the worde that procedeth oute of the mouth of God, to the which we oughte nother to adde, nor to take any thynge awaye from it.81 79

Ibid. 118. Ibid. 122. 81 William Barlow, A dyaloge descrybyng the orygynall ground of these Lutehan faccyons (London, 1531), Sig. A vir. 80

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Barlow condemned Luther's conclusions, but he did praise his initial objectives, since 'he toke in hande to preache the playne textes of scrypture, dysclosing the blyndnes of the worlde, and detectyng the faultes of al estates'.82 It was what happened next that was reprehensible. 'Then beganne he stoutly to fortefy his fayned fayth voyde of good workes, perswadynge lybertie and assuraunce of saluacion to the defacinge of charitable deedes and suppression of the drede of God.'83 Yet the initial aim had been a worthy one. And clearly, at Henry's Court in 1531, it was already permissible to uphold the claims of Scripture as the ultimate authority in religious matters. On the issue of giving an English Bible to the people he opined that those who genuinely desired the spread of Scripture would forego it rather than see it abused: Our question is not whether it be lawfull to let them haue it: but whether it be vnlawfull to kepe them from it, and whether of the twayn is more mete and more expedyent, specyally for the tyme that nowe is, the people beyng dysposed as they now be ... But if euer the tyme come, as I praye god it may, in whyche the people shall be so good and so godly dysposed that an englysshe byble should do good in theyr handes: yet might Tyndals translacyon in no wyse be suffered.84 There was, then, a commitment to vernacular Scripture which stopped far short of Protestantism. There was also a commitment to reform: 'yf we wyll putte awaye all lutheranes and all suche open heresyes, we muste fyrste putte awaye many other synnes, whiche haue broughte those heresyes in'.8' Scriptural reform was already assuming the guise of orthodoxy, then, in the year this work appeared. That such a work was produced in the climate of 1531 is not perhaps entirely surprising. More unexpected, is that it was again issued to prove Barlow's orthodoxy in 1553. The new preface explained that the work had been written to counter Lutheranism: 'for the discharge of his owne conscience, instruction, and information of suche as be catholike, he thoughte it necessary playnely to shewe the veritie thereof.'86 It was only to be expected that the Marian regime would want to discredit Lutheranism, but it was interesting that they chose such a work with which to achieve this end. The willingness of the two regimes to 82 85

Ibid., Sig. C iii'. Ibid., Sig. H vii1'.

83 86

Ibid., Sig. C iiii\ Ibid. (1553), preface.

84

Ibid., Sig. L viiv-viiir.

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accept this work on both these occasions gives some indication of the breadth available within Catholicism to those who took an approach both reforming and orthodox. Gardiner's De Vera Obedientia had also made it clear that the Royal Supremacy and the task of reform went hand in hand. The rejection of papal supremacy was a key component in an array of different changes, all of which could be broadly described in terms of a rejection of superstition and a return to Scripture. Gardiner gave a description of how light had dawned upon all thinking men, a description which, whilst it perhaps displayed best the obsequiousness of this royal servant, also illustrated the way in which Henry VIII wanted his reform of the Church to be understood. And I doubt not / but many bothe learned / graue / and right good men were in the self same / or not muche vnlike thought that I was in: and wher they haue ben tangled with a certain folishe and cankred vile supersticion / and haue wrastled against the truthe / of a longe time / this aduised consideracion hathe pulled awaye all their scrupulous doubles / and by the workinge of Goddes grace / hathe conueyed and brought them in to the light of the true veritie.87 The immediate corollary of the return to Scripture was the need for religious regeneration. The Erasmian emphasis upon inner conviction rather than outward display was perpetuated—reform had to be sincere, and it was a matter for society at large, not something for scholars to argue over. Cuthbert Tunstall issued a reminder of this in 1539 in a stern Lenten sermon which echoed some of the anti-scholastic sentiment of earlier years, giving it fresh relevance to more recent religious disputes. We doo professe the fayth of Chryste, and doo speke of the gospell with our mouthe, and haue the booke ofte in our handes, but we lerne it not, as we shulde do, for the gospel is gyuen to vs to know god thereby, and to be a rule to lyue by, but we moche do talke of it, which is very well done, and yet we nothinge regard to amende our lyues therby, and to lyue as it byddeth vs, but we do vse the gospell, as if it were a boke of problemes to dyspute vppon, and care not to amende our lyuynge, as it teacheth us, whiche shall be to our great punyshement.88 87

Gardiner, De Vera Obedientia, in Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State, 69. Cuthbert Tunstall, A Sermon of Cuthbert Byshop ofDuresme, made upon Palme sondaye . . . (London, 1539), Sig. E viiv. 88

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With a King anxious to reform, and prove that his policies were inspired by Scripture, a concrete reform programme had become a real possibility. The rhetoric of reform therefore took on new dynamism. One popular work in the 15305 was the translation of a sermon by Savonarola, which was published at least twelve times between 1534 and 1542. This borrowing of the words of a man who was both a Dominican friar and an evangelical was curiously appropriate to the Henrician reformation, and the publication of work by Savonarola during Mary's reign confirms that he should be seen within the context of Catholic pietism.89 His commentary on Psalm 51, verse 19, looked to a future when the reform of the Church would have been achieved: the people shall begynne to lyue well, to kepe thy commaundementes and to deal iustly and so shall thy people be endued with thy benefytes and blessynge. Than shall the oblations of the prestes and of the clergie be acceptable vnto the, for they shall forsake theyr carnall afection and endeauoure them selues vnto a more perfyte lyfe / and so shall the oyntement of thy blessyng descende vpon theyr heades. Than shall the brente offerynges of the relygyous be pleasaunt to thee / for they shal cast out al drousy sluggyshnes and false confydence, and be holy enflamed and made parfyte with the burnyng fyer of goddes loue. Than shal the byshoppes and preachers put calues vpon thyne altare, for after they are consummate in all kynde of vertues replenyshed with the holy spirite they shal nat feare to gyue theyr lyues for theyr shepe.90 With a concrete reform programme actually unfolding within the realm, priorities were rearranged within the written works which were giving expression to reformist hopes. The scholarly enthusiasms were still there, but often it was the reform objectives that became paramount. The evangelical purpose was more strongly felt. The sermon by Savonarola asked for strength to bring about conversion. 'Ascribe nat this Lorde vnto presumpcion yf I go about to teach the vngodly thy wayes for I desyre nat to teache as I nowe am wycked / vngodly and vnder the bondes of synne, but yf thou make me agayne to reioyse in thy sauynge helthe: yf thou strengthen me with 89

Girolamo Savonarola, An exposition after the maner of a contemplacyon (London, 1558); McConica, English Humanists and Reformation Politics, 278; but see also B. Gordon, '"This Worthy Witness of Christ": Protestant Uses of Savonarola in the Sixteenth Century', in idem., Protestant History and Identity in Sixteenth-Century Europe, i (Aldershot, 1996). 90 Savonarola, An exposycyon after the maner of a contemplation upon the li Psalme (London, 1539), Sig. E ij v .

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a princypall spirite and yf also thou set me fre / than shall I teache the vngodly thy wayes.'91 Savonarola had had little respect for the more exalted pursuits of the Renaissance world, and had condemned the apparent revival of paganism involved. Yet his condemnation of worldly wisdom, although it went against the humanist respect for classical thinkers, fitted well into the antischolastic and pious framework of the time. The most curious serchers of the worlde (I meane the wyse men of this world) lyfted up theyr eyes above heuen and yet coulde nat fynde this thy wysedome / for thou haste hyd these thynges from the wyse and prudent and hast opened them vnto babes / that is / to humble fysshers and thy holy Prophetes whiche also have vttered them vnto vs . . . the Philosophers whan they knew god by his meruelous creatures they glorified hym nat as god neyther were thankefull / but vexed full of vanities in theyr ymaginacyons and theyr folysshe hertes were blynded. Whan they counted them selues wyse / they became fooles.92 The hope was that the simple truth could be taught which was no respecter of worldly wisdom and the learning which blinded men to God: than wyl I teache the wycked thy wayes nat the wayes of Plato and Aristotle / nat the intricate and sotle proposycyons of mannes wytte / nat the instructyons of phylosophye, nat the paynted wordes and vayne coloures of the rethoricans. Nat worldly maters and policyes, nat vnfrutful wayes of vanite / nat wayes that leade men into dethe. But thy wayes and thy precepts whiche leade vnto lyfe.93 Henrician Catholicism absorbed and developed this kind of piety in its discussion of reform, and in so doing endorsed the official approach to religious alteration. The rhetoric of the Henrician reforms was that no changes were made for their own sake: superstition was to be driven out, at times with violence, yet there was to be no radical rebuttal of ancient practice. Aspects of traditional religion remained perfectly acceptable as long as they could be fitted into a more reformed and biblical framework of explanation. One example of this is given by the prayers called the 'Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget', a popular part of pre-Reformation devotion.94 The primer of 1538 noted the 91

Ibid., Sig. D ir. 92 Ibid., Sig. B iiv-B iijr. 93 Ibid., Sig. D ijr. J. Rhodes, 'Syon Abbey and its Religious Publications in the Sixteenth Century', JEH 44 (1993), 13—14. For a discussion of the treatment of the 'Fifteen Oes' by a succession of the mid-Tudor primers, see H. C. White, The Tudor Books of Private Devotion (Madison, Wis., 1951), 216-29. 94

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abuse of these prayers that had been common in former times. 'These xv Prayers folowynge / called commonly the xv Oos, are set forthe in dyuers latyn Prymers, with goodly paynted prefaces, promysynge to the sayers therof many thynges both folyshe and false, as the delyuerance of xv soules out of Purgatory, with other lyke vanyties.' It went on to heartily encourage the correct use of such prayers, however: 'yet are the prayers selfe ryght good and vertuous, yf they be sayde without any suche superstitious trust or blynde confydence. And therfore are they called the prayers of Saynt Brygide, because that holy vyrgyn vsed dayly to saye them (as many wryte) before the ymage of the Crosse, in Saynte Paules churche at Rome'.95 This approach was part of a general Henrician attitude towards traditional practices, and it was one gratefully assimilated by Catholic writers. It was in these kinds of terms that Cuthbert Tunstall was able to assert the value of the sign of the cross, in his Palm Sunday sermon of 1539. This deth of the crosse was the worst deathe, that the Jewes coulde imagyne for hym to dye, but yet Christe dyd chose this death, and intended to make it to be his signe, And to make of it his badge, that all men beleuynge in hym, shulde in their forheaddes make his sygne of the crosse, as it was prophecied and fygured before in the ix chapiter of Ezechiel: and glorie in the crosse of Christe. As saynct Paule in the last chapiter to the Galathies sayth. God forbyd, that I shuld glorie in any thinge, but in the crosse of oure lorde Jesu Christe.96 Catholic thought could not only absorb the imperatives of the Henrician reformation, it could even relish them. Catholic acceptance of the Royal Supremacy was only unprincipled if we assume that there was a clear-cut choice between religious alternatives in the 15308 and 15405, and that a definite understanding of Catholic orthodoxy was widely understood and available. If, on the other hand, Catholicism was undergoing its own reformation during this period, then such condemnation is surely inappropriate. In the Erasmian atmosphere of Henry VIII's court it was possible to be both Catholic and evangelical; to welcome vernacular Scripture even while defending the Mass; to insist on the saving power of faith although retaining good works within the salvific process. The break with Rome defeated 95 96

Primer of 1538, Sig. G viii v . Tunstall, Sermon . . . made upon Palme somlaye, Sig. A viii1'.

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neither humanism nor Catholicism in England; instead it gave both a new lease of life, whilst Henry VIII's own vision confirmed the reformist Catholic agenda and gave it a firm foothold within vernacular culture.

3 The Henrician Legacy Here fyrste of all it is to be obserued, that no dede nor worke that is doone by man without faithe, can euer helpe hym to heuen, for lyke as a man, that runneth out of the race, where the course is sette, though he runne neuer so faste, wynneth no game, so a man that doth good dedes morall, without faithe, deserueth of god no rewarde. For without faithe it is impossible to please god as sayncte Paule saith . . .' ONE of the many results of Henry VIII's church policy was a reshaping of English Catholic thought in line with his objectives. Chapter 2 discussed the range of reform ideas which became common currency among Henrician writers, and the ideological shifts within Catholicism which were both cause and consequence of Henry VIII's religious policies. This chapter looks more closely at the impact these developments had upon the understanding of certain doctrines in the reigns of both Henry VIII and Edward VI. The attempt to rediscover the truths of Scripture, to extirpate superstition and restore a proper understanding of the faith all had an effect upon the substance of Catholic belief. The ideology of reform, which had become so deep-rooted in Catholic thought, was in turn changing the ways in which Catholic writers addressed questions of theology. This change was a necessary corollary of the new emphasis upon Scripture, and the Henrician adoption of a humanist approach to religion. Even where traditional doctrines were retained unchanged, they had now to be justified and explained rather differently, with far more reliance on literal interpretation of Scripture and the early Church Fathers, and with an eye to the reform of superstition. There were also some new emphases to be included within works on doctrine. In particular, there was a strong emphasis on the importance of faith. The trumpeting of inner faith over outward works became a badge of the new orthodoxy. The paramount necessity of faith for salvation became a central feature of theological works, alongside an Augustinian preoccupation with the unworthiness of 1

Cuthbert Tunstall, A Sermon . . . made upon Palme sondaye (London, 1539), Sig. E viii1.

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man as contrasted with the grace of God. This view of faith seems to have been understood as an essential part of the process of reform to which so many Catholic writers were now subscribing. It was in part a continuation of humanist emphases which had already begun to appear before the break with Rome, and it was also able to draw on the literary expressions of the devotio moderna. It formed a part of the attempt to counter the empty gestures of outward religious display and replace them with genuine inner piety which was so central to the philosophia Christi of Erasmus. In short, earnest eulogies on the importance of Scripture and faith became an intrinsic part of both devotion and learning. No book which sought success was complete without some measure of this evangelical enthusiasm. Where faith was taking a central place in Catholic belief, the central part of Catholic practice was still the Mass. In the religious works of the 15308 and 15408 these two central features were able to converge. The reformed view of faith and salvation, and the increasingly felt need to justify doctrine on scriptural grounds, both had their effect on Catholic understanding of the Mass. In no way did the Mass, often the central preoccupation of pre-Reformation literature, diminish in importance within English Catholic thought; indeed in many ways it increased in importance as it became one of the chief targets of Protestant attack. Adherence to the Mass, in the turbulent years while the Reformation was unfolding, remained the single most important indicator of Catholic identity. Yet Catholic writing on the Mass also reflected the reforming impulses which were at work in these years. Discussions of the two main doctrines of the Mass—as sacrament and as sacrifice—incorporated the new understanding of scriptural authority and displayed the views on faith which were becoming so much of an established feature. At the very heart of Catholic loyalties, therefore, there were significant shifts within the intellectual understanding of the faith. This chapter also draws some comparisons between the two strands of reformed thinking which would eventually mature into more fixed formulations of Catholic and Protestant doctrine. By looking at the common reform objectives, and some of the shared assumptions about religious authority, this chapter notes some of the initial similarities between early English Protestantism and reformist Catholicism. There was, in particular, a close likeness between the two emerging traditions in their approach to Scripture and Church tradition and their emphasis upon faith. It is important to stress that

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these similarities did not diminish the separate identities and the lasting antagonism between different schools of thought in Henrician and Edwardian England. Studies of the machinations at the Tudor Court reveal that different groupings swiftly acquired 'conservative' or 'evangelical' religious labels, and could develop lasting enmities based upon those singularities. These differences of religious identity, however, were not always based upon as clear a difference of belief as is usually expected. Despite the widening gulf, there were still a large number of shared religious attitudes which were common ground for both early Protestants and Catholic reformers. These produced similarities, not just in outlook, but also in doctrine, which emphasize the common foundations—humanist, evangelical, and reforming—of two distinctively English schools of religious thought. The effect of these common origins had been further compounded by the effect of the Royal Supremacy. By taking the headship of the Church, Henry had to a certain extent put England in religious quarantine. The Supremacy alienated foreign Protestants almost as much as Catholics—Luther thought Henry as bad as the Pope in his assumption of power, and Calvin thought the notion sacrilegious. This helped to isolate English thinkers, in part, from continental developments, and encouraged the distinctiveness of their religious understanding. Certainly the works written at this time strongly suggest that the development of religious ideas during the reigns of Henry and Edward was an intricate and scholarly process, far more complex than is often appreciated, where religious labels often fail to indicate the wealth of intellectual possibilities that were available. Authority At the heart of the Reformation controversies lurked the complex question of religious authority: how true doctrine was to be properly identified and correctly taught.2 It remains a common misconception that the difference between Catholics and Protestants in the Reformation can be simply described in terms of their rival authorities. The view is often expressed that the divide between Catholic and Protestant was based on the appeal of the first to the tradition of the church (incorporating, of course, the authority of the papacy) and the second to Scripture. With separate ideas of authority, 2

G. R. Evans, Problems of Authority in the Reformation Debates (Cambridge, 1992).

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there could be no common understanding of the faith. By the end of the century it may indeed have been possible to caricature the two positions in this way. At the beginning of the century, however, there was a far greater range of views on authority, which provided some common ground between reforming Catholics and early Protestants. It is true that the appeal to tradition, over and above the authority of Scripture, was one possible line of Catholic argument, and one recently voiced in the polemics of the 15208. It was not, however, the accepted line of all Catholic apologists of the age. By developing the ideas of the humanists, or even the conciliarists, alternative lines of argument became available to Catholic writers. It has to be remembered that when Christian humanists first started talking about reform, the possibility of schism and division had not crossed their minds. Nor was criticism of the papacy in any way unusual; the reputation of the papacy was poor, and conciliarism was still a lively enough possibility to merit formal papal condemnation in a bull of 1516. There was a general call for improvement, and the humanists did not think to bring about upheaval by answering that call. By the 15305 the problems posed by schism were all too evident, and yet in some degree humanist idealism was perpetuated by those who participated in the evangelical enthusiasm of the time. Starkey in 1536 was still maintaining the humanist line, arguing that the pursuit of Christian truth would be enough to ensure perfect unity and concord.3 This kind of vision of the future still hovered behind many of the works being written for the purposes of reform: than I truste we shall as membres of one body coupled to gether with the heuenly knotte of charytie, vsynge this lyfe as a meane to lyfe, and as a pylgrimage, with one consent, sure faythe, and certayne hope, onely by the benefite of our heuenly heed, and by his mere goodnes and lyberalytie, and nothynge by our owne merytes, loke to attayne the trewe lyfe with sure comforte and ioye, wherof this is but as a shadowe and an image: the whiche yf you doo moste Christian people, this I dare say and boldly to you affirme, that all be it we never hereafter knowe nother pope nor cardynall, no nor yet here of counsel generall of all Christian nations, yet may we, liuynge togyther in faythfull loue and charitable vnite, lighted by the spirit of god and his heuenly doctrine, hangynge onely vpon his benefyte, passe this lyfe in mooste pure and perfyte christianitie.4 3

T. Mayer, Thomas Starkey and the Commonweal: Humanist Politics and Religion in the Reign of Henry VIII (Cambridge, 1989). 4 Thomas Starkey, An exhortation to the people (London, 1536), fo. 8yr~v.

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There was an evangelical conviction at large that the future would be a better place, based on firm confidence in the regenerating powers of Scripture. The Enchiridion of Erasmus, first translated into English in 1533, put total confidence in the strength imparted by biblical study. 'Byleue me well brother . . . there is none so great violence of they foes / that is to saye / none so great temptacion, whiche feruent study or meditacion of holy scripture / is not able to put abacke / nor any so greuous adversite, which it maketh not easy.'5 The return ad fontes—to the well-spring of Christian truth—was appealed to as the solution to all problems. Of course, as the century progressed, disillusionment set in fast. Differing interpretations of Scripture and the Fathers were found to be irreconciliable. Plaintive complaints that all that was necessary was a return to the Bible gave way to the emergence of entrenched Protestant and Catholic positions, which settled on contrasting claims as to their view of religious authorities. Protestants asserted the principle of sola scriptum, and Catholics countered this with an appeal to the tradition of the Church and the authority of the papacy. Yet in the formative years of the English Reformation, these two positions had not yet been adopted to the exclusion of all others. Early Protestantism developed in England alongside reformist Catholicism. Despite their contrasting claims, the common roots of both groupings within humanist soil meant that in practice there was more similarity in approach than either side cared to admit. Both continued to owe a great deal to the humanist methodology and to rely heavily on the supporting statements of the early Fathers and councils. And although Catholic thinkers were eventually to come to rely much more heavily on papal authority, in the first part of the century they continued to give predominance to Scripture and the early Church in a manner which brought them close to their more Protestant contemporaries. This view of Scripture shaped the Catholic understanding of 'church'. Catholic works would often make appeals to the authority of the Church, but it was clear from the context that they saw this as something subsidiary to Scripture, and defined by it. Rather than being a higher or a separate authority, they saw the Church's authority as integrated with and working alongside that of the Bible. This was the Henrician usage, as shown, for example, in the attempts by the various Henrician formulations of doctrine to make a decision over prayers for the dead. The Ten Articles, the 'Bishop's Book' and 5

Erasmus, Enchiridion, RETS 282, ed. A. M. O'Donnell (Oxford, 1981), 44.

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the 'King's Book', all defended prayers for the dead from the same set of authorities, 'as due order of charity requireth, and the Book of Maccabees, and divers ancient doctors plainly shewen, that it is a very good and charitable deed to pray for souls departed, and forasmuch also as such usage hath continued in the church so many years, even from the beginning'.6 Although Scripture and the practice of the early Church was of paramount importance, the general practice of the Church could also be a source of justification. At times, Catholic works would perpetuate the idea that such continuity with the accepted beliefs of the church could be an indicator of true doctrine. In attacks on the Protestants they would remind readers of how the church offered the guarantee of a true interpretation of Scripture. Thus, Gardiner summed up his address to his readers in 1546 with an exhortation not to trust their own judgement too far, but to rest on the consent of the church. 'Finally, reade, when thou readest, with fauour to that truth which the consent of Christes Church hath from the beginnyng commended vnto vs; and reuerently at theyr handes receyue the true vnderstandynge of Scriptures, whose true testimonie hath certified vs of the selfe same Scriptures.'7 At first sight this passage would appear to be an orthodox appeal to church tradition. However, the understanding of the Church used in these Catholic works was a reformed one which, although frequently—and usefully—imprecise, still gave an important emphasis with its idea of a spiritual rather than institutional body. It was not just that it refused all sense of papal authority, or played down the significance of more recent church pronouncements in favour of the early Church's views. It provided instead a definition of the Church as the consensus of belief. This made use of the approach characterized by the fifth-century Vincentian canon—quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est ('what has been believed everywhere, always, and by everyone'.) This was to view the Church as a set of beliefs, rather than as an established institution. It is perhaps significant that St Vincent of Lerins, who gave the Church these criteria for Christian truth, always maintained that the final foundation for belief was always Scripture, and that the authority of the Church was secondary in importance.8 Certainly this view of the Church in the works of reformist Catholics, remained both vague, 6 C. Lloyd (ed.), Formularies of Faith put forward by authority during the reign of Henry VIII (Oxford, 1856), 16, 210, 375. 7 Stephen Gardiner, A detection of the deuih sophistrie (London, 1546), Sig. A ii'. 8 ODCC 1442.

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and second in importance to truth defined by Scripture. By the end of the century, appeals to 'the judgement of the Church' usually meant the contemporary Church, including the papacy, placing the authority of church tradition on a par with that of Scripture. Reformers, however, were appealing to the primitive Church, or to this more hazy notion of church consensus, and even then only as an authority inferior to Scripture. This consensual notion of the Church was perhaps most frequently given expression in discussions of the 'mystical body of Christ', which remained a usefully unspecific term. This was a concept central to the work of Erasmus, who also had an understanding of church consensus as a source of authority. He voiced this in the work written for Sir Thomas Boleyn in 1533, where a disciple asks his master how the true Church may be known from any other. The master gives him four signs to look for. The fyrst is the authorite of the olde Synodes / namely approued and alowed by the perpetuall and contynuall consente and agremente of so many sondry ages / or tymes / and of so many diuersc nations / nexte afther this is ye authorite of the interpretoures or cxpositoures / whome for theyr holynesse the churche hath cononized / and whose bokes the same church hath approued and allowed not so yt it is not lawfull in some poyntes to dissente and disagree from them (for theyr selues do sometymes disagree not onely one of them from another / but also doo vary from theyr owne selues) but that theyr bokes are to be redde with reuerence. And that which they do teach not rashely and undiscretely to be rejected and refused. The same (I suppose) is to be thoughte and iudged of the good and approued companyes of diuines / whose contynuall laboure and studie is to fynde out / and to brynge forthe to vs the secrete and hydde trouthe / out of the diuine scriptures. Thyrdly the bredthe or largenesse is to be consydered / for neuer hathe ony heresy spredde so large / as hath the Catholike doctrine. Laste of all the maner of lyuynge is to be well aduised / and some what nere loked on.9

The significance of this passage for the endeavours of the Henrician Church is crucial, illustrating the potential of the reformist view on authority. The emphasis on old synods diminished the importance of the contemporary Church; disagreement with the fathers had to be measured, but was allowed; the true interpretation of Scripture was made a scholarly, not a papal matter, and perhaps most radically, 9 Erasmus, A playne and godly exposytion or declaration of the commune Crede (London, 1533), fos. io6v-ioyr.

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good living was made a necessary sign of the true Church. Henry VIIFs reforms of the Church took all these points on board. Its decisions on doctrine were made by 'good and approued companyes of diuines', and based on appeals to the early Church. It also based much of its self-justification on its abolition of supersitious abuses, and its campaign for moral worth. By so doing, it entrenched these notions in the English understanding of the true Church, affecting both Catholic and Protestant viewpoints. It was because English Catholics learned to feel safe with this notion of the Church, that the Elizabethan Catholic bishops, opposing the introduction of heresy laws in 1559, included the safeguard that doctrines derived from the first four Councils could not be held to be heretical.10 This was where they had learned to locate Catholic doctrine. Humanist writings, then, used Scripture and the early Church as their authorities, in a way which became the trademark of reformed Catholic writers as the century unfolded, and which was to render their work strikingly similar in approach to that of early English Protestants with the same humanist inheritance. In the early years of reformation, rather than anticipate later polarization, we should take note of the common methodology employed by reformers of both persuasions. There were, of course, more traditional Catholics, who were wary of giving such total predominance to Scripture. There were also more radical Protestants, who were wary of allowing the Church Fathers too much authority. Between these two more extreme positions, however, there was a broad middle ground, in many ways, the ground on which the English Reformation was constructed. This ground was the foundation for Henrician reforms, but was also employed to justify Edwardian changes, the Marian restoration, and played its part too in the Elizabethan Settlement. Time and time again, Tudor government used this notion of religious authority— scriptural, reforming, and yet moderate—to justify their religious policies. It was the justification for the Ten Articles as much as the Six Articles of Henry VIII. Time after time, those attempting to resist unwelcome change sought refuge in Scripture and the early Church. It was a universally recognized definition of where Christian truth was to be found. This view of authority therefore became a standard part of English Catholic thought. Attempts to prove a doctrinal point would usually 10 N. Jones, 'Elizabeth's First Year', in C. Haigh (ed.), The Reign of Elizabeth (London, i9%4), 44-5-

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work through a hierarchy of available authorities. Scripture would almost always be cited first, with evangelical vigour. Thomas Paynell published his translation of a sermon by St Cyprian in 1539, which began with characteristic praise of the Gospel. 'The Preceptes of the Gospell moste louynge bretherne, are none other thing, than diuine techinges, the foundations of edifyenge hope, the sure groundes of fortifyenge faith, the nourysshmentes to cheryshe the harte, the stere to directe our iourney, and the firme defences to opteyne salvation.'11 Whitford acknowledged in his work of 1532 that heretics were made more dangerous because they appeared to be arguing from Scripture: 'their reasons . . . done seme to be suerly grounded vpon scripture. And by reason therof / they ben the more ieopardous: more subtylly done decyue / and more perilously done poyson the simple and vnlerned soules'.12 Gardiner, discussing predestination in 1546, pointed out how the literal interpretation of Scripture, which he accepted as a necessary foundation for any belief, left him with an apparent contradiction: 'where scripture signifieth to me gods prouidence and predestination, which shulde seeme to take a waye, and be repugnaunt to the free choice of man, forasmuch as the scriptures be neuerthelesse in that matter of fre choyce, also euidente, I must beleue bothe to be true . . . although I can not set them together.'13 The words of Christ were always the most revered authority, but the words of St Paul followed close behind. When Colet spoke to convocation he said, 'I knowe nat where more conueniently to take begynnyng of my tale / than of the apostle Paule / in whose temple ye are gethered to gether. For he writynge vnto the Romanes / and vnder their name vnto you saith: Be you nat conformed to this worlde.'14 When, in Erasmus's exposition of the Creed, the disciple asked the master which was the way into the house of God, he replied 'Saynct Paule sheweth it / that heuenly doctour . . . He that cometh to god (saythe he) must belyue.'15 11

A Sermon of S. Cyprian (London, 1539), trans. Thomas Paynell, Sig. A ii'. Richard Whitford, The Pype / or Tonne / of the lyfe of perfection (London, 1532), fo. iiii''. 13 Stephen Gardiner, A Declaration of such true articles as. George loye hath gone about to confute as fake (London, 1546), fo. XXVT. 14 John Colet, The sermon . . . made to the Conuocation (London, 1530?), Sig. A iiiT-A iiii'. 15 Erasmus, A playne and godly exposytion, fo. 4". 12

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The lesson of Scripture was not necessarily held to be easily accessible. When Thomas Elyot wrote A Preservative agaynste deth, he urged that humility be used in the reading of the Bible. 'Humbly therfore and simply reade and heare holy scripture, not presumyng, that thou vnderstandest every thyng that thou doest reade, whiche to other seemeth darke, but often tymes, if thou maiest, consulte with theim, whiche be syncerely exercised therein, or with the bokes of most aunciente and catholike doctours.'16 The rediscovery of Scripture was still regarded as a scholarly matter. Yet this did not lessen the evangelical fervour which put Scripture as the central pivot of Christian life, and for Elyot, made the Bible the 'preservative' of his title. 'Many mo spyces maie bee founde in holy scripture, to make a preseruative, more holsome for mans soule than tryakle [treacle] is for the body, and will lengar preserue it: but suche as this is, being often tymes vsed, shall preserue the sense of the soule frome corruption, and than shal she not die.'17 The construction of Catholic argument, therefore, took on the form used by Henrician formulations of doctrine. Even the 'Bishop's Book' of 1537, which put more emphasis on following Scripture to the exclusion of other considerations, still instructed Christian men that they 'must take and interpretate all the same things according to the selfsame sentence and interpretation which the words of scripture do purport and signify, and the holy approved doctors of the church do entreat and defend the same.'18 The Ten Articles, commanding adherence to the three Creeds, told the people that 'they ought and must utterly refuse and condemn all those opinions contrary to the said articles, which were of long time past condemned in the four holy councils, that is to say, in the council of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedonense'.19 The use of a hierarchy of authorities, as it became entrenched in government formulations, became established within Catholic writing. To look, for example, to the debate of 1551, where Stephen Gardiner was countering Cranmer's argument about the Sacrament, we find this technique used to support Catholic doctrine and defy the Protestant view that the bread and wine were merely a sign or symbol of Christ's flesh and blood. Gardiner's response gave a firm 16 17 18 19

Thomas Elyot, A Preservative agaynste delh, (London, 1545), Sig. D iiii'. Ibid., Sig. Ev. Lloyd (ed.), Formularies of Faith, 61. Ibid. 6.

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assertion of both his belief on this issue, and the means by which he supported that belief. First there is no scripture that in lettre mainteineth the doctrin of this auctors boke. For Christ saith not that the bread doth only signify his bodie absent, nor sainct Paul sayth not so in any place, ne any other canonical scripture declareth Christes wordes so. As for the sence and vnderstandyng of Christes wordes, there hath not been in any age any one approued and knowen learned man, that hath so declared and expounded Christes wordes in his supper, that the bread did only signify Christes bodie, and the wyne his bloud, as thynges absent.20

He then went on to give a list of the patristic sources he intended to use in support of this point. These were Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin, Ireneus, Tertullian, Cyprian, Chrysostom, Hilary, Gregory of Nazianzus, Basil, Eusebius of Emesa, Ambrose, Cyril, Jerome, Augustine, John of Damascus, and Theophylact. It should be noted that Gardiner gave these in chronological order, and that all but the last two lived in the first five centuries AD. It could be said that this approach was merely a defensive Catholic adoption of a Protestant technique, in order to defeat them at their own game. To assume this is rather to imply that two coherent and neatly delineated bodies of belief sprang up fully formed right at the beginning of the Reformation process, and that any resemblance between them could only be the result of self-conscious mimicry, for polemical purposes. This was certainly not true of the English experience. The reliance on Scripture and the example of the early Church was becoming an essential part of Catholic thought before the threat of Protestantism appeared. Moreover, an appeal to these authorities was used just as much by Thomas More in his vitriolic condemnation of Tyndale as by Gardiner in his more moderate attempts to defend Henrician Catholicism. It would seem that the ways in which early reformers viewed religious authorities was based on an understanding inherited from the Christian humanists. The testimony of the primitive Church had been sought in the return ad fontes, long before the development of the confessional divide.

2(1 Gardiner, An explication and assertion of the true Catholique fayth (Rouen, 1551), Sig. B'-B ij r .

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Doctrine From these developing ideas about authority came new ideas and emphases concerning doctrine. One of the most essential elements in the array of reform ideas current from the 15305 onwards was the emphasis on faith. The humanist emphasis on saving grace—part of the rejection of outward ceremony in favour of inner conviction— was strengthened and expanded by Catholic authors writing after the break with Rome, with ramifications for Catholic thought on the issue of justification. This question of justification has often been viewed as the most important Protestant doctrine, and also the most divisive Reformation issue.21 It is instructive, therefore, to observe the extent to which English Catholic works of this time were equally concerned with issues of justification and salvation. Even more interesting is the way in which humanist influences seem to have created a reformed view of salvation, which at times brought the expression of Catholic ideas on the subject very close to some of the early Protestant formulations. Even in this, one of the most contentious areas of doctrine, there was much common ideological advance. The foundations for this approach had been set in place before the break with Rome. In part they were Erasmian. The Enchiridion had emphasized the necessity of becoming part of the 'mystical body of Christ' through faith, in which mankind, otherwise desperately inadequate, became regenerate. 'Take hede therfore that thou be a membre of the body, and thou shalt be able to do al thynges in the power of the heed. In thy selfe thou art very weyke / in hym thou art valyaunt / and nothynge is there, that thou art not able to do.'22 The contrast between the ideas of man and the ideas of God was always made stark. 'For there is no doctryne of man, whiche is not defyled with some blacke spot of errour / onely the doctryne of Christ is euerywhere bright / euery where pure and clene.'23 The reliance had therefore to be on Christ, and the gift of faith. Yet human effort was also involved. 'Thou must thanke hym all togyder for the victory . . . But this victory shal not come without thyne owne diligence also / for he that sayd / have confydence, I have overcomen the worlde / wold have the to be of a good comfort / but not careles and necligent.'24 The truth could 21 A. McGrath, lustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification (2 vols.; Cambridge, 1986). 22 Erasmus, Enchiridion, 41. 23 Ibid. 44. 24 Ibid. 41.

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be found in Scripture, 'but thou muste ever remembre in the meane season / that holy scripture may not be touched but with clene and wasshen handes / that is to vnderstande / but with high purenesse of mynde'.25 The Erasmian approach took as its foundation the exhilaration of rediscovered Scripture, and within that brought together both a reliance on Christ through faith and a regenerated personal piety. This type of approach soon became widespread in vernacular religious literature. By 1530, there existed a view of faith which combined an evangelical enthusiasm with a retention of essentially Catholic notions of salvation. It was not a watered-down version of the Lutheran doctrine of 'justification by faith alone', but a separate understanding of the importance of faith which incorporated the value of good works even whilst stressing the necessity of radical renewal and rebirth. The work of 1530, The declaracyon and power of the Chrysten fayth, gives an indication of the foundation for this approach. This anonymous treatise was full of reformed elements. It began by proclaiming the centrality of Scripture as the only way to salvation. 'For as moche as the holy Scrypture is a mooste precyous Juwell / and commeth thorowe grace, vnto them whiche receaue it in fayth, thorowe the holy ghost, the whiche doth teache, and leade us to that euerlastynge lyfe, which word also is very Crhyst [sic] hym selfe.'26 It made it clear that no other route was acceptable. 'Now he that entreth not in by this dore into the shepe folde, but clymeth vp some other way, the same is a thefe and a robber.'27 Righteousness was described as a gift from Christ to the elect, secured by faith. 'Further ryghtwysnes, yt is purchased by Chryst, which also hath promysed it to all his elect, thorowe perfyte fayth in his blode.'28 Such expressions might seem a straightforward endorsement of the 'Protestant' idea of justification by faith alone. The writer explained that most people were ignorant of the righteousness of God, 'bycause we seke it not by fayth, but as it were by our good workes'.29 Salvation came only through faith. 'For fayth in God the father thorowe our lorde Jesus Chryst accordynge to the couenantes and appoyntement made betwene god and vs is our saluacyon.'30 Yet this 25 26 27 28 29 3(1

Ibid. 48. Anon., The declaracyon and power of the Chrysten fayth (London, 1530?), Sig. A if. Ibid., Sig. A if. Ibid., Sig. B iip. Ibid., Sig. B iv'. Ibid., Sig. B ¥.

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work was far from being Protestant. The insistence on the necessity of good works was of equal weight to the stress on the need for faith, for 'althoughe we fast, praye, and do neuer so moche it can not help vs, so longe as we deny hym with our dedes, and are abhomynable, and disobedyent to god, and his holy worde.'31 The idea of salvation based on good works was therefore roundly condemned. 'The worlde sayeth that they knowe god with theyr good workes, the which is none other, but the preceptes of men . . . and with them turne they men from the truth.' And yet good works were still an essential part of the process of salvation, for the same passage goes on 'Why make ye your booste of me (sayth christ) and say, Lorde, Lorde, and do not that which I commaund you.'32 The good works envisaged, however, were those of the spirit, such as love, joy and peace. 'Who soeuer is voyde of these and foloweth not them, so is he no tree of the holy spyryte, nor yet none of his planttes, although he be bysshop docter, parson etc. ye although he can preache, and teache, and prate neuer so goodly of the scrypture.'33 This work could not, then, be truly described as Protestant. It might best be regarded as 'evangelical'; certainly it even appealed to the idea of being 'born again', 'for you must vnderstand that we are borne a new, not of mortall sede, but of immortall by the worde of god, whiche is sent vs from heauen'.34 In its emphasis upon Scripture and renewal, its view of salvation as dependent on faith, and yet its insistence on moral regeneration and the fulfilment of God's commandments, it was characteristic of the approach which was both evangelical and Catholic in its various elements, and which was to exert a strong influence on subsequent Catholic writing on this subject. It also drew on ideas of the imitatio Christi, to make its point about combining a reliance on faith with the performance of good works. 'Go to then and desyre god to prynte this profession of the christen fayth on thyne herte, and to encrease it daylye more and more, that thou mayest be still shapen lyke vnto the ymage of Chryst in knowlege and loue, for that is good and accepted in the sight of god our sauyour whiche wyll haue all men saued, and to come vnto the knowledge of the truthe.'35 31 32 33 34 35

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

Sig. A iijv. Sig. A ij y . Sig. A iij r . Sig. B i". Sig. A ivv-B ir.

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This same form of evangelical approach might also be held to have exerted an influence on English Protestantism, which in its early stages also seems to have developed somewhat cautiously, and along humanist lines. Certainly the early English Protestant notions of justification by faith were often more moralistic in tone than solafidian in the strictly Lutheran sense, as indeed was the case among many continental thinkers, among whom the eventual Protestant doctrine of forensic justification took some time to emerge.36 It appears that the fact that good works remained important to the English Protestant views of salvation was in large part a consequence of their humanist inheritance.37 There is a view that English reformers were giving an imperfect and inferior rendition of continental ideas.38 Arguably, however, the correct view of English Protestantism is distorted by setting it within a continental framework in this way, and the significance of humanism is also diminished by taking this viewpoint. To place these ideas on justification within their rightful context, within the framework of English ideological developments, is to appreciate the enduring relationship between certain aspects of the Catholic and Protestant understanding of this central tenet, and their common debt to humanism. Where English reformers were more open to continental influences the differences between their thought and that of the reformed Catholics was more marked. Where, however, English reformers pursued a line of intellectual development which was more independent of the more radical continental ideas, they could produce formulations with strong similarities to those of their Catholic contemporaries. Both reformist Catholics and moderate Protestants defined faith in terms of fides formata, a formerly scholastic description of a faith which worked through hope and charity, and which necessarily bore fruit in good works.39 There was thus a middle ground in English 36 A. McGrath, 'Humanist Elements in the Early Reformed Doctrine of Justification', ARC 73 (1982), 5-20. 37 C. R. Trueman, Luther's Legacy: Salvation and English Reformers 1525—1556 (Oxford, 1994), 198-200. 38 A. McGrath, lustitia Dei, ii. 101. McGrath comments, 'The English Reformers appear to have understood that their continental colleagues developed a doctrine of justification by fayth onely, and that its leading feature was the total exclusion of human works from man's justification. . . . They do not, however, appear to have realised precisely what was meant by the very different concept of the imputation of righteousness, or its potential theological signficance.' 39 The notion of 'living faith' was at the basis of the compromise reached at Ratisbon; see Evans, Problems of Authority in the Reformation Debates, 133.

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Reformation thought on which Protestant and Catholic both built. Cranmer explained this in his homilies of 1547. The first entry unto God, good Christian people, is through faith, whereby (as it is declared in the last sermon) we be justified before God. And lest any man should be deceived for lack of right understanding thereof, it is diligently to be noted that faith is taken in the scripture two manner of ways. There is one faith, which in scripture is called a dead faith, which bringeth forth no good works, but is idle, barren, and unfruitful. . . . Another faith there is in scripture, which is not, as the foresaid faith, idle, unfruitful, and dead, but 'worketh by charity', as St. Paul declareth; which, as the other vain faith is called a dead faith, so may this be called a quick or lively faith.40

Catholic writers could use the same understanding of faith, and so come at times to a similar understanding of the process of salvation, which they ascribed always to the grace of God, allowing good works only a secondary contribution. Gardiner gave a definition of the obedient Christian which incorporated these reformed ideas on faith and the diminished significance of good works. And who so euer putteth his perfite belefe and hope in God / loketh for rewarde at his only handes / and without God compteth not vpon his owne workes / and dedes / but poynteth them their limites / so that he rendreth them vnto God / as though they were done of God / from whom al good thinges precede / and acknowlageth God to be the only begynnyng and fynysshing of all goodnes: that man is doubtles he / that maye be sayde / to obeye truly.41 Gardiner could attack the reformers for putting too exclusive an emphasis on faith alone, but elements of the same theme were there in his own work. In the early years of the Reformation, before doctrinal definitions were fixed, many writers from both the Protestant and Catholic traditions addressed the issue of human degeneracy and divine grace in a very similar manner, and in many ways their theological understanding of the issue was to develop along parallel lines during these formative years.42 40 'A Short Declaration of the True, Lively, and Christian Faith'—the fourth of the Homilies of 1547: in J. E. Cox (ed.), Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer (Cambridge, 1846), 135. 41 Stephen Gardiner, De Vera Obedientia, in P. Janelle (ed.), Obedience in Church and State (Cambridge, 1930), 75. 42 Justification was the issue on which Protestant and Catholic theologians managed to reach agreement at the Colloquy of Regensburg in 1541. See P. Matheson, Cardinal Contarini at Regensburg (Oxford, 1972); Evans, Problems of Authority in the Reformation Debates. Humanist ideas on the doctrine of justification were also influential at Trent. See

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Miles Hogarde came from a very different background to many of these Catholic writers, but his work is also notable for this emphasis on the degeneracy of man and the saving power of grace through faith.43 He said this of himself. No ryghtwysenes in mee doth rayne, But synne I knowe and wyckednes: Vnles thy grace I doo obtayne, Dew vnto mee is deth endles. O here me, Lord, and graunt mercye.44

We might also note here that Hogarde's reformist beliefs extended to include an assertion of the priesthood of all believers, which he defended on the grounds of Scripture. Now we are kinges, and priestes thou must vnderstand: We are not all priestes in ministracion No more then we are kinges governing a lande: Yet kinges we are by Peters nominacion And so are we priestes by Paules probacion . . ,45

The influence of such ideas can also be seen in the purely theological works of the time. Gardiner's work is again instructive. Particularly striking is the work of 1546, A Declaration of such true articles as George loye hath gone about to confute as fake. This dealt with the questions of justification and predestination. At a less sophisticated level, it presented an understanding of justification heavily influenced by the Augustinian interpretation which Fisher had endorsed, and which was to lead Pole into trouble.46 This interpretation incorporated the emphasis upon the degeneracy of man and the immensity of divine grace so central to the work of Erasmus. It also involved an explanation of the significance of faith in Christocentric language characteristic of reformism. Gardiner was anxious to stress the importance of Christ's sacrifice within his theological understanding. 'It is the fyrst letter of our crosse rowe. It is the foundation of our J. Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, tran. J. Moiser (London, 1977), 9-12. For a discussion of Fisher's views on justification, which illustrate some of these influences at work, see R. Rex, The Theology of John Fisher (Cambridge, rggi), 110-28. 43 For a brief account of Hogarde's life, see J. W. Martin, Religious Radicals in Tudor England (London, 1989). 44 Quoted in Martin, Religious Radicals, 89. 45 M. Hogarde, The assault of the sacrament of the Altar . . . (London, 1554), Sig. Biiiv. 46 Rex, Theology of John Fisher, ch. 7; D. Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy (Cambridge, 1972).

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faith. Only christ is our mediatour. Christes only passion is our redemption, iustice, and satisfaction.'47 He repeatedly emphasized the subsidiary role of good works in the process of salvation, and explained that these good works were themselves the gift of divine grace, and were made beneficial to man only by man's participation in that grace. 'So as christ merited and deserued throughly: we by perticipacion in vsing his giftes, merite and deserue. And as christ satisfied fullye, so by participation we also satisfy.'48 That this Catholic view of justification was an integral part of Catholic thought, not an attempt to conciliate Protestant opponents, is shown by the way in which it was used in the refutation of other Protestant doctrines. Gardiner used it in a passage condemning the Protestant doctrine of predestination, when he described the Jews as being responsible for their downfall by their free choice of works over faith: 'the ientyles, not folowinge the iustice of workes, embraced the very iustice by fayth. And the Israelites folowynge the lawe of iustice, atteyned it not, because they wente about to obteyne it by workes and not by fayth'.49 Elsewhere the emphasis upon faith was used to defend the miraculous workings of God in the sacrament, where the saving power of Christ's sacrifice could only be approached through faith. 'So nowe the efficacye of the same holy ghoste, worketh these thynges that be aboue nature, whiche can not be comprehended, but by faythe onely.'50 This understanding of justification through faith was to appear in English Catholic works for the next twenty years, echoing some of the reformed views of continental Catholics. These views were also to influence the decrees on justification of the Council of Trent.51 An appreciation of the saving power of faith, the power of divine grace, and a denial of the intrinsic merits of good works, became entrenched within Catholic thought. Gardiner could condemn in the strongest language Protestant attacks on the obligation to do good works.52 He was implacable in his opposition to the way Protestant ideas eroded Catholic belief and devotion. At the same time, however, his written work could admit that, in theological terms, works were unable to justify. He argued 47 48 49 50 51 52

Gardiner, A Declaration, fo. xiir. Ibid., fo. xiiir. Ibid., fo. xxvii1'. Gardiner, A Detection, fo. xliiii'. Rex, Theology of John Fisher, 87. Muller (ed.), Letters of Stephen Gardiner, 169.

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that to say we merit our salvation is not to say we merit it because of our works, but because we deserve salvation for responding to the divine call and turning to God. However, he gave a more clearly Catholic expression to this idea by locating the humanist emphasis on gratuitous justification within the context of the sacraments. The contention is not of the preciousnes, validitie and effecte of christes passion, but of the vse of it. And where your doctrine should onlye implye that it is sufficient, to thynke and talke of christes passion, we say it is also necessarie to some, to taste and fele of christes passion, and also to drynke of it, as Christ sayde. Poteslis bibere calicem, quern ego bibilurus sum? Can ye drynke the cup that I shall drynke? And we with the grace of god doynge the workes of penaunce, taste and feele the passion of christ, and as good men haue called it meritynge and deseruinge, to vse the benefites of christes passion, and by strength thereof to do penaunce for synne, which hath ben called likewyse satisfaction as wherein man satisfieth (that is to say) contenteth God, who sayth: he willeth not the death of a synner, but that he should turne to hym and lyue. And in this speach, merityng and deseruynge, signifieth the due vsing of the benefite offred, after which sorte we saye also: He is worthy loue and fauour, that wil seke for it, and do his dutie to atteyne it.53

This formulation perpetuated the emphasis on divine grace and human inadequacy whilst maintaining a Catholic understanding of salvation which included the sacraments. Such an insistence on the sacraments in the process of salvation was unequivocably Catholic, and directly contrary to Protestant belief. Nevertheless, within this oppositional framework the reformist understanding was still at work. Even within this most fundamental of disagreements, Catholic and Protestant could still respond to the same initial stimulus and build on their common intellectual heritage. If we look to the Edwardian formulations concerning justification, we find here also what might perhaps be described as a distinctively English approach to this doctrine. The 1547 homily on salvation gave an account of justification by faith which shows the emphasis which it shared with many Catholic works of the time.54 The homily was anxious that good works should not be abandoned as a result of the doctrine of justification:

53 34

Gardiner, A Declaration, fo. xii1 T. McGrath, lustitia Dei, ii. 102.

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this sentence, that we be justified by faith only, is not so meant of them, that the said justifying faith is alone in man, without true repentance, hope, charity, dread, and the fear of God, at any time or season. Nor when they say, that we be justified freely, they mean not that we should or might afterward be idle, and that nothing should be required on our parts afterward. Neither they mean not so to be justified without our good works, that we should do no good works at all. The question was, to whom the merit of these works should be ascribed. But this proposition, that we be justified by faith only, freely, and without works, is spoken for to take away clearly all merit of our works, as being insufficient to deserve our justification at God's hands, and thereby most plainly to express the weakness of man, and the goodness of God; the great infirmity of ourselves, and the might and power of God; the imperfectness of our own works, and the most abundant grace of our Saviour Christ; and thereby wholly to ascribe the merit and deserving of our justification unto Christ only, and his most precious blood-shedding.55 This approach to good works had a Catholic equivalent. Gardiner put the works of which the Catholic faith spoke in an entirely different category to those of the Law, thereby insisting them incapable of opposing in any way the effectual power of grace. He reproved George Joye for making what seemed to Gardiner an unnecessary division between faith and works: 'as though workes required of a christen man, wherein to use the gyftes purchased for man by christ, were at contention and stryfe with fayth, lyke the workes of Moises lawe'.56 It was quite clear, Gardiner asserted, that the only cause of salvation was the grace of God, and he explained his understanding of the process of salvation to Joye in these words. 'God iustifieth no man without the gyftes of fayth and loue, this ye graunt, whiche when man receiueth, he receyueth by them iustification, wherein I call mans deserte and meryte onely the vsinge of the benefites offred of fayth and loue. And other deserte and merite man can not haue. For what hath any man good that he hath not receyued?'57 The Protestant insistence was that justification did not involve works, but neither did it undermine their importance, since works followed as a fruit of justification. This was a version of fides formata, 55 Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Crammer, ed. J. E. Cox, PS (Cambridge, 1846), 131. >6 Gardiner, A Declaration, fo. lvir. " Ibid., fos. lv v —lvi r .

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or living faith, similar to the idea developed in Catholic works.58 Some similarities at least remained despite the growing confessional divide. Cranmer's description of a living faith resembled Gardiner's in emphasis, if not in intent. 'For that faith, whiche bryngeth furth, (without repentaunce) either evil workes, or no good workes, is not a right, pure and lively faith, but a deed, devellish, counterfaite, and fained faithe, as saincte Paule, and sainct James call it.'39 Justification by faith, then, was necessarily followed by good works. Gardiner took the same view. 'For ones made free from synne, we must walke in the path of Justice, and lyue in this worlde soberly, iustely and godly.'60 Another interesting example of this type of English Protestant understanding is given by a treatise on faith written by Sir Richard Morison.61 The manuscript of this is undated, but since Morison died in exile in Strasbourg in 1556, it might be from the reign of either Henry VIII or Edward VI.62 Morison had been of a reformist persuasion since the 15205, when he was a friend of Latimer, and was unquestionably considered a Protestant by the time of Edward VI, when he was a commissioner on the visitation of Oxford. His treatise has the standard evangelical tone, criticizing 'those letterd disputars, whych minse matiers so fynely, as they themselues do not vnderstand ther own . . . fond phantasies',63 and emphasizing the importance of Scripture, 'for ther is one thyng, and but one thyng, that we neede to our lyfe, to our iustification, to Christian freedom, and thys is the most holy word of god, the gospell of Christe'.64 It explained that those who thought that works justified, were they then 58 See Cranmer's 'Notes on Justification from Lambeth Library', Stillingfleet MS 1108, fo. 58, in Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer, ed. Cox, 203-11. The significance of Cranmer's views has been pointed out by Patrick Collinson, who describes Cranmer's teaching as 'salvation by grace alone' rather than 'salvation by faith alone'. See 'Thomas Cranmer', in The English Religious Tradition and the Genius of Anglicanism, ed. G. Rowell (Oxford, 1992), 97. Collinson also notes Cranmer's belief in something approaching the scholastic understanding of fides formata. '' Certain Sermons, or Homilies ( London, 1547), Sig. dddddf. 60 Gardiner, A Declaration, fo. lvir. 61 British Library, Harleian MS 423, fos. 12—33. 62 Morison went abroad between 1529 and 1535 to study in Italy, where he allegedly 'adopted Calvinistic religious views'. This treatise may date from this time, although it is clearly not Calvinist in tone, or may belong to the period after 1535 when Morison returned to Court. His other works were published between 1537 and 1540, which may suggest that this treatise also dates from that time. 63 BL Harleian MS 423, fo. I2 V . 64 Ibid., fo. 14'.

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to lose faith, would be like the swimming dog who snapped at the moving shadow of the meat it held in its jaws, and so lost both meat and shadow. In its understanding of faith, however, Morison's treatise was not fully fledged in its Protestantism, or not by continental standards. The treatise was all about the importance of faith, and the need to realize this. 'Christen fayth, hath seamed vnto many, a thing very easye, whych somm men haue placed emonge vertues, as emonge her peres and compagnions, doinge so, bycause in very deede, they have had no profe, nor by ther experience tasted at any tyme, how greate a thynge fayth is.'65 Yet Morison seems to have not entirely appreciated that faith was not a human response, but solely a divine gift, as his remarks on preaching suggest. Christe ought to be preached for thys intent, that our faythe be more and more styrred vp, and stedfastely sett and grafted in Christe, that he maye not be only reputed Christe, but my Christe, and thy Christe, workyng the saluation of as many as putt ther affiance in hym. Faythe is bredd and confirmed, if it be playnly preached, for what occasion, purpose and intent Christ cam.66

Having heard what Christ has done, wrote Morison, what heart would not melt, and be filled with love, 'what mynde so ungrate, that it woll not forthwith be ravished with the love of Christ?'67 This idea of faith as something which results from 'affiance', or an act of faith, suggests that Morison had not yet reached an appreciation of the more advanced Protestant idea of faith as a divine gift, resulting from election, and independent of any mortal initiative.68 There was no conception of the forensic nature of justification which was so fundamental to continental thought on the subject by the issos.69 Lady Jane Grey, writing to Bullinger in 1552, made the point very nicely. She wrote, 'You exhort me to embrace a genuine and sincere faith in Christ my Saviour. I will endeavour to satisfy you in this respect, as far as God shall enable me to do; but as I acknowledge faith to be his gift, I ought therefore only to promise so far as he may see 65

Ibid., fo. 12'. Ibid., fo. 20". 67 Ibid. 68 It could also refer to the doctrine of sanctification, but it would seem unlikely to find this more Calvinist formulation in an English work of this date. See A. E. McGrath, 'Humanist Elements in the Early Reformed Doctrine of Justification', ARG 73 (1982), 14. 69 McGrath, lustitia Dei, ii, ch. 6. 66

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fit to bestow it upon me.'70 Lady Jane Grey's learning may have given her a closer understanding of continental orthodoxy, but it seems clear that this understanding was far from universally held by English Protestants of her generation. They could take the more balanced approach which built on the humanist approach. The idea of the need for balance in approaching the doctrine of justification is one common to the work of reformist Catholics on the subject. Reginald Pole may also have expressed this view, according to the work attributed to him which was published after his death. 'Let no man goe to farre on the left hande, and saie that there is no free wil: Let no man turne to farre on the right hande, and thinke that free will without grace may suffise him to live well. Manicheus toke on the left hand, Pelagius on the right.'71 The same balanced approach was also seen in the conclusions of the Council of Trent, whose debt to humanist influences has been acknowledged.72 On the Protestant side, later Anglican ideas of double justification might be interpreted as a response to the potentially antinomian extremes of the sectaries. It seems possible, however, that if the humanist understanding could have a lasting influence on Catholic ideas, it may be responsible for the continuation of a similar understanding in English Protestantism. Despite the diverging identities of Protestant and Catholic, there were still aspects of their intellectual development which were following similar paths. The other main doctrinal point at issue during the early Reformation was the true nature of the Mass and the 'sacrament of the altar'. When it came to sacramental theology the similarities between Catholic and Protestant thought were less pronounced, although humanist influences were still discernible. Discussion of the sacraments was concentrated overwhelmingly on the issue of the Eucharist. Here the Catholic belief was unequivocally in a divine presence. Christ ordeyned this supper, to be obserued and continued for a memory to his cummyng: So as we that sawe not, with our bodely eyes Christes death and passion, may in the celebration of the supper, be most suredly ascertayned of the truth, out of Christes owne mouth. Who styl speaketh in the person of the ministre of the church: This is my body that is betrayed for you: This is my bloud that is shedde for you in remission of synne: and 70 Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation, i, ed. H. Robinson, PS (Cambridge, 1846), 8. 71 Reginald Pole (attrib.), A Treatie of Justification (Louvain, 1569), fo. 20r. 72 Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, 9-12.

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therwith maketh his very body truely present, and his precious bloud truely present, to be taken of vs, eaten and dronken.73 The Mass was to be understood always as a sacrifice. Richard Smith explained that the Apostles had called it an oblation, or sacrifice, 'understandyng by these wordes Hoc facile in meam commemorationem, Do ye this for my remembrance, that Christ gave them autorite to make sacrifice of his very true and naturall flesh and bloud at their masses, which thynge he hym self had then before done, at his last supper'.74 And Hogarde explained in verse: we must beleue that in the sacrament Is not onely a sygne wrier in we must vewe The death of christe with a godly intent But also that christe himselfe is present Fleshe and bloud, but how that he shuld be Reason cannot teach, therfore he must consent Vnto fayth, and then he shal it truely se.7' The belief in Christ's presence in the sacrament can often be viewed as one element among several in a set of fixed criteria for Catholic orthodoxy. In reality the possibilities were far more diverse. This sacramental doctrine could often be upheld by those who held other more recognizably reformed beliefs. Even the Mass itself had come under the influence of humanist trends. Reliance on Scripture and the early Fathers and mistrust of scholasticism meant that the doctrine of transubstantiation was often viewed with caution or mistrust, and the more general doctrine of Real Presence was invoked instead as being a more biblical explanation of the sacrament. Cuthbert Tunstall was probably not alone in having doubts about transubstantiation. Admittedly, at times it is difficult to tell whether the discussion is more generally about Real Presence or more precisely focused on transubstantiation, in consequence of the ambiguity of the language used. The impression is that the Real Presence tended to be the central concern, and that there was some Catholic reluctance to discuss transubstantiation as a result of its roots in church tradition rather than Scripture. Henry VIII had argued in 1521 that no one would require Luther to accept transubstantiation, 73

Gardiner, An explication and assertion, Sig. E viir. Richard Smith, A defence of the sacrifice of the Masse (London, 1546), fo. xix1'. 75 Reproduced in Robert Crowiey, The confutation of the mishapen aunswer (London, 1548), Sig. F ix". 74

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as long as he admitted that bread and wine became flesh and blood.76 And just as biblicism and patristics naturally inclined these English Catholics towards an emphasis upon the Real Presence, so too they encouraged Protestant retention of this doctrine at times.77 Here they might unwittingly find common ground, a consideration which was at times more consciously exploited in argument. Gardiner's work on this subject illustrates this inclination, and explains the grounds on which he tried to embarrass the Edwardian government by accepting the 1549 Book of Common Prayer as a passable, if not ideal, Catholic liturgy.78 It may also explain why he chose to use Lutheran authorities in his 1551 defence of the Real Presence. In this work he denied that this doctrine was 'the diuise of Papistes or their fayth onely'.79 In an attempt to prove the universality of the doctrine, he cited a series of authorities. Luther that professed openly to abhore al that might be noted Papish, defended stoutly the presence of Christes bodie in the Sacrament, and to be present really and substantially, euen with the same wordes and termes. . . . Philipp Melancton no Papist nor priest writeth a verie wise Epistle in this matter to Oeclampadius and signifying soberly his beleif of the presence of Christes verie bodie in the Sacrament: and to proue the same to haue been the faith of the olde church from the beginnyng.80

He also cited the opinion of Erasmus: 'noted a man that durst, and did speake of all abuses in the church liberally, taken for no Papist, and among vs so muche estemed, as his Paraphrases of the gospell is ordred to be had in every church of this Realme'.81 This work was written after Gardiner had defied the government and been imprisoned, and was in any case published abroad. It seems unlikely that there was an attempt here to curry favour with the Edwardian regime. Rather it testifies to the diversity possible within 76 See G. W. Bernard, 'The Piety of Henry VIIF, in N. Scott Amos, A. Pettegree, and H. van Nierop (eds.), The Education of a Christian Society (Aldershot, 1999), 80. 77 P. N. Brooks, Thomas Cmnmer's Doctrine of the Eucharist, 2nd edn. (London, 1992); C. W. Dugmore, The Mass and the English Reformers (London and New York, 1958); D. G. Selwyn, 'A New Version of Mid-Sixteenth Century Vernacular Tract on the Eucharist: A Document of the Early Edwardian Reformation?', JEH 39 (1988), 217-29. 78 Here Gardiner was arguing from a politically disadvantaged situation: see Redworth, In Defence of the Church Catholic, 260-81. The 1549 Book of Common Prayer was also a consciously moderate expression of Protestant views: see Brooks, Cranmer's Doctrine of the Eucharist, 112-13. 79 Gardiner, An explication and assertion, fo. 7''. 80 Ibid., fos. sv-6r. 81 Ibid., fo. 6".

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Catholic views on the Eucharist. A reprint was issued by the Catholic printer Caly, who later published under Mary in London, in 1553 from Rouen.83 The same emphases can be found at this time in a very different form in the work of Miles Hogarde, who has already been identified as a Catholic 'radical'.84 Hogarde replied to Protestant attacks on the Mass with a reminder that the belief in the Real Presence rested on Christ's words given in Scripture. Without great studye thanswer is made Me thynke ye presume very hye This is my body Christ playnely sayde You dare be so bolde as to saye he doth lye.85

Hogarde in this seemed conservative. Yet he was also the writer who, like Gardiner, made a point of denying that the doctrine of the Real Presence was a Roman doctrine. Ye call the truth Romyshe as though that we Had received it of the Popyshe see.86

And he identified himself with the reformist tradition in English religion when he called on Edward VI to defend the truth And all heresy and popishnesse to subdwe.87

This was characteristic of the reformed Catholic approach to the question of the Sacrament, with which the writers of the time tried to defend the doctrine of the Real Presence on the basis of a literal interpretation of Scripture. Gardiner took the same approach in his works on the subject, urging his readers to return to Scripture. 'And in doyng therof, to forget what hath been taught hitherto.'88 The progressive nature of this appeal was complemented by his use of some Protestant views of the Sacrament. The more reformed approach provided Gardiner with numerous opportunities for this, in consequence of the common ground between him and his opponents. This is shown, for example, by his appeal to the distinction 82

For a discussion of Gardiner's eucharistic views, see Redworth, In Defence of the Church Catholic, 266—7 n 83 RSTC 513. 84 Martin, Religious Radicals, ch. 5. 85 Crowley, The confutation of the mishapen aunswer, Sig. C iir. 86 Ibid., Sig. F viir. 87 Ibid., Sig. F viiiv. 88 Gardiner, An explication and assertion, fo. 3''.

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made by Jerome between the flesh of Christ crucified and the spiritual flesh of the Host: 'we receyue not in the Sacrament Christes fleshe that was crucified, beyng so a visible and mortall fleshe, but Christes fleshe glorified incorruptible and impassible a godly and spirituall fleshe'.89 It also provided a basis for his possibly sarcastic comments on the adoration of the Host, which, he said: 'is in my iudgement well set forth in the booke of common prayor, . . . that is not adored that the bodelye eie seeth, but that whiche faythe knoweth to be there inuisibly present'.90 The passage to which he referred was not included in the Book of Common Prayer of 1552. There was also room in discussion of the Sacrament to express the reformed conception of grace. Hogarde linked the question of salvation to the Mass, and explained that grace could be received through the Sacrament and as a result of the sacrifice of the bread and wine, which was Christ's body and blood. He took this opportunity to highlight the contrast between the saving power of divine grace and the inability of human works to earn salvation. In consideration wherof we do here, Offer to the father this swete sacrifice, Of his blessed sonne, to him moost dere, Whose death for mercy for vs dayly cryes, For workes have we none, that before his eyes, Are worthy of mercy, therfore we do all, In that same death for mercy dayly cal.91

This last passage was written in an early Marian work, and was a clear continuation of the ideas developed during the two previous reigns. Its remarks concerning grace are particularly interesting in their relationship to an interpretation of the Mass that was characteristic of the reformed Catholic understanding of the faith. If we compare this with Protestant views at the time we see again the connections between doctrinal formulations on the subject. Cranmer's Catechism of 1548, for example, caused foreign observers some alarm, and its perhaps careless instigator some embarrassment, but it was not so obvious a mistake as to be untenable.92 In August 1548, John ab Ulmis wrote to Bullinger concerning Cranmer, pessimistic about his adherence to a belief in the Real Presence: 89 90 91 92

Ibid., fo. 88V. Ibid., fos. 86v-87r. Hogarde, The assault of the sacrament of the Altar, Sig. A iiiiv-B i'. D. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer (New Haven and London, 1996), 386-91.

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this Thomas has fallen into so heavy a slumber, that we entertain but a very cold hope that he will be aroused even by your most learned letter. For he has lately published a Catechism, in which he has not only approved that foul and sacrilegious transubstantiation of the papists in the holy supper of our Saviour, but all the dreams of Luther seem to him sufficiently wellgrounded, perspicuous, and lucid.93

Admittedly Cranmer regretted this affair. The significance lies, however, in the fact that this was one possible line of intellectual approach, the coherence of which lay in its pursuit of objectives established by the humanist understanding. This impression is also confirmed by other comments made by continental Protestants on the subject of their brethren in England. Whilst these continental scholars and divines eagerly welcomed the Edwardian reforms, they were only too aware of the very slow progress of the new religion according to their own standards. There were complaints about bishops, as that of Micronius to Bullinger in 1550, who said: 'the bishops will not depart a nail's breadth from their prescribed form of consecration, which is manifestly superstitious'.94 Such criticisms formed the background to the internal conflicts of English Protestantism at this time.95 The defeat of the more zealous element laid the foundations for the Anglican tradition, and whether this was a case of natural development or stunted growth, it meant that humanist ideas remained serviceable.96 Arguably, an independent element within English Protestant thought was being perpetuated, no less than within the Catholic tradition. The Boundaries of Orthodoxy Although a reformist Catholic stance was becoming increasingly wellentrenched in the years after the break with Rome, it is important to remember that there still remained a broad range of variety and possibilities within Catholic thought. The more traditionalist writers, although ill at ease with their environment, still continued to publish. John Standish, noticeable for his conservatism under both Henry VIII 93

Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation, ii. 380—1. Ibid., ii. 571. 95 S. Brigden, London and the Reformation (Oxford, 1989), 466-9. 96 For a discussion of this development, see D. MacCulloch, 'The Myth of the English Reformation', JBS 30 (1991), 1-19. MacCulloch writes that after the peak of Protestant growth in 1550, 'the official Protestantism of the English church was in a state of arrested development' (18). 94

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and later under Mary, wrote a work in reply to the protestation of Robert Barnes, published in 1540, in which he took a far more oldfashioned view of Catholic doctrine. His was a straightforward attack on Protestant ideas, and the fact that Barnes spread his views by preaching. Who hathe not herde him preache a carnall lybertye with a damnable iustyfycacyon of onely fayth to iustyfye? And that god is the author of synne, and that works do not profile, and that Christes death is sufficyent so that penaunce is voide and superfluous, and that contrary to the order of oure sauyours prayer we muste be forgyuen of God before we can forgiue?97 The emphasis taken by Standish was a far more traditional one than that taken by most of his contemporaries. It harked back to the more conventional works of the pre-Reformation period. Most notable of all the more traditional writers was Richard Smith, Professor of Divinity at Oxford. His work was closer to that of the 15205 than that of many of his Henrician colleagues, and his conservatism made him the target of the Edwardian regime, precipitating him into exile in 1549. And yet, as a humanist, he had impeccable credentials. He was the first Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and he helped with the preparation of the 'Bishop's Book' in 1537. His biblical scholarship was not in doubt, and yet he was more cautious in his approach than some. The scripture is very hard to be perceiued, as s. Peter saith in his second epystle, though it seme or be iudged neuer so plaine and easye to some men, whiche in verye dede are not lerned therein, and therfore it is not conuenient that euery man do vnderstande it, after his owne fansie, for that hath bene, and yet is, the cause of many errours, but we muste leane, and cleaue to the aunciente doctors expositions made, and published thereupon.98 The differences between him and his more reformist colleagues were often those of emphasis, rather than substance, and might be most simply characterized as an absence of evangelical enthusiasm. At times, however, his conservatism was thrown into sharp relief, as illustrated by the work of 1547 which was to require his recantation under Edward VI, A brief treatyse seltynge forth divers truthes necessary both to be beleved of chrysten people, and kepte also, whiche are not expressed in the scripture but left to the church by the apostles tradition. This was 97 98

John Standish, A Lytle treatyse (London, 1540), Sig. A v'. Richard Smith, A defence of the sacrifice of the Masse (London, 1546), fos. viiv-viiir.

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a forthright endorsement of a conservative Catholic stance, denying that Scripture held all things necessary to salvation, and thus contradicting the reliance on scriptural authority, both tacit and overt, which so characterized more reformed Catholic writing. The extent to which Smith differed from other Catholic writers is perhaps best indicated by the terms of his retraction. He was compelled to offer this redefinition of his views on Scripture and authority. I wold declare the trew acceptions, dignitie and auctoritie of scripture too be distincte, diuerse, and of higher, surer, more stable and firme order and credence, then the other vnwritten Tradicions and Assertions, wandring in thobservation of many yeres, and the churches canons and Decres, ordinaunces and traditions left by succession." This was an assertion which any more reformed Catholic writers would consider unarguable, and a fundamental part of their humanist outlook, but it had to be forced out of Smith by the Edwardian government. This was the chief point of his retraction; interestingly, there was no discussion of free will, good works, and justification, on all of which Smith had made his conservative views clear. The government seemed only to require that he make an assertion of his biblicism, and a more politically relevant defence of the Royal Supremacy, which was the other main subject of the work. Smith then concluded by asking his reader to ignore everything in his work not consonant with Scripture, 'as touchyng matiers of faith to founde the same vpon Gods certeyn, trew, and infallyble woorde: lest by doyng the contrary, they fall into superstition, idolatry, and other manyfold errers as I my self sometyme and many other (although I doo not come hyther too accuse any man) yet I perceyue of late tyme have doone.'100 This kind of reliance on Scripture, and avoidance of superstition, were elements fundamental to many Catholic works of the time. Smith gives an indication, however, of the more traditional elements which could still be present within Catholic thought. At the other end of the scale there were those whose reformism led them into a form of Catholic understanding so radical as to blur the distinctions between it and Protestantism. There were broad possibilities for such religious ambiguity in the years following the 99 Richard Smith, A godly and faythfull retraction made and published at Paules crosse in London (London, 1547), Sig. C i1. 100 Ibid., Sig. D iii'-iv1.

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break with Rome. One indication of this is the work of 15 51, A reporte ofMaister Doctor Redmans ansmeres, to questions propounded him before his death, concernynge certaine poyntes of religion, now beyng with many in controversy<e. John Redman was a Cambridge academic, and this work was held to contain his death-bed profession to his friend, John Young, another Catholic scholar.101 These articles indicate the parameters of the middle ground which is so hard to categorize according to more traditional criteria for Catholic or Protestant loyalties. However unreliable their authenticity, their significance comes from the fact that those who produced the work thought it plausible enough to publish. It was clearly held to be a possible explanation of how a learned Catholic might move towards a Protestant position. Whether Redman made these assertions or not, the work can still be taken as an illustration of the route from Catholic humanism to the boundaries of Protestantism. Redman was held in this death-bed conversation to have denied purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the worshipping or procession of the Sacrament, all areas of doctrine and practice which had come under Catholic criticism already. He was described as having denied transubstantiation, but asserted the Real Presence, another mark of both reformed Catholic and moderate Protestant outlook.102 Moreover, the process was described by which he had gradually lost faith in transubstantiation through searching the scholastic authors, 'addinge therto that the whole schole dyd not know what was meant by consecration'.103 And his alleged remarks on justification use the same understanding of fides formata which was central to reformed Catholicism and early English Protestantism alike. That thys proposition, Sola fides iustificat, so that fides signifye veram vivam et acquiescentem in Christo fidem id est amplexum Christi that is to saye: Onely fayth doeth iustifye, so that fayth do signifye a true lyuely, and a fayth restinge in christe, and embrasing Christ, is a true godly swete and comfortable doctryne so that it be so taughte, that the people take none occasion of carnal lybertie thereof.104

101 See J. Strype, The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke (London, 1705), 86-9, for Young's alleged account of this to Cheke. 102 E. Quinn, 'Bishop TunstalPs Treatise on the Holy Eucharist', Downside Re-view, NS 32 103 (I933)A reporte ofMaister Doctor Redmans answeres (London, 1551), Sig. A vii'. 104 Ibid., Sig. A v".

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He was also supposed to have said to his friend, 'that consensus Ecclesie, the consent of the Church was but a weake staffe to cleaue to, but dyd exhorte hym to reade the scriptures, for ther was that which shuld comfort him'.105 This may have been a twisted version of events, but the beliefs which Redman was alleged to have held— his biblicism, antischolasticism, belief in the Real Presence, and justifying faith—were at least plausible enough to be ascribed to a learned and devout Catholic scholar. It was its use of reformist emphases which were so demonstrably part of English Catholic thought at the time which made this such a persuasive work. The experience of the Henrician Reformation had given new dimensions to English Catholicism, widening the possibilities of an ideological tradition already dynamic and diverse. The characteristic emphases created by the Supremacy, and the reforms which it prompted, had become an integral part of Catholic thought. During the upheavals of Edward VI's reign, some Catholics had perhaps begun to learn again the value of the papacy, but others had learned to cling even more closely to the principles established by Henry VIII.106 Nor did they abandon this stance when Mary I came to the throne. The next chapter explores some of the ways in which this reformed Catholic understanding was deployed by the new regime. 105

Ibid., Sig. B ivv. See P. Hughes, Rome and the Counter Reformation in England (London and Tonbridge, 1941), 92-3, which suggests that Catholic exiles under Edward VI were already drawing closer to Rome, although whether this was a cause or a consequence of their exile has yet to be discovered. The later attitudes of men such as Nicholas Harpsfield, Richard Smith, or Thomas Goldwell, may be explained by their exposure to continental influences during Edward's reign. 106

4 Catholic Renewal There was neuer more sincere and trewe preachynge, than is nowe of late, nor the worde of God more spoken of, then is in these our dayes.1 MARY TUDOR'S Church has never been viewed with much approval by posterity. From the fraught emotions of Foxe's Acts and Monuments, to the more measured distaste of more contemporary accounts, the Marian Church has always been the subject of someone's condemnation. Even the modern revisionist writers on the Reformation, whilst arguing for the survival of Catholic sentiment in the parishes, have still found a lack of intelligent guidance or pious inspiration at the higher levels of the Church. Some aspects of Mary and her Church have met with more enthusiastic approval in recent years.2 Yet the impression still survives of a church which failed in its mission, whether through lack of understanding, or energy, or direction, or just lack of money.3 But the Marian Church has always been misunderstood. Attempts to place it within the context of late medieval Catholicism have been as unsuccessful as those who place it within a Counter-Reformation context and end up criticizing it for a lack of post-Tridentine fervour. 1 St Augustine, Twelue Sermons . . . now lately Translated into English by Tho. Paynell (London, 1553), Sig. A iiiv. 2 C. Haigh, English Reformations: Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors (Oxford, 1993), 203-18; J. Loach, 'The Marian Establishment and the Printing Press', EHR 101 (1986), 135-48; J. Loach, 'Mary Tudor and the Recatholicization of England', History Today (Nov. 1994), 16-22; E. Russell, 'Mary Tudor and Mr. Jorkins', BIHR 63 (1990), 263-76; E. Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (New Haven, 1992); S. Thompson, 'The Pastoral Work of the English and Welsh Bishops, 1500-1558', D.Phil thesis (Oxford, 1984). 3 R. H. Pogson, 'Reginald Pole and the Priorities of Government in Mary Tudor's Church', HJ 18 (1975), 3-20; 'Revival and Reform in Mary Tudor's Church: A Question of Money', in C. Haigh (cd.), The English Reformation Revised (Cambridge, 1987); D. Loades, 'The Spirituality of the Restored Catholic Church (1553-1558) in the Context of the Counter Reformation', in T. M. McCoog (ed.), The Reckoned Expense: Edmund Campion and the Early English Jesuits (Woodbridge, 1996); R. H. Pogson, 'The Legacy of the Schism', in J. Loach and R. Tittler (eds.), The Mid-Tudor Polity, c. 1540-1560 (London, 1980).

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The Marian Church belonged to neither of these traditions. The conscious attempts of later recusant Catholics to revive late medieval devotional practices perhaps served to establish a false continuity in which the intervening half-century has all but sunk from sight. But the Marian Church establishment belonged to a different era, and had an agenda all its own. The ideology it propounded had its roots in Christian humanism, its view of the Church drew heavily on Henrician Catholicism, and its objectives were not so much reactionary as evangelical arid reformist. The literary output of the Marian Church strongly suggests that Marian Catholicism had its own distinctive identity, and that it should be recognized as belonging within an English Catholic tradition with a reformed doctrinal and devotional approach, rather than judged by European standards or measured against the rigid orthodoxy of later English Catholics, or the devotional preoccupations of the preReformation Church. Admittedly, any discussion of the success of the Marian restoration must be conducted in speculative terms, since the shortness of the reign means that we are effectively discussing potential rather than results. It would seem, however, that many of Mary's churchmen saw that the best chances of success lay in maintaining some distance from continental developments and developing the existing strengths of English Catholicism, which had been shaped in accordance with the peculiarities of the English reform movement. The Marian approach would seem to be both an illustration of those strengths, and a wise policy in the light of Catholic attitudes at the time. The return to Roman obedience during the reign of Mary I may have had the appearance of a backwards step but the justifications which accompanied it and the religious thought of the time in general display the adaptability and vigour of English Catholicism under Mary. The challenges which Marian clerics and academics faced provided the stimulus needed to draw together the principles and preoccupations of their humanist education and the reforming impulses which had been characterizing Catholic sentiment since the beginning of the century. The Marian Church was creating a reformed Catholic tradition in its efforts to define and defend true belief, using the emphases which had been developed and consolidated since the break with Rome, especially the insistence on Scripture as the primary source of divine truth, the need for a reformed ministry to the people, and the need for an inner piety which depended on faith, all central

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concerns in Christian humanism. The specific needs of the Marian restoration also led to the development of other emphases particularly characteristic of the reign; the dislocation in society prompted many discussions of the need for charity in the community as a binding force, and in particular, the doctrines concerning the Mass were raised to a new position of prominence in the works of the time, as a central indication of Catholic loyalty. The preoccupations of the Marian writers, and the doctrinal points they chose to emphasize, come as a shock to those accustomed to the traditional evaluation of sixteenth-century Catholicism. Many statements by Marian Catholic writers could be mistaken for Protestant sentiments, such is the pronounced nature of their reformism. The chief aspects of the caricature of Catholicism which is so often employed are almost entirely absent. There is a notable lack of interest in saints, images, pilgrimages, monasteries, and the powers of the priesthood and the papacy, all characteristics held to be defining features of Catholic thought and devotion.4 These elements may have continued to characterize Catholic practice in this period, but they were either peripheral to or absent from discussions of theology and ideology. Instead the emphasis is upon Scripture, godly living, a true and lively faith and proper understanding of the sacraments. The Marian Church was using its reformist inheritance as the basis of its work of regeneration. The publications and preoccupations of Mary Tudor's churchmen and scholars demonstrate that, as in previous reigns, the English Reformation was still in many ways an academic undertaking. Religious regeneration was expected to come from the universities, and the definition of true doctrine was sought, not from Rome, but from ongoing scholarly activity1 Even the defeat of heresy was seen in part as a university affair. Cranmer's trial demonstrates this, not least when the disputations which were to lead on to the most important show-trial of Mary's reign could still be interrupted for a doctoral disputation, in which Cranmer temporarily surrendered his 4 A. G, Dickens praises the work of Miles Hogarde but notes with surprise his neglect of the church hierarchy, and comments that 'he has surprisingly little to say about the clearer points at issue: purgatory, saint-worship, monasticism and the papal supremacy1. See The English Reformation, 2n<1 edn. (London, 1989), 310. 5 E. Russell, 'iMarian Oxford and the Counter-Reformation', in C. M. Barren and C. Harper-Bill (eds.), The Church in Pre-Reformation Society (Woodbridge, 1985); J. K. McConica (ed.), The History of the University of Oxford, iii (Oxford, 1986).

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position as the accused, to act as an examiner for John Harpsfield.6 Harpsfield may have had impeccable Catholic credentials by 1554, but he had, with Bonner, contributed one of the homilies to Cranmer's collection of 1547. The ideological conflict being worked out within England still had the appearance of a primarily academic disagreement. It was therefore with the printed word that the Marian Church sought to revivify and define its faith, and in this it continued many of the trends which had been established by Henrician Catholicism after the break with Rome. Most notable of all was the continuing emphasis on God's Word. In the light of the traditional interpretations of this reign as a period of Catholic reaction, one might expect to find Mary's accession prompting a revival of dedication to the Virgin Mary. In fact, there was a remarkable absence of references to the Blessed Virgin;7 few of the Marian religious works make even a passing reference to any of the saints.8 Mary was, however, hailed as the defender of Scripture and the bearer of evangelism. The Queen was herself a fairly formidable scholar and one with impeccable humanist credentials. Educated according to a programme of studies drawn up by Vives, her own translation of Erasmus's Paraphrases on the Gospel of St John was one of those which reformers sought to have installed in every parish church alongside the English Bible. She was in many ways ideally suited to take on the mantle of godly and scriptural monarch prepared by her father. Mary also remained a patron of humanists. Thomas Paynell served as chaplain to Henry VIII and all three of his children, but it was for Mary that he produced the most concentrated body of work. His array of translations included several translations of scriptural passages, the first of which was published in 1550 as The Piththy and moost notable sayinges of al Scripture? This work translates ecclesia as congregation, rather than church, and caritas as love, rather than as chanty, which in itself suggests a reformed approach. Paynell's own 6

D. MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer: A Life (New Haven and London, 1996), 566-7. Although see Leonard Slopes, An Ave Maria in commendation of our most vertuous queens (London, 1553?). 8 The diminished importance of saints may have been felt even at parish level. Duffy points out that the Marian restoration in the parishes seemed to require far fewer statues of saints than had previously been usual, and that this was not always a matter of financial restrictions, but seemed to indicate 'real shifts in religious feeling': see Stripping of the Altars, 562-4. 9 A corrected and augmented edition was printed in 1552 (?). 7

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religious opinions cannot be deduced from the passages he chose to translate, since he includes most of the passages which were used to substantiate the major opinions on both sides of the religious debate. The parts of St Paul's Epistles which were held to support solafidianism, for example, were included with the part of the Epistle of James which was commonly used to deny it. His own loyalties are declared, however, by the fact that he chose to dedicate this work to the Princess Mary, and they were further confirmed by the works he went on to publish during her reign.10 In the preface to the 1550 work he made quite clear the importance of biblicism to his own understanding of the faith, and that of his patron. He addressed a rhetorical demand on the subject to Mary. For what is more excelent, or more precious then the word of god? what thyng maye be estemed equall unto it? what ought to be more embraced of a Christian then Christes worde: then a pure and a Christian lyfe? then chastitie, then humilitie, then godly wisedom and pure doctrine? the which, with other vertuous and heauenly lessons, are in this my briefe collection, compendiously and fruitfully comprised. Wherfore I euen humbly desire youre noble grace to accepte this my labour and small gift in good parte. Accept, I saye, and embrace the worde of God, for that truly understanded, and seriously ensued and folowed, shalbe to your graces spirituall encrease mooste comfortable comforte.11 The preface of this work of Paynell's is also notable in what it expresses of a contemporary view of the princess. He described the process by which he had come to dedicate the work to the Princess Mary: after I had finished and ended the thyng, and purposed by the counsell of a lerned man, to publyshe it, for mans consolacion and learning: youre graces fyery and feruent mynde to vertuous and godly living, youre true intente and natural! inclinacion to the same: youre liberal hand and fauour to those, whiche diligently do exercyse themselues in the spirituall and morall study of the sincere worde of god, and agayne youre Graces benignitie and gentilnes of long tyme bountefully to me declared: enforced me to publishe it in your graces name. Accept therfore this my labour moste excellent Lady, as sente of your daylye Orator and most humble seruant to your grace.12 10 Sec e.g. his translation of sermons by St Augustine, Twelve Sermons (London, 1553) or prayers by Cuthbert Tunstall, Certaine Godly and Devout prayers (London, 1558). 11 The Piththy and moost notable sayinges of al Scripture (London, 1550); preface to Lady Mary. 12 Ibid., preface.

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This explanation by Paynell of his motives in publishing suggest both his closeness to Mary and his confidence that his work would be well received. Here was one of Mary's close associates who obviously felt her to be of the same humanist cast of mind as himself. This view, expressed in 1550 when it could do little to better the author's reputation, strongly supports the idea that Mary remained sympathetic towards humanist biblicism. Similarly, it may not have been sycophancy alone that prompted John Standish's description of her in 1554. 'And surely the common voyce is that her grace is not onelye most noble, mooste vertuous, mooste wyttye, and moste studious, but also mooste excellent in learnyng.'13 Mary's continuing interest in both church reform and biblical scholarship confirm this view of her as maintaining the trends established by her father.14 This idea of Mary as a champion of Scripture was recorded by several writers during her reign and illustrated their belief in the primary importance of biblical authority. The language they used to express this had clear overtones of the Henrician formulations. John Proctor, better known for the account of Wyatt's rebellion which he was commissioned to write by the Crown,15 also wrote a preface to his translation of The waie home to Christ16 which expressed the hope 'that where as heretofore . . . the trueth of Gods word, and the zeale of good workes haue decaied: so hereafter, vnder Mary a lady of heauenly simplicitie, the liuely sparke of godly loue may eftsones kindle that was extinct: the bright sterre of Euangelike lighte maye shine, that was obscured: the righte vaine of heauenlye doctrine maye appere, that was stopped vp.'17 And John Angel, in The agrement of the holye Fathers,™ lamented how the light of Scripture had been extinguished in the reign of Edward VI. This reign had seen intolerable abuses, he explained. As false interpretinge of Scriptures, vtterly denying of the holy doctours and fathers of Christes churche, but only such as made for their purpose. 13 John Standish, A discourse wherin is debated whether it be expedient that the scripture should be in English (London, 1555), Sig. B i v . 14 Note e.g. the three Greek manuscripts bearing Mary's coat of arms which were once believed to belong to Henry VIII: see I. Hutter, Corpus der byzcmtinischen Miniaturehandschriften: Oxford, Bodleian Library HI.I (Stuttgart, 1982), 284—7. 15 See Tudor Tracts, 1532-1588, ed. A. F. Pollard (New York, 1964). 16 St Vincent of Lerins (trans. J. Proctor), The waie home to Christ and truth leadings from Antichrist and errour (London, 1554). 17 Ibid., Sig. A iiir. 18 John Angel, The agrement of the holye Fathers, and Doctors of the Churche, upon the cheifest articles of Christian religion . . . (London, 1555?).

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Tyll suche tyme that it pleased God of his infinite mercy, to sende vs a newe Judith, by whose godlines the trewe light and knowledge of Goddes worde is nowe by her broughte agayne, whiche from the death of that noble prince her father Henry the viii was here in this realme extincte, and vtterly abolished.19

This view, expressed by Angel, explicitly linked Mary's endeavours to those of her father, and supports the interpretation that Henrician Catholicism was seen as normative by many at this time. As Mary herself had testified under Edward, and as her repeal of religious legislation had made clear, England's endorsement of Protestantism was dated, not from 1533 and the break with Rome, but from 1547 and the death of Henry VIII. Many writers had no scruples about designating Henry VIII a pious Catholic prince. Roger Edgeworth's sermons of 1557 described him as such, and talked of his attempts to subdue heresy, which had so infected the realm 'that the kinges maiestie, and all the catholike clerkes in the realme had muche a do to extinguishe them'.20 Paynell described him in glowing terms, such as in his preface to Tunstall's prayers, published in 1558, where he also noted how Mary had been brought up in virtue and prayer from an early age, and commended the prayers to her use, 'for in these orations and prayers, is nothing else comprised, but the sincere and true word of God, our mooste consolation and comfort'.21 Marian ideas of orthodoxy were based on a reformed and scriptural version of Catholic belief which took as its foundation the distinctive English developments of Henry VIIFs reign. The Marian view of authority, in accordance with this understanding of the Catholic faith, brought together reformist elements already outlined as the basis of its ideological approach. The Marian writers chose to emphasize, not the conservatism of Richard Smith, or the papalism of Thomas More, but the reformist ideas explored by Catholic writers after the break with Rome.22 They took the humanist view of authority as proceeding from Scripture, supported by the testimony of the primitive Church which was recorded in the " Ibid., Sig. A iiv-'. Roger Edgeworth, Sermons very fruitful!, godly and learned (London, 1557), Sig. iiv. 21 Certaine Godly and Devout prayers. Made in latin by the Reverend father in God, Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, and translated into Englishe by Thomas Paynell (London, 1558), A iir~v. 22 Although works by both More and Smith were published during the reign: see The workes of Sir T. More . . . (London, 1557), and Smith's A Bouclier of the Catholike faylh (London, 1554). 20

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works of the early Fathers. It was not the appeal to the authority of Church tradition and the papacy which is so often held to have been the foundation for Catholic theology in this period, and which had been used in the Catholic campaign of the i52os.23 It was an appeal, through history, to the primitive Church, as illustrated by the writings of the Fathers, the earlier the better. The division between a Protestant appeal to Scripture and Catholic appeal to tradition had not yet become a part of the English approach to the theological problems raised by the Reformation.24 Catholic views of authority were very close to those held by many Protestants at this time. This is illustrated by works such as John Angel's patristic collection of 1555, The agrement of the holye Fathers, and Doctors of the churche, upon the cheifest articles of Christian religion . . . , which collected as much backing as possible for the scriptural statements on the Real Presence from an array of early Fathers. It also added as a conclusion the interpretations of Luther, Melanchthon, Erasmus, and Cranmer, and their appeals to the primitive Church.25 This again suggests something about the boundaries of Catholic orthodoxy at this point; that it was a consensual rather than a confessional understanding, denned by its grasp of true doctrine, rather than by the authority of the church hierarchy. In practical terms, this meant for all the published works of the reign a constant reliance on Scripture as their foremost, and sometimes as their only authority, with a secondary reliance on the more diffuse authority of the Fathers. There was no sense that this was in any way a point at issue, or a conscious attempt to defeat the Protestants on their own terms. Nor was it part of an attempt to conciliate those with Protestant beliefs by taking a moderate stance, since scriptural backing was used for the most unequivocal condemnations of a variety of Protestant opinions. It was evident that despite their differing conclusions Protestant and Catholic writers had been educated to construct their theological arguments along these markedly biblicist lines. 23 R. Rex, 'The English Campaign against Luther in the 15205', TRHS, 5th series, 39 (1989), 85-106. 24 It has been pointed out that in any case these eventual divisions were more rhetorical than an accurate reflection of the use of theological authorities. See J. Pelikan, Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700) (Chicago, 1984), ch. 6. 25 Four-fifths of Angel's book is devoted to a defence of the Real Presence, though he does go on to discuss other points, such as prayers for the dead and prayers to saints towards the end of the work.

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This meant that Henrician works could easily be reapplied to the problems of the new reign, such as William Barlow's work of 1531 which attacked Lutheranism, but also attacked church abuses and urged reforms in line with Scripture.26 Roger Edgeworth, sometime canon of Salisbury, Wells and Bristol, took the opportunity to publish the collected sermons of his career in 1557. His preface to the collection explained that he had in his lifetime preached at Oxford, at Paul's Cross, and at Court before Henry VIII as well as in his own benefices. Since, as he explained, he had always written his sermons out in longhand, he hoped to publish all he had to hand. His work showed the clear influence of Henrician Catholicism. 'The true rule of our beliefe is the whole booke of holye scripture', asserted his homily on faith, explaining that the Apostles' Creed was merely an aid to the easier understanding of that Scripture.27 Edgeworth also thought that the times of trial the nation had endured had only served to strengthen faith, which could stagnate in more peaceful times. 'The peace and rest of faith is the matter and cause of corruption of faith', he wrote, and pointed out that the heresy of Luther had prospered when the country had been in a peaceful condition. In some sense, he felt that religious fervour had increased during his lifetime, and this seemed to include a new reverence for Scripture. Domine verba vitae eternae habes. O Lord God, thou hast the wordes of euerlasting life. The wordes be good because they be the wordes of God, although I do not vnderstand them. Thus ordering yourselues in the study of holy scripture you do lyke good men, and lyke gods seruantes, and God wyll be good Lorde vnto you. Et non dabit ineternum fluctuationem iusto. And wyll not suffer you finallye for euer to fleete and wauer inconstantlye, running from one opinion to an other, from one illusion to an other, thou shah stay thy selfe by the ancour of faythe, and that shall keepe thee from the rocks, that be perelous heretikes.28 Like so many of his contemporaries, Edgeworth seemed to see in Mary's accession an opportunity to bring to fruition the scholarly and religious endeavours of a lifetime. This approach could mean a very literal reliance on Scripture, particularly when it came to a defence of the Mass. Here the Catholic works revelled in the fact that their belief in a Real Presence could 26 William Barlow, A dyaloge descrybyng the orygynall ground of these Lulerhan faccyons (London, 1553). 27 Edgeworth, Sermons very fruitfull, godly and learned, fo. lxxiiir. 28 Ibid., Sig. K in'-".

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be based on a literal interpretation of Scripture. As Thomas Watson, bishop of Lincoln, argued in 1558, 'our fayth in this thinge is grounded not in mans reason or sense, but in the almighty power of gods worde'.29 Watson also used such a discussion to stress how God's omnipotence was illustrated by the power of his Word. 'In man the trueth of hys word dependeth of the trueth of the thyng. Contrarye in God the trueth of the thynge dependeth vpon the speaking of the woorde, as the Psalme sayeth: Ipse dixit et facta saw?.'30 Thus, the words of Christ at the Last Supper and the words of consecration from the liturgy of the Mass were linked together and their sacramental doctrine was held to be incontrovertibly proved by literal exegesis. When Paul Bushe wrote his exhortation to Margaret Burgess in 1556, he explained the Real Presence relying solely on scriptural quotations.31 He described the work of the devil in terms of an assault upon Scripture; 'whiche goeth alwaye aboute to shadowe the truth of gods most holy word, and the true vnderstandynge of the same'.32 The devil was like a miller binding the eyes of his horse to make it walk in circles: 'he goeth aboute to gryende the worde of god in his deuylleshe mylle of scismaticall and heretycall Doctryne.'33 For Bushe, an erroneous understanding of the sacrament came out of ignorance, and an unwillingness to be taught. 'And therefore such arrogante ignoraunce ought much to be feared and eschewed, whyche procedeth of a kankered malice, towardes God and his truth, and is the specyalle cause, of mans greate blyndenes, that he cannotte conceyue the true sence and meanynge, of Gods most holy word.'34 Bushe described this most scriptural of doctrines as one of those 'which the vnyuersal church of Chryst throghoute the whole worlde, dothe confesse and acknowledge'.35 The understanding of Scripture was frequently placed within the context of this broad notion of the Church's consensus. This universalist approach had to be rooted in Scripture, however. Bonner asserted in A profitable and necessarye doctryne^ that although all things used by the Church were not always 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

Thomas Watson, Holsome and Catholyke doctryne (London, 1558), fo. xxxvii' Thomas Watson, Twoo notable sermons (London, 1554), Sig. C iiv. Paul Bushe, A brefe exhortation (London, 1556). Ibid., Sig. A iiir. Ibid., Sig. A iiiv. Ibid., Sig. A vr. Ibid., Sig. A iiii'-. Edmund Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctryne (London, 1555).

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expressly instructed by Scripture, the pith and substance of them always were. John Churchson in 1556 explained the revelation of Scripture in this way also, 'which consisteth not in the vocables, but in the sence, vnderstandynge, spiritual! marowe, pyth, and kernyll conteined within them'.37 The anonymous author of A plaine and godlye treatise said that if we were unable to believe in the Mass because its name could not be found in Scripture we might abolish the Trinity by the same argument. Scripture was seen to become accessible through the consensus of the Church, and particularly through the writings and teachings of the primitive Church. The Marian understanding of the Church laid particular emphasis upon the idea of the universal Church, the body of believers united within the mystical body of Christ. This sort of ecclesiology brought together the authority of Scripture and idea of consensus. In 1553 James Brooks, Master of Balliol, described a church, 'whose spouse and protectour is our sauior Christ himself: whose mariage maker and director is the holie Ghost: whose pappes are the two Testamentes: Whose milke is the true sence of the word of God'.38 In practice a hierarchy of authorities was usually employed when defending or explaining Catholic doctrine. The work of c. 1555 entitled A plaine and godlye treatise, which sought to defend the Real Presence, did so by appealing in order to first Scripture, then the decrees of General Councils, then the works of the ancient Fathers. Its anonymous author illustrated the contemporary view of authority when he explained how the doctrine was grounded 'vpon the most manyfest doctryne and plaine facte of our Sauioure Chryst, testifyed in the moste open scripture and holy worde of God, receyued and obserued by the Apostles, and from theyr tyme hytherto of the vnyuersall church of Chryst'.39 The authority derived from this universal Church remained, however, an extension of scriptural authority. In no sense was it seen as a separate authority, maintained by the church hierarchy, and itself having authority over Scripture, which was to be the later Catholic view. In the 15508, the emphasis was still on Christ, rather than the Pope, as the head of the Church and the single most binding element was usually held to be the sacra37 John Churchson, A brefe treatyse declaryng what and where the churche is . . . (London, 1556), Sig. A iiv. 38 James Brooks, A sermon very notable, fruictefull, and Godhe, made at Paules crosse (London, 1553), Sig. A iiiv. 39 Anon, A plaine and godlye treatise, Sig. C i r .

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ment. It was this which shaped the 'mystical body' that was the Church: as Watson described it, the sacrament 'maketh vs that be diuerse in our owne substaunce to be al one mistical bodye in Chryst, indued al with one holy spirit, wherbi the influence of Chrystes grace, that is our head, is deriued and deduced vnto vs, that be membres of his body, flesh of his flesh, and bones of his bones'.40 This understanding of the Church was a mystical, rather than an institutional one. This 'universalism', which was so characteristic of the Marian works, was also reflected in Marian comments on the need for charity within the community, and the frequently recurring theme of the 'mystical body of Christ' which will be discussed later in this chapter. It was integral to their definition of 'the Church' and their understanding of authority and divine revelation. John Churchson explained his view of how the consensus of the Church supported Scripture in these terms. 'The churche I add vnto the wrytten worde of GOD, because the sayde worde for hys profundite, and bountifull sence is not to be expounded by the priuate interpretation of thys or that priuate brayne, but by the vniuersall interpretation of the vniuersall churche.'41. This was a belief in the Church as consensus and community, in which Scripture was the expression of the highest authority, not something to be subjugated to papal approval. The understanding of the Church which put Christ, not the Pope, at its head drew on Erasmian ideas, just as the concept of the 'mystical body of Christ' had been central to his thinking. Erasmus's idea of the universal Church could also incorporate an antischolastic or antirationalist emphasis, as was shown in the 1554 translation of his epistle to Pelicanus. 'No mans reason shal be able to carye me away from the whole sentence and agreament of the christen world, for those fiue wordes, In the begynning God made heauen and earth, be of more strength with me, then all the argumentes and reasons of Aristotle and all the other Philosophers, wherby they do teache the worlde to be withoute beginninge.'42 This was a very broad and mystical definition of the Church, with all the imprecision and optimism which could characterize humanist ideas about religion. Churchson demonstrated his debt to Erasmus in his discussion of the writings of St Augustine and St Ambrose on the unity of the Church. 40 41 42

Watson, Tmoo notable sermons, Sig. F iiiv. Churchson, A brefe treatyse, Sig. A viv. Erasmus, The epistle . . . sente unto Conradus Pelicanus (London, 1554).

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The lyke doctrine also S. Paule taught the Ephesians, Vnum Corpus, You are one bodye. Whereupon Erasmus dyd wryte as foloweth. Vnum corpus estis omnes, ab vno pendetis capite. You are all one bodye, and do depende of one heade. Thus it is manyfeste, all Christians to be the bodye of Christe, and that the integrite of Christ, his misticall bodye, consystethe by no lesse, then all Christians, and that therof is one head, Christ hym selfe, of whome the sayde bodye, the Catholyke churche dependeth.43 Under Henry VIII, after the break with Rome, English Catholics had written of the Church in this way, when any appeal to the papacy would have been to risk their necks. Yet under Mary I any such appeal would have brought no retribution. Yet the Catholic writers continued to pursue their vision of a church united by communion with Christ, rather than by earthly authority, in a way which suggests that this understanding of the Church had become deep-rooted in English Catholic thought. The Church, then, was defined by its practice rather than by its form, and its unity was not organizational but sacramental. Bonner's account of the creed carefully explained his concept of the Church to his readers in a way which emphasized its communitarian nature: ye muste vnderstand that thoughe in oure Englyshe tongue we by this worde Churche sometymes do meane the place wherein the worde of God is commonly preached, and the sacramentes ministred, and vsed, yet in this present artycle it doeth signifye the hole multitude of people, which being called of God, do come to one fayth, one doctryne, the self same Sacramentes accordinge to the Apostolike, and catholike tradition, in an indiuisible bonde or knotte of Concorde, and vnytye, whether the sayde multitude be of the cleargye, or of the laytie.44 The idea of the sacraments bringing together the whole body of the faithful, living and dead, exalted the idea of a consensual Catholicism, in marked contrast to the more hierarchical view which these writers could have used, and which the Counter-Reformation writers were to rely on so heavily. As Gardiner had described it in 1551, 'Men cannot be gathered into ani name other false, other true of religion, excepte they be tyed and ioyned togyther by the communion and participation, of visible signes, or sacraments.'45 The Church was seen to be rooted in the sacraments, and the sacraments were given 43

Churchson, A brefe treatyse, Sig. B vi'. Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. I r . ' Gardiner, An explication and assertion of the true Catholique fayth, Sig. B ¥.

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efficacy by being contained within the Church. 'And althoughe the true Sacramentes of Christ may be ministred and receiued out of the Catholike Churche among heretickes and scismatikes: yet they can not be profitable to the receyuers, untill they come agayne to the vnity of Christes Catholike Church.'46 The speech ascribed to the Duke of Northumberland before his execution used the same theme of universal consensus. In the version published in 1553 Northumberland proclaimed his loyalty to the Catholic Church, which he described as 'the vniuersall number of all faythfull people, professynge Christe, dispersed thoughe the vniuersall worlde: of which number I trust to be one'.47 However dubious the sincerity behind this, the language used is interesting, as the duke purportedly urged the people to return to that same Church: 'be not ashamed to returne home agayne, and ioyne youre selues to the rest of Christen realmes, and so shall you brynge your selues againe to be membres of Christes bodye, for he cannot be head of a dyfformed or monstruous body'.48 This emphasis upon unity, universalism, consensus, and community did not allow for any conflict between the revelation of Scripture and tradition. There was no sense that Scripture and tradition might work in any other way than in mutual enlightenment of the divine revelation, even when it was accepted that unwritten tradition had pre-dated the written word. 'And that bicause the worde writen was, and is conformable and agreable by the testimonye of the church, to the auncient vnwrytten word, which the sayd churche had receued of Chryst truethe hym selfe.'49 This understanding of the Church also failed to ascribe any decisive role to the papacy, since all essential authority was vested elsewhere. One of the most arresting illustrations of the radical approach of Mary Tudor's Church is given by its attitude towards the papacy. In this it built on the foundations laid by Henrician Catholics, in which, of course, there had been no place for papal authority, and where instead scriptural authority occupied the central ground. This was perpetuated in the literary output of the Marian writers, where the papacy was conspicuous by its absence. Only a very few works made an attempt to weave papal supremacy back into their religious world46

Watson, Hokome and Catholyke doctryne, fo. viir. The sayng of John late Duke of Northumberlande uppon the scaffolds 1553), fo- 5'. 48 Ibid., fo. 5V. 49 Churchson, A brefe treatyse, Sig. G iiv. 47

. . . (London,

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view, but they did so awkwardly and defensively, clearly illustrating that the theme had long been alien to English Catholic attitudes. Those few works may themselves have been a response to political pressures, or at least a reflection of changing political circumstances, a possibility reinforced by the fact that several of them were semiofficial publications.30 The ways in which they chose to describe the papacy also say much about their reformed convictions, since the reintroduction of papal authority was described purely in terms of an administrative purpose. They made it clear that for the Marian Church the Pope had no particular function to fulfil as a spiritual head. At this point in Catholic history, the rock on which the Church was built was faith, rather than the headship of St Peter and his descendants. In the key passage of St Matthew's gospel in which Christ said 'tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam' ('thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church'), 'petram' was usually interpreted as signifying the faith of the Church, not the bishopric of Rome.51 Of over sixty Marian works in the vernacular, only one is devoted to explaining the significance of the papacy, and only two more address the question of papal supremacy in any depth. This startling absence of the topic in most of the religious works illustrates the extent to which the papacy had become irrelevant to the Catholic faith in England. This suggests a tension between official policy and the body of churchmen and scholars who provided the literary output of the Marian Church. This tension, which reflects the difference between English and Roman Catholicism, seems to have been in large part due to the influence of Cardinal Pole as both papal legate and Archbishop of Canterbury. Pole's own reformist leanings had already received a stern check, which produced in him a preoccupation with the notion of obedience to papal supremacy, a theme which is evident from his work in England.52 His views on this theme had in any case been strong since the 15305, when his insistence on the 50 See e.g. Bonner's A profitable and necessarye doclryne or the Homelies published under his auspices. The decrees of the Lambeth Synod of 1555 also incorporated a defence of papal supremacy; these were later published as Reformatio Angtiae (1562). 51 J. E. Bigane, Faith, Christ or Peter: Matthew 16: 18 in Sixteenth-Century Roman Catholic Exegesis (Washington, 1981). Bigane's work notes that this was the pattern of Catholic exegesis until the 15605, when the emphasis changed to support the idea of papal supremacy. 52 Dermot Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the Counter-Reformation (Cambridge, 1972).

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importance of obedience had almost equalled Henry VIIFs own obsessive emphasis.53 An insistence on the importance of papal supremacy was a theme long absent from English Catholicism, and one not easily reabsorbed into religious discourse. Yet under Pole's direction, the first decree of the Lambeth Synod declared, we deservedly acknowledge that the cause of the whole disfigurement of the church in this realm, and of all the evils which have arisen in very great numbers in past times, have sprung from this source, that departing from the unity and doctrine of faith of the catholic church, we have left the authority and obedience of the Roman pontiff, . . . to which unity we are now returned by the immense mercy of God.54 Pole here dated the beginning of the troubles in England to 1533, which was perhaps inevitable considering his own experience of opposition to the break with Rome and subsequent exile, but unusual among Marian writers. Pole's recorded comments upon the subject of papal authority did reveal his awareness of English ambivalence towards the papacy.55 They were at times couched in a persuasive form, obviously intended to point the need for a change of heart. He was anxious to stress how the more open conditions of the sort experienced after 1533 had led to heresy and he made great play with the theme of unity, a popular one among Marian writers, to justify the claims to authority of the See of Rome. In his sermon to the people of London, Pole related an anecdote which could be considered a metaphor for English attitudes of the time. Recalling a conversation in which Thomas More had been asked his opinion of papal supremacy, he explained, 'he sodenlye makyng answer, sayde as his natural reason gave; and that was howe he tooke not that for a matter of so great a moment and importance, but rather as inventyd of men for a polytical ordre, and for the more quyetnes of the ecclesiastical! bodye, than by the verye ordynance of Chryste'.56 Yet later, Pole's sermon continued, More repented of this opinion, and realized the importance of papal supremacy was such that he 53 See his work written between 1534 and 1536, Pro Ecclesiasticae Unitatis Defensione, trans. J. G. Dwyer, Pole's Defence of the Unity of the Church (Westminster, Md., 1965). 54 G. Bray (ed.), The Anglican Canons 1529-1947, Church of England Record Society, vi (Woodbridge, 1998), 75. 55 Mary's attitude must also have brought this home to Pole. See E. Russell, 'Mary Tudor and Mr Jorkins', BIHR 63 (1990), 266-9. 56 Cardinal Pole's speech to the citizens of London, in Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, iii/2, No. LXVIII, p. 492.

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was prepared to give his life for it. This was the realization that Pole wished to foster among the English Catholics of his own time. The question of Pole's own motivations is too complex to be explored here; on the one hand, there remains the powerful testimony to his reforming zeal expressed by the Lambeth Synod; on the other hand, he seems to have been far closer to Rome than most of his colleagues in the Marian Church, or indeed his Queen. Certainly he stressed the virtues of obedience to the Church, the need for tradition and ceremonies as well as Scripture, and the need for penance and unity, in a manner somewhat removed from that of the other Marian writers. In the light of his own experience, it is not surprising, therefore, that his attitude to the papacy was far more committed than that of his associates. But during his three years as Archbishop, his influence upon most of the writers in the Church he governed does not seem to have been decisive. For the rest of the Marian writers, the subject of papal supremacy was largely one to be passed over in silence. The one work which did approach the problem in any depth was by John Standish, called The triall of the supremacy wherein is set fourth ye unitie of christes church.51 Standish seems to have been more inclined towards conservatism than most, and The triall of the supremacy was dedicated to Pole. It is possible that Standish saw himself as having been through a similar conversion experience: in 1540 he had written a work against Robert Barnes entitled A Lytle treatyse^ which he had dedicated to Henry VIII. This work, which described Henry as purging his realm of heresies in pursuit of Catholic truth, was to prove an embarrassment to Standish. In the second edition of his discourse on Scripture, written in 1555, Standish explained that he had not put his name to the first edition of 1554, because of his past errors, and because he had so grievously offended against the true religion when writing against Friar Barnes. He said that he only dared to put his name to the second edition because he had now been received back into Peter's ship, and hoped that good men would forgive him, 'remembrynge well that his offense was neyther committed in a catholyke realme, nor yet wythout lawes, thoughe they were wicked'.59 To deny that Henry VIII's realm had been a Catholic one was unusual among 57

John Standish, The triall of the supremacy (London, 1556). John Standish, A Lytle treatyse (London, 1540). John Standish A discourse wherin is debated whether it be expedient that the scripture should be in English (London, 1555), Sig. M iiv. 58

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Marian writers, and bespoke a more continental frame of mind. Standish was also prescient in that he envisioned a time of persecution for Catholics in the future, and prayed for the strength to stand firm should heresy return and he be compelled to defy it and die for the faith. His attitudes seem to have been in several ways unrepresentative of the majority of the English Catholic writers. Even so, his book on the papacy was still extremely cautious in its line of argument. The work put forward the idea that a single head was an administrative necessity to guard against schism and heresy. The granting of the primacy to St Peter by Christ was explained in this way, rather than in spiritual terms. The emphasis was all the time upon the unity of the Church as a spiritual objective: obedience to the papacy was viewed merely as a means to securing that objective, rather than as a sacred aim in itself. Standish used a threefold line of argument: first, he expounded the horrors of heresy experienced in England; then he used this as justification for his insistence on the need for unity; finally, he defended papal supremacy as a way of protecting that unity. His lament was that 'manyefolde damnable heresies have caused moste miserable scisme amonge the rude people, beyng haled from the trueth, and tossed from poste to pyller on euerye syde'.60 This led on to a vehement endorsement of the need for unity. And this was explained in terms of the break with Rome, in words perhaps reminiscent of the statement made by the Lambeth Synod: 'thonlye cause of al these mischiefes and miseryes that we of late haue suffered, hath bene the breache of thunity of Christes church. When we ones fledde forth of Peters shippe, then we fell streyght way headlong into al licentious libertie.'61 This argument necessitated that he view the troubles in England as having begun in 1533, and so the need for the Roman primacy was then the logical conclusion of his argument. 'Nowe we se also that it was not withoute great cause that S. August, sayde, that amongest other thinges the succession of the bishops of Rome from Peters time did kepe him in the true fayth.'62 With this established, he moved on to the support for papal primacy given by Scripture, the Fathers, and by natural reason: the last supports his argument, because he sees everything in nature arranged in hierarchies with a single head for the avoidance of anarchy. 60 61 62

Standish, The triatt of the supremacy, Sig. A iiii1. Ibid., Sig. A viiiv-Bir. Ibid., Sig. B iv.

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The burden of Standish's argument, therefore, was to prove that unity was essential to the furtherance of the true faith, and to stress the administrative necessities arising from this. His work suggests that at the time this progression was not automatic in the minds of Marian Catholics. He quoted Origen to try to prove his point: 'wher be schismes there be heresies, there be dissensions, and finallie vtter destruction: but where is vnion, there is peace and concord'.63 He also used the analogy of musical harmony: 'lyke as in musycke when tharmony in stringes, pipes, and tunes, do well agree together, then is ther swet and pleasaunt melody, and els it is grief and no pleasure to here: euen so it is with vs the membres of Christes misticall bodye'.64 And by contrasting such descriptions with an account of recent events in England's history, Standish was able to conclude: 'Experience hereby hath taught vs, that amonges christen men nothing is so sore to be feared as to be deuided from the vnity of christes churche, as all they be whyche forsake the head therof.'63 Nevertheless, this was a cautious line of argument, which showed that papal supremacy was far from being considered a fundamental part of Catholicism, and that even among its supporters there was a reluctance to see it in spiritual terms. Other Marian works which discussed the papacy took a similar line of argument. These include the contributions in A profitable and necessarye doctryne, with certayne homelyes adioyned . . ., which was Bishop Bonner's attempt at a doctrinal formulation for the Marian Church. This contained two homilies on papal primacy, both written by John Harpsfield. The first of these began cautiously, explaining how in every natural body there are higher and lower members to ensure the survival of that body. This rule he then applied to the Church, where he identified the priesthood as the higher power, explaining the institution of priesthood through apostolic succession. This was supported by a quotation from Cyprian. 'Neyther other where, or by other meanes, are heresyes sprong vp, and scismes rysen, than hereof, that obedience is not gyuen to the preist of God.'66 Only having advanced through the less contentious theme of priestly authority, does Harpsfield mention the primacy of Peter, whose sole purpose he defined as the preservation of unity. 'Our Sauiour through " Ibid., Sig. T vv. 64 Ibid., Sig. T viii v . 65 Ibid., Sig. T iii'. 66 Bonner, A profytable and necessary e doctryne, fo. 43\

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his heauenly wysedome, perceyuynge, that it is most necessarye, one to be ouer a hole multitude, specially being a multytude congregated of so infinite a number of people, and of so sondry nations, as is the catholyke churche, did appoynte S. Peter, to that offyce.'67 Once again, a cautious reintroduction of the idea of papal administration had been attempted, but there had been no attempt to give the papacy the position of importance that it held in continental orthodoxy. Again, the position of the Pope was justified in practical and administrative terms rather than as an article of faith. The second homily on the subject largely reiterated these emphases, stressing, as had Standish, how experience showed the necessity of papal authority. An array of patristic citations was employed to show how the Bishops of Rome (whom Harpsfield never terms Topes') had always been taken as Peter's successor. This work also differed from most of the Marian works in that it traced the beginning of heresy back, not to 1547, but like Pole and Standish, to 1533, and asked its reader to consider the evils that had befallen since that time. Again the papacy is shown as a guarantee against disintegration: but as a long citation from St Augustine suggests, it was seen as only one safeguard among many. Harpsfield recalled how Augustine had said that there are many thinges, which of very good reason, doo kepe me, in the lawes of the catholyke churche. The consent of so manye people, and nations, or cuntries, dothe kepe me: the authoritie of the churche, begon with myracles, nourysshed with hope, encreased with charitye, and confyrmed with antiquitye, doeth kepe me: the succession also of bysshoppes, from sainct Peter the Apostles seat, or tyme (to whome oure Lorde dyd after his resurrection, commyt hys shepe to be fedde) unto this present Bisshopricke (meanyng Rome) doeth kepe me in the catholyke churche.68

The papacy was made a subsidiary consideration in the more important question of church unity. Bonner's words on the subject in A profitable and necessarye doctryne developed the same theme when he came to discuss the article of the Creed, 'I believe in the holy Catholic Church'. And forasmuch as this catholike militaunte church, of which this article entreateth, hath for the preseruation of the vnitie thereof, by the ordinaunce, and appoyntment of our sauiour Christ, one pryncipal head, or chief 67 68

Ibid., fo. 46'. Ibid., fo. 51'.

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gouernoure, here vpon earth, whiche beynge the chief vycar, and substitute of Chryst in his sayde church, doth, and ought, with other ministers under hym, attende, and geue heede, to the good ordre, and rule of the sayd militant church.69

John Harpsfield also gave a sermon for St Andrew's day70 in 1556, preached at St Paul's where he was canon. This began as Standish's work had done, by urging his audience to 'remember what miserable and parlous case we were in of late yeres'.71 The intention of his sermon, he stated, was 'to set forth the excedinge greate benefite of cure reconciliation to the vnitie of the catholike churche, and the horrible miseries which we were in, in the tyme of schisme and division'.72 Like Standish, Harpsfield made his work extremely persuasive in tone, asking his audience to appreciate the need for papal supremacy rather than insisting on it as a mark of orthodoxy or a truth universally acknowledged. His conclusion was that the papal primacy was an administrative necessity. 'Ye have heard how necessarye it is for al christendome to be vnder the governement of the Apostolike sea, and thereby must needes perceive that the benefite of our reconciliation and reduction to that sea, is a most excellent and exceadyng gret benefit.'73 Another means of persuasion was employed here, when Harpsfield carefully reminded his congregation of the full acquiescence of parliament in the restoration of obedience to Rome. 'It chaunced in the tyme of a parliament, and by the full consent and glad approbation of the whole realme, in that parliament represented.'74 It is ironic, but entirely representative of the Reformation in England, that the authority of the papacy should be portrayed as acceptable in this way by the authority of the parliament. It was one of many indications of the success of Henrician propaganda. There is an obvious sense that here was an unfamiliar and contentious doctrine which the people would have to be persuaded to accept: it is notable that so few of the Marian writers were prepared to approach this task. Even Harpsfield's endorsement of the papacy was muted. He did not try to avoid the issue of papal abuses, only arguing that the dignity of 69

70

Ibid., Sig. I iiij v .

John Harpsfield, A notable and learned Sermon or Homilie, made upon saint Andreses ye (London, 1556). 71 72 73 74

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

Sig. Sig. Sig. Sig.

A A B B

iiii'. iiii*. vir. vi v .

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the office remained unchanged: 'But it may not here be omitted, that though in the numbre of many successours of Sainct Peter it might somtime chaunce some one or mo to be euil: yet that nothing can prejudicate to the authorite nor men ought therfore to withdraw their obedience.'75 And he drove home his point by trying to argue that papal primacy was necesssary to safeguard the continuance of the Mass, no doubt knowing that here was a far clearer focus for Catholic loyalties. 'Of late men pulled downe aultars, contempned the seruice and sacrifice of the aultar, but now we must come in gret multitudes to the aultar, to the seruice of the aultar, and the sacrifice of the aultar, I meane to the Masse.'76 Harpsfield was clearly hoping that the unquestioning popular loyalty to the Sacrament might in time have been extended to include the highly questionable issue of loyalty to Rome. Having rehearsed yet again the evils that preceded Mary's accession, and the timeliness of the return to Rome, he insisted firmly, 'I shal not nede muche to speake of the great euils that this realme is ryd from by this benefit. Euery man feleth in him self the great relife, that he hath by his reconciliation.'77 He was perhaps attempting to impart some of his own assurance to the audience he was addressing. Such, then, was the attempt to resurrect loyalty to the Pope within the hearts and minds of the Marian congregations. The appearance of such attempts in only three of the many vernacular works published under Mary suggests how generally unpopular was the notion of papal supremacy. It is also perhaps significant that the comments which did appear are contributions in officially sponsored works. Moreover, the tone of these works, being both cautious, limited in their claims, and far more persuasive than evangelical, confirms that these ideas on the papacy were very new to the English Catholic tradition. They had been forced on the Marian Church by the experience of Protestant extremes under Edward VI, but they were not to find any sure footing among English Catholic writers until the reformed outlook of Mary's reign had been replaced by the search for orthodoxy under Elizabeth I. Mary may have restored papal authority in England, but there were some aspects of the Royal Supremacy that could not be shed so easily, embedded as they now were in even Catholic thought. 75 76 77

Ibid., Sig. B v'. Ibid., Sig. C ir. Ibid., Sig. B vii'.

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Similarly, in terms of the approach to doctrine she perpetuated many of her father's emphases, including the two key elements of Scripture and church reform. She remained true to the reformist tradition by maintaining the legality of vernacular Scripture throughout her reign, and although she sought to banish Protestant translations, Pole's legatine synod of 1555 initiated the preparation of a Catholic translation of the New Testament.78 Nor did Mary wait for directions from Rome before setting about the business of church reform. Written instructions to the Cardinal concerning reform of religion show the perpetuation of certain key themes such as preaching, and the raising of clerical standards. These instructions contained directions such as: 'Bisshoppes to cause there owne Chaplains and as menie as be learned and good men within there dioces to travaile contynually in preaching',79 for which purpose it also recommended the use of the 'learned in the vniversities'.80 The clerical abuses which the Henrician Church had tried to remove were also included in this list of priorities. The Bisshops to have a special! care that noe man hold more benefice with cure then one, withowt sufficient dispensation, and that they be personally resident vppon theyr sayd benefice. The Bisshops to set like order in all place for the honest behauior of priestes, specialy that they resort to noe Tavernes, Alehowses, and other suspect howses, and that suche as be not learned to preache doo occupie ther tymes in teaching childerne to reade, wryte, sing or suche like.81

Cardinal Pole also had strong views on the issue of clerical reform (in accordance with which he refused a secular post in Mary's government) and these are reflected by the decrees of the Lambeth synod, published posthumously in 1562 as Reformatio Angliae Ex Decretis Reginalds Poll, which showed some clear continuities with the thought behind the Consilium de Emendanda Ecclesia of I537-82 In anticipation of the stance taken at the Council of Trent, Pole's synod was conservative on doctrine, but very advanced in its views on clerical education and residence, the avoidance of nepotism and pluralism, 78 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, 530. The synod closed in Feb. 1555 (or 1556 in modern dating). 79 BL Lansdowne MS 96, fo. 25'. 80 Ibid., fo. 25V. 81 Ibid., fo. 25v-26'. 82 For a translation of this document, see J. C. Olin, The Catholic Reformation: Savonarola to Ignatius Loyola: Reform in the Church 1495-1540 (New York and London, 1971).

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and the need for preaching and teaching. It may be that the extent of Pole's new-found conservatism has been exaggerated.83 In terms of church reform he clearly preserved much of his earlier radicalism.84 The accession of Mary Tudor gave English Catholic writers and thinkers the opportunity to continue their work for the reform of the faith, free from the risk that the process would be hijacked by Protestantism. The Marian works saw a recurrence of earlier themes on the regeneration of Christian ministry, and the Lambeth decree on the clergy used language reminiscent of earlier humanist idealism. Let them be the fathers of the poor, the refuge and defence of the orphans, widows and oppressed; let them be assiduously employed in the study of the Holy Scriptures, and in those matters which relate to the government of the cure committed to them; but abstain from secular business and all those things which least suit the clerical order according to the institutes of the holy canons, so that in all things the form of a true flock may be recognized.85 The scrupulous concern of the synod for a more ascetic form of clerical lifestyle, and the insistence that archbishops and bishops should personally attend to the business of preaching were among many indications of the reforming instinct at work. Lambeth anticipated Trent by being the first Catholic assembly to insist on the use of seminaries to educate the clergy. Cardinal Pole also made it clear that, however much he regretted the Dissolution, the first concern of the English people must be to rebuild, not the monasteries, but their own parish churches and yf you were able, and had suche a gay mynde to restore the ruynes of the chyrches, yet there be other chyrches, that are nowe fyrste to be helpen, and these be youre parryshe-chyrches: whiche albeyt they have not byn cast downe by couloure of authoryte, as the abbayes were, yet they have byn sufferede to fawle downe of themselves maynye, and yn lyke maner spoyled as the monasteryes were. And to thys I exhorte you furthewyth to sett your 83 See Ch. 6 which considers the possibility that Pole wrote the Treatie of lustification of 1569 and which discusses the perpetuation of a reformist understanding within this work. 84 There seems little evidence for the assertion by Loades that 'Mary and Pole saw the future in terms of the past' or for his belief in the insular and reactionary nature of their policies. See The Reign of Mary Tudor, 2nd edn. (London, 1991), 288. 85 Bray (ed.), The Anglican Canons, 109.

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hande; the whyche you maye yn no wyse fayle to doo, excepte you wyll have your people wax brutyshe and wylde, and your commonwealthe wythout foundacion.86

The Marian writers were especially concerned with the plight of the parishes, and as they wrote about religious regeneration, they discussed the effects of Protestantism in social as well as theological terms. Their works reveal a keen appreciation of the damage that was being done to popular communities by religious doubt and division. They spoke with energy of the need to correct deficiencies in understanding and devotion among the simple and unlearned, and structured their written work accordingly, making obvious efforts to promote understanding by their use of language and metaphor. They also tended to avoid polemical exchange to concentrate on the task of explaining their faith in terms of the Bible and the primitive Church. This explains why so many of the Marian works are books of homilies and sermons, designed either to be read by the people, or to be read to the people from the pulpit. It also explains why so many of the printing presses were devoted to producing missals and primers, rather than broadsheets and polemical pamphlets.87 This was not a failure, or an absence of vision, but a particular approach in line with contemporary Catholic views on church reform, and the need to evangelize in the parishes. A central element of the reformist understanding was, of course, the insistence on reform of the priestly office.88 The attempts made by the Lambeth synod to raise the standards of clerical piety and education were also reflected in the episcopal appointments made by Mary and Pole.89 This awareness of the responsibilities of the clergy was reflected in the religious works published at the time. Paul Bushe, former Bishop of Bristol, had been deprived for marrying, but still continued his ministry under Mary. He explained how he viewed his vocation in his work of 1556:

86 Cardinal Pole's speech to the citizens of London, in Strype, Ecclesiastical memorials, ii/2, p. 482. 87 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, 526; Loach, 'The Marian Establishment and the Printing Press'. 88 For an account of attitudes to the priesthood in this period, see P. Marshall, The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation (Oxford, 1994). 89 See L. B. Smith, Tudor Prelates and Politics (Princeton, 1953); Thompson, 'The Pastoral Work of the English and Welsh Bishops, 1500—1558.'

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for that god hath conducted an hyred me with his penye to trauell and to laboure in his vyneyarde, not onelye to declare the mutuall bond of charitie, and chrysten loue which we chrystians ought to shewe, the one vnto the other for Chrystes sake, in tyme of temptation. But also to preserue his faythefull flocke from the rauenynge mouthe of that monstruous beast.90 There was a sense that the clergy needed to rise to the challenge of their responsibilities. In the work of John Redman, The complaint of grace, published posthumously in Mary's reign, Grace was made to say of the clergy: 'if they would be ordered by me, they shoulde fall to more earnest studie with praier and abstinence and leue their vanitees, and gyue better example of lyfe, and so stoppe the mouthes of false teachers, and stablishe the people in true faith and doctrine'.91 There was still a sense that this call for reform was being issued as a call to arms. The radical overtones which had coloured this theme when Erasmus was raising his voice against the scholastic establishment had been transferred to an English context by Colet and others. Under Mary they were adapted to the particular needs of the Catholic restoration, informing both religious literature and church policy. In due course they were to be absorbed into the work of another radical minority, when the English Catholics were driven into exile under Elizabeth, and attention was again focused on the vital work of the priesthood, this time in a missionary capacity. The transition to this final stage was marked by the sermon of John White at Mary's funeral, which dwelt on the responsibility and authority of priests and princes together, and used the text Melius est cams vivus, quam leo mortuus. Better is one lively preacher in the church, that dareth to bark against sin, blasphemy, heresy; better is one lively officer or magistrate in the commonweal, that dareth to speak against injuries, extortions, seditions, rebellions, and other discords, than the dead lion: that is to say, men, perhaps, of great dignity and vocation, who dare not open their mouths and bark; but suffreth, while al goeth to ruin, to the decay of Christian religion, and the subversion of the public wealth.92 The idea that responsibility for religious regeneration lay in the hands of the priesthood, and the idea that such regeneration might require 90

Bushe, A brefe exhortation, Sig. C vv—C vir. John Redman, A compendious treatise called the complaint of grace (London, 1556?), Sig. K v'-\ 92 BL Cotton, Vesp. D xvlli fo. 94; printed by Strype, Ecclesiastical memorials, iii/i. 91

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a radical approach, was to be a constant preoccupation of English Catholics throughout this century and took on a particular emphasis in the Marian works. This concern was linked to the question of reviving charity and faith in the parish communities. True religion in the parishes required a truly godly parish priest. This could be portrayed as a reciprocal matter. Pole admonished the citizens of London that the godliness of their priest was partly in their hands: 'you yourselves make your prystes evyll many times, makinge them oftyn tymes to condescende to your unlefull desyres, and shewe your selfe nothynge contente when they wyll not playe the good companyons wyth you, and reprove them when they doe not'.93 He suggested to the Londoners that they atone for past errors: 'as you, above all other nations that I knowe, dyshonoured the mynysters of the chyrche and presthode ytselfe, so you shoulde nowe honour bothe the ordre instytuted of God, and the persons for the ordres sake, and him that they do represente; remembrynge ever what Chryst sayethe, Quis vos spernit, me spernif.^ Yet Pole's approach, as in other areas, was not entirely typical here. There were on the whole more remarks addressed to priests themselves on this subject, for example in the Certaine sermons of 1557. Paynell included a sermon by St Bernard on the Sacrament of the Altar which was addressed to priests, and which tried to bring home to them the weight of their responsibilities. As it stressed the enormity of the act of consecration, it insisted on the necessity of holy behaviour by the priesthood. In answer to the question 'whence comes priesthood?', the sermon replied 'I say not of that name, but of vertue, of conuersation and not of that office, of holynes, and not of the mistery.'95 In effect, this suggested that priests were required to be holy and virtuous before they could truly be priests, an emphasis which went beyond the orthodox view on this point, and made the need for high clerical standards very evident. The reforming tracts which were written in the hope of restoring spiritual health to the people often began by making much of the disorder which they saw about them, and which they blamed on the inroads made by Protestantism during the reign of Edward VI. The lament of the anonymous author of A plaine and godlye treatise is characteristic, and since this was a work which was added to later 93 94 95

Cardinal Pole's speech to the citizens of London, ibid., ii/2, pp. 485—6. Ibid. 484-5. St Augustine, Certaine sermons, Sig. R vi r .

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editions of the Marian primers, it was one which had presumably gained official approval.96 The writer described the damage done to society when the Protestants had the upper hand: settynge the worlde at suche losenes and leude lybertye, that noe law coulde let lust, all good order broken, the magistrates contempned, and the people so farre deuided, that the father dreade the chylde, the marchaunt hys prentise, the maister his man, the mysteres her mayde, the wyfe her husbande. No man durst trust hys nexte neyghbovire. Amitie and frendshyp was fled the realme, truth exyled, the very norysh of chastity in maydens cast of cleane, so that what eche man lyked and lusted that he thoughte lawful. And fynally vertue so odious and hated, that euery man semed to be wery of all honestye. The clergye ashamed of chastitie, the pryestes and mynysters of prayer, the aged of deuocion, and as our mayster Christe saythe: where wyckednesse wexed plentyfull, there charitye wexed colde.97 This was a strongly voiced example of a perception lems which caused the Marian writers in general Gardiner's chaplain Bullingham, who translated a Venaeus, expressed in his preface a similar version widely felt. He described England's sufferings:

of social probgrave concern. work by John of the concern

wherin thousandes of men (alas for pitie) hauing their heartes cleane voide of Charitie, beyng corrupte in conscience, and flattering them selfes with their counterfayte faythe, haue not onlye bene turned into Jangling and babling, but at the laste have fallen into great and horrible blasphemies. As for charitie howe colde it is, would god it were not so manifest and open before our eyes.98 Without true charity, argued Bullingham, there was little chance for true faith to flourish. 'Where corrupte heartes and mindes are, there can not be pure and liuely faith: And where pure fayth is not founde, there is a commodious place for errors and heresyes to dwell in.'99 Moreover, the work which Bullingham had chosen to translate was one in which Venaeus had made exactly the same point about Protestantism: Hereby it cometh to passe, that all thinges are foule disordred, nothing quiete and peasable: that charitie is exiled and banished euery where, that %

Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, 542. Anon., A plaine and godlye treatise, Sig. A vir. A notable Oration made by John Venaeus a Parisien in the defence of the Sacrament of the aultare (London, 1554), 'Epistle Dedicatory' by Bullingham to Gardiner, Sig. A iij'. 99 Ibid., Sig. A vr. 1)7

98

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true and faithful hartes with the louing concord of Turtle doues can not be founde amonge men. . . . hereby chrystiane bloude is shedde vnmeasurablye: hereby also be at variance and discorde (I will not saye prince with prince, the Commons wyth the magistrates, the seruant with the mayster) but even vnder one roufe and in one house (O miserable and pitifull case) the father dissenteth from the sonne, the mother from the doughter: So christes churche that in old time before us knew nothing but vnitie and concord, that enbraced peace, and hereby did flourishe, nowe is altogether confounded.100 Venaeus's work belonged more within the context of continental ideas where Protestantism was linked to both the subversion of apostolic continuity and rebellion against established authority in political as well as ecclesiological terms. These arguments were put to a slightly different use by English writers, who would at times link Protestant ideas with political subversion, but on the whole chose to link them rather more to the division and confusion in the parishes. They clearly perceived that there was confusion there; the 1554 issue of St Vincent of Lerins's work explained in the preface that it had been set forth 'for the reliefe of divers Englishe menne, whiche yet stande in double, whether they maye goe to heauen in the peace and vnitie of Christes vniuersal churche, or to hell in the dissention and confusion of heretikes'.101 Much of the religious literature from this time includes similar declarations of intent which show that Marian writers realized the importance of the task they faced in the parishes. Many of the works which discussed the disorder caused by the previous reign in such terms, added as their corollary remarks about the necessity of providing teaching and encouragement in order to restore charity and unity. Pollard, in his dedication to the Fyve Homilies of 1556, recalled the parable of the widow's mite, saying, 'I have byn there by encoraged to offer towardes the buylding agayne of his blessed Temple (the Church, I meane) defaced and almost destroyde by heretickes, these simple and rude sermons.'102 He explained his view of the task facing Catholic writers in his dedication to the Bishop of Worcester. It is not vnknowen to your Lordeshyp the number of bookes and sermons that were made to deface the churche, and the number and the diligentnes of them that wold have destroyed the churche, the which diligence of them 100 101 102

Ibid., Sig. C ij". St Vincent of Lerins, The male home to Christ, preface. Leonard Pollard, Fyve Homilies (London, 1556), Sig. A ii'.

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or rather continuall ragynge yf it shulde not be matched or with like diligence of our parte ouercome and outmatched, it shulde be much to the reproche of vs all.103 The preface to the reprint of The folowinge ofChryste of 1556 commented that if people had read such devotional works more often in the past they would not have fallen into their present errors. The anonymous editor also hoped that the work would counteract the effect of the 'many treatyse whych have ben put out both in latyn and Englyshe, in this perylous worlde to seduce the symple people, and to bryng them from the vnitie of the catholyke church into peruerse and abhominable errours'.104 The suggestion that the Marian Church failed to realize the power of the printed word is countered by these declarations of intent. Where Protestant literary effort aimed at providing polemical works for the literate members of society, Catholic literary effort was aimed at providing works of religious instruction, particularly sermons which could be used in the parishes. The very titles of the Marian works often revealed their intentions. Watson's homilies of 1558 bore the title Holsome and Catholyke doctryne concerninge the seven Sacramentes ofChrystes Church, expedient to he knowen of all men, set forth in maner of shorte Sermons to bee made to the people. The treatise of c. 1557 attached to some of the Marian primers was called A plaine and godlye treatise for the instrucion of the symple and unlernedpeople. Their concern for the simple and unlearned continually recurred in prefaces and authorial comments. Paynell, in his preface to Twelve of saynt Augustines sermons, which he dedicated to Mary, apologized for the crudity of his translation, but excused it in the light of its intended audience. 'Desyrynge your hyghnes thankfully to accepte this my rude translation. Rude it is (I confesse) and barbarous, because I woulde be playne unto the playne and simple people.'105 In a similar vein, Richard Smith wrote A Boudier of the Catholike fayth hoping 'not to instruct the learned in Diuinitee, which nede not much my teachyng, but to teach the vnlearned, to stay and establish the waueryng, to assure and certify the doubtfull of the trouth, to bryng them agayne vnto the trouth of the catholike churche, which were disceaued through ignoraunce'.106 There was a very clear 103

Ibid., Sig. A ii". Thomas a Kempis, The folowinge ofChryste (London, 1556), Sig. A iiv. St Augustine, Twelue Sermons, Sig. A vr. 106 Richard Smith, A Boudier of the Catholike fayth (London, 1554), Address to the Reader. 104 105

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sense of who would be needing the works of instruction that were being published. It was within the context of reform and restoration that many of the Marian works stressed the need for charity within the community. This was held to include both practical charity, or the giving of alms, and the spiritual state of living 'in charity' with one's neighbour.107 The sermons by St Augustine which Thomas Paynell translated, or possibly wrote himself, were particularly emphatic in this respect.108 They explained various aspects of godly Catholic living, from giving alms to avoiding drunkenness, and would seem to have been popular, since an extended edition of the 1553 work was published in 1557.109 Paynell explained in his preface that he hoped they would contradict the habit of dissolute living, and explained his view of Marian England. There was neuer more sincere and trewe preachynge, than is nowe of late, nor the worde of God more spoken of, then is in these our dayes. But so much preachynge, and so lytle folowynge, so muche exhortacion to charite, and so feable and weake loue, so much perswasion to souccoure and ayde the poore, and so greate pouertie, so much good counsel gyuen to ensewe vertue, and so lytell apprehended and vsed, was never sene. Why so? For euery man (as now the worlde is fashioned) be he neuer so rude and vnlearned, wyll be his owne doctour, his owne interpreter of scripture, and folowe his owne sense and opinion, his owne maner of liuyng and pleasure, cleane contrary to all wysedome, reason, and good learnyng.110

This expresses very well the Marian view of both the problem and the solution. The latter was seen by all of these writers as the restoration of the bonds of charity. Paynell's comments were here echoing a perception of societal disorder which is usually ascribed to Protestant commentators, and which is held to explain the Protestant 107 For a discussion of the place of this concept within society, see Brigden, London and the Reformation, 149-50 and 628—31; ead., 'Religion and Social Obligation in Early Sixteenth-Century London', PP 103 (1984), 67-112; J. Bossy, 'The Mass as a Social Institution 1200-1700', PP 100 (1983), 29-61. 108 The sermons are clearly not by Augustine, but quantities of pseudo-Augustinian works were in circulation at this period and the origin of these particular sermons is not clear. It is possible that Paynell composed them himself, a possibility supported by their reissue in 1557 with five new sermons added. Even if Paynell was not the author, however, he nevertheless selected them and translated them himself. 109 St Augustine, Twelue Sermons (London, 1553), RSTC 923, reprinted with five new sermons in 1557 as Certaine sermons. 110 Ibid, (same preface to both works), Sig. A iiiv—A iiiir.

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emphasis on social reconstruction.111 It is clear, however, that this was a perception which could be shared by all religious reformers and writers of the time, and one which was also behind a marked Catholic emphasis on charity and the reconstruction of society. The sermons by Augustine (or Paynell) repeatedly stressed in particular the Christian duty of charity within the community. 'And aboue all thynges, take hede that ye doe vnto other, as ye woulde be done vnto, and that ye woulde other menne should not do vnto you, that ye doe it not vnto theym . . . for he that hath no lernynge at all, and hathe these two sentences in mynde and memorye, maye by Goddes helpe and grace, in dede fulfyll them.'112 The sermons chosen were all focused on the behaviour of the poorest element in society. The sermon on alms-giving discussed the plight of those with no money to give, asking them to recall whether they had spent money unnecessarily in the past, and assuring them that even a place to sleep, a glass of water, or an expression of good will could be a gift. It insisted on the necessity of such actions: 'yf thou wylte open thy hande to the poore, Chryste shall open hys gates vnto the'.113 Similarly, with reference to St Matthew, this sermon promised rewards for such compassion. 'In asmuch as ye haue done it vnto one of these least of my brethren, ye haue done it to me. I shall therefore geue you celestial! and eternal rewards . . . Nor that, because ye haue not trespassed: but because ye haue redemed and raunsomed youre sinnes with almose and charitable dedes.'114 And the sermon made it clear that charity and the unity it brought were fundamental to the living of a Christian life: 'And to the entent ye may (throughe the helpe of God) accomplysh and doe those thynges, loke that there be peace and Concorde amonge you: and that ye reduce and brynge those that are at stryfe and debate, to peace and vnytie.'115 The literature of Mary's reign could so easily have put emphasis upon the need for confrontation and the defeat of heresy. Instead it chose to 1 '' The best example of Protestant works on this theme is supplied by the sermons of Hugh Latimer. See G. E. Corrie, (ed.), Sermons and Remains of Hugh Latimer, PS (Cambridge, 1845). P. Slack, 'Social Policy and the Constraints of Government, 1547-58', in J. Loach and R. Tittler (eds.), The Mid-Tudor Polity 0.1540-1560 (London, 1980), demonstrates the influence of humanist ideas upon attitudes to social reform. See also H. C. White, Social Criticism in Popular Religious Literature of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1965), and W. R. D. Jones, The Tudor Commonwealth 1529—1559 (London, 1970). 112 St Augustine, Certaine sermons, Sig. C iiM. 113 Ibid., Sig. G vv. 114 Ibid., Sig. H iir-". The biblical reference is to Matt. 25: 40. 115 Ibid., Sig. B vv-B vi'.

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stress the need for charity and an end to controversy in hope of restoring church unity. The emphasis on charity was no doubt reinforced by some of the particularly distressing circumstances of Mary's reign, which were capable of moving Cranmer to tears in his last dramatic public address.116 It was also a well-established humanist preoccupation, however, as was the need for widespread religious teaching, and the conjunction of these two concerns was to characterize all the works of the reign. Paynell's collection of sermons appeared in two editions, in 1553 and in 1557. The later collection had five additional sermons which were perhaps particularly characteristic of a number of Marian emphases. A sermon on chastity stressed how necessary it was for priests; another on purgatory warned that its powers of purgation were limited, and that mortal sins could only be purged on earth by much penance, alms-giving, and pious living. A sermon on observance of Sundays and Saints' Days urged that the whole day should be given to honouring God, that prayers should be said at home as well as in church, and that attendance at Mass was vital. These ideas were a fresh reworking of old themes, with a reformist edge, guarding against superstitious practices, giving practical advice, and infusing the whole with an evangelical fervour. Paynell also added a sermon on peace and unity to the 1557 edition which reiterated the necessity for charity in the community. 'The peace whych is in good men, doth claspe and cople brethren in concord, and neighbours in charite.'117 This sermon expanded upon a theme of St Matthew to explain the necessity of making peace before coming to Mass.118 This theme is also to be found in Bishop Watson's Holsome and Catholyke doctryne, which sought to raise the importance of brotherly love almost to the level of a sacrament in itself, and laid great emphasis upon its importance as a prerequisite for the sacraments of penance and communion. Watson entitled one 116 MacCulloch, Thomas Cranmer, 601. During Mary's reign England experienced particularly bad weather, and subsequently much famine and disease. See Brigden, London and the Reformation, 620-2; P. Slack, The Impact of Plague in Tudor and Stuart England (London and Boston, 1985), 56-8. Marian social policy does not seem always to have reached the high standards envisaged by religious commentators of the time. See Brigden, op. cit., 621-3. But see also P. Slack, 'Social Policy and the Constraints of Government, 1547-58', in Loach and Tittler (eds.) Mid-Tudor Polity c. 1540-1560, 104, which suggests that the Marian regime was not demonstrably less committed to social reform than the Edwardian regime. 117 St Augustine, Cerlaine sermons, Sig. L vr. 118 The biblical reference is to Matt. 5: 22—4.

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of his homilies Of confession to a mans neighbour and insisted on the healing of rifts between neighbours, because God is charitie, and the God of peace and not of discension, and doth not vouchsafe to poure his grace into that hart where hatred, enmitie, and breache of peace remayneth, therefore no man can be reconciled to God, whome he hath by his synne offended, that is not reconciled to his brother or neyghboure, whome by some injurye, eyther in woorde or deede he hath lykewyse offended.119 And in his discussion of worthy reception of the Sacrament, Watson again stressed the Christian necessity of being in charity, for this is the mystery of peace and the vnitie of Chrystes mystycall bodye, and he that receyueth the misterye of vnitie, and kepeth not the bonde of peace and vnitie, he receyueth not the misterye for hym selfe, but a testimony against him selfe. Therefore of all thynges let vs be sure of this that wee bee in charitie, and that no anger freate vs, no pryde inflame vs, no lechery defile vs, nor no enuy torment our hartes, when we come to oure Lordes table.120 Thus, the concept of Christian charity was given the greatest possible importance in those Marian works which were written to be used in the parishes. Watson's homilies of 1558 took their declared purpose, to provide instruction for the simple people, very seriously, and this is reflected in the language used. Watson's simple and painstaking explanations of the ritual of the Mass, the ceremonies of the Church, or the effects of worthy reception of the Sacrament all bring the fruits of faith within a homely context. In Sermon XV, entitled Against Desperation, Watson gave spiritual encouragement to those entering upon the way of devotion. Euer the beginnyng semeth hardest. At the fyrst steppe the waye of veertue seemeth to be harde, and not able to bee commed vnto: For so is the nature of all thinges, all labour semeth paynefull, so longe as it is weyed onelye in the consideration of a mannes minde. But when we come to the experience of the thyng, and beginne to go throughe a lytle of the laboure, than is all the feare of the greefe dryuen cleane awaye. The successe of the woorke bryngeth sweetenesse, and the encrease of vertue newe repayred, bryngeth 119 120

Watson, Holsome and Catholyke doctryne, Sermon XXII. Ibid., fo. Ixiiii'.

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gladnesse to oure myndes, and by and by maketh vs stronger, when the hope of saluation begynneth to seeme nygh at hande.121

The spiritual advice was combined with the practical. Watson's insistence on brotherly love has already been noted. Here he gave advice as to how best to achieve the state of charity. If thou haste stollen other mens goodes, besyde the ceasing from the sinne, and restitution of the same goodes, nowe beginne to geue thine owne, if thou hast vsed fornication a long time, forbeare the lawfull vse of they mariage so long tyme: if thou haste doone iniurye to any man in woorde or deed, make amendes with humble and good woordes agayne, and theim that hurt thee, laboure to reconcile them with kyndenessc and benefites.122

These works which attempted to instruct the ordinary people also made an effort to speak to the people in words and symbols that they would understand. The sermons translated by Paynell gravely pointed out the connection between Satan and the use of false weights and measures. 'Verely he is not onely a christen man that doth feare and exchewe as the sword of Satan, deceitfull weyghtes, and double measures, but christ him self doth also dwele in hym.'123 Bishop Watson also made attempts to speak in metaphors with which the people could identify. The concept of the inward and invisible grace of a sacrament was explained, 'as it were a secret medicyne deliuered to a sycke man in a visible glasse or vessel, and suche a vessell as dothe teache the recyuer what is conteyned within it, and is also geuen by it'.124 Other metaphors were equally memorable. Watson described the nurturing nature of God's love as being of such warmth that the faithful are suckled by Christ with the Holy Ghost, rather than being sent away to a wet nurse. And in an analogy particularly appropriate to an illiterate audience, he likened the difference between a Christian and a heathen understanding of the Holy Sacrament to the difference between a literate man who sees meaning in the pages of a book and the illiterate man who sees only paper and ink. The exhilaration of salvation was compared to being drunk; the union of man with God was as two waxes being melted together in the fire, and the Christian life was described in terms of of armchair travel—a journey away from worldly cares which can be made whilst sitting at home. 121

122 123 124

Ibid., fo. xcviv.

Ibid., fo. cxliiii'. St Augustine, Ttvelue Sermons, Sig. C viv—C viir. Watson, Hohome and Catholyke doctryne, fo. vi'.

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The Marian works most memorable for their use of metaphor were those by Miles Hogarde.125 Hogarde was the Marian writer with the most lowly social origins and one of the most distinctive styles.126 The assault of the sacrament of the Altar drew on secular medieval imagery as the writer explained how he was taken in a dream to a great hall hung with tapestries where a holy man explained the significance of what the tapestries portrayed. As the dream progressed they came upon Lady Faith, decked in gold and jewels, who stood on a three-cornered stone marked Christus with a Host held in her hand. She was surrounded by the Evangelists and St Paul bearing their own contributions to the Scriptures. As they stood ready to defend Lady Faith, the writer explained, Then sawe I on their targattes written plaine Scutum fidei, and farthermore lyke case Upon their swordes verbum dei certaine, Thus orderly they stood eche in his place, This lady to defende assisted with grace, Whiche had on her breest, in letters of golde, Fides catholica, moost goodly to beholde.127

In an echo of some of the imagery beloved of Henry VIII, Hogarde saw his faith being defended by the 'verbum Dei', the Word of God. The dream progressed with the assault of Lady Faith by a succession of heretics, from Berengarius to Luther, Oecolampadius who began to quarrel with Luther, and finally all the English Protestants who were listed by name. Cranmer was portrayed among them, distinguished, as were they all, by the wrongful and irreverent use of Scripture. Then sawe I the cheife byshop of them all, Rushe to the doctours vnreverently, And rent out of their bookes in gobetes small, Peices for his purpose, whiche peruersly, He chewde with his teeth, and then spitefully, Shot them at lady faieth in pellet wyse, And beastly did the sacrament despise.128 125 See The assault of the sacrament of the altar (London, 1554); A treatise declaring howe Christ. . . was banished out of this realme (London, 1554); A treatise entitled the path waye (London, 1554); The displaying of the protestantes (London, 1556). 126 See J. W. Martin, Religious Radicals in Tudor England (London, 1989). 127 Hogarde, The assault of the sacrament of the Altar, Sig. C ii v . 128 Ibid., Sig. E iir.

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The dream concluded with the arrival of Mary Tudor and the unveiling of Lady Faith before whom the Edwardians had drawn a veil by their destruction of the Mass. The drawing back of the veil by Mary, noted Hogarde, meant that the daily offering was restored. Hogarde combined a traditional literary form with some clearly reformed theological ideas. This author's ability to bring together his loyalty to the Bible, the Mass, and the Church Fathers, illustrated by medieval imagery and written in English verse, is a striking example of both the commitment and the versatility of Marian thought. Hogarde's work is remarkable for its vivid writing, and the verses composed by this London clothier arguably contained more popular appeal than most of the other Marian works which were written by the educated. Nevertheless, many of the Marian works suggest that their writers were making a particular effort to make their work accessible. John Gwynneth wrote A Manifeste Detection in the form of a dialogue, with Catholicus and Hereticus discussing the work of John Frith. The work opened with a conversation concerning the time of day. Hereticus observed that London clocks could not be trusted, prompting a clever reply from the Catholic. H: Ye knowe right well, thei never agree together. And therfore we may be sure, thei goe not trewe. C: Then bee they wonderfull like vnto heretikes . . ,129 It was with pictures and devices such as these that the Marian writers sought to encourage and educate the simple people until such time as Christian charity and the true faith had been fully restored to them. If we evaluate the Marian Church in the light of its own declared objectives we begin to get a more accurate appreciation of its potential for religious renewal. Rather than import foreign ideas, or even foreign religious orders, there was an attempt to build upon an existing religious ideology. This essentially humanist ideology was founded upon principles of reform whose influence was widely felt in England and which provided a basis in common understanding for both Catholic and Protestant writers and thinkers at this time. The accession of Mary gave Catholic reformers an opportunity to build upon this ideological basis, developing existing ideas and creating new emphases in response to the particular needs of the 129

John Gwynneth, A manifeste detection (London, 1554), Sig. A ii'.

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restoration. They expounded a Catholic understanding with its own distinctive approach to Scripture, authority, and the task of reform, which was in many senses a perpetuation of the themes and trends of Henrician Catholicism.

5 Reformed and Catholic Doctrine MARY'S brief reign provided the opportunity for Catholic renewal within the English Church. A significant part of that campaign was the production of printed works, both practical texts such as primers and missals, but also works of religious instruction. These works reflect some of the vigour of the restoration whilst also illustrating the central preoccupations of Marian religious thought. The theological writings of this time are particularly significant because the English Reformation was still at a stage of development where doctrine was far from fixed on either side of the confessional divide. Marian theology brought together many different ideas, combining elements from the past with new emphases which were to be important in Catholic thought in the future. Some of the ideas discussed in this chapter were to be short-lived, and much of the humanist content of Marian thought was to be submerged by the rising tide of Counter-Reformation ideology. Nevertheless, the religious ideas expounded by the Marian Church illustrate, on the one hand, the diversity and adaptability of Catholic thought at this time, and on the other, shed some important light on the delicate workings of the early Reformation in England. These works of religious instruction appealed to the humanist principle of extending religious education to the people, as well as to the necessity of restoring the true faith in England. The particular emphasis upon preaching noted in the last chapter bore fruit in a range of published sermons and homilies. In 1556 the Legatine Synod at Lambeth had concluded, in good humanist fashion, that pastoral care 'chiefly consists in the preaching of the divine word'.1 It pointed out that insistence on residence achieved nothing where pastoral care was deficient, and therefore made the following decree: 'That bishops and others exercising the cure of souls should preach 1 From 'The Legatine Constitutions of Cardinal Pole, 1556', in G. Bray (ed.), The Anglican Canons 7529-2 947, Church of England Record Society 6 (Woodbridge, 1998), 101.

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to the people, and that parish priests should instruct children in the basic elements of the faith.'2 It has already been seen that Mary too had strong views on the necessity of preaching, and the works published during her reign reflected this. There were two works of particular importance in this respect. One was Bishop Edmund Bonner's work of 1555, A profytable and necessarye doctryne with certayne homelyes adioyned. Providing yet another instance of continuity with Henry VIIIFs Catholicism, Bonner's book was modelled on the 'King's Book' of 1543, and the attached book of homilies followed the homilies of 1547 very closely. Bonner's work was initially intended purely for his own diocese of London, but swiftly achieved far wider circulation. The other work was by Bishop Thomas Watson of Lincoln, entitled Holsome and catholyke doctryne concerninge the seven Sacramentes of Chrystes Church, published in 1558. Lambeth had decreed that where no preachers were available, a book of homilies should supply the deficiency. Watson was later commissioned to prepare homilies which would replace the 1547 collection, so it seems likely that this work of 1558 was the nearest thing we have to an official statement of doctrine by the Marian Church.3 It was also a conscious echo of Erasmus's Enchiridion Militis Christiani, with much use of the same military metaphors. Both these key texts, then, harked back to the patterns set by Henrician Catholicism, and the imperatives of Erasmian thought. These works were supported in both intention and approach by an array of similar publications which were intended as a response to the demand for a more educated clergy and more education for the laity. Bonner explained that his purpose in compiling his book of doctrine, and the homilies that went with it, was 'to thintent they shall haue no cause to murmure or grudge, for lacke of certayne bokes in the englishe tongue for their instruction, or yet for lacke of preachynge vnto them'.4 And he made it clear that his homilies were merely to fill the gap 'til God of his goodnes prouide something better'.5 Pollard 2

Ibid. loi. See Reginald Pole, Epistolae, ed. A. M. Quirini (Brescia, 1744-57), v. 74. For a fuller description of Watson's work, see R. U. Smith, 'An Unpublished Translation by Bishop Thomas Watson of a Spurious Sermon of St Cyprian of Carthage: Introduction and Text', in RH 21 (1993), 419-50. 4 Edmund Bonner, A profitable and necessarye doctryne (London, 1555), Preface, 4-5. 5 Edmund Bonner, Homilies (London, 1555), fo. 2'. Note that although this book of homilies was effectively often the second part of A profytable and necessarye doctryne it will be referred to with a separate title throughout for the sake of easy reference. 3

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described his intention in writing his Fyve Homilies in terms of a concerted effort: 'as the power of the realme must be bent ageynste rebelles, so must the multitude of the learned men, that have byn and yet be defenders ageinst the assaultes of heretickes'.6 There was a clear sense among these writers that their literary endeavours were part of an orchestrated campaign of religious renewal. Indeed, there was even at times a sense of missionary fervour to this campaign. Watson declared that they should be willing to surrender their lives, if necessary, in the task of educating the people: we oughte thankfullye to remember and confesse that oure sauiour Christ hath geuen his body to death, and shed his bloude for vs, knowyng that we ought agayne rather to suffer our bodyes to be slayne, and our bloud to be shed for hym, and in defence of hys truthe, and edifyeng of his people (if the case so required) than to forsake or denie him or the truth of his gospell reueled by the holy ghost to the catholike churche.7 This drive for renewal was not described solely in terms of a struggle with Protestantism. In fact, the idea of this kind of conflict was far from prominent, and often missing altogether. More striking, and more frequently expounded, was the idea of an evangelical renewal, a triumph of faith, a return to the truths of Scripture. The emphasis was not on reaction, or a return to old ways, but on regeneration, and the search for a new and better understanding of an ancient faith. Faith and Justification The Henrician preoccupation with the importance of faith was carried on by Marian works of theology. The antischolastic emphasis was perpetuated by assertions of the saving power of faith and denigration of the power of reason. The argument had moved on a stage, however, in that these scholastic tendencies were now ascribed to heretics. Tunstall, for example, described Protestants in this way. 'For yf you laye before them for the veritie of these misteries the wordes of Christ, farre clearer and brighter then the sunne, forthewyth they runne to a peruerse sence, cleane voyde of all trueth: They thynke that nothing is so highe, nothing so mystical in the scripture, but they are able to atteyne to it by reason.'8 In this argument, the Bible 6

Fyve Homilies (London, 1556), Sig. E ivv. ' Thomas Watson, Holsome and catholyke doctryne (London, 1558), f. lxviv. 8 John Venaeus, A notable oration (London, 1554), Tunstall's preface, Sig. B iiij v .

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was aligned with faith in opposition to reason. The anonymous author of A plaine and godlye treatise reproved those who accepted Protestant rationality. 'A true faythful Christian man oughte to credit more the onely worde of god, then his own self, his own reason, syght, fealing or any other sence.'9 He saw faith and reason in direct conflict. 'Yea, if we shuld beleue nothyng elles, then that whyche whoulde seeme agreable vnto reason, we shoulde haue no fayth at all.'10 And the study of Scripture was held to be fruitless if conducted according to reason; only faith could unlock its meaning. Paul Bushe explained this in his letter to Margaret Burgess. 'For I assure you, yf you haue not the vertue of mekenes to vnclaspe the booke of gods word vnto you, and in the readyng of the same, the holyghost to be your teacher, your labor and studye shalbe alwaye frustrate and in vayne, and your knowledge, no knowledge at al.'11 The centrality of faith went beyond the defeat of scholastic presumption, however. It was seen as the basis of the Christian message, with an Erasmian concentration on its fundamental importance. Edgeworth's sermon on the Creed, part of the collection which formed another link between Henrician and Marian Catholic thought, began by explaining how faith was the foundation of all Christian life. He described faith as the 'beginnynge of heuenly ioyes that we hope to come vnto, makinge our wits surely to assente and agree to thinges that wee do not yet see, nor knowe by experience'.12 Rational understanding, said Edgeworth, had to come after the acceptance of faith, just as a starving man would seize upon bread and meat, and only afterwards ask where it had come from. Holy men and women before Christ, he argued, had been saved by their faith in the salvation he would bring; how much more should those born after Christ believe in that same salvation. Here it can be seen how this emphasis upon the power of faith had inevitable implications for Catholic thought on the subject of justification. This was a crucial doctrinal point. At the heart of the Christian message was the doctrine of salvation; at the basis of the humanist understanding was this strong emphasis on faith; and at the centre of Reformation debate was the question of justification. 9 10 11

viv.

12

Anon., A plaine and godlye treatise (London, 1555?), Sig. F iiii1'. Ibid., Sig. E iiir. Paule Bushe, A brefe exhortation . . . to one Margarete Surges (London, 1556), Sig. A Roger Edgeworth, Sermons very fruitfull, godly, and learned (London, 1557), fo. Ixxi.

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Marian theology reflected all of these elements, and created an explanation of faith and salvation which combined Catholic loyalties with reformist understanding. Without denying free will, or the value of good works, Catholic thought still proclaimed an appreciation of the process of justification by faith. These Catholic writers were working in the middle ground shared by Catholic reformers and moderate Protestants, where the doctrine of solafidianism had yet to be precisely denned, and where there was a general understanding that salvation was due to faith, and good works and regeneration followed on behind. This gave a radical and evangelical edge to their writings on the subject of faith and justification. An emphasis on faith had been a hallmark of the reformed Catholic approach ever since Erasmus. Bonner entitled the first chapter of his book of doctrine, 'Concernyng fayth', just as the King's Book of 1543 had done, and gave an explanation strongly reminiscent of Cranmer's 1547 homily, 'A Short Declaration of the True, Lively and Christian Faith'.13 Bonner's work stressed the fact that it was a divine gift, and also emphasized how incapable man was of doing good without divine grace, 'because we our selues, as of our selues are unhable to doo good, and therfore nede alwayes the assistance, grace, aide and helpe of almyghty God, withoute which we nether can continue in this life, nether yet do anything acceptable in the sighte of God'.14 In this the work showed its reformed nature, accepting the idea of human incapacity to do good, and thereby turning its back on the mechanisms of salvation of the late medieval Church which had so emphasized the importance of good works. Bonner's work also gave an interesting account of faith. It argued that the word should be taken in two ways. The first was as a gift of God which would then generate a belief in God's existence. This was very clearly faith as understood by the reformers, a gift which was freely given, and which itself wrought a transformation in man without any human agency. Bonner argued that its power to transform and convince extended also to Scripture, and that it created in man a belief 'that all the wordes and sayinges of God (whyche be reueled and opened in the scrypture) are of most certeyne truth, and infallible veritie'. Yet to this reformed utterance he then added a more overtly Catholic element, by joining apostolic tradition to Scripture 13 See Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer ed. J. E. Cox, PS (Cambridge, 1846), 135—41. 14 Bonner, A profitable and necessarye doclryne, Preface, 3-4.

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as one of the truths which this gift of faith would compel man to believe. And not that these things onely are to be credited and assented vnto, but also that all thinges els (whych were taught by the Apostles, and whyche haue bene by a whole vniuersall consent of the Churche of Chryste, euer sythe that tyme contynually taught, and taken alwayes for true) ought to be receaued, accepted, taken and kepte, as a true and perfecte doctryne apostolyke.15

Bonner returned to the reformist theme, however, when he reiterated that this understanding of faith required man to lean on the knowledge given by God through faith, and not on his own knowledge got by reason. This is a classic demonstration of Catholic thought under Mary in its ability to combine reformed ideas with a defence of Catholic tradition. Bonner's work then moved on to the second way of understanding faith. This incorporated a notion of regeneration, by arguing that if the first experience of faith was taken no further, it would be dead faith. The faith that was a gift of God was a necessary beginning, but 'yf it do precede no farther, adioyning with it, hope and charitie, it is called in Scrypture, a dead faythe, because it is voyde and destitute of lyfe, and wanteth the helpe, and efficacie of charitie'.16 This was the conception of a living faith familiar from Henrician writings, and from many Protestant works on the subject. And fayth so taken, doth signify not only the beleif and perswasion which was before mentioned in the fyrste acception, and takyng of faythe: but also it signifieth a sure confidence and hope, to attayne all whatsoever God hath promised for Christes sake, and it signifieth, and comprehended! also, a hartye loue to God, and an obedience to his commaundementes.17

Here, then, good works were implicated in the process of salvation, but only in a subsidiary role. The Catholic view of justification had been radically realigned to accommodate the reformed view of this, and Bonner was careful to give his insistence on the need for charity backing from the Pauline epistles. 'And fayth thus considered, is a lyuelye faythe, and worketh in manne a ready submission of his wil to Goddes wyll. And thys is the effectuall faythe, which worketh by 15 16 17

Ibid., Sig. B i v . Ibid., Sig. B iv-B iir. Ibid., Sig. B ii'.

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charitie, and which (as S. Paule testifieth unto the Galathians) is of value and strength in Christ Jesu.'18 This conception of living faith was not new. It built on the old scholastic distinction between fides formis and fides informis. This had been taken up and developed by early reformist writers, including John Fisher. His sermon of 1521 was reprinted during Mary's reign, and also took a twofold view of the role of faith in salvation. The beames of almightye God spred upon our soules quickeneth them, and causeth this life in vs, and the fruite of good workes. Fyrste they cause the light of faythe. But this is a verye sklender light without the rebounding of hope, and the heate of charitie. Faythe withoute hope is a sklender beame, and of a litle power. But ioyne vnto him hope which reboundeth up to God againe . . . and then is he muche stronger than he was before.19 Fisher did not ascribe such prominence to faith in his work, however, as the Marian writers did. Moreover, he had combined this view of 'fides formis' with a reliance on the practical value of good works, where later Catholics chose rather to stress the value of Christ's merits and death. The way in which later Catholicism reworked the notion of 'lively faith' had echoes of Cranmer's work as well as Fisher's. This is not to say that the Catholics of Mary's reign accepted what they saw as a Protestant view in any way. But what they considered to be a Catholic view drew on a common humanist background and so continued to stress some of the same elements. Thus, Bonner was able to oppose 'justification by faith alone'. In which places man may not thynke that we be iustified by faythe (as fayth is a seuerall vertue, seperated from hope, and charitye, from feare of God and from repentaunce) but by faithe there is ment not the late inuented and deuised faith that is to say, onely fayth, or fayth alone, but faythe wyth the foresayde vertues, coupled, and ioyned together, conteynynge as is aforesayde the obedience to the hole doctryne and religion of Chryste.20 Yet as we have seen, Bonner's view of justification still owed much to a reformed appreciation of the process of salvation. This was possible because the Protestant understanding of salvation through faith was far from clearly defined by the 15505, and 18 19

iiir~v. 20

Ibid., Sig. B iir. John Fisher, A sermon very notable, fruictefull and Godlie . . . (London, 1554), Sig. C Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctryne, Sig. B iiiv.

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because humanist influences on both traditions were still strong. The question of what happened after the first free bestowal of faith had still to be worked out by Protestants, and the ideas of Bucer, Capito, Karlstadt, Oecolampadius, and Calvin in particular were still under discussion.21 Away from high-level theological debate, however, certain key elements were broadly accepted—the centrality of Christ, the idea of faith as a divine gift, the inadequacy of human efforts, and the subsidiary and secondary role of good works in the process of regeneration. These were the elements that came through in works of popular instruction. But these key elements were all present in Catholic understanding of justification too, albeit with a different context. The English Catholics writing on justification did not show much awareness of the finer distinctions of Protestant thought, not least because they were trying to write books of religious instruction rather than theological treatises. There was therefore a rather impressionistic approach to justification at times. In due course, the sixth session of the Council of Trent was to impose a clear definition of the doctrine, seeing justification and sanctification as all part of a single process, stressing the good within man, and asserting free will.22 In the 15505, however, the influence of humanism on this key area of doctrine was still strong in both Catholic and Protestant schools of thought.23 There were therefore many elements of Catholic writing on the subject which showed the clear influence of Erasmian and reforming ideas, and which could at times seem to echo the views of English Protestants on this contentious subject. It is also notable that the debate in Catholic works, such as it was, still centred around the process of justification, and there was comparatively little debate over its doctrinal corollary, namely the doctrine of predestination. Bonner gave a carefully qualified judgement on the question of this doctrine which illustrated his reluctance to engage with the topic. But whether there be any speciall, particular knowledge, whych man by fayth hath certaynely of hym selfe, whereby he maye testyfye to hymselfe that he is of the predestynates, whyche shall perseuer to the ende in theyr calling: 21

A. McGrath, Reformation Thought, 2nd edn. (Oxford, 1993), 111-18. Ibid. 113-18; The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, ed. H. J. Schroeder (Rockford, 111., 1978), 29-42. 23 McGrath, lustitia Dei, 32-9; idem., 'Humanist Elements in the Early Reformed Doctrine of Justification', ARG 73 (1982), 5-19. 22

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there is not spoken as yet of nor yet can by the Scryptures, or Doctours, be proued that any suche fayth can or ought to be preached, or taught.24

The debate on this central issue was still very much shaped, then, by its immediate intellectual context, and while holding back from theological precision, was able to go on developing some common themes. Even in more straightforwardly theological works, the influence of humanist and reformed ideas was evident. This is illustrated by a publication of 1555, when Cuthbert Tunstall's Contra Impios Blasphematores Dei Praedestinationis and John Redman's De lustificatione, were published in Antwerp in a single volume. Redman had been Master of Trinity, and his work was published posthumously with a preface by Tunstall. Both these works attacked the Protestant position on justification, yet they maintained an Augustinian emphasis. Tunstall attacked predestination on the grounds that it undermined free will, but at the same time posited an idea of free will which could only work when inextricably linked to the grace of God. He made it clear that good will in man was a gift of God, and not the work of man.25 And he explained how those who separated free will from the working of God's grace had based their ideas on a misrepresentation of Augustine's words. Similarly, Redman's work on justification, which was closely based on Scripture, lamented the way in which Protestant teaching had led to the neglect of good works, but still insisted that good works did not merit salvation, being themselves the fruit of grace received through faith, and thus the gift of God.26 The context of this argument was Redman's insistence that there could be prevenient grace prior to justification, on which he differed 24

Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctryne, Sig. B iiij r . 'Deus est enim qui operatur in vobis et velle et perficere pro bona voluntate. Itaque, si bona voluntas ex qua progreditur origo boni operis, ex deo est, quod nobis temere blandimur bonam voluntatem nostram a nobis esse asserentes, quae nisi deus sua gratia earn in nobis operetur, nostro arbitrio non aderit?' Cuthbert Tunstall, Contra Impios Blasphemalores, (Antwerp, 1555), 46. See also C. Sturge, Cuthbert Tunstall (London, 1938), 337-8. 26 'Ex nobis enim non sumus sufficientes cogitare aliquid, nedum operari quasi ex nobis: sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est, hoc est quicquid habemus ipsius gratiae acceptum referimus. Hane autem habentes gratiam per quam placeamus Deo, damus operam ne in ilia deficiamus, aut ne illam amittamus, quin potius usu et actione per spiritus sancti virtutem quae nobis per charitatem patris nostri et domini lesu Christi praesto est volentibus, in ea crescamus et perficiamur.' John Redman, De lustificatione (Antwerp, 1555), 47; the Scriptural allusion is to 2 Cor. 3: 5. 25

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quite fundamentally from the Protestant reformers. Nonetheless, it would be overly simplistic to characterize Protestant belief as upholding the idea of a single moment of justification, whilst portraying Catholic understanding as chiefly dependent on the sacramental life of the Church. The early Protestant doctrine of justification retained a certain understanding of justification as a process as it worked out the relationship between justification, sanctification, and regeneration.27 This was mirrored by the survival of certain humanist elements in aspects of Catholic theology. The close relationship between these two opposing traditions was a reflection of the way that they both responded to the same reformist imperatives. This is illustrated particularly clearly by one of Bonner's homilies.28 The thirteen homilies in Bonner's collection of 1555 closely followed the pattern set by the twelve homilies of 1547 which Cranmer had collected and partly written.29 Two homilies were in fact almost the same, since they had been written by Harpsfield for the 1547 collection, and were lifted almost word for word for the 1555 publication. These were the second homily, 'Of the misery of all mankind' and the fifth, 'Of Christian love and charity'. The first dwelt on the degeneracy of man and his unworthiness, the second on the need for love of God and man. The way in which the Marian edition accepted most of the Edwardian versions, but made certain small changes, casts an intriguing light on the relationship between their two interpretations of the faith when it came to the question of salvation. The homily entitled 'Of the misery of all mankind' makes clear one of the characteristic emphases of Marian theology, the stress upon the unworthiness of man, the inadequacy of human works, 27

McGrath, 'Humanist Elements in the Early Reformed Doctrine of Justification'. These homilies were set forth by Bonner, and are referred to as 'Bonner's homilies' throughout, for ease of recognition, but it should be noted that they were mostly written by John Harpsfield and Henry Pendleton. 29 The subjects of the 1547 homilies were as follows: (i) an exhortation to read Scripture; (ii) on the misery of all mankind; (iii) on salvation; (iv) on true and lively faith; (v) on good works; (vi) on Christian love and charity; (vii) against swearing and perjury; (viii) on declining from God; (ix) an exhortation against fear of death; (x) an exhortation to obedience; (xi) against whoredom and adultery; (xii) against strife and contention. The subjects of the 1555 homilies were these: (i) on the creation and fall of man; (ii) of the misery of all mankind; (iii) of the redemption of man; (iv) on how redemption is applied to man; (v) of Christian love and charity; (vi) on the dangers of breaching charity; (vii) on the Church; (viii) on the authority of the Church; (ix) on the Supremacy; (x) on the Supremacy; (xi) on the true presence; (xii) on transubstantiation; (xiii) answers to common objections concerning the Sacrament of the Altar. 28

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and the insistence that all good things and works were not of human origin, but in themselves gifts from God. This was an emphasis, founded upon a central humanist concern, which brought Protestant and Catholic ideas on salvation very close together. In this homily, ascribed to John Harpsfield, this understanding is clearly evident. We haue neither fayth, Charitie, hope, pacience, chastitie, nor anye thing els that good is, but of God, and therefore, these vertues be called there the frutes of the holye ghost, and not the fruites of man. Let vs therfore acknowledge our selues before God: (as we be in dede) miserable and wretched sinners, And let vs earnestly repent and humble our selues hartelye, to crye to God for mercye, Lette vs all confesse wyth mouth, and harte, that we be full of imperfeccyons. Let us knowe our owne workes, of what imperfection they be, and then we shall not stand folyshely, and arrogantly, in our owne conceites.30 Harpsfield had taken this passage, word for word, from his homily of 1547. He omitted only the last few words which appeared in Cranmer's version, and which were as follows: 'and then we shal not stand foolishely, and arrogantly, in our awn conceiptes, nor chalenge any parte of Justification, by oure merites or workes'.31 This passage in both works had then gone on to conclude in identical fashion. For truelye there is imperfections, in our beste workes: we doo not loue God, soo muche as we are bounde to doo, with all our harte, mynde, and power, we doo not feare God so muche as we ought to doo, we do not pray to God, but with great and many imperfections. We geue, forgeue, beleue, loue, and hope unperfectlye, we speake, thinke, and doo, unperfectly, we fyght agaynst the deuyll, the worlde, and the fleshe, unperfectlye.32 The uncertainty over the question of good works was shown by some slight difference in the wording of subsequent passages, although the difference was very slight. The 1547 homily asserted this: 'And all these heauenly treasures, are geuen us, not for our awne desertes, merites, or good deedes (whiche of our selfes, we haue none) but of his meere mercie, frely.'33 The Marian homilies preferred to lessen the emphasis. 'And all these heauenly treasures, are giuen us 30 31 32 33

Homilies Homilies Homilies Homilies

(1555), (1547), (1555), (1547),

ft). io v . Sig. 6d iiijv. fo. iov. Sig. 666 j\

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of hys mere mercy, frelye.'34 The 1547 homily explained man's capabilities in these terms: we are not able, to make our selfes the children, and inheritors of Goddes glorie. We are shepe that ronne astraie, but we cannot, of our awne power, come again to the shepe folde, so greate is our imperfeccion and weakenes. . . . neither we maie reioyse, in any woorkes that we doo, whiche all be so unperfecte and unpure, that thei are not able to stande, before the righteous throne of god.35

In 1555 Harpsfield gave it a slightly different wording, preferring to emphasize the positive effect of divine grace rather than the negative capacity of human capabilities in this process, and showing an unwillingness to remove good works from the picture altogether: we are not able of oure selues, to make vs the children and inheritours of Gods glorye. Wee are shepe that runne astraye, we cannot without goddes grace, and helpe, come agayne to the shepe fold: so great is our imperfection and weakenes . . . neyther maye wee bragge of oure workes that we do, whyche all be so vnperfecte and vnpure, that they are not of them selues, hable to stande before the ryghteous throne of God.36

This comparison illustrates how an essentially similar understanding was differentiated in one or two finer points of doctrine. But both Harpsfield and Cranmer were able to agree on the general sense of these beliefs, and in terms of their general emphasis for popular consumption there were many similarities. Just as Bonner's collection would not ascribe too much to the contribution of good works, so too Cranmer's publication would not disallow that contribution altogether. They both used this passage by Harpsfield: 'Let vs now learne to knowe our selues, our frailtie, and weakenes, wythoute anye ostentation, or boastyng of oure owne good dedes, and merytes. Let vs also knowledge the exceadynge mercye of God, towarde vs, and confesse, that as of our selues commeth all euyll, and dampnation, so lykewyse of hym, commeth all goodnes, and saluation.'37 And a mutual appeal to Scripture was possible on this issue. 'S. Paule in many places, paynteth vs out in our collours, calling vs the chyldren of the wrath of God, when we be borne: sayeng also, that we cannot thinke a good thought of our selues, much lesse, we 34 35 36 37

Homilies Homilies Homilies Homilies

(1555), (1547), (1555), (1555),

fo. n v . Sig. ddd j'~ v . fo. n v . fo. i2 v .

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can say wel, or do wel, of our selues. And the wyseman saieth, in the booke of Proverbes, the iust man falleth seuen tymes a day?1"* There are other very suggestive passages in this homily where Harpsfield was content to reuse his earlier version word for word. The opening passage made clear both the view of human merit and the means of revelation through Scripture which was accepted in 1555 as much as in 1547. 'The holye ghoste, in writyng the holy scripture, is in nothing more diligent then to pull downe mannes vayne glory, and pryde, which of all vices, is moste uniuersallye graffed in mankynde, even from the firste infection of our fyrste father Adam.'39 The idea that all good originated with God rather than man was one that Marian writers had no difficulty accepting. 'And oure sauiour Christ sayth, there is none good but God, and that we can doo nothing that is good without hym, or no man, can come to the father, but by hym. He commaundeth vs all to saye, that we be unprofitable seruantes, when we haue doone al that we can do'.40 And in terms of the practical application of this theological view there was also no difference in understanding. Wherefore good people, let vs beware of such hypocrysy, vainglory, and iustifyeng of our selues. Let us loke upon our feete, and then downe oure Pecokes fethers, downe proude harte, downe vainc claye, fraile and brittle vessels. Of our selues, we be crabbe trees, that can bring furth no Aples, we be of our selues of such earth, as can brynge furth but weedes, nettels, brambles, bryers, cocle, and darnel. Our fruits be declared in the fyfte chapter to the Galathians.41 On this basic theological issue of the nature of mankind and its capacities the Catholic position had been shaped by humanism to almost the same extent as the English Protestant tradition. This comparison of the two homilies suggests that a common humanist ideology was encouraging the development of theological ideas of a very similar pattern among reformed English Catholics and many early English Protestants, and that a similarity in emphasis was just as marked as some of the doctrinal differences. 38 Homilies (1555), fo. 9'. The biblical reference is to Prov. 24: 16, and the quotation in full is 'For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. Had Harpsfield wished to defend the efficacy of good works he might have quoted the verse in full. 39 Homilies (1555), fo. 7'. 4(1 Homilies (1555), fo. 10'. 41 Homilies (1555), fo. 10".

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This homily has been examined in particular detail because it illustrates one of the most fundamental aspects of Marian theology, as comparison with other Marian works should make clear in due course. We might also consider the second homily by Harpsfield which was used in both 1547 and 1555. This was the homily entitled 'Of Christian love and charitie'. Marian works were preoccupied with charity, which they considered in various forms: in terms of the love of Christ and his Church made manifest in the sacraments, in terms of charitable works and their place in the process of salvation, and in terms of love and charity within the Christian community. Here too a humanist idea was being perpetuated in ways which echoed the preoccupations of Protestant works too. At one remove from theological niceties, both Protestant and Catholic writers were keen to foster a sense of community and maintain social order. Whatever their theological view of the place of good works, when it came to writing homilies for popular consumption, English Protestants and Catholics alike insisted on the necessity for charity within the community. Aside from their theological differences, therefore, there was a general consensus among religious writers of every persuasion that the humanist vision of society needed to be maintained. This is supported by a comparison between the two versions of this homily on charity, which were essentially the same. The differences mostly consist in a preliminary passage which Bonner added to his version of the work. This might be held to be placing a more definite emphasis on the necessity of good works. It does so in a style typical of the Marian works, illustrating very neatly the way in which they tended to use Scripture. Forasmuche as the pith, and summe, of al thinges, which be conteined, eyther in the lawe, or in the prophets, doth stand, and consist, in the loue of God, and in the loue of oure neyghbour, as our sauiour Christ doth plainely testifye, in the xxii Chapiter of sainct Mathewe, . . . [here he quotes Matt. 22: 35-40]. And forasmuche also, as we can not loue God well, except we doo loue oure neyghboure, in a due order ne yet loue oure neyghboure well, excepte we doo loue God in that due order, that we ought to doo (Sainct John the Evangelist so testifiying and declarynge, in the thirde and fourthe Chapyters of hys fyrst canonical Epistle.) And finallye forasmuche as he that loueth not after this sorte, is (by the testimonye of the sayde S. Jhon, in the sayde thyrde Chapiter) Judged to be in deathe, therfore it is ryght expedient and necessarye, to haue alwayes thys love, whiche nowe in

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oure vulgare tongue, and common talke, is oft named by the name of charytye, but verye megerly and coldlye practysed, and set furthe in dede, as it shoulde be.42 The difference between this and the rest of the homily used by Cranmer in 1547 is very much one of degree. Both Bonner and Cranmer agreed that 'of al thinges that be good, to be taught vnto Christen people, there is nothynge more necessarye to be spoken of, and dayly called vpon then charytye: aswell for that al maner of workes of righteousnes, be conteyned in it, as also that the decaye thereof, is the ruine of the worlde, and banishment of vertue, and the cause of al vyce'.43 And both homilies concluded with the same passage. And yf wee thus directe oure lyfe, by Christian loue and Charytye, then Christe doothe promyse and assure vs, that he loueth vs, and that wee be the Chyldren of our heauenlye father, and reconciled to hys fauour being verye members of Christ, and that after the shorte tyme, of thys presente and mortall lyfe, we shall haue with him, eternall lyfe, in hys euerlasting kingdome of heauen.44 It can be seen, then, that the religious debate in England was still very much shaped by internal imperatives, and in some areas it tended to be less engaged with continental debate than it was involved still with fulfilling humanist objectives. The Sacrament of the Altar When it came to sacramental theology, the differences between Catholic and Protestant were at their most obvious, and the central question of the 'Sacrament of the Altar' received far more attention than any other in the Marian writings. This was perhaps partly due to an overlap with popular religious feeling, where the Mass was clearly felt to be the central mark of true Catholic practice.45 The 42

Homilies (1555), fos. zi v —22'. Homilies (1555). fo. 22'. 44 Homilies (1555), fo. 27'. 45 Catholic commentators rejoiced to see the spontaneous restoration of the Mass at Mary's accession, just as Protestant observers lamented the prevalence of the Mass as a sign of Catholic intransigence. See The Diary of Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant Taylor of London, 1550-15(13, ed. J. G. Nichols, CS xlii (London, 1848), 42, or Charles Wriothesley, A Chronicle of England during the Reigns of the Tuilors, from A.D. 1485 to 7550, ed. W. D. Hamilton, CS, NS xi and xx (London, 1875, 1877), ii. 101; 'Robert Parkyn's Narrative of the Reformation', ed. A. G. Dickens, EHR Ixii (1947), 58-83. 43

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preoccupation with the mass was also, perhaps, due to the fact that it so clearly marked the division between the old faith and the new, in a way that justification could not. Certainly there were very few Marian works which directly addressed the question of salvation, whilst many of them made the Mass their main or sole concern. The way in which these writers discussed the Mass, however, brought together a number of different emphases. There was unequivocal defence and explication of the Real Presence of Christ in the bread and wine. At times there was an unequivocal defence of transubstantiation. Yet there was also a biblicist and Christocentric emphasis more in tune with the work of early reformers, which drew on a humanist understanding, and this at times could lead to an avoidance of the more pronounced doctrine of transubstantiation in favour of the more irreproachably patristic doctrine of the Real Presence. There was also a sense in which reformed notions of grace and faith were expressed within the context of the 'Sacrament of the Altar'. And there was a marked emphasis on this sacrament as the embodiment of a consensual Catholic Church, as the 'mystical body of Christ', which again drew on humanist imagery. Marian views of the Sacrament were therefore both intricate and carefully nuanced. The central and contentious doctrine of the presence of Christ in the Sacrament was rigorously asserted. There was, however, an awareness that one of the reasons why it was so easy to defend this doctrine was that it was so well-supported by patristic authors, and that it rested on a literal interpretation of Scripture. Bonner said 'ther are so many and most euident authorities and testimonies of the auncient holy fathers, aswel of the greke as of the Latyne Churche, concerning the very true and reall presence of Christ hys bodye and bloude in thys sacrament of the aultare, that to rehearse them al, it woulde be a great and an infinite labour.'46 He went on to provide some of these authorities nonetheless, but it was an obvious relief to be defending a doctrine with such impeccable humanist credentials. He was able to spell it out from the gospels too. And this is euidently proued fyrste by the vj of John, where oure Sauioure Christ him selfe thus sayeth. The bread that I wyl geue vnto you is my fleshe, which flesh I wyll gyue for the lyfe of the worlde. In whych wordes it is moste manyfest that Christ promised two thynges: the one that 46

Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. T ij r .

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he would geue a bread that should be hys flesh, and the other is, that he wold geue that flesh for the lyfe of the worlde.47

The Catholic defence of both Real Presence and transubstantiation therefore focused upon the words of Christ at the Last Supper.48 As A plaine and godlye treatise asked in 1555, 'Who coulde haue spoken more playne in so few wordes, to expresse that thynge that we do beleue . . . ?'49 Watson expounded on this by asserting the need for faith and simplicity in Christian understanding. For our faith in this matter is induced by hys onelye authorytie, and not by our wytte, whose wordes require necessarily our fayth, and in no wise do admitte our reason, they require a simple beleuer, and reproue a wicked reasoner, so that we must beleue simply, that we can not serche profitablye, wherefore lyke as wee maye not curiouslye serche howe it is done: so we maye not Jewishlye double whether it be done, but reuerently prepare us to receyue that by faith we are sure is done.50

There was a sense, however, among these Marian works, that the doctrine of the Real Presence was perhaps more defensible than that of transubstantiation, a view which had been held by Tunstall, for example, before the break with Rome.31 Certainly a reliance on scriptural and patristic authorities could tend towards such a belief, as had been shown by thinkers from Wyclif to Luther. Some works concentrated on proving the Real Presence in the Sacrament without mentioning the question of the substance of bread and wine, and how totally it was replaced. There was also awareness of how many Protestants still upheld a belief in the Real Presence, because of their reliance on Scripture. One interesting work in this regard is the translation of Erasmus's letter to Pelicanus, published in England in 1554, in which Erasmus distanced himself from Protestant teaching and asserted his belief in the Real Presence. He attacked Reformed doctrine on the grounds that it was so completely at odds with the scriptural proof of the divine presence, and recalled Christ's words at the Last Supper, 'whiche wordes of holy scripture did compell, yea Luther him selfe . . . to professe the same, which the uniuersal church doth professe, 47 48 49 30 31

Ibid., Sig. T iiii'. Matt. 26: 26 and 28; Mark 14: 22 and 24; Luke 22: 19-20. Anon. A plame anil godlye treatise, Sig. B iiiv. Watson, Holsome and Catholyke doctryne, fo. xxxvii\ Sturge, Cuthbert Tunstall, 113-15, 333-4.

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although he is wont gladly to dissent from the same churche'.52 Erasmus himself urged his correspondent not to give in to doubt, but to be confirmed in his belief by the consensus of the Church. 'If you be persuaded that ther is nothing els in the Sacrament but bread and wyne, I had rather be rent in sondre euery parte from other, then to professe the same that ye doo professe.'53 That the testimony of Erasmus should be sought by the Marian establishment is in itself an indication of how they sought to understand the Sacrament. This epistle was also interesting in its implied criticism of earlier orthodoxy. Erasmus reproved Pelicanus for spreading untrue accounts of what Erasmus had said, but explained how he had responded to Pelicanus's view that a precise definition of the doctrine should be avoided. Erasmus, whilst upholding the teaching of the Church on this matter, did seem to accept the wisdom of avoiding too precise a definition, even as he refused to agree with Pelicanus entirely: ye dyd saye, that in the Sacramente was the body of the lord, but how and after what maner it was there, we should commit that vnto god . . . truly I added this more to that your sayinge, that I thought it might be sayd so more simply, and diuerse doubles might so be auoyded, yf it were lefull for a Christian man to swarue from that, which was alreadye approued and alowed, both by the auctoritie of common councels, and also by the agreamente of al churches and nations so many ages past. Erasmus's belief in a Real Presence had always been unequivocal, however: 'I alwayes denied that I could let that sinke in my mind, speciallye when both the writinges of the Evangelistes, and also of the Apostles do so plainly name the body which is giuen, and the blode which is shed.'54 This doctrine was portrayed, then, as both scriptural and consensual. Watson made much of the fact that the bread and wine was 'by Chrystes owne commaundement and example offered to almyghtye god in sacrifice'.55 And he gave a characteristically humanist defence of this view when he explained the meaning of the Gospel of Luke 22: 19. In the Vulgate this is given as follows. 'Et accepto pane gratias egit, et fregit, et dedit eis, dicens: Hoc est corpus meum, quod pro 52 53 54 35

Erasmus, The epistle . . . sente unto Conmdus Pelicanus (London, 1554), Sig. A v'. Ibid., Sig. A viii1. Ibid. Sig. A iiiv-A ivr. Thomas Watson, Twoo notable sermons (London, 1554), Sig. & viv.

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vobis datur: hoc facite in meam commemorationem.' Watson gave the following analysis of this. And althoughe it bee true, that Chryste was giuen and offered for vs to the father, upon the crosse the next daiy folowinge, yet because the woorde (datur) is in greke in al ye Euangelistes, where it is expressed in the present tense, and also euerye sentence is true for the time it is pronounced: therfore me thinke I may certenly conclude, because Chryste sayeth, datur pro nobis, is gyuen for you, that euen then in the supper tyme he offered hys body for vs to his father.56 If Christ had offered sacrifice at the Last Supper, therefore, it could not be a denigration of his sacrifice on the cross if the priesthood celebrated the Mass as a sacrifice as well. This was Watson's way of defending the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass which Luther had attacked as an attempt to lessen the appreciation of Christ's one true sacrifice and bring vainglory to the priesthood. Explanations of the Real Presence addressed some of the other problems raised by Protestant criticisms by asserting that the 'Sacrament of the Altar' could be both a sign of Christ and the true body and blood of Christ, since both beliefs were supported by literal exegesis of Scripture. The anonymous author of A plains and godlye treatise explained this point. 'For it is verye true that the blessed Sacramente is a mystery, a sygne and fygure, as the holye fathers dooe saye, and wee affyrme the same: and yet neuertheles in thys mysterye, sygne and fygure is conteyned verelye and reallye, the very naturall bod ye and bloud of Chryste.'57 Bonner took the analogy of a ring, so frequently used by Zwingli, to explain how Catholic doctrine both embraced and went beyond Protestant doctrine, since to them a sacrament could be both a sign and a cause of grace. 'As for example, a ryng is sometyme geuen not as a sygne or token of an other thing but onely for it owne self, and sometymes it is geuen as a conuenyent and fytte sygne or token of fidelitye.'58 And the idea of the Sacrament as a figure of Christ was linked to the idea of the mystical body. Watson said that, outwardly, the Sacrament 'doth signifye the grace of the vnitye of Chrystes mistical bodye, that lyke as one breade is made of manye graynes, one wyne is pressed out of mani grapes: so one mistical body of Chryst is compact and vnited of the multitude of all Chrysten people'.59 56 57 58 59

Ibid., Sig. O vv-O vi'.

Anon., A plaine and godlye treatise, Sig. E vv. Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. L iiiiv. Watson, Twoo notable sermons, Sig. D vr.

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Protestant attacks on the Mass were condemned in unambiguous terms. Bonner criticized the deceit of those who pretended to be ministers during the schism, their deceit compounded by the fact that they were depriving the people of this most essential sacrament. I say, that al such both dampnably and presumptuously dyd offend against almyghtye God, and also most pytyfully begiled the people of thys realme, who by this meanes wer defrauded of the most blessed bodye and bloude of oure saviour Christ, and the most comfortable fruyt therof, and also of the sacrifice of the Masse, and of the inestimable fruite which commeth therby.60

Yet there was also an awareness of the faults in Catholic understanding which sometimes lay behind Protestant criticisms. Bonner was also quick to point out that the sacrifice of the Mass and Christ's sacrifice on the cross were one and the same thing, since Protestants criticized the Catholic Mass for detracting from the sufficiency of Christ's Passion. 'And fyrst touchyng the fruite of the sacryfyce of the masse, we must vnderstand, that betwene the sacrifice which was made vpon the crosse, and the sacrifyce of the masse, as concernyng the substaunce of the thynge offered, there is no difference.'61 The idea that a Mass could add anything to the salvation bought by Christ on the cross was a notion which Catholic writers tried hard to defeat, perhaps conscious that the popular understanding of the sufficiency of Christ's death was not as perfect as it might be. A similar emphasis upon the Mass as a participation in Christ's sacrifice was found in Hogarde's work, The assault of the sacrament. For Christ ones by deth Gods fauour so did win, He needes to dye no more: for that one offring Was sufficient, whiche death as remembring, We offer to God, as was tolde me before, As our cheife meane of mercy to him euermore.62

Bonner was also quick to deny the 'magical' role of the priest, explaining that at the moment of consecration 'it is not the visible preist that nowe worketh thys hyghe mysterye, by his owne power or strengthe, but it is Chryst himselfe, the inuisible preist that doth worke it'.63 From the more modern Catholic viewpoint of Mary's 60

Bonner, A profitable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. Aa iiij". Ibid., Sig. Z\ Miles Hogarde, The assault of the sacrament (London, 1554), Sig. C ii'. 63 Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. U iiv. This was a very traditional theme: seeP. Marshall, The Catholic Priesthood and the English Reformation (Oxford, i994),7i. 61

62

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reign, what set priests apart was their involvement, not in sacraments so much as learning and teaching. Bonner cited a passage from Paul's first letter to Timothy, 'Those preists whiche rule well, let them be counted or iudged worthi of double honor and specially they which labour in the worde and teachinge.'64 In their assertion of the Real Presence these works were also careful to avoid any suspicion of idolatry with reference to the elevation of the Host, at which the congregation knelt in adoration. Watson explained very carefully what should be going through the mind of each member of the congregation at this moment: let euery man or woman when he seeth this sacrament in the Priestes handes, direct the eye of his faythe and hys intent, to honour onely that substaunce of Christ God and man, whiche he seeth not with hys bodelye eyes, but beleueth it moste certeinlye to be there present, and let him not fyxe hys thoughte vpon the visible whitencs or roundnesse of the bread, which be sensible creatures adowred and worshipped with godlye honour, but let him intend to honour the body and blood of Christ, and yet not those as onely creatures, but as they be vnited to the Godhead and made one person in diuinitie, for onelye God is to bee honoured with godlye honoure, whiche we doo when we honour Christe God and man present in the blessed Sacrament.65

There was also a firm insistence that more frequent communion was to be desired. 'And to thintent ye myght bee more intirelye ioyned to Christe, and be more replenished with his giftes and grace, I would wyshe and exhorte you the oftener to prepare your selues to receyue corporally the blessed sacrament, which is euer readye prepared for you to receyue.'66 The practice of attending Mass without communicating was also given a reformed explanation. Wherefore consideryng the moste excellent grace efficacy and vertue of thys sacrament, it were greatly to be wysshed and prayed for, that al Christen people, had suche deuotion thereunto, that they would gladly dyspose and prepare them selues, to the more often worthy receyuyng of the same. But seing that in these last daies, Charitie is waxed cold, and sinne doth habounde, as Christ saythe in the gospell Mathewe xxiiij that it should, yet if Christen men wyll auoyde the great indignation of GOD, it shall be good for them, whansoeuer they receiue thys sacrament them selues, or be present, 64 Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. Aa iiiiv. This is given by Bonner as from i Tim. i, but is actually from i Tim. 5. 65 Watson, Hokome and Catholyke doctryne, fos. lxv v —lxvi r . 66 Ibid., fo. Ixxix".

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wher it is ministred or vsed, as specially in the tyme of masse to behaue them selfe reuerently, in pure deuotion and praier, and not to talke, or walke vp and downe, or to offende other by any euyll example of vnreuerency to the sayd sacramente.67 These discussions of the Mass were also characterized by their use of a notion of salvation which whilst remaining Catholic was still reformed in emphasis. The explanation of salvation in terms of grace bestowed from God above, rather than something to be earned by works, was perpetuated in works on the Sacrament. This was an extension of the Christocentric emphasis so integral to humanist writings, which was influential in both Protestant and Catholic works in the middle years of the century. Harpsfield's contribution to the Edwardian homilies of 1547 had described Christ in these terms. 'He is that high and euerlastyng preiste, whiche hath offred hymself, once for al, vpon the aulter of the Crosse, and with that one oblacion, hath made perfecte for euer more, theim that are sanctified. He is the alone mediator, betwene God and man.'68 When this passage reappeared in 1555, it had been modified to extend this notion of Christ's saving power to include the Sacrament. 'He is that hyghe and euerlastynge preiste, whyche hathe offred him selfe to God, when he instituted the sacrament of the Aultar, and once for all, in a bloudye sacrifyce, done vpon the crosse, with whych oblatyon, he hath made perfecte for euermore, theim that are sanctified. He is the mediatoure, betwene God and man.'69 In this way the Christocentric emphasis was perpetuated, but within the context of the Sacrament. This idea of the gift of salvation being channelled through the Sacrament was one of the chief descriptions of the Mass used by the Marian writers. John Angel cited St Clement Martyr, and his insistence that a man communicate before going out to preach. 'For other ways is ther none, to saluacyon, or of declaringe oure good estate, but by the grace graunted and inspyred by the holy goste.'70 Watson too emphasized how grace was bestowed by God, rather than earned by man, when describing the sacraments: 'by the woorthie vsing whereof, he powreth abundantlye his manyfolde graces into our soules, and by them maketh vs people mete to receyue the fruites 67 68 69 70

Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctryne, Sig. A a ij'. Homilies (1547), Sig. ddd ij r . Homilies (1555), fo. 12'. John Angel, The agremenl of the holye Fathers (London, 1555?), Sig. A viiiv.

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and benefites of his passion'.71 Bonner also saw the sacraments as an embodiment and extension of this gift of grace. True it is that without any maner of visible forme he could indewe vs with his grace, but because we are carnall and very dull to comprehend spirituall things, and the force of our soule beyng weakened and combred with the clogge and busy workyng of our corrupte body, we often tymes fal from faith hope and charitie. Therefore the fraylenes of our fleshe must vnder a visible forme be repayred, styrred vp, instructed, nouryshed and comforted.72 Watson explained, again in tacit reply to Protestant accusations that the sacrifice of the Mass impugned the sufficiency of Christ's own sacrifice, that the Mass was instituted, 'not that the passion of Christe is vnperfytte, or needeth anye woorke of ours to be added to supplye the imperfection of it, but to comforte and relieue oure imperfection, that some droppe of grace maye be drawen and broughte vnto vs oute of the fountayne of all grace'.73 He spoke of man's redemption from sin, 'whiche remission and delivery no man is able to deserue by any thyng that he can do, but onely the goodnes and humanitie of GOD our Sauioure in Christ, not by the workes of rightwisness, which we haue done, but by his own mercy hath wroughte and brought to passe'.74 And he explained how salvation came through the Sacrament, not by the fayth and deuotion eyther of the receiuers, or of the minysters, (although faith and repentaunce, and conuersyon to God and the preparation of the harte, and the aptnes of the persone be necessarily required in the receiuers being of age and discretion) but they profite by the vertue whiche they haue of the merites of Christes passion . . . who . . . hath decreed to worke infalliblye by them suche effectes of grace as they signifie.75 Marian writers described the Mass as the highest expression of love both human and divine, the Sacrament which bound the faithful together in the 'mystical body of Christ'. This was a constantly recurring theme, as we have already seen, which was to be found in many of the works of Erasmus, and which emphasized their understanding of the Church in terms of communion.76 Under Mary Tudor '' Watson, Holsome and Catholyke doctryne, fo. i'. Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctryne, fo. 88*. 73 Watson, Holsome and Catholyke doctryne (1558), fo. Ixx1. 74 Ibid., fo. cxl\ " Ibid., fo. viv. 76 M. A. Screech , Erasmus: Ecstasy and the Praise of Folly (London, 1980), 117-29. 72

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it achieved a new significance in its application to theological discussion of the Sacrament. Watson said of the Sacrament: 'because we be all fed with one singulare substance of Christes flesh . . . and also are sealed with one holy spirit . . . therefore these singular thinges undivisiblye received into oure bodyes and soules, drawe us to theyr unitie and make al us one body misticall with Christ'.77 The Marians returned again and again to this idea. Watson gave this effect of the Sacrament pre-eminence in his sermons to the Court in 1554. 'The principal effect of al is to make vs one bodye wyth Christ.'78 The decrees of the Lambeth Synod contained the same emphasis. 'The effect of this Sacrament, which is produced in the soul of the worthy recipient, is the vnion of him with Christ.'79 And A plaine and godlye treatise drew directly on that part of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, 'Where the holye Apostle declareth that the whoole Churche of Chryst is made one mystycall bodye of Chryste by reason that all dooe receaue in the blessed Sacramente one verye bodye and one verye bloude.'80 Thus, the Marian works explained how brotherly unity was best expressed in the 'Sacrament of the Altar', and how godly life took its highest form in worthy reception of the Sacrament. Through such worthy reception, members of the Christian community became 'inwardly ioined to Christes mistical body, not onely spirituallye by fayth and charitie, but also by naturall and corporall participation with Christ and his Church'.81 The subject of the Mass was given pride of place in Marian theology. Watson stressed its importance by asserting that by this Sacrifice of Christes bodye and blood in the Masse, we certenly declare and professe that nothing doth exercise our faythe in the knowledge of God and of oure selues, more then this Sacrifice of the Masse doth, and that nothing dothe more increase oure charitie and hope in the mercye of God, and it declareth that we beleue that there is no Sauiour, but onelye Christe our Lorde, and that we haue no refuge but to him, ascribing altogether to the merites of his passion, and so by it we most of al set forth our humilitie, and the glorye of Christe and hys true honour.82 77

Watson, Holsome and Catholyke doctryne, fo. liiiv. Watson, Twoo notable sermons, Sig. F iiv. 79 From 'The Legatine Constitutions of Cardinal Pole, 1556', in Bray (ed.), Anglican Canons, 87. 80 Anon., A plaine and godlye treatise, Sig. B viiir. 81 Watson, Holsome and Catholyke doctryne, fo. xxxix'. 82 Ibid., fo. Ixxiiii*. 78

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Reformist ideals, humanist emphases, and Catholic loyalties were all brought together by the writing on this one central subject. The centrality of Christ in the process of salvation through grace was given a distinctive place in sacramental doctrine, and the most unmistakeably Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation was defended with fervent humanist biblicism. The reformed Catholic understanding of the Church was given expression in terms of the mystical body of Christ. In this area, more than perhaps any other, the creative vigour of Catholic thought was vividly demonstrated. Marian Catholic Thought If we survey Marian Catholic thought through the medium of the vernacular works of the reign, we observe it to be a unique blend of different elements. The work of the Marian writers did not present a totally homogeneous understanding of the faith. Some of the works published, particularly some of those with close links to central authority, were more conservative than others. There were certain central preoccupations, however, that imparted some unity of conviction and emphasis, particularly the strong humanist influences and the way in which these were absorbed and developed by the Marian writers to produce their own distinctive brand of reformed Catholicism. The Marian primers were another illustration of the same tendencies.83 They were published in the vernacular, or in versions containing both Latin and English, and were also remarkable for including prayers from the Henrician prayer books, some of them by Protestant authors.84 Any similarities in ideology or theology between Protestant and Catholic were not on the whole highlighted by the Marian authors of whatever standpoint. There was no discernible attempt at eirenicism at this time. The Catholic works were for the most part unequivocal in their condemnation of Protestantism, although they were wary at times of being associated with Rome and some of the perceived excesses of continental Catholicism. 83

H. C. White, Tudor Books of Private Devotion (Madison, Wis., 1951), 119-31; Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, 537-43, notes the Christocentric emphasis in these primers, and their innovative assimilation of elements both old and new. See also E. Hoskins, Horae Beatae Mariae Virginis or Sarum and York Primers with Kindred Books (London, 1901) for a guide to the primers generally. 84 Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, 541-2.

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There was perhaps a dawning awareness that biblical backing for theological assertions was not entirely sufficient for the purposes of theological debate, and that perhaps the dictates of Scripture might not correspond entirely to the practice of the Church. This was not as yet expressed in terms of any conflict, however, and the CounterReformation solution of privileging the authority of Church and papacy as superior had not yet been reached. That although al thynges as they are nowe pertyculerly vsed in the catholyque Churche here in Earth, are not so distinctly, particulerly, and expreslye in all wordes, fashions, cyrcumstaunces, and poyntes, set forth, taught and expressed in Scrypture, yet the pith, the substaunce, the matter, the foundation and grounde, with the effecte thereof in generall wordes are not onelye comprehended and conteyned in Scrypture, but also by expresse wordes confyrmed by other sufficient authoritie.85 The importance of obedience to the Church's doctrine was asserted, without any precise identification or discussion of how that doctrine might be defined. And seyng the Catholyke Church hath soo receyued, beleued, allowed, and approued, the sayd thinges, time out of mynd, therefore it shalbe a very great presumption and an vncomely part, any man to controll or contempne any such thinges so receiued, beleued, allowed and approued by the said catholique church and in so doynge the same is in dede not worthy to be taken or reputed for a faythfull membre or obedient chyld of the sayd Church, but for an arrogante, noughty, and very wycked person.86 The Marian understanding of the Church was still given first and foremost in consensual terms, with a certain naivety which seemed a legacy of the humanists. This had yet to be replaced by a more Counter-Reformation insistence on the authority of the contemporary Church hierarchy. The Marian Catholics seemed to possess a working model of what they considered to be orthodox belief, but it still owed far more to the pronouncements of Henry VIII than it did to the papacy. Traditional doctrine regarding the saints, Purgatory, the Virgin Mary, or the monasteries therefore remained a peripheral concern of these works. It was also the case that where they did choose to defend traditional doctrine it was often in rather unexpected ways. Bonner's 85 86

Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. C iir. Ibid., Sig. C iir.

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explication of the Ave Maria, for example, made it clear that the justification for this prayer rested on its scriptural basis, 'taken out of the fyrst chapter of S. Luke'.87 It was made clear that this was a prayer, not of supplication, but of praise, 'partelye of our Lorde, and Sauyoure Jesus Chryste, for oure redemption, and partelye of the blessedde Vyrgyn, for her humble consente'.88 The possibility of ascribing too much to the Virgin Mary and not enough to God was also covered by the following explanation: 'In dede, laudes, prayses, and thankes are in this Aue maria, pryncipallye geuen, and yelded to our Lorde, as to thauctor of our redemption, but yet here wythall the vyrgyn lacketh not her laudes, prayse, and thankes, for her excellent and synguler vertues, and cheiflye for that she beleued, and humblye consented.'89 There was here perhaps a tacit criticism of Luther, who had defended the veneration of the Virgin Mary on the grounds that she provided an example of justification by faith.90 Bonner emphasized that she had chosen to consent, implying a defence of free will. Yet he still provided a defence of the prayer on the basis of its biblical origins, seen to be in praise chiefly of God and not a prayer of supplication to the Virgin. Its long usage within the Church he saw in itself as a fulfilment of Scripture, since God's purpose was 'by the mouthe of the same virgyn declared when she sayde (Luc, i) . . . Beholde verelye from henceforthe al generations shal call me blyssed'.91 Catholic orthodoxy, then, had been redefined quite radically by the experience of reform under Henry VIII, and the legacy of this endured in Catholic thought through the 15508. Whilst identifying dominant themes and preoccupations within these religious works it is of course important to acknowledge the differing perceptions of different individuals. There were some writers who took a more conservative approach, whose reformist tendencies were not as marked as others. On the whole this may have been a matter of age more than anything else. Richard Smith, John Feckenham, and John Standish were the three Marian writers who tended to be more cautious in their theology, and all had come to intellectual maturity long before the break from Rome. Their conser87

Ibid., Sig. A aa iii1. Ibid., Sig. Bbb'. 89 Ibid., Sig. Bbbv. *° See G. Miiller, 'Protestant Veneration of Mary: Luther's Interpretation of the Magnificat', in J. Kirk (ed.), Humanism and Reform: The Church in Europe, England and Scotland, 1400-1643, SCH Subsidia 8 (Oxford, 1991), 99—111. 91 Bonner, A profytable and necessarye doctrine, Sig. Bbbv—Bbb ii'. 88

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vatism was made manifest both by their choice of subject matter and by their theological understanding. Richard Smith, somewhat unusually, mourned the dissolution, which he considered 'a gret dammage and decay vnto the honour and seruice of God, the godly bryngyng vp of scholers in vertue and learning, and vnto the common weale in worldly thynges'.92 He was also more old-fashioned in his discussion of the use of images, the crucifix, and the sign of the cross. His use of a quotation from Lactantius was reminiscent of medieval works of devotion, where the figure on the cross spoke to the beholder: 'beholde my heere ioyned together fast with bloude, and vnder my bushe of heere my bloudy necke and my head cruelly crouned with thornes, that the bloude ranne out of it, and beladyng vpon my godly face, quicke bloude on euerye syde'.93 Smith also wrote a strident defence of free will, and asserting the value of works in addition to the efficacy of grace. His more reformist colleagues preferred to talk about a living faith, but he was willing to insist on the value of works. This approach was more reminiscent of that of the 15205. So too John Standish, who was one of the few writers to mention the importance of papal authority, and to express doubts about the wisdom of having the scriptures in English.94 Yet the works by these more conservative writers if anything tend to confirm rather than undermine the assertion that overall the Marian Church was working with a reformist ideology. They make clear that there was a certain amount of individual freedom as to the theological line a writer might take during Mary's reign. They suggest that the more reformist writers were employing a humanist approach because it was natural to them, rather than because the government insisted that they take that line, or because it was felt that it was the only way to convince the Protestants. In review, therefore, of the judgement on the Marian Church, it would seem that what has been termed its insularity was in fact its strength. It has been compared to the Counter-Reformation Church and found wanting, but in fact it pre-dated the emergence of the Counter-Reformation, not only chronologically, but by several stages in the development of the reform movement. The Marian Church was still engrossed in perpetuating a reformed and humanist brand 92

Richard Smith, A Boudier of the Calholike fayth (London, 1554), Sig. Ciij'. Ibid., fo. 65". John Standish, The triall of the supremacy (London, 1556), and A discourse wherin is debated whether it be expedient, that the scripture should he in English (London, 1554, 1555). 93

94

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of Catholicism in its attempt to safeguard the faith in England. Pole has been criticized for refusing the help of the Jesuits, but considering the attitude of most Marian Catholic thinkers towards the papacy, he was surely acting in the best interests of the faith by refusing to bring in the servants of a foreign power which had so long been irrelevant to English circumstances.95 In England the antagonism generated by the confessional divide had not yet escalated to the point where the humanist reform movement would be eclipsed by ecclesiastical militancy and bitter polemic. England had yet to experience a need for the ideology of the Counter-Reformation. Mary had no need of foreign influences to help her restore the Church. English Catholicism had evolved its own vigorous intellectual response to the task of Catholic restoration. '3 T. F. Mayer, 'A Test of Wills: Cardinal Pole, Ignatius Loyola, and the Jesuits in England', in T. M. McCoog (ed.), The Reckoned Expense: Edmund Campion and the Early English Jesuits (Woodbridge, 1996); T. M. McCoog, 'Ignatius Loyola and Reginald Pole: A Reconsideration', JEH 47 (1996), 257-73.

6 Defending the Faith Generally what haue they which we lack? haue they a faith iustifiying? so haue we, but not iustifiying alone, but iustifying with charity, which is as it were the life of faith . . . Haue they two Sacraments? We haue seuen.1

IN November 1558, Mary I and Reginald Pole died within a few hours of one another, and once again England's religious identity lapsed into confusion. Despite the initial ambiguity of Elizabeth's position, and her energetic attempts to maintain an atmosphere of uncertainty, it was soon clear that Catholicism was in eclipse. The valiant stance taken by Catholics in Parliament, whilst testifying to the strength of Catholic feeling among the ruling classes, was no match for the Royal Supremacy wielded by an unequivocally if indeterminately Protestant Queen. It soon became evident that the only room for religious debate was to be over the precise definition of Elizabethan Protestantism. Catholicism was perhaps even less acceptable than it had been in 1547, despite the more moderate leanings of the new monarch, since it was now tainted once more with papistry, and in addition, came loaded with Spanish associations. And so, with notable dispatch, the intellectual establishment of Catholic England relocated to Louvain, and there began to come to terms with a series of new and unsettling realities, as it took on the mantle of a church in exile.2 The story of Elizabethan Catholicism is a dramatic one, full of passion and self-sacrifice. There are many emotive descriptions of the valiant and principled stance taken by men and women who submitted to a fearful and glorious martyrdom rather than fail their 1

Nicholas Sanders, The Rocke of The Churche (Louvain, 1567), Sig. ***vjv—***vijr. On the attempts of the Queen to secure her religious settlement, see N. Jones, Faith by Statute: Parliament and the Settlement of Religion 7559 (London, 1982); W. S. Hudson, The Cambridge Connection and the Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 (Durham, NC, 1980); P. Collinson, 'Windows in a Woman's Soul: Questions about the Religion of Queen Elizabeth I', in Elizabethan Essays (London, 1994); A. Pettegree, 'The Marian Exiles and the Elizabethan Settlement', in Marian Protestantism: Six Studies (Aldershot, 1996). 2

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Church and their God.3 Yet it has to be remembered that only over time did the Elizabethan Catholic Church evolve into a church of missionaries and martyrs. The college founded at Douai in 1568 initially had largely academic objectives. The intention was 'to draw into this College the best wittes out of England, that were either Catholikly bent or desirous of more exact education then is these daies in either of the Vniuersities': this was Cardinal Allen's account of its foundation.4 There seems no reason to doubt his own admission, that Douai evolved only gradually into a training-ground for the Elizabethan mission.5 Similarly, it took time before the clear-cut definition of Catholic orthodoxy, by which Campion and his like were to stand so nobly, emerged from the uncertainties of earlier years. The Elizabethan Catholics who have gone down in history were the Catholics of the 15805. Their counterparts from the 15608, perhaps no less self-sacrificing and idealistic, lived and worked within a different intellectual world. It is to this earlier and more indistinct decade that this chapter looks. For the first ten years or so, the Catholic community at Louvain was subject to the pull of a number of contrary currents, and the works published during that time illustrate some of the contradictions at work. On the one hand, there was a new defensiveness in these works, and a greater involvement in controversial exchanges with Protestants. There was also a discernable shift towards a more rigid expression of orthodoxy, particularly in the wake of the Tridentine decrees promulgated in 1564. Yet these changes were slow, and often halting, and underlying these new tendencies there was also a continuation of the Marian campaign, and a perpetuation of many reformist objectives. This was shown not least by the fact that the works of the 15605 were almost entirely written in English, even though this went against the spirit of the Council of Trent. In their development of the distinctively humanist and reformed strands within English Catholicism, the early Elizabethan exiles perhaps gave some indication of what the Marian Church might have achieved had Mary lived. This chapter examines those elements of Catholic 3 William Allen, A brief history of the glorious martyrdom of XII priests (Rheims [?], 1582); Evelyn Waugh, Edmund Campion (London, 1935). 4 Allen, An Apologie and True declaration of the institution and endeavours of the two English Colleges (Mounts in Renault [Rheims], 1581), fo. 22". Also see J. Bossy, The English Catholic Community 1570-1850 (London, 1975), 12-15. 5 Although see E. Duffy, 'William, Cardinal Allen', RH 22 (1995), 272-3.

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thought in the 15608 and early 15705 which might be seen as the last flowering of the earlier intellectual tradition, even as they intermingled with the first stirrings of a new approach. Reformist Foundations The choice of Louvain as a destination for Catholic intellectuals fleeing England was in itself perhaps significant. This was the university which had so notably provided the embodiment of the humanist ideal since 1517.6 The Collegium Trilingue established in that year had a rationale provided by Erasmus, a founder in Jerome de Busleyden, friend of Erasmus, More, Tunstall, and other English humanists, and a curriculum which focused upon the noble triumvirate of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, echoing the preoccupations of the colleges being founded at the same time in England.7 That the Greek and Hebrew professors at Louvain were paid twice as much as the Latin one, was evidence of both their value and their rarity.8 Even before this foundation, the University of Louvain had had a reforming emphasis, in part imparted by the influence of the Brethren of the Common Life.9 This was reinforced tenfold by the college which Erasmus helped found, and which he hoped would ensure that 'the study of the Bible should soon be nourished by the limpid sources instead of by turbid marshes'.10 It was Busleyden and Louvain that Erasmus cited as examples of his ideals in the 1519 Ratio, an extended version of the preface which had accompanied his ground-breaking New Testament in I5i6. n Within this context, the earliest works of the English Catholics in exile retained much of the humanist and reforming flavour of the previous reign. This is perhaps illustrated most obviously by their continued use of the vernacular. The Council of Trent had not only prohibited the use of Scripture in the vernacular, but had also frowned upon the writing of vernacular works of theology. Yet in 6

H. de Vocht, The History of the Foundation and the Rise of the Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense 1517-155° (Louvain, 1951). 7 St John's College, Cambridge, founded 1516; Corpus Christ! College, Oxford, founded 1517. See M. Dowling, Humanism in the Age of Henry VIII (London, 1986), 25-6 and 28-9. 8 de Vocht, History of the . . . Collegium Trilingue Lovaniense 1517-1550, 47. 9 Ibid. 76-8. 10 Ibid. 253. 11 Ibid. 303-6.

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1567 Thomas Harding and Nicholas Sanders wrote to Cardinal Morone asking for a special exception to be made in the case of England. First, they requested permission to continue their work in the vernacular. Item cum ex concilii Tridentini decreto libri de rebus sacris vulgari idiomate perscripti (quales iam multos ab iis catholicis qui Lovanii exulant summo cum fructu editos constat) absque licentia episcopi aut alicuius inquisitoris hcreticae pravitatis legi non possint, salvo Suae Sanctitatis iudicio, profuturum arbitramur ut in Anglia fervente iam haeresi aliter fiat, ne ii qui coguntur ubique venenum imbibere, pharmacum differre cogantur, donee medicus accedat, qui aut nullus aut rarus est et longe abest et semper latet. [Since, by decree of the Council of Trent, books about sacred matters in the vulgar tongue (many of which are agreed to have been most fruitfully written by the Catholics in exile at Louvain) may not be read without permission of the bishop or some inquisitor of heresy (by judgement of his holiness), we consider that it would be advantageous to make an exception of England, now seething with heresy, so that those who are everywhere compelled to drink poison, may be compelled to put away the drug, until a doctor comes; a doctor who is non-existent, or rare, far-away and everconcealed.]

Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, the issue of vernacular Scripture prompted Harding and Sanders to put forward an even more powerful plea. Illud omnium est maximum, quod, cum haeretici verbo Dei abutantur ad fallendum rudes et indoctos, id potissimum efficiunt prava bibliorum interpretatione. Porro experientia didicimus populum tarn aegre a se dimittere haec ipsa biblia etiam cum catholici iurisdictionem exercebant, ut quo magis ea legum vinculis prohibebantur, eo vehementius a populo retinerentur. Cui malo videtur quibusdam remedium afferri posse, si saltern historici et morales libri veteris testamenti atque evanglia ct epistolae vulgari idiomate a catholicis ederentur. Ita enim demum persuaderi posset populo, ut veteres libros corrupte interpretatos abiiceret, si novi accurate ad vulgatae editionis fidem conversi eis traderentur.12 [The greatest issue of all is that when heretics abuse the word of God in order to lead astray the simple and unlearned, they are most powerfully enabled to do so by a false interpretation of the Bible. Through long experience we have learned that the people are so reluctant to abandon these 12 This passage is quoted in A. O Meyer, England and the Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth (London, 1967), 477.

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very books, even when the Catholics exercise jurisdiction, that the more they are prohibited by the chains of laws, the more vehemently they are clung to by the people. It seems possible to some that a remedy to this evil may be found, if at last the historical and moral books of the Old Testament and the Evangelists and Letters are published by Catholics in the vulgar tongue. For it would thus be possible finally to persuade the people to throw away the old books corruptly translated, if new books translated accurately, in the spirit of the Vulgate, were given to them.] This letter reveals the extent to which the English, including English Catholics, had become accustomed to reading Scripture. It also shows how strong was the desire among the intellectuals for a reliable English translation, a desire which was in due course to produce the Rheims New Testament of I582.13 It suggests some distance between the objectives of the Council of Trent and the central issues in English Catholic thought. The Council of Trent had first convened in 1545, and its decrees had been promulgated in 1564. Not until 1567 did Harding and Sanders feel the need to write this letter. In the meantime, they had both been busy writing the sort of works they were here defending. Harding published seven works in English between 1564 and 1568, Sanders four in the same period, and other writers were equally prolific, particularly Thomas Stapleton, William Allen, John Rastell, and John Martiall, all part of the same community at Louvain. In these works of the 15605 it was clear that this group of writers was not responding primarily to Tridentine imperatives, but was still working within a specifically English context. They were not prepared to accept unconditionally the decrees of Trent. On the question of vernacular Scripture, Harding, for example, opined that there could be three opinions in this matter: that it was totally unlawful; that it was good if done carefully, or that it was necessary in all places and times. Characteristically, he himself occupied the middle ground, saying 'The first opinion is holden of fewe, and commonly mysliked.'14 His reasons for rejecting the third opinion were based not on principle, but on expediency. The biblicism of Erasmian reformers had always been accompanied by concern over the popular reception of Scripture: access to the Bible was in itself not enough, unless the text was approached with reverence and piety. So Harding 13 The New Testament of lesus Christ, translated faithfully into English, out of the authentical Latin (Rheims,i582). The translation was largely the work of Gregory Martin. 14 Thomas Harding, An answere to maister Juelles chalenge (Louvain, 1564), fo. 154'.

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knew that merely talking about Scripture was not necessarily an advance. 'Our lord graunt, we yelde no worse soules to God now hauing the scriptures in our owne tonge, and talking so much of the gospell, then our auncesters haue done before vs.'15 Yet nor would he blindly follow the lead given by Trent. The translation requested in 1567 would have been a continuation of Mary I's policy; an English Bible was needed, but not a translation corrupted by Protestants. The Catholic biblicism of the 15305, with its blend of enthusiasm and caution, was still prevailing. This attitude to Scripture illustrates the extent to which Catholic reform was still an elite and scholarly matter. The more circumspect side of humanism, which had led Erasmus to reprove Luther, not for developing his ideas, but for making them public, was still a part of Catholic thinking. But then the events of recent years had taught religious thinkers of every persuasion some of the dangers of indiscriminate use of the vernacular: both Protestants and Catholics at this time were beginning to realize some of the difficulties of imposing a literary religious culture on a largely illiterate population.16 When it came to liturgy, however, Protestants remained committed to vernacular worship, whilst Catholics tended rather to see its dangers. During Mary's reign, John Standish had expressed doubts about the wisdom of changing traditional patterns of devotion. He described vernacular liturgy as 'an extreme enemie to al godlye prayer and deuotion. For then men phansied so to heare what was readde (striuyng oft theruppon in symple iudgemente) that feruente prayer whyche ought to be, was smally regarded'.17 When Thomas Harding discussed the question a few years later, he too felt that the congregation should occupy itself in prayer, rather than in listening and imperfectly understanding. And whereas of the Seruice in the vulgare tonge, the people will frame lewde and peruerse meanings of their owne lewde senses: So of the Latine Seruice, they will make no constructions either of false doctrine, or of euill 15

Ibid., fo. 160'. P. Collinson, 'From Iconoclasm to Iconophobia: The Cultural Impact of the Second English Reformation', in P. Marshall (ed.), The Impact of the English Reformation 1500-1640 (London, 1907); E. Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 (New Haven and London, 1992), ch. 17; M. S. Byford, 'The Price of Protestantism: Assessing the Impact of Religious Change on Elizabethan Essex: The Cases of Heydon and Colchester, 1558-1594', D.Phil, thesis (Oxford, 1988). 17 John Standish, A discourse wherin is debated whether it be expedient, that the scripture should be in English, (London, 1554, 1555), Sig.L viii v . 16

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lyfe. And as the vulgare Seruice pulleth their mindes from priuate deuotion, to heare, and not to praye, to litle benefite of knowledge, for the obscuritie of it: so the latine geuing them no such motion, they occupie them selues, whiles the priest prayeth for all, and in the person of all, in their priuate prayers, all for all, and euery one for him selfe.18 This attitude was not because Catholics wanted to keep their congregations ignorant, but because of the difficulties of ensuring understanding. Harding felt that the sense of the liturgy was better taught in sermons. He described the difficulties of comprehending the articles of the faith. 'Which sense can not rightly and safely be atteined of the common people, but is better, and more holesomly taughte by the preaching of the learned bishops and priestes.'19 The late medieval understanding of the liturgy was as a space for private prayer, with corporate worship which was not dependent on words, but focused upon the ritual drama of the Mass. These Catholic thinkers, who were only too willing to admit error in Catholic practice elsewhere, still held fast to this idea of liturgy. In this they were still focusing upon the issue of parish realities and the appropriate strategy for promoting religious understanding.20 Harding, drawing on the work of Origen, spoke of the mystical involvement of the simple and unlearned in the liturgy of the Mass, explaining that even though they could not understand what was being said, 'yet haue they commoditie and profile therby, so farre as it pleaseth God to accepte the common prayer of the churche, pronounced by the priest for them'.21 Indeed, he expressed his sense of longing for a simple and unquestioning participation in the bond of charity, in words which bespoke his weariness with a lifetime of intellectual struggle and religious argument: 'God graunt all our knowledge be so ioyned with meekenesse, humilitie and charitie, as that be not iustly sayd of vs, which S. Augustine in the like case sayde very dredfully, to his dere frende Alipius . . . The vnlearned and simple aryse vp, and catche heauen awaie from vs, and we with all our great learning voyed of heart, lo where are we wallowing in fleshe and bloude?'22 The 18

Harding, An answers (1564), fo. 73". Ibid. fo. 58'. See Duffy, Stripping of the Altars, for a sense of how much the traditional liturgies were valued. See C. Haigh, English Reformations: Religion, Politics and Society under the Tudors (Oxford, 1993), 174—6, for an account of the disruptions that resulted during Edward VFs reign from the introduction of English liturgies. 21 Harding, An ansmere (1564), fo. 69'. 22 Ibid., fo. i6i r . 19

20

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preoccupation here was not about conforming to the official line but about what might prove most useful at parish level. It is notable that opinions on such questions were given without reference to the dictates of Trent. The decrees of Trent were confirmed in 1564, but its discussions had been going on for nearly twenty years before that. Yet there were startlingly few references to its decisions in English Catholic works of the 15605. When Harding published in 1564 he gave a list of the Fathers and Councils he would be citing. Characteristically, this included fifty-four Fathers from AD £.50 to AD 500 and nine Councils from AD 326 to AD 613. He also listed five later Fathers and four later Councils, ending with the Council of Florence, but he made no mention of Trent. The English Catholics had not been formally represented at Trent, although Nicholas Sanders was present as chaplain to Cardinal Hosius.23 This seems to have enabled English Catholicism to go on ploughing its own distinctive furrow. One of the most characteristic aspects of the English approach was still its use of Scripture. For these early Elizabethans, the question of authority had yet to achieve the form it took in later CounterReformation debates. They were still more concerned with particular points of doctrine than with more overarching discussions of the identity and authority of the true Church. Eventually doctrine was to become a secondary issue, with the debate focusing on the issue of authority instead, but this development was still in the future. This meant that the written works of the 15608 still focused on the interpretation of Scripture, explaining doctrine in accordance with biblical and patristic authorities. The discussions of authority that did occur were beginning to talk more in terms of the visibility of the Church and the authority of the papacy, but these themes did not yet predominate. There was still a perceived need for defence of doctrinal points rather than just a statement of the 'orthodox' opinion, backed by papal authority. And for the moment there was still no sense of any particular conflict between Scripture and Tradition. The testimony of the fathers and the early councils was still seen as a useful adjunct to Scripture, not used as a rival interpretation to Protestant interpretations of the Bible. The overriding note was still a humanistic one of simple reliance on Scripture. 23

T. M. Veech, Dr. Nicholas Sanders and the English Reformation, 1530—81 (Louvain, 1935).

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'We must symply cleaue to the word of our lord, and where our senses faile, there must faith helpe to supplie.'24 This point is illustrated by the fact that the exchanges between Protestant and Catholic, although increasingly antagonistic in tone as the 15605 unfolded, still had shared assumptions about authority. The reformist English tradition had shaped both groups, and both relied on the authority of Scripture as supported by the testimony of the early Church. This is shown in particular by the lengthy controversy that followed the 'Challenge Sermon', delivered at Paul's Cross in 1559 by John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury.25 Jewel's assertions were grounded on just such an appeal to common authority, as he himself later described. 'In my Sermon at Poules and els where, I required you to bring forth on your part eyther sum scripture, or sum old doctour, or sum ancient councell, or els some allowed example of the primitiue churche. For these are good growndes to buyld upon. And I would have marueiled that you brought nothing all this while, sauing that I knew ye had nothing to bring.'26 Thomas Harding replied to him on exactly the same terms, claiming that he was avoiding doctrinal issues of real importance, and alleging that this was because the testimonies backing larger issues worked against Protestant opinions of them. 'Thus craftely you shifte your handes of those greater pointes, wherin you know scriptures, councelles, doctours, and examples of the primitiue churche to be of our syde.'27 This use of the same authorities by both Protestant and Catholic was to prove untenable as Elizabeth's reign progressed, and in due course would lead to the development of new emphases in their controversial writings, with Catholics arguing that the authority of the Church was greater than that of Scripture, because it was the Church that both identified and interpreted Scripture. As yet, however, they were arguing within the old reformist framework which placed tradition in a supporting role to the authority of Scripture. The biblical training of the English Catholics continued to hold good, therefore, as they began their life in exile. Scripture continued to be the foundation of all their assertions. In 1565 Stapleton demanded, 'Dothe not our Sauiour in the ghospell saye the lyke, that 24

Harding, An answere (1564), fo. 108'. P. Milward, Religious Controversies of the Elizabethan Age (London, 1977), i. Jewel's comments were quoted by Thomas Harding in An answere (Antwerp, 1565), fo. ii'. 27 Ibid., fo. i6v. 25

26

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heauen and earth shall passe, but his worde shall not passe? And what other worde meaneth oure Sauiour there, then the holy worde of the ghospell, the true knowledge of Christ, the worde by whiche man lyueth, not by onely bread?'28 The trials of experience had not yet changed the way in which these Elizabethans constructed their theological justifications. As with Scripture, so too with patristics: as in the Marian works, it was common practice to support every assertion with first scriptural, and then patristic testimony. Greek authors were included as well as Latin. Thomas Heskyns's The Parliament of Chryste, written in 1566, cited forty-two Latin and thirty-two Greek Fathers, largely from the earliest years of the Church.29 Heskyns, like so many of his other colleagues, showed his debt to his classical education, which enabled them to discuss the rights and wrongs of certain translations, and to give citations in Latin and Greek, and sometimes also in Hebrew. Yet there were also some signs of a shift in attitudes. The form of Heskyns's work, in which the earliest Fathers were placed in an upper house, where the Apostles also sat, and the more recent Fathers in the lower house, reflected the humanist view that gave far greater respect to the more ancient authorities. The views of the primitive Church were regarded as the most significant. But the lower house included names which had been absent from many recent Catholic works, such as Thomas Aquinas and Innocent III. The use of parliament was also a direct reproach of the English parliament, and a riposte to years of propaganda for the Supremacy. Henrician propaganda, from the first, had insisted that the break with Rome and subsequent reforms had been carried out 'upon most just and vertuous foundations, grounded upon the laws of Almighty God and holy Scripture, and also by the deliberate advise, consultation, consent and agreement, as wel of the Bishops and Clergy, as by the nobles and commons temporal of this our realm assembled in the High Court of Parliament, and by authority of the same'.30 Heskyns's work was a criticism of the domination of the Church by the state which we find voiced in several of the Catholic works of the time. This was a new emphasis, since under Henry VIII and Mary, for different reasons, the state had been largely portrayed as 28

Thomas Stapleton, A Fortresse of the Faith (Antwerp, 1565). Thomas Heskyns, The parliament of Chryste (Antwerp, 1566). Henry VIII's letter to the JPs, in 'The King's letters to the Justices of peace; to further the King's cause of the supremacy' Strype, Ecclesiastical memorials, i/2, p. 209. 29

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the Church's best refuge, and the rhetoric of the Royal Supremacy had been assimilated within Catholic thought. Separation had now become necessary. Yet the old view of patristic authorities still predominated, as the best adjunct to Scripture. Heskyns's work was described in these terms: 'Wherin the reader shall fynde all the scripturs commonlie alleaged oute of the newe Testament, touching the B[lessed] Sacrament, and some of the olde Testament, plainlie and truely expownded by a nombre of holie learned Fathers and Doctours.'31 The early Fathers were still regarded as more reliable authorities than any later writers, just as Protestantism was depicted as the religion of innovation, and an offence against the early Church. Allen wrote bitterly of Protestant views in this respect. 'Such a glorious maiesty this doctrine of theires beareth, that pricketh uppe with pryde those that be alyue, and blottethe out of honest memorie, her doctours that be deade.'32 Heskyns was careful to exalt the early Fathers above the 'holie writers and Saincts' whom he described as belonging to a lesser category, although he defended his use of them. He explained that he regarded them as 'senatours of the Parliament house of Chryste, as knowing the enacted and receaued trueth of the matters of faith perteining to that house'.33 A sign of things to come, however, was Heskyns's explanation of why he trusted their views, which showed him willing to embrace a whole range of opinions at the Church's behest. 'For this cause I regard all their writings which the catholique Churche hath allowed, considering that the same Churche that hath taught me that the gospell, that ys the verie woorde of God written by the mocion and instruction of his holie Spirit, hath taught me that these mens writings vpon the same are good and commendable.'34 This particular argument was to become increasingly common in Catholic works as the process of adaptation to new circumstances continued. But for the moment the offence against Scripture, rather than the Church, was still the most deplorable crime. 'Your third offence ys yet worse and more heinouse, wher yowe haue vttered so manie vntrueths and lies euen aduersus Dominum, & aduersm Christum eius, against our 31 32

256V. 33 34

Heskyns, The parliament of Chryste, title-page. William Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory (Antwerp, 1565), fo. Heskyns, The parliament of Chryste, Sig. ^ iiij r . Ibid., Sig. 1 iiij'.

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Lord, and against his Chryste, against his holie gospell, and against his holie woord.'35 The hierarchy of authorities which had previously been employed by reformed Catholic writers for the most part remained in place as the early Elizabethans began their literary campaign. One of Harding's chief reproofs of Jewel was that he tried to muddy these waters, 'and cast vnto vs, as a bone to gnaw vpon, this number of Articles of lesse weight, a fewe excepted, to occupie vs withall.'36 Even when trying to defend some of the more 'traditional' areas of doctrine, which recent Catholic works had neglected or avoided, the Elizabethan Catholics tried to use their humanist understanding of authority. Allen wrote his 1567 treatise on the power of the priesthood to remit sins, with the intention to discover, 'whether ther were any good meanyng or sufficient grounde, in Scriptures, Councelles Doctours, or reason of the vsual Indulgences that be limited by remission of yeres, and dayes'.37 As a later part of this chapter will illustrate, these Catholics brought the humanist approach to bear on a number of issues of this type, including the doctrine of purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the use of the crucifix and the sign of the cross. A blending of different modes of thought and belief was underway. Academic Debate One of the peculiarities of the English Reformation was the extent to which it was dominated by academic debate. The religious changes implemented by Henry VIII and his children drew not on popular anticlericalism and conversion so much as on intellectual evangelicalism, and the ideas and inspirations of the educated. The predominance of academic influence had been strengthened by the continuing ambiguities of both Catholicism and early Protestantism during Henry VIII's reign. Before much conversion of the populace could be achieved, it had to be agreed at the centre what religious settlement was most desirable. These debates had continued through the reigns of Edward and Mary, so that at times the process of Reformation took on the appearance of an academic squabble. This was illustrated with particular point during the early Elizabethan 35

Ibid., Sig. K iij v . Harding, An answers (1565), fo. i6v. 37 William Allen, A Treatise Made in Defence of the lauful power. . . ofPriesthod (Louvain, '567), Sig. * ij r . 36

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controversies and was another way in which the Elizabethan exiles were still perpetuating an approach developed during Henry VIII's reign. By avoiding polemic where possible and writing works of instruction instead, they continued to give the impression that religious change was still a matter open to civilized debate. This had long been the Catholic response to Protestant extremism: although in the 15205 More had met Tyndale with equal vitriol, since the break with Rome the Catholic response had often tried to employ more measured and reasonable tones. These tones were still audible in the exchanges of the 15605. Most of the early Elizabethan works contributed, at least in part, to the controversy between Jewel and the Catholics led by Harding; an entirely English debate in both issues and language. The English Catholics still showed a tendency to distance themselves from outright polemic where possible, and perpetuate their use of more didactic forms. Often their works contained two prefaces, one which replied to the Protestant controversialists and the other which addressed the reader. They could then continue writing their treatise with very few digressions into altercation. This encouraged a more scholarly approach which fought shy of direct controversy. Such an approach was accompanied by ostentatious distaste for the business of polemical debate. It was in this context that Allen in 1565 expressed his desire to keep controversy to a minimum. 'And thoughe the sectes of these dayes have so infected euery branche of cure Christian faithe, that a man can not well ouerpasse theyme what so euer he taketh in hande, yet I will not medle withe theime no forther, then shall concerne the quicke of oure cause, and the necessary light of our matter.'38 In this area, Catholic writers tried to characterize Protestants as being naturally inclined to antagonism, and adopted the more eirenic stance of humanist rhetoric. Pious assertions that it was only the error they hated, and not the individual, were also common. Thus, Heskyns in 1566 began with an address to Jewel: 'Detesting your heresie, yet louing your person, and therfor wishing your reformacion and correction, I haue, M. luell, compilled this booke.'39 Initially some of the Protestants also adopted this approach. When Henry Cole and Bishop John Jewel corresponded in the first years 38 39

Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 39'. Heskyns, The parliament of Chryste, Sig. f iij r .

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of Elizabeth's reign, their letters illustrated very well this more gentle mode of academic discourse. Jewel agreed to enter into a discussion of various points, professing the spirit of genuine academic enquiry: 'I can also charitably be contented, as a frend with a frend, or a scholar with a scholar, to conferre with you herein, reseruinge alway my former protestation.'40 And when he protested against some of Cole's remarks, Cole replied to him in kind. 'Remember for goddes sake howe I began with you, not for other entent then to be instructed . . . I thinke you do mistake my doyng, supposing that the same commeth not of such grounde as it doth.'41 Harding wrote to Jewel in a similar vein, separating his views from the man himself. He insisted that he had avoided polemical language as inappropriate to such an exchange: 'my hart serued me not to deal with M. luell myne old acquainted, felow and countreyman other wise, then swetly, gentilly and courteouslye. And in dede here I protest, that I loue M. luell, and detest his heresies.'42 And he reminded Jewel of the words of Solomon, who held 'The woondes of a frend, to be better then the kisses of an enemie.'43 Much of this was perhaps rather empty rhetoric. Yet it did make the point that these men, now on opposing sides of the channel, as well as opposing sides of the religious debate, were often old friends and colleagues from the same small scholarly communities. Continuing this theme of friendship Harding's criticism of Jewel's theological training implied his recollection of their common academic background. Denye your priuate Judgement and estimation of your long studie in diuinitie, which you acknowledge in your replyes and of your great cunning in the same, and you shal euidently see and remember, that your tyme hath ben most bestowed in the studie of humanitie and of the latine tonge, and concerning diuinitie, your most labour hath ben imployed to fynde matter against the churche, rather then about seriouse and exacte discussing of the truth. 44 This was a poignant reflection of the fact that so many of these writers who were to become sworn enemies had been students and fellows together at the universities. In an ironic reflection of the 40 41 42 43 44

Henry Cole, The true copies of the letters (London, i?6o), fo. 4r. Ibid., fo. 8'. Harding, An answers (1564), fo. 6r. Ibid., fo. 6r. Harding, An answere (rs6s), fos. 2O V —zi r .

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peculiarly intimate nature of the English Reformation, Harding and Jewel had even attended the same school as children in Barnstaple.45 There was also a sense that many Protestants had not departed entirely from the fold. An appreciation that there were different degrees of error was perhaps enhanced by a debate which continued to focus on questions of doctrine, rather than the broader question of church authority. And a graduated model of heresy was perhaps felt to be particularly applicable, given the cautious progress and sketchy definition of Elizabethan Protestantism. Allen, discussing Calvin in 1565, noted that 'other be not so farre faullen'.46 And in 1567, having criticized the Protestant view, he qualified his disapproval as follows. 'And yet I am not so voyd of al hope of their recouery, that I would refuse to conferre wyth them, . . . Though the rather I would doo it, for the helpe of the more humble sorte, which in these dayes of disobedience, be rather dryuen out of the way by force of the common tempest, then by malice or misbehauiour towardes the ministerie.'47 The idea of variations in error was used by the Catholics to postpone as long as possible any outright condemnation of their Protestant counterparts. Harding used it when addressing Jewel, whom he seemed reluctant to label heretic, at least initially. 'Mar[r]y, when deceite is by plaine truth detected, then to dwell and continewe in errour, that procedeth not of humaine weakenes, but of deuilish obstinacie. But you M. luell as many men thinke, and I trust, are not yet swallowed vp of that gulfe.'48 One of the benefits of this approach was that it could be applied to Elizabeth herself, who was taken to be the reason behind some of the more traditional elements of the Elizabethan Settlement. In 1565 Harding addressed his confutation of Jewel's Apologia to the Queen, giving as one of his main reasons, 'your good inclination towardes the auncient and catholike religion, which the authours of that Apologie with an odious terme do call papistrie.'49 Here was a very particular example of the Catholics drawing attention to common humanist ground between them and their more reformed countrymen. Harding made much of the crucifix in Elizabeth's chapel, 45 N. Orme, Education in the West of England, 1066-1548 (Exeter, 1976), 94, too, 102, 112-13. 46 Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 38*. 47 Allen, A Treatise Made in Defence of the lauful power . . . of Priesthod, Sig. * vir. 48 Harding, An answere (1564), fo. 6'. 49 Harding, A confutation of a booke intituled an apologie of the church of England (Antwerp, 1565), Sig. * 2".

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her part in the Vestiarian controversy, her refusal to persecute Catholics and her 'well understanded lyking of the sobrest preachers, both alwayes heretofore, and specially on good fryday last openly by word of thankes declared, when one of a more temperate nature then the rest, in his sermon before your Maiestie confessed the real presence'.50 The crucifix in the royal chapel was also cited by John Martiall in 1564 when he dedicated his treatise on the cross to Elizabeth, praising her as 'so wel affectioned to the crosse . . . that youre Maiestie haue alwayes kept it reuerently in youre chappel'.31 Elizabeth's own religious stance has always evaded easy categorization. It does seem clear, however, that strong elements of humanist thinking continued to influence her, particularly in the early years of her reign.52 Her refusal to allow the seventeenth article of the ThirtyNine Articles, which asserted predestination, until 1571, suggests the probable truth of her professed allegiance to the Augsburg Confession in the 15608. She seems to have retained some belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Sacrament, opposing transubstantiation, but otherwise being wary of more precise attempts at definition.53 The appeals to her in the 15605 by Catholic writers were a recognition of their shared reformist legacy, and a shrewd attempt to exploit that common ground. These Elizabethan works, whilst trying to maintain their former distance from controversy and polemic, could not escape the fact, however, that they were now writing for a critical Protestant audience as well as for their Catholic readership. Occasionally they even tried to assimilate this new Protestant audience within the understanding that they were writing to instruct. Allen gave two objectives in writing his treatise on the power of the priesthood to remit sin, 'that both the good catholike may haue reasonable prouf of that which to his immortal weal he hath so long both loued and reuerenced in Christes ministers, and also that contemners of so heauenly power may learne in humblenes of hart to like and feare that excellent function, which by pride they did before unaduisedly disproue'.54 Harding said that he hoped Jewel would take his work in good part, but that even if he did not, the reader would benefit. 511 51

Ibid.

John Martiall, A Treatyse of the Crosse (Antwerp, 1564), fo. I T . 32 P. Collinson, 'Windows in a Woman's Soul', esp. 109-15. 53 I am indebted to Susan Doran for this point. 54 Allen, A Treatise Made in Defence of the lauful power . . . of Priesthod, Sig. * iij' [actually ** iij r but mislabelled].

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Would god he maye weigh this my dooing so indifferently, as my meaning towardes him is right, holesom, and frendly. But in case that deepe woonde may not be cured with such salue, yet my trust is, it shall doo thee good, reader, who art either yet hole, or not so desperatly woonded: wich if it doo, I shall thinke my labour wel requitted, and my selfe to have acheued that reward, which I sought.55 There was still a sense in which these Catholics appeared to believe that the controversy in which they were engaged was still a matter for scholars to debate, and that whichever side won the debate would then be able to disseminate their beliefs to an obedient populace. They were perpetuating their perception of the religious changes of their time as something controlled from above, rather than powered from below, albeit with a strong sense of responsibility towards the lower orders. Harding reproved Jewel for his antagonistic style of argument. He argued that it might do him a disservice in the eyes of posterity. 'But if the victory (loth I am to vse this insolent word were it not to folow the metaphore which your chalenge hath dryuen me unto) fal to our syde . . . you shall hardly escape among sober men, the reproche of rashnes, among humble men, of presumption, among godly men, of wickednes.'56 He maintained that the polemical style which Jewel had adopted was hardly appropriate to the terms of the debate. It had also directed Jewel away from essential issues onto more minor points of criticism. 'Verely M. luell, if you had not ben more desyrouse to deface the catholike churche, then to set forth the truth: you would never haue rehearced such a long rolle of articles, which for the more part be of lesse importance: whereby you go about to discredite vs.'37 Here Harding took it as accepted fact that their mutual objective in such a debate must be 'to set forth the truth'. The exchange was still versed in the language of two elite groups contesting for intellectual superiority. The Jewel-Harding controversy was initially cast, therefore, in terms of a debate over correct religious policy conducted at the highest level, rather than a confessional divide that would split entire populations.58 Harding was even able to provide Jewel with a model of Protestant behaviour he considered more acceptable. 55

Harding, An answer? (1565), fo. 5'. Ibid., fo. 15'. 5/ Harding, An answers (1564), fo. 3\ 38 Milward, Religious Controversies of the Elizabethan Age, 1-24, maps out the different stages of this debate. 56

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As you folow the new and straunge doctrine of Theodorus Beza, and Peter Martyr, the prolocutours of the Caluinian churches in Fraunce, whose scholar a long tyme you haue ben: so you diuerte farre from that prudencie, sobrietie, which in their outward demeanour, they shewed in that solemne and honorable assemble at Poyssi in September 1561 as it appeareth by the oration which Beza pronounced there in the name of all the Caluinistes. In which oration with humble and often protestation, they submitte them selues, if cause shall so appeare, to better aduise and iudgement, as though they might be deceiued.59 Harding accused the English Protestants of conducting the debate in an unfair manner. When reproving Jewel for concentrating on inessentials, he told him he did not dare approach the weightier matters which his masters in Germany, Switzerland, and Geneva were prepared to discuss: 'you will not yet aduenture the triall of them with making your matche with learned men, and in the meane tyme set them forth by sermons busyly among the vnlearned and simple people, vntill such tyme, as you have wonne your purpose in these smaller matters'.60 There was a sense in which persuading the unlearned onto one side or the other was not playing the game according to the rules. Soon, however, the English Catholics were to realize that this was no longer a game for scholars, but a contest being conducted according to quite different rules, which reflected both the changing situation in Europe and the increasingly disruptive nature of the Reformation in England. Papacy Attitudes to the papacy, which had in many ways been in flux during Mary's reign, were similarly in a state of transition as the English Catholics got used to being in exile. The writers of the 15605 had all been part of the Marian Church reconciled to Rome, and they were obliged as loyal Catholics to acknowledge papal primacy. But their intellectual tradition had no particular place for the papacy, except in a hastily revived acknowledgement of its administrative benefits. The treatment of the Pope in the earliest Elizabethan works was therefore very interesting. The subject which had been conspicuous by its absence in the Marian works still held quite a minor place in these works. When supporting assertions, writers would cite 39 60

Harding, An answers (1565), fo. 15*. Harding, An amwere (1564), fo. •f.

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first Scripture, then the Fathers. Then they might sometimes cite the opinion of General Councils, though Trent was rarely mentioned. The testimonies of the papacy appeared very infrequently. There was as yet no insistence on the Pope as the final arbiter of scriptural interpretation. Nor were there yet any real indications that the Pope was considered a spiritual leader. The emphasis, such as it was, for the most part portrayed the papacy as an administrative necessity. Nonetheless, an awareness of the papal role was seeping back into English Catholic thought, although at times it sat somewhat uncomfortably with the rest of the discourse. When the question of papal supremacy was directly approached, the line taken was that used by the few Marian writers who had discussed the issue. Papal authority was placed within the context of the argument which stressed the need for church unity. The papacy was portrayed as a useful way of guaranteeing that unity. It was freely admitted that individual popes could err and sin, but it was explained that the post itself was nevertheless necessary, as it fortified the solidarity of the Church against heresy. This was illustrated in Thomas Harding's first work, An Ansmere to Maister luelles Chalenge, which was published in 1564, although written some time before that.61 Harding quoted Athanasius' address to the Pope: 'Euen for this cause the vniversall church hath ben committed to you of Christ lesus, that you shuld trauaile for all, and not be negligent to helpe euery one, for whyles the stronge man being armed kepeth his house, all thinges that he possesseth, are at peace.'62 He also explained how natural law required a single head as the means of securing the harmony of any group. 'That a multitude which is in it selfe one, can not continewe one, onlesse it be conteined and holden in by one, bothe learned philosophers haue declared, and the common nature of thinges teacheth . . . For which cause that saying of Homere was alleaged by Aristotle as most notable, It is not good to haue many rulers, let one be ruler.,'63 He replied to Jewel's catalogue of papal abuses by explaining that this was still not a justification for schism; 'albe it the successours of Peter Christes vicares in earth, be fownde blameworthy for euill lyfe, yet we oughte not to dissente from them in doctrine, nor seuer our selues from them in faith'.64 61 62 63 64

A. C. Southern, Elizabethan Recusant Prose 1559-1582 (London and Glasgow, 1950), 416. Harding, An answere (1564), fo. 8or. Ibid., fo. 8ir-y. Ibid., fo. 86r.

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In the main, however, the papacy and considerations of papal supremacy remained peripheral to other areas of discussion in the very first works from Louvain. The problem of authority was only gradually and fitfully emerging. The impression is that there still existed a distinctively English tradition of Catholic thought, which was only gradually assimilating continental trends, and still retained certain reformist attitudes. It was interesting, for example, that in his work of 1564 Harding said of communion in both kinds, that he and his fellow Catholics did not condemn it, 'but confesse it might be restored agayne by th'auctoritie of the churche lawfully assembled in a generall councell, vppon mature deliberation before had, and a holesome remedie against the inconueniences thereof prouided'.65 Admittedly, this work had been written some time before it achieved publication. But it was printed in Louvain in the same year as the decrees of Trent were promulgated, and the Council of Trent, although not expressly forbidding communion in both kinds, had attacked the doctrines on which the practice was founded.66 Yet the exiles were beginning to realize their uneasy position with regard to the question of authority. No longer living under the Royal Supremacy, or given protection by a Catholic monarch, it was perhaps only a matter of time before the Catholics at Louvain found themselves clinging to the papacy for safety's sake. The Marian reluctance to give priority to papal supremacy was gradually being eroded, and this in turn was beginning the eclipse of the primacy of Scripture as an authority. Moreover, it was getting to the stage where Catholics were beginning to defend the papacy merely because Protestants attacked it. Allen claimed that people had begun to realize how the Protestants had uncovered 'the owld sore of the Arians and disease of the Donatistes, and common to all heretikes: they perceiued by S. Cyprian that the first attempte of suche men, was to driue away the pastore, that they may with owte resistance deuoure and destroie the flock'.67 Significantly, the imagery of the good shepherd, which until this point had been used chiefly to describe Christ, was beginning to be applied to the Pope instead. For a few brief years in the early 15605, however, there was still enough ambivalence upon this 65

Ibid., fo. 40'. The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent, ed. H. J. Schroeder (Rockford, 111., I97_8), 78, 134-567 Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 235''. 66

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point to allow older attitudes to survive. For a little while yet the English Catholics were to retain, at least in part, their distinctive understanding of biblical authority, whilst the issue of papal supremacy remained a lesser consideration. With some modifications, therefore, the idea of the Church propagated by these early Elizabethans was still one of a consensual Church founded on mutual agreement as to true doctrine. This was still the model prescribed by St Vincent of Lerins. Thomas Heskyns made this clear when he explained why he had written The Parliament of Chryste in 1566, using the testimony of the apostles and Fathers of the Church. In this my doing I have fulfilled the counseill of Vincentius lyrinen. who for remidies against errours among other willeth, that if anie errour hath ben committed in the olde time, either by certain men, or by anie one wholl citie, or by anie Province, to reforme that, the decrees of auncient generall Councells must be sought, and yf none soche can be founde (as in these dales though they be fownd, they be not regarded) then (saieth he), operam dabit, lit collatas inter se maiorum consulat, interrogetque sententias etc. He shall geue diligence to seke and learn the iudgements of the elders, and conferr them to gether but of those elders onelie, which although they were in diuerse times and places abiding: yet in the Communion and faith of one catholique Churche, were allwaies allowed as masters, or men of autonte. And what soeuer he shall knowe, what not one or two of them, but what alltogether with one consent haue holden, written and taught openlie, commonlie, and continuallie, let him -understand, that that ys without all doubt to be beleued. Thus he.68 And yet the same work also sounded a militant note which perhaps prefigured the increasing belligerence of the later Elizabethan debates. And that yowe maie perceaue that the catholique Churche ys strong, against the whiche the gates of hell, the power of heresie shall not preuaill, knowe yowe, that yt ys Terribilis castorum acies ordinata, a terrible fortresse in most goodlie order appoincted. Oute of the which fortresse in goodlie order ys corned a great nombre against yowe, marching by cooples, eche coople to shewe the unitie of trueth and faith professed in bothe Churches, being one of the greke church, and other of the latine churche, and the seniours for the most part placed in the forewarde.69 68 69

Heskyns, The parliament of Chryste, Sig. f iiijv. Ibid., Sig. U iiij'.

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This passage expressed the humanist view of authority, vested in the consensus on doctrine, particularly in the primitive Church, with equal weight given to Greek as well as Latin Fathers. Yet it also indicated the siege mentality which was increasingly to characterize the Elizabethan Catholic stance.

Doctrine One very distinctive view of the doctrinal differences between Protestant and Catholic was expressed in a work published by Nicholas Sanders in 1567. He asked these questions regarding his Protestant contemporaries. Generally what haue they which we lack? haue they a faith iustifiying? so haue we, but not iustifiying alone, but iustifying with charity, which is as it were the life of faith . . . Haue they two Sacraments? We haue seuen. Haue they an inwarde priesthod whereby Christ is offered in their harts? we haue an inward, and an outward, whereby he is offered both in our harts, and in our hands. Do they beleue that Christ with one Sacrifice paid our raunsom for euer? We beleue it, and shew to the eye (under the foorm of bread) the self body sacrificed, and by offering and eating it sacramentally with our mouth, we are made partakers of the redemption which is in it.70 This was a view of Protestantism, not as a rival faith, based on rival authorities, but as merely an inadequate version of Catholicism. It was also a view which took all the basic Protestant doctrines such as justification by faith, and the priesthood of all believers, and saw them as already incorporated within the Catholic faith. It was a view which took for granted the common ground between the two interpretations of the faith. These English Catholics believed that their doctrine had been fixed since the earliest days of the Church by the consensus of all true believers. In defending their faith in the terms they did, they held that they were doing nothing new. They believed 'as Catholikes euer doo, keping the owlde meaning and fourging no newe, geuing no other sense then that which the persuasion of all Christian people, both learned and simple hath driuen from the beginning of oure faith downe to oure dayes, and framyng no other vnderstanding then that whiche we finde expressely in the learning and faith off our fathers bothe set forth and proued'.71 Within this framework of under70 71

Sanders, The Rricke of The Churche, Sig. ***vjv-***vijr. Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fos. 66v-6yr.

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standing, error, or even heresy, were merely wayward fragments of an otherwise all-encompassing consensus. This enabled Catholics to see Protestantism, not as a separate church vying for control, but as a selection of doctrines imperfectly cast and only partially understood. Like Sanders, they could take Protestantism as merely a truncated version of their own understanding, rather than an entirely different one. This approach showed the influence of humanism, and the idea of a single body of scholars engaged in the same quest for doctrinal truth, on the basis of the same scriptural and patristic authorities. Within this framework, Protestants were merely members of that community who had lapsed into error. They were not yet perceived as members of an entirely distinct community, drawing on different notions of authority. This view allowed writers to hold out the possibility, at least, of mutual understanding or even reconciliation. It certainly ensured that the focus for discussion remained individual doctrinal points, rather than the broader question of different church identities. It was in this context that English Catholics could continue, on occasion, to cite Protestant authors in support of their arguments. Harding, discussing the Sacrament, replied to Jewel's dismissal of some patristic citations with some sarcasm. But because M. luell and they of that secte, seme to set litle by these fathers, though very auncient, S. Bernard excepted, and of the churche holden for saintes, I will bring forth the auctoritie of Martin Bucer, a late doctour of their owne syde, though not canonizate for a sainte as yet, for that I knowe. This newe father whom they esteme so much, and was the reader of diuinitie in Cambridge in kyng Edwardes tyme, very vehemently, and for so much truly, affirmeth the true reall presence of Christes body in the sacrament.72 The motive here was in part an attempt to attack Protestantism by emphasizing its disunity, but it was also an attempt to prove consensus on this point of doctrine. Harding was trying to stress the overwhelming weight of authorities which bore witness to the verity of the Real Presence: 'as the scriptures, doctoures, councelles, yea and the best learned of Martin Lutheres schoole doo most plainely and assuredly affirme'.73 72 73

Harding, An amwere (1564), fo. 107*'. Ibid., fo. ii2'.

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Such citations also illustrated another reformist survival, in that the focus of the Catholic argument here was clearly the doctrine of the Real Presence rather than that of transubstantiation. Harding alleged that Luther and Bucer both denied transubstantiation, but did uphold a belief in c(^substantiation, the doctrine that Christ was really and corporally present in the bread and wine, albeit not according to the precise scholastic definition achieved by the Fourth Lateran Council. In their desire to reaffirm consensus, Harding and his colleagues were still prepared to skirt around the boundaries of orthodoxy. It would be easier for them to assert the doctrine of the Real Presence, which was supported by so many patristic sources, than to insist necessarily on the doctrine of transubstantiation, with all its scholastic connotations. The early Elizabethan works still focused, then, more on doctrine than ecclesiology, and continued the pursuit of doctrinal truth which had formed the basis of the reformed Catholic works of the previous reigns. In particular, their works continued to focus on the doctrine of the Sacrament. In their devotion to the Mass, English Catholics were able to display all of their chief strengths: an evangelical reliance on Scripture, a wealth of patristic backing, the fullest extent of their intellectual sophistication—all for the doctrine which at parish level commanded the most passionate expressions of popular loyalty. It was without doubt viewed as the centre-piece of the faith. This most worthy Sacrament is of such excellencie, that it passeth farre all other sacramentes. And for that cause it is alonely called the communion. For albe it euery Sacrament be such, as gathereth our lyues that be diuided a sunder many wayes in to that one state, whereby we are ioyned to God; yet the name of communion is fitte and conuenient for this sacrament specially and peculiarly, more then for any other.74

Sanders also considered it to be the most important, as well as one of the most scriptural parts of the faith when he declared to Jewel: 'From the highest question of the sacrifice of the masse, to the most abiect (in our aduersaries reputation) of indulgences and pardons, the Catholike Churche neuer lacked, nor shall at any tyme lack plentie of holy scriptures, as yt shall appere when particular occasion serueth.'7' And for Allen, the Protestant denial of the Mass seemed the focal point of their error, from which all other heresies followed: 74

Ibid., fo. 14'. Harding was quoting Dionysius the [Pseudo-]Areopagite. '5 Sanders, The Supper of our Lord, fo. 5'.

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'the blasphemy of the holy Sacrifice and Sacrament, being the fountayne of theire heresies, in a maner couerethe the meaner puddelles of theire stinking doctrine'.76 The Elizabethans, as the Marians had before them, chose to concentrate on a defence of the Mass and the doctrines related to it. In a sense they could not have taken a more traditional stance. Yet despite this focus upon the centre-piece of late medieval piety, these Catholics were expounding ideas which bore all the imprint of a reformed understanding. Harding, for example, when making the case for communion in both kinds, made much of Bucer's consent to the compromise reached at Ratisbon. 'That the controuersie for the one or bothe kyndes may be taken awaye, it shall be very well done, that holy church made it free, to receiue this sacrament in one or bothe kyndes', he insisted, although he urged that this should be done with mutual respect and restraint: 'yet vnder suche condition, as hereby no occasion be geuen to any bodye rashely to condemne the vse, which the church hath so long tyme kepte, nor to iudge one an other.'77 Open-mindedness was also evident in the discussions of transubstantiation, another issue which Jewel had included in his Challenge sermon, demanding whether in the primitive Church, 'the people was then taught to beleue that in the Sacrament after the consecration, the substaunce of Bread and wyne departeth awaye, and that there remayneth nothing els but only the accidentes of Bread and wine'.78 This was in some ways the most intractable of Catholic doctrines, and the one most susceptible to Protestant criticism. Yet in its defence, English Catholics deployed all their most impressive humanist credentials by basing their arguments on literal interpretation of Scripture. The Elizabethans continued the Marian emphasis upon the value of literal exegesis in any assertion of transubstantiation. The anonymous author of An Apologie of private Masse asserted this with confidence: 'Wee neede not to shew you of accidentes, remainynge without any subiecte, nor of Christes body being in divers places at once, nor of the adoracion of the holy sacrament, nor of many other trifling doubles you make: because all such doubtes are answered to the ful, in the oryginall veritie of Christes words, being in the nature 76 77 78

Alien, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 263V. Harding, An answere (1564), fo. 35*. Cole, The true copies of the letters, fo. 5r.

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of the veritee, necessarily imploied.'79 Since there was also a wide array of patristic sources which backed the doctrine of transubstantiation, these were brought into play too. Dorman in 1564 quoted a series of patristic opinions, and in support of the assertion that the Sacrament had to be more than just a sign, cited Tertullian: 'Our fleshe feedeth on the bodie and bloude of Christe, that the soule also male be made fat by feading on god: theie can not therefore be separated in rewarde, whiche haue bene Joined and coupled together in worcking.'80 And he illustrated this by pointing out that to a man imprisoned without food or drink, the sign of a fat capon painted on the wall, or the thought of meat, would be no help. He also quoted Cyprian: 'Christ hath left vs his fleshe to eate, and his bloude to drincke to the entent we might be noorished by the same thinges, by the which we wer redemed.'81 And he used the comparison that Eusebius had made with the sacrament of baptism: 'If therefore there remaine after the wordes of consecration anie substance of breade and wine, saie also that after baptesme our olde sinnes remaine still.'82 Harding took another equally reformist tack, emphasizing that attitudes to the Mass had to be grounded on faith rather than reason, in language which evoked the old anti-scholastic rhetoric. Verely the maner and waye by which it is here present and geuen to vs, and receiued of vs, is secrete: not humaine ne naturall, true for all that. And we doo not atteine it by sense, reason, or nature, but by faith. For which cause we doo not ouer basely consyder and attende the visible elementes, but as we are taught by the councell of Nice, lifting vp our mynde and spirite, we beholde by faith on that holy table put and layde . . . the Lambe of God, that taketh awaye the synnes of the a>orlde.K

These Catholic writers did not fight shy of assertions that substance could exist without accidents. Harding observed that some doctors thought that the first light of the world had been accident without substance, and he added this comment. 'Neither then was Wiclef yet borne, who might teache them, that the power of God can not put an accident without a subiect.'84 Rather than seek refuge in scholastic definition, however, they were more likely to resort to " Anon., An Apologie of priuate Masse (London, 1562), fo. 30"'. Thomas Dorman, A Provfe of Certeyne Articles (Antwerp, 1564), fos. 68v-69r. 81 Ibid., fo. 6gv. 82 Ibid., fo. 71'-. 83 Harding, An cmsmere (1564), fo. 100'. 84 Ibid., fo. i2y v . 80

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the defence that transubstantiation was a mystery, brought about by divine power beyond man's comprehension, and that there the matter ended. 'Which maner of being in, is aboue all reache of humaine vnderstanding wonderouse, straunge and singular, not denned and limited by the lawes or bondes of nature, but by the almighty power of God. To conclude, the being of Christes body in the Sacrament, is to vs certaine, the maner of his being there to vs vncertaine, and to God onely certaine.'85 The Sacrament was also explained in terms of being a 'propitiatory Sacrifice'. The doctrine behind this was open to the Protestant criticism, that it implied salvation was achieved by a human action, rather than through faith. The Catholic defence of the Mass as sacrifice, therefore, was at pains to rule out the significance of human involvement, and emphasize how the sacrifice in question was solely that of Christ. The Mass was the occasion, 'when the whole churche of god in that honorable action prayethe and Christe himselfe is both the sacrifice and the priest, both the asker and geuer of pardon.'86 The Mass was thus described as an act of faith, which had a spiritual significance far outweighing the importance of actually taking communion. Dorman, in 1564, describing the Mass, said that 'the oblation which is the chiefest vse thereof, and whereunto the prieste is bound, maie not so depend on the peoples communicating'.87 The attempt here was to drive home the point that there was no difference between the sacrifice of the Mass, and the sacrifice which Christ had made on the cross. 'But we doo not so offer or sacrifice Christ againe, but that oblation of him in the supper, and oures in the Masse, is but one oblation, the same sacrifice.'88 Harding argued that the constant repetition of this sacrifice on earth was no different to the perpetuation of Christ's sacrifice: 'as the oblation once made on the crosse continually endureth and appeareth before the face of God in heauen for our behalfe, continewed not by newe suffering, but by perpetuall intercession for us'.89 Harding's notion of salvation, therefore, was a very cautious statement of the Catholic view, which seemed to acknowledge the validity of Protestant insistence on the sufficiency of the one sacrifice on the cross. 85 86 87 88 89

Ibid., fo. 187''. Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 194'. Dorman, A Provfe of Certeyne Articles, fo. 109*'. Harding, An answere (1564), fo. i6y v . Ibid., fo. 167*.

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Another key element of these early Elizabethan works was the emphasis on the Mass as a unifying force. This too was an aspect of belief fundamental to the late medieval understanding.90 Yet the defence of this belief was recast in a more reformed understanding. The English Catholics used it as an opportunity to stress unity over division, and fellowship over antagonism, in language which had pronounced Erasmian overtones. To emphasize how discussion of the minutiae of doctrine could be a distraction from the more fundamental truths of the Christian message was to perpetuate the humanist understanding, with its inherent suspicion of all pedantry, and its emphasis upon the great themes of love, charity, and unity. Harding began a discussion on private Mass by pointing out that too much energy could be spent in quibbling. 'This being a Sacrament of vnitie, every true christen man ought in receiuing of it, to consyder, how vnitie may be acheued and kepte, rather then to shewe a streightnes of conscience aboute the outward formes of bread and wyne.'91 The idea of charity was that which had been used in the Marian works. At times it could be referred to as if it had been the chief reason for the institution of the Mass. Harding referred to the opinion of St Cyril. 'That Christ might vnite euery one of vs within our selues, and with God, although we be distant both in body and also in soule, yet he hath deuised a meane.'92 And thus the need for unity within the community became a primary consideration when preparing to receive the Sacrament worthily. As John Rastell expressed it, such unity was the ultimate desire of the faithful Christian. The ende of a Christians desier, is, to be vnited vnto God, through Christ our head in the vnitie of his body, and to this end I receiue his body in the sacrament, which, because he is both God and man, is therfor able to ioyne us togeather in vnitie with God and man. And therefor when I receive hym, I communicate both naturallie and mysticallie with his bodie. Can I desyer any more, and is any thing unperfect herein?93

Or, as Sanders said, 'all the mysticall body of Christ is perfitly one through them, who being one with the rest in faith, spirit and 90 J. Bossy, 'The Mass as a Social Institution 1200-1700', PP 100 (1983), 29-61; M. Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge, 1991). 91 Harding, An answere (1564), fo. 31'. 92 Ibid., fo. 16'. 9 ^ John Rastell, A Replie against an answer (Antwerp, 1565), fo. 119*.

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baptisme, be also one with Christes flesh in truth of naturall and corporall vnion to Christes flesh really partaken at his holy table'.94 As the 15605 progressed, and the confessional divide widened, the importance of unity became an increasingly cherished concept within these works. One of the chief criticisms of the Protestant service was that it broke this bond of unity; Allen described it in 1565 as a service which 'yow may wel terme the seruice of contradiction and damnation, as one that nether communicateth with the sanctes in heauen, with the soules in purgatory, nor with the faithfull a hue'.9' In 1567 Allen incorporated into his defence of the priesthood an expansive paraphrase of the first two verses of Psalm 132.% Would God euerie man could feele, how happy a thing it is, to dwell as brethren together in the house of God vnder the appointed Pastours of that familie, in which onely Goddes fauoure is euerlastinglie founde, that they might therewith be partakers of all their workes that feare God, and might haue some sense and taste of that holy oyntment of Goddes Spirite, and gifte of his grace, that first was vpon the heade of this householde, our Maister Christ Jesus, and then dropped downe abundantly to his bearde, euen to the uery bearde of Aaron, whereby (as S. Augustin saieth) the holy Apostles be signified, and by them, it ishued downe to the hemmes of Christes coate, and imbrued all the borders of his garmentes, that euery one of the felowship might receiue benefite . . . For in this happy felowship only oure Lorde bestoweth his manifoold blessings, and life for euer more. Amen.97 Indeed, the concept of the Sacrament as the body of Christ and the bond of love between all members of the Christian Church was at times expressed in almost mystical terms. Allen wrote of the Mass as 'the bonde of holy society betwixt the heade and the membres, as the loue knot betwixt Christ and his spouse, as the vniting of the hue with the deade, the holy sanctes with vs poore sinners, angelles withe men, heuenly thinges with earthely, and the creatour of all with his owne creatures beneth'.98 In this bond of unity, the difference between those who actually received communion and those who just looked on was rendered unimportant, since all were joined in a 94

Sanders, The Supper of our Lord, fo. 265''. Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 233'. 'Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments." 97 Allen, A Treatise Made in Defence of the lauful power . . . of Priesthod, 411-12. 98 Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. I90r. 95

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greater communion. Dorman explained it in these terms in 1564. 'For we saie, that as many as being present at the masse doe hartely ioine with the priest in the swete remembrance of Christes bitter death and passion, doe all receive with the priest Christes bodie and bloud, they spirituallie, and he corporallie. And this call we a true communion. >99 These various aspects of the Elizabethan understanding of the Sacrament were illustrated by one of the earliest areas of controversy, namely the debate over private Masses which arose from Jewel's 'Challenge Sermon'. The controversy concerned the Catholic practice of celebrating a daily Mass whether or not there was a congregation willing to receive communion with the priest. Jewel made private Mass the subject of the first Article of his sermon, perhaps with Luther's De Abroganda Missa Privata of 1522 in mind. Jewel seemed mostly concerned to denigrate Catholic practice and ceremonial, but Luther's work on the subject had brought up a whole host of issues relating to the Sacrament of the Altar, and the Catholic writers took the opportunity to do likewise, finding the issue an ideal vehicle for many of their ideas on the Sacrament. In particular, the argument over private Mass gave the Catholics an opportunity to expound their ideas on the Sacrament as unity. The anonymous writer of An Apologie of private Masse illustrated this all important idea when he explained the reason for the use of the word 'communion': Not because it requireth vnitie and idemptitee of time and place, in the communicantes: but because al Christians therby beyng liuely members of one body first are brought to an vnitee with Christe their head, and then euery member with the misticall body: and then euerie member with other. So that in the workynge of this meruelous vnitee, number, time and place are not principall dooers, but foreners and very strangers in deede.100 Two years later, Harding explained that there was nothing exclusive about the concept of private Mass. 'Euery Masse is publike, concernyng bothe the Oblation, and also the communion, and none priuate. For no man offereth that dredfull Sacrifice priuately for him selfe alone, but for the whole Churche of Christ in common.'101 He, too, took the opportunity to discourse upon the idea of unity by discussing the concept of communion: 99 100 101

Dorman, A Proufe of Certeyne Articles, fo. 97'. Anon., An Apologie of priuate Masse, fo. 16'. Harding, An answere (1564), fo. 9'.

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For it is not so called, because many, or as M.Iuell teacheth, the whole congregation, communicateth to gether in one place: but because of the effecte of the Sacrament, for that by the same we are ioyned to God, and many that be diuerse, be vnited together, and made one mysticall body of Christ, which is the churche, of which body by vertue and effecte of this holy Sacrament, all the faithfuls be membres one of an other, and Christ is the head.102 This understanding of communion transcended the difference between those who communicated and those who held back, and the Catholic argument was that this was a rich and precious privilege. Dorman told Jewel to think how much harm it would do men to be excluded 'from that communion in the which oftentimes before theie were wont spirituallie by the swete remembraunce of Christes deathe and passion in those holie misteries, to ioyne with the prieste'.103 Catholic writers in this debate were perfectly willing to acknowledge the errors and abuses of recent times. The Apologic of private Masse compared contemporary practice to that of the primitive Church, much to the latter's advantage, but argued that this was no reason to attack the Church of the time. In that state of burnynge charitee, and of contempt of the worlde, and al the pleasures therof, some of the people, perhaps of their owne accorde, did alwaies willyngly and gladly prepare them selues at euery Masse to be housled with the priest: And will you now in the state of keycolde charitee, when the people are nothyng willyng to dispose theim selues to receive their housill, plucke the priest from the aulter?104 There was also an emphasis on godly reception. Harding made the point that the number of people who received communion was determined not by any outward prescription, but by the spiritual state of the congregation present. 'Soothly we receiue them that come with a pure and a cleane conscience, with a cleane harte, and to be shorte, with a blamelesse lyfe. They that be such, let them come allwayes, and they that be not such, let not them come not so much as once.'105 He drew on the work of Chrysostom to make this point, strenuously denying that the practice of private Mass was a mark of priestly oppression of the laity, as Jewel and others had alleged: 'That oftentymes the priest at Masse hath no comparteners to receiue the 102 103 104 105

Ibid., fo. 14'. Dorman, A Proufe of Certeyne Articles, fo. 109'. Anon., An Apologie of priuate Masse fo. gr. Harding, An answers (1564), fo. 24'.

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sacrament with him, it procedeth of lacke of deuotion of the peoples parte, not of enuye or malice of his parte.'106 The debate also brought up the issue of frequent communion. During Mary's reign, Bishop Watson had urged the laity to communicate as often as they felt able. So too did Harding urge frequent communion, and he asked what recourse the Protestants would have if this godly practice were revived: Now in case the people might be styrred to such deuotion, as to dispose them selues worthely to receiue their housell euery daye with the priest, as they dyd in the primitiue church . . . what shuld these men haue to saye? . . . So the right of their cause dependeth of the misdooing of the people, which if they would amende, these folke shuld be dryuen either to recant, or to holde their peace.107

The controversies over sacramental doctrine were thus defending ancient practice, but they were doing so in the language of reformation. Salvation Similar patterns were evident in discussions of salvation. Reformist influences had taught English Catholics to understand the preeminence of divine grace over human will. As writers, however, when dealing with the subject of grace, they chose to emphasize the nature of the sacraments as a channel of divine grace, avoiding, for the most part, any direct discussion of the process of justification. And so, like the Marian authors, the Elizabethan writers used their writings on the Mass to stress the degeneracy of man and the irrelevancy of his works in the granting of salvation as a free gift from God. Harding wrote of the grace received by worthy reception of the Sacrament in 1564. 'And whereas we haue nothing of our selues, that we maye offer vp acceptable to God: we offer this his sonnes body as a most acceptable sacrifice, beseching him to looke not vppon our worthynes, our acte or worke: but vpon the face of Christ his most dere sonne, and for his sake to haue mercie upon vs.'108 In their more general comments on the process of salvation the early Elizabethans retained the emphasis upon the degeneracy of man 106 107 108

Ibid., fo. 12'. Harding, An answere (1564), fos. n v —12'. Ibid., fo. i74v.

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and the might of God's mercy. Stapleton translated The Apologie of Fridericus Staphylus in 1565, which had in the preface to the reader the author's own confession, typical of this approach: I confesse before God and his diuine Judgement, my sinnes to be greate and many, which can reioyse in no other thing, nor otherwise praie, then that good kinge Dauid, vsing these wordes. Lorde hears my prater: hears me in thy rightsousnes and entre not in to iudgement with thy seruant, for no lyuing man may be iustijied in thy sight, to the whiche that notable sentence of S.Austen also agreeth, saying Wo euen to the commendable life of men, if thou o Lord dosst examin and trie them without thy mercie. And thus must euery man (be he neuer so holy and perfit) iudge of him selfe, if he respect the terrible iudgement of almightie God, wherewith no man can stand without his mercie through Christ lesus.109

There was still a marked reluctance to discuss the issue of justification directly, but one particularly interesting work was published on the subject under the auspices of the exiles. In 1569 John Fowler, printer at Louvain, brought out a work entitled A treatie of Justification founde emong the writinges of Cardinal Pole of blessed memorie, remaining in the custodie of M. Henrie Pyning, Chamberlaine and General Receiuer to the said Cardinal, late deceased in Louuaine. This work contains no indications as to authorship, and its attribution to Pole has been cast in doubt.110 Its extreme erudition, particular reliance upon Augustine, its biblicism, and the wealth of patrisitic citations it contains, suggest between them that his authorship is a possibility. On the other hand, it may have been an attempt to introduce the decrees of Trent in gentle fashion to a suspicious English audience, using the name of Pole as a recommendation for the ideas it contained.111 In any case, it is a work which bears many of the hall-marks of reformed English Catholicism. This treatise continued the tradition of an Augustinian understanding of justification within English Catholic thought. The author explained that he had tried to expound the doctrine of justification, 109

Staphylus, Fridericus, The apologie . . . (Antwerp, 1565), trans. Stapleton, fo. 30'. D. Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy: Cardinal Pole and the CounterReformation (Cambridge, 1972), 198—200. 111 Fenlon considers this idea possible and quotes J. Fischer, 'II nous semble plutot qu'on sit voulou sous le couvert de Pole, faciliter 1'entree en Angleterre des Canons de Trente'. The quotation is from 'Essai historique sur les idees reformatrices des Cardinaux Jean Pierre Carafa (1476—1559) et Reginald Pole (1500—58)', doctoral dissertation for the University of Paris (1957). 110

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'Grounding my selfe chiefely in al pointes through the Treatie vpon the Scripture and holy Worde of God'.112 He made it clear that he was not adopting a position in opposition to the Protestant view, but rather was trying to seek a middle way in the controversy, steering a path between solafidianism and Pelagianism. His title-page bore the warning from the Book of Proverbs: 'Turne not aside to the right hande, nor to the lefte.'113 The treatise was divided into two parts, one showing the danger of one extreme, the other showing the danger of straying in the opposite direction. In effect, the first part served as an admonition to the Catholics and the second as a warning to the Protestants. This was a conscious recognition of the different strands of belief within the Catholic Church, and the work supports an identification of the English Catholic tradition with the more reformed understanding. Part I gave an explanation of the doctrine of justification as the Catholic Church had come to understand it in the sixteenth century, and as the Council of Trent had chosen to define it. Trent had shown itself to be strongly influenced by the reformist position on justification and the teachings of Augustine.114 For all that it affected to be an elucidation of the Council's decree, however, this treatise went further than Trent. It provided an understanding of the process of salvation which incorporated the apparently contradictory passages from Paul's Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle of James.115 The author explained that there were three degrees of salvation: the initial gift of God, the improvement of the good man, and the final perfection of justice. In this threefold process of beginning, increase, and perfection, all the words of Scripture could be comprehended. By meane of which difference it is truly sayd in the Scripture, a man is iustified by faith without woorkes, and also it is truly said, a man is iustified by workes. For as a synner is called and set in the state of iustice by grace, without any deserte of woorkes done before: So no man can continue in Christ, increase in iustice, and comme to the perfection thereof in life euerlasting, without good workes.116 112 113 114 115 116

Reginald Pole, A Treatie of Justification (Louvain, 1569), Sig. **iijr. Ibid., see title-page. The quotation is from Prov. 4: 27. J. Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire (London, 1977), 9-12. See Rom. 3: 19-28; James 2: 8-26. Pole, A Treatie of lustification, fos. 2 V —3',

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This was the idea of a 'living faith' which we have seen in earlier works, and which built on the old idea of 'fides formis'.117 The treatise placed a striking emphasis upon the grace of God as the sole power behind the process of salvation. Whilst allowing for the existence of man's free will and the necessity of good works, the author stressed first the power of grace in the initial stage of justification, and then its influence upon the later stages. The idea that the good works which followed were also prompted by grace was a well-established idea among English Catholics. Fisher, Tunstall, and others had talked of the way in which free will had to cooperate with grace in order to effect good works. This treatise went further, as Gardiner had, and insisted that the virtues which followed from the initial call to faith were themselves actually gifts of God: 'it is the free grace of God that worketh al these vertues in him, without the whiche he is not able of him selfe to atteine, not only to the state of iustice, but not so muche as to right faith and loue of God, or any other gifte perteining to his saluation'.118 The sole contribution made by man was his free will, and even that, the author insisted, was not a free will to do good. He made this response to the Protestant understanding of free will. 'The cause of their errour is, that they can not, or will not discerne and make a difference betweene a free wil, and a wil strong and able of it selfe to doe good. Al men be thei good or ill, have fre wil, but he that hath wil without grace, is weake and unable to doe well.'119 Good works were themselves the gift of God, the result of grace freely given. These be the workes that we comende and sette forth in Christian men, not the workes of the lawe, not suche as men doo of them selues, or through vaine glorie to please men, but the workes of God, . . . done onely for Gods sake, suche as God by his inspiration and helpe worketh in men, wherein men are workers together and helpers with God . . . And hereby the Reader maie see, how vntrewly it is saide, that the Catholike Doctrine teacheth men to presume of their owne workes, or to thinke they be able to doo well without the grace of God.120 117 It may have been this reliance on an idea first used by the scholastics, which led Fenlon to describe the work as using a 'thoroughly scholastic mode of exposition', a comment which otherwise seems inappropriate. See Fenlon, Heresy and Obedience in Tridentine Italy, 198. 118 Pole, A Trealie of Justification, fo. 15*. 119 Ibid., fo. igr~v. 120 Ibid., fo. 3iv.

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This treatise had appended to it first the decrees of Trent, and then five patristic works: Augustine on faith and works; Chrysostom on prayer; Basil on fasting; Leo the Great on fasting and alms, and Cyprian on alms-giving. The intent of this was to show that the doctrine of Mans Justification, declared vnto thee in this Treatie, is consonant and agreable to the assured and undoubted doctrine of Christes Catholique Churche . . . and also that the saied moste Reuerende and Learned Assemblie of Bishops, Doctours, and Fathers, defined nothing in this matter, but suche as most expressely agreeth with the holy Scriptures, and consent of the Auncient Fathers.121 This was the only work from this period which sought to explain and elucidate any of the decrees of Trent. It is notable, therefore, that the author chose to explain a Tridentine formulation which had such immediate resonance for the reformed English Catholic tradition. At the same time, other works were beginning to hint at a less reformed understanding of justification. Allen told his readers to ignore those who preached justification by faith alone, and who insisted 'that mannes workes must not presume so farre as to winne heauen, or to pourge sinnes, lest they intermeddle with Christes work of redemption, and the office of onely faithe'.122 He urged his readers to live well, and argued that works of succour were the works of the faithful, and that the deeds of any poor wretch trying to do good in this way became the deeds of Christ. This view was not entirely incompatible with the earlier Catholic understanding of good works, but its emphasis was different. John Martiall, in his Treatyse of the Crosse of 1564, firmly endorsed the idea of salvation as based primarily on faith, but thought that a living faith could be supported, not just by charity, but also by more humble forms of devotion, in which he included making the sign of the cross. He countered his potential critics, who, he anticipated, would argue that only faith in Christ would benefit man: for answer we saye, that nothing can auayle, and profit man, vnlesse he hath a stedfast faith in Christ, and faithful belieff in the merites of his passion . . . But lieke as faith is the victory that conquereth the worlde, the meane that maketh oure soules meete habitations for the holy ghost, the way that leadeth to heaven, Marry not euery simple, bare and naked faith, but such 121 122

Ibid., fo. 84V. Allen, A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. ] 59''.

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as S. Paule saieth worketh by charitie: Euen so saye we that faith worketh to man the aforesaied effectes . . . Marry not euery faith, but such as is stedfast constant, and stronge, ioyned with charitie, builded vppon hope, strenghtned with prayer, augmented with fasting, and assisted by the signe off the holy crosse.123

There was thus more emphasis on the 'traditional' means of achieving salvation, though confession, penance, absolution, and good works, although discussion of these issues still showed signs of humanist influences. Allen wrote reassuringly about the difficulties of confession, and the embarrassment which he admitted to sharing himself. 'And it can not but be ioyned with some naturall bashefullnesse, in this oure frailtie, to utter that to an other, whiche in it selfe, of what sorte of sinne so euer it be, is most filthie and lothsome.'124 He stressed, however, that it was a far greater torment to remain unconfessed, and that confession was both enjoined by Christ, and a good way of breaking a man's pride and promoting self-knowledge. He also added comfortingly, that it involved speaking to a man, that by nature is a like sinner, and by use of hearing manie faultes, can not muche marueile at oures, and by office there is moste secret, tender, and carefull ouer vs . . . What comforte can be more, then to haue suche a frend, who, for that I ioyne with him, yea euen my owne soule to his, after the dearest maner and moste secret sorte, must needes be to me as a ful staye in al doubles of conscience, a witnesse of my sorowfull harte, an intercessour for my sinnes, a suerty before God for my amending, a minister in my reconciliation, and one that under Christ (as S. Clement also saieth) shal both beare my sinnes upon him selfe, and take charge of me to saluation?125

This idea of the priesthood was clearly influenced by reformist thinking, even as it was used to encourage a return to the traditional practice of confession; a mingling of elements which was characteristic of the work being done at Louvain. Purgatory A process was underway, therefore, of reconciling humanist education and reformist understanding with a defence of doctrinal formulations which increasingly looked back to the pre-Reformation 123 124 125

Martiall, A Treatyse of the Crosse, fo. 20™. Allen, A Treatise Made in Defence of the lauful power . . . of Priesthod, fos. 246-7. Ibid., fos. 248-9.

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period. Even in the earliest years of exile, there was a dawning awareness of a shift to more conservative notions of piety. Yet Catholic practice of the more traditional sort was now explained in terms derived from more recent and reformed understanding. One illustration of this is given by the works concerned with purgatory and prayers for the dead. Purgatory had been one of the earliest casualties of the English Reformation, attacked by both Catholics and Protestants in different measures. On the one hand, its close involvement with monastic tradition had made it a victim of the dissolution. On the other hand, its association with the abuse of indulgences, and with the dubious status accorded to relics and pilgrimages, made it the immediate target of many Catholic reformers, who preferred to direct devotional impulses towards Christocentric notions of salvation and the Mass. The Elizabethan writers had the task of re-establishing the doctrinal and devotional credibility of purgatory. The understanding of purgatory had been limited and modified during Henry VIII's reign. Although it was not abolished altogether, the devotional consequences of a belief in purgatory had been curtailed.126 The King's Book of 1543, although conservative in other respects, had still baulked at the notion of purgatory, saying 'it is much necessary that all such abuses as heretofore have been brought in by supporters and maintainers of the papacy of Rome, and their complices, concerning this matter, be clearly put away: and that we therefore abstain from the name of purgatory and no more dispute or reason thereof'.127 When the doctrine returned as a subject for Catholic authors it had gone through a powerful metamorphosis. The late medieval works which mentioned Purgatory had tended to put it within the context of the Memento Mori or the Ars Moriendi™ but when the Elizabethans brought it back into their religious instruction it had a rather different aspect. In part this had been prefigured by the Henrician formulations. In 1543, for example, the justification had been, 'trusting that these thinges do not only profyte and avayle them, but also declare us to be charitable folke, bycause we have mynde and desire to profyte them, which, notwithstanding they be departed this presente life, yet remayne they still membres of the 126 P. Marshall, 'Fear, Purgatory and Polemic', in W. Naphy and P. Roberts (eds.), Fear in Early Modern Society (Manchester, 1997). 127 A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for Any Christian Man; see Formularies of Faith put forward by authority during the reign of Henry VIII, ed. C. Lloyd (Oxford, 1825), 376. 128 See E. Delaruelle, La piete populaire au moyen age {Torino, 1975).

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same mystical body of Christ wherunto we pertein'.129 This emphasis upon charity and the mystical body of Christ was at the root of the reformist defence of purgatory. It had been prefigured in the defence of prayers for the dead made by Thomas More in his Supplication of Souls of I529.130 This displayed aspects of both the medieval literalist and the humanist approach. More cast the work in the form of an emotive appeal in the first person from the suffering souls in Purgatory. In most pieteous wise continuallye calleth and cryeth vpon your deuoute charitie and most tender pile, for help, coumforte and reliefe, your late acquaintance, kinred, spouses, companions, play felowes and frendes and now your humble and unaquaynted and half forgotten supplyantes, pore priesoners of god, ye sely soules in purgatory, here abiding and endurying the greiuous paynes and hole clensing fyre.131 Fisher, similarly, had made an appeal to the ties of love and friendship as an encouragement towards remembering to pray for the dead. 'And whan is this frendeshyp moste to be shewyd, but whan his frende is in greate dystresse? for than hath he most nede of his helpe and specyally whan he is in that condycyon that he can not helpe hym selfe.'132 The appeal to charity was one which was to be amplified by the reformist writers in a number of ways, particularly in the writings on the Sacrament, and this provided a context in which to revive the doctrine of purgatory. The few Marian works which mentioned Purgatory or prayers for the dead had done so in connection with the Mass, as with Richard Smith explaining how prayers for the dead were much more efficacious when part of the Mass.133 And Thomas Watson had given instructions in Holsome and Catholyke doctryne for the making of oblation for the dead within the eucharistic intercession. For seeyng the soules of suche be not separate from the Churche, whyche is the kyngdome of Christe, amonge the members of whyche kyngdome there is a mutuall communion of all good deedes and godlye woorkes or Sacrifices, therefore the Church commendeth them to the mercie of GOD 129 A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for Any Christian Man; see Formularies of Faith, ed. Lloyd, 375-6. 130 Thomas More, The woorkes of Sir T. More (London, 1557). 131 Ibid., fo. 288. 132 John Fisher, Trpoo Fruytfutt Sermons, Sig. C ir. 133 Richard Smith, A Bouclier of the Catholike fayth (London, 1554).

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and the intercession of Christes oblation, verelye beleuyng that the precious bloude of Christe, as it is profytable for the saluation of the lyuing, so it is also auaylable for the absolution and perfection of them that be deade, that they being for a tyme deteyned in the temporall afflictions and purgacions, might the sooner by the vertue of thys blessed sacrifice be deliuered and brought to the place of light and eternal! peace.134

This emphasis on charity within the body of Christ, and the place of prayers for the dead within the doctrine of the Mass was reinforced when the Elizabethans began to reinstate Purgatory. Here the most significant work was William Allen's A Defense and Declaration of the Catholike Churchies Doctrine, touching Purgatory, and prayers for the soules departed. He made it clear how integral the doctrine was to the communal life of the nation, both spiritually and also in practical terms: 'This doctrine (as the whole worlde knoweth) founded all Bisshoprikes, buylded all Churchies, raysed all Oratories, instituted al Collegies, indued all Schooles, maintened all hospitalles, set forwarde al woorkes of charitye and religion, of what sorte so euer they bee.'135 He placed his analysis of Purgatory within an understanding of the process of salvation which saw the cleansing of a soul there not as the just desserts of the wicked, but as a necessary part of the road to heaven, and an opportunity for the working of God's mercy. Those cleansed in Purgatory were those who were already forgiven by God: it was not a matter of earning salvation through suffering. And thus Purgatory was intended, explained Allen 'not only for the euerlasting outcastes, but also for the exacte trial of the chosen childrens wayes'.136 And his insistence on the need for cleansing was matched in vehemence by his insistence on God's clemency: 'Yea often before this fyre by course of iustice can cease, God quencheth it with his sonnes bloude, recompenseth the residew by oure maisters merittes, and accepteth the careful crie of oure moother the Churche, for her children in paine.'137 In this way, an old Catholic practice was given a new gloss. It was one of the first elements of 'traditional' practice to receive such detailed attention from the Elizabethans, and this may have owed something to the way in which it could act as a vehicle for some of the contemporary preoccupations with ideas of charity and unity. 134

Thomas Watson, Holsome and Calholyke doctryne (London, 1558), fo. Ixxvii'. 135 /y]en5 A defense and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 215V. 136 Ibid., fo. 123'. 137 Ibid., fo. 125'.

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At the same time, there were some more reactionary features to Allen's work, and to the Elizabethan understanding generally. These included the insistence upon prayers for the dead as meritorious works, and discussion of the nature of sin, which in part worked against the reformist understanding of some of the process of salvation. Allen argued that penance was necessary, even though forgiveness through grace was the basic means of salvation. He made it clear that he was not attacking the sufficiency of Christ's passion, which he saw as the 'extreme and onely refuge' in Protestant denigration of the doctrine of Purgatory.138 He maintained that since Christ had only entered heaven through pain and suffering, so too man had to follow this path. And he supported this by recalling the penitent prayers of the Fathers, especially St Augustine. 'O Lorde amend me not in thy anger, but pourge me in this lyfe, that I may escape the Amending fire, whiche is prepared for suche as shall be saued throughe fire.'139 This made it clear that penance for sins was due, even from the faithful, in the next life. Allen illustrated this further by appealing to the example of David, who even after he was pardoned by God, pleaded to be cleansed from his sins: 'Amplius laua me ab iniquitate mea, et a peccatis meis munda me.'140 The need for prayers for the dead was an extension of this realization of the truth of purgatory. Such prayers were primarily placed within the context of the Mass. 'Where shal we then finde ease for theyme? suerly no wher elles, but in the vnity and knotte of that holy felowship, in wich, the benefite of the heade perteynette to all the membres: and euery good woorke of any one membre, wonderfully redoundeth to all the rest.'141 As this quotation suggests, such prayers were seen as a form of good work. Allen gave the example of Jerome suffering in the desert, and said of the doctrine; 'this filled the desertes with many a noble heremite, this raysed uppe the cloisters and all the holy houses of mowrning and praiers in the whole worlde'.142 So he urged his readers to practise penance, and fasting, and also alms-giving, 'that the soule hence departed, may throughe theyre charitye receyue comforte'.143 138 m 140 141 142 143

Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid.

fo. 102'. fo. io8r-v. fo. 45'. fo. 132'. fo. 52*. fo. 162'.

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This doctrine of Purgatory and prayers for the dead was based upon various pieces of Scripture, but one of the chief passages was from Maccabees, which the Protestants rejected as not being canonical Scripture—an act which, Allen claimed, made them worse than the Jews. Nevertheless, the English Catholics were moving into a defence of areas of doctrine which were not as clearly scriptural as the areas they were used to discussing. Their humanist heritage was illustrated, however, by the way they made the most of the scriptural passages which did seem to work to their advantage in this matter, most especially from the first Epistle to the Corinthians.144 Harding made reference to this passage through the work of St Augustine. 'Of Purgatory S. Augustine doubted not, that is to saye of temporall paines, which they suffer, that reteining the foundacion haue builded thereon timber, haye and stubble. Neither doubted he but that the dead in such case were releued by the charitie of their liuing frendes, as by sacrifices of the aulter, almose and prayer.'14' There was still a sense of unease at any departure from Scripture, and a greater sense of homecoming where doctrine could be defended, as in this case, from the Bible or from the writings of the early Church. The intellectual inheritance of the Elizabethan Catholics was being gently moulded and slowly modified by their changed circumstances and changing objectives. Tenaciously maintaining their English identity and independence of thought, the writers in exile sought to perpetuate the reformist ideology which had informed the work of the Marian establishment to which they had once belonged. They continued to write religious treatises in the vernacular, holding at bay both the encroachment of controversy, and some of the pronouncements of the Council of Trent. They were not yet fully integrated into the world of the Counter-Reformation, nor yet entirely at one with the views of the papacy. Nevertheless, they could not resist for long the increasing problem of where true religious authority was to be found. Nor could they go on focusing solely on the more reformed aspects of the Catholic faith, as the situation in England increasingly called for a fuller defence. Slowly, at times unwittingly, and perhaps unwillingly, they were already responding to the demands of their new situation, as the ideological sands shifted beneath them.

144 145

The biblical reference is to i Cor. 3: 11-15. Harding,^ Confutation, fos. IIQ V —120'.

7 Scholasticism Revisited I should not beleue the very Ghospel it selfe, vnlesse the Catholike Churches authoritie did compel me.1 BY the second half of the century, the Reformation had begun to crystallize into something far removed from its idealistic origins. Expansion, excitement, and a willingess to embrace change were being replaced by anger, anxiety, and a stubborn adherence to fixed patterns of belief. The many different and antagonistic doctrinal positions of the age should not obscure the fact that there were some aspects of the Reformation which were similar for all concerned. No church, or confessional group, had been untouched by the desire for transformation in the early part of the century. By the latter part of the century, they had moved on to discover another common desire, this time for consolidation and conformity. For both the Protestants and the Catholics this could be seen as the dawn of a new scholastic age.2 Doctrinal discussions were giving way to dogmatic statements; the interest in reform was being replaced by an overriding preoccupation with the precise definition of religious detail. The consolidation of both Protestant and Catholic orthodoxies prompted further efforts to achieve uniformity on both sides of the confessional divide. Protestants had discovered that 'sola scriptura' was not in fact enough of a tool to build an established church. Catholics were discovering, through the metamorphosis of the Council of Trent, that perhaps the clearest response to the Protestant challenge was to anathematize their critics.3 Doctrinal wrangling was replaced by the escalation of more institutionalized conflict as a result. 1 Richard Bristow, A Briefe Treatise ofdiuerse plains and sure wayes to finde out the truthe in this doubtful and dangerous time ofHeresie (Antwerp, 1574), fo. 174". Bristow was quoting St Augustine. 2 See A. McGrath, The Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation (Oxford, 1987), 191-6; J. Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, trans. J. Moiser (London, 1977), 4°-2. 3 See H. Jedin, A History of the Council of Trent, Iran, by E. Graf, 2 vols. (London, 1957-61).

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As boundaries between Protestant and Catholic became more sharply delineated, doctrine became less a matter for personal opinion and more a matter of publicly declared loyalties. Theology was losing what remained of its pluralism and becoming more homogeneous on both sides of the divide. Intellectual freedom began to be viewed with suspicion where Renaissance scholars had viewed it with approval. Rival orthodoxies were coalescing, and giving new strength to rival ecclesiologies, in an increasingly hostile and politicized intellectual climate. These developments have helped to establish the conventional view of the Reformation as characterized by bitter divisions, violent polemic, and the crushing weight of church authority demanding uniformity. This was the Reformation as posterity would come to understand the term. The English Reformation had its own particular and peculiar place within such a setting. In Elizabethan England new certainties were beginning to emerge. English Protestantism, having floundered through the problems of Edward's reign, had been given a new dignity by its experience of persecution under Mary I.4 Protestants had perhaps discovered that there are fewer ambiguities in dying for a faith than in trying to live it out within an established church. Certainly the Elizabethan Church was put together with great caution, drawing very heavily on the sanction given by suffering. This was detailed in Foxe's Acts and Monuments, and it was surely no accident that this work was to become as fundamental to English Protestant identity as the Bible itself. Where Scripture could supply a basis for doctrine, it was the experience of oppression that laid the foundations of an actual church, by stirring up a sense of loyalty to the body of believers. Thus the intellectual effort of the 15605 was focused upon establishing a sense of church identity. One result of this was to give English Catholics a more coherent foe. As English Protestantism began to acquire identity and confidence in the early years of Elizabeth, so English Catholicism was forced to realign its position. Initially the English Catholics had displayed a vigorous, if perhaps misplaced, confidence in their ideological superiority. By the end of the 15608, however, it had became clear that, far from dealing with an amorphous group of radicals and subversives, there was a clearly defined and loyally defended church establishment facing them across the channel. At the same time other 4 A. Pettegree, Marian Protestantism: Six Studies (Aldershot, 1996); J. N. King, English Reformation Literature: The Tudor Origins of the Protestant Reformation (Princeton, 1982).

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certainties were being undermined by the experience of exile. Men who had been brought up to be suspicious of the papacy and its corruptions now found themselves dependent upon Rome for material sustenance as much as spiritual inspiration. Scholars who had been educated in traditions of open-mindedness, and were used to being critical of institutional authority, found themselves caught up in the Counter-Reformation enthusiasm for papal authority. Churchmen who had been used to viewing Protestants as seditious extremists suddenly found themselves characterized as political agitators. The realities of Reformation division on the continent, perhaps in particular the 'iconoclastic fury' of 1566, brought home the savagery of the religious conflict, and gave the added spur of real physical fear to the community at Louvain. Equally important were the intellectual offensives of the first Elizabethan Protestant apologists, Jewel and Foxe. The moderate reformist ground which English Catholicism had occupied since the 15305 was being systematically and successfully occupied by the new Church of England. In many ways the tables had been turned on the English Catholics, and it was perhaps not surprising that an increasing rigidity in theological outlook was to result from this. These developments forced English Catholicism onto unfamiliar ground. This chapter looks again at the works of the 15605 and early 15705, but from a different angle. Chapter 6 examined the way in which some reformist attitudes were perpetuated in these works. This chapter illustrates how many of the same works show signs of how Catholic writers were being compelled to change their attitudes. Gradually the exiles at Louvain began to adopt a more recognizable 'Counter-Reformation' approach. The earlier reliance on Scripture and the primitive Church was modified by increasing reliance on the papacy and the decrees of the contemporary Church. Tradition came to be understood less in terms of the consensus of the faithful and more in terms of the Church as institution, and its importance as a source of authority began to equal or exceed that of Scripture. The humanist desire for reform, education, and a better understanding of Scripture was replaced by the overwhelming desire to prove the Catholic Church unassailably correct in both doctrine and practice. A new strain of English Catholicism was developing, and a new Catholic community was beginning to form. 5 5 This is the contention of J. Bossy, The English Catholic Community 1570-1850 (London, 1975), 5, who identifies a new beginning for English Catholicism around 1568.

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The change in objectives was to be reflected to some extent by a change in personnel. The seminary at Douai, initially founded with largely academic purposes in mind, began to assume its new identity as a missionary training college.6 The theological campaign of the first exiles was to be succeeded eventually by the missionary fervour of the first generation of students at Douai, led by such men as Edmund Campion, Robert Persons, Gregory Martin, and William Reynolds.7 This generation did not focus so much on reform, but directed its zeal towards other ends. For these men, humanism was more an educational programme than a call to arms. Their call to arms was a more literal one: the theologians were no longer on the front-line and their place was taken by the missionaries, many of whom were to die in the pursuit of their calling. For the seminary priests from Douai, who first arrived in England in the 15708 and the English Jesuits, who launched their first mission in 1580, the struggle was not primarily an intellectual one.8 Their task was not so much to explain their faith, as to uphold it through the sacraments, and, if necessary, die in its defence. Here, then, was another sea-change in the character of the English Reformation, and we can see the process of change reflected in the early Elizabethan works. Debates which had begun in the cloister and moved then to Court were now being played out on a wider stage, and the subtleties of scholarship were being marginalized in the more straightforward contest for public loyalties. Among English Catholics the work of polemic was no longer the predominant concern, and the parameters were no longer set by English concerns but by broader European issues. One sign of the times was that many authors shifted from writing in the vernacular back to writing in Latin. Thomas Stapleton wrote his last English work in 1567 and William Allen's works were predominantly in Latin after 1576. A Yet see C. Haigh, 'The Continuity of Catholicism in the English Reformation', in idem, (ed.), English Reformation Revised', P. McGrath, 'Elizabethan Catholicism: A Reconsideration', JEH 35 (1984), 414-28. The evidence of the published works supports Bossy's interpretation, at least in terms of Catholicism among the intellectual elite. 6

Bossy, English Catholic Community 1570-1850, 14-18. Ibid. 15. 8 P. Guilday, The English Catholic Refugees on the Continent (London, 1914); J. H. Pollen, The English Catholics in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (London, 1920); E. Waugh, Edmund Campion (London, 1936); B. Basset, The English Jesuits (London, 1967); P. McGrath, Papists and Puritans under Elizabeth I (London, 1967); A. O. Meyer, England and the Catholic Church under Queen Elizabeth (London, 1967); Bossy, English Catholic Community 1570-1850. 7

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vernacular literary output continued, but it was increasingly concerned with works of devotion, or martyrologies: works which avoided any discussion of doctrine to place a heavy emphasis on Catholic loyalty and identity. The objective now was not to elucidate the faith so much as compel obedience to a Catholic Church whose authority and doctrine was put beyond question. English Catholicism was returning to the embrace of Rome, and in so doing it was abandoning a habit of independence which had not just been in place since 1533, but which arguably had far longer roots, reaching back into the fourteenth century. Nor were English Catholics defending papal supremacy just because they were now free to do so; had that been the case, the works of Mary Fs reign would have displayed a more clear-cut allegiance. The shift in English Catholic ideology was of a more fundamental nature. Reformist biblicism was giving way to a more doctrinaire insistence on tradition, as Catholics began to take refuge, not in Scripture, but in the institutional Church. The ideals of the previous generation were beginning to appear out of place in an Elizabethan setting. This transformation was a gradual one, and for a while the old and the new were to coexist in a slightly inchoate fashion. Yet the shape of the new ideology can be seen emerging from the experience of exile. The Elizabethan Settlement Behind the transformation in English Catholicism lay the achievements of the Elizabethan Settlement. One reason for the success of this Settlement was that it managed to appropriate so many of the key elements of reformism previously deployed by English Catholics. Here the obvious intellectual debt on both sides was to the Henrician Reformation. The biblicism, reformist rhetoric, and moderate church policies of Henry VIII had had a lasting impact, not just upon Catholic thinking, but on reformist thought in England generally. The Henrician changes had channelled humanist and reforming impulses, and so shaped a flow of ideas from which later policymakers could draw when in need of credibility. In its appropriation of moderate reformist language and policy, the Elizabethan Settlement was employing this same heritage. It was not so much a 'middle way' as a perpetuation of some of the key elements of Tudor policy since the 15308. It was also, therefore, a defeat for those English Catholics who had attempted to make such elements their own.

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The emergence of the Church of England as a clearly denned entity, with its own distinctive ecclesiology, was at first largely the responsibility of John Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, and the martyrologist John Foxe.9 Jewel exerted particular influence with his 'Challenge Sermon', and then with his Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae of 1562, which was published in English in the same year as An Apologie, or aunswer in defence of the Church of England. Foxe published his Actes and monuments in 1563.ln Both works provided the English Protestant tradition with a sense of identity and respectability it had previously lacked.11 They also prompted a vigorous response from the Catholics in exile, as we have already seen in Chapter 6. Some of the immediate responses to Jewel have already been discussed. The broader, long-term effects of the Jewel-Harding controversy, however, only came to fruition at the end of the 15605. It is clear from the way in which Catholic writers began to change direction, that the controversy had relocated the central focus of discussion within the English religious debate until it rested not on particular points of theology like the Sacrament, but on the nature of the true Church. This was in part owing to the general increase of Protestant activity in the field of ecclesiastical history, from which they sought to prove that their Church was not an innovation, but had existed in every age. In continental terms, this debate was given particular momentum by such works as the Ecclesiastica Historia of Flacius Illyricus, published between 1559 and 1574, the work more popularly known as the Magdeburg Centuries and christened pestilentissimum opus by its Catholic opponents.12 There was, however, a distinctively English aspect to this exchange, one which betrays the alteration in the intellectual climate as Elizabeth's reign progressed. Assertions of apostolic continuity, and the controversy over the true Church, were by no means new to the European scene.13 Yet 9 V. Norskov Olsen, John Foxe and the Elizabethan Church (Berkeley, 1973); J. E. Booty, John Jewel as Apologist of the Church of England (London, 1963). J. F. Mozley, John Foxe and his Book (New York, 1970); D. Loades (ed.), John Foxe and the English Reformation (Aldershot, 1997); T. S. Freeman, 'New Perspectives on an Old Book: The Creation and Influence of Foxe's "Book of Martyrs'", JEH 49 (1998), 317-28. 10 John Foxe, Actes and monuments of these latter and perillous dayes, touching matters of the church (London, 1563). 11 Although they were able to build on the work of Tyndale and other early Protestants: see Norskov Olsen, John Foxe and the Elizabethan Church, 38-40. 12 McGrath, Intellectual Origins of the European Reformation, 30; Norskov Olsen, John Foxe and the Elizabethan Church, 20—2. 13 J. Pelikan, Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700), (Chicago, 1984), 304.

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the latter half of the sixteenth century saw a particularly intense concentration on this theme. In England, this concentration, expressed in the work of Jewel and Foxe, placed the issue of catholicity at the centre of theological concerns. The Elizabethan Settlement went beyond assertions about doctrine, to the more fundamental assertion that its Church was the true Church, a direct descendant of the primitive Church: 'we have alwayes estemed the firste age of the Church to be catholyke, the which was in time of Christ and of the Apostles and of the holy fathers: Nor wee doubt not to call that Church the arke of Noe, the spouse of Christ, the piller and perfect stay of the truth or upon the same to repose the whole course of our salvation'.14 It was their contention that the Church of England stood in direct line of apostolic continuity from the primitive Church. This was an assertion which the Catholics could not ignore, and it heralded a new chapter in their theological development. This claim to universality on behalf of the Church of England was an attempt to engage the Church of Rome on equal terms. It propelled the debate on to a new plane. On the whole, the claim to apostolic continuity was usually the response to a more radical religious movement: Catholics had used it against Luther, Lutherans against Zwingli, Calvin against the Anabaptists.15 Jewel, however, used it to oppose not just those who thought the Elizabethan Settlement too pusillanimous, but the English Catholics as well. He thus developed the claim to catholicity. 'We do beleve that ther is onely one Churche of God, and that the same is not shut up as in time past among the Jewes into any one corner or kingdome, butte is Catholike and universall, and dispersed into al the world.'16 The Church of England was denned by the Apologia in terms of its moderation. Jewel pleaded the necessity of separation from the Catholic Church, but explained how reluctantly the decision had been made. It is doubtless an odious matter for one to leave the fellowship whereunto he hath been accustomed, and specially of those men, who, though they be not, yet at least seem and be called Christians. And to say truly, we do not despise the church of these men (howsoever it be ordered by them nowadays), partly for the name sake itself, and partly for that the gospel of Jesu 14 John Jewel, An apologie or aunswer in defence of the Church of England (London, i ^62), Sig. H iii v . 13 See Pelikan, Reformation of Church and Dogma, 304. 16 The Works of John Jewel, ed. J. Ayre, iii. 59.

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Christ had once been therein truly and purely set forth. Neither had we departed therefrom, but of very necessity and much against our wills.17

Jewel's description of the Church of England continually emphasized its conservatism and continuities with the past. His discussion of priesthood, for example, defended the use of a hierarchical clergy on the traditional model, stringently denying 'that amongest us nothinge is done by ordre, nothinge comely, al things in confusion and full of troble amongest us: all men to be preestes, al men to be doctors, all men to be interpreters'.18 There was also heavy emphasis on the resemblance between the Church of England and the early Church, in their shared experience of persecution. Jewel's opening argument made the importance of this clear: 'It hath been an old complaint, even from the first time of the patriarchs and prophets, and confirmed by the writings and testimonies of every age, that the truth wandereth here and there as a stranger in the world, and doth readily find enemies and slanderers amongst those that know her not.'19 And having reviewed slanders commonly used in the past, he went on to assert: All these things were spoken in those days against the people of God, against Christ Jesu, against Paul, against Stephen, and against all them, whosoever they were, which at the first beginning embraced the truth of the gospel, and were contented to be called by the name of Christians; which was then an hateful name among the common people . . . Wherefore we ought to bear it the more quietly, which have taken upon us to profess the gospel of Christ, if we for the same cause be handled after the same sort; and if we, as our forefathers were long ago, be likewise at this day tormented, and baited with railings, with spiteful dealings, and with lies; and that for no desert of our own, but only because we teach and acknowledge the truth. 20

This argument anticipated the line which Foxe also took, with such effect. Like the primitive Church, the Church of England was now possessed of its own martyrs, and was determined to stress this point of resemblance as much as possible. This involved the deployment of manifold testimonies from the early Fathers and Councils, which posed a far harder challenge to the English Catholics, on their own ground, than any they had previously faced. Elizabethan 17 18 19

20

Ibid. 77. Ibid. 60. Ibid. 52.

Ibid. 53.

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Protestantism was making a very good job of filching the respectability previously enjoyed by English Catholics. In establishing this ecclesiology for the English Church, Jewel also left a lasting portrayal of the Catholic Church which emphasized all its most reactionary elements. This made it difficult for the Catholics defending their Church to maintain their reformist attitudes, pushing them into an ever more conservative stance. The Catholics found themselves, when replying to Jewel, increasingly defending a position of extreme orthodoxy they had not previously wished or needed to occupy. Jewel's emphasis on the dogmatic, immoderate claims of the most hardline type of Catholicism, and his insistence, on the other hand, on the moderation and rationality of the Church of England, left the Louvainists in an anomalous position, torn between English and Roman loyalties. Jewel and Foxe between them were effectively driving the English Catholics back into the Roman fold. Jewel characterized English Catholics in terms of unthinking loyalty to Rome, of abiding corruption, and sly cunning. He declared in trenchant terms his opinion of the Catholic writers who were to oppose him. The 'Romish Bishops', he asserted have provided themselves of certaine men, eloquente ynoughe and not unlearned, for to undertake this desperate cause, and to set it forth with bokes and long orations, to the intent that the matter being conningly handled after the best fasshion, the simple and ignorant man might suppose there were somwhat in it: for truely thei sawe howe their cause began to decline in al places, how their sleights wer now espied, and therefore lesse set by, and that their Garrysons decaied every daie: and therfore their cause to be such, that it had great nede of helpe.21 This able piece of propaganda set the tone for Protestant statements in general concerning the Catholic writers in exile. The military imagery is significant, since much that was to follow was unmistakably violent in tone.22 Jewel was undoubtedly aware of the more moderate trends in Catholic thought, as he showed in certain comments from the Apologia. This enabled him to use the well-established polemical technique of employing Catholic criticisms of Catholic abuses to support his argument: What if I say, that Adrian the bishop of Rome did frankly confess that all these mischiefs brast out first from the high throne of the pope? Pighius 21 22

Ibid. 54. For Foxe's use of the same imagery, see Acts and Monuments, viii. 649.

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acknowledgeth herein to be a fault, that many abuses are brought in, even into the very mass, which mass otherwise he would have seem to be a reverend matter. Gerson saith that, through the number of most fond ceremonies, all the virtue of the Holy Ghost, which ought to have full operation in us, and all true godliness, is utterly quenched and dead.23

And later on Jewel admitted that: 'There have been, I know, certain of their own selves which have found fault with many errors in the church, as pope Adrian, Aeneas Sylvius, cardinal Poole, Pighius and others.'24 He represented the Catholic Church of his own time in its most conservative and unyielding form. By so doing, he compelled those Catholics who might answer him to defend their Church more or less in that form. This approach included an emphasis on the corruption within the contemporary Church of Rome, a point made equally eloquently by Foxe. And to begin, first, with the order and qualities of life, I ask here of this Roman clergy, where was this church of theirs which now is, in the ancient time of the primitive church of Rome, with this pomp and pride, with this riches and superfluity, with this gloria mundi, and name of cardinals; with this prancing dissoluteness, and whoring of the courtesans; with this extortion, bribing, buying and selling of spiritual dignities; these annates, reformations, procurations, exactions and other practices for money; this avarice insatiable, ambition intolerable, fleshly filthiness most detestable, barbarousness and negligence in preaching, promise-breaking faithlessness, poisoning and supplanting one another.25

Yet perhaps the most significant aspect of Jewel's portrayal of the Catholic Church was his insistence that the Catholics resisted the authority of Scripture in favour of their devotion to tradition. He was careful to cite Catholics who defended the authority of the Church above that of Scripture: 'And Pighius saith: Men ought not to believe, no not the most clear and manifest words of the scriptures, unless the same be allowed for good by the interpretation and authority of the church.'26 The assertion that Catholics relied entirely on papal authority was particularly telling when combined with general post-Tridentine trends within Catholicism. Jewel asserted that the Church of Rome condemned reform, and declared itself infallible: 'these men cry still that nothing ought to be changed; that 23 24 25 26

The Works of John Jewel, ed. J. Ayre, iii. 81. Ibid. 96. Ibid. 10. Ibid. 83.

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men's minds are well satisfied herewithal; that the church of Rome, the church which cannot err, hath decreed these things . . . "Our church" say they, "cannot err."'27 And again: 'they will bring all matters before the pope, who cannot err.'28 The Protestant reliance on Scripture was made a central aspect of Jewel's apologia, and the characteristic which most divided the Church of England from its Roman counterpart. If we be heretics, which refer all our controversies unto the holy scriptures, and report us to the self-same words which we know were sealed by God himself, and in comparison of them set little by all other things, whatsoever may be devised by men; how shall we say to these folk, I pray you? what manner of men be they, and how is it meet to call them, which fear the judgment of the holy scriptures, that is to say, the judgment of God himself, and do prefer before them their own dreams, and full cold inventions; and, to maintain their own traditions, have defaced and corrupted, now these many years, the ordinances of Christ and of the apostles?29

If the English Catholics were to reply to Jewel, it would have to involve a refutation of his claims and thus a defence of the papacy and the Catholic understanding of tradition, which in turn would obviate much of the reformist understanding. Jewel presented the Church of England, therefore, as a moderate and orderly institution, with a faith which asserted the primacy of Scripture, but also the sanction of apostolic precedent. He opposed the Catholic Church, not only on doctrinal grounds, but by criticizing its understanding of authority, as well as its abuses and extremism, adopting for his own Church the reformist position. This meant, that in order to answer Jewel, the Catholics tended to defend the Catholic Church more and more within the framework he had defined, which was in many aspects quite different to their own conceptions of the Church. It also meant that they could no longer argue about doctrine using the customary testimonies from first Scripture, then the Fathers and Councils of the early Church. The sanction of the primitive Church had been appropriated for a more fundamental argument about the authority and identity of the true Church. The Protestant Church of England had laid claim to the sanction of church history, and the English Catholics had now to do the same. The history of the Reformation, then, as it was first written, 27 28 29

Ibid. 90. Ibid. 94. Ibid. 58.

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and as the version which still survives in a modified version today, was in many ways begun by Jewel and Foxe. It was here that the idea of a corrupt, unreformed, reactionary, and dogmatic Catholic Church was given its most complete and damning formation; a church which was only naturally rejected by the English people in favour of a reformed and Scriptural faith. Jewel expanded at length upon the abuses inherent in the medieval Church, particularly those associated with the papacy, and concluded: therefore, when we likewise saw all things were quite trodden under foot of these men, and that nothing remained in the temple of God but pitiful spoils and decays, we reckoned it the wisest and the safest way to set before our eyes those churches, which we knew for a surety that they never had erred, nor never had private mass, nor prayers in strange and barbarous language, nor this corrupting of sacraments, and other toys.30 This idea of the Reformation was to prove an enduring one. The emerging Church of England had set its stamp upon the history of the Reformation, and it perpetuated a bias which bears testimony to the skill and subtlety of those who might be regarded as the first Anglican propagandists.31 Meanwhile, it compelled the English Catholics to engage in controversy more and more within terms established by these Protestant apologists. In Search of the True Church The emergence of a Protestant Church of England with an intellectual justification moderate in doctrine, vehement in form, and focused on ecclesiology was to transform English Catholicism. There were at the same time practical problems to contend with, from the politicization of religious debate on a European stage, to the increasing dependence of the exile community on papal support. Elizabeth's determination to cast Catholics as rebels, rather than heretics, began early in the reign, as can be seen from indignant Catholic responses to the charge of political subversion. John Fowler in 1566 protested at the shift from academic to political condemnation. But sure I am, it will litle please M. lewel and his Companions, who by wryting, preaching and printing, First prouoked with great confidence and 30

Ibid. 101. S. L. Greenslade, 'The Faculty of Theology', in J. McConica (ed.), The History of the University of Oxford (Oxford, 1986), iii. 329-34. 31

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bragges the Catholikes to wryte their mindes in matters of controuersie and questions about Religion, wisshing that the Queenes grace, (for whom we daily pray) woulde not onlye license them, but commaunde them to wryte: And now that diuers haue wrytten full learnedly to their confusion and shame (meddling nothing with the affaires and politike Gouernment of the Realme, but only with poyntes of Doctrine) they haue none other way to answere and make their party good, but to turne their tale, chainge their tune, and report that the wrytinges of the Catholikes are seditious.32 Nevertheless, the characterization of Catholics as subversives was becoming increasingly well-entrenched. Catholic polemic responded to this in injured tones. In 1566 Harding wrote indignantly about this perceived injustice. Sith that I am not suffred Christian Reader, by vse of tongue to speake freely and openly in defence of the mater which concerneth thy soule health, by M. Jewels late Replie impugned: let it be lawful for the Truth, by secrete way of written treatises; to come vnto thy eares. That thou maist the better iudge of the whole, consider wisely the oddes of both our present states. He hath al the helpes, that in respecte of the worlde to the furtherance of such purpose can be desired, libertie to speake, vse of the pulpite, fauour of the time, benefite of the lawes, the sway of the worlde, the inclination of many hartes, besides al these, his owne peculiar pleasant eloquence. I on the other side, lacke al these. My voice is not heard, the pulpite is denyed, the time is contrary, the lawes threaten, the worlde frowneth, hartes repine.33 The experience of exile combined with the attitude of Elizabeth and her government was pushing the Catholic exiles further and further into politics. By the 15805 the works written by Allen and Persons would devote much of their output to a defence of their political motives.34 The age-old view of Protestants as treasonous was being reversed: in 1610 Thomas Owen might still protest that 'most inexcusable in this our dayes, is this calumniation obiected by Heretickes to the Catholicks, and Catholicke doctrine, it being on the contrary side proper to Hereticks to impugne their Princes; and to Hereticall 32 John Fowler, An Oration Against the Unlamfull Insurrections of the Protestantes of our time, under pretence to Refourme Religion, trans, of a work by Peter Frarinus (Antwerp, 1566), Sig. A vi'-v. 33 Thomas Harding, A rejoindre to M. Jewels Replie (Antwerp, 1566), Sig. * iir. 34 P. Holmes, Resistance and Compromise: The Political Thought of the Elizabethan Catholics (Cambridge, 1982), J. Bossy, 'Elizabethan Catholicism: The Link with France', Ph.D. thesis (Cambridge, 1960—1).

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doctrine to maintaine it as lawfull',35 but as time went on, more and more Catholics were becoming involved in political opposition. In particular, it became very difficult for Catholics to proclaim their innocence after the 1569 Revolt of the Northern Earls and Elizabeth's excommunication. But Elizabeth's determination to execute Catholics for treason rather than burn them for heresy wras only in part a response to their political activities; it was in equal part a selffulfilling prophecy. Developments within European Catholicism were also having an impact on the English exiles. The attempt by the Council of Trent to provide a comprehensive statement of Catholic orthodoxy may have left some room for theological speculation, but was unambigous, in both the spirit and the letter, in the stance on authority.36 In Louvain the emphasis on uniformity was driven home by the final condemnation in 1567 of Baianism, a heresy conceived by Michel Baius, theologian at the university there, which had humanist, Augustinian roots and involved criticism of papal authority.37 The experience of Baius was symptomatic of the way Trent at first held out hope of reform, only to conclude with the emphasis on unquestioning uniformity. Baius had represented the University of Louvain at Trent in 1563, but in 1570 all members of the university were obliged to swear obedience to the papal bull condemning his propositions. By that time many English exiles were deeply involved with the university, and the lesson would not have been lost on them. One way or another English Catholics were drawing ever closer to Rome. In practical terms, English Catholics were increasingly becoming papal pensioners. Sanders's attempt to defend this practice, revealed English vulnerability to criticism, as well as their loss of independence. He portrayed papal generosity as an extension of missionary activity, pointing out that the Pope always gave succour when it was needed; in Sanders's own time to Assyrians, Germans, Scots, English, Irish, Goths, and Danes. 3a Thomas Owen, A Letter of a Calholike Man Beyond the seas, written to his friend in England (1610), 37. 36 See Delumeau, Catholicism between Luther and Voltaire, 8. 37 J.-B. du Chesnc SJ, Hisloire du Baianisme ou de I'heresie de Michel Baius, (1731). Baius was initially censured by the Sorbonne in 1560, but was still able to represent the university at Trent. He made a formal recantation in 1579, but seems never to have entirely relinquished his unorthodox beliefs.

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In so much that whereas the olde pensions be denied in these Countries to the Pope, he yet of his liberallitie geueth these Countriemen new pensions. If that be to render good for euill, and to blesse them who curse him, then the Pope is more like a Disciple of Christ, then those who so miserably raile at him, by whome they were baptized and taught their faith. For it was not Luther or Caluin who baptized or conuerted these Countries, but it was some Legate or other sent from the Pope of Rome.38 The result of all these changes was a gradual shift in the ideological objectives of the English Catholics, which was already, as a consequence of the Jewel-Harding controversy, beginning to centre more and more upon ecclesiology. The concept of authority was subjected to detailed examination and debate, and the result was a series of developments in English Catholic ideology, resulting in both a changed understanding of the Church, and a different approach to religious writing. Essentially both churches began to compete to demonstrate themselves true heirs of the apostolic succession. This succession was held to have manifested itself in a variety of ways, through continuity of doctrine and of religious practice. But on the Catholic side, continuity in church government could also be claimed, and so writers became increasingly absorbed in demonstrating the institutional strengths of Catholicism. Doctrinal concerns which had previously been central, now became a secondary issue. Most significantly of all, the authority of Scripture was increasingly viewed as subordinate to the authority of the Church. So a series of new preoccupations began to appear in English Catholic works. Heavy emphasis was placed on the Catholic Church as a steadfast defender of truth and an unswerving guardian of apostolic doctrine and practice: conversely, great stress was placed on the innovatory nature of Protestantism and their tendency to be divided within themselves. In this view, Protestants were portrayed as fickle and changeable, and Catholics were described as stable, constant, and loyal. There emerged a picture, boldly drawn, of competing Churches, which increasingly began to replace the earlier, more muddled picture of competing scholars. Such an approach necessarily diminished the reformist elements within Catholic thinking. More and more these works concentrated on defending these assertions by means of ecclesiastical history. This argument from history came to absorb all their attention, and to transfer their focus 38

Nicholas Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ (Louvain, 1567), Sig. *** vir.

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from Scripture to church tradition. Increasing interest in the earliest years of Christianity in England prompted endeavours such as Thomas Stapleton's translation of Bede.39The central contention was that the true Church had been visible throughout all ages. This argument had its roots in Scripture, in Christ's institution of both Church and priesthood, and His assurances that He would always be with the Church, and that it should never fail until the end of time.40 This became the central idea for the English Catholics, placing the role of the Church at the centre of the Catholic faith. Only through loyalty to the true Church could faith be maintained, Scripture rightly interpreted, and error kept at bay. The earlier and more humanist idea of the Church, using the Vincentian idea, denned it as a consensus based on Scripture. The new formulation which was worked out by these Elizabethan writers based its appeal to universality, not on Scripture, but on the Church as an institution. 'Church' was understood not merely in terms of the 'mystical body' of Christ, the universal congregation of the living and the dead, but as an established organization and source of ecclesiastical government and authority. The foundations of religious certainty were being rebuilt. The reformist Catholic writers had always filled their works with appeals to the Church Fathers and the history of the primitive Church. It became increasingly evident, however, during the late 15608 and the early 15708 that these appeals now had a new direction. Where once they had been used to support the authority of Scripture, they were now being used to justify the authority of the institutional Church, and to prove its continuation throughout all ages. Harding explained his view of what was happening when he described the latest stance taken by the Protestants. He wrote of the Church: God him self promised to it of olde, that neither the spirite of his eternall sonne, nor his wordes which he put in his mouth, should depart from the mouth of the church for euer. And therfor they be persuaded, that the church hath not only Gods word, but also the true sense of the word, for so much as it hath the spirite of God, that teacheth it the right understanding of the same. Now the heretikes knowing all this, foreseing that onlesse they professe the name of the church, their doctrine should be shunned, and them selues of al sortes abhorred: will in any wise be sene 39 The History of the Church of Englande. Compiled by Venerable Bede, trans. Thomas Stapleton (Antwerp, 1565). 40 See Matt 28: 19-20; Mark 16: 15-18; Acts 20: 28-31.

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members of this body, and chalenge vnto them the name of the church, as farre forth as the catholikes and right beleuers do.41 The Catholic answer to this had to be to respond in kind, and assert their identity as the 'true Church'. Richard Bristow used a quotation from Augustine to make the point. Christ bringing a medicine, to heale maners most corrupt: by miracles did gette authoritie, by authoritie found credit, by credit drew together a multitude, by a multitude obteined antiquitie (for many hue long: one, or a few, die quickely) by antiquitie fortified a Religion which not only the most fond new-rising of Heretiks practising by deceitful wiles, but neither the drowsie old error of the very Heathens setting against with violence, might in any peece shake and cast downe.42 The emphasis was upon the constancy of Catholic belief and practice, which was held to give the existing Catholic Church the sanction of the apostles, and to make it invulnerable to Protestant attack. Where before they had turned to Scripture for guidance, the English Catholic writers now turned to the Church. 'If we heare the church, we heare Christe: for as the holy Bishop and Martyr Irenaeus writeth . . . where the Churche is, there is the spirite of God, and where the spirite of God is, there is the Churche and all grace, and the spirite is truth.'43 English Catholics had argued before that truth was in the Church, but then it had been seen in terms of a consensual Church supporting Scripture. Now they argued that truth originated with the Church, as instituted by Christ and the Apostles, and maintained by their successors. Sanders came to see the chief sign of the true Church, not as true scriptural doctrine, but as the priestly hierarchy maintaining the established Church. For (as S. Paule witnesseth) there must be Pastours and Doctours in the Church, vntil we all meete with Christ, which shalbe at his second comming. And Christ said to his Apostles: / am with you all dates vntil the words [sic] 41

Harding, A confutation (Antwerp, 1565), fo. 2 V . Bristow, A Briefe Treatise, Sig. * ij v . 43 Jean d'Albin de Valsergues, A notable discourse, plainelye and truely discussing, who are the right ministers of the catholike church. With an offer made by a catholike to a learned protestant. (1575), Sig. * vii'. An Offer made by a Catholike was based on articles by William Allen, possibly edited by Edward Rishton. The same articles formed the basis for Richard Bristow's A Briefe Treatise (Antwerp, 1574), often known as his 'Motives', and his later work Demaundes to be proponed of catholiques to the heretikes (Antwerp, 1576). See A. C. Southern, Elizabethan Recusant Prose (London and Glasgow, 1950), 371-3, 519—23; Milward, Religious Controversies, 39-46. 42

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end. The Bishops therefore who succede the Apostles, continued stil. And therefore by them the Church of God is stil glorious, and stil most easely knowen.44

The chief merit of Catholicism was held to be its constancy, and resistance to change. A new emphasis developed on the evils of innovation. Allen told the story of the martyr Sebastian, who before the King Genserichus had commanded a loaf to be ground up, made into a dough, and baked again, to prove how little good there was in attempting to recreate something already formed. He concluded the moral from this: 'certain and sure we may be, that the loafe of the vnitie of Christe his Churche, the loafe of his Gospell, fayth and religion, being by schisme and heresye neuer so ofte broken, neuer so finely grynded, boulted, searced and syfted, kneaded, and baked agayne and agayne, they shall neuer be able to better it, or to bring it to that perfection which it had before.'45 The survival of the institutional framework of the Church assumed new significance. Allen demanded of the Protestants: what temple or churche did you build at any time for your assemblies, and seruice of god? what Bishopriks for the better gouernment of the church did you founde or procure? what uniuersities, schooles or colleges did you at any time erect for the maintenaunce of Christian doctrine, fayth and religion? When the learned Protestant shalbe able to proue by ecclesiastical! historyes, and olde auncient writers, these thinges to be the monumentes of their conuenticles and priuate congregations, of their fayth and religion, and not of the common knowen fayth, religion, and catholike Churche of Christe, Then I shal in like maner yeelde and recant, and not before.46

This view of the Church was placed in contrast to a view of Protestants which stressed their innovation and the internal divisions within the Protestant movement. Protestants were portrayed as the very opposite of steadfast. Allen looked at the situation in England to provide illustration of this theme. What shoulde I here make mention of the Lutherans and protestants of our time? When the Lutherans here in this Realme have taken their iust ouerthrowe already, for the great desyre the protestants had to preferre the doctrine of the Oecolampadians, Suinglians and Calvinists. The Suinglians 44 45 46

Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. Allen, An Offer made by a Catholike, Sig. C vi" Ibid., Sig. A viiiv-B i'.

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and Calvinists with the rest sectaryes of all sortes are now here in this Realme at the very neere and like poynte, they being nowe readye to yeelde up the ghoste, and to tylte up their heeles for the great desyre the common and baser sorte of the people haue to be Precisians and Puritans.47 By contrast, the constancy and obedience of Catholics was stressed. Sanders described the Protestants in these terms: 'when heretickes are once without the Church, they can not possibly agree: partly because the grace of God and the spirit of vnity is not among them, partly because they are without one visible Judge and head, and are al so proud and puffed vp, that euery man wil be a master, so that no one of them wil yeld to the other'.48 Protestants were either characterized as resistant to all authority, or at most reliant on the authority of princes. Allen compared the foundations of the two Churches. Nowe let the learned Protestant, affyrming princes to be the supreme heades of the Church, eyther shewe by some suche other like playne testimonyes of the scriptures, that our Saviour Christe did committe the chiefe charge and supreme gouernment of his Churche to Emperours, kinges, Queenes and princes, to plant Christian fayth and religion in the same, or that anye one of Christe his Apostles or disciples did conuert any people, lande, or countrey from their Idolatry and Ethnike kinde of living, to Christian fayth and religion by preaching the doctrine of the Protestantes.49 The Catholic hierarchy also achieved new prominence with this new approach. Allen asked whether there had ever been another such body of believers as the Catholics, prepared 'to captive and submit their severall meaninges to the iudgementes of their prelates and spirituall governours, and of one chiefe head and pastor among them, in all ecclesiasticall thinges and causes'.50 The combined influence of early church history and contemporary endeavours heightened the importance of missionary activities too. Bristow urged his readers to ask their Protestant contemporaries: 'whether they know not, how euen at this presente our Churche filleth very many and most ample Nations of the easte and weaste India with the Gospel, and knowledg of Christe. And whether they do not confesse them selues that like wise all the other Nations, which haue bene conuerted within 47 48 49 50

Ibid., Sig. C iiiv-C iiii'. Nicholas Sanders, The Rocke of the Churche (Louvain, 1567), 478-9. Allen, An Offer made by a Catholike, Sig. A ii'~v. Ibid., Sig. B i'.

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these thousand yers, which are very many, were conuerted by our Church.'51 The argument from history soon became the main line of argument in the English Catholic works. Allen gave a characteristic description of the terms of this debate when he stated his own distrust of Protestant claims that the institutional church had lost its hold on truth at some point in the first millenium: forasmuche as the Protestantes doo affyrme their congregations, faith and religion, to haue bene practised in the primatiue Churche of Christe, some of them for the space of the firste three hundreth yeeres, as John Caluine: some for the space of foure or fyue hundred yeres, as Marline Luther and his complices: some for the whole space of the fyrste sixe hundreth yeeres, as master Jewell, and the authours of the Apologie of the Churche of Ingland, and therin not agreeing among them selues (as the maner of heretikes is) I requyre some better stayed and certayne tale of them, where and when this sodeyn change from the Protestants religion to the Papists should be made.52 Bristow encouraged his readers to demand of the Protestants: 'whether al this while that they confesse our church to haue bene, at least xii hundred yeares, they will say, that al our and their fathers and mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, and other Auncestors, Kinsfolke and Countreymen, and all others that haue gone so long for Christian men, are all damned in HelV3 And Allen asked when exactly the change within the established Church had occurred. 'And who doth make anye mention of this sodeyn and meruailous change of the Protestantes religion to Papistrie? what one ecclesiastical writer, or auncient father of the whole world?'54 He drew a contrast between the continuance of the Catholic Church and the transitory existence of heretical sects. 'Let the protestantes make sufficient proufe by auncient writers of the ecclesiasticall historyes, what church it is, that all these fyftene hundred yeeres past hath continued thoroughout fyrme and stedfast, whiles all conuenticles and congregations . . . have decayed and bene conuinced and overthrowen.'55 A wealth of arguments based on the history of the early Church began to appear in various guises in the works published from Louvain. Nicholas Sanders added to his work, A Treatise of the Images 51 52 53 54 55

Bristow, Demaundes to bee proponed of Catholickes to the Heretickes (1576), 27—8. Allen, An Offer made by a Catholike, Sig. A viv. Bristow, Demaundes, 97. Allen, An Offer made by a Catholike, Sig. A viir. Ibid., Sig. A iiii'.

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of Christ and of his Saints , a preface 'conteining a Brief Declaration, which is the true Churche of Christ'. He explained that he wrote this, 'to thend I might moue my Countriemen . . . to returne again to the Church, wherein they and their Fathers had ben baptized, instructed, brought vp, and nourished'.56 The visibility of the Church, and in particular of the Roman see, became the subject for one hundred and twelve separate points. As point number ninetynine observed: 'I am not then ignorant, that the vttermost refuge of the Protestants must of necessity be, that Christes Church is inuisible, and agreeth only in hart betwene it self.'57 The ultimate Catholic refuge thus became the visibility of its own Church. The Church, rather than Scripture, was 'the pillour and sure stay of truthe'.58 The result was to undo all the work of the humanist writers who had sought to stress inward conviction rather than outward observance. In the Counter-Reformation world, outward and visible loyalty was to be the ultimate test. I am sure if euer the faith shalbe recouered, it must be don by confessing and professing it, and not by dissembling . . . others shal know (I feare me) at the later day, what it is to beleue the Catholik church: whether it be to reade only, or to speak that which it beleueth, or els to practise also and to doe that which the Catholik Church doth, and commaundeth to be don. The doers of the law shalbe imtified, and not they that here it only. God change theyr harts, who thinck God wilbe serued otherwise outwardly then inwardly.59 The points Sanders enumerated were fundamental to the Catholic stance which was now emerging in the Elizabethan writings. He expounded all the scriptural verses which emphasized the Church's visibility, describing the Church of Christ as set upon a Hill, the glory of all ages,60 and those which gave the promises of Christ that the Holy Ghost would be always with His Church.61 And he made it clear that a reliance on Scripture—formerly in Catholic writings the touchstone of orthodoxy—was not enough. A visible body of believers was required to define a Church. He asked what Church Edwardian England had professed. 'Whom did it acknowledge for the 56 57 58 59 60 61

Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. * ijv. Ibid., Sig. ****** iij r . Ibid., Sig. * ij v . Ibid., Sig. A viv-viir; the scriptural reference is to Rom. 2: 13. Isa. 2: 2; Isa. 60; Matt. 5: 14-16. Matt. 28: 18-20; Mark 16: 15-20.

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pillour of truthe? Whether the word of God? That was surely wel done: but the word of God is no more the faithful men who make the Church of God, then the Statutes of England are the men of England or citizens of London.'62 A scriptural creed was no longer paramount: a contemporary and institutional Church was the new focus of attention. Moreover, it had to be a hierarchical Church. The recurring exposition of the Church as a light set on a stand that all might see it was related by Sanders to the vision of St John in Revelations, where the seven churches were depicted as seven candles. Yet for him 'the Bishops or Pastours themselues are the Light which is sette vpon the candelstick'.63 And so the head of the Church, no longer Christ, but the Pope, was the chief glory of that Church. 'Therfore the great Light and glory of Gods Church cometh chiefly by the meanes of the Bisshops, and Pastours thereof.'64 A comparison of the successive works written by Thomas Harding in the 15608 illustrates very well the way in which the pre-eminence of Scripture in English Catholic thought was gradually eroded and replaced by the authority of the Church throughout history and the primacy of Rome. In his earliest work, published in 1564 but written two years earlier, the authority of Scripture still appeared to be paramount. The preface added to the second version of 1565, however, contained an analysis of what the Protestants were trying to achieve with Jewel's condemnation of Catholic practice: 'then triumphing against vs and despysing the auncient and catholike Religion in general!, you may set vp a new Religion of your own forging, a new church of your own framing, a new gospell of your own deuise. Well may I further saye, cathedram contra cathedrum.*5 Harding perceived that English Protestants were laying claim to the status of an institutional Church in unprecedented fashion, and that a new Catholic response was called for. In his work of 1565 tradition was beginning to take a more important place in Harding's list of authorities, with the sanction of Scripture increasingly qualified by the necessity of the Church's interpretation. In the controversy between himself and Bishop Jewel, Harding advised the reader to take note of Church tradition. 62 63 64 65

Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. ***** viir~ Ibid., Sig. * iiij v ; the scriptural reference is to Rev. i: 20. Ibid., Sig. * y'. Harding, An cmswere (1565), fo. 18".

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Let both writinges be layd in balance, first, so much as concerneth the doctrine of faith, to be weighed with the weightes of the generall and auncient custome of the people of God, which in such case by the mynde of saint Augustine is to be taken for a lawe, also of the olde learned fathers, of approued councels, and specially of the holy scriptures, so as the catholike church hath euer vnderstanded them, to whom both the worde of God and the spirite of God teacher and prompter of all truth is assuredly promysed.66 Here the usual order of authorities had been rearranged, with tradition assuming a more prominent place. In Harding's next work of 1566, submission to the Church's authority was emphasized more strongly still as the test of faith and the only surety: 'if thou seeke for sure iugement, whereby in controuersies and doubles in religion thou maist with saftie of thy conscience be resolued, heare the Spirite of Christ speaking in the ordinarie gouernours of his Church.'67 And by 1567 the stress on scriptural authority had been almost entirely replaced by reliance on a description of the Catholic Church as 'that Citie and companie of God, which was neuer hidde vnder the Bushel sithens the first erection and publication of it, but stoode alwaies vpon a Hil, and can by no meanes be at any time hidde, as Christe him selfe hath warranted us, the Prophetes have fortolde vs, and the Psalmes haue sounded vnto vs'.68 Finally, in 1567 Harding uttered what was in effect a condemnation of the humanist individuality of thought and a denial of the doctrinal pluralism once evident among English Catholic writings. I confesse, that, what is, and euer hath ben in the Churche agreed vpon, as a thing certaine and cleare, thereof reason is, we should not dispute, least by disputing, we make the thing doubteful, that is most certaine. Therefore here . . . I intende not to bestow my labour, to the intent by Arguments I may seme to proue a thing, that in the Churche is already defined: but to this ende rather minde I to employ myne endeuour, that as touching this point of Diuinitie, I may confirme it, not so much by way of reasoning, as by way of expounding.69 With this Harding asserted the unquestionable supremacy of Church tradition and authority and indirectly condemned much of the English Catholic understanding from the last forty years or so, 66 67 68 69

Harding, A confutation, Sig. !'. Harding, A Rejoindre, Sig. * iij r . Harding, A Rejoindre . . . of the Masse, Sig. Aijr. Ibid., fo. 2'.

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subjugating individual opinion and reason to the might of the Church's consensus. It was in support of this argument from history that Stapleton translated Bede's Historia Ecclesiaslica Gentis Anglorum,10 prefacing it with his work entitled A Fortresse of the Faith, First planted amonge us englishmen, and continued hitherto in the universall Church of Christ?^ This placed the argument from history very firmly upon English ground, as Stapleton defended the verity of the true Church in England, and drew from Bede illustrations of how closely the early English Church resembled both the primitive Church of the Apostles and the Catholic Church of his own day. This translation by Stapleton inaugurated a new trend in English Catholic writing, which was that of discovering and explaining the lives of particularly English saints and martyrs. This was to become a major preoccupation of English recusants,72 and in the next century was to direct Augustine Baker and others towards such works as the fourteenth-century Cloud of Unknowing or Walter Hilton's Scale of Perfection™ This new insistence upon the importance of tradition and the authority of the Roman Church curtailed many of the recent intellectual developments of English Catholic writing. Catholic publications from the 15705 onwards were to become increasingly polemical, frequently devoted to piecemeal refutation of an opponent's work. The works of theological instruction were replaced by devotional tracts and catechisms which insisted on strict orthodoxy. By 1567 Harding himself was undermining the importance of the theological writings to which he had devoted so much time and effort. Writing about the Sacrifice of the Mass, he expressed the opinion that such mysteries were better not explained. He categorized this doctrine as 'such, as commonly hath rather ben rightly beleeued, then by many clearely declared. The honour of holy Mysteries is better saued with reuerent silence, then with bolde opening. Experience teacheth into what danger of contempte they come, when they are openly reueled to populare vnderstanding.'74 Harding stressed that the authority of the Church should be enough to stay a person's faith, and that such books as his own were of subsidiary 70

The History of the Church of Englande. Compiled by Venerable Bede, trans. Stapleton. '' Stapleton, A Fortresse of the Faith (Antwerp, 1565). 72 I am indebted to Dr Jan Rhodes for her elucidation of this trend. " See D. Knowles, The English Mystical Tradition (London, 1961), 152-4, 157, 175. 74 Harding, A Rejoindre . . . of the Masse, fos. 32*—33'.

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importance.This was a long way from the Marian works which tried so hard to explain such central doctrines to the 'simple and unlearned'. This new understanding put an end to the intellectual explorations which were so characteristic of Christian humanism. The age of Erasmus and others who had challenged so much of the Church's accepted practice had passed, and was being replaced by an age of orthodoxy. Papacy The view of the Church in institutional rather than doctrinal terms necessarily produced a greater level of reliance on the papacy. The Pope was held to embody both the continuity of Catholic tradition throughout all past ages, and its missionary fervour for the future. Increasingly the papacy was seen as a direct link between the Catholic Church of the sixteenth century and the primitive Church of the age of Christ and the Apostles. Richard Bristow concluded his collection of Demaundes to bee proponed of Catholickes to the Heretickes with a list of all the Popes, which he described as the: Continual Succession of the Popes of Rome, as it is recorded in all Cronicles and Ecclesiasticall Histories (besides many other good writers) both olde and new wherof I say with S. Augustine . . . Besides many other thinges, this moste worthely keepeth me in the lappe of the Catholike Church: to wit, the Succession of Priestes from S. Peter the Apostle him selfe (to whom our Lord after his Resurrection loan. 21. committed the feeding of his sheepe) euen to the Bishop that now is.75

Allen published a translation of a work by Jean d'Albin de Valsergues in 1575, to which he appended his Offer made by a Catholike. This dwelt at length on the visibility of the Church and the apostolic succession of the Catholic priesthood: it can not be denyed, but that the charge and gouernment of Christe his churche, the preaching of his doctrine, the administration of his Sacraments, was by him committed to his Apostles and disciples and to all Bishops and priestes as Successors of them, to plant Christian fayth and religion in his catholike churche uniuersally throughout all nations, coastes and quarters of the worlde.76 75 76

Bristow, Demaundes, Sig. F 5r. Allen, An Offer made by a Catholike, Sig. Aii1.

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Sanders too had made the papacy the surest sign of the true Church, and one of the most important aspects of Catholic belief. In support of this view he deployed the traditional arguments concerning the Petrine succession, describing the Pope as the head of the Church on earth, and the shepherd of Christ's flock on earth. He also maintained that no country was ever greater than Italy, and no city as notable as Rome, and that no apostle had been more glorious than St Peter, although in deference to the status of St Paul at the time he did add that the Church in Rome had been founded by Paul's preaching also. In his portrayal of Rome as the centre of the missionary effort which had first converted England he was able to add that it remained such a centre in his own time, converting 'in the new found lands by the Ministerie of the Franciscans, and of the Societie of lesus'.77 This new insistence upon papal supremacy followed a line of argument which had previously been alien to the English Catholic writers, and they showed some awareness of this. Stapleton explained his view of what was happening in his preface to his translation of The Apologie of Fridericus Staphylus: For in time of schismcs and heresies the part of euery good Christen man is, to do as the good souldyars in the campe when a ciuil sedition ariseth, or as the quiet passanger when the sea stormeth: for euen as the true and faithful! souldyars in such a case runne all vnto their Capitain and General, looking to be of him directed, . . . and as the wise and sober passanger when the tempest and storme disordreth the passage, suffreth quietly the master to rule the sterne, medling not with that he hath no skill of: right so when preuy rebells or open apostatas of Christen religion sowe seditious schismes and preache hereticall doctrine, troubling thereby the quiet and settled consciences of true and vpright beleuers, euery Christen man, especially such as are of the laye and inferiour sorte, ought to cleaue vnto their heades and rulers in Christ his church medling not with the determination of any point called then in controuersy: but looke to be directed . . . truly no lesse then the souldiar to his Capitain or the passanger to his master.78

Since a state of war had now been acknowledged in the Church it was becoming necessary to follow orders from above with military precision and unquestioning obedience. Sanders used a similar military analogy to extend the argument used by the Marian writers; that the papacy was needed to keep order within the Church. 77 78

Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. *** iij'. Fridericus Staphylus, The apo/ogie, trans. Stapleton (Antwerp, 1565), fo. 3 V .

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Where many Countries, tongs, Rulers and Teachers are in one body, and as it were many Capitaines in one great Armie of men (as there are in the church of Christ) there, if order be not exactly kept, great and horrible confusion must needes follow. The conseruation of order, is to haue a knowen ludge, whose finall sentence in al controuersies all men may both heare and obey. Seing therefore the Church of Christ, which is in the earth, is like an army of men well sette in aray, there is no dout, but it must haue a chefe Capitain in earth also.79 The new emphasis upon the authority of the Pope was an extension of the new reliance on church tradition. It was also a corollary of the new insistence upon church unity. Sanders illustrated how the need for unity incorporated papal supremacy: The Church is one body more then one way. First, because it is called and holden together with one spirite of God. Next, because it is grounded in one faith by the preaching of one true Gospel, maintained with one hope, perfited with one charitie, watered with one baptisme of spiritual regeneration, redemed by one Mediatour, ruled by one head, espoused to one husband, ioyned in mariage to one flesh of Christ, and rewarded with one essential fruition of one euerlasting God.80 The papacy was slowly but surely assuming its position as a linchpin of the Church and an arbitrator on matters of doctrinal authority. The emphasis on Christ as the head of the Church was being replaced by an insistence that the Pope was head of the Church on earth. With this the old emphasis on the unity of the universal Church could also be sacrificed. Sanders made a clear distinction between the Church on earth and the universal Church in a fashion quite contrary to earlier Catholic emphases which had sought to stress the strength of the bonds within the 'mystical body' of Christ. 'Seing then the cumpanie of Christians in the earth is not the whole Church, nor yet in glory with the vniuersal head lesu Christ: it needeth one proportionable head according to his condition and state in this world.'81 His description accented the temporal importance of the pontiff. Thus the Church and companie of Christians which now Hue under the obedience of the Bissop of Rome, (as vnder their chief Shepheard in earth) haue both one visible chefe shepheard (which thing the scattered Protestants 79 80 81

Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. * viii1'. Sanders, The supper of our Lord, fos. 259*—260''. Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. ** }".

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lacke) and him placed in the chiefe Citie of the world, and his howse builded vpon the Chaire of the two chefe Apostles, with a most notable company of Predecessors before him, and of faithfull Christians about him.82

The new emphasis on the Catholic church as the source of missionary activity was extended to include the papacy, to which the glory of that missionary fervour rebounded. There was neuer no See after the Apostles tyme, which by his Legats and preachers conuerted so many nations to the faith of Christ. In so much that euen within these last thowsand yeres (wherein the Protestants accompt the Pope of Rome to haue ben the forerunner of Antichrist) he conuerted England by S. Augustine, Saxonie, by Bonifacius, Morauia by Cyrillus, Frisia by Wilibrodus, Bohemia by Adelbertus, Prussia by the Knights of the order, whom the Pope instituted for the conquering of Infidels in the north partes, and by that occasion Liuonia also and Lituania was conuerted to the faith.83

In 1567 a work appeared which was devoted solely to defending papal supremacy. This was Nicholas Sanders's The Rocke of the Churche Wherein the Primacy of S. Peter and of his Successours the Bishops of Rome is proved out of Gods Worde. This work began by listing some of the marks by which the Catholic Church could be recognized as the true Church. The Pope was represented as preeminent among such marks. 'The which mark because it is of most weighty importance, as being the easiest waie of al to find out the truthe, and which serueth in all cases without any exception: I haue made this treatise, to declare, that it is no lesse true, euen according to Gods woorde, then it is profitable and nedefull in all wise mens vnder standing.'84 The need to find a way of ending religious controversy gave the position of the Pope new importance. Sanders concluded of papal primacy that it rendered all other doctrinal debate irrelevant. 'The which point alone if it be graunted, al other controuersies are superfluous. For all is concluded vnder one, if one be appointed the chiefe shepheard by God ouer al sithens euery man must heare and obey the shepheards voice.'85 Sanders explained how Christ instituted a strong foundation for his Church, knowing that he would be leaving it, and wishing to provide the church militant with a rock on which to rest. This interpretation of Matthew 16: 18 82 83 84 85

Ibid.,., Sig.. ** iiijv-** vr. Ibid., Sig. *** ij>-*** iij'. Sanders, The Rocke of the Churche, Sig. ** vv-** vj r . vi Sig. Ib id. ,

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was to become the established refuge of papalists in direct contravention of earlier tradition, which had seen faith in Christ as the 'rock' in question.86 This particular militant Rocke was S. Peter for the tyme. But when he died, he left behind him still a particular militant Church (I call it particular in respect of the vniuersall Church which for euer was and shalbe) therfore some mortal man ought still to be in the earth, who may so vphold the militant Church by the assurance of his faith and confession, as S. Peter did once vphold the same.87

Thus the new attitude towards the papacy was that stated by Martiall in 1565, who wrote. 'No man can keepe the vnitie, and charitie of the Catholicke church, vnlesse he kepe the societie and communion of the church of Rome.'88 He added to this statement a comment no doubt directed to the Elizabethan bishops; 'No man can be any of the Catholick Bisshoppes, vnlesse he agreeth with the church of Rome.'89 Harding compared the Protestants to the old Novatian heretics, and others who believed and worshipped and lived by the Law: 'Yet bicause they diuided them selues by schisme from the rest, and resisted their Priestes and Gouernous, Gods heauy hande lighted on them.'90 He also quoted Augustine's description of the Donatists: 'In al the Sacramentes with me, in only Charitie not with me.'91 And he concluded: Marke wel this M. lewel, . . . Be the pointes wherein ye dissent from vs, I meane from the Catholique Church, neuer so fewe, and neuer so smal, as they be many, and great in dede: if ye ioine not in charitie and vnitie with the Churche, ye are not annumbred with the Church, ye are not of the Church. If not of the Churche, then haue ye not parte with Christ, whose Passion, worketh the effecte of saluation only vpon the membres of the Churche.92

Faith was no longer enough. Obedience to the Church was now the mark of the true Christian, and the chief light of that Church was 86 J. E. Bigane, Faith, Christ or Peter: Matthew 16:18 in Sixteenth-Century Roman Catholic Exegesis (Washington, 1981). 87 Sanders, The Rocke of the Churche, 272. 88 John Martiall, A Treatyse of the Crosse (Antwerp, 1564), fo. 145'. 89 Ibid., fo. 145'. 90 Harding, A Rejoindre . . . of the Masse, Sig. a ijv. 91 Ibid., Sig. a iijv. 92 Ibid.

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the papacy and the priestly hierarchy, who carried the light of divine inspiration. The chefe meane whereby the Church (though Christ be not visiblie present therein) is yet so cleerely sene, and so gloriouse in the sight of men, cometh hereof, because Christ being himself the true light of the world, communicated some of his brightnes to his Apostles, to whom he saied, ye are the light of the world, a Citie built vpon a hil can not be hidden, neither do men light a candle, and putte it vnder a bussel, but vpon the candlestick, to thend it maie geue light to all them who are in the housed

And so the most fundamental emphasis within the English Catholic tradition had shifted from Scripture to the Church. No longer was the Church understood in humanist terms as the universal company of the faithful, sharing a doctrinal consensus; the 'mystical body' of Christ. Increasingly the Church was defined in terms of the church militant, invincible throughout history, headed by the Pope, the most important sign by which the true Church could be recognized. The authority of Scripture thus came to take a different place within English Catholic thought. It was not so much undermined as relocated by these developments within a more dominant ecclesiology. The interpretation of Scripture was increasingly seen as a matter for the Church's authority. Scripture was something which the Church defined, controlled, and interpreted. Nicholas Sanders began his work The supper of our Lord by stating this position. Whoso will auoyd the danger of pride, of schisme and of hearesie, he hath no greater helpe thereunto in this world, then to mystrust his owne iudgement, and to followe the authoritie of greater wisdome. Whiche thing he muste doe, not only by preferring the holie Scriptures before the wrytinges of whatsoeuer men, but also by expounding the same, according to the greatest authoritie that may be founde in that kinde.94

It was made clear that the Scriptures now had to be interpreted, far more rigorously than ever before, in line with the authority of the Church. It was emphasized that the very books of Scripture themselves were dependent upon the Church for their survival and continuation. 'What Churche hath had from time to time the custody of the sacred scriptures, and moste safely hath preserved them for the necessary foode of Gods people, and from the corruption of the 93 94

Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. * iiij". Sanders, The supper of our Lord, Sig. A iiij 1 .

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adversaries, aswel Jewes and Gentiles, as schismatikes and heretikes of all sortes, but onely the common knowen Catholike Church of Christ?'95 Bristow encouraged his readers to put this question to the Protestants: 'Whether it were not our Church, that noticed to the worlde the Canon of the holy Bookes of the new Testament. Whether it were not our Churche that hathe had the custodie and construing 'bothe of the foresaide, and of the other Bookes of the holy Bible euer since the Apostles time.'96 This was in some ways an fairly subtle alteration in emphasis. Although scriptural authority had long been paramount in English Catholic works, it would never have been denied that Scripture should be interpreted according to the consensus of the Church. The shift in understanding of the Church, however, had effectively demoted the authority of Scripture and made it subordinate to the contemporary institutional Church. It also allowed for a tension between Scripture and tradition which earlier English works had not recognized. The preface to the Rheims New Testament of isSz97 made this new stance clear. Although this translation was in many ways a response to earlier humanist influences, it also bore signs of the newly cautious approach to Scripture and carried many warnings from its editors. Their attitude was perhaps summed up by the quotation from Augustine appended to the licensing of the work by the Catholic authorities. This said: 'We come to the vnderstanding of Scriptures through pouertie of spirit: where a man must shew himself meeke-minded, lest by stubburne contentions, he become incapable and unapt to be taught.'98 The preface also included patristic citations which urged moderation in the reading of Scripture, to which was added a contemporary emphasis. 'How much more may we gather, that all thinges that be written, are not for the capacitie and diet of euery of the simple readers, but that very many mysteries of holy writte, be very far aboue their reach, and may and ought to be (by as great reason) deliuered them in measure and meane most meete for them?'99 The authority of Scripture was being brought more firmly under the jurisdiction of the Church. Sanders's work of 1567 showed his belief that the authority of Scripture had 95 96 97 98 99

Allen, An Offer made by a Catholike, Sig. A iii'. Bristow, Demaundes, 89. The New Testament of Jesus Christ (1582). Ibid. See reverse of title-page. Ibid., Sig. a iiif.

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to be subject to the interpretation of the Church. This was revealed when he condemned the Protestant reliance on Scripture alone. 'And as for outward profession, they must imagine it to be inough, that Gods word be professed to be the supreame iudge, though none of them neither know the meaning therof, nor be ruled by it, and that the Pope of Rome be denied to be the chief iudge under Christ, and then al is safe according to their false imagination.'100 The Catholic writers of these years still retained some ambivalence in their approach to contentious issues, and the question of an English Bible is an interesting example. The initial Elizabethan position on vernacular Scripture had been that although in an ideal situation all men would read Scripture, the present conditions frequently made it unadvisable. The request to Cardinal Morone had been couched in terms of an aid to the writing of theology. As the 15605 progressed, it became clear that the occasions for the use of vernacular Scripture were becoming more and more limited. In 1567 Sanders criticized the Protestants for using the vulgar tongue, and explained that the Catholics used the Greek and Latin sanctified on Christ's cross. The best of everything should be given to God, he insisted. 'And who douteth, but that a lerned, a holy, and a common tung, is more honorable, then a barbarouse, a prophane, and a priuate tung?'101 Yet the work which contained this sentiment was written in English. Moreover, though the prevalence of Latin was increasing, it never took over completely. Special pleading, as we have seen, secured a translation of the New Testament for the English Catholics, and its use was widespread. Scriptural exegesis retained a secure place in theological discussion, even if it was no longer the foundation of every argument. This was no sweeping and wholesale transformation, therefore, but rather a shift in emphasis. Nevertheless, it was a fundamental one, and illustrated a marked change in the Catholic thought of the time. This change did not diminish the wealth of scriptural backing used in Catholic works, but it did diminish the authority ascribed to Scripture. In 1574 Bristow was quoting an assertion of St Augustine which had become common currency in these Catholic works: 'I should not beleue the very Ghospel it selfe, vnlesse the Catholike Churches authoritie did compel me.'102 And in 1580 Thomas Pownde 100 101 102

Sanders, Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. ****** iij>. Sanders, The Rocke of the Churche, Sig. * vij r . Bristow, A Briefe Treatise, fo. 174".

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was writing a work entitled Sixe reasons set downe to shew, that it is no orderly way in contwuersies of faith, to appeale to be tryed onely by Scriptures.m This work reads almost like a direct contradiction of all earlier Catholic views on the interpretation of Scripture. Pownde's reasons included the assertion that 'the written Text is mute and dumbe, vttering nothing to us from the Booke but only the wordes, and not the sense',104 and that 'the holy Scripture (as S. Augustine saythe) is very full of harde and deepe mysteries.'105 The impenetrability of Scripture was becoming a favourite theme. Allen too explained how the seminaries taught 'that the Scriptures be hard, and high, and many waies misconstrued to damnation'.106 Another version of the quotation from St Augustine also appeared in Pownde's work. 'I should not beleue the Gospell except the authoritie of the Church did moue me thereunto, meanyng that the tradition of the uniuersall Churche, and the testimonie of all the people of God, in whom the holie Ghoste dwelleth, must iustly moue us to credite that, whiche their authoritie doth commaunde vs to giue credite vnto.'107 This became a standard ingredient in the English Catholic works which had once used the work of St Augustine in quite a different sense. Pownde had completely dispensed with the obligation of remaining as concurrent with Scripture as possible. He openly defended nonbiblical doctrine, and asked the Protestants how such doctrines as the Trinity, or the two natures of Christ could be proved from Scripture, and why they observed the Sabbath on Sunday rather than Saturday as the Scripture demanded. He also asked them what Scriptures could be used to justify their use of the three Creeds, or the Baptism of infants. And he concluded: 'The sixt reason most waightie of all is this: because if you will refuse the authoritie of the Churches absolute Judgement, uppon the Scriptures true cense, you shall seeme plainly to denie the holy Ghoste to be the Spirite of truthe, whiche uppon the Apostles and all the faithfull was sent doune with visible signes, and with his Church is promised to remaine vnto the worldes ende.'108 103

This work was reproduced in Robert Crowley, An Aunswer to sixe Reasons (1581). Ibid., Sig. A iiiir. 105 Ibid., Sig. A iiii*. 106 Allen, An Apologie and True declaration of the institution and endeavours of the two English Colleges (Mounts in Henault [Rheims], 1581), fo. 55'. 107 Thomas Pownde, Sixe Reasons (1580), printed in Robert Crowley, An Aunswer to sixe Reasons (1581), Sig. B i r . 108 Ibid., Sig. B iiir. 11)4

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The reformist biblicism which had so enthused the English Catholics and which had formed the basis of their thought had been brought back within the fold of Counter-Reformation orthodoxy and the See of Rome. Under Mary, the emphasis of written work suggested that orthodoxy centred around true exegesis of Scripture, and correct doctrine. In particular Catholic loyalties had focused on the Mass. Watson preaching to the Court in 1554 had said, 'if we christen men now haue no sacrifice priuate vnto vs: then be we the most miserable men that euer wer, beyng wythout any kynde of religion. For take away our sacryfyce, and take away our religion'.109 This attitude was to be superseded, however, as new centrality was given to the need for loyalty to the Church above all else. By 1564 John Martiall was warning the Protestants: 'And as by pride, yowe separated youre selues from Christes mystical body the church: So by humilitie returne to the vnitie off it againe. Yf youe continewe in this diuision and schisme, Hue as commendablye, as youe can, beleue al that the scripture testifieth of oure sauiour Christ, as stedfastely as yowe may, yet shal youe neuer be membres off his mystical body.'110 The doctrinal issues that had previously been all-important were now being superseded by discussion of the authority from which true doctrine derived. Previous to the 15608 the whole effort of the English Catholics had been to stress that to 'Hue as commendablye as you can' and 'beleue al that the scripture testifieth of oure sauiour Christ' was the way to salvation. But in the changing conditions of the 15605 such an approach was no longer sufficient. The weight of tradition was beginning to be felt by the English Catholics, and it was pushing them ever closer to Rome. Orthodox Doctrine The transformation of theological discourse and debate in these years meant that the English Catholics began to take a different approach to both doctrine and devotion. The most marked change was not in the nature of the doctrine they propounded, so much as in the context in which discussions of doctrine were placed. But there was also a much heavier emphasis on some of the more traditional aspects of ceremonial or devotional practice, such as the use of images, the sign 1(

" Thomas Watson, Twoo notable Sermons (London, 1554), Sig. B iiij". Martiall, A Treatyse of the Crosse , fo. :68r.

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of the cross, or the invocation of saints. The shift from expounding doctrine to defending the orthodoxy of the Church from whence it sprang meant that the key elements of the faith were increasingly taken as understood. Where there were discussions of doctrine, these tended to focus on the piecemeal refutation of Protestant works. Such works would begin each chapter with a quotation from Jewel, or another Protestant writer, give the initial Catholic response, and often the Protestant reply, before concluding with a second Catholic rejoinder. Such discussions were less about doctrinal points than about the display of loyalties to one side or another. One small but significant illustration of changing attitudes is given by the shift in attitudes to Erasmus. The writer who had once been so revered by English Catholics was condemned by Pope Paul IV in 1558, and in draconian terms, as his works were forbidden 'etsi nihil contra fidem contineant'.111 Although his influence lingered after that date, by 1588 when Thomas Stapleton wrote his life of Thomas More, Erasmus was clearly revered no more.112 Stapleton noted the friendship between More and Erasmus, but condemned the influence exerted by the latter: 'More's friendship for Erasmus, however, honoured Erasmus more than it benefited More. But as that Protestant heresy increased, for which Erasmus had so widely sown the accursed seed, More's love towards him decreased and grew cool.'113 Stapleton also expressed his disapproval of More's espousal of humanism: 'As to his love of letters, in the early enthusiasm of his youth it was not only devout, but, we might even say, superstitious.'114 This change in attitudes was also reflected in the treatment of More's own work. The Elizabethan tendency was to develop the portrayal of More as martyr whilst devoting much less attention to his reforming objectives.115 A rejection of the humanist understanding was taking place as humanism was increasingly perceived as a forerunner of Protestantism. The complexities and nuances of earlier years were being replaced by a more rigid intellectual outlook. 111 ODCC 467. A. G. Dickens and W. R. D. Jones, Erasmus the Reformer (London, 1994), 295. 112 Stapleton, Tres Thomae (1588). 113 See E. E. Reynolds, (ed.), The Life of Sir Thomas More, (1966), trans, from the Latin by P. E. Hallett, 36. 114 Ibid. 36. 115 See J. K. McConica, English Humanists and Reformation Politics (Oxford, 1965), 285-94.

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Since the beginning of the century, religious writers had stressed the importance of inner faith and interior devotion. The shift in emphasis during Elizabeth's reign resulted in a contrary insistence on outward displays of commitment to the Church. This was highlighted by the controversy over 'church papism'. There was clearly a school of thought among English Catholics that saw no harm in attendance at services in the new Church of England, as long as inward conviction to Catholicism remained firm. But Catholic attendance at Anglican services was formally forbidden in 1566, when Laurence Vaux carried the papal commission first to Sanders and Harding at Louvain, and then on to England.116 This papal initiative was reinforced by works such as that of 1578 by Gregory Martin entitled A Treatise ofSchisme, Shewing, that al Catholikes ought in any wise to abstaine altogether from heretical Conventicles, to mitt, their prayers, sermons etc. The tone of this work suggests that by the late 15708 this matter had become a priority with the writers in exile. Martin's arguments made much use of the arguments concerning the visibility of the Church which had been developed in such depth over the preceding decade. Euery Catholike must confesse that the Church of Christ vpon earth is visible, the members wherof must needes be tyed together aliquo signaculorum vel Sacramentorum visibilium consortio, with some societie of visible signes or Sacramentes, as S. Austen saith: ergo they that secretly in heart are Catholikes, and visibly in Sacramentes and ceremonies communicate with heretikes, flatly declare that they are not to be accompted of Christes visible and onely Church.117

Outward practice was assuming a greater importance than inner belief, in official pronouncements at least. The more equivocal popular response to this may have been reflected in both popular practice, and some of the casuistical literature that ministered to it, but the official line remained stern.118 The concern over church papism increased the emphasis which English Catholics were beginning to place on uniformity, and encouraged the growing inclination to consider loyalty to the Church to be of more fundamental importance than any doctrinal considerations. 116 See Haigh, English Reformations, 259. For a detailed account of the practice and its consequences, see A. Walsham, Church Papists: Catholicism, Conformity and Confessional Polemic in Early Modern England (Woodbridge, 1993). 117 Gregory Martin, A Treatise of Schtsme (Douai [London?], 1578), Sig. C'~v. 118 Walsham, Church Papists, 50—72, illustrates some of the equivocation in this matter.

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The written works increasingly expressed the view that faithfulness to the Church must come first, as the only way to ensure the continuance of true belief. These concerns were voiced in stern language: And whereas there is a rumour spread by certain men, that this going to schismatical Seruice is, or may be wincked at, or dispensed in the Catholikes, of certaintie it is not so. But rather by this keycold demeanour of the Catholickes, we may perceaue how iust God was in punishing them with heresie, in whom he saw so litle true and harty faith, that for feare of a small temporal losse, they can be content to put in hasard their euerlasting saluation. The dissease is great, it nedeth a sharpe medicine.119

The same work also contained a historical anecdote, of the type which was becoming more and more common in these works, which made the point with further heavy emphasis. S. Gregorie telleth a notable story of one S. Ermgild sonne to Liuigild, who was king of the Wisigothes in Spain. This Ermgild being conuerted to the Catholike faith by S. Leander bisshop of Spoleto, chose rather after prisonment and chaines, to die by the sword at his own fathers commaundement, then to receaue the communion at the hand of an Arrian Bisshop. At whose body when his wicked Father saw miracles wrought, although he repented his own deede, yet for fear of his people (which were most of them Arrians) he durst not professe that Catholike faith, wherein his sonne had died. But when the father was dead, his other sonne . . . both himself became Catholike, and turned also his whole Country and nation to the Catholike faith. So that the euent shewed his Father to have ben in a vaine feare.120

The impulse to reform which had so characterized English Catholic works so far in this century was being subtly reconfigured. The old criticisms of superstitious practices had been replaced by a lament for the general malaise of the time, and although some criticism of priestly behaviour still remained it was far more peripheral to other concerns. Statements concerning the need for reform began to centre around a new perception of contemporary problems. The anxiety concerning 'church papism' among Catholics was linked to the condemnation of heretical belief and practice among Protestants, both being identified as a part of the general lack of godliness beginning to characterize the age. Protestantism was frequently characterized in terms of sloth, luxury, and selfindulgence, which could be held to touch Catholics also. Allen in 119 120

Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, Sig. A iiij v . Ibid., Sig. A iiijv-A vr.

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1565 was concerned not only for those in doctrinal error, but also those 'with whome, pleasure euer ioyned to the protestantes doctrine, often more preuayleth, than the preachers persuasion'.121 He argued that heresy had always been linked with pleasure, and gave the example of Mahomet and his laws on marriage. 'By whiche doctrine of lust and liberty, the floure of Christendom . . . was caried a way.'122 In his view, his own age was even worse in this respect. 'Feasting hath wonne the field of fasting, and chambering allmost banished chastitye.'123 He argued that Protestantism had removed all the measures that Christ had prescribed in order to keep sin at bay, such as penance, fasting, and confession, as well as a belief in purgatory. 'All whiche, being nothinge ellse but a kynde of softe handeling, and swheet cherishing of sin, hath wroght suche vayne security in mennes myndes, that fewe haue any feele or fear of goddes iudgementes.'124 The solution which Allen prescribed for this was rigorous reform of both belief and practice. There was in this a brand of Catholic Puritanism, with its emphasis upon doctrinal rigour and austerity of life.125 Allen felt that sloth, especially as taught by Protestantism, was obstructing his contemporaries from working towards godliness. He urged the performance of good works whilst warning against presumption of salvation. In this he was neatly appropriating a Puritan line of argument: works were important, but no guarantee of salvation, and he characterized Protestants as the complacent ones who trusted in their own righteousness. 'Lett that be for euer the difference betwixte the vnfruetefull faithe of an heretique and the proffitable belyefe of the true Catholike Christiane: that this may woorke assured penaunce to perpetuall saluation, and his, vayne presumption to euerlasting damnation.'126 He felt that the works he was advocating were 'nothing fitte for the diet of suche delicate men as haue been brought vppe vnder the pleasaunt preaching of oure dayes, yet perchaunce, chaunge of diett withe the sharpenesse of this eagre sawse, were, iff they coulde beare it, muche more agreehable 121

Allen, A defence and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 5*. Ibid., fo. ii v . 121 Ibid., fo. i2 v . 124 Ibid., fo. if. 125 Questier, Conversion, Politics and Religion in England, 1580-1625, 76-97, illustrates some of the resemblances in the evangelical approaches of both zealous Catholics and Puritans. 126 Allen, A defence and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. t9v. 122

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to theire weake stoomaches'.127 There was a rigour emerging in his arguments which was more broadly characteristic of the age than Allen perhaps realized. Allen also felt that the age was stricken with the disease of believing whatever one liked, a disease which affected Catholics and Protestants alike. His discussion of the sacrament of penance made this clear. 'And this surely is the disease of cure dayes, whiche hath not onely infected the vnfaythfull, but also hathe made these holy thinges lothsom euen to the better sorte of Goddes people. So much is mans will and pleasure pampered, where Goddes woorde and writing shoulde be onely folowed.'128 Catholics, too, were in need of reform. Allen in his discussion of prayers for the dead gave the following warning: 'Nowadaies heresy hathe cankered euen the very deuotion of catholykes, who allthoughe they thinke it to be true that goddes Church teacheth herin, yet the zele of procuring these meanes is nothing so greate as thimportaunce of the cause requireth.'129 The remedy prescribed here was, as it had always been, one of return to the early Church. Allen explained this in a passage which was encouraging the giving of alms. And here, the simple sorte, and suche as be ignoraunt off the force of almose, or oure fathers practise, for theire yeares, being brought vppe in this sinful age when vertue is defaced, and the workes of Christianitye scarse to be seene in a whole country: and where they be, muche merueled at, as thinges rare, or condemned as vnproffitable, or of the wicked condemned vtterly, as superstitious and vngodly: suche good younge men must looke backe agreate waye with me, to lerne theire dueties of the blessed times paste, that were wholy free from the contagion of this pestilent waste in religion: euen to those daies, that our aduersaries confesse, to haue bene holy and vndefiled.130

The myth of Catholic corruption in the sixteenth century was under construction, and it was the Elizabethan Catholics who did much to create such a story. Thus, the need to maintain church unity was overwhelming the earlier impulse towards reform, and turning the attention of Catholic apologists back towards the witnessing power of outward works. Devotional practice, and discussions of prayer, meditation, and piety 127 128 129 130

Ibid., fos. igv-20r. Allen, A Treatise Made in Defence of the lauful power . . . of Priesthod, 155. Allen, A defence and declaration . . . touching purgatory, fo. 249'. Ibid., fo. 158'-'.

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were taking a more central place.131 Hagiography returned to fashion, as did the writing of religious verse. Here too the emphasis was on the antiquity of Catholic devotional practice. Allen pointed out that the Catholic Church had continued steadfast for 1,500 years, and was responsible for instituting all the major Christian ceremonies and observations, such as Christmas, Candlemas, Easter, Whitsun, and all the feasts of the Apostles, Evangelists, and saints. It was supported, he argued, by all the saints, martyrs and virgins; the institutor of all laws and canons; was the creator of the Church's hierarchy of functionaries. And he asked whether the Catholic Church did not display, far more than the Protestant Church, all the signs of a true Church: 'vnitie in faith, austeritie of life, sharpe discipline, great penance, muche fasting, large almes, godly deuotion, obedience to higher powers, grauitie, and true charitie'.132 The emphasis was more and more on outward displays of loyalty and piety. Such an emphasis led inevitably to a preoccupation with the subject of martyrdom. Bristow in 1574 recalled the words of Cyprian, who had said that the Church lacked neither lilies nor roses, having the white of good works and the purple of martyrdom. He quoted Cyprian, whose words reiterated the theme of the Christian soldier, in support of the new emphasis on outward devotion: 'Let eche man now labour to atteine the most noble dignitie of bothe honours: to get garlandes, either white, by working: or purple, by suffering. In the heauenly camps, bothe peace and the field haue their flowers, whereof to make for Christ his souldiars garlandes of glorie.'133 For examples of the transition to a more militant defence of Catholicism, we might look at John Martiall's work of 1564, A Treatyse of the Crosse and Nicholas Sanders's work of 1567, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, and of his Saints. These works gave an account of the uses of some of the traditional marks of Catholic piety, with some wariness, but with a clear determination to assert the importance of these practices. Martiall wrote, somewhat defensively Wher for if there were no other cause why images, and especially the crosse of Christ shuld be permitted in churches, chapppells, and other places for 131

See e.g. James Cancellar, The alphabet of prayers, very fruitefull to be used (London, 1564-5); Petrus Canisius, Certayne necessarie principles of religion (1579?); Laurence Vaux, A catechisme, or a Christian doctrine necessarie for chyldren and the ignorant people (Louvain, 1568), and A brief fourme of confession (1576). 132 Allen, An Offer made by a Catholike, Sig. B iiii1. 133 Bristow, A Briefe Treatise, Sig. ** iiij'.

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Christen to behold, yet because they quicken the memory which in many is fickle, help ignoraunce, which in some is lurde, stirre vp loue which is waxen cold, helpe hope which is almost dead, moue deuotion which in al men decayeth, reuiue faith which almost fayleth, they myght right wel be suffred amongest Christen men, without any dishonour to god, or hinderaunce to Christen religion.134

Sanders struck the same rather defensive note. We albeit we sette not vp Images principally to be worshipped, nor to be worshipped at all for their owne sakes, yet seeing a certaine worship maie laufully be geuen to them for the truthes sake whiche they signifie, we iudge it much better, to let them be worshipped (teaching the people what worshippe is due to them) then wholy to abolishe the great profit which cometh by Images.135

He also gave an insight into his ideas of popular piety when he argued that before the Reformation, despite the accusations of the Protestants, the people had not been in the habit of worshipping images unduly; when the tyme was most quiet, he that should see the Sexten sweping copwebbes from them, and the Parish Clerke putting the Crosse so homely vnder his cloke, until he came where it were to be set upon the banner, might well perceaue a great difference betwene that meane reuerence which was geuen to Images, in comparison of that which both was geuen, and was due to the body and blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Aultar.136

This defensiveness began to disappear as the 15608 progressed. By 1574, for example, Bristow was taking a far more brisk and unworried approach to such aspects of traditional Catholic practice when he wrote A briefe treatise of diverse plaine and sure wayes to finde out the truthe in this time of heresie. The condensed version of these 'Motives', written two years later, urged Catholics to put a series of demands to their Protestant detractors. Some of these dealt with aspects of Catholicism which earlier Catholic writers would have hesitated to address. These included putting faith in miracles and visions. Bristow told his readers to ask the Protestants, whether 'they know not, that bothe in our Countrey and also in al other Christian Nations, innumerable Holy Persons of our communion, and very many pointes of our Doctrine, haue bene by God from heauen approued with most 134 135 136

Martiall, A Treatyse of the Crosse, fos. 119'—120'. Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, fo. iyi v . Ibid., fo. 172*.

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vndoubted visions.' He also referred to the missionary work when he encouraged them to ask: 'whether they knowe not by Histories, that at the conuersion now of the Indes, and afore also at the conuersion of those other Nations by our Churche, greate Miracles are, and euermore were wroughte by our Preachers'.138 Bristow also defended the use of the sign of the cross. 'And let Christian people remember, that Christians haue euer vsed to crosse them selues; and that therfore these vncrossed Protestantes, vnlike and repugnante to Christian men of al tymes, stande poste alone.'139 Nor was he content to see it as a mere sign, and reminder of Christ's Passion, but defended its power, which he held to have been seen throughout history. He urged his readers to ask the Protestants: 'whether they haue not read in suche Bokes, not onely . . . the Honor of the holy Crosse, and the very Signes of it; but also, and muche more, the wonderfull power and miraculous vertue of the same'.140 An emphasis upon ceremonies gradually reappeared as a more major concern of Catholic works concerning worship, and often with the justification that they could be of use to the simple and uneducated. The reformist objective of educating and instructing the laity was abandoned in favour of a more traditional approach. As John Martiall put it: 'euery man can not reade scripture, nor vnderstand it when he reade it: and euery man can not al times so conueniently heare a good preacher, as he may se the signe of the crosse, if it might be suffred to stand'.141 Martiall was prepared to admit that the power of the cross could be greater than the power of Scripture to strengthen the faith of the simple and illiterate: 'that which wordes could not print in their heades, the contemplation of this signe doth so printe in their mindes, that they triumphe ouer the deuil, and saye although we were dead in sinne, yet Christ hath reuiued vs agayne, and forgeuen al oure iniquities'.142 By the time Laurence Vaux wrote his Catechism of 1568, he was insisting on the Marian devotion which for so long had been absent from Catholic works, and in the treatise of ceremonies which he appended to this work, he explained how church ceremonial was to be regarded as a necessary 137 138 139 140 141 142

Bristow, Demaundes, 35. Ibid. 29. Ibid. 38. Ibid. 39. Martiall, A Treatyse of the Crosse, fo. 117'. Ibid., fo. n6 v .

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part of the faith. 'It is therefore first to bee knowen, that no company of men canne meete together in one minde and consent of heart, for the true seruice of God, except they haue certaine holy signes, whereby both their worshippe towards GOD may be stirred vp, and the profession thereof towards their Neighbour may be scene.'143 The reappearance of ceremonies in Catholic writing was sealed with a new dogmatism, and rendered an essential part of the faith. The concentration on inner faith, and the detailed explanation of doctrine, which had sprung from the humanist tradition, was eclipsed by the more pressing imperatives of the Elizabethan controversies. The English Catholic writers devoted more and more of their time to these controversies, and more and more of their attention to the argument from history. Doctrine was described in increasingly simplified and stereotypic terms, as a badge of allegiance to the Catholic Church, to be either claimed or rejected, but rarely just explained. On the occasions when their attention shifted from their opponents to the Catholic people, the new preoccupation was with the problem of church papism, and the necessity of performing those outward acts of devotion which unambiguously declared an allegiance to Catholicism. The issue was no longer one of understanding or exploring Catholic doctrine, but a question of defending, and if necessary, dying for the sake of the Church that defined it. Reflecting this new understanding of Catholic literary objectives, the religious works of this time were increasingly distinguished by the level of antagonism in their religious writing. The type of polemical language which had not been heard since Thomas More's confutations of the Lutherans in the 15208 reappeared in religious works, emphasizing the state of spiritual warfare which existed between Protestant and Catholic. As early as 1564 John Martiall had described how Satan, like an ambitious prince, had gathered all the forces at his disposal to invade the Church, rallying them in Wittenberg, Schmalkalden, and Geneva to make war on the Kingdom of Heaven, to raze her monasteries, deface her churches, and throw down the cross of Christ.144 The same treatise made reference to the judgements passed at Trent as it attacked the Protestants: 'thoue shalt neuer be other then a deuil, because thowe arte a Caluiniste: Nether at anytime we will wishe to haue frindship and peace with any other then with those, who according to the determination of cure fathers 143 144

Laurence Vaux, A Catechism., fos. 142—3. Martiall, A Trealyse of the Crosse; preface to the Reader.

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assembled at Florence and Trent haue accursed al heretickes.'145 In 1567 Sanders attacked Protestants with similar venom, mocking the hypocrisy in their behaviour during the iconoclasm in the Netherlands: 'If we burne their false and maliciouse translations of the bible, we burn (saie they) the holy bible of lesus Christ, the word of God, the foode of life. If they burn (as now in the Low Gentries they did) the Hebrew, Greeke, Latin and Doutch text . . . yet are they holie workers in the Lordes vine. And if anie of them be hanged for it, they are notable martyrs and witnesses of the truthe.'146 Indeed, the events of 1566 seem to have been taken in some ways as a declaration of war. Harding signed his preface to his Reiondre to M. lervels Replie with the year 1566, and added the comment: 'In which time your brethren of this low Countrie professours of that ye cal the Gospel, haue geuen euident testimonie to the worlde, with what Spirite they be lead by their spoiling and robbing of Churches and religious houses, by destroying of Libraries, by threatning to fyer the places where they be resisted, and with other wicked outrages.'147 The link between Protestantism and rebellion, which was as old as the new faith itself, became a particularly well-used theme and was also used to illustrate the ways in which Protestants had damaged religion. Allen wrote a description of Protestant tendencies in 1581 which included 'disturbances of Kingdoms and Countries, desire of liberty and nouelty, inconstance and daily chaunge of their opinions, presumptuous arrogance and vaunting of their knowledge aboue al antiquity'.148 With such antagonism always on the increase, the language of religious debate changed. In 1567, when referring to the number of writers who had written against the doctrine of the Sacrifice of the Mass, Harding commented, 'Out of al M. lewel, like a Spyder, hath suckte the most venemous iouice, and in his Replie hath vttered it, as it were spitting forth his poison.'149 The language of academic debate was being replaced by the harsh terminology of theological combat, as religious polemic replaced works of religious instruction. The first offensive in this particular exchange of insults 145

Ibid., fo. 72*. Sanders, A Treatise of the Images of Christ, fo. 2or. 147 Harding, A Rejoindre to M. Jewel's Replie, Sig. A iijv. 148 Allen, An Apologie and True declaration of the institution and endeavours of the two English Colleges, fo. 6or. 149 Harding, A Rejoindre . . . of the Masse, fo. 30'. 146

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was commonly held to have been the Protestants'. Harding said of Jewel's Apology, 'there was neuer booke made, which in so litle rome conteined so great a heape of lyes, errours, heresies, tauntes, scoffes, vpbraidinges, slaunders, rancours, and blasphemies'.150 By the end of the 15608, the Catholics had certainly learned how to respond in kind. The antagonism was further exacerbated when the persecution of Catholics began. By 1581 Allen's exhortations to the Catholics in England were aimed primarily at those who were being martyred for the faith. He was no longer encouraging his countrymen to believe aright, he was encouraging them to martyrdom: Bloud so yelded maketh the forciblest meane to procure mercie that can be. Euery time that you confesse Christes name, euery wrinche of any ioynt for it, euery opprobrious scoffe and scorne giuen by the popular, when you be caried in the sacred vestiments through the streates . . . euery vilany and sacrilege done to your Priesthod, euery of your sores, sorowes and sighes, euery of your wantes and necessities, make a stronger intercession for our Countrie and afflicted Church, then any prayers lightly in the world.151 From the mid-15605 onwards the Catholic consensus achieved since the 15305, which had been based on their common humanist convictions, was broken by the introduction of a new generation of religious controversies. The development of a justification for the Church of England which laid claim to the catholicity of the Protestant faith moved the argument on to the issues of apostolic succession and the true Church. No longer could Catholic and Protestant divines debate the verity of doctrine on the basis of scriptural authority. The religious question in England had been brought within the compass of continental developments, and the increased need for orthodoxy within the boundaries of religious conflict had created a confessional divide which was soon to appear impassable. The Reformation in England had come of age, and the result for English Catholicism was to be the loss of its reformist understanding and a retreat into dogmatism, obedience to the papacy, and CounterReformation orthodoxy. Although the reformist heritage had not been entirely eradicated, it had increasingly been lost to sight as intellectual objectives 150

Harding, A confutation, Sig. ! 3''. Allen, An Apologie and True declaration of the institution and endeavours of the two English Colleges, fos. iog v —no r . 151

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changed. The most reformed and humanist of Catholics had never been able to transcend the confessional divide, although one or two had tried.152 The similarities in their religious thought had never been able to overcome the clear separation of their religious identities. Increasingly, it was the difference between those identities which became the most overwhelming factor in religious debate. In a sense the developments of the sixteenth-century came full circle, and the Reformation entered a second scholastic era. For English Catholicism the impetus had passed from the theologians to the missionary priests. Intellectual enthusiasm had been replaced by the zeal of martyrdom. The ideological eagerness of the early years of the century was replaced by the sterner outlook of those who faced religious persecution. Religious idealism and the humanist inheritance were giving way to new forms of intensity. The sixteenth century had re-created the notion of orthodoxy and imparted to it an unprecedented ferocity. 152 P. Matheson, Cardinal Cimtarini at Regensburg (Oxford, 1972); B. Hall, 'The Colloquies between Catholics and Protestants, 1539-1541', in Humanists and Protestants (Edinburgh, 1990).

Conclusion THIS study of some aspects of Tudor Catholicism has tried to fulfil several objectives. Most simply, it has sought to bring to light a particular body of literature which might serve to elucidate the inner workings of Reformation thought. Across four very different reigns, English Catholic writers pursued a set of ideals encompassing both reform and conservatism, trying to explain their faith to themselves as well as to those who read, or heard, their books. They sought to defend their sacred doctrines, but also to purify their Church, by imparting biblical enlightenment to their contemporaries. These writers were not, for the most part, very important political figures, or even very great scholars. This does, however, suggest that they might be a more reliable source if we want to understand how the English felt about the experience of religious change. To study Thomas More, or Edmund Campion, is to encounter formidable intellect, passionate idealism, and heroic self-sacrifice, but it is also to encounter the exceptional. The writers discussed in this book were perhaps more representative of common feeling, and to understand their motivations and convictions is to draw closer to the more mundane experience of Reformation. This book has also sought to widen our understanding of sixteenth-century Catholicism. It has argued that the strength of English Catholicism should perhaps be sought, not in its traditionalism, but in its adaptability, and its capacity for regeneration. It has tried to question the assumption that Catholic identity in the sixteenth century can be understood in terms of the Catholic preoccupations of later centuries. Church hierarchies are liable to claim unbroken continuity with the past, but such claims are nearly always false. Indeed, the louder the insistence on such continuities, the more suspicious the historian should be. Later Elizabethan and Jacobean Catholics tried hard to claim an unbroken link with the medieval church.1 In so doing they managed to caricature the fifteenth century and ignore much of the sixteenth. The exaggerated claims of the Oxford Movement have not been allowed to rewrite the history of 1 D. Rogers, 'The English Recusants: Some Medieval Literary Links', RH 23 (1997), 483-507; J. Rhodes, 'English Books of Martyrs and Saints of the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries', RH 22 (1994), 7-25.

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the Church of England by leaving out its more Protestant elements.2 The preoccupations of modern Catholicism should no more blind us to the reforming tendencies of the Reformation Catholic Church. Instead it should be possible to discern the stirrings of Catholic Reformation in Tudor England. This was a bid for reform which pre-dated the development of Protestantism, building on established traditions of social criticism going back to Langland and Wyclif, drawing on fifteenth-century devotional trends, and capitalizing on the possibilities offered by the printing press.3 These existing elements were given new vigour and new voice by the humanists, who were to thrive under the patronage of the king who thought himself a scholar. But Catholic reform did not end at the point where Protestant reform began. When Henry VIII instituted the Royal Supremacy, he was giving as much encouragement to Catholic as to Protestant scholars. For the rest of his reign, Catholic writers were busy perfecting a defence of their faith, which whilst retaining the essentials of their traditional belief, was also open to the reformist imperatives which their King was making official policy. This was not empty rhetoric, but the building of a Catholic understanding on biblical and reforming foundations which would be acceptable to both King and people. It was to survive even the harsh climes of Edward VI's reign to emerge in the literary campaign of Mary I's restored Church, and endured even into the changing religious world of Elizabethan England. We are left with a broader definition of what Catholic loyalism might still encompass. If there was a Catholic Reformation in England, it was one which owed as much to Henry VIIFs cynical posturing as it did to the more idealistic and humane pleas of Erasmus. If we can identify a reform movement, we must acknowledge the extent to which it was plagued by opposition both Catholic and Protestant, and confused by its own ambiguities. Nonetheless, that the Henrician Church remained Catholic in its essentials was a tribute to the capacity for change and adaptation within English Catholicism, and an indication that Tudor Catholics might rank loyalty to the Bible above loyalty to the institutional Church. The experience of Edward VPs reign perhaps taught English Catholics 2

D. MacCulloch, 'The Myth of the English Reformation', JBS 30 (1991), 1-19. H. C. White, Social Criticism in Popular Religions Literature of the Sixteenth Century (New York, 1965); H. B. Lathrop, Translations from the Classics into English from Caxton to Chapman 14^-1620 (New York, 1967). 3

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the importance of at least notional papal headship. Yet the chief preoccupation of the Marian writers was to expound a workable, pastoral, biblical faith which made the ideals of the intellectuals intelligible at parish level. The mental readjustment required of the Elizabethan exiles indicates to what extent English Catholicism had gone its own way, and had developed its own particular and peculiar strengths. The fact that any of this was possible must tell us something about the workings of the English Reformation. It suggests that between the opposite poles in the confessional divide there was a middle ground on which practical solutions were sought to the problem of popular ignorance or confusion. In its early stages, the Reformation was, for both Catholic and Protestant, a process involving the interface of ideas and popular religion. If Henrician Catholics followed the royal lead, it was because they wanted a settlement which was workable, and under Mary too they concentrated less on polemical or intellectual conflicts than on pastoral needs. In its later stages, the Reformation was to draw back from popular involvement to become more puritanical in its outlook and more scrupulous in its doctrine, a development which affected Catholic and Protestant alike.4 The importance of this for the shaping of Protestant experience has long been appreciated, but for Catholics too, the 'first' Reformation was about encountering existing realities, and only as Elizabeth's reign wore on did a 'second' Reformation emerge, more hard-edged and with more 'principled' demands. In part this must be a consequence of the relationship between religion and power. Under Henry VIII, those who chose to die for a principled version of their faith perhaps did less to safeguard English Catholicism than those who worked to uphold a practical version. Similarly, under Mary, the emphasis was on developing Catholic strengths in the parishes as well as the universities. Yet this was only possible because Catholicism had the backing of authority, an experience lost to English Catholics thereafter. In the more rarefied, and disempowered community at Louvain, a moderate and practical outlook came to have little relevance, and it became clear that the 4 P. Collinson, 'From Iconoclasm to Iconophobia: The Cultural Impact of the Second English Reformation', in P. Marshall (ed.), The Impact of the English Reformation 1500-1640 (London, 1997); M. Questier, '"Like locusts over all the world": Conversion, Indoctrination and the Society of Jesus in Late Elizabethan and Jacobean England', in T. McCoog (ed.), The Reckoned Expense (Woodbridge, 1996).

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future lay with the missionaries and martyrs. But just as Elizabethan Puritans became alienated from popular modes of discourse, so too many Elizabethan Catholics were abandoning the humanist imperatives of the previous generation. The ideas expressed in the works studied here suggest that, in its early stages, the English Reformation was arguably as much about consensus as it was about conflict. The legacy of the humanists was forged by Henry VIII into a body of reformist opinions on which both Catholics and Protestants were able to build. There may have been variance, on the one hand, over transubstantiation, for example, and, on the other hand, over 'justification by faith alone', but there was also a large degree of consensus about such things as the importance of Scripture, salvation through faith, and the need for moderate reform of abuses. The extent of this middle ground remains debatable, but Henry VIII clearly thought it sufficient foundation for a national church. Moreover, his children retained an awareness of how an appeal to reformist ideology could sanctify their own religious policies. When Edward VI issued the paraphrases of Erasmus to the parish churches, when Marian writers built on the prayers and sermons culled from Henrician and Edwardian formulations, or when Elizabeth pursued a course of moderation in the parishes, they were tacitly acknowledging the enduring existence of this Reformation consensus. Perhaps the 'second' Reformation can be more appropriately described in terms of division and conflict, ideological purity and the harsh realities of martyrdom. But the earlier and more magisterial spate of religious change was more truly a reformation, in that it tried to reform, rather than overthrow, existing belief systems. In studying this 'first' Reformation we should not be looking always for extremes.

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P R I M A R Y SOURCES Manuscripts Bodleian Library, Oxford MS Lat. Th. d. 15 MS Rawlinson C 45 MS Rawlinson D86, 01316 MS Eng. Theol. B i, 2 British Library Add. 32096 Cotton,Vesp. D xviii Harleian 416-425, 1302 (2), 2303 Lansdowne 96 Hatfield House Cecil MS, vol. 332 Printed works Agapetus, The preceptes teachyng a prynce or a noble estate his duetie (London, 1530?), [trans. Thomas Paynell]. Allen, William, A defense and declaration of the calholike churches doctrine, touching purgatory (Antwerp, 1565). A Treatise Made in Defence of the lauful power and authoritie of Priesthod to remitte sinnes (Louvain, 1567). An Offer made by a Catholike, ed. Edward Rishton (?), appended to A notable discourse, by Jean d'Albin deValsergues (Douai [London?], 1575). An Apologie and True declaration of the institution and endeavours of the two English Colleges (Mounts in Henault [Rheims], 1581). A hriefe historic of the glorious martyrdom of XII priests (Rheims [?], 1582). A true sincere and modest defence of English catholiques that suffer for their faith (Rouen, 1584). The copie of a letter written by M. doctor Allen: concerning the yeelding up, of Daventrie (Antwerp, 1587). An admonition to the nobility and people of England and Ireland (Antwerp, 1588). also see, The letters and memorials of William, Cardinal Allen, ed. T. F. Knox (London, 1882).

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INDEX academic debate 116-17,192-8,266 Act in Restraint of Appeals 60 Act of Six Articles 63, 65, 89 Adrian VI, Pope 231-2 Agamemnon 30 Agapetus 46 The preceptes teachyng a prynce . . . his duetie 46-7, 58-9 d'Albin de Valsergues, Jean 247 Allen, William, Cardinal 185, 226, 235, 261, 267 on authority 192, 255 on the church 209, 240, 262 and the college at Douai 182 on confession 217, 260 A Defense and Declaration... touching Purgatory 220-2 Offer made by a Calholike 247 on priesthood 196, 247, 267 on Protestantism 191, 193, 195, 200, 204-5, 240-2, 260, 266 Ambrose, St 92, 125 Anabaptists 64, 229 Angel, John 119-20, 173 The agrement of the holye Fathers 119-20, 121 anti-scholasticism 25, 27, 79, 105, 206-7 An Apologie of priuate Masse 205—6, 210,211 Aquinas, St Thomas 190 Arians 29, 200 Aristotle 79, 199 Athanasius, St 199 Augsburg Confession 196 Augustine, St 29, 92, 187, 236, 245, 253 on the church 12, 125, 239, 247, 251, 254-5, 258

on justification 41, 98, 160, 213, 214,216 on purgatory 221, 222 Twelve sermons (or Certaine sermons) 140, 143-8 Baius, Michel 236 Baker, Augustine, O.S.B. 246 Barlow, William, Bishop of Chichester 75-7, 122 Barnes, Robert 110, 130 Barnstaple 195 Basil, St 92, 216 Beaufort, Lady Margaret 25, 37, 38,42 Bede, St 238, 246 Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum 246 Beneficw di Cristo 40 Berengarius 149 Bernard, St 140, 203 Bessarion, John, Cardinal 37 Beza, Theodore 198 Bible: Ezekicl, book of 80 Isaiah, book of 70 Leviticus, book of 54 Maccabees, book of 87, 222 St James, Epistle of 118, 214 St John, Gospel according to 167-8 St Luke, Gospel according to 169-70 St Matthew, Gospel according to 145, 146, 250-1 see also St Paul; Scripture 'Bishops' Book' (or The Institution of a Christian Man) 63, 65, 86-7,91, 110

298

Index

Blount, William, Lord Mountjoy 29,46 Boleyn, Anne, Queen 53, 56 Boleyn, Sir Thomas 56, 88 Bonner, Edmund, Bishop of London 4,7,68, 117, 126, 153, 156 Homilies 132-3, 153, 161-6 on the Mass 167-8, 170-2, 174 A profitable and necessarye doctryne 123-4, 132, 'l33-4, 153-8 Book of Common Prayer (1549) 106 Book of Common Prayer (1552) 108 Break with Rome, see Henry VIII Brethren of the Common Life 28, 183 Brigittines, see Syon Bristol 122 Bristow, Richard 239, 241-2, 253, 254, 262 A briefe treatise 263-4 Demaundes 247 Brooks, James, Master of Balliol 124 Bucer, Martin 61, 159, 203-4, 205 Bullinger, Heinrich 103, 108, 109 Bullingham, John 141 Burgess, Margaret 123, 155 Bushc, Paul, sometime Bishop of Bristol 123, 138-9, 155 Busleyden, Jerome de 183 Calvin, John 84, 159, 195,229, 237, 242 Calvinism 198, 240-1, 265 Caly, Robert 107 Campion, Edmund, St 6, 182, 226, 269 Capito, Wolfgang 159 Cardinal College, Oxford 37 Catherine of Aragon, Queen 38 Caxton, William 35 ceremonies 39^0, 66, 72, 264-5

Charles V, Emperor 73—4 The answer of Charles the fyft Emperour 73-4 charity 41-2, 64, 66 and community 116, 125, 140-51 Chaucer, Geoffrey 35 Cheke, Sir John 112 n. Chrysostom, St John 92, 211, 216 Church: and authority 84-92, 120-1, 124-7, 177 late medieval 14,115 primitive 92, 120-1, 124, 138, 205, 229-30, 233, 238 and tradition 72, 84-5, 86, 87 the 'true Church' 88-9, 234-47 'church papism' 258-9, 265 Churchson, John 124,125-6 Clement VII, Pope 20 Clement Martyr, St 173 Clitherow, Margaret, St 6 The Cloud of Unknowing 246 Cole, Henry, Dean of St Paul's 193-4 Colet, John, Dean of St Paul's 23, 26, 29, 37, 40, 44 and reform 17, 21-2, 27, 34-5, 139 Sermon . . . to the Conuocation 34-5, 90 Collectanea satis copiosa 54 conciliarism 85 Constantine, Emperor 60 Contarini, Gasparo, Cardinal 40 coronation oath 53, 59 Corpus Christi College, Oxford 37 Councils of the Church 89, 91, 124, 188, 192, 199, 230, 233 Council of Chalcedon 91 Council of Constantinople 91 Council of Ephesus 91 Council of Florence 188, 266 Fourth Lateran Council 204 Council of Nicea 91,206

Index Council of Trent 11, 136, 137, 188, 199, 222, 223, 236 on heresy 265-6 on justification 99, 159, 213, 214, 216 on the Mass 200 on the vernacular 182, 183—6 Counter-Reformation 5, 11, 114, 126, 177, 179-80, 222, 243 and the papacy 12, 225 Cranmer, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury 19, 69, 70, 91, 116-7, 121, 146, 149 and the 1548 Catechism 108-9 see also Edwardian homilies Creeds 32, 33, 34, 56, 91, 122, 255 Cromwell, Thomas, Earl of Essex 52,67 Crusades 54—5 Cyprian, St 29, 90, 92, 132, 200, 206, 216, 262 Cyril, St 92, 208 David, King 213, 221 The declaracyon and power of the Chrysten fayth 94-5 devotio moderna 28, 83 doctors of the church, see fathers of the church Dominicans 78 Donation of Constantine 60 Donatists 29, 200, 251 Dorman, Thomas 206, 207, 209-11 Douai, English College at 182, 226 Dudley, John, Duke of Northumberland 127 Edgeworth, Roger 120, 122, 155 Edmunds, John 75 Edward VI 82, 102, 107, 113, 135, 192, 203, 270 Edwardian Church 110,272 and Catholic criticism 119—20, 140-3, 243-4

299

Edwardian homilies 11, 97, 100-1, 153, 156, 161-6, 173 see also Cranmer, Thomas Elizabeth I 4, 15, 181, 195-6, 234, 272 Elizabethan Church 12, 89, 227-34 Elyot, Sir Thomas 45, 58, 91 The Boke called the Governour 45 Of the knowledeg whiche maketh a wise man 45 A Preservative agaynste deth 91 Erasmus, Desiderius 36, 44, 60—1, 74-5, 106, 186, 257 on the Church 7, 88, 121, 126, 174 The dyaloge called Funus 24, 30-1, 40 Enchiridion 21, 29, 57, 61n., 70, 86, 93-4, 153 Epistle... unto Conradus Pelicanus 125, 168-9 on faith and salvation 83, 98, 155, 159 and humanism 28-31, 38, 55, 183 De immensa misericordia dei 40—1 Novum Instrumentum (and Ratio) 37, 183 and Paraphrases on the Gospels 106, 117,272 A playne and godly exposytion... of the Crede 56, 90 Praise of Folly 29 Proverbes 62 and rediscovery of Scripture 8, 21, 37, 69-70 and religious regeneration 8-9, 11,21,30-1,40-1,55,77,80, 139 De utilitate Colloquiorum 30 eucharistic doctrine 64, 66, 91-2, 104-9, 124-5, 196 communion in both kinds 200, 205

300

Index

eucharistic doctrine (cont): in Elizabethan works 203-12 in Marian works 166-76 in Protestant thought 105-6 'Real Presence' 104-8, 112-13, 121, 122-3, 124 transubstantiation 105-6, 112, 272 Eusebius of Emesa, Bishop 92, 206 evangelicalism 10, 66, 67, 83, 94-6, 117, 119, 154, 192 Evesham 35

Contemptum humanae legis 61—2 A. Declaration of such true articles 98-9 A Detection of the Devils Sophistrie 73 De Vera Obedientia 7-8, 67-9, 70, 77 and Henrician policy 4, 7, 60-2, 67-71, 73-5 and salvation 97-102, 215 Geneva 198,265 Germany 198 Gerson, Jean 232 fathers of the church 29-30, 66, good works, see salvation 82, 86, 87, 92, 105, 121, 124, Greek, use of 17, 28, 36, 37, 66, 150, 167 74-5, 183 in Elizabethan controversies 188, and Greek authors 46, 190, 254 192, 201-2, 206, 213, 216, 230, Gregory of Nazianzus, St 92 233, 238 Grey, Lady Jane 103-4 fasting 41,75,260 Grocyn, William 29 Gwynneth, John 150 Feckenham, John, O.S.B., Abbot of Westminster 35-6, 178 A Manifests Detection 150 'Fifteen Oes of St. Bridget' 79-80 Fisher, St John, Bishop of Harding, Thomas 184-5, 212, 222, Rochester 6, 23, 32, 37, 42, 258 98, 158,215 An Ansreere (1564) 199 on purgatory 219 on church authority 238-9, Fowler, John 213,234-5 244-6, 246-7, 251 Fox, Edward 63, 71 controversy with Jewel 189, 192, Fox, Richard, Bishop of Winchester 193-8, 203, 235, 244-5, 266-7 37 on the Mass 187, 203-4, 205, 206-8, 210-12 Foxejohn 17,229,230,231 Acts and Monuments 17, 114, 224, Reiondre to M. levels Replie 266 on use of the vernacular 185-6, 228 186-7 Franciscans 31, 248 Frith, John 29 Harpsfield, John 117,132-5, 162-5, 173 Gardiner, Germane 29 Hebrew, use of 17, 53-4, 66, 183, A letter of a yonge gentylman 190 29-30 Henry V 54 Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Henry VIII 3, 14, 15, 37-9, 44-5, Winchester 29, 90-2, 141 102, 105-6, 120, 129 and the Catholic Church 67-8, Assertio Septem Sacramentorum 20, 39, 55 73, 87, 126

Index and religious policy 8-10, 49-56, 67-81,82, 113, 192-3,218-19, 272 and Supremacy 4-7, 18-21, 48, 52-67, 71-3, 126, 190-1, 270 Hervet, Gentian 21,22,40-1,47,70 Heskyns, Thomas 190, 193 The Parliament of Chryste 190-2, 201 Hilary, St 92 Hilton, Walter 246 The Scale of Perfection 246 Hogarde, Miles 98, 107, 149-50 The assault of the sacrament of the Altar 149-50, 171 Homer 199 Hosius, Cardinal Stanislaus 188 humanism 8-10, 16-48, 50-2, 53-6, 82-3, 85-6, 89-92 Hunnc case 53 'Iconoclastic Fury' 225 Ignatius, St 92 Illyricus, Matthias Flacius 228 images 52, 64, 116, 256, 262-3 indulgences 31, 40, 42 Innocent III, Pope 190 The Institution of a Christian Man, see 'Bishops' Book' Ireneus, St 92, 239 Jerome, St 28, 92, 108, 221 Jesuits 180, 226, 248 Jewel, John, Bishop of Salisbury 189,211,228-34,242 Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae 195, 228, 242, 267 'Challenge Sermon' 189, 210 controversy with Catholics 192, 193-8, 228, 234-5, 257, 266-7 Jews 80, 99, 222, 253 John of Damascus, St 92 Joseph, Robert, O.S.B. 35-6 Joye, George 101

301

justification, see salvation Justin, St 92 Justinian, Emperor 46, 60 Karlstadt, Andreas Bodenstein von 159 Kempe, Margery 27 Kempis, Thomas a 25—7 The Imitation of Christ (or The falominge of Chryste) 25-7, 143 'King's Book' (or The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man) 63, 65, 87, 153, 156, 218-19 kingship 44-8,62, 117 and obedience 61-2, 69, 73 Old Testament 9-10, 54, 62 Lactantius 179 Lambeth Synod 129-31, 136-7, 138, 152-3, 175 Langland, William 270 Latimer, Hugh, Bishop of Worcester 102 Latin, use of 2-3, 12-13, 28, 34, 36, 66, 183, 254 Leo I, Pope (St Leo the Great) 216 Leo X, Pope 55 Linacre, Thomas 29 Lollardy 23 Louis of Bavaria, Emperor 59 Louvain 200, 242 and Collegium Trilingue 183 English exiles at 11, 181-2, 184, 213, 225, 258, 271-2 University of 183, 236 Luther, Martin 20, 40, 84, 149, 170, 237 criticism of 55, 69, 75—6, 186, 229, 242 De Abroganda Missa Privata 210 and 'Real Presence' 105-6, 121, 168, 203-4

302

Index

Lutheranism 23, 64, 94, 229, 122 attacks upon 29, 43-1, 76, 240, 265 Magdeburg Centuries, see Flacius Illyricus Manicheus 104 Marsilius of Padua 58 Defence of Peace 58, 59-60 Marian restoration 4, 10-11, 89 and church reform 136-40, 272 and vernacular Scripture 136 Martiall, John 185, 196, 251, 256, 264, 265-6 The Treatyse of the Crosse 216-17, 262-3 ' Martin, Gregory 226 A Treatise of Schisme 258 Mary, Blessed Virgin 117,177-8 and the Ave Maria 32, 33, 34, 178 Mary I 15,110,113,150,181, 190-1 and humanism 117-20 and Protestantism 75-7 relations with Rome 115 and religious literature 78, 107, 270-1 and religious policy 10-12, 114-16, 136, 138, 192,256 Mass 33, 52, 80, 83, 104-9, 116, 135, 146, 150 and literal exegesis 122—3, 168-70, 205-6 in Marian works 166-76 and prayers for the dead 219-21 as sacrifice 105, 170 see also eucharistic doctrine Melanchthon, Philip 74, 106, 121 Melton, William, Chancellor of York 26 Micronius, Martin 109 monasteries 116 & n., 177, 265 dissolution of 38, 65-6, 137

More, St Thomas 26, 29, 32, 36, 38, 39-40, 45, 183, 257, 269 and allegiance to Rome 6, 7-8, 120, 129-30 and religious polemic 92, 193, 265 Supplication of Souls 219 Morison, Sir Richard 102-3 Morone, Giovanni, Cardinal 184, 254 Moses 101 The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian Man, see 'King's Book' Oecolampadius, John 106,149, 159 Oecolampadians 240 Origen 29, 132, 187 Owen, Thomas 235-6 Oxford 35, 122 Oxford Movement 269-70 Papacy 5, 44, 84, 116 adherence to 7, 113 & n. attacks on 53, 54, 57-8, 59-63, 73-4 Elizabethan ideas of 198-202, 225, 231-3, 236-7, 243-4, 247-56 and the Marian restoration 115, 127-35 parliament 134, 181, 190 Paternoster 32, 33, 34, 36 patristics, see fathers of the church Paul, St 68,80,90, 118, 125-6, 149, 163, 230, 239 Epistle to the Ephesians 126 Epistle to the Galatians 80, 157-8 Epistle to the Romans 214 First Epistle to the Corinthians 222 First Epistle to Timothy 172

Index Paul III, Pope 73-4 Paul IV, Pope 257 St Paul's Cathedral 134 Paul's Cross 122 Paynell, Thomas 46-7, 58, 90, 117-19, 120 The Piththy and moost notable sayinges of al Scripture 117—19 and Twelve sermons (or Certaine sermons) by St Augustine 140, 143-8 Pelagianism 64, 214 Pelagius 104 Pelicanus, Conradus 125 penance 64, 66 Persons, Robert 226, 235 Peter, St 128, 131, 132-3, 199, 251 Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni 39-40 Pighius, Albertus 231-2 Pius II, Pope (Aeneas Sylvius) 232 A plains and godlye treatise 124, 140-1, 143, 155, 168, 170, 175 Plato 79 Poissy, Colloquy of 198 Pole, Geoffrey 47 Pole, Reginald, Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury 40, 98, 104, 133, 181, 232 and Concilium de Emendenda Ecelesta. 136 and Marian restoration 128—30, 138, 140, 180 and opposition to Henry VIII 10-11, 52-3 Reformatio Angliae 136 A treatie of iustification 213—16 Pole, Richard de la 52 Pollard, Leonard 142, 153-4 Fyve Homilies 142-3, 154 Polycarp, St 92 Pownde, Thomas 254—5 preaching 33

3°3

predestination 90, 98-9, 159-60, 196 priesthood 26, 35—7, 116 and reform 136-7, 138-40 'priesthood of all believers' 98 primers 11,79-80, 176 Proctor, John 119 Protestantism 38, 42-3, 50-1, 63, 67,75 in conflict with Catholicism 83, 170-1, 176, 193, 265 criticism of 29, 61, 65, 99-100, 140-5, 154-5 and humanism 17, 70, 96, 112-13 links with Catholicism 13-15, 83-5, 86, 89, 96-104, 106-9, 116, 121, 189,202-4,271 and Marian persecution 224 and the papacy 72-3 and reform 36, 41 and sola scriptura 86 see also Calvinism; Lutheranism; salvation psalms 23, 78 Purgatory 80, 112, 146, 177 in Elizabethan controversies 192, 217-22 and prayers for the dead 64, 86-7, 112, 192 Puritanism 241, 260, 272 Rastell,John 185,208 Ratisbon (Regensburg), Colloquy of 205 recusancy 5, 115, 246 Redman, John 112—13 The complaint of grace 139 De lustificatione 160 & n. A reporte of Maister Doctor Redmans answeres 112 Renaissance 6, 72, 79, 224 Reynolds, William 226 Rheims New Testament 185,253

3°4

Index

Rome 80 Roper, Margaret 36 Rouen 107 Royal Supremacy 19-20, 48, 53-6, 67,71, 84, 111 and conservatism 71—5 and reformation 50-1, 54, 55-6, 77, 113 and Scripture 53-4, 69-70 see also Henry VIII sacrament of the altar, see eucharistic doctrine saints, worship of 64, 116 & n., 117, 177,257 St Paul's School 37 Salisbury 122 salvation 40-2, 64, 66, 76, 93-104 in Elizabethan works 212-17 and good works 41, 42, 43, 64, 66, 72, 76, 82, 94-5, 99, 108 and justification by faith 39-44, 64,82-3,93-104, 112-13 and justification by faith alone 40,42-3,76,94, 110,272 in Marian works 154-66 and Protestant thought 158-9, 161-6 Sanders, Nicholas 184-5, 188, 202, 204, 258 on the Mass 208-9 on papal authority 236-7, 248-50 on Protestants 241, 266 The Rocke of the Churche 250-1 The supper of our Lord 252 A Treatise of the Images of Christ 242-4, 262-3 Savonarola, Girolamo 78-9 schism 85 Schmalkalden 265 Scripture 26, 77, 150 abuse of 65,75-6, 119-20 and Catholic reform 82—3, 86

and church authority 84-92, 120-7, 188-9 and Elizabethan Catholicism 189-92 rediscovery of 21-2, 37, 57 use of 31,32,51,64-5,67 vernacular 23, 32, 76, 80, 136, 183-6, 254 Silvester, Pope 60 Smith, Richard, Regius Professor of Divinity 110-11, 120, 178-9, 219 A Boucher of the Catholike fayth 143

A brief treatyse 110-11 Smith, Thomas 74 Standish, John 109-10,119,133, 178-9, 186 A Lylle treaty se 130 The trial! of the supremacy 130—2 Staphylus, Fridericus: The Apologie of Fridericus Staphylus 213, 248 Stapleton, Thomas 185, 189-90, 213, 226, 257 and translation of Bede 238, 246 Starke}', Thomas 71,85 Stephen, St 230 Strasbourg 102 Switzerland 198 Syon abbey 27, 32 Taverner, Richard 29, 44, 62, 66-7 Ten Articles 63-5, 86-7, 89, 91 Tertullian 92, 206 Theophylact 92 'Thirty-Nine Articles' 196 tradition, see Church translations 23, 28, 56-7 Tunstall, Cuthbert, Bishop of London 77, 80, 105, 120, 154, 183,215 Contra Impios Blasphematores 160 & n.

Index and 'Real Presence' 168 and the Supremacy 4, 7 Tyndale, William 76, 92, 193 Ulmis,Johnab 108 universities 65, 116-17 Vaux, Laurence 258 and the Catechism of 1568 264-5 Venaeus, Joannes 141-2 vernacular literature 2-3, 10, 13, 23, 28, 32, 48, 56-7, 70, 176, 186, 226-7 Vermigli, Peter Martyr 198 Vestiarian controversy 196 Vincent of Lcrins, St 87, 142, 201, 238 The waie home to Christ 119 Vives, Juan Luis 38, 117 Volz, Paul, Abbot of Hugshofen 57 Wakefield, Robert 53-4 Wars of the Roses 52 Watson, Thomas, Bishop of Lincoln 212, 256 and the Mass 123, 168, 169, 172, 173-6

3°5

Holsome and Catholyke doctryne 143, 146-8, 153, 219-20 ' Watt, Joachim von 72 A worke entytkd of the aide god and the newe 71—2 Wells 122 White, John, Bishop of Winchester 139 Whitford, Richard 23, 24, 25, 31^, 43_4, 90 A Werke for housholders 24, 32-4 Wittenberg 61, 265 Wittenberg Articles 63-4 Wolsey, Thomas, Cardinal 37 Wyatt's Rebellion 119 Wyclifjohn 168,206,270 Xenophons treatise of house holde 47-8 Ximenes, Cardinal of Toledo 55 Young, John 112 & n. Zwingli, Ulrich 170, 229 Zwinglians 240—1