The Historical Faith of William Tyndale: Non-Salvific Reading of Scripture at the Outset of the English Reformation*

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 661-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Weil Baker
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Human Agency ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
Historical Evidence ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
John Foxe ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The Reformation

AbstractThis essay argues that for William Tyndale, not only was scripture not sola, but it did not have to be read solely as scripture, that is, the salvific word of God. It could also be read with historical faith, a term that Tyndale borrowed from the German Reformer Philip Melanchthon and used to signify “believing in scripture as one would a non-scriptural history.” Tyndale did not exactly advocate this approach to scripture, but he recognized it as having at least some validity, given the role of human agency and authority in the transmission of God's word. More broadly, the notion of historical faith in scripture reflects the Reformation elevation of what John Foxe called the “truth of history” along with that of scripture. In the polemical writings of Tyndale and later English Protestant Reformers, scripture served both as a means of personal salvation and as a source of historical evidence against the Catholic Church. As a source for this kind of evidence, scripture was cited in conjunction with non-scriptural histories and in ways not discernibly different from those in which such histories were cited. Tyndale's historical faith is not, then, as his opponent Thomas More dubbed it, an “evasion” borrowed from Melanchthon, but rather a part of the complex and developing relationship between scripture and history during the English Reformation.

Saint or Schemer? The 1527 Heresy Trial of Thomas Bilney Reconsidered

1989 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Greg Walker
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Ambiguous Figure ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
John Foxe ◽  
Significant Figure ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Sir Thomas More ◽  
The Church ◽  
The Catholic Church

On 8 December 1527 two scholars, Thomas Bilney and Thomas Arthur, carried penitential faggots at St Paul's Cross as a token of abjuration of heresy. With this act both men formally cleansed their souls and brought about their reconciliation with the Church. Far from being the end of a story, however, this ceremony proved to be the beginning of a controversy which has survived until the present day. For Thomas Bilney subsequently renounced his abjuration and became a significant figure in the early Reformation in England, eventually dying at the stake as a relapsed heretic in 1531. And yet, despite the importance attributed to him as a reformer, Bilney is now, as he was then, an ambiguous figure whose relationship with the Catholic Church and precise beliefs have never been conclusively determined. Many writers have claimed Bilney as a champion of their particular causes or have sought to identify his place in the wider movements of the Reformation. For the Protestant John Foxe he was a martyr, albeit a flawed one, for the reformed faith, who refused to the last to be intimidated into a second abjuration. For Sir Thomas More, in somewhat mischievous mood, he was a Catholic saint brought to realise the error of his ways at the stake and reconciled to the Church with almost his last breath.

Persecution and Toleration in the English Reformation

1984 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 163-187
Author(s):  
G. R. Elton
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
The Real ◽  
John Foxe ◽  
External Pressures ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of

The century of the Reformation, in England as elsewhere, sharpened all conflicts and augmented persecution. As the unity of Christendom broke up, the rival parties acquired that sort of confidence in their own righteousness that encourages men to put one another to death for conscience sake; an era of moderation and tolerance gave way to one of ever more savage repression. To the openminded willingness which characterized the humanism of Erasmus and More as well as the Rome of Leo X there succeeded the bigotry typical of Carafa, Calvin, Knox and the English puritans; only the gradual evaporation of such passions, produced by each side’s inability to triumph totally, produced a weariness with religious strife which made the return of mutual sufferance possible. That, at least, is the received story. Historians of toleration, as for instance Jordan and Lecler, firmly described the history of persecution in this way. Jordan identified six developments which led to its decline in sixteenth-century England: a growing political strength among dissident sects, the impossibility of preventing splintering and preserving uniformity, the needs of trade which overrode religious hostility, experience of travel, the failure to suppress dissident publications, and finally a growing scepticism which denied the claims to exclusive truth advanced by this or that faction. In other words, only two things moved men, once they had fallen away from the generosity of the pre-Reformation era, to substitute an uneasy toleration for a vigorous persecution: the external pressures of experience and the decline of religious fervour. By implication, men of power called for repression and only those who could not hope to win favoured toleration, until general exhaustion set in. It is a convincing enough picture, and much evidence no doubt supports it. But it is a picture—a general and rather schematic panorama which makes little allowance for the real opinions of individuals. On this occasion I should like to test it by looking at the attitudes of two highly articulate sixteenth-century Englishmen—Thomas More, humanist and loyal son of the universal Church, and John Foxe, humanist and faithful protestant. Both, we know, were men of sensitivity and sense. How did they stand to the problem of persecution?

Shunamites and Nurses of the English Reformation: the Activities of Mary Glover, Niece of Hugh Latimer

1990 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 335-344
Author(s):  
Susan Wabuda
Keyword(s):  
Religious Change ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
The Past ◽  
God's Word ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Distinct Role

‘Mistress Glover … you are a woman hearty in God’s cause’, wrote Nicholas Ridley in 1555 to Mary Glover of Baxterley in JL? JL Warwickshire. Hearing that her husband had been incarcerated ‘for God’s word sake’, and that ‘old father Latimer is your uncle’, Ridley commended her own zealous commitment to the reformed faith, and her assistance of others: ‘… you be hearty in God’s cause, and hearty to your master Christ, in furthering of his cause and setting forth his soldiers to his wars to the uttermost of your power’. In the past twenty-five years we have begun to determine why women on the Continent and in England were attracted to, encouraged, or inhibited the spread of religious change, but there is still much to be done to understand the role of individual women and women generally during the Reformation. Mary Glover, despite her association with prominent figures, is almost unknown to historians. The purpose of this paper is to describe a type of patronage which had important local and national implications, and a distinct role exercised by Mary Glover and others in the sixteenth and following centuries: the practical assistance which women offered to itinerant preachers.

The English Campaign against Luther in the 1520s (The Alexander Prize Essay)

1989 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 85-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rex
Keyword(s):  
Popular Religion ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
John Foxe ◽  
International Dimension ◽  
Ecclesiastical History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Vexed Question ◽  
Prize Essay

SINCE the days of John Foxe, ecclesiastical historians of the 1520s have concentrated on the Odysseys and Passions of the earliest English Protestants. Their Catholic opponents, with the notable exceptions of John Fisher and Thomas More, have been largely ignored. The object of this essay is to redress the balance by examining the English commitment to orthodoxy in the 1520s, a commitment made primarily by the secular and ecclesiastical authorities, but seconded enthusiastically by the academic community. It aims not to rewrite the entire ecclesiastical history of the decade, but merely to draw attention to an important though neglected element in the story. Nevertheless, it hopes to be a contribution to the reassessment of the English Reformation that has been carried out in much recent research. The essay is primarily an investigation of polemics, rather than of politics or of popular religion. Beginning with Henry VIII's decision early in 1521 to take up the pen personally against Luther, it draws out the connection of this with the promulgation in England of Exsurge Domine, the Papal condemnation of Luther, and suggests a solution to the vexed question of the ‘real’ authorship of Henry's Assertio Septem Sacramentorum. It investigates the continuation of this polemical assault on Luther by English scholars; and examines its international dimension, gathering evidence of the patronage and cooperation extended to Luther's continental opponents by the English authorities. In conclusion it proposes that the strongly orthodox commitment of the English authorities in the 1520s ebbed away only as the pressing needs of the ‘King's Great Matter’ occasioned competing, and ultimately conflicting, intellectual priorities.

Children, the Liturgy, and the Reformation: the Evidence of the Lichfield Cathedral Choristers

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 261-274
Author(s):  
T. N. Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Main Concern ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Central Importance ◽  
Administrative Records ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Church

The great interest generated by the theme of this year’s conference reflects the central importance of children in the history of the Christian Church, yet at the same time their omission from much of historical writing. For all but the recent past this is largely the result of the difficulties with the source material itself, and this is certainly true for historians of the Church during the medieval and Reformation periods. The main concern of the administrative records of the Catholic Church was with adults and, in particular, ordained men. It is to the schools that we must look for the most useful references to children and, more specifically, to the choir schools for evidence of the role of boys in the liturgy.

scholarly journals Reformation and the end of Christendom: two visions

Holiness ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-180
Author(s):  
Eamon Duffy
Keyword(s):  
English Reformation ◽  
Thomas More ◽  
Complex Dimensions ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis article reveals the complex dimensions which make it impossible to speak singularly of ‘the Reformation’. Martin Luther's reforming activity gave rise to conflicting visions of the Church, which are impossible now to resolve. The article traces the trajectory of the English Reformation through the figures of Thomas More and William Tyndale. Although both convinced of the need for reform, More was opposed to Tyndale's approach, which he perceived would lead to the breakdown of order into anarchy. The outworking of this signals the end of Christendom, and has led to continuing mutual incompatibility.

Sola Scriptura in Africa: Missions and the Reformation Literacy Tradition

2019 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-87
Author(s):  
Steven van Dyck
Keyword(s):  
Print Culture ◽  
Church History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Word Of God ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Print Communication ◽  
Mission Movement ◽  
The Church

This theoretical reflection addresses issues arising in the history of world Christianity, in particular regarding mission churches in Africa since the nineteenth century. The article first evaluates the development of oral, manuscript and print communication cultures in western culture, and their influence since the first century in the Church. Modernity could only develop in a print culture, creating the cultural environment for the Reformation. Sola Scriptura theology, as in Calvin and Luther, considered the written Word of God essential for the Church’s life. The role of literacy throughout Church history is reviewed, in particular in the modern mission movement in Africa and the growing African church, to show the importance of literacy in developing a strong church. In conclusion, spiritual growth of churches in the Reformation tradition requires recognition of the primacy of print culture over orality, and the importance of a culture of reading and study.

The Social and Economic Spread of Rural Lollardy: A Reappraisal

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 111-129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek Plumb
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
John Foxe ◽  
Continuous Movement ◽  
The People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Reformation

The evidence given us by John Foxe in his Book of Martyrs provides more information about the social and theological standing of Lollards than we know about many later religious dissidents. Recent work has added to our knowledge. Geoffrey Dickens and Claire Cross have reconsidered the place of the Lollards in the development of the English Reformation, especially in theological matters. John Thomson drew our attention to the continuity shown in some areas. Claire Cross and Margaret Aston showed the importance of women Lollards. J.F. Davis has supported the idea of a continuous movement, and stressed the involvement of the remaining Lollard brotherhoods in the Reformation proper. Margaret Aston saw the reformers using Lollard texts to settle the Reformation into a tradition. And John Fines found one group of Lollards definitely not of a low or ‘middling sort’. But despite this attention on the part of historians, we still know little of the people labelled Lollards. How did they react to developments locally and nationally? Did they assimilate into their local communities despite their beliefs? What social and economic standing did they have? Was contemporary abuse, which dismissed them as ‘lowly sorts’, justified?

A Moveable Feast: Saint George's Day Celebrations and Religious Change in Early Modern England

1999 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muriel C. McClendon
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Religious Change ◽  
English Reformation ◽  
English History ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Religious Doctrine ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Broad Outline ◽  
The Catholic Church

Recent writing on the English Reformation has been dominated by the so-called revisionists. While not all revisionist historians have advanced an identical interpretation of the Reformation, the broad outline of their argument is neatly summarized in the opening lines of J. J. Scarisbrick's The Reformation and the English People: “On the whole, English men and women did not want the Reformation and most of them were slow to accept it when it came.” While earlier writers argued that the Reformation period represented a sharp break in English history with a definitive rejection of Catholicism, revisionists have asserted that there was considerable continuity in the religious life of sixteenth-century men and women. The Catholic Church was strong and vital and commanded considerable loyalty among the laity, and changes to religious doctrine and practice generated considerable hostility. The demise of the Catholic Church in England was not assured, and the success of the Protestant Reformation was the result of a long straggle fought from above that was won only during the middle years of Elizabeth's reign.The revisionist interpretation has commanded wide attention and support. It currently stands, in many respects, as the new orthodoxy of English Reformation historiography. Most historians now concur on the profound attachment of many men and women to the doctrine and worship of the Catholic Church and their reluctance to abandon them. Nevertheless, a number of questions about the revisionists' interpretation of the Reformation and English religiosity remain.

The Scottish Reformation and the Theatre of Martyrdom

1993 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 259-270
Author(s):  
Jane E. A. Dawson
Keyword(s):  
Catholic Church ◽  
John Foxe ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Distinct Sense ◽  
Complete History ◽  
The Catholic Church ◽  
Acts And Monuments

Poor John Knox felt a distinct sense of inferiority when he sat down to write the first book of his History of the Reformation in Scotland. Unlike his English friend John Foxe, he could not draw upon the stories of hundreds of martyrs and fit them into the complete history of the persecuted Church from its beginning until the present day. To make matters worse, Foxe would duplicate Knox’s labours by incorporating the stories of most of the Scottish martyrs into his 1570 edition of the Acts and Monuments. In his ambition to be both the historian and the martyrologist of the Scottish Reformation, Knox thought he faced an immediate and apparently overwhelming problem: that of a distinct shortage of martyrs. Yet he was quickly reassured once he began assembling the details of those who had vigorously opposed the ‘manifest abuses, superstition and idolatry’, which characterized the Catholic Church in Scodand before the Reformation. Martyrs soon began to appear before his eyes, and Knox consoled himself, ‘Albeit there be no great number, yet are they more than the Collector would have looked for at the beginning.’

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