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072 - 9 The English Reformation First Period · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part three, Chapter nine of Short History of the Christian
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  Speaker 1: Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter nine The English Reformation first Period
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  Speaker 1: fifteen o nine to fifteen fifty three. The early attempts
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  Speaker 1: at reformation in England were in advance of those in
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  Speaker 1: any other part of Europe. To that country belongs the
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  Speaker 1: honor of having discovered the need of a universal religious
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  Speaker 1: regeneration in Europe. The beginnings of reform centered in Wycliff
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  Speaker 1: born about thirteen fifteen. He was a student and afterwards
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  Speaker 1: professor in Oxford. His first position of hostility to the
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  Speaker 1: prevailing doctrines was his declaration against the mendicant monks, who
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  Speaker 1: went up and down the land, extorting money from the
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  Speaker 1: people and preaching against learning and progress in every form.
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  Speaker 1: He issued several pamphlets against the muse and called loudly
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  Speaker 1: to his countrymen to get rid of them. So signal
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  Speaker 1: was his service that he was promoted to a wardenship
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  Speaker 1: in Oxford, namely of Balliol Hall or College. Four years later,
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  Speaker 1: in thirteen sixty five, he became master of Canterbury Hall,
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  Speaker 1: or the christ College of a later day. Schemes were
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  Speaker 1: soon in progress on the part of Langham, Archbishop of Canterbury,
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  Speaker 1: to eject Wycliffe, and the Pope issued a bull to
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  Speaker 1: that effect. In thirteen seventy Wycliffe replied by a tract
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  Speaker 1: against the papal policy arraying itself in hostility to the nation.
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  Speaker 1: The King, Edward the third, was already in revolt against
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  Speaker 1: the Pope and took up the cause of Wycliffe, who
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  Speaker 1: was appointed a royal chaplain and rector of Lutterworth. Wycliffe
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  Speaker 1: gained a clearer view every year of the corruptions of
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  Speaker 1: the church and preached boldly against them. He was summoned
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  Speaker 1: by the authorities of the church for trial for heresy,
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  Speaker 1: but the meeting ended in a violent dispute between the
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  Speaker 1: Bishop of London and the Duke of Lancaster, and nothing
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  Speaker 1: was done. He was indicted before the Pope for nineteen
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  Speaker 1: alleged heresies, and in thirteen seventy seven the Pope issued
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  Speaker 1: no less than five bulls against him. A second time,
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  Speaker 1: he was tried and escaped through the sympathy of the people.
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  Speaker 1: The court, which was held in Lambeth Palace, broke up
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  Speaker 1: in disorder, but not without commanding Wycliffe to stop preaching
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  Speaker 1: and writing, But he was, if possible, more industrious than ever.
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  Speaker 1: He spared no evil that he saw about him, and
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  Speaker 1: hurled anathemas against wilful pope and deluded priesthood. He died
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  Speaker 1: a natural death in his own house in Lutterworth. The
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  Speaker 1: same council which executed has that of Constance in fourteen
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  Speaker 1: fifteen condemned the writings of Wycliffe, and in fourteen twenty
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  Speaker 1: eight his dust was taken from the grave and cast
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  Speaker 1: out upon the Avon. The event gave rise to Fuller's lines,
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  Speaker 1: the Avon to the Severn runs, and Severn to the sea,
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  Speaker 1: and Wycliff's dust shall spread abroad wide as the waters be.
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  Speaker 1: Wycliff's greatest service to the coming Reformation was first his
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  Speaker 1: translation of the New Testament, and afterwards the whole Bible
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  Speaker 1: into English. It was the first attempt at reproducing any
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  Speaker 1: considerable portion of the scriptures into the popular tongue, and
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  Speaker 1: was a new revelation to the English people. The original
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  Speaker 1: of his translation was the Latin Vulgate, a very faulty source,
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  Speaker 1: but yet good enough to create a thirst for better
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  Speaker 1: things and prepare the way for the pure word. Between
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  Speaker 1: Wycliffe and the Reformers, of Henry the Eighth's reign lay
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  Speaker 1: a period of nearly two centuries. But through all those
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  Speaker 1: years the seeds planted by Wycliffe never died. No great
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  Speaker 1: interval passed without some bold spirit arising and saying strong
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  Speaker 1: words of protest against the errors of the times. The
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  Speaker 1: age was not ripe as yet for organized effort. The
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  Speaker 1: Herald's mission must first be wrought out. The political character
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  Speaker 1: of the English Reformation was a striking feature from the outset.
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  Speaker 1: In this regard, the new movement differed from that in
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  Speaker 1: all other countries except Holland. While the people were fully
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  Speaker 1: ready for religious revolt, the first organized rupture with Rome
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  Speaker 1: came from the King, Henry the eighth. The influence of
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  Speaker 1: his court was favorable to the cause, not as a
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  Speaker 1: spiritual necessity, but as a means of national independence. Then
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  Speaker 1: came the inflow of Protestants from the continent. Many learned
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  Speaker 1: men crossed the Channel and settled in Oxford and Cambridge
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  Speaker 1: and conducted discussions in favor of the Reformation. Among them
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  Speaker 1: may be mentioned Ochino, Peter Martyr, Martin Bussey, Paul, Phagius,
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  Speaker 1: and Tremellius. But greatest of all the men from abroad
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  Speaker 1: was Erasmus, whose Greek New Testament found a ready entrance
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  Speaker 1: into England. He settled in Cambridge and taught there. Henry's
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  Speaker 1: grievance against Romanism was purely personal. He wanted more wives
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  Speaker 1: than Rome was willing to grant him. He had been
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  Speaker 1: married while his father was yet king, to Catherine of Aragon,
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  Speaker 1: the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella, and the widow of
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  Speaker 1: Henry the Seventh's eldest son, Arthur the King. For political reasons,
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  Speaker 1: chose Catherine as wife for his second son and successor
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  Speaker 1: on the throne, Henry the eighth. After a marriage of
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  Speaker 1: nearly twenty years, Henry the Eighth resolved on a divorce
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  Speaker 1: from Catherine and the disinheriting of their daughter Mary. His
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  Speaker 1: object was to marry Anne Boleyn, but the question was
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  Speaker 1: how to get the Pope's consent. Wolsey was deputed to
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  Speaker 1: do this work and to proceed in person to Rome.
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  Speaker 1: Should the Pope consent, he would offend the Emperor Charles
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  Speaker 1: the Fifth, who would be insulted by the divorce of
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  Speaker 1: Henry from Catherine. Should he refuse, he knew that it
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  Speaker 1: would be an affront to England. He chose the latter
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  Speaker 1: as by that course he thought he would have less
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  Speaker 1: to lose. What should Henry the eighth do? He had
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  Speaker 1: made public his determination. The religious revolt in Germany proved
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  Speaker 1: to him that rebellion against the papacy was in the
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  Speaker 1: air of the age. His own people were eager for reform,
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  Speaker 1: so he determined to put away his wife, disavow his daughter,
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  Speaker 1: and make Anne Boleyn his queen. This brought about an
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  Speaker 1: open rupture with the Pope. Henry's real purpose was a
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  Speaker 1: national Roman Catholic Church, with himself as head, but this
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  Speaker 1: proved an impossibility. He saw there could not be two
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  Speaker 1: independent Catholicisms, one on the Tiber and the other on
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  Speaker 1: the Thames. He was borne along by the current of
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  Speaker 1: his people, and found himself finally compelled to link himself
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  Speaker 1: ostensibly with the new Protestantism, and yet in reality deeply
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  Speaker 1: in sympathy with the old Romanism. Henry the Eighth was
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  Speaker 1: a Roman Catholic in all but name and endorsement of
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  Speaker 1: the papacy. He despised the Lutheran doctrines and even wrote
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  Speaker 1: against them. His book against Luther was so fully Romanist
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  Speaker 1: that it was hailed in Rome as a powerful attack
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  Speaker 1: on Protestantism, and it even secured to Henry the eighth
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  Speaker 1: from Leo the tenth the title of Defender of the
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  Speaker 1: Faith Luther. However, when on steadily he was master of
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  Speaker 1: his theme, and besides refuting the positions of Henry, paid
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  Speaker 1: him the compliment of saying, when God wants a fool,
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  Speaker 1: he turns a king into a theological writer. There was
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  Speaker 1: no positively settled policy on the part of king or Parliament.
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  Speaker 1: One day, the Roman Catholics, under the lead of Cardinal
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  Speaker 1: Pole and Bishop Gardiner, had the confidence of the king,
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  Speaker 1: and on another Thomas Cromwell and Kramner were the stronger.
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  Speaker 1: Parliament was the willing servant of a capricious tyrant, and
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  Speaker 1: at one hour was ready to revoke its work of
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  Speaker 1: the preceding one. As a proof of how nearly England
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  Speaker 1: remained Roman Catholic under Henry the Eighth, we may mention
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  Speaker 1: the fact that, at his dictation in fifteen thirty seven,
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  Speaker 1: Parliament established the following six articles of faith. One transubstantiation
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  Speaker 1: or the real presence of Christ in the bread and
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  Speaker 1: wine of the Lord's Supper. Two sufficiency of communion in
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  Speaker 1: one kind only three illegality of the marriage of priests, four,
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  Speaker 1: obligation of vows of celibacy, five, propriety of retaining private
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  Speaker 1: masses six necessity of the confessional. It must be remembered, however,
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  Speaker 1: that notwithstanding all these attachments to the old Romanism, the
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  Speaker 1: country was gradually drifting away from it. The old order
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  Speaker 1: was breaking up, the Bible was publicly distributed, and Protestant
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  Speaker 1: doctrines were gaining more friends every day. Colette fourteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: six to fifteen nineteen and Sir Thomas Moore fourteen eighty
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  Speaker 1: to fifteen thirty five were the great influence in bringing
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  Speaker 1: about the revolution in the popular mind. The former had
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  Speaker 1: studied the Classics in Italy and brought with him to
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  Speaker 1: Oxford an ardent love for the new Humanism. He introduced
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  Speaker 1: expository preaching and a perpetual Divinity lecture three days of
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  Speaker 1: each week in Saint Paul's Church. His great object of
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  Speaker 1: attack was the profligacy of the church, from the papacy
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  Speaker 1: down through all grades of priesthood, as he had witnessed
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  Speaker 1: it in Rome. He cried aloud for the redemption of
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  Speaker 1: his beloved England. Oh Jesu Christ, wash for us, not
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  Speaker 1: our feet only but also our hands and our head.
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  Speaker 1: Otherwise our disordered church cannot be far from death. Sir
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Moore was a student in Oxford when he imbibed
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  Speaker 1: the new learning and became intimate with Erasmus and Colette.
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  Speaker 1: He was made Lord Chancellor of England on the fall
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  Speaker 1: of Wolsey and was held in high esteem by the King.
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  Speaker 1: He strongly opposed Protestant doctrines, however, and could never bring
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  Speaker 1: his conscience to a sent to the supremacy of Henry
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  Speaker 1: over the church. He incurred the King's displeasure by disapproving
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  Speaker 1: the latter's divorce from Catharine of Aragon, and absented himself
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  Speaker 1: from the coronation of Anne Boleyn. He refused to take
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  Speaker 1: the oath of allegiance to her as queen, and was
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  Speaker 1: sent to the Tower of London and afterwards beheaded. He
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  Speaker 1: was a model of eloquence, purity of heart, domestic virtue,
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  Speaker 1: simplicity and tenderness. After kissing his executioner, he said, thou
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  Speaker 1: art to do me the greatest benefit that I can receive.
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  Speaker 1: Pluck up thy spirit, man, and be not afraid to
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  Speaker 1: do thine office. My neck is very short. Take heed.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore that thou strike not awry for saving of thine honesty.
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  Speaker 1: Cranmer was, of all men of his time, most powerful
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  Speaker 1: in hastening the English reform. He aired in favoring the
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  Speaker 1: divorce of Henry and Catherine, rewarded by the King with
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  Speaker 1: the highest ecclesiastical preferment in his gift the Archbishopric of Canterbury.
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  Speaker 1: But Cranmer was a pure and unselfish man, and expressed
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  Speaker 1: only his real convictions. When he afterwards yielded to Henry
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  Speaker 1: so far as to pronounce his marriage with Anne Boleyn void,
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  Speaker 1: he was still the same pure man, but unwisely and
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  Speaker 1: irresolutely submitted to the pressure of the king. Cranmer became
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  Speaker 1: one of the regents of the kingdom after Henry's death.
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  Speaker 1: The young Edward who succeeded Henry, was a Protestant, but
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  Speaker 1: he died early and was succeeded by Mary, a rigid
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  Speaker 1: Roman Catholic. The court was at once filled with men
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  Speaker 1: in sympathy with her. The reformers were now in danger. Cranmer, Latimer,
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  Speaker 1: and Ridley were thrown into the tower. Cranmer, in a
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  Speaker 1: moment of weakness, signed a recantation, but soon withdrew it
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  Speaker 1: he with life, Ladaimer and Ridley was burned at the
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  Speaker 1: stake in fifteen fifty six. His last words were, as
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  Speaker 1: he held in the flames the hand with which he
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  Speaker 1: had written his recantation. This unworthy hand, Lord Jesus, received
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  Speaker 1: my spirit. The publication of the Bible in the language
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  Speaker 1: of the people was the most powerful single agency in
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  Speaker 1: bringing about the English Reformation. Tyndale translated the New Testament,
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  Speaker 1: which was printed in Verms in fifteen twenty six and
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  Speaker 1: introduced into England and circulated quietly over the country. Miles
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  Speaker 1: Cloverdale's translation of the entire Bible appeared in fifteen thirty five.
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  Speaker 1: This was the first complete English Bible ever printed without
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  Speaker 1: bearing any imprint of place or printer. The evidence is
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  Speaker 1: strong founded on the resemblance of types, that it was
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  Speaker 1: printed in Zurich by Christopher Freshshover. Cloverdale also public several
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  Speaker 1: of the Psalms in verse with musical notes. The date
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  Speaker 1: is not known, but it was probably before fifteen thirty eight.
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  Speaker 1: The following was the way in which he set out
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  Speaker 1: his little book on its singing mission. Be not ashamed,
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  Speaker 1: I warned thee, though thou be rude in song and rhyme,
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  Speaker 1: thou shalt to youth, some occasion be in godly sports
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  Speaker 1: to pass their time. The following is his first stanza
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  Speaker 1: of Psal one hundred thirty seven. At the rivers of Babylon,
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  Speaker 1: there sat we down right heavily, even when we thought
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  Speaker 1: upon Zion. We wept together sorrowfully, for we were in
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  Speaker 1: such heaviness. Yet we forgot all our merriness, and left
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  Speaker 1: of all our sport and play on the willow trees.
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  Speaker 1: Yet were thereby we hanged up our harps truly, and
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  Speaker 1: mourned sore both night and day. Matthew's Bible appeared in
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  Speaker 1: fifteen thirty seven with the royal sanction. Cranmer's translation of
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  Speaker 1: the Bible had likewise the royal approval, and was powerful
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  Speaker 1: in gaining many minds to the cause of reform. In
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  Speaker 1: addition to the Scriptures, other writings were circulated as formularies
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  Speaker 1: of doctrine and the public services. Among these must be
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  Speaker 1: mentioned the ten Articles, the Bishop's Book, the King's Book,
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  Speaker 1: and the King's Primer. Then comes Erasmus's paraphrase of the Scriptures,
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  Speaker 1: which in fifteen forty seven was placed in the parish
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  Speaker 1: churches in the same year, the first Book of Homilies
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  Speaker 1: went out with the royal approval. In fifteen forty nine,
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  Speaker 1: the first Communion Office, Cranmer's Catechism and the first English
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  Speaker 1: Liturgy or Book of Common Prayer were issued. In fifteen
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  Speaker 1: fifty two the second English Liturgy or Book of Common
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  Speaker 1: Prayer was ordered for use, while in fifteen fifty three
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  Speaker 1: the forty two Articles of Religion and the larger Catechism
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  Speaker 1: were approved and enjoined. At Henry's death, Protestantism in England
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  Speaker 1: still continued to be an uncertainty. Much had been done,
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  Speaker 1: but no fixed state of things had been reached. Protestant
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  Speaker 1: influences were permeating the masses, and this was the most
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  Speaker 1: hopeful sign. Both the king and his subjects had rejected
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  Speaker 1: the Pope's supremacy. The people had become acquainted with the Bible,
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  Speaker 1: and many now possessed copies in their own tongue. The
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  Speaker 1: monasteries had been suppressed and their vast wealth secularized. A
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  Speaker 1: visitancy to arrange services and preach Protestantism was ordered throughout
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  Speaker 1: the kingdom. Religious formularies were made binding upon the people,
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  Speaker 1: and all the ecclesiastical offices were filled with Protestants. But
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  Speaker 1: Rome was still watchful for the opportunity of restoration in England.
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  Speaker 1: It was too fair a land to lose. Besides, there
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  Speaker 1: was a powerful party at home which was eager to
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  Speaker 1: restore the old order, and by so doing, to bring
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  Speaker 1: itself to power and wealth. End of Chapter nine.