Full Text for The Church Reform of Henry VIII a Product of the Renaissance, part 2 (Text)

(ttnurnr~ia ijJqrnlngiral !lnutqly Continuing LEHRE UND WEHRE MAGAZIN FUER Ev.-LuTH. HOMILETIK THEOLOGICAL QUARTERLY-THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY Vol. V December, 1934 No. 12 CONTENTS Die Umstimmung Gottes im Versoehnungswel'k Christi. Page J. T. Mueller ..••••.•••••• 897 The Church Reform of Henry VIII a Product of the Re- naissance. Theo. Hoyer ..••••.•••••••••••••••••••••• 907 Jerusalem. P. E. Kreumann ••••.•..••.•••..•..•••.••.•.• 922 Del' Schriftgrund fuel' die Lehre von del' satisfactio vicaria. P. E. Kretzmann •••••••••.• 929 Practical Suggestions for Conducting Bible Classes. P. E. Kretzmann ••••••••.•.• 932 Dispositionen ueber die altkirchliche Evangelienreihe ...... 935 Miscellanea. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 951 Theological Observer. - Kirchlich-Zeitgeschichtliches. . . .. 957 Book Review. - Literatur ............................ 969 Ein Predlger mU!18 nleht .U.1n 1Dei· they were deemed too Protestant. They were based on the Augsburg Confession and its Apology>· but the hand of the Romanizing emendator is very apparent (see comparison, Jacobs, l. c., p. 90 :If.). The chief objection seems to have been the omission of four of the sacraments. So in 1537 there was published a statement of Anglican dogma known as the Institution of a Christian 1I1an, or The Bishops' Book. In this treatise the four sacraments which had been lost in the Ten Articles were found again; justification was declared entirely due to Ohrist's merits, but this did not dispense from the obligation to good works; purgatory was repudiated, but prayers for the departed souls were recommended. This was submitted to the king; but he said he did not have time to examine it; he, however, trusted in the wisdom of the authors of this book and ordered that it be read in the churches for the next three years.25) All of this was, however, recognized as tentative and temporary. In this state of transition and uncertainty the reform party, those who hoped that Henry would free his Ohurch from all the ungodly superstitions of Rome, took new courage, and every shrine that was splintered, every image that was burned, every monastery that was surrendered to the king was hailed as a triumph by this party. Oromwell, the king's vicegerent, leaned greatly toward that party (though he, too, was politician first), and while the king was troubled by a new impending Spanish-French alliance and a possible threat of invasion, Oromwell issued a series of injunctions which appeared to mark advance on the path of a change. But Henry never wavered in dogma. W1len the danger of a French invasion was greatest, he had the :French king informed that the king of England must not be called a heretic. A certain John Lambert, or Nicholson, a pupil of Bilney, was accused of denying the real presence of Ohrist's body in the Sacrament, was tried and cross- examined by the king himself, who presided at the trial clothed all in white and himself sentenced him to death by fire. In London a man was hanged for eating meat on Friday. On Good Friday His Majesty crept to the cross devoutly from the chapel and served the priest at Mass, "his own person kneeling on His Grace's knees." And Henry thought it was time to call a halt to all doctrinal perversion. But he was not alone in this. Parliament met in 1539 and after long delibera- tion passed an act commonly called the Six Articles> or the Bloody Articles> or the Whip with Six Strings>· passed it very nearly unani- mously.26) And it is for this reason that I shall now cite more liberally from this Act; this represents the consensus of opinion of 25) Fisher, p.418. 26) Gee and Hardy, p. 303 ff. The Church Reforlll of Henry VIII a Product of the Renaissance. 919 the vast majority of English church people at this time, 1539, when Henrys reform was completed. The six points considered were: - "First, whether in the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar re- maineth, after the consecration, the substance of bread and wine, or no. "Secondly, whether it be necessary by God's law that all men should be communicated with both kinds, or no. "Thirdly, whether priests, that is to say, men dedicate to God by priesthood, may by the law of God marry after, or no. "Fourthly, whether vows of chastity or widowhood made to God advisedly by man or woman be by the law of God to be observed, or no. "Fifthly, whether private masses stand with the law of God, and be to be used and continued in the Ohurch and congregation of England, as things whereby good Ohristian people may and do receive both godly consolation and wholesome benefits, or no. "Sixthly, whether auricular confession is necessary to be retaincd, continued, used, and frequented in the church, or no." The result, as stated in the Act, was: - "After a great and long, deliberate, and advised disputation and consultation, had and made concerning the said Articles, as well by the consent of the bng's highness as by the assent of the lords spiritual and temporal and other learned men of his clergy in their Oonvoca- tion, and by the consent of the Oommons, in this present Parliament assembled, it was and is finally resolved, accorded, and agreed in manner and form following, that is to say:- "First, that in the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar, by tbe strength and efficacy of Ohrist's mighty word (it being spoken by the priest), is present really, under the form of bread and wine, the natural body and blood of our Savior Jesus Ohrist, conceived of the Virgin Mary; and that after the consecration there remaineth no substance of bread or wine nor any other substance, but the substance of Ohrist, God and man. "Secondly, that Oommunion in both kinds is not necessary ad saluterr~ by the law of God to all persons and that it is to be believed, and not doubted of, but that in the flesh, under the form of bread, is the veTS blood and with the blood, under the form of wine, is the very flesh, as well apart as though they were both together. "Thirdly, that priests after the order of priesthood received, as afore, may not marry, by the law of God. "Fourth1y, that vows of chastity or widowhood, by man or woman made to God advisedly, ought to be observed by the law of God and that it exempts them from other liberties of Ohristian people, which without that they might enjoy. "Fifthly, that it is meet and necessary that private masses be continued and admitted in this the king's English Ohurch and con- 920 The Church Reform of Henry VIII a Product of the Renaissance. gregation, as whereby good Ohristian people, ordering themselves ac- cordingly, do receive both godly and goodly consolations and benefits; and it is agreeable also to God's law. "Sixthly, that auricular confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued, used and frequented, in the Ohurch of God." Transgression of this Act meant death; denial of the first article, transubstantiation, "shall be adjudged manifest heresy, and every such offender and offenders shall therefore have, and suffer, judgment, execution, pain and pains of death by way of burning; ... and also shal('therefore forfeit and lose to the Iring's highness, his heirs and successors, all his or their honors, manors, castles, lands, tenements, rents, services, possessions, and all other his or their hereditaments, goods and chattels, terms and freeholds, whatsoever they may be." Those who denied any of the other five articles should be deemed and adjudged felons and should therefore suffer pains of death, as in cases of felony, and should forfeit all their possessions. The same punishment falls on all who by word, writing, printing, ciphering, or otherwise than is above rehearsed, publish, declare, or hold opinion against this Act. Priests who have married before adoption of this act must be divorced; those who refuse to do that or who marry after the date of the Act shall be put to death and the respective women as well. All who after date of the Act refuse, deny, or abstain to be confessed and receive the sacrament shall be imprisoned and fined; second offenders shall be put to d8ath. It was a ferocious statute; but Gairdner says: "Severe as the law was, it led to but little severity in practise."37) Why not? Fishel' says: "The public mind, which had boon alarmed by the prosp8ct of a radical change in the creed, derived comfort from the reflection that the faith was now securely guarded against the heretic."28) Only two bishops resigned, Shaxton and Latimer; Oranmer dismissed his wife. JIIlarillac, the French ambassador, wrote home: "The people show great joy at the king's declaration concerning the sacrament, being much more inclined to the old religion than to the new opinions." 29) "MOTe- over," says Gairdner, "it was the old religion and in the main the religion of the people which was now protected by such severe penalties. It was the old religion, with the Pope left out."30) And that is th8 sum total of Henry's reform. During the last years of his reign the sentiments and convictions of many people, notably of many clergymen, changed; the Bible, authorized by Henry, was spread and read widely and led more and more people to the 27) Page 208. 29) Fisher, p. 438. 28) Fisher, p. 438. 30) Page 208. The Church Reform of Henry VIII a Product of the Renaissance. 921 knowledge of the truth; and when Henry died in 1547 and his son Edward was crowned, the Protestant faction felt strong enough to come out into the open and change the doctrinal position of the Ohurch; sad to say, it was not Lutheran, but Oalvinistic. But that is a new chapter. Henry's reform really ends with the Six Articles. Was it a real reformation of the Ohurch? Fundamentally noth- ing was changed in the Ohurch as Ohurch; it was only shorn of its temporal power; the great bulwarks of the Ohurch against which Luther had written so forcibly in his Babylonian Captivity of the Church) Sacramentalism and Sacerdotalism, still remained. Salva- tion was still bound to the seven sacraments as the channels through which grace was infused into the Ohristian heart, enabling him through penance to work his way toward justification. The Mass remained in all its idolatrous glory. The Ohristian was still bound to seek his God through the OTdained priesthood in confession, and without them he had no access to God and heaven. Externally, of course, there was some difference; some of the glaring excrescences of Popery had been lopped off; but the evil tree still remained; how long and it would bring forth the same fruits or others just as bad. One was already in evidence - bloody intolerance. It was a repetition of the Spanish reformation in the last years of the fifteenth century. There Ferdinand and Isabella had made themselves heads of the Ohurch in all but name and set out to reform the Ohurch through the Inquisition. And here Henry's supreme effort was the Six Articles. vVe, of course, view the English Reformation in the light of what happened after Henry; but had the reformation of England stopped there with the work of Henry, what would have been the result ~ Log'ically, the story of Spain over again. Awl I submit: That was the best the Renaissance could ac- complish. Here in England they had not only a free field, but the support of an almost absolute monarch, who was at the same time himself an outstanding humanist. Practically all the things that Erasmus stood for were carried out in Henry's reform. Yet at the end the Church remained what it was. And the poor sin-sick soul of man found no better consolation than before. To bring about a true reformation of the Ohurch, more was re- quired than all that Renaissance scholars could do. It was necessary that God open men's eyes to the true evil in the Ohurch, work- righteousness, and the only remedy, the Gospel of grace and faith. This He did through Dr. Martin Luther. THEa. HOYER.