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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.