Reformed Anglicans

Augustine as well as the Cappadocian Fathers—Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus—bring further support and clarification, including the now-tossed-off Athanasian Creed. Am afraid a Trinitarian consciousness is nearwise gone, except for the schools, books, and seminaries. Thankfully, Prayer Book Churchmanship certainly helps to conserve and advance Trinitarianism, not leaving it to some cleric "to wing it." And also, our glorious Reformed Confessions. Some hymns helps too. Also, "Trinity Season." Time to be a part of the solution and not the problem. A retour. 

1.      God in Three Persons, 231-253. Quite unconfessionally (once again) for Gregg, we, on the other hand will confess, being taught this in our youth: WSC “Q. 5. Are there more Gods than one? A. There is but one only, the living and true God. Q. 6. How many persons are there in the godhead? A. There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.” The baptismal formula (Mt.28.19), apostolic benediction (2 Cor. 13.14). Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Athenagoras, Theophilus, Tertullian, Origen, Novatian, Hippolytus, dynamic Monarchianism, modalistic Monarchianism, Sabellianism, and the Nicene Creed are the agenda items for the ancient church’s view of the Trinity. [i] Dynamic Monarchianism—Theodotus of Rome, Paul of Samosata. Modalist Monarchianism—Praxeas of Rome, Noetus of Smyrna, Zephrinus and Callistus of Rome, Sabellius. Both...

1553, CHAPTER IV. A bit of mercy is shown. You foreigners and false teachers can get out of England. At first Dr. Vermigli was told no more teaching in Oxford. Next, never leave Oxford. Somehow, he gets to London and petitions the Council so that he can leave merry ole England. Peter Martyr departs. John a Lasko leaves also. So do about 800 Englishmen depart—to Frankfurt, Emden, Marburg, Strasbrug, Basel, Arou, Zurich, Geneva, and other places. Dr. Cranmer is in jail by Sept 1553 with other English Reformers. We do not have a date for Mrs. Cranmer and the children’s departure, or, even Ed Cranmer, Canterbury’s Archdeacon. Peter Martyr departs.  Even with a government pass, Papist malice abounded towards Martyr and he scoped out plans to avoid the English Papists. On this malice, it extended to Dr. Cranmer to Dr. Vermigli’s astonishment who says of Cranmer: “That he could not have thought there were any in the world, unless he had found it, that with such crafty wiles, deceitful tri...

1.      The first convocation in Edward I’s reign. Nov 1547. It should be noted that England was quite retarded in Reformation by comparison to German, Switzerland, and with other Continental Reformers. Dr. Redman, a scholarly recusant, offers a favorable judgment of priests' marriage. IT is debated in convocation, 53 affirming and 22 denying. Dr. Cranmer has influence in the Parliament’s agenda. The Six Articles are repealed. Communion in both kinds was established.   Dr. Cranmer sends quibbler’s queries concerning the Mass that, in reality, flushes out the Romanists. “Fire in the hole!”   ·         “What or wherein John, fasting, giving alms, being baptized, or receiving the sacrament of the altar in England, doth profit and avail Thomas, dwelling in Italy, and not knowing what John in England doth?” ·         “Whether it profit them that be in heaven, and wherein?” · ...

A magisterial and Erastian construct is in play—the state should advance churchly interests and the two worked hand-in-glove in Switzerland, rather than the more severe supremacy of England. This raises the issue of discipline—church and state, the limits, the context and the judges thereof. After all, this is a “magisterial” reformation. Imagine a city or nation purporting to run itself along the lines of God’s Word? Zwingli’s communion was pared down— “radically simplified” (84). Communion is a memorial and thanksgiving for redemptive benefits conferred upon the believer by Christ directly and immediately in Christ’s Presence by Spirit, affirming Christ’s body in heaven, yet present to the believer—unlike assertations from Anglo-Papes-and-Apes. The 1549 Consensus of Zurich will pull the German-Swiss and French-Swiss together on Christ at His sacrament with His people. Bullinger’s Decades is mentioned as well as the Second Helvetic Confession , done with the helicopter theologian hov...

The premise of Swiss worship—necessity of guarantees by Biblical premises, a fruit of his Sixty-seven Conclusions of 1523, showing thus, that he is ahead of Dr. Cranmer and England as an avant-garde theologian. Zwingli denies Ubiquitarianism as unproveable from Holy Scripture. “We teach not an iota that we have not learned from the divine Oraces; and we assert nothing for which we cannot cite as guarantors the first teachers of the Church, prophets, apostles, bishops, evangelists, Bible expositors” (74). Zwingli insisted on Greek and Hebrew Scriptures with both on a table at Synods—he also produced, with the help of others, a Swiss-German vernacular, ahead of the CoE, but in tandem or parallel with Luther’s and Tyndale’s advanced labors. The Swiss diverged from the early humanists by their impressions and sober views of God’s majesty, human depravity, and the great gulf between the Holy God. In this, Zwingli at Zurich and Oecolampadius at Basel predate Calvin of Geneva. As sinners, hum...

Psalm 119:133. Order my steps in thy word : and so shall no wickedness have dominion over me.

SIX ARTICLES. FLIP-FLOP TOM. Cranmer lost credibility with Reformers, gained distrust from Papists, and diminished respect from Luther, Melanchthon, Jonas, Burkhardt and other Lutherans. It was another low-light by Dr. Cranmer in conduct of, exegesis of, and favor of Biblical and historical exegesis according to the Zeitgeist—Henry’s Zeitgeist. Dr. Cranmer gave a quiet directive to Ales Alesius, the Scots Lutheran, to get out of England, lest he suffer the penal sanctions. Off he went to Wittenberg. Also, Margaret Cranmer was on the next boat out also, since, both Thomas and Margaret, under these conditions could have been hanged. Had England known of Tom’s secret marriage, things might have been different. What did Henry or Crumwell know of Margaret? As for the 6 Whips, So apostolic of Henry, Parliament, the episcopal bench and the Church of England. The Papists are smelling weakness and blood in the water. Cranmer even acts vigorously in enforcing the Act—another violation of his own...

The Six Articles, 178-198. On 5 May 1539, Audley announces that the King wanted to “abolish diversity” in religion by appointing a House committee to that end. Cromwell, Cranmer, AB Lee, Goodrich, Latimer, Salcott, Tunstall, Clerk and Aldrich, among others, were the members. The committee was divided. Confusion on dates of meeting, abstenteeism, and conflict stalled a resolution. 1539 Six Articles “First, that in the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar, by the strength and efficacy of Christ'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 Saviour Jesu Christ, conceived of the Virgin Mary, and that after the consecration there remaineth no substance of bread and wine, nor any other substance but the substance of Christ, God and man; “Secondly, that communion in both kinds is not necessary ad salutem, by the law of God, to all persons; and that it is to be believed, and not doubted of, but tha...

The Pope crafted on 11 Jul 1533 but didn’t publish (yet everyone seems to have known about it including Pollard in the 20 th century) an excommunication of Henry and his officers. Cranmer knew he was in the mix as the ABC. Henry pulls his ambassadors from Rome and the Act of Annates, formerly pending since 1532, gets put into effort. No cash for Rome, but now to Henry. The Spaniards counseled the now-anxious Pope not to worry since England was but an “unprofitable island.” Clement VII (and his two housekeepers) meet with Francis 1 in Marseilles, France (southern coast west of Toulon), a Cathedral city. Bloody Bonner, as Henry’s ambassador, is to tell the Pope that England is done with Rome. Henry’s next game: appeal to a General Council rather than Clement VII. Another Acts of Repeals (who can keep up with the Parliamentary rebuffs to Rome) is passed. Sorry, Catherine. An Act of Succession. Elizabeth Barton, More and Fisher are squeezed.

1.      Cranmer and Royal Supremacy, 61-87. Prof. Pollard lays out an excellent predicate, historically, to the ascendency of the State over the Church, predating and inherited by Dr. Cranmer. Things had travelled some distance when an Emperor-suppliant in the snow of Canossa had become a Emperor sacking Rome. The Avignon Papacy also depressed Rome’s credibility but not its pretensions. In England, the CoE reached its zenith in the 13 th century, but gradually declined, we are told, helped by Wycliffism. The study of Roman law aided and abetted in the divinity-impulses notable in Henry VIII’s time. The early Reformation was not helpful to the likes of Warham and Fisher, both who feared encroachments on ecclesiastical powers. Wolsey’s 15-year ascendancy was shot down and a transition to laymen in government, as a pattern, was forthcoming, e.g. More, Audley, and Crumwell. Cranmer’s political theory? Not far off from Luther’s. Cranmer at his trial will go as far as say...

A retour of Dr. Cranmer's brutal letter to the "ignorant and rude" of Devonshire over the 1549 uprising. He's rough, uncharacteristically, but, characteristically, is the thorough-going Erastian.

The famous story is told by Morice to Foxe of Henry’s 1546 chatter with Cranmer and the French King about a change in the communion service for England and France: “After the banquet was done the first night [DPV, after how much EtOH?], the King was leaning upon the ambassador and upon me. If I should tell what communication was had, concerning the establishment of sincere religion then, a man would hardly have believed it ; nor had I myself thought the King's Highness had been so forward in these matters as then appeared. I may tell you it passed the pulling down of roods, and suppressing the ringing of bells. I take it that few in England would have believed that the King's Majesty and the French King had been at this point, within half a year after to have changed the Mass in both the realms into a Communion, as we now use it. And herein the King's Highness willed me (quoth the Archbishop) to pen a form thereof to be sent to the French King to consider of.” (141). The of...

LUTHERANISM AND GARDINER ON THE SACRAMENT OF HOLY COMMUNION--AS FAR AS DR. CRANMER IS CONCERNED, BYE BYE! Mason says of Gardiner: “Gardiner was not a profound or well-read divine; and he approached the subject from the point of view of a man of common sense, who accepts the traditional opinion in a broad way, without caring to go into the niceties of it” (132). Cranmer faults Gardiner for being a lawyer and unlettered in Romish history, including Duns Scotus and Acquinas. It’s merciless censorship by Cranmer. “Will you take upon you to defend the papists and know not what they say?” asks Cranmer. Even though Mason the M.A. called Cranmer’s view of the Table “low,” he concludes of Cranmer: “Cranmer's work is triumphant in almost every detail” (135). One hears of Traheron, Bucer, Vermigli, Bullinger, Hooper, and Ridley. Reformers feared Bucer’s Lutheranism (whom Luther called the “chatterbox”). But, Cranmer came clean on it. Traheron: “’As to Canterbury,’ writes Traheron in August 15...

5. Cranmer under Edward VI, 119-164. Things, of course, change with Edward VI’s reign. Cranmer and Gardiner were thorough-going Erastians, as were Bonner, Tunstall, Stokesley and the rest. That will not go over too well when the Homilies, English Bible, and BCP come onto the streets. As for the Eucharistic discussion, Frith and Lambert are killed with Cranmer as a principal in these first degree homocides. Dr. Cranmer rebuts Vadianus's 6-volume set in 1538 for Oecolampadian and Zwinglian views. Cranmer claims he has read all of Oecolampadius and Zwingli's writings. Cranmer claims at his trial he held to Romanist then Reformed views, thanks to Dr. Ridley, despite Martin’s imputation of the 3-fold view at his trial. Justus Jonas’ 1548 catechism that is the culprit for imputing Lutheranism to Cranmer. The 1550 Defense of the True and Catholic Doctrine of the Sacrament of the Body and Book of our Saviour is Cranmer’s statement on the issue. Mason gives a convoluted statement by Cra...

1.      The Arian Controversy and the Council of Nicea, 181-192. Gnosticism and Montanism in the second centuries with Donatism in the third and fourth centuries see the advent of Arianism, Arius, Alexander of Alexandria, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Eusebius of Caesarea, Constantine, the eastern discussion of the Person of Christ in two natures as one Person, Bishop Hosius of Cordoba, 318 catholic bishops at Nicaea, and the 325 Council of Nicaea appear on the historical scene. Constantine’s three sons: Constantine II, Constans, and Constantius II will influence fourth century developments leading to the 381 Council of Chalcedon. Rather than a ecclesiastical resolution, one sees an Imperial intervention that will characterize church history until the separation of church and state in the American experiment. One result for Churchmen: we are united and trace our ties back to the Eastern conflict. Hence, one of the several values of church history, including the inspirationa...

1534-1536. The obstructionism and out-maneuvering of Dr. Cranmer continues from Stokesley, Nix, Veysey, and Longland. Thomas Crumwell will become Henry’s answer—Crumwell will command, virtually, the entire CoE. A Layman will run the CoE as Henry's Vice-gerent. And that’s that. Prof. MacCulloch claims that Cranmer had no hand at all in the dissolution of monasteries (which Crumwell had learned from Wolsey, the idea of which had been around elsewhere, e.g., Switzerland). Crumwell has the seat of pre-eminence in the House of Lords and in Convocation. Well, that won’t go over well with those fearing the “evangelical programme of reform.” Prof. MacCulloch uses the word “evangelical” in this chapter, again without any bullet-points of definition. Our multiple readings and marginal notes attest to previous frustrations including the closing of the chapter. Where did Anne go? Poof. We'll wait for the next chapter, but this was largely about politics. But, the Prof. closes it brilliantl...

1534. Cranmer attempts a visitation of dioceses in 1534 but with limited access and success. Stokesley, Nix, Longland and a few others complain about the “title” of legate of the apostolic see, to wit, wanting (conveniently) to avoid the praemunire matter that Wolsey tripped over. Where Dr. Cranmer did preach, it was “moralizing” and “scolding” (our words). Words to the clergy: avoid “…clerical wonder-working, avarice, belly-cheer, drunkenness…avoid clean, all pomp, all pride, all vainglory and specially all manner of covetousness…all ambition, al delicious fare…depart and dispose among the people of this realm lands, goods, money and whatsoever other thing they now possess superfluously” (128).

Prof. MacCulloch does a tour and offers brief notes on Parliamentary and Convocational meetings of 1534. Act of Annates, Act of Succession, drafts of reform of Canon Law, etc. Anne as a subject of the paragraph seems to have disappeared? And, again, theology-lite.

1.      Apparently, ABC Warham had a bastard son (called a “nephew” like clerical wives being called “housekeepers”), named William Warham, Archdeacon of Canterbury, a powerful and rich post. Nepotism in Canterbury (again), like Rome and other hierarchal contexts (we would include the military too). In dismantling Warham's clientage, patrons, pensioners, time-servers and others, Dr. picks his brother, Edmund Cranmer, a faithful "soulmate" as MacCulloch calls him, as the replacement of William Warham the "nephew." That means $$-transfers and the nephew is quietly pensioned off (bought off) at 80 pounds/year. He disappears as did Cardinal Wolsey's bastard son who was pensioned off and disappear. Edmund Cranmer follows his married brother, Thomas, and marries in 1535. Well now. The Six Articles are not a long off. What will Ed do? Will Ed send his wife packing to the Continent like brother Tom did? Ed will flee c. 1555 and survive Tom's brutal assassination...

LAST HALF OF 1533. Frith was burned on 4 Jul. Prof. MacCulloch thinks Cranmer cannot be blamed, not knowing he would change his mind 13 years later, or, 1546 (102). This scribe disagrees; Dr. Cranmer was guilty as a principal, a co-conspirator, an aider and abetter, of first degree, aggravated homocide. Someone realized he is using a 20th-21st century hermeneutic and that the 16th century hermeneutic allowed murders on religious grounds, especially the Papists of the Imperium. On another front, by way of background, in this time frame, Latimer is creating a theological ruckus in Bristol with the backing from area leaders. Latimer is on the cutting edge, even if the "silent" Cranmer may be "rigged for ultra quiet." Over in Canterbury, the Maid of Kent story is detailed including her interrogation, confession and and execution (102-103). The Warham partisans lose credibility in the conflict, advantaging Dr. Cranmer. Dr. Cranmer is also party to this homocide--the kill...

10 May-17 Jun 1533. BUCKLE-UP. Dunstable, 10 May—trial opened. 12 -17 May—Cranmer read to himself quietly the legal-theological decisions about copulation between Arthur and Catherine. Other witnesses were entered on the nullity-matter: university opinions, favorable opinion by the Convocations of Canterbury and York as well as Cambridge. 23 May—Dr. Cranmer issues the predictable decision. Cranmer returns to Lambeth and predictably declared the marriage to Anne—a fait accompli—was valid. Now, pressing forward within a few days—the coronation of the now-showing, 6-months pregnant, Anne. The festivities begin on 29 May and she was crowned at Westminster Abbey on Whitsunday, 1 Jul 1533, crowned by Dr. Cranmer, anointing and crowning here, and giving her the scepter and ivory rod. William Benson, Westminster’s Abbey, was the celebrant of High Mass. Heny watched covertly from some hidden box aloft somewhere. Afterwards, the festivities moved over to Westminster Palace/Hall for the food with...

Meanwhile, the Papal Nuncio, aware of the “conditional” character of the 1532 Parliamentary Act in Restraint of Annates (an Achilles’ heel if the Pope gets out of line), advising the Pope of the danger of schism, and acting sheepishly in Henry’s Court, is received well at Court while, conversely, the Spanish ambassador, the ever-astute Eustace Chapuys, annoyed at the spinelessness of the Nunio, reports in letters to the Emperor who “does not seem to have lifted a finger to stop them” (87). The Papal bulls, about eleven of them, arrive permitting Cranmer to proceed and benefit from papal bulls while essentially rejecting their authority. One almost needs a day-by-day accounting of each month of March, April and May 1533. Timing, precision, control, gossip, actions, legal briefs—jam-packed and the high-speed train is rolling.  Cranmer is authorized by the King to proceed to the pre-agreed decision of the so-called Dunstable trial—the judge, jury and outcome is predictable and is jerr...

4. The reign of Queen Anne: 1533-1536, 79-86. Sir Thomas Elyot, humanist and ambassador, is replaced by Dr. Cranmer in 1532. The price tag? Bitterness towards Cranmer and a stiffening of his own opposition to the annulment. Elyot writes a satire entitled, Pasquil the Plain, a satire with three characters—Pasquil, Harpocrates, and Gnatho—representing Audley the new Chancellor and More’s replacement, Cranmer, and himself, as it were, Elyot in disguise. The first two are courtiers doing Henry’s bidding while he, Elyot, is the truth teller. Cranmer is the “silent one” and, as a result, a climber. Cranmer returns to Court in early January 1533. Events move quickly. Henry and Anne conceive Elizabeth in Novemberish 1532, were secretly married on St. Paul’s Day, 1533, and Dr. Cranmer’s fees for the pallium are expedited to Rome for conferral of the archbishopric to him. He’s given quarters at Westminster in Canon Row, the residential quarters of the Dean and Canons of St. Stephen’s Chapel. Com...