Hooker on "Edward the Saint" and the Reformation

In his Antidotum Lincolniense (1637), Laudian Peter Heylyn, defending "the Regall power in matters Ecclesiasticall", states of Edward VI, "the judicious divine, M. Hooker calleth Edward the Saint". I had not previously encountered this reference in Hooker. It sits in the midst of an account in the Laws of the English Reformation:

When the ruins of the house of God ... were become not in his sight alone, but in the eyes of the whole world so exceeding great, that very superstition began even to feel itself too far grown: the first that with us made way to repair the decays thereof by beheading superstition, was King Henry the Eighth. The son and successor of which famous King as we know was Edward the Saint: in whom (for so by the event we may gather) it pleased God righteous and just to let England see what a blessing sin and iniquity would not suffer it to enjoy. Howbeit that which the wise man hath said concerning Enoch ... that same to that admirable child most worthily may be applied, 'Though he departed this world soon, yet fulfilled he much time'. But what ensued? That proceeded in, was in short space so overthrown, as if almost it had never been: till such time as that God, whose property is to show his mercies then greatest when they are nearest to be utterly despaired of, caused in the depth of discomfort and darkness a most glorious star to arise, and on her head settled the Crown, whom himself had kept as a lamb from the slaughter of those bloody times ... That which especially concerneth ourselves, in the present matter we treat of, is the state of reformed religion, a thing at her coming to the Crown was raised as it were by miracle from the dead - IV.14.7.

The reference to "Edward the Saint" is, of course, striking. Also noteworthy is the view of Henry VIII, far removed from the embarrassment concerning Henry amongst most Anglicans today. And, of course, the description of Elizabeth's accession and the triumph of "reformed religion" is very far from a Stripping of the Altars-inspired view espoused in a variety of contemporary Anglican circles.

It also emphasises the pride avant-garde Conformists and then Laudians took in the English Reformation and those whom Hooker describes as its "principal doers". Any notion - as found in Diarmaid MacCulloch's Tudor Church Militant - that avante-garde and Laudians evinced a "hostility" to the Reformation in general, and to the Edwardine Reformation in particular, is simply unsustainable. Rather, they invoked the Reformation Settlement - and "Edward the Saint" - against an agitation which sought to undo that Settlement.

Why I support the ordination of women: a High Church reflection

A number of commenters on this blog have asked about my occasional expressions of support for the ordination of women to all three orders. With some hesitation, I have decided to post a summary of my own views on this matter. The hesitation is because I have sought on this blog to focus on issues and themes which can unify those who identify with or have respect (grudging or otherwise!) for what we might term 'classical' Anglicanism (the Anglicanism of the Formularies and - yes - of the Old High Church tradition). Some oppose the ordination of women (and I have friends and colleagues who do so, Anglo-Catholic, High Church, and Reformed Evangelical). Some of us support it (again, friends and colleagues covering a wide range of theological traditions). Below, I have organised my thinking around 5 points (needless to say, no reference to Dort is implied). 1. The Declaration for Subscription required of clergy in the Church of Ireland states: (6) I promise to submit ...

How the Old High tradition continued

Charles Gore's 1914 letter to the clergy of his diocese, ' The Basis of Anglican Fellowship ', can be regarded as a classical expression of the Prayer Book Catholic tradition. A key part of the letter - entitled 'Romanizing in the Church of England' - addressed the "Catholic movement", questioning beliefs and practices within it which tended to "a position which makes it very difficult for its extremer representatives to give an intelligible reason why they are not Roman Catholics". Gore provides the outlines of an alternative account and experience of catholicity within Anglicanism, defined by three characteristics. What is particularly interesting about these characteristics is their continuity with the older High Church tradition. Indeed, the central characteristic as set out by Gore was integral to High Church claims over centuries: To accept the Anglican position as valid, in any sense, is to appeal behind the Pope and the authority of t...

'Whether the Lutheran Churches have right Ordinations and perfect succession of Bishops': Jeremy Taylor, 'Episcopacy Asserted', and Lutheran orders

Amidst the bitter controversies over episcopacy in the Three Kingdoms during the early 1640s, controversies which had become war in Scotland in 1637 and then in England in 1642, Jeremy Taylor wrote his Laudian defence of episcopal order, The Sacred Order and Offices of Episcopacy Asserted and Maintained . He proposed in this work that the non-episcopal Reformed churches could have had episcopally-ordered clergy: Those good people might have had order from the bishops of England or the Lutheran churches, if at least they thought our churches catholic and Christian. Leaving aside the reality that, for example, French Protestants would have been placed in an invidious political position if they had done as Taylor proposed, it is the reference to "the Lutheran churches" which is significant. To begin with, a large portion of the Lutheran churches - those in the German lands - were governed by a system of superintendency. It is almost inconceivable that Taylor was not aware of th...

laudable Practice

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