Between Wittenberg and Geneva: Lutheran tendencies in the Reformed eucharistic theology of Lancelot Andrewes
The 1549 Consensus Tigurinus - the work of Calvin - provided Zurich and Geneva with a shared statement of sacramental theology. A good case can be made that while the Articles of Religion comprehend the sacramental theology of the Consensus, they do not require it. This may be partly due to the Lutheran influence exerted on the Articles via the Thirteen Articles of 1538. Thus, as Torrance Kirby points out, the first paragraph of Article XXV, defining the nature and use of the Sacraments, is taken (via 1538) from the Augsburg Confession. One result of this is the possibility of a greater openness to the significance of the material elements in the Sacraments, "by the which [God] doth work invisibly in us".
An example of how this could find expression in the life of the Reformed ecclesia Anglicana in a 1598 sermon by Lancelot Andrewes on "the blessed Sacrament of Christ's body and blood".
It pleased God to take away the Prophet's sins by touching his lips. And albeit he can take away our sins, without touching of bread or wine, if he will; yet in the counsel of his will, he commendeth unto us the sacramental partaking of his body and blood. It is his will, that our sins shall be taken away by the outward act of the sacrament: The reason is, not only in regard of ourselves, which consist of body and soul, and therefore have need both of bodily and Ghostly means, to assure us of our Salvation; but in regard of Christ himself, who is the burning Coal ... As Christ became himself a man, having a bodily substance; so his actions were bodily. As in the Hypostatsis of the Sun, there is both the Humane and Divine nature; so the Sacrament is of an Heavenly and Earthly nature. As he hath taken our body to himself, so he honoureth bodily things, that by them we should have our sins taken away from us, By one bodily sacrament he taketh away the affection unto sin, that is naturally planted in us. By another bodily Sacrament he taketh away the habitual sins and the actual transgressions which proceed from the corruption of our nature. And here we have matter offered us of faith; that as he used the touching of a coal, to assure the Prophet that his sins were taken away; so in the Sacrament he doth so elevate a piece of bread, and a little wine, and make them of such power; that they are able to take away our sins: And this maketh for Gods glory, not only to believe that God can work out Salvation, without any outward means, by the inward Grace of his Spirit; but also, that he can so elevate the meanest of his creatures; not only the hem of a garment, but even a straw, (if he see it good ) shall be powerful enough, to save us from our sins. As Christ himself is spiritual and bodily; so he taketh away our sins, by means not only spiritual but bodily; as in the Sacrament. For if there be a cleansing power in the Word, as Christ speaketh in the fifteenth chapter of John and the third verse ... much more in the Sacrament, wherein both the word and prayer and the works of mercy do concur, to the cleansing of sinners from their sins: Whereas the Seraphim, did not take the coal in his mouth, but with tongues; and applied it not to the Prophet's ear, but to his tongue. We learn, that it is not the hearing of a sermon that can cleanse us from sin; but we must taste of the bodily element, appointed to represent the invisible grace of God. It is true, that meditation privately had, will kindle a fire in the hearts of many, in the thirty ninth Psalm and the third verse: And the word as it is a fire, Jeremy the twenty third chapter, and the twenty ninth verse, will also kindle a man, and heat him inwardly: But because in the Sacrament all those do meet together, therefore nothing is so available to take away sin, as the touching of bread and wine, with our lips.
A number of scholars have pointed to the Lutheran emphasis in this sermon. Eamon Duffy, for example, has stated that it shows Andrewes "like Continental Lutherans but unlike most English theologians, insisted on the power of the material elements to forgive the sins of the communicant". Peter McCullough states that the sermon "shows signs of direct debt to the eucharistic theology of the leading second-generation Lutheran theologian, Martin Chemnitz (1522-1586). The case for Lutheran influence here is very strong indeed. That said, Andrewes follows the above passage with wording that is classically Reformed, conforming to Article XXVIII:
As thou hast a perfect sense of the touching of this coal, so certainly are thy sins taken away; which assurance we are likewise to gather to our selves, in this sacrament; that as surely as we corporally do taste of the bread and the wine, so sure it is, that we spiritually feed on the body and blood of Christ, which is communicated unto us by these elements, as the Apostle sheweth, in the first to the Corinthians, the tenth chapter, and the fifteenth verse, that the bread broken in the communion of the body of Christ, that the cup blessed is the communion of his blood; that by partaking of this spiritual food we may be fed to eternal life.
Andrewes at this point sounds no different to Calvin:
We must confess, then, that if the representation which God gives us in the Supper is true, the internal substance of the sacrament is conjoined with the visible signs; and as the bread is distributed to us by the hand, so the body of Christ is communicated to us in order that we may be made partakers of it.
The language of spiritual feeding had become the Lutheran bête noire (as seen in the 1592 Saxon Visitation Articles) and was a defining contrast between Lutheran and Reformed eucharistic theologies. Alongside this it is also important to note how Andrewes in the sermon used the language of sign and seal, again characteristically Reformed terminology of which Lutheranism was critical:
The whole fruit of Religion is, The taking away of sin, Isaiah the twenty seventh Chapter and the ninth verse, and the special ways to take it away, is the Religious use of this Sacrament; which as Christ saith is nothing else, but a seal and sign of his blood that was shed for many for the remission of sin ... The outward element appointed by God to confirm his faith, was the flying of a Seraphim unto him to touch his mouth with the Coal, the word or invisible grace signified by the element was, that by that touching his sin was taken away.
How do we reconcile these Reformed and Lutheran influences evident in Andrewes? We might suggest that there are hints here of earlier attempts at Reformed-Lutheran compromise, as, for example, in the 1536 Wittenberg Concord. Similarly, Andrewes might be read as going past the hesitant language of the Consensus Tigurinus to Calvin's earlier and more full-blooded affirmation:
Now, if it be asked whether the bread is the body of Christ and the wine his blood, we answer, that the bread and the wine are visible signs, which represent to us the body and blood, but that this name and title of body and blood is given to them because they are as it were instruments by which the Lord distributes them to us.
There is no hint in Andrewes of an acceptance of the Lutheran distinctives of consubstantiation and ubiquity, which the avant-garde Conformists, Laudians, and later High Church tradition regarded upon as distasteful, unnecessary, and eccentric scholasticism. In fact, it is rather clear that Andrewes confessed the extra Calvinisticum. That said, the 1598 sermon does reveal an understanding of the role and significance of the elements in the Sacraments which stands apart from the Consensus Tigurinus and the Reformed eucharistic theology which emerged from it, in which the elements are defined merely as "helps".
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