'According to the Practice of the Christian Church for fifteen hundred Years': Robert Nelson's 'Life of Dr. George Bull'

The young George Bull, having completed his studies with the Puritan Mr. Thomas - and having read those books by "Hooker, Hammond, Taylor, Grotius, Episcopius, &c" provided by the younger Thomas -  now sought ordination. According to Nelson's The Life of Dr. George Bull, this was a moment when Bull's theological allegiances were demonstrated:

Soon after that he left Mr. Thomas, he entertained Thoughts of going into Holy Orders; he had read enough to convince him, that meer Presbyters had no Power to give him a Commission to exercise the Sacred Function, especially when the plausible Plea of Necessity could not be urged. In this Case Mr. Bull fought out for an unexceptionable Hand, that his Mission might be valid, according to the Practice of the Christian Church for Fifteen hundred Years, which affordeth not one Instance of Presbyterian Ordination, but what was condemned by the universal Voice of the Catholick Church. 

This, of course, was in a context in which episcopacy had been abolished by the Parliament in 1646, and the exercise of episcopal offices and powers prohibited. Episcopal ordination, therefore, had to be pursued discreetly, relying on the good offices of bishops expelled from their sees and prepared to ordain contrary to the will of Parliament:

And being thus satisfied from whence he was to receive his Spiritual Powers, he applied himself to Dr. Skinner, the ejected Bishop of Oxford, by whom he was ordained Deacon and Priest in one Day. This suffering Prelate had the Courage, even in those Times of Usurpation, to send many Labourers into the Lord's Vineyard, according to the Liturgy of the Church of England, when the exercising this his Power was made Penal.

Bull, in other words, become one of the thousands of men who received illegal episcopal ordination during the Interregnum. According to the excellent study by Stephen Taylor and Kenneth Fincham - Vital statistics: episcopal ordination and ordinands in England, 1646–60 - it is estimated that over 2,500 men received episcopal orders between 1646 and 1660, equating to an average of 203 per annum. As for Bishop Skinner, he "claimed to have ordained between 400 and 500 men between 1646 and 1660", making him one of the most active English bishops during the Interregnum.

As Taylor and Fincham note, "the fact that ordinands could make contact with a diminishing number of bishops points to the effective operation of a series of semi-clandestine networks of episcopalian loyalists". Alongside this, the fact that "a remarkably large number of men received episcopal ordination between 1646 and 1660" evidences how "a significant number of bishops were committed to sustaining an episcopal ministry". There was, in other words, a vibrant Episcopalian presence, activity, and culture during the Interregnum: "this evidence throws important new light on the organisation, practice and popularity of episcopalianism in the late 1640s and 1650s".

Of this vibrant Episcopalian culture, the young George Bull - only 21 when he received orders - was a part. His age at ordination, referenced by Nelson, places the ordination in 1655, nearly a decade after the Parliament had abolished the order and jurisdiction of bishops. 

What of Bishop Skinner? He had been an anti-Calvinist and a support of Laud. Interestingly, however, Nelson does not reference this. Indeed, Laud is not mentioned once by Nelson, despite his execution in 1645. This may be a recognition that Laud's reputation was less than straightforward. Considering that Nelson had only recently conformed to the Church of England when The Life was published (Nelson conformed in 1710, publication was 1713), he may have been alert to an uneasiness associated with one who was recently a Non-juror invoking Laud, thus raising the spectre of Stuart absolutism. 

Instead, Nelson emphasises Skinner's relationship with Chillingworth - of the Great Tew Circle - and fidelity to the constitutional order:

He had been Tutor to the famous Mr. William Chillingworth, the Author of The Religion of Protestants, a Safe Way of Salvation, &c. and was One of those Twelve Bishops that Subscribed in 41, a Protestation against the Force that was used to their Persons in attending the House, and against the immoderate Proceedings of the Parliament in their absence; for which they were impeached of High-Treason, and committed Prisoners to the Tower, where they remained till the Bill for putting them out of the House was passed, which was not till many months after.

This places Skinner - and, by implication, Bull - in a rather different theological tradition than would have been the case if Nelson had emphasised Skinner's relationship with Laud. Chillingworth represented the generous Protestantism that Tillotson had praised, opposed to both Calvinistic and Tridentine scholasticisms. Add to this his fidelity to the constitutional order, as demonstrated in the 1641 Petition and Protestation of Twelve Bishops, illustrated not high-flying Caroline notions but a commitment to the ancient government of the realm. What is more, the twelve bishops who signed the Protestation were a cross-section of opinion within the Church of England: alongside obvious Laudians were anti-Laudians such as Williams of York, Morton of Durham, Hall of Norwich, and Goodman of Gloucester.

These points have importance because they are reflected in Nelson's description of episcopal ordination in the opening extract in this post: "according to the Practice of the Christian Church for Fifteen hundred Years". This was a unifying Episcopalian claim, standing apart from more distinct jure divino Laudian claims which usually left non-Laudian Conformists very uneasy. Laudians could and did employ the "for Fifteen hundred Years" approach - and a wise Laudianism would have settled on this in the 1630s, not pushing more extensive claims for episcopacy. Going beyond this line, however, did undermine Episcopalian unity in the early 1640s. 

It is this which makes Nelson's use of the "for Fifteen hundred Years" approach - alongside the failure to mention Laud in this part of the account of Bull's life - perhaps significant. He is placing Bull, from the outset of his ordained ministry (and, indeed, before it - as we saw previously) in the mainstream of - to use Samuel Fornecker's terminology - Arminian Conformity. It could be that a former Non-juror was particularly sensitive to the need to avoid portraying Bull as a high-flying Laudian, not least in the midst of the 'Rage of Party'. Rather than depicting a high church partisan, placing Bull within a moderate, mainstream Episcopalian theological (and political) tradition from the beginning of his clerical life draws the reader to view him with gratitude and admiration as - to use Nelson's words from the preface of the Life - "this consummate Divine".