laudable Practice

From The History of the Church of Scotland  (published posthumously in 1655) by John Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St. Andrews 1618-39, the account of an incident at the episcopal consecration of the author and two other Scottish clerics in 1610.  James VI/I had restored bishoprics to the Church of Scotland but - as the King himself stated (also quoted by Spottiswoode) - "the adversaries mouths be stopped, who said that he did take upon him to create Bishops, and bestow Spiritual Offices, which he never did nor would he presume to do, acknowledging that authority to belong to Christ alone, and those he had authorized with his power".  James therefore directed the Bishops of London, Ely, and Bath to consecrate the Scotch clerics, the absence of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York providing assurance that the Church of England was not claiming jurisdiction over the Church of Scotland. That said, the Archbishop of Canterbury - Richard Bancroft - did crucially intervene...

The Laudians, says Diarmaid MacCulloch stood "aloof from most Protestants as well as from the Church of Rome".  It is a statement which summarises MacCulloch's view of Laudianism as rupture, a fundamental break with the Protestantism of the reformed ecclesia Anglicana . He continues: Thus in July 1624 one of the most uninhibited spokesmen of the movement, Richard Montague, said that he sought a Church of England that would 'stand in the gapp against Puritanisme and Popery, the Scilla and Charybdis of antient piety'.  This was the beginning of the via media discussion, which would have a major future in the Anglican tradition. This, to say the least, seriously misunderstands Laudianism.  To begin with, Montague's famous A New Gagg (1624) was, as the text makes abundantly clear throughout, an explicit defence of Protestantism: Against Protestants your Gag is directed, not Puritans: and yet all your addresses, well-neer, are against Puritan Positions, malitious...

In 1604, at the outset of the reign of James I/VI, a Black Letter commemoration was added to the Prayer Book calendar for 7th September, that of St. Evurtius.  Why the interest in an obscure bishop of ancient Gaul? It was because the commemoration of St. Evurtius happened to mark the date on which Elizabeth I was born in 1533.  It ensured that the day would be recalled with thanksgiving for the reign of Elizabeth and for the Settlement she established. Today, in other words, is Gloriana Day.  To mark the day, here are words from the famous 1588 sermon of Richard Bancroft (appointed Bishop of London in 1597 and Archbishop of Canterbury in 1604), defending the Elizabethan Settlement as the best expression of Magisterial Protestantism against both Puritan and Roman alternatives. When the Queen's most excellent Majesty had first obtained the crown, (which God of his great mercy grant she may long enjoy) as a most zealous Solomon, Jehoshaphat, and Josiah, her principal care w...