laudable Practice

In his sermon at the funeral of Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35, Robert Baron - one of the Aberdeen Doctors, that school of eirenic divines encouraged by Forbes - addressed the issue of whether the faithful departed, before the resurrection of the body, shared in the fulness of glory: it is certayne, that the glorie and happinesse, which the dead, who haue died in the Lord, shal haue after the generall judgement, shall be greater extensive, in extention, nor it is now; and that because it shall be extended, or communicated, to their bodies also. But whether or not it shall be intensive greater, after the generall judgement; that is, whether anie farther degree of glorie shall be then given to their soules, it is not so certayne. For manie of the Ancients, and some judicious and orthodoxe Divines, doe thinke, that although they are now with Christ, in the companie or fellowship of the blessed Angels, and in an estate of vnspeakable joye; yet they haue not attayned, as yet, v...

There is scarce, perhaps, to be found anywhere in Europe, a more learned, decent, independent, and respectable set of men, than the greater part of the presbyterian clergy of Holland, Geneva, Switzerland, and Scotland. Adam Smith's comment in The Wealth of Nations (1776) would, of course, have somewhat offended those who knew the clergy of the Church of England in 1776, whose education, decency, and respectability was often commented upon. My point today, however, is not to address this. Rather, Smith's comment came to mind when reading the sermon preached by one of the Aberdeen Doctors, Robert Baron, at the funeral of Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35. The learning of the Aberdeen Doctors, and their eirenic vision during a time of conflict in Europe and growing instability in the Three Kingdoms, reflected Forbes' ambition for the Church of Scotland: episcopally-ordered, eirenic, and deeply learned, centred around Scotland's five universities. In his sermon, ...

As we continue to explore the Aberdeen Doctors, the group of eirenic thinkers centred around Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35, we turn to another aspect of the sermon preached at Forbes' funeral by one of their number, Robert Baron. Last week , in the introduction to this series, we saw how Baron's sermon praised Forbes as the Athanasius of the North. This week's post considers something somewhat more subtle but no less significant in what it says about the Aberdeen Doctors.  The text for Baron's sermon was Revelation 14.13, "Blessed are the dead, which die in the Lord". As he considers the text, Baron first outlines how it was interpreted by Roman Catholic divines: But two thinges doe heere occur, which do need explicatio: One is, whether or not this particular part bee so ample, as that it comprehendeth all the godlie, or elect? The other is, how, and in what sense, these whom it comprehendeth, are sayd to die in the Lord?  As for the first; some ...

Today starts a new series on Laudable Practice , as we turn to the Aberdeen Doctors, the group of eirenic thinkers centred around Patrick Forbes, Bishop of Aberdeen 1618-35. Under the leadership of Forbes, the Aberdeen Doctors offered to the Church of Scotland an alternative to the ideological certainties of both Carolinism (what others - mistakenly, I believe - call 'Laudianism') and the Covenanters: a moderate understanding of episcopacy, a modest account of the Reformed tradition, and a defence of peaceable conformity. One of this group, Robert Baron, 'doctor and professor of divinity',  preached at Forbes' funeral , praising him as an Athanasius of the church of the northern kingdom: For (as Gregorie Nazianzen reasoned concerning Athanasius his prayses) to prayse him, it is to prayse vertue; and to prayse vertue, it is to prayse God, who is the author and giver of it. I say, that to prayse him, is to prayse vertue; because, (as Nazianzen there sayeth of Athanas...

In early 1623, Francis White was one of the Church of England divines who took part in a disputation , ordered by James I/VI, with Fisher the Jesuit. Later that year, White was appointed Dean of Carlisle, a clearly a sign of royal approval. In 1626, early in the reign of Charles I, he was appointed Bishop of Carlisle, with Cosin preaching at his consecration. He was closely associated with the ecclesiastical policies of the Personal Rule, with his Treatise of the Sabbath Day published in 1635 at the direction of Charles and dedicated to Laud. The trajectory of White post-1623 career in the Church of England - Jacobean and Caroline - is mentioned in order to emphasise that his role in the disputation was clearly highly regarded. It is this which makes his handling of one issue in the debates particularly significant. Regarding the apostolicity of the Church, Fisher had stated: The Church is Apostolicall, and that apparantly descending from the Apostolicall Sea, by succession of Bishops...

In a number of posts on Peter Lake's On Laudianism: Piety, Polemic and Politics During the Personal Rule of Charles I (2023), I have been deeply critical of Lake's depiction of the pre-Caroline Church of England , his failure to account for the continuities in Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline ceremonial conformity , and his entirely unconvincing depiction of 'Laudianism' as an 'Arminian' movement.  All this said, I do have to credit Lake's book with deeply influencing my thought about the Church of England in the 1630s. Having read and reflected upon Lake's 600 pages, I am now convinced that 'Laudianism' should cease to be used as a meaningful term. Put bluntly, Lakes's work - contrary, of course, to his intention - has led me to the view that there was no such thing as 'Laudianism'.  To begin with, Lake offers a profoundly weak case for describing those who supported the ecclesiastical policies of the Personal Rule as 'Laudi...

The False and Erroneous doctrine of the Calvinists On Predestination and the Providence of God. 1] That Christ did not die for all men, but only for the elect. 2] That God created the greater part of mankind for eternal damnation, and wills not that the greater part should be converted and live. 3] That the elected and regenerated can not lose faith and the Holy Spirit, or be damned, though they commit great sins and crimes of every kind. 4] That those who are not elect are necessarily damned, and can not arrive at salvation, though they be baptized a thousand times, and receive the Eucharist every day, and lead as blameless a life as ever can be led. Reading Peter Lake's On Laudianism (2024), we might assume that these are words from a Laudian publication of the 1630s, for "Arminian assumptions were absolutely central to the Laudians' own position" (p.425). 'Laudianism', after all, was "an attempt gradually to Arminianise the culture, to disseminate  .....

In his sermon ' The Faith and Patience of the Saints; Or, the Righteous Cause Oppressed ' - part of the second volume of the Golden Grove series - Jeremy Taylor addressed the dissolution of the monasteries: We know that when, in Henry the Eighth, or Edward the Sixth's days, some great men pulled down churches and built palaces, and robbed religion of its just encouragements, and advantages; the men that did it were sacrilegious; and we find also that God hath been punishing that great sin, ever since; and hath displayed to so many generations of men, to three or four descents of children, that those men could not be esteemed happy in their great fortunes, against whom God was so angry, that he would show his displeasure for a hundred years together. This is the type of comment that might be taken as an example of - to use Peter Lake's terminology - 'maximalist' Laudianism. Here, after all, was a critique of a not insignificant aspect of the English Reformation. ...

In his discussion of a Laudian defence of ceremonies, Lake's On Laudianism distinguishes between what he terms "the minimum and maximum positions". The minimum position - "the more conservative view" - invoked the Elizabethan Settlement. What, then, of the 'maximalists'? Their view, Lake insists, was radically different: The maximum position went further, deriving that Anglican essence not solely from the prayer book [sic], or the Thirty-nine Articles, but rather from the primitive, apostolic and now the later Catholic churches, whose practices provided the Laudians with a prism through which to read the foundation documents of the church of England, thus rendering them more compatible with their religious sensibilities and ecclesiological priorities (p.349). The idea that invoking patristic authority somehow stood apart from - indeed, seemingly contradicted - the formularies of the Elizabethan Settlement runs entirely contrary to how the Elizabethan a...