laudable Practice

On this commemoration of the martyrdom of Bishops Latimer and Ridley, words from Jeremy Taylor indicating the esteem in which Episcopalian and Laudian thought held them and the other martyrs of the Reformed Church of England: ... thus as it [i.e. the Book of Common Prayer] was framed in the body of its first constitution and second alteration, those excellent men whom God chose as instruments of His honour and service in the Reformation, to whom also He did shew what great things they were to suffer for His name's sake, approved of it with high testimony, promoted it by their own use and zeal, and at last sealed it with their blood. That they had a great opinion of the piety and unblameable composure of the common-prayer-book, appears, in the challenge made in its behalf by the archbishop Cranmer, to defend it against all the world of enemies; by the daily using it in time of persecution and imprisonment; for so did bishop Ridley, and doctor Taylor, who also recommended it to his w...

Sunday, 16th October, is the commemoration of the martyrdom of Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley. The commemoration challenges contemporary Anglicans in a number of ways.   Many Anglo-catholics, of course, will willingly celebrate Reformation-era martyrs of the Roman allegiance.  As an example of this, we might note that an Anglo-catholic society for priests, the Society of the Holy Cross , has chapters named after Edmund Campion, John Fisher, and the Forty Martyrs.   One can imagine how confused Campion and Fisher would be at this use of their names by clergy of the established Church, under the Royal Supremacy, and not in communion with the See of Rome. When it comes to Latimer and Ridley, however, Anglo-catholics - echoing Duffy's The Stripping of the Altars - tend to lament their role in the English Reformation rather than commemorate their martyrdom. For evangelical Anglicans, by contrast, the Marian martyrs are straightforwardly to be celebrated as...