The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, Vol. VIII (London: R.B. Seely and W. Burnside, 1839). This volume contains a preliminary dissertation by the Rev. George Townsend, M.A., Prebendary of Durham and Vicar of Northallerton, Yorkshire.
Why Americans tolerate these abridged versions of John Foxe disserves God's True Church. John Foxe was a principle means by which English families learned their facts about the Reformation.
Volume Eight starts in bloody Mary’s reign,1556, and concludes in the beginning of Elizabeth’s reign, 1559.
The storyline is summarized thus: “…from the bloody murderings of God’s saints with the particular processes and names of such Godly martyrs, both men and women, as in this time of Queen Mary, were put to death.”
This eighth volume is freely available at:
http://books.google.com/books?id=uRMXAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA470&dq=john+foxe&as_brr=1&ei=kxJISreuHqa6zgTNz8Vk
The first 140 pages of this 805-page pdf-document pertains to Thomas Cranmer, the illustrious, studied and imperfect English Reformer. Imperfect, but of vast importance to the West and the Church of England. We left several questions pending last time and we resume the story.Cranmer was reared in the schoolsmen's medieval approaches. At about age thirty, he gave himself over to theological studies. Prior to an extensive re-review of secondary literature in its vast reaches, Thomas gave a full three years to the study of Scriptures alone.[1] He desired to come to no premature conclusions, but was ever cautious, judicious and learned. He gave himself to the Scriptures like a “merchant greedy of all good things.”
He was a slow reader, but an avid note-taker and marker. We note that Dr. Cranmer fell out with the friars because they were studied in the school authors with no regard for the authority of Scripture; prior to proceeding with any study, he required these students to master the Scriptures first; he earned opprobrium at first but in the end would gain the thanks of his students as they matured.
Remaining at Cambridge and declining an invitation by Cardinal Wolsey to Oxford, the great question of Henry’s arose regarding Catherine. The time frame here is 1529, twelve years after Luther’s posting of the 95 Theses. We will skip some of the Henrician and Romish issues in connection with the marriage. Foxe includes details on the movement of the Romish cardinals, Wolsey and Campeggio. We’ll briefly note that a dinner at which Cranmer was present was the occasion for one of the participants to recommend Cranmer to Henry on this issue, to Henry’s liking.
Cranmer was sent for and he languished, seeking to avoid the Court; Henry however, bid Cranmer to his presence, a bidding that was not to be disobeyed. Cranmer came. Upon giving an answer to Henry's good pleasure, he was dispatched to Durham and given access to any and all books needed for the directed composition of his own opinion; this was to be submitted to Henry in writing. Cranmer was successful in moving Henry to have his question heard at Oxford and Cambridge.
Another consequence of Cranmer's statements: learned men were sent abroad for opinions from the great Continental universities. The learned conclusion at Oxford and Cambridge was that Henry’s first marriage was unlawful.
About 1530, Dr. Cranmer and several others were deputed to visit Bologna, the famed centre for studies in canonical law, and to Rome. When an audience was given to the English Churchmen, the Pope in high regality and millinery, offered his foot to be kissed. Not a single Englishman participated in the “idolatry,” a word Foxe employs. Foxe then tells the story that the Pope had an English spaniel at court that opportunely interceded and bit the Pope’s foot—the story has an apocryphal ring to it, although, if true, it is utterly delightful and it surely illustrates exactly what England would later do...not merely bite the Pope's foot, but extinquish his very presence from English soil (the best source for this are the Edwardean and Elizabethan injunctions vis a vis Gerald Bray's Historical Documents.) The Pope was forever done in England following the English Reformation.
The English ambassadors returned to England while Cranmer remained in Europe and would visit the Emperor; Cranmer convinced the Emperor of the justness of Henry’s cause and, in turn, the Emperor was “satisfied in the matter.”[2] Cranmer traveled with the Emperor’s entourage from Vienna into Germany; he consulted with many scholars in the entourage, successfully. One huge proposition was the “invalidity of the bishop of Rome’s authority” to dispense with Scripture. One begins to discern that Cranmer's view of Scripture is not only "High," but governing and supreme.
Archbishop Warham had died while Cranmer was traveling. Upon return to England, Cranmer was appointed as Cantaur.
The marriage-issue was one question; the pope’s authority in England was another and, in consequence, “in so much that in the parliament it was doubted of the primacy of the church of Rome.”[3] Cranmer was becoming the “go-to-fellow” on these two matters, the marriage and papal authority. As an assiduous note-taker, he became a Reference-Bookman on the issues.
As to the pope, Cranmer demonstrated that “the pope’s lordship was brought in by no authority of the Scripture, but by affected and ambitious tyranny of men.” Cranmer also put the Churchmen under the authority of magistrates.[4] Wycliffe had taught similarly. We regret the Erastianism, however, that would continue in the True Church of England.
Part Two endeth.
Footnotes:
[1] John Foxe. The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe, Vol. VIII (London: R.B. Seely and W. Burnside, 1839), 27-28.
[2] John Foxe, op.cit., 33
[3]John Foxe, op.cit., 33.
[4] The background here is that Church leaders could and were exculpated when they violated the laws of their respective realms. The canonical thinking was the offenders were to be tried by Roman authorities, not civil magistrates. This appears to be a rehash of the Becket scandal. Ecclesiastical corruption was long known for at least two centuries prior to the English Reformation. This issue would re-appear in the pedophilia scandals in the USA and elsewhere, where Papist Cardinals did as they were canonically bidden...to hide the matter and refer all case files to Rome. The media did not explore this dimension fully.
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