Memoir of Bp. John Jewel: Part Two

Continued, part two. English Reformed titan.

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"The visitation begun while yet in doubt concerning this momentous question, was regarded by Jewell himself, in prospect, as ' a long and difficult business,' and fully realized his anticipations. Inured as he was to version of 1 Tim. iii. 1, and to the Romish doctrine of' opus operatum' in the Sacraments. The apothegm shows his sense of the high office which he ultimately accepted—a post of labour, not of' otium cum dignitate.'

footnote. * Jewell, Lett. to P. Martyr, Aug. 1, 1559.

footnote. ' In reply to a letter of advice from Humphrey, urging him to gather around himself a band of learned and able assistants in the work of spreading gospel-truth, Jewell declared that he would most gladly do so, but wanted the means; the Capon (that was the name of his predecessor) having devoured all, by either giving away or selling the dignities and benefices of his diocese, and leaving it entirely bale. Humfredj Vita Juelli, p. 109.

labors and privations, he complained on his return of the fatigues he had experienced—fatigues not a little enhanced by the nature of the business in which he was engaged, and by the melancholy state of things which the researches of the visiters brought to light. A great increase of superstition—an astonishing multitude and variety of its preposterous manifestations and implements, votive offerings and relics—a general aversion in the ecclesiastics to every species of reform—and gross corruptions practised and encouraged in the cathedrals; are mentioned by Jewell as the predominating characteristics of the scenes in which he had been conversant. He adds an item which must be mentioned with regret, as one of the weaknesses into which even the greatest sometimes fall, as if to show that they are but fallible mortals—the prevalence of witehcraft and incantations, of which he speaks in such terms as plainly show that he firmly believed in their reality : indeed, so deep was the impression made on him by these supposed abominations, that he embraced an early opportunity of mentioning them in a sermon before the queen, and is supposed to have been mainly instrumental in the passage of the law of 1562, which, for the first time in England, made sorcery a penal offence.'—It is gratifying to turn from this blemish to the record of the diligence with which Jewell exerted himself, in the course of this fatiguing routine of inquisitorial duties, to displace error by imparting truth—literally' preaching the word in season and out of season, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting with all long-suffering,' and ' in meekness instructing those that opposed themselves;' and to the candor with which, relating the expulsion of some minor dignitaries by the visiters, and mentioning Harding as among their number, he characterized that bitter opponent as ' a constant man, who preferred losing his place to changing his opinion.'"

"While occupied in these duties, Jewell was elected bishop of Salisbury, on the 21st of August, as stated above. Yet some time elapsed before he assumed the office and its duties, even subsequently to his return to London, which was on the 30th of October. His letters during that interval show that he was by no means satisfied with all the measures of the men in power. He complains of the disposition to humor the Romish clergy, by attaching undue importance to the regulations concerning vestments—of the pertinacious adherence of the lower ecclesiasties to their darling rites and superstitions, and the slight efforts made for their subversion—and of the miserable condition of the universities. He even dissuaded Peter Martyr from accepting an invitation to return to England, on the ground that his efforts to do good would be thwarted, and himself neglected, if not discountenanced."—But, notwithstanding these subjects of discontent, his usefulness continued, and his reputation grew. On the 26th of November, he preached a second time at St. Paul's cross; when it is expressly mentioned that ' his fame drew together a very great auditory:'' and again, on the 5th of December, he preached at the funeral of the dutehess of Suffolk; an appointment which was considered very honourable, and was so fulfilled as to win much commendation from the hearers.«

The royal assent to his election was at length given, on the 27th of December : it was confirmed on the 18th of January 1559-60; and on the 21st he was consecrated, at the same time with Young, bishop of St. David's, Bullingham of Lincoln, Davis of St. Asaph, and Guest, (one of the revisers of the Book of Common Prayer, and a fellow disputant with Jewell in the conference of March, 1559,) of Rochester.' Still, although the spiritual grade was thus conferred, the royal recognition, accompanied with what is called the Restitution of the Temporalities, had not yet taken place; and so ill were the due limits of civil power in things spiritual then defined, that Jewell did not yet consider himself certain of the enjoyment of his new dignity. Only a fortnight after his consecration, he writes to P. Martyr, that the retention of a crucifix in the queen's private chapel had given rise to much dispute, and was regarded with alarm by the warmest friends of reformation, as tending to warrant greater abuses ; that a formal disputation was to be held on the subject, in which Parker and Cox (then bishop of Ely) would defend the queen's practice, while he and Grindal should oppose it; and that for this step he expected to lose his bishopric. So precarious did he even then think its tenure ! and so little did the dignity of office weigh with him, in opposition to the love of truth, and a sense of duty !

It is not recorded whether tthe proposed disputation was ever held. At all events the anticipated result did not take place. Jewell was enthroned at Salisbury on the 6th of March, and had restitution of the temporalities of his see on the 6th of April, 1560.'

In the interval between these formalities occurred one of the most important events of Jewell's life—certainly that which more than a ny other contributed to bring him before the nation a .s the boldest and most uncompromising of the foes of 3 Rome—his challenge at Paul's cross.' On the 17th t jf March, 1559-60, he preached at that place, before the court, hi his episcopal robes. The sermon was directed against the master error of the Church of Rome, its perversion of the sacrament of the Eucharist; and in particular, against its celebration in the Latin tongue, its administration in one kind, its proposition for adoration by the people, and its use by the priest alone, or in the form of private masses. These points discussed, the preacher concluded with the following offer : " If any learned man ' of all our adversaries, or if all the learned men that ' be alive, be able to bring any one sufficient sentence ' out of any old catholic doctor or father, or out of any ' old General Council, or out of the Scriptures of God— ' or any one example of the primitive Church—whereby ' it may be clearly proved, that there was any Private ' Mass in the whole world at that time, for the space of ' six hundred years after Christ; Or that there was then ' any communion ministered unto the people under one 'kind; Or that the people had their Common Prayers ' then in a strange tongue, that they understood not; Or ' that the bishop of Rome was then called an Universal ' Bishop, or the Head of the universal Church ; Or that ' the people was then taught to believe that Christ's ' body is really, substantially, carnally or naturally, in ' the sacrament; Or that his body is, or may be, in a ' thousand places or more at one time ; Or that the
menced the year with the 22d of March; which would make a sermon preached on the 17th fall in 1559, not 1560:—and, 3) Easter day, in the year 1500, came on the 7th of April; which would make the 17th of March the third, not the second Sunday before Easter.—The account given in the printed sermon itself, and closely followed in the text, though, as far as I know, never before observed, reconciles these seeming contradictions. It plainly shows that the challenge was made at two several times, in sermons of similar purport and construction ; that when first made, it contained only fifteen articles; that clamors were immediately raised against it; and that Jewell then repeated it, adding twelve more articles, thus completing the number usually mentioned. The controversy with Cole was begun on occasion of the first sermon; but the superior celebrity of the second, delivered on a public occasion; and the met that Jewell chose it, as the most complete, for publication; have always kept the other out of sight.

Mr. Isaaeson, (Life,n, xllv.) followed by Middelton", (Memoirs of the Reformers, III. 363,) has committed the double error of placing the sermon at Paul's cross on the Sunday before Easter, and dating that Sunday March 30th—the very day on which Jewell wrote his answer to Pr. Cole's second letter, and withal, a Saturday,

The very next day brought an answer to this bold challenge, and thus commenced the series of controversies in which Jewell continued involved, almost to his dying day. Dr. Henry Cole/ a zealous and distinguished papist, in a letter breathing the very spirit of Cole had already made himself infamously eminent by the part he took in the disgraceful scene called a disputation, between himself and his fellow judges, and Cranmer and Ridley, in the divinity school at Oxford; and by preaching the sermon at the martyrdom of the archbishop. He had also been the prominent man in the conference in March 1558-9, where, however, neither his abilities nor his learning appeared to much advantage.

He was admitted fellow of New College, Oxford, in 1523; studied civil law; and subsequently travelled several years in Italy. In 1542, he was chosen Warden of his college. During the reign of Edward he professed much attachment to the Reformation, attended the lectures of Peter Martyr, and even preached the reformed doctrine. In 1544, (the 2d of Mary,) he was made Provost of Eton College, and D. D. j and was soon after appointed one of the commissioners to visit Cambridge with inquisitorial powers and office. The Deanery of St. Paul's was conferred on him in 1556, but taken from him again soon after the conference in 1558-9. He died a prisoner on parole in 1579. Jesuitry—apparent moderation, But real' duplicity, solicited Jewell to commence an argument, but artfully endeavored to throw on him the'burden of proof; thus escaping the very gist of the challenge—an actual test of the whole strength of Popery. Jewell answered the allegations and charges contained in the letter, and showed the unfairness of its proposition, m a reply dated the 20th. The next Sunday, being the second Sunday before Easter, March 24th, 1560, he resumed the argument of the sermon delivered that day week, entered more fully into his discussion, and in conclusion, remarking on the fact that objections had been taken to his former challenge, he recapitulated that offer with the following remarkable addition :—"These words are 4 the very like, I remember, I spake here openly before 'you all—and these be the things that some men say I have' some of our adversaries have said and taught;) Or thai ' when Christ said Hoc est corpus meum, this word ' Hoc pointeth not the bread, but individuum vagum, ' as some of them say ; Or that the accidents, or forms, ' or shows, or bread and wine, be the sacrament of ' Christ's body and blood, and not rather the very bread ' and wine itself; Or that the sacrament is a sign or ' token of the body of Christ that lieth hidden under' neath it; Or that ignorance is the mother and cause of ' true devotion and obedience:—these be the highest ' mysteries and greatest keys of their religion, and ' without them their doctrine can never be maintained ' and stand upright:—if any one of all our adversaries ' be able to avouch any one of all these articles, by any ' such sufficient authority of Scriptures, doctors, or ' Councils, as I have required—as I said before, so say ' I now again, I am content to yield unto him, and to ' subscribe. But I am well assured that they shall never ' be able truly to allege one sentence. And because I ' know it, therefore I speak it, lest ye haply should be ' deceived."d

Thus, in the very spirit of Paul,' Jewell completed his " Famous Challenge," in twenty-seven articles, and stood forth before the world the pledged defender of the Protestant faith as opposed to the corruptions of Rome.

The correspondence with Dr. Cole, its immediate result, continued. Three letters passed on either side, and after private circulation for some time, were collected by Jewell, and published, toward the close of the year, together with the sermon that occasioned them, written from memory as it was preached the second time/

' The work was entitled, True Copies of the Letters between the Rev. Father John, Bishop of Sarum, and D. Cole, -upon occasion of a Sermon preached by the Bishop before the Queen, &c. London, Day, 1560, 8vo. The Sermon was also published separately, in 8vo. without date.

In the letter which closed this correspondence, Jewell adopted the mode, afterwards continued in his controversies with Hardino, of inserting his adversary's piece at length, paragraph by paragraph, and immediately subjoining to each paragraph his own reply. A fairer, surely, never was devised !
But the interest and importance of this opening controversy were absorbed in those of greater magnitude which followed. After an interval of nearly four years, Hardino,6 Jewell's former schoolfellow, then a member of the college of Jesuits at Louvain, issued an elaborate production under the title of An Answer to Mr. Jewell's Challenged in which he assumed the air of a triumphant defender of Rome's assaulted fortress. The time consumed in preparation indicates the effort made to provide at least a specious show of the evidence required by Jewell. Accordingly, the Answer was cried up as an irrefragable assertion of the faith of Rome, and under the shadow of its wings the minor assailants who had until then hung aloof from combat, ventured to come forth. Rastell published his Confutation of a Sermon pronounced by Mr. Jewell at Paul's Cross,' the same year, and followed it up with a Copy of a Challenge taken out of the Confutation, &.c.k the next. Early in 1565, Heskynsi issued his Parliament of Christ, &c. concerning the Sacrament, impugned in a Sermon by John Jewell;TM and Nicholas Harpesfield,

5 Thomas (not, as Isaaeson and Middelton erroneously call him, John) Hardino, was like Jewell, a native of Devonshire; was sometime a schoolfellow with him; and finally entered the same college. He was admitted fellow of New College in 1536, took his degree of M. A. in 1542, and was soon after appointed the first Regius Professor of Hebrew in the University. While Edward reigned he made much show of zeal for the Reformation, and even, in prospect of the young king's death, exhorted others to prepare for persecution. Yet on Mary's accession, he immediately recanted, and was rewarded with a prebendal stall in Winchester, and, in 1555, with the treasurership of Salisbury Cathedral. Of the latter post he was dispossessed under Jewell's visitation, being succeeded by John Lancaster, who had lost the bishopric of Kildare, in Ireland, under Mary, because he had a wife. Harding soon after retired to Louvain, and entered the Jesuits' college, where he employed himself in his controversial writings against Jewell—all that he ever published. He died, about the age of 60, at Antwerp, in 1572.

' He had been Chancellor of the diocese of Salisbury a few months in the close of 1558, but was displaced at the accession of Elizabeth. He then went beyond seas. Woon, Fasti, p. 64.

Under the borrowed name of Alan Cope ; Martial ;• Saunders; and Stapleton, indirectly answered Jewell's challenge in works on other subjects.p The intrepid challenger, in the meanwhile, was very far from idle : leaving the lesser assailants to other hands, he promptly met the most formidable antagonist, in his Reply unto M. Harding's Answer, by perusing whereof the discreet and diligent reader may easily see the weak and unstable grounds of the Roman Religion, which of late hath been accounted Catholic, folio, 1565 ;' having previously laid open his intended plan, in a sermon at Paul's Cross, on the 8th of July.r In this work he followed the method previously adopted in his correspondence with Cole—republishing all his adversary's remarks, and subjoining to each his own reply. Seldom has a single work united in itself more learning, close argument, and keen wit, than were displayed in this voluminous production; it is a complete and most masterly

' This Cope was of Magdalen College, Oxford, and Proctor of the University in 1558. He left England in 1560, and going to Rome, became a Canon of St. Peter's Church. The book referred to under his name by Jewell and Humphrey, was no doubt Dialogi Sex contra Summi Pontificatus, Monastics Vitce, Sanctorum, Sacrarum Imaginum, Oppugnatores et Pseudo-Martyres, Antw. 4to., 1566, which was written by Harpesfieln, then in England, but published under the name of Cope, that the obloquy might fall on the latter, then abroad and out of harm's way.—Wood.

The history of his Apology has been already given in the Preface : it is sufficient, therefore, here to remark that the composition and publication of that work filled the interval between the termination of the correspondence with Cole and the appearance of Hardino's Answer to the challenge; and that the appearance of Hardino's Confutation of the Apology, in 1565, furnished full occupation for Jewell's whole leisure and abilities, until within about a year of his decease.

Of the utmost importance to the Church which he adorned, these controversial writings of Jewell gave him a full and undisputed title to the praise of being her most strenuous and efficient advocate. None could have accounted him idle, or unworthy of his office, had he devoted the ten years during which they appeared, to little else than the composition of so many and such voluminous productions on subjects requiring extensive research and cautious accuracy. Yet these were but the occupations of his leisure hours. During all this interval, the peculiar duties of his office in the Church were discharged as punctually and as thoroughly as if they alone had been his care.

After his consecration, he remained in the metropolis a few months, occasionally preaching, and probably occupied by his correspondence with Dr. Cole.' He took up his residence in his diocese in autumn, and with a slight interruption by a visit to London in the spring of 1561,' continued it until called to attend the Convocation of 1562-3.

This interval was spent in the most assiduous attention, to the business of his diocese. He found every thing, at his entrance, in the most disordered state.— The revenues of the see diminished—its property dilapidated—the ecclesiastical courts filled with scandalous abuses—the cathedral chapter wholly corrupt and irregular—the livings of the diocese in the hands of laymen, or unworthy clergymen, fattening on accumulated pluralities, while their pulpits were unfilled, and their flocks famishing for want of the bread of life :—all these things required no common energy and zealous industry for their redress. Jewell set about the work without delay, and without neglecting any part of the varied mass of business.—Deeming himself bound to transmit the revenues of his see unimpaired to his successors, he was firm in resisting the numerous attempts at encroachment which it was the fashion of the times to make and countenance; and extended the same care to the other............