George Herbert, Anglicanism, and Calvinism

We draw some quotes below re: George Herbert, Anglicanism and English Calvinism in the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. By way of background, George Herbert (3 April 1593 – 1 March 1633) was a Welsh poet, orator and Anglican priest. Being born into an artistic and wealthy family, he received a good education. He took prominent positions at Cambridge University and Parliament. As a student at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, George Herbert excelled in languages and music. After the death of King James and at the urging of a friend, Herbert's interest in ordained ministry was renewed. In 1630, in his late thirties he gave up his secular ambitions and took holy orders in the Church of England, spending the rest of his life as a rector of the little parish of Fugglestone St Peter with Bemerton St Andrew, near Salisbury...Herbert has a window honouring him in Westminster Abbey.

Now, for Dr. Doerksen's study.

Doerksen, Daniel W. "George Herbert, Calvinism, and Reading "Mattens." Christianity & Literature 59, no. 3 (Spring2010 2010): 437-451. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 14, 2010).





We'll bring the quotes with our comments in bold. What you will not hear at drearisome Anglican websites, blogs or news centers, p. 438.



"Historian Anthony Milton, in an important book on the Church of England from 1600-1640, defines English Calvinism as `a general sympathy with the continental Reformed tradition in all its purely doctrinal aspects, and a sense of identification with the West European Calvinist Churches and their fortunes' (8). This definition silently acknowledges that other writers, such as Bucer and Bulinger, and of course English ones, were influential in the movement. Milton also recognizes that Calvinism, like other aspects of the Early Modern Church of England, comprised a range of views, and changed as it developed. Milton's definition of Calvinism easily includes Herbert, who had an enduring `interest in the success of international Protestantism' (Malcolmson 21) - an interest not shared by the Laudians.' More specifically, English Calvinism had a doctrinal core of Protestant theology, emphasizing God's grace."



Oh no! Calvin's works, the most popular books in England?  Oh no!  And Bucer and Bullinger too?  The most dominant influence at Cambridge and Oxford? What you will not hear at Anglican websites, blogs or news centers, said to include, but not limited to: David Virtue, www.virtueonline.org, John Stott, James I. Packer, Anglican Mainstream, BabyblueRose, GAFCON, Anglican Things, Stand Firm, Thinking Anglican, Old High Churchman, and a host of other influential sites including American ones--AMiA, ACNA, etc. Memory loss and the above-noted are just a few.



"According to Pettegree, a tally of the revised Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, 1475-1640 indicates that English editions of Calvin's works "easily outstripped all other continental writers, and dwarfed the production of native English theologians" (281). Pettegree reports that Leedham-Green's substantial survey of books recorded in Cambridge wills, carefully analyzed, confirms `the preeminent position of Calvin as the dominant theological influence in Elizabethan England" (280). Also, he cites Francis Higman's bibliographical studies showing that England was `far and away the biggest market for Calvin's work in translation.' Calvin's Institutes and Catechism became required reading at the universities."





Calvinism and Episcopacy, something one does not hear from Dutch and Scots Calvinists. p.439 Of course, ditto from Anglican sources.  Sometimes, one has to cut the losses and move on.  Wipe the stuff from the boots.

"Also, although Calvin had definite views on church structure, he did not insist that churches in Poland or England should give up episcopacy or adopt Genevan liturgy (Prestwich 2). Instead he recognized the Word preached and the Sacraments duly administered as the essentials of the church (as do the English 39 Articles), and said that other matters could be patterned differently in different nations and times {Inst. 4.10.30). Accordingly, Calvin's teachings were welcomed in England, where the leading clergy, and not just puritans, whole-heartedly accepted Calvinist theology. Still, some English clergy wanted to adopt Genevan liturgical or disciplinary practices. When Queen Elizabeth resisted such changes, puritans objected, and protested in varying degrees. Most, however, stayed within the Church of England, and when King James showed willingness to tolerate moderate puritans who were good preachers, they in turn were willing in varying degrees to accept the rule of bishops and to follow some of the Prayer Book practices. Some, like Richard Sibbes, conformed fully, in spite of their own preferences. Calvinists in the English church, both puritans and conformists, formed what has been called a `Calvinist consensus,' influential at the very center of the Jacobean church, but coming under attack by Laudians from the mid-1620s on."





Most Elizabethan and Jacobean Bishops were Calvinists in the main, episcopacy excluded, 439. When's the last time one heard this at varied blog or news sites?  Well, you'll hear it here.



Historians have given much attention to the dissenting puritans but have tended to neglect the moderate Calvinist conformists or episcopalians in the church, who were happy with a combination of Calvinist theology, episcopacy, and Book of Common Prayer liturgy. This group included archbishops, many bishops (Collinson 82), and people like Herbert and Donne.'' Stanley Stewart correctly points out that Herbert differed from Calvin about Lent ("Priest" 169-71), without realizing that this does not make him an anti-Calvinist. Calvinist episcopalians, including most Elizabethan and Jacobean bishops, similarly agreed to differ with Calvin on a matter not of the essence, even if important. Calvin, as Donne knew, was a significantly undogmatic interpreter of scripture {Sermons 6.301).





In context, due to a Laudian and modern abhorrence of Calvinism, some authors attempt to claim there were no Calvinists in the Church of England, but Daniel Doerksen affirms otherwise, 440.

"...but that is not what the historians tell us; they affirm that all the post-Reformation Archbishops of Canterbury before Laud were doctrinally Calvinist. It is probably more useful to have `true Calvinism' defined by someone not vigorously opposing it. Young speaks of Calvinist `rigor' (10), and `the most extreme Reformation tenets' (35).Undoubtedly, some Calvinists were extreme, but the Calvinism relevant to Herbert is moderate. Calvin himself emphatically taught moderation (Wallace 170-92)."





In context of a larger analysis of George Herbert, the author draws this conclusion to his article, p.446.

"Herbert is an amazing poet, never to be explained away by any reference to the backgrounds on which he draws. However, this reading should open a few doors to further exploration. Taking its title from the Book of Common Prayer, and key elements of its substance from a reading of the Psalms and Genesis like Calvin's, `Mattens' demonstrates how well English Calvinism, properly understood, could be integrated in Herbert's Church of England."




Wiping the boots of Western Anglican leaders.  They can't be trusted.