22 Jan 1555 A.D. High-stakes Reformed Churchman murdered. Mr. (Rev.) John Bradford, Church of England, Prebendary of St. Paul’s interrogated, sentenced, and burned

22 Jan 1555 A.D.  High-stakes Reformed Churchman murdered.  Mr. (Rev.) John Bradford, Church of England,  Prebendary of St. Paul’s interrogated, sentenced, and burned.

Dr. Rusten tells the story.

Rusten, E. Michael and Rusten, Sharon. The One Year Christian History. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2003.  Available at: http://www.amazon.com/The-Year-Christian-History-Books/dp/0842355073/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393302630&sr=8-1&keywords=rusten+church+history

 

Backstory.

King Edward VI of England had died and religious turmoil was roiled with the successor, Queen Mary 1.  Edward had been crowned in 1547 at the age of 9, but died in 1553.  Mary removed the legislation that protected the Reformed Churchmen.  The anti-Reformation policy was on.

In 1553, Mr. (Rev.) John Bradford, like 100s of others, had to flee their Protestant pulpits.

He was arrested.  He preached to the prisoners twice a day.

After the usual go-around of questioning and the pursuit of recantation by the Anglican-Italians, on 22 Jan 1555, he was sentenced to the usual Anglo-Italian answer for everything—death or murder-by-burning.

One afternoon, the wife of the prison keeper came to Mr. Bradford and said, “Oh, Mr. Bradford, I bring in heavy news…Tomorrow you must be burned.  Your chain is now a-buying [sic] and soon you must go to Newgate…”

Early that evening, the evening before his murder by the Papists, Mr. Bradford said goodbye to his friends, lifting his cap and saying, “I thank God for it; I have look for the same for a long time, and therefore it cometh not suddenly; the Lord make me worthy thereof."

The next morning, about 9 AM, Mr. Bradford [note, not “Father” by “Mr.” Bradford, a word for TFOs] was led out of Newgate.  He prayed.  He removed his coat and walked to the stake.

Mr. Bradford said to a soon-to-be-fellow martyr, “Be of good comfort, brother, we shall have a merry supper with the Lord this night.”  They both died.

They both, with many others, lit a fire that burned for some time in England until its recent diminishment and belittlement by liberals and TFOs in the 19^th-20^th centuries. At the present time, it’s hard to know if the light will ever be rekindled.

Questions:

1. Why does the story of the English Reformation get so little press at VOL?
2. Was there a serious agenda-driven effort to debunk and belittle Foxe’s Acts and Monuments by Tractarians?
3. Who would genuinely die for their faith these days?  Why doesn’t Rick Warren and Joel Osteen, with their related ilk, ever tell these stories?  What about Crouch’s TBN-outfit?
4. Why would a Tractholic like Wally Grundsorf, Anglican Province of America, laugh at the English Reformation?  Yes, we have a very believable eyewitness report about Wally and one of his Tracto-SSC axemen.  What about ACNA-Jack and ACNA-Keith?  What were the genuine issues of the Reformation and why was there an anti-Reformation movement in the Church of England?
5. Why are The Thirty-nine Articles so neglected?

Sources

Bradford, John. Writings of the Rev. John Bradford.  Available in Kindle at: http://www.amazon.com/Rev.-John-Bradford/e/B00JEO0HW4/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1 .  There is also an edition in the Parker Society series. 

Ryle, J.C. Five English Reformers. Rev. ed. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1981. 120-138.

“The Life of John Bradford.” The Theology Network. 2014. UCCF: The Christian Unions.”  http://www.theologynetwork.org/unquenchable-flame/the-reformation-in-britain/getting-stuck-in/the-life-of-master-john-bradford.htm . Accessed 5 Apr 2014.

Williamson, David. History of the Kings and Queens of England. New York: Konecky, 1988.

Williamson, G.A., ed. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Boston: Little, Brown, 1965. 263-9.

13 December 1823 A.D. William Walsham How—Suffragan Bishop, Church of England, “Poor Man’s Bishop,” and Author of “For All the Saints”

13 December 1823 A.D.  William Walsham How—Suffragan Bishop, Church of England, “Poor Man’s Bishop,” and Author of “For All the Saints”

Miles, Alfred H. “William Walsham How (1823-1897).” Bartleby.com.  1907.  http://www.bartleby.com/294/253.html.  Accessed 12 Dec 2014.

CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed.  The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century.  1907.

Critical and Biographical Essay by Alfred H. Miles

William Walsham How (1823–1897)

 

WILLIAM WALSHAM HOW was born at Shrewsbury on the 13th of December, 1823, and was a son of William Wybergh How, solicitor and banker of that town. He was educated at Shrewsbury and Wadham College, Oxford, matriculating in 1840, and going into residence in 1841. Originally intending to follow the legal profession, he changed his views while at Oxford, and proceeded after graduating to the Divinity School at Durham, where he studied under Dr. Jenkyns. He was ordained in 1846, and accepted a Curacy at Kidderminster, and subsequently at (Holy Cross) Shrewsbury. In 1851 he was appointed Rector of Whittington, near Oswestry, where he remained until 1879, when he was presented with the living of St. Andrews Undershaft, and made Bishop Suffragan of East London, with the title of Bishop of Bedford. Here he had charge of the three popular rural deaneries of Hackney, Stepney, and Spitalfields, Tottenham being added at a later date. He was select preacher at Oxford 1868–9, examining chaplain to the Bishop of Lichfield 1878–9, and lecturer on pastoral work at Cambridge 1883, and special preacher 1884. He was made D.D. of Oxford in 1886, and was translated to the See of Wakefield on its creation in 1888.	1
An anonymous volume of verse, published many years ago, was Mr. How’s first appeal to the public as a poet. Of this a new and enlarged edition appeared in 1886, which volume, with a book of fifty-four hymns, published while Bishop of Bedford, forms the main substance of his poetic work. The Bishop’s poems show a true feeling for nature, a keen sympathy with suffering and sorrow, power of pathos, and sense of humour. The first is abundantly demonstrated in “Shelsley Beauchamp and the First Spring Day,” the second in “Poetry and the Poet,” the third in “The Boy Hero” and “Gentleman John,” and the fourth in “The Three Prelates” and “A Puzzling Question.” Of the shorter poems which are alone available for quotation in a work like this, “Converse,” shows the observation of the poet’s eye; “Stars and Graves,” the poet’s mind grappling with the problems of life and death; “Pasce Verbo, Pasce Vita,” the practical nature of his religion; and “A Starlit Night by the Sea-Shore,” his sense of the brotherhood of human relationships. Some of the Bishop’s hymns have become universal favorites, and others deserve much wider use than they have received. He died on August the 10th, 1897.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHVv79W_EpA

13 December 1823 A.D. William Walsham How—Suffragan Bishop, Church of England, “Poor Man’s Bishop,” and Author of “For All the Saints”

13 December 1823 A.D.  William Walsham How—Suffragan Bishop, Church of England, “Poor Man’s Bishop,” and Author of “For All the Saints”

http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/birthdays/12-13.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHVv79W_EpA

 

William Walsham How (1823 to 1897)

Church of England

Poor Man's Bishop.

Birth of William Walsham How, known as "the poor man's bishop," in Shrewsbury, England. An Anglican clergyman, he rose rapidly in his appointments, but shunning the higher ecclesiastical positions, he chose to work among the poor of poverty-stricken East London. He wrote more than 50 hymns, some of which you may have sung, such as "We Give Me but Thine 0wn, " "For All the Saints" and "The Word of God Incarnate."

24 September 1759 A.D. Rev. Charles Simeon, Rector of Holy Trinity, Church of England, was born.

24 September 1759 A.D.  Rev. Charles Simeon, Rector of Holy Trinity, Church of England, was born.

 

Charles Simeon
Portrait of Charles Simeon
Born	(1759-09-24)24 September 1759 Reading, Berkshire, England
Died	13 November 1836(1836-11-13) (aged 77)
Nationality	English
Relatives	Sir John Simeon, 1st Baronet (brother) Sir Richard Simeon, 2nd Baronet (nephew) Sir John Simeon, 3rd Baronet (great-nephew)

Charles Simeon (24 September 1759 – 13 November 1836), was an English evangelical clergyman.

Contents

 1 Biography

• 2 Notes
• 3 References
• 4 Bibliography

Biography

He was born at Reading, Berkshire in 1759 and baptised in the parish church on 24 October of that year.^[1][2] He was the fourth and youngest son of Richard Simeon (died 1784) and Elizabeth Hutton.^[3] His eldest brother, named Richard after their father, died early. His second brother, John, entered the legal profession, became an MP and received a baronetcy. The third brother, Edward Simeon, was a director of the Bank of England.^[1]

Simeon was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.^[2] In 1782 he became fellow of King's College, and took orders, receiving the living of Holy Trinity Church, Cambridge, in the following year. He was at first so unpopular that services were frequently interrupted, and he was often insulted in the streets. Having overcome public prejudice, he subsequently gained a remarkable and lasting influence among the undergraduates of the university.

He became a leader among evangelical churchmen, was one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society in 1799, the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews (now known as the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People or CMJ) in 1809, and acted as adviser to the British East India Company in the choice of chaplains for India.

In 1792 he read An Essay on the Composition of a Sermon by the French Reformed minister Jean Claude. Simeon found that their principles were identical and used the essay as the basis for his lectures on sermon composition. Claude’s essay also inspired Simeon to make clear his own theological position, the result being Horae Homileticae, his chief work.

He published hundreds of sermons and outlines of sermons (called "sermon skeletons"), still in print, that to some were an invitation to clerical plagiarism. His chief work is a commentary on the whole Bible, entitled Horae homileticae (London). The Simeon Trust was established by him for the purpose of acquiring church patronage to perpetuate evangelical clergy in Church of England parishes. It continues to operate to this day.

Charles Simeon is often hailed as something of an ancestor of the evangelical movement in the Church of England.^[4]

According to the historian Thomas Macaulay, Simeon's "authority and influence… extended from Cambridge to the most remote corners of England, …his real sway in the Church was far greater than that of any primate." ^[5] He is remembered in the Episcopal Church of the United States with a Lesser Feast and in the Anglican Church of Canada with a Commemoration on 12 November. In the Church of England he is remembered with a Lesser Festival on 13 November. His memorial by the monumental mason Hopper in Holy Trinity Church (Cambridge), was described by architectural critic Nikolaus Pevsner as an "epitaph in Gothic forms."^[6]

Notes

1.      ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Simeon 1847, p. 2.

2.      ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} "Simeon, Charles (SMN779C)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge. 

3.      Jump up ^ Simeon 1847, pp. 1–2.

4.      Jump up ^ "Charles Simeon (1759-1836)", The Anglican Library

5.      Jump up ^ The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, 1980, p. 50

6.      Jump up ^ Nikolaus Pevsner. Cambridgeshire. "The Buildings of England." Second Edition (London: Penguin Books, 1970), p.231.

References

• Simeon, Charles (1847). Carus, Rev. William, ed. Memoirs of the Life of the Rev. Charles Simeon. London: Hatchard and Son. Retrieved 31 May 2013. 
• http://www.charlessimeon.com
• http://www.simeontrust.org
• http://www.churchsociety.org/churchman/documents/Cman_114_2_Carr.pdf

Bibliography

• Memoirs of Charles Simeon, with a selection from his writings and correspondence, edited by the Rev. W. Carus (3rd ed., 1848).
• W. D. Balda, Spheres of Influence: Simeon's Trust and its implications for evangelical patronage, Cambridge University dissertation (1981).
• Derek Prime, Charles Simeon: An Ordinary Pastor of Extraordinary Influence (Leominster, DayOne, 2011) (History Today).
• Andrew Atherstone, Charles Simeon on “The Excellency of the Liturgy” (Norwich, Hymns Ancient and Modern, 2011) (Alcuin/GROW liturgical study, 72).

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.