26
November 1559 A.D. John
Jewel’s Famed Sermon Challenging Romanist Theologians at St. Paul’s Cathedral,
London
Graves,
Dan. “John Jewel Preached a Historic Sermon.”
Jun 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/john-jewel-preached-a-historic-sermon-11629997.html. Accessed 13 Jun 2014.
When John Jewel stepped to the platform of St. Paul
Cross on this day, November 26, 1559, he did not know that the sermon he was
about to preach would be pointed to by historians. It became fixed in the theology of the church of England.
John was a graduate of Oxford University and became
public orator for the school. Impressed by Peter Martyr's teaching, he joined
the reformers. When the Catholic Queen Mary came to the throne, his position
required him to compose a congratulatory letter to her, which he did. His
reformation principles were still not firmly fixed. After helping Cranmer and
Ridley with their defenses, he buckled and signed Catholic articles. Despite
this, he remained under suspicion by England's Catholic leadership, which
stripped him of his position.
He fled to the continent. There he apologized
publicly for signing the confession that he did not believe in.
Mary died in 1559 and John returned to England. He
urged Queen Elizabeth I to adopt a low church (a more Puritanical or
evangelical) position. She did not. John accommodated his views to the new
monarch. The queen
appointed him to St. Paul's Cross where, on this day, he challenged anyone to
prove the Roman Church position from the Bible and the writings of early church
fathers.
He repeated the challenge again the following year.
Various Catholics took it up. To defend his position, John wrote (in Latin) An
Apology in Defense of the Church of England.
This Apology was "the first methodical
statement of the position of the Church of England against the Church of Rome,
and forms the groundwork of all subsequent controversy." In the reign of
King James I, Archbishop Bancroft endorsed John's theology and ordered copies
placed in all Anglican churches.
Chafing under the charge of heresy, John said he
would prove his case from scripture, arguing: "But seeing [the Roman Church] can produce nothing
out of the Scriptures against us, it is very injurious and cruel to call us
Hereticks, who have not revolted from Christ, nor from the Apostles, nor from
the Prophets . . ."
John died in 1571. He was just forty-nine years
old. A man of personal piety, he was also kind to the poor. One of the boys
whom he helped was Richard Hooker, who wrote about him with admiration and who
also became a notable apologist for the Church of England.
Bibliography:
1. Booty, John E. John Jewel as
Apologist of the Church of England. London, Published for the Church Historical
Society [by] S. P. C. K., 1963.
2. Cross, F. L. and Livingstone, E.
A. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press,
1997.
3. Jewel, John. An Apology in
Defense of the Church of England. Project Canterbury.
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/pc/jewel/.
4. Jewel, John. The Works of John
Jewel; edited for the Parker Society by John Ayre. Cambridge, England: Printed
at the University Press, 1845-1850. Volume 4 includes a memoir.
5. "Jewel, John."
Dictionary of National Biography. Edited by Leslie Stephen and Sidney Lee.
London: Oxford University Press, 1921 - 1996.
6. "John Jewel."
Encyclopedia Americana. Chicago: Americana Corp., 1956.
7. "John Jewel."
Encyclopedia Britannica. 1911.
Last updated June, 2007
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