The Theology and Spirituality of Mary Tudor's Church

William Wizeman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351881296
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del mundo

Few areas of early modern English history have roused such passions and interpretations as the rule of Mary Tudor and her efforts to return the country to Catholicism following the reigns of her father and brother. In this book, Dr Wizeman explores Catholic theology and spirituality according to the religious literature printed during the reign of Mary Tudor (1553-1558). As part of the strategy to renew Catholic religion in England after the reformations under Henry VIII and Edward VI, Marian theologians, authors and editors produced numerous works of catechesis, religious polemic, devotion and sermons. These writings demonstrate that the Catholicism of Marian England was not a mere insular reaction to the preceding decades of religious change, nor a via media polity which eschewed important elements of traditional religion while embracing tenets of the Reformation. Rather the theology and spirituality of Mary Tudor's church, as well as many of its strategies for religious renewal, was intimately connected to - and in fact anticipated or paralleled - the theology, spirituality and strategies for reform embraced by Counter-Reformation Catholicism, especially after the promulgation of the decrees of the Council of Trent (1545-1563). After considering the recent historiography of Mary Tudor's reign, the book contextualises these writings through a brief history of the Marian church and a discussion of the authors and dedicatees. It then presents an analysis of the Marian writers' and theologians' views on revelation, christology, soteriology, ecclesiology, sacramental theology, piety and eschatology. Finally, the study compares the Catholic belief asserted in these works to that found in texts by English theologians printed before 1553, especially John Fisher, and by contemporary theologians in Europe, particularly Bartolomé Carranza, as well as the Tridentine catechism, and the decrees and official texts of the English Reformation.

CHAPTER ONE

Marian Catholic Texts, their Authors and Dedicatees

Having examined the historiography of the Marian church and the historical context of these works of theology and spirituality, it is necessary to consider the particular contexts of these texts. What were their literary genres? Who were the authors? To whom were the books dedicated? In answering these questions light will be shed on the nature of these books, and also the priorities and strategies of their authors in their attempt to ‘recall to life’ Catholicism in England; strategies such as presenting printed books to clergy and literate laity, which might have been in turn read to people of all and no levels of education. It is also necessary to explain reasons for considering books that would appear to have questionable status as ‘Marian’ texts, because they were written or printed before 1553.

The value of incorporating texts written and printed before Mary’s accession lies in that they were produced by men who became leading Marian churchmen – Cuthbert Tunstall, Roger Edgeworth and John White, for example. Other works reappeared in Mary’s reign which had been printed before 1534, and these were chiefly works of devotion and polemic by John Fisher and Thomas More. It was probably more than pietas that moved printers to republish Fisher’s 1521 sermon defending papal primacy in the same month as England’s reconciliation with Rome; and William Rastell claimed that his edition of More’s English works of controversy and piety would aid the rebuilding of the Catholic religion and the extirpation of heresy. It would not be surprising if Fisher’s popular meditations on the Penitential Psalms still drew readers. Fisher’s and More’s resurrection in print might be due to Cardinal Pole’s and other Marian churchmen’s indebtedness to them for their religious stances in the 1520s and 1530s.

Another reason for including these books is that they were written amidst doctrinal debate in Henry’s and Edward’s reigns, and these debates did not cease in Mary’s reign, despite the doctrinal uniformity of Marian Catholic authors. Rather the polarization of religious belief intensified, with the burning of heretics and division between ‘catholikes’ and ‘protestantes’. For this reason it is worth comparing Marian texts with the works of some of the leading conservative apologists of the previous reigns: Stephen Gardiner, Richard Smyth and Miles Hogarde. Gardiner and Smyth became leading figures in the Marian regime, and Smyth and Hogarde continued writing theological works in Mary’s reign, so it would be worth collating their works printed before 1553. Marian writers made such comparisons themselves: Both Brooks and the author of the last sermon in Bonner’s Homelies encouraged readers to refer to Gardiner’s Confutatio Cavillitionum, printed initially in 1552.¹ Gardiner’s Responsio Venerabilium Sacerdotum, although published in 1564, was written in 1552 to respond to the controversy between Bishop Hooper, Henry Joliffe and Robert Johnson, canons of Worcester Cathedral, and considers such subjects important for the renewal of Catholicism under Mary as prayers to the saints and for the dead.² Hogarde’s two pre-1553 works offer special problems; his Excellency of mannes nature has no certain date of publication, though 1550 is a possibility; and his Abuse of the sacrament is only extant in Crowley’s 1548 Confutation, so it seems likely that it was printed in 1547 or 1548.³ Still, it is only in considering these Edwardine works that we can gain a more complete understanding of these important proponents of the Marian church and the theology and spirituality they presented.

The genres of the Marian texts

Early modem religious texts in England were ‘the single most important component of the publishing trade, comprising around half the total output of the industry’. Delineating the various forms of literature that these works represent is therefore far from easy, since most of them possess various elements of different genres even in what may be defined very loosely as ‘religious books’.⁴ For example, Hogarde’s spiritual writings, such as his Mirrour of loue were both highly polemical and instructive in terms of Christian doctrine. Still, four broad categories are discernible, although most Marian religious books may fall under one or more categories: catechetical, polemical, devotional, and sermons.

Catechesis

Many books offered analysis of Christian doctrine both as tenets of belief and patterns of living. The most important of these was Bonner’s frequently-printed 1555 Profitable doctryne.⁵ In it Bonner responded to the need for catechesis by imitating an Henrician strategy. In 1543 bishops and theologians had produced A Necessary Doctrine, commonly called the King’s Book, a collection of doctrine of which Henry himself had approved. Bonner’s work, compiled ‘for the instruction and enformation of the people’, was largely modelled on it in order ‘to maintain continuity with the Henrician past, … [and] to reform the Henrician legacy into an orthodox Catholicism’. But the Profitable doctryne also excelled it as a work of instruction, in that it continuously underlined the central role of the church and sacraments in gaining salvation, explained controverted doctrine such as papal primacy and purgatory in pivotal sections of the text, and presented extensive coverage of new material, such as on the cult of saints.⁶ Bonner’s Profitable doctryne, as well as his 1556 An honest instruction for Children, served as official doctrinal texts for London clergy and schoolmasters. Pole’s Synod called for a catechism; until it was produced, Bonner’s work was to be used in parishes.⁷ Thus Bonner’s book was an official text of Marian Christian doctrine.⁸

Another difference between Bonner’s work and the King’s Book – and the 1537 Bishops’ Book as well – was the frequent citations and quotations of biblical and patristic sources; this was in fact characteristic of most Marian religious texts. Smyth’s 1554 and 1555 Bouclier of the Catholike fayth and Seconde part of a Bucklar and Angel’s Agrement of the fathers were mainly translations from the fathers, serving both catechetical and polemical ends.⁹ Another translation of a patristic source was Proctor’s A waie home to Christ which was Vincent of Lérins’ ‘Commonitorium’, containing the three-part test for authentic Christian doctrine – universality, antiquity and consent. This divergence was probably due to the apologetic needs of the Marian church: Bonner and his peers were responding directly to Protestants and the doubtful with passages from their adversaries’ own armoury: the Bible and the fathers, to make their claim on Christian truth.

It would be instructive to compare the Profitable doctryne with the catechism that was meant to replace it. Carranza’s Comentarios sobre el Catechismo Christiano were printed in Spanish in 1558, in the hope that they would be translated into Latin and other tongues of Philip II’s dominions, especially England.¹⁰ It was being translated into English in 1558.¹¹ The Catechismo had a strange fate: it would be condemned by the Spanish Inquisition – along with its author, for largely political reasons – but the Catechism of the Council of Trent would be ‘surprisingly dependent’ upon it.¹²

Carranza was a passionate advocate of both humanistic learning and the scholastic theology of Aquinas. He had served as an Imperial theologian at the Council of Trent, and had been chosen by Philip to accompany him to England. There he became a trusted adviser to Mary and Pole, who gave him numerous responsibilities. Carranza would later write that he had worked closely with Bonner in the task of restoring many elements of Catholicism in London.¹³ He was present at Pole’s Synod, which requested him to compose a catechism for the English church; he completed the manuscript in early 1558.¹⁴ He was selected by Philip to become Archbishop of Toledo, and took possession of his see in 1558, the same year the catechism was printed in Spanish. Thereafter disputes with the Inquisition arose over his book in which he would be embroiled until his death.¹⁵

The structures and sources of the Catechismo and the Profitable doctryne, and even the Tridentine catechism, are similar. They discuss various topics under the headings of the Creed, the sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the Pater Noster and activities closely linked with prayer: fasting and almsgiving. Interestingly, the Profitable doctryne uniquely treats the Ave Maria separately. All three works refer to the scriptures and fathers extensively. Yet unlike Bonner’s volume, as well as all Marian religious books, Carranza’s text re...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Note for the reader
• Abbreviations
• Introduction. The Interpretation of Catholicism in Marian England
• 1 Marian Catholic Texts, their Authors and Dedicatees
• 2 Marian Catholic Theology of Revelation and its Transmission
• 3 Marian Catholic Christology and Soteriology
• 4 Marian Catholic Ecclesiology
• 5 Marian Catholic Sacramental Theology and Spirituality
• 6 Marian Catholic Piety
• 7 Marian Catholic Eschatology
• Conclusion. The Theology and Spirituality of Mary Tudor’s Church
• Bibliography
• Index