Foxe's Constantine-FINAL3.Pages
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Constantine in Scriptural Mode: John Foxe’s “Magisterial” Revisions to Acts and Monuments’ Second Edition (1570) by Wesley Miles Goudy A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Wycliffe College and Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto. © Copyright by Wesley Miles Goudy 2018 Constantine in Scriptural Mode: John Foxe’s “Godly” Magisterial Revisions to Acts and Monuments Second Edition (1570) Wesley Miles Goudy Doctor of Theology Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto 2018 Abstract This project explores a new vision of the Protestant magistrate as represented in the alterations which John Foxe made to his Ecclesiastical History, in Acts and Monuments’ second edition (1570), a highly influential and controversial work which has been credited with shaping the course of English historiography from the Reformation to the Victorian era. The work has also been read in abridged form under the title Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Foxe made incremental revisions to the work, which began as a 1554 Latin martyrology and ended in a fourth 1583 revision to this English-language ecclesiastical history, still known by the title Acts and Monuments. Yet relatively little scholarship has been devoted to explicating the nature and motivation for Foxe’s revisions, beyond his effort to provide literary and historical support for the English Reformation in the face of Roman Catholic opposition. The most significant revisions appear between the first and second editions of Acts and ii Monuments (1563, 1570), resulting in a textual expansion of some 500 pages. These revisions were drafted in a period of growing political tension, culminating in the Vestiarian Controversy (1566), between the sanctioning of The Thirty-Nine Articles in convocation (1563) and their final ratification in parliament (1571). This thesis paper identifies and explicates a shift in Foxe’s 1570 historiography in parallel with these tense circumstances and the revisions which were made to Article 37 “Of Civil Magistrates” in The Thirty-Nine Articles. Many of Foxe’s 1570 alterations seem germane to a new definition of the “godly Prince” in Elizabethan Article 37, itself an alteration from Article 36 of the Edwardian Forty- Two Articles (1552) by the addition of at least three key doctrinal tenets. In solidarity with Protestant concerns over the Queen’s ecclesiastical policy, Foxe’s second edition (1570) appears to amplify this reformist Article 37 definition of the “godly Prince” 1) by exhibiting a “godly” magistrate beholden to Scripture from ancient times, 2) by explicating the historic roles of both the lay and clerical “regimentes,” and 3) by featuring a longstanding parliamentary prerogative to “restrain by the civil sword” both prince and prelate. This thesis therefore offers a comparative analysis of the first and second editions of Acts and Monuments in an effort to measure and explicate the parallel support which Foxe provided in his 1570 revisions for an emergent Elizabethan political theology of “godly” rule. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my appreciation to those who contributed, both academically and personally, to this work. First, I would express my gratitude to church historian Dr. Mark Noll and intertestamental scholar Julius Scott, whose advisory roles at Wheaton College encouraged further graduate study. Second, I would like to express my appreciation to the faculty and staff of the Toronto School of Theology, under whose auspices I was introduced to the study of early modern history, and particularly to Dr. J. Skira and Dr. D. Neelands, whose tutelage in the subject areas of early Christian hermeneutics and Anglican theology laid a foundation for this study. I am also deeply grateful to my thesis supervisors, Dr. Alan Hayes and Dr. Ephraim Radner, for their patient erudition in facilitating this discovery of Foxe’s Acts and Monuments, and for highlighting, at one pivotal moment in this process, what they called “an essential interpretative key to reading A&M 1570 and to understanding Foxe’s purpose and agenda in writing.” Furthermore, I would like to acknowledge the measure of support which I have received from my family, against much arduous and time- consuming labour; and in company with other colleagues in tertiary education, I am grateful for the assistance which I have received from the staff of the University of Toronto and the University of Illinois libraries (and more intermittently from the staff of Buswell Library at Wheaton College) in accessing necessary resources, and in locating certain rare books. May all of the above persons be encouraged in their preoccupations, and blessed in what Foxe has called “Christes fayth,” even as I have been by the study of this great (and massive) historical work and by the completion of an important chapter in my academic journey. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations ............................................................................................................. vii I. Introduction to Foxe’s 1570 Revisions and Article XXXVII ...................................1 Modern Scholarship and Methodological Considerations ............................11 Foxe’s Modern Legacy .....................................................................11 Methodological Considerations ....................................................... 18 Historical Context .........................................................................................21 John Foxe and the Second Edition ................................................... 21 The “Godly Prince”. ..........................................................................27 The “Two Regiments,” the Crown, and Clerical Vestments .............37 A Godly “Prince-in-Parliament” Jurisdiction ....................................48 II. The “Godly Prince” ...............................................................................................58 Foxe’s Five Epochs and Temporal Millennium ............................................59 A Magisterial Defence under the Pax Romana .............................................66 Emperor Constantine of Christian Antiquity ................................................72 Constantine’s Scriptural Faith ...........................................................72 A Godly Defence of Christian Liberty ..............................................77 His Defence of Godly Discipline ......................................................80 John Wycliffe: Godly rule by Scriptural Authority .......................................83 III. Godly Rule in Two “Regiments” .........................................................................92 “Two Godly Regiments” in the First Millennium .........................................94 “Two “Swords” in the First Millennium .......................................................99 A False Church of “Foreign Jurisdiction” ...................................................106 “Foreign Jurisdiction” by Papal Excommunication ........................116 v “Foreign Jurisdiction” by Papal Crusade ........................................120 “Foreign Jurisdiction” by Papal Persecution ..................................124 IV. A Godly “Prince-in-Parliament” Restraint .........................................................134 A “Godly” Primitive Parliament .................................................................136 “Straungers” to God’s Law .........................................................................139 A Second Millennium “Prince-in-Parliament” Restraint ............................145 Godly Rule Foiled: King John and “Foreign Jurisdiction” .........................148 Godly Rule Revisited: Magna Carta versus “Foreign Jurisdiction” ...........153 A “Losing and Tying up Again” in the “Reforming Era” ............................160 V. Conclusion ...........................................................................................................171 VI. Bibliography ......................................................................................................185 vi LIST OF ABREVIATIONS Acts and Monuments 1563 - Actes and Monuments of these latter and perillous dayes, touching matters of the Church wherein ar comprehended and described the great persecutions and horrible troubles that have been wrought and practised by the Romish prelates, speciallye in this Realme of England and Scotland, from the yeare of our Lorde a thousande, unto the tyme nowe present (1563) Acts and Monuments 1570 - The Ecclesiastical History, Contaynyng the Actes and Monuments of thyngs passed in euery kynges tyme in this Realme, especially in the Church of England principally to be noted, with a full discourse of such persecutions, horrible troubles, the sufferyng of Martrys, and other thinges incident, touchyng aswel the sayd Church of England, as also Scotland, and all other foreine nations, from the primitiue tyme till the reign of K. Henry VIII (1570) Art. 37 - Article 37 (“Of Civil Magistrates”) of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion (Church of England, 1563, 1571). B.L. - British Library, London E.E.B.O. - Early English Books Online HE - Eusebius’s Historia Ecclesiastica STC - Short Title Catalogue vii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO FOXE’S 1570 REVISIONS AND ARTICLE 37 This thesis investigates the copious alterations which were made to John Foxe’s second edition of Acts and Monuments (1570),