ABSTRACT Pulpit Rhetoric and the Conscience: the Gunpowder Plot

ABSTRACT Pulpit Rhetoric and the Conscience: The Gunpowder Plot Sermons of Lancelot Andrewes Neil Barclay Johnston, Ph.D. Mentor: Robert H. Ray, Ph.D. Sermons were the dominant form of literature during the seventeenth century; thus, their role in shaping many aspects of England’s literary, social, and political history warrants more thorough exploration. Too often, in an effort to highlight dynamics of power struggles at various political and ideological levels, we tend to ignore the power of the individual conscience to rise above the immediate context’s power struggle. Lancelot Andrewes’ sermons were among the most frequently printed in that period, and this study opens the door of exploration slightly wider by considering the role that conscience plays in a portion of his state-mandated sermons. The modern era’s relationship to the conscience differs considerably from the Renaissance and the Reformation understanding, and thus, I provide an overview of how the conscience worked in that period. Further, to provide a context for the development of his conscience, two other aspects of his work are examined: his treatment of the Decalogue, and his private devotions. These two works display both a public and a private expression of Andrewes’ convictions, illuminating crucial commitments to theological and moral tenets. This significant background material supplies what is lacking in the sermons themselves: historical antecedents for the apparent exaltation of the king and the state ground these expressions in gratitude and obedience to God. Moreover, as is seen from the shift in emphasis that Andrewes’ rhetoric takes in these ten sermons, they are much more than anti-Catholic and pro-English propaganda. They are, in fact, sacred epideictic efforts that use the politically ordained occasion for spiritual ends: to give praise to God for the Gunpowder Plot deliverance, to rebuke the treasonous act and the traitors who plotted it, and to issue a renewed call to obedience. Pulpit Rhetoric and the Conscience: The Gunpowder Plot Sermons of Lancelot Andrewes by Neil Barclay Johnston, B.A., M.A.R., M.Div A Dissertation Approved by the Department of English ___________________________________ Dianna M. Vitanza, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Dissertation Committee ___________________________________ Robert H. Ray, Ph.D., Chairperson ___________________________________ Phillip J. Donnelly, Ph.D. ___________________________________ Martin J. Medhurst, Ph.D. Accepted by the Graduate School August 2011 ___________________________________ J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2011 by Neil Barclay Johnston All rights reserved TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi DEDICATION viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 THE ROLE OF CONSCIENCE: A GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO CASUISTRY AND CASES OF CONSCIENCE 7 LOCI OF A PREACHER’S CONSCIENCE: THE DECALOGUE 14 PRECES PRIVATAE 15 GUNPOWDER PLOT SERMONS 16 CHAPTER TWO: HISTORICAL CONTEXT 17 ACTS OF UNIFORMITY AND SUPREMACY 21 PRE-ARMADA APPROACH 23 POST-ARMADA APPROACH 26 COURT INFLUENCE AND CHURCH INFLUENCE 29 CHAPTER THREE: LANCELOT ANDREWES—A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY 35 EARLY LIFE AND ACADEMIC PURSUITS 35 ELIZABETHAN SERVICE 38 STUART SERVICE 41 CHAPTER FOUR: ANDREWES’ CONSCIENCE AND THE DECALOGUE 50 RECTIFYING THE CONSCIENCE 51 KNOWLEDGE AND HUMILTY 53 iv THE PREFACE: TRUE KNOWLEDGE AND HUMILITY 57 KEY COMMANDS OF THE DECALOGUE 61 THE FIRST COMMANDMENT 62 THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT 70 THE EXPOSTION OF THE FIFTH 72 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 73 PARTICULAR OBSERVATIONS 75 THE NINTH COMMANDMENT 87 CHAPTER FIVE: PRECES PRIVATAE—THE CONSCIENCE AT WORK 94 THE STRUCTURE 96 “SUNDAIE” 103 “FREIDAIE” 111 SOME GENERAL OBSERVATIONS 124 CHAPTER SIX: THE GUNPOWDER PLOT SERMONS—ENCOMIUM AND OPPROBIUM 128 CONTEXTUAL POPULARITY 133 THE SERMONS 135 THE YEARS PREACHED AND THE TEXTS USED 137 EXAMINING THE ELEMENTS OF ENCOMIUM 142 EXAMINING THE ELEMENTS OF OPPROBRIUM 154 CHAPTER SEVEN: CONCLUSION 173 BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 v ACKNOWLEDGMENT As is generally the case when such an endeavor as a Ph.D. is undertaken, many people participate in crucial and varied ways to bring the prolonged process to completion. My case is no different, except, perhaps, that those involved span the globe. Beginning locally, I would first and foremost like to thank my longsuffering and kind director, Dr. Robert H. Ray. From my first graduate course through to the end of the dissertation, he has encouraged and inspired me by his teaching, his thorough research and concise writing, and his diligence and attention to detail in many roles. Additionally, in spite of my scheduling problems—due in part to two motorcycle accidents and other vicissitudes—he accommodated me, even in the midst of his own teaching and research load. He has admirably and graciously done so, returning my chapters with great promptness and helpful suggestions. Additionally, I must mention the various members of my committee—Dr. Phillip J. Donnelly, Dr. Martin J. Medhurst, Dr. James E. Barcus, and Dr. Lydia A. Grebenyova—all of whom have played crucial roles in this undertaking. In particular, I mention Dr. Donnelly, for he has graciously offered his insights, wisdom, and encouragement during the development of some of the most seminal ideas. For academic stimulation across the Texas border, immediately east, my thanks go to Drs. Keith Callis and Michael Travers, colleagues who have helped me keep on task and offered excellent advice. I am grateful also for the support, encouragement, and generosity of the faculty and administration of Louisiana College for their patient and enduring encouragement. British scholar, Dr. Stephen Prickett, Regius Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Glasgow and Honorary Professor of the vi University of Kent, made suggestions during the prospectus stages I found very helpful, and Dr. Peter McCullough of Lincoln College, Oxford, was very affirming in our correspondence regarding my initial research and the formation of my argument. I also thank Dr. Robert Tennant, a visiting scholar from Scotland with whom I spent many hours on one memorable and enjoyable occasion. As a scholar working with sermons himself, he helped me formulate my approach to this neglected area of literature. My thanks also go the Theological College of Central Africa, Ndola, Zambia, for my first taste of teaching in a higher education context. Back on the North American continent I owe thanks to Brian Botha, a friend of many years: it was he who first suggested to me the idea of teaching in the context of higher education. He has remained in touch throughout the pursuit of the degree, giving needed encouragement. My parents, David and Doris Johnston, are yet more significant in their support of my efforts, for their prayers and love have been unstinting for more years than all others. My debt of gratitude to them shall never be paid in full. Penultimately, I would especially like to thank my children, Daniel and Elissa, for patiently enduring my prolonged absences. My ultimate thanks I give to God who has given me the grace and strength to endure, and my wife, Kathleen, who has faithfully and conscientiously provided me time and encouragement to finish this task. vii To Kathleen viii CHAPTER ONE Introduction Pulpit Rhetoric and the Conscience: The Gunpowder Plot Sermons of Lancelot Andrewes Those familiar with seventeenth-century crown politics know the tensions created by the alliance of church and state, for, in fact, the power of the crown to shape ecclesiastical policy had a long precedent. Indeed, one of Henry VIII’s titles was the Supreme Head of the Church of England, and while another title bequeathed considerably earlier upon him by the Pope as “Defender of the Faith” proved ironic—at least from the papal perspective—the prerogatives attached to this rhetoric firmly wed the crown of state to the bride of Christ. Thus, when James I of England came to the throne in 1603, no subject of his could have been surprised to find him very interested in helping shape the policies and direction of the English church.1 Kenneth Fincham observes this dynamic in his editorial introduction to The Early Stuart Church, 1602-1642: The Church’s teaching aimed, as the word religion means, “to bind together” society with a common set of beliefs, so its government was too important to be left to clergymen; yet as a key ideological agent for the crown, the Church’s pulpits were platforms for criticism as well as compliment. So powerful was its authority and influence, that the early Stuart Church became the battleground for rival visions of English society, fought out at court, in Parliament and in the parishes of early Stuart England. (1) 1 Just how influential this precedent was for James I is evident in his “Royal Directions to Preachers” (1622), wherein he carefully sets his proscriptions upon preachers in a historical context when he declares, “ [. .] the abuses and extravagances of preachers in the pulpit, have bin in all tymes repressed in this realme [. .] as the very licensing of preachers had begininge by an order of the starrchamber, the eight day of July in the ninetenthe yeare of King Henry the eight our noble predecessor” (Fincham 211). 1 Pursuing Fincham’s observation that the Stuart Church became the battleground for the various “rival visions,” I examine Lancelot Andrewes’ Gunpowder Plot sermons that assert the claims of the crown yet also show a remarkable resilience to merely becoming the King’s “yes-man.” Instead, we find that the role of conscience functions as the arbiter, even above and beyond a presumed unflinching loyalty to the king. The sermons of the most influential preachers—those who regularly had the king in their audience— reveal how the increased hazards of this battlefield were negotiated. As I examine more of the historical background and works of the period, the pulpit ministry’s shaping of seventeenth-century England will come into sharper focus.

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