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Polemical Use of the Scriptures in the Plays of John Bale

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Polemical Use of the Scriptures in the Plays of John Bale POLEMICAL USE OF THE SCRIPTURES IN THE PLAYS OF JOHN BALE by RAINER PINEAS John Bale's' greatest contribution to the cause of the English Reforma- tion was his Protestantization of the medieval Catholic morality play and his polemical use of history. Since these have been examined elsewhere2, it is the purpose of this paper to focus on another aspect of Bale's polemical technique in his plays, specifically his use - and abuse - of the Scriptures. William Tyndale was the first English Reformer to assert the primacy of Scripture in all matters of faith and doctrine - a status previously reserved for the Church, and his became the classic Protestant position 1 John Bale(1495-1563) was educatedin a Carmelite convent and at Cambridge. At first a zealousCatholic, he was convertedto the cause of the Reformation,on the behalfof which he wrote a number of polemicalplays, the earliest extant appearing some time before 1538. Bale's skill as a polemicistattracted the attention of Henry VIII's chiefminister, Cromwell, who encouragedthe anti-clericaldiatribes of Bale and other Reformersfor purposesof royal propaganda. When Cromwellfell in 1540, Bale fled to Germany, where he continued his polemicaloutput, which was smuggledinto England and secretlydistributed. On the acces- sion of EdwardVI in 1547,Bale returned to England, and in 1553he was installedas Bishop of Ossory in Ireland. When Mary Tudor came to the throne, Bale once again had to flee, this time to Basle, where he remained until the accessionof Elizabethin 1558. He died as prebendary of Canterbury in 1563. On John Bale, see W. T. Davies, "A Bibliographyof John Bale," OxfordBibliographical Society, Proceedings and Papers, 5 (1936),201-280; Christina Garrett, TheMarian Exiles (Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress, 1938);J. W. Harris, John Bale:A Studyin theMinor Literature of the Refomation(Urbana, III.: Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, XXV, 4, 1940);Honor McCusker, JohnBale: Dramatist and Anti- quary(Bryn Mawr, Pa: Bryn Mawr CollegeMonograph, 1942);Thora B. Blatt, ThePlays of JohnBale (Copenhagen: G. E. C. Gad, 1968);Katherine R. Firth, TheApocalyptic Tradition in ReformationBritain, 1530-1645(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1979), 32-69; Leslie Fairfield,John Bale:Myth-maker for the EnglishReformation (West Lafayette, Ind: Purdue University Press, 1976);John N. King, EnglishReformation Literature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1982), 56-75; Rainer Pineas, "John Bale's Nondramatic Works of Religious Controversy," Studiesin the Renaissance,9 (1962), 218-233; "Some Polemical Techniquesin the NondramaticWorks of JohnBale," Bibliolhique d'Humanismeet Renaissance, 24 (1962), 583-588; "William Tyndale's Influence on John Bale's Polemical Use of History," Archivfür Reformationsgeschichte,53 (1962), 79-96; and "The PolemicalDrama of John Bale," forthcomingin a series of essayson Tudor and Stuart drama, ed. William R. Elton and William Long of AMS Press. 2 See my articles in fn. 1. 181 during the early Tudor period3. Bale's professed intent, therefore, in writing his Biblical plays was to displace the " popetly playes" of medieval Catholicism with a new, Bible-based, Protestant drama. Beginning probably with the "mystery" or Biblical plays The Chefe Pro- myses of God4, Johan Baptystes preachynge in the Wyldernesse5,and The Tempta- cyon of Our Lorde6, all three written before 1538, Bale introduced into what has been seen as a deliberate "cycle"' progressively more numerous and more vehement Protestant colorations of his Biblical material. Chefe Pro- myses keeps fairly close to the Biblical account of God's promises to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, and John the Baptist. The au- dience is warned not to trust in "fantasyes fayned" (sig. A2); Adam is a good Protestant who makes the point that he is justified by faith rather than by works (sig. A4), echoed by Noah (sigs. Blv, B3), and Abraham (sig. C 1 v); image making comes in for heavy condemnation (sigs. B3, Dl), but this play is unique in Bale's extant corpus in not being blatantly propagandistic at the expense of its ostensible "plot." By the time we come to Johan Baptystes preachynge, the tone is decidedly polemical. There is greater emphasis on justification by faith alone (e.g., pp. 132, 140) and that only the Scriptures are authoritative (p. 131). The Pharisees and Sad- ducees of John's time have become the Catholic clergy of Bale' (p. 137), sodomites8 who corrupt the Scriptures to set up their own ceremonies and traditions for monetary gain (pp. 138, 147), who consider John a "heretic" (p. 141) and deride his doctrine as "new learning" (pp. 137, 139, 140, 142), the favorite pejorative term used by Catholics for the Reformed faith9. The last play in the series, The Temptacyon of Our Lorde, abandons completely any pretense that the dramatization of the Biblical 3 See Rainer Pineas, "William Tyndale's PolemicalUse of the Scriptures,"Nederlands Ar- chief ooorKerkgeschiedenis, 45 (1962), No. 2, 65-78.On the questionof interpretation,Tyndale maintained that only someonewith "right fayth" could interpret the Scripturescorrectly. Since doubtlesshe included himselfamong those with such a faith, he, in effect, created a "pliable" Bible - one which could be made to say whatever he wanted. See also D. M. Loades, The Oxford Martyrs(New York: Stein and Day, 1970), pp. 59-67. 4 Text used is that of STC 1305. Hereafter cited as CP. 5 Text used is in J. S. Farmer, ed. TheDramatic Writings of JohnBale (London: Early English Drama Society, 1907). Hereafter cited as JBP. 6 Text used is that of STC 1279. Hereafter cited as T. 7 See Blatt, pp. 86-87. 8 P. 139. Contrary to Blatt's opinion (p. 97), the anti-Catholiccontext makes it clear that Bale is here using one of his favoritecharacterizations of the Roman clergyin both the literal and spiritual sense. 9 An entire Protestant polemicalplay was written on this subject, with the ironic title New Custome.See Rainer Pineas, Tudorand EarlyStuart Anti-Catholic Drama (Nieuwkoop: B. de Graaf, 1972), p. 8. .
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