CONCORDIA THEOLOGICAL MONTHLY The Influence of the Reformed Tradition on the Elizabethan Settlement LOWELL H. ZUCK The Theological Implications of Confirmation ARTHUR C. REPP The Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation in the Theology of Karl Barth ROBERT D. PREUSS Homiletics Theological Observer Book Review VOL. XXXI April 1960 No.4 The Influence of the Reformed Tradition on the Elizabethan Settlement By LOWELL H. ZUCK EDITORIAL NOTE: This paper was presented The over-all importance of the Eliza­ at a symposIUm on the 400th anniversary of the bethan Settlement ought not to be denied. Elizabethan Settlement, sponsored by Concordia Semina::Y, St. Louis, May 9, 1959. The paper of ~e Oxford historian, T. M. Parker, put­ coessaYlst Prof. Charles F. Mullett of the Uni­ tlllg it judiciously, says that the accession versity of Missouri on the topic "The Elizabethan of Elizabeth is the turning point, though S.ettlement and the English Church" was pub­ bshed in this journal, XXX (Sept. 1959),643 in no sense the terminus, of the Reforma­ to 658. tion in England.1 Turning point it was. Never again was England to become offi­ HOUGH the Church of England is now cially Catholic, and the unique Anglican T well past its 400th birthday, the Church continued intact from the time of sources of its distinctive doctrines and pol­ Elizabeth, with constantly growing prestige ity are still somewhat unclear. If we can in English affairs. Yet something must be agree that the conclusions reached bv said on the other side as well. The reli­ Queen Elizabeth I and her Parliament of gious unity of the country had been broken, 1559 were basic to the future shape of the and it was never again to be restored. The Anglican Church, it is natural then to go counterattack of Roman Catholics in the into an examination of whether the out­ 1570s showed that though the traditional come of the settlement depended primarily church was greatly weakened, the Angli­ on Elizabeth, on someone else perhaps, or can middle way scarcely satisfied Roman upon compromise between Elizabeth and Catholics in England. Moreover, the Tudor her advisers. Needless to say, the still attempt to hold together a national Prot­ more difficult question of possible divine estant church, completely identified with intervention in human affairs scarcely the English crown and people, broke down comes into consideration in the perhaps in the 17th century in a period of regicide too mundane presuppositions of ecclesiasti­ and radical Protestant democracy. The An­ cal historians. This paper attempts to trace glican Church was not very firmly estab­ the influence of the continental Reformed lished through much of the 17th tradition upon the celebrated English reli­ ~entury! Neat as Elizabeth's middle way seemed to gious events up to May in the year 1559, be, it still tended to splinter into mutually and thereby to indicate the importance for ex:clusive extremes. Thus we may accept, the Elizabethan Settlement of radical Prot­ wlth some remaining questions, the suita­ estant influences, which were non-English bility of the emphatic term "settlement" in their origin and program but which for the development of ecclesiastical forms came to be part of the basic design for re­ in 1559 under the virgin queen. form of the Church of England and modi­ fied considerably Elizabeth's more tenta­ 1 T. M. Parker, The English Reformation to tively Protestant proposals. 1558 (London, 1950), p.l72. 215 216 REFORMED TRADITION AND ELIZABETHAN SETTLEMENT It is more difficult to find out what partially favorable attitude toward the new actually did happen in 1559. The source proposals of Reformation as that move­ of difficulty lies in the still incomplete ment came to bear upon her. Then the evidence, which scarcely enables us to piece events in Parliament leading up to the together accurately the diverse and ob­ Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity will be scure attitudes held by the actors in this reviewed, especially as the influence of brief drama or even to know fully what Reformed divines on the queen and her actions were attempted and what results ministers can be discovered. Finally, an were achieved. The most striking effort evaluation will be attempted in regard to at reconstructing the events of the settle­ the over-all effect of the Continental Re­ ment has been that of Sir John Neale in an formed theology on the Elizabethan Set­ article in the English Historical Review tlement. and in his recent work on Elizabeth and I 2 her parliaments. There are unsolved prob­ THE INFLUENCE OF THE lems in Neale's surmises based on tantaliz­ REFORMATION ON ELIZABE'rH ingly incomplete records. Elizabeth left little doubt upon her ac­ This paper follows roughly the lines of cession that she would be a worthy succes­ Sir John's effort to reconstruct Elizabeth's sor to her active, popular, very English compromises with a Parliament advised by father. Her first major effort as monarch, divines newly returned from exile under the religious settlement, properly bears her Mary.s We wish to show in addition that name and shows her influence toward com­ the recently exiled Protestant preachers prehension of competing religious parties. without exception followed the radical Yet we must not allow the glamour of the Protestant party line of the Swiss German age and the patina glowing ever since then and Rhineland Reformers, men of Strass­ around the magic name of Elizabeth to burg, Zurich, Frankfurt, and Geneva who obscure the very real weakness and uncer­ were advocates of what is known to us tainty which a doubtfully legitimate girl today as the Reformed tradition in its of 25 faced as she tried to assume the pristine freshness and radically Biblical authority of a queen in a masculine and form.4 We shall first consider Elizabeth's predatory era. 2 ]. E. Neale, "The Elizabethan Acts of Su­ Elizabeth's personal attitude toward re­ premacy and Uniformity," in the English His­ ligion was obviollsly important in deter­ torical Review, LXV (July 1950), 304-332. mining which direction the confused sit­ J. E. Neale, Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments, 1559-81 (London, 1953). uation in the churches should take. Her 3 Christine H. Garrett in the Marian Exiles personal faith, far more than being a pri­ (New York, 1938) has traced thoroughly the vate matter, was bound up with the destiny sojourns of all the English exiles of this period, of the English people. At this point Eliza­ though she exaggerates their influence as a po­ litical party when they returned to England in beth's shrewd instinct for duplicity and 1558. 4 Though the influence of John Calvin and they wish to be regarded as "Calvinists." Per­ Geneva on these men was great, they did not haps Calvin's influence, then, was not quite so mention Calvin as often as we should expect. overwhelming as it appears to us from a longer Correspondence with him was scarce, nor did historical perspective. REFORMED TRADITION AND ELIZABETHAN SETTLEMENT 217 vagueness on confessional matters came stricken at the time of her accession. The into conflict with the necessity for some Scots were coming. The French were com­ kind of religious program which would be ing. The Roman Church supported the definite enough to establish a permanent claim of both enemies that Elizabeth's national religious policy. In the end her cousin, Mary of Scotland, was rightful heir religious settlement combined inward am­ to the English throne. These factors might biguity in regard to personal belief with well have predisposed Elizabeth toward a demand for outward conformity. It is Protestantism for her own protection. Yet easy therefore to emphasize so strongly if Protestantism were to become a lost Elizabeth's political motivations in reli­ cause in the Netherlands, France, Scotland, gious matters that her own faith vanishes. and Spain, which looked very likely, it To be sure, her own religious attitude was would scarcely be politic for Elizabeth to anything but fanatical. No bloody Mary play for the wrong team in England. Her she, nor a hot Calvinist either! option for Protestantism greatly influenced Yet every factor in her background and further developments, but she would not situation indicates that Elizabeth's turn have made the choice for the new church toward a Protestant solution involved a de­ had not the Reformation movement ex­ cision of faith and not only political cal­ erted a prevailing influence through her culation, It is important to point out that education, environment, and orientation though she exerted a predominant influ­ toward God, self, and world. ence upon the Reformation in England, The early education of Elizabeth was the Reformation in England and abroad entirely in the hands of bright young radi­ also had a significant impact upon her. cal Protestant humanists from Cambridge, That is, Elizabeth's political calculations whose enthusiasm must have been con­ had to be worked out to accord with her tagious. Her first surviving letter, written personal faith, which was Protestant, and at 10, reveals already her radical preference at the same time the authority behind the for the Italian language, which was to ac­ program of religious Reformation would company her throughout life. Later more at times at least loom larger for her than than one Catholic clergyman remarked at merely the question of her personal dis­ her ignorance of Catholic theology, while likes and desires. It is not precisely true showing irritation at her friendship for that her birth condemned her to be either "heretic Italian friars," no doubt referring Protestant or bastard, as if no personal to Peter Martyr Vermigli and Bernardino choices were involved in maintaining 'her Ochino, both Italian Protestants, profes­ Protestant faith.