Western University Scholarship@Western History Publications History Department 8-2003 Review of Preaching during the English Reformation by Susan Wabuda Margaret McGlynn The University of Western Ontario Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/historypub Part of the History Commons Citation of this paper: McGlynn, Margaret, "Review of Preaching during the English Reformation by Susan Wabuda" (2003). History Publications. 335. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/historypub/335 Susan Wabuda. Preaching during the English Reformation. New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. xix + 203 pp. $55.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-521-45395-0. Reviewed by Margaret McGlynn (Department of History, Wellesley College) Published on H-Albion (August, 2003) A Work in Progress A Work in Progress ing in late medieval England. e central argument of the Susan Wabuda’s book opens with a brief survey of chapter is that the state of the sermon was less dire in the changes which have taken place in the study of the this period than the reformers, or some historians, have English Reformation over the past forty years, and more argued. Wabuda looks at both Henry VII’s Westmin- particularly over the past twenty. She ends with Christo- ster chantry and Lady Margaret Beaufort’s provisions at pher Haigh and Eamon Duffy, whose works frame many Cambridge, and argues that while the foundations of the of the assumptions behind her book; she argues, against king and his mother were the most elaborate of their the former, that “the Reformation maered, and maered time, they were not unusual in their intent, for there deeply” (p. 5), and draws heavily upon the work of the was a widespread general interest in improving both the laer throughout the book. Her arguments consistently availability and the quality of sermons at the beginning begin with late medieval practices and seek to examine of the sixteenth century. is interest served to inten- how preaching changed through the Reformation, not sify the tension between word and sacrament, as many just in its ideals, but in personnel, administration, and devoted Christians eagerly sought greater knowledge of style. e story she tells is a messy one, not easily suscep- scripture. Wabuda points out that there were a num- tible to neat formulation, and the book focuses more on ber of different sources available to cater to this desire the processes through which the change took place than for sermons, all of which were impeccably orthodox: the on developing a clear argument concerning the meaning homily within the Mass, the quarterly sermons within or effect of the changes. the parish, pulpit cross sermons, and provisions for ser- Following the opening survey, the introduction gives mons in wills. e rest of the chapter is devoted to ex- a brief overview of the role of the sermon. Wabuda points ploring these options, their role and their efficacy. out that in the medieval church “the sermon was hand- Chapter 2, “Pulpit Men,” looks at the movement to en- maid to the sacraments” (p. 7). It was a necessary part hance the preaching role of the priest. Wabuda focuses of the teaching function of the church and especially the on Fisher, Colet, and Erasmus, who between them cre- penitential process, but there was also a tension in the ated both a new ideal of the preacher and new institutions priest’s role as he both taught the church’s message and to produce them. She points out that Erasmus’s Ecclesi- sought to keep the text of scripture from the laity. As astes revolutionized the idea of the preacher and contin- the importance of the sacraments declined, however, the ued to be a source of inspiration for reformers of all doc- sermon moved to the forefront of the reformers’ agenda. trinal positions through the century, though it sparked Wabuda notes that the translation of scripture for the controversy over access to the scriptures from its publi- laity had the potential to undermine the importance of cation. She also points out Erasmus’s role in the develop- sermons, but argues that while the reformers re-defined ment of the sermon as a political address, and the ways the clergy as a serving ministry rather than a wonder- in which later reformers picked up on his struggles with working priesthood, they retained the idea of a spiritual conservatives to frame their own anti-conservative and elite with the authority to instruct its listeners in the cor- anti-mendicant rhetoric, as well as to build up the im- rect interpretation of scripture. e rest of the book takes age of Henry VIII as dispenser of the Word and protector this outline for granted and moves through a number of of the church. With the exaltation of the king, however, discrete but related changes in English preaching. came the rise of the laity more generally, as they took Chapter 1, “For all Christian Souls,” examines preach- on the role of watchdogs over the clergy, a shi which 1 H-Net Reviews Wabuda describes as “one of the greatest reversals of the interest in sermons and provided men to fill pulpits in English Reformation” (p. 97). Not only did some of the market towns, the university towns, and St. Paul’s or laity take on the duty of monitoring the messages of the the Spital. us the preaching chantries, and especially preachers they heard (a duty which Wabuda argues made Rotherham’s Jesus College, provided a model for early- some clergy more nervous about preaching), they also sixteenth-century reformers, and in their Christocen- had, for the first time, free access to scripture, and the trism laid strong foundations for the scriptural focus of ability to read it for themselves and to each other, thus both Erasmus and the continental reformers. Wabuda ar- usurping the clerical right to both guard and disseminate gues that from early on the Holy Name embodied the am- the text. As with the removal of prayers for the dead biguity of the early reform movement: for evangelicals it from sermons, this development held the potential to end was connected to the power of scripture, and maintained preaching altogether, for if the laity could read and in- a talismanic quality long aer other religious images had terpret for themselves, what was the purpose of preach- been dismissed. However, devotion to the name of Jesus ing? Wabuda argues that the sermon was saved both by was also important to the conservatives, most obviously the reformers’ ideal of a clerical spiritual elite and their to the Jesuits. Wabuda argues that while the hoer sort insistence that the Word had to be heard, preached in a of Protestants found the accommodations made with the public, communal seing rather than simply being read Holy Name offensive, especially under Elizabeth, it rep- as a private activity. resents the kind of adaptability which marked the new Chapter 3, “Flocking Companies of Friars,” faces English church as a whole, providing an abstract image squarely an issue which comes up in other contexts which could replace the medieval images of the saints throughout the book: the role of the mendicant orders in and still remain acceptable to those focused on the Word. the provision of preaching. Indeed, Wabuda argues, the mendicants were “the backbone of the bishops’ preach- e book has no conclusion, which is appropriate, for ing rotas even into the 1530s, until the closure of their there is no real aempt to draw a clear conclusion from houses” (p. 119). is chapter deals with the problems the material presented. is is very much a study of a caused by the dissolution of the mendicant houses, when work in progress, which focuses on the ideas and person- the loss of their pastoral help, their university training, nel available to the reformers when they came to shape and their services as preachers represented an enormous their agenda and their program. It quickly becomes ap- drain of skill and manpower from the new church.[1] parent that this inheritance, particularly early-sixteenth- Some of the friars converted and they were welcomed century reform ideas, was enormously ambiguous, and into the reformed camp, both for their ability and for that the men at the head of the English reformation strug- their propaganda value.[2] Bishops like Longland and gled, not always successfully, to develop and implement Cranmer also worked to bring in good preachers and pro- an effective and consistent preaching model. Along the vide guidance for men who were inclined to preach well, way, Wabuda highlights tangents, odd moments, and but they struggled against royal indifference to preach- dead ends in the story of preaching in sixteenth-century ing, which the king feared might encourage variety in England, as though to emphasize the contingent quality opinion. Wabuda argues that some of the slack was taken of many of the developments she discusses. While the up by the laity, who began to endow sermons and rebuild imposition of a lile more order might have been wel- their churches as effective preaching spaces. Neverthe- come at times, Wabuda works hard, and usually success- less, she seems to conclude that the gap le by the mendi- fully, to avoid the pitfalls of hindsight. is is not a his- cants was never filled; while the new men preached bet- tory wrien from the viewpoint of the victors, but from ter sermons by the standards of the reformers, there were deep in the trenches. never enough of them and there was never the political will to create more preachers or to train them properly. Notes Chapter 4, “e Name of Jesus,” stands apart from the [1].