Reformed Orthodoxy in Britain Carl R. Trueman IntroductIon Dutch church history of the time. Thus, while uritanism,” like so many “isms” British theologians did produce a vast amount of “Pthroughout history, has proved very dif- literature on classical theological themes, such as ficult to define, and I am aware that no definitive the doctrine of scripture, God, Christology, and solution will be found in this essay. Thus, what I predestination, much of the focus of public debate offer here is a brief theological and ecclesiastical was on differences in polity and liturgy between history of the twin poles that are, Erastians, Presbyterians and Independents. His- Carl R. Trueman is Vice with different degrees of emphasis, torians have tended to focus on these matters of President for Academic Affairs and 1 Professor of Historical Theology often seen as constitutive of the being of primary interest. Thus, Puritan studies, a and Church History at Westminster Puritan identity in the sixteenth field where perhaps one might have expected more Theological Seminary in Glenside, and seventeenth centuries: reli- of a theological concern, has been dominated on Pennsylvania. gious experience, which separates the whole by those whose interests are more with He previously served on faculty at the true believer from one with the sociology and psychology of the movement(s) the Universities of Nottingham and only an intellectual faith; and the than with its doctrinal contribution.2 Aberdeen in the UK. Dr. Trueman’s development of Reformed Ortho- The last twenty years have, however, witnessed recent books include John Owen: doxy, particularly as it played out the growth in interest among academics in the Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man (Ashgate, 2007), Republocrat: in the ecclesiological struggles in theological writings of Britain during this time. Confessions of a Liberal Conservative England during this time. Indeed, In part, this is clearly the result of the impact of the (P&R, 2010), and Histories and the key theological debates in wider growth in this area fuelled by the scholarly Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History (Crossway, 2010). Britain at the time, at least as they contributions of Richard A. Muller to the broader impacted on the wider history of field of post-Reformation theological studies, con- England Scotland, and Ireland, tended on the tributions which specifically integrate discussions whole to address matters of church and state, of British theologians such as Samuel Rutherford, and the nature of liturgical reform, rather than James Ussher, John Owen, and Edward Leigh the kind of issues which we see, for example, in (among many others) into the wider treatment of 4 SBJT 14.4 (2010): 4-18. continental reformed Orthodoxy.3 ously debated predestination, the former having In the wake of Muller’s work, a number of been exiled in Bullinger’s Zurich, the latter in Cal- writers have either pursued historical theologi- vin’s Geneva, with their respective cities of exile cal studies of English and Scottish figures which shaping their approach to the subject. Bullinger seek to apply his insights to specific English figures was strongly opposed to the double predestinari- or debates, or have sought to integrate sensitiv- anism of Traheron, and indeed appears to have ity to issues of historical theology with the more used synergistic passages from Melanchthon’s Loci traditional social, political, and literary interests Communes as the textual source for some of his of Puritan studies. The picture that has emerged arguments.5 of Reformed Orthodox intellectual life in Britain In addition to the return of domestic theolo- in recent scholarship, even as it acknowledges the gians, England also benefited at this time from differences in social and political contexts, has the presence of foreign intellectuals, fleeing the underlined both the close connection between continent to avoid Charles V’s anti-Protestant British theology and that of the continent at the policies. Thus, in the early 1550s, leading conti- time, and the essential catholicity of the British nental Reformers were also to be resident in Eng- Reformed relative to their patristic and medieval land: for example, among others, Peter Martyr antecedents. 4 Vermigli took the chair of divinity at Oxford, Mar- tin Bucer the chair at Cambridge, and John Laski the early englIsh reformatIon, pastored a church of exiles in London. These men 1509-58 were significant in the domestic debates among The reign of Henry VIII was marked by a break Reformed theologicans. Bucer was particularly with the Roman church but rather equivocal com- influential in shaping Cranmer’s views of polity mitment to Protestantism. Indeed, it was not until and John Bradford’s views on predestination; and the reign of Edward VI (1547-53) that Protestant- Laski’s presence encouraged the more radically ism found confessional status in England with Reformed, such as John Hooper (ca. 1500-1555), the First and Second Books of Common Prayer to press for more thorough Reformation of the (1549; 1552) and the formulation of the Forty- Anglican Church.6 Two Articles of 1552, produced by Thomas Cran- One final note regarding Edward’s reign was mer, Archbishop of Canterbury. The Articles were the emergence of debates surrounding church essentially Reformed, particularly in their view of practices, specifically the use of clerical vestments, the Lord’s Supper but their composition at the end the practice of kneeling at communion, and the of Edward’s reign meant that they never achieved nature and status of the Book of Common Prayer normative status. as defining the English Reformation. Both John Nevertheless, the lack of formal confessional Hooper and the exiled Scotsman, John Knox (ca. status did not mean that English theologians 1510-72), protested the use of vestments, and the were not already debating Reformed theology. latter was also notorious for his last-minute inter- The ebb and flow of Protestant fortunes both in vention on the Second Book of Common Prayer’s England under Henry VIII had guaranteed that, prescription of kneeling as the appropriate pos- by the time of Edward’s reign, England had not ture for reception of the sacramental elements.7 only seen many of its own most progressive theo- For both men, these things were not prescribed logical minds go into exile on the continent but by scripture and were thus to be regarded as idola- then return, replete with continental Reformed trous. In making such a case, they were effectively thought. Thus, during the reign of Edward VI, adumbrating the later Regulative Principle of wor- John Hooper and Bartholomew Traheron vigor- ship, as well as implicitly raising questions about 5 the extent of state power with regard to church While the Articles embodied a broad Reformed affairs. These were to be the most important framework for theology, they were not the major issues in British church life for the next century source of tension in the 1560s and 1570s in Eng- and marked one element of what we might call land. Rather, the major controversial foci were, Puritanism: the desire to see further reformation again, the use of vestments and the related issue within the Church of England. of state power vis-à-vis church liturgical practice The death of Edward in 1553 brought his Cath- and discipline. Thus, in the 1560s and 1570s, there olic sister, Mary, to the throne and, in the years were significant struggles between those who that followed, persecution of Protestants meant wished to see an aesthetically simplified form of exile for some and death for others. Very little in worship and practice, including increased free- the way of theological significance was produced dom for the church to determine these matters by the Reformed during her reign, though it is without giving the state final authority, and those worth noting the debate that took place in the who wished to maintain both the stipulations of Tower of London between John Bradford and a the Prayer Book and the prerogative of the state to shadowy group known as “the Free Will Men” enforce such.10 who, as the name suggests, were radical Pelagians In addition, the disputes on these points were upset that the Reformed prisoners enjoyed gam- intensified by the Geneva Bible, an English trans- bling to pass the time. Bradford’s defences of prov- lation first produced in 1557 (New Testament) idence and predestination in this context show the and 1560 (complete Bible). Many of the men influence of Bucer and probably Calvin.8 associated with the work were English exiles in It is also significant that John Knox, by then Geneva who went on to become prominent figures pastor of the English exile church in Frankfurt am in the struggles over vestments in the Elizabethan Main, clashed with a group of Prayer Book loyal- church. In fact, it was not so much the translation ists over his liturgical reforms within the congre- that was to prove so controversial as the marginal gation, and consequently lost his pastorate. Again, notes which advocated politically and ecclesiasti- this was an ominous foreshadowing of problems cally radical interpretations of key passages, most to come.9 famously perhaps on the Hebrew midwives decep- tion in Exod 1:19. This test was interpreted as legit- the elIzabethan era imating the telling of lies to tyrannical rulers, a During the reign of Elizabeth, numerous sig- piece of commentary which was to be particularly nificant developments took place relative to distressing to Elizabeth’s successor, James I, and Reformed orthodoxy. First, in 1559 Parliament which plays directly to those within the church passed both the Act of Supremacy which re-estab- who wished to resist royal incursions on what they lished the independence of the Anglican Church understood to be the sphere of the church’s sover- from Rome and established the monarch as its eign power.