Three English Reformers To Read
One of the things we want to accomplish with this 1662Anglican.org website is to introduce Reformational Anglicans from different eras. We will start with the 16th Century and the birth of the Church of England. The three English Reformers I want to talk about today are John Jewel, Richard Hooker and Thomas Rogers. But before I do so, I am going to mention the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, the primary author of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer (derived from his 1552 prayer book) and the 39 Articles (he wrote the original 42 Articles that were revised/edited to 39 by Archbishop Matthew Parker a decade later). A good place to start with Cranmer are his four official Homilies. Cranmer authored Homily #1 on Holy Scripture; #3 on Salvation (referred to in Article #11 Justification), #4 on Faith, and #5 on Good Works. The Homilies are available online in various places, but Lee Gattis has produced a modern English version of the First Book of Homilies that I highly recommend.
THE JEWEL OF ENGLAND
On to John Jewel (1522-1571), who was the Bishop of Salisbury (1559-1571). 1559 is significant in that is when Elizabeth 1 came to the throne. He previously studied at Oxford under the Italian Reformer Peter Martyr Vermigli that Cranmer had invited to England (alongside the German Reformer Martin Bucer at Cambridge. Both Vermigli and Bucer influenced Cranmer’s 1552 Book of Common Prayer). His first and most significant work to read is An Apology of the Church of England, published in 1562. In this book he defended the Church of England against the Roman Church’s critiques that it was not a true church. Jewel used not only Scripture, but many quotes from the church fathers and from ancient councils to not only defend the Church of England, but to show how the Roman Church is the one which is no longer in line with scripture, the fathers and councils. This is available online in various places (Project Canterbury). Here let me recommend the work of the Davenant Institute who have recently published this book, and are doing a lot of work with our next reformer: Richard Hooker.
HOOKER THE GREAT
Richard Hooker (1554-1600) is considered by many, including J.I. Packer, to be the greatest Anglican theologian. Brad Littlejohn of the Davenant Institute states that Hooker, “ranks third only to Luther and Calvin in both intellectual stature and historical significance among Protestant theologians.” I am not going to spend much time introducing him here. I do want to give this context for his writings. Unlike Jewel in his Apology, Hooker’s primary opposition were the regulative principle Calvinists in the Church of England, who were given the moniker of Puritans.
I say regular principle Calvninsts, because it is also fair to say that in the last half of the 16th century, almost all members of the Church of England were Calvinist in their essential doctrine, including Richard Hooker. Hooker’s critiques are mostly leveled at Thomas Cartwright who was a leader of the Presbyterian party who did not think the English Reformation had gone far enough in eliminating elements they saw as still being too Romish. Hooker famously wrote five books titled Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in which he defended the practices including bishops, the liturgy, etc as being fully acceptable and in line with reformed churches. This is one of the main differentiation points that Reformed Anglicanism has with the other Reformed churches: we affirm the normative principle and Hooker uses it in all of his argumentation. He also pushes back against Rome as well in parts of his writings. Here, I highly recommend purchasing Davenan’s modernization of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity as Hooker’s original writing is nearly impossible for most 21st century readers to understand (myself included). They have the first four books published together and parts of book 5 recently published as The Word Made Flesh.
ESSENTIAL ROGERS
The last English Reformer to introduce to read is Thomas Rogers. Rogers was a contemporary of Richard Hooker, not certain of his birth year, but he died in 1616. What is significant about Rogers is that he wrote the first commentary on The 39 Articles. First published in 1585, then revised and the final form was published in 1607 as The Catholic Doctrine of the Church of England: An Exposition of the Thirty-Nine Articles. Similar to Hooker, Rogers is a normative principle Calvinist and his commentary reflects this. In his opening preface he refers to the church being reformed and in the second paragraph names two men: Cranmer and John Calvin. His format is to state what the articles means, often in shorter statements, then state what it does not mean, often critiquing both Rome and regulative principle Calvinists, amongst others. For Reformational Anglicans, this book is essential to understanding how the 16th century reformers understood the official doctrine of the Church of England at its founding. The Parker Society published the book in 1854 and it can be read online here. Being out of print, you can find several versions that are imprints of The Parker Society’s being published today.
Cranmer, Jewell, Hooker and Rogers are all 16th Century English Reformers who are worth your time to read. Their writings are foundational to Anglicanism as a whole, and especially, Reformational Anglicanism.
