Reformation Thought. Alister E. McGrath

Halsbury’s Laws of England, makes no reference to its doctrine: the “Church of England” is regarded as continuous with the church established in England during the period 597–686. Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Calvinism – the three Christian churches fighting it out for dominance of the continent of Europe – would not be permitted to operate in England.

      The social pressures which made religious ideas so important in the German context never really developed during the period of the English Reformation. There was thus no particular reason for the Church of England to pay much attention to doctrinal questions. Elizabeth ensured that it had no rivals in England. One of the purposes of doctrine is to divide – and there was nothing for the Church of England to divide itself from. England was insulated from the factors which made doctrine so significant a matter on the mainland of Europe in the Reformation and immediate post-Reformation periods.

      Indeed, the need to ensure that all English Christians (whether personally inclined toward some form of Protestantism or toward Catholicism) felt reasonably at home in the Church of England led to the necessity of doctrine being played down: an emphasis on doctrine might lead to divisions within the new church, and hence internal weakness at a time when English faced significant external threats. As Elizabeth tried to ensure England’s safety in the dangerous world of the late sixteenth century, the last thing she wanted was an England torn apart by doctrinal differences. A divided English church would mean a divided England; and a divided England would be a weak and vulnerable England.

The social context of the Reformation thus has a significant influence on the extent to which religious ideas affected events. In Germany, such ideas proved to be enormously important; in England, their influence appears to have been of less significance. Many scholars suggest that the rise of Puritanism as a significant religious and political force in England toward the end of the sixteenth century led to specifically theological issues being given a high profile in discussions of the shape and identity of the English church.

      From what has been said thus far, it will be clear that the “Age of Reformation” was not homogenous, but involved a complex pattern of interactions between leading reformers, local concerns and opportunities, and local rulers – whether these took the form of monarchs or city councils. These issues will be explored in greater detail as this analysis proceeds in later chapters. In what follows, we shall present an overview of the factors that led so many to conclude that some kind of reform was needed in the early 1500s. While there was divergence on precisely what needed to be reformed, and who ought to carry out such reformations, there was widespread agreement that something needed to be done.

      The Call for Reform

      By the beginning of the sixteenth century, it was obvious that the church in western Europe was in urgent need of “reform of head and members.” It seemed to many that the life-blood of the church had ceased to flow through its veins. The church legal system was badly in need of overhaul, and ecclesiastical bureaucracy had become notoriously inefficient and corrupt. The morals of the clergy were often lax and a source of scandal to their congregations. Clergy, even at the highest level, were frequently absent from their parishes. In Germany, it is reported that only one parish in fourteen had its pastor in residence. The Frenchman Antoine du Prat, archbishop of Sens, turned up for only one service at his cathedral throughout his ten years in the archdiocese: moreover, his presence and role at this service were somewhat passive, in that it was his funeral.

      Many senior ecclesiastical posts were secured through questionable means on dubious grounds, generally relying upon the family connections or the political or financial status of the candidates, rather than their spiritual qualities. Thus, Duke Amadeus VIII of Savoy secured the appointment of his son to the senior position of bishop of Geneva in 1451; if anyone had misgivings about the fact that the new bishop had never been ordained and was only eight years of age, they were wise enough not to mention them in public. Pope Alexander VI, a member of the Borgia family (famous for its lethal dinner parties), secured his election to the papacy in 1492 despite having several mistresses and seven children, largely because he bought the papacy outright over the heads of his nearest rivals. Niccolò Machiavelli put the loose morals of late Renaissance Italy down to the poor example set by the church and its clergy.

      The Growth of Anti-Clericalism

Perhaps unsurprisingly, anti-clericalism became a significant phenomenon in the late Middle Ages, reflecting a number of social concerns about the elevated social status and unimpressive intellectual caliber of the clergy. The tax breaks enjoyed by clergy were the source of particular irritation, especially in times of economic difficulty. In the French diocese of Meaux, there was considerable local resentment because the clergy were exempted from all forms of taxation. In the diocese of Rouen, there was popular outcry over the windfall profits made by the church by selling grain during a period of severe shortage. Irritated by the low intellectual stature of many parish clergy in the early sixteenth century, an increasingly educated Christian laity turned to writers such as Erasmus of Rotterdam (Figure 1.1) to find an intelligent articulation of their faith.

      Figure 1.1 Erasmus of Rotterdam in the print shop of his friend Johannes Froben of Basle. Corbis PL279.

Yet despite such valid concerns, the extent and significance of anti-clericalism should not be exaggerated. While there were undoubtedly areas in which such hostility was particularly pronounced – particularly in cities – the clergy were often valued and esteemed, especially in rural areas. Many of the great monasteries of western Europe were respected on account of their social outreach and their significant contributions to the local economy. Yet when all this is taken into account, a rumbling discontent remained, often expressed in what is known as “protest literature” (also known as “grievance literature” or “complaint literature”). Nor should the importance of anti-clericalism for the emergence of the Protestant Reformation be overstated. The Reformation may have reduced the number of clergy through a process of decentralization and the reallocation of some roles traditionally associated with clergy to the laity. Nevertheless, Protestantism retained clergy, even if it may have redefined their responsibilities, and recalibrated their relationship to the laity.

      The growth of an educated and literate laity – one of the more significant aspects of the cultural history of Renaissance Europe – led to the publication of an increasing number of criticisms of the church on account of the obvious disparity between what the church was and what it might be or what it was meant to be. The growing level of criticism may well reflect the fact that more people were, through increasing educational opportunities, in a position to criticize the church – rather than any further decline in the ecclesiastical standards of the day. It is true that many religious works of the fifteenth century – often known as a “protest literature” (but sometimes as a “grievance literature” or a “complaint literature”) – paint a picture of growing irritation and protest concerning ecclesiastical corruption and inefficiency. Yet, this might point to levels of expectation of change within the late medieval church as much as declining levels of performance.

      However, the reforming movements of this age were not driven purely by a negative discontent. Many reforming movements of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century took positive inspiration from the institutional simplicity and spiritual integrity of apostolic Christianity. Could not this Golden Age of the Christian faith be regained, perhaps by trying to recapture the simple vision of the church found in the New Testament? Such a program of institutional and moral reform seems to have been the wistful pipe dream of intellectuals throughout half of Europe.

      The Need for Doctrinal Reform

      Yet there were others who added another demand to this list of long-overdue reforms of morals and practice – a reformation of Christian doctrine. The core religious ideas of the church seemed to have become muddled and unfocused. Many Catholic writers agreed. One of the most interesting developments at the