A few notes from Prof. William Clebsch.
Chapter
2—England’s Initial Repudiation of Luther, 11-23
The Crown, Church and some scholars sprung to a
defense. But, aside from Fisher, More,
Tunstall, Warham and Henry, who took up the cudgels against the burgeoning
Lutheranism on the Continent? (11) Who else besides these four were rebuffing Lutheranism on English soil? Prof. Clebsch give pride of honor to Bishop Fisher (too much?)
Leo X had issued Ex Surge on 15 June 1520, commanding that Luther’s books be burned
and taking up 41 articles against the Germanic Teuton in Wittenberg (11).
Luther’s “Treatise on the Power of the Pope and
Bishops” was popular at Oxford (12), although this notice seems anachronistic
since it was published in 1537. (cf. http://bookofconcord.org/treatise.php,
a commendable document)
Luther’s writings were burned at St. Paul’s Cross,
London on 12 May 1521. This was arranged by Cardinal Wolsey and John
Fisher, Bishop of Rochester. Fisher
preached the sermon “damning the new heresies” (12). Leo X’s “bull” had been off the presses 10
months earlier, but the imperial Edict of Worms was to come—26 May 1521.
By the time of the Wolsey/Fisher book burning
in London, Luther was in the Wartburg Castle with beginning preparations to
translate the Bible into German.
On the same day, 12 May 1521, William Warham, the Archbishop of Canterbury, informed
Cardinal Wolsey that he had letters in hand from Oxford that the University had
been “infected with Lutheranism and many books forbidden by Wolsey had obtained
circulation” (12). Some “incircumspect
fools” had brought the entire University under suspicion. At this point, we wish Prof. Clebsch offered
specifics—what volumes, books, tracts?
Who was reading what? The Prof.
advises that “Protestant books seem to have circulated widely in London,
Oxford, and Cambridge.”
Prof. Clebsch notes that Henry's volume is “theologically amateurish”
although “historically momentous” (19).
Luther accused Henry’s volume as “ghost written” (19) with Fisher and
More as the likely authors. The volume
was shallow and surrounded by a “wall of derision” with “more influence than
merit” (22).
A little taste of Luther’s trumpet blast against Henry, to wit:
Since then it has
pleased this mask of a King with worthless words, without quoting an example,
to play the fool in a matter so serious and sacred, I state without mask and
openly: The King of England, this Henry, clearly lies, and with his lies, acts
the part of a comic jester rather than that of a king. Of this crime, I,
Luther, openly accuse this evil-speaking Thomist, and by the testimony of my
books and my world-wide readers, I convict him. Let his royal majesty and your
humble servant be from now on discounted as far as I am concerned; I am
speaking to a lying buffoon, hidden under a kingly title, and speaking
concerning divine truths, which it is every Christian man's duty to protect
from lying abuse. If the foolish King so much forgets his Kingship that he
dares to come into public view with open lies, and does so while treating of
sacred subjects, why is it not a right and proper thing for me to throw his
lies back in his face, so that if he derives any pleasure from lying against
the divine Majesty, he may lose it when he hears the truth about his own
majesty?”
By 12
October 1524, Bishop Cuthbert Tunstall, London, called in several
booksellers to his palace. He warned
them about imported books. Further, he
commanded them to direct any imported books to Wolsey (Cardinal and Papal
legate), Warham (CANTUAR), Fisher (Rochester) and himself (London). These hierarchs would be the book-reviewers of the heresiarchs.
Fisher appears to have been the chief and earliest
literary defender of the Church of England.
He had royal patronage from earlier years (we’ve covered this
elsewhere). He was a preacher, teacher,
scholar, proctor and later chancellor of Cambridge before becoming the Bishop of Rochester.
(Rochester is about 30 miles SE of London about 0400 as the crow flies.)
Thomas More enters the fray in his diatribes
against William Tyndale by 1528, but Henry VIII and Fisher had already been at
work. Fisher places Luther amongst other
“deviational divines” akin to Arius and Wycliffe (15-16), tackling sola scriptura, sola fides, justification,
faith, and works. Luther bore the “marks
of all heretics and servants of anti-Christ” (16). According to Prof. Clebsch,
Fisher is the only English divine pro-actively “producing scholarly refutations
of Luther during the critical years of 1520-1529” (18).
Fisher’s
works:
Treatise
concernynge...the seven penytencyall Psalms" (London, 1508);
Sermon...agayn ye
pernicyous doctrin of Martin Luther (London,
1521);
Assertionis Lutheranae
confutatio (1523)
- Defensio Henrici VIII" (Cologne, 1525);
- Sacri sacerdottii defensio contra Lutheranum and Defensio Regie
assertionis contra Babylonicam captivitatem (1525)
- Vernacular Sermon (1526)—preached at another
book burning arranged by Cardinal Wolsey
- De Veritate Corporis et Sanguinis Christi in
Eucharistia, adversus Johannem Oecolampadium (Cologne, 1527)—an attack on Oecolampadius in Basel;
- De Causa Matrimonii...Henrici VIII cum Catharina
Aragonensi (Alcalá de Henares,
1530);
- The Wayes to Perfect Religion (London, 1535);
- A Spirituall Consolation written...to hys sister
Elizabeth (London, 1735).
Prof. Clebsch does not mention
it, but the Latin publications were all but an advertisement in behalf of
Luther and stimulated conversations and inquiries. By 1528, as Prof. MacCulloch has noted, the
Cambridge don, Thomas Cranmer was digesting Bishop Fisher’s writings (lamenting
the “over-the-top” rhetoric of Fisher but also being angry at Luther too). Cranmer remains shadowy to this scribe in
the 1520s, although we know “Little Germany” or “White Horse Inn’ was
operational.
Fisher ultimately proves to be
more of a Pope’s man than a King’s man. He’ll lose his head to Henry’s Axe-Man,
but that’s for another day.
No comments:
Post a Comment