Friday, May 12, 2023

It is the 12th of May 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Today on the show, we are doing double duty by answering a listener's question and remembering an event on this day. It was listener Chris in Augusta, KY (home of George Clooney, best known from his time on the Facts of Life- also son of Rosemary Clooney from the origin Poseidon Adventure and one heck of a singer).

Ok- Chris asked about my “thoughts about why Lutheranism never really caught on in England, Scotland, and Ireland.”

Well- it’s a great question and one that historians have spent a good amount of time dealing with. If there were Reforming impetuses in Germany and Great Britain, why didn’t they join forces, Voltron style, and make a pan-national Reformation? After all, Luther’s works made their way to England and Scotland, especially so… what happened?

Well, for one: today happened. It was on this, the 12th of May in 1521, that on direction from King Henry VIII, Bishop John Fisher gave a 2-hour sermon against Luther at St. Paul’s Cathedral, followed by Cardinal Wolsey taking Luther’s writings and publicly burning them in front of all present, including papal representatives.

And then- and then! King Henry VIII wrote- perhaps with some help from Thomas More- a work called The Defense of the Seven Sacraments Against Martin Luther. Luther would respond in typical Luther fashion with a sharp-tongued riposte. Later this same year, Henry VIII would actually be named “Defender of the Faith” by the Pope, and he and his wife, Catherine of Aragon, received a plenary indulgence for carrying out an annual pilgrimage. So- no love was lost between Luther and Henry VIII.

But, as you might know, Henry soon wanted to divorce Catherine in order to marry Anne Boleyn and needed the Pope to annul his marriage. It is complicated, but in 1533 King Henry gave his assent to a new law in England restraining any English person from appealing to the Pope, and in 1534 The Act of Supremacy was passed, making Henry the head of the English Church (what we call today the Anglican Church).

But what about Scotland- they seemed to be ready for reform and not always keen on the English. And perhaps you’ve heard about Patrick Hamilton- a Scottish man who studied under Luther and brought Lutheran ideas back to the University of St. Andrews. Unfortunately, he was killed for his faith (this in 1528), as were others with pro-Reformation characters- often called in shorthand “Lutheran.” Soon a new Scot, John Knox, returned to Scotland (also St. Andrews), having studied not in Wittenberg with Lutherans but in Geneva with Calvinists. And thus, Scotland and their Presbyterian church would take the Calvinists' positions over the Lutherans.

The big question, for me and other historians, is why did the Reformation happen in some places and not in other places and how come it was certain kinds of Reformation and not other certain forms.

The short answer: religious change is hard to track. It involves theology but also everything else that makes up life- politics and family ties and national interests and pettiness. Once Henry had Luther’s writings burned, there was no turning back- and wherever a Reformation took place, it needed both popular and official support. The English Reformation needed to be it's own- it had little interest in linking up with some German princes. And after 1530 and the Augsburg Confession and certainly after the 1580 Book of Concord, there was less theological wiggle room for those who objected to certain Lutheran teachings regarding the Sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. The “Reformed” positions allowed for more variation than did the Lutheran and thus could easily be introduced but then made into national movements with autonomy with some international affiliation.

I love church history because it involves questions like this, which are about theology but also real-life- personal, political, and tricky. And sometimes, when you burn a bridge by burning a dude's papers, a unified front becomes impossible. And that’s what happened on this day in 1521- thanks for the question, Chris. For a historiographical answer, check out the article “From the Strange Death to the Odd Afterlife of Lutheran England” by David Gehring in the Historical Journal- free on Jstor.

 

The last word for today-it’s Friday, so time for a poem, a favorite of mine- "The Dying Christian To His Soul" by Alexander Pope:

Vital spark of heav’nly flame!

Quit, O quit this mortal frame:

Trembling, hoping, ling’ring, flying,

O the pain, the bliss of dying!

Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,

And let me languish into life.

 

Hark! they whisper; angels say,

Sister Spirit, come away!

What is this absorbs me quite?

Steals my senses, shuts my sight,

Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?

Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

 

The world recedes; it disappears!

Heav’n opens on my eyes! my ears

With sounds seraphic ring!

Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!

O Grave! where is thy victory?

O Death! where is thy sting?

 

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 12th of May 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who had to grow a beard because of the constant confusion with George Clooney- He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who speaks on Facts of Life- I had a crush on Jo- played by Nancy McKeon- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.