Thursday, July 6, 2023

It is the 6th of July 2023. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

It is not uncommon on this show to find beef between the church and the state- however, they are arranged. In almost 1500 shows and now decades of looking at church history, I wonder if I might suggest something: both the absence of conflict and overwhelming conflict are indicative of an unhealthy relationship. Too much conflict is obviously a problem. But when there is not a peep being made, perhaps the church is acquiescing too much to the state or vice versa. So- today, we remember a man, an Archbishop of Canterbury who died on this the 6th of July in 1583, deposed from his position over such a conflict which we might think of as the Goldilocks option- the not too much strife, nor too little. He wasn’t put to death for his beliefs but rather questioned certain practices and fell out of favor with a Queen, who had to adjust her position on his account. He was the Archbishop Edmund Grindal.

Edmund Grindal was born in 1519 in Cumberland, England- in the parish of St. Bee’s. Further research has shown me that there is no actual “St. Bee” as in Honey or Killer, but rather a St. Bega of Ireland. Oh well. 

He would grow up in the Reformation tradition- attending Cambridge (the school more likely for Protestant dissenters) but shows himself adept at maneuvering the tricky English settlement in the light of Henry VIII such that he would become a royal Chaplain under Henry’s son, King Edward VI. But after Edward's early death and the ascension of Queen Mary, Grindal left England for Strasbourg as one of the many Protestant exiles looking for safety. There he held a position of authority amongst the exiles on account io his role under Edward. He attempted to mediate a battle between the Coxians and the Knoxians- a question about the use of the prayer book (Coxians were pro, Knoxians were anti).

With the reign of Elizabeth, Edward came back to England, where he would be made bishop of London, then the Archbishop of York (second only to Canterbury), and with the death of Matthew Parker, he became the Archbishop of Canterbury. Some historians have painted him as milquetoast- a bland fellow, a little too Puritan for Elizabeth but not Puritan enough to be exciting. But herein, this was where the genius of his being made Archbishop. He was Puritan enough to gather some of the middling Puritans and Pro-church of England enough to gather some of those middling Anglicans. His reputation would suffer, but the new Elizabethan settlement required this kind of tightrope.

The Elizabethan settlement was, in very basic terms- a church that was Protestant in theology but Catholic in style. But Grindal wasn’t a rubber stamp for the Queen. He, in fact fought with her over the use of particular vestments for communion (a typical Anglican battle), over her head of the church (he was inclined to see Bishops as supreme in theological matters), and he argued for events known as “prophesying meetings”. These were still held at the church but without the order of the Book of Prayer or communion. They would be sermons and discussions of the biblical text in which the common person could come and listen. For Grindal, this was a natural outgrowth of the call to continually preach in season and out and a way of developing biblical literacy amongst the populace. For Elizabeth and those emphasizing church hierarchy, they were dangerous in that they could foment dissent. Popular amongst Puritans especially, they would serve as meeting grounds for Puritan pastors and those more likely to criticize the state church. Elizabeth wrote to Grindal requesting he end them- he wrote that she was not the authority in this matter, and that was, well, the wrong thing to say to a monarch trying to establish authority in these uncertain years. Elizabeth would have him imprisoned and stripped of duties- the controversy would outlive Grindal as he would die on this day in 1583.

His reputation was batted around until the esteemed historian of the English church, Patrick Collinson, wrote his biography- establishing his importance in a moderate struggle in Archbishop Grindal, the Struggle For A Reformed Church. Edmund Grindal, born in 1519, was 64 years old.

The last word for today comes from Grindal himself, while in Strasbourg, he translated hymns into English- this is the 3rd verse to his translation “Give peace in these our days O Lord:

Give peace and us Thy spirit down send
With grief and repentance true;

Do piece our hearts our lives to amend,

And by faith Christ renew;

That fear and dread, war and bloodshed,

Through Thy sweet mercy and grace,

May from us slide, Thy truth abide,

And shine in every place.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 6th of July 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man, not in favor of sainting Bee’s, but being in Wisconsin does have a thing for the strawberry root weevil. He is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man in reading up on Grindal who kept picturing Grendel from Beowulf, the descendant of Cain-  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.