The Prophetic Faith of Our Fathers, vol. 2

IV. English and Continental Protestantism Compared

A summarizing picture of Protestantism in the latter part of the sixteenth century is desirable at this point, and of Protestantism in England in contrast and comparison with that of the Continent. Lutheranism had spread rapidly in the three Scandinavian countries-Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. In fact, these became more thoroughly Protestant than some parts of Ger many. But Lutheranism did not gain the support of the masses of the people in the countries to the west of Germany, where another form of Protestantism became established. ⁴¹ In England, still a third type was introduced. And while these three major groups were becoming firmly established, a number of smaller denominations came into being. PFF2 384.4

On the eve of the Reformation Erasmus’ Greek and Latin New Testament came to England. For its time his Greek New Testament was a wonderful work; it relied on the original text, and revealed the fact that the commonly accepted Latin version PFF2 384.5

was a secondhand document. ⁴² Its influence upon opinion was deep and lasting. But the Reformation in England was, perhaps to a greater degree than in any other country on the Continent, brought to pass by the dissemination of the vernacular Scriptures. ⁴³ There was now no overtowering religious leader comparable to Luther or Calvin. PFF2 385.1

1. ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM TAKES DIFFERENT COURSE

Protestantism in England was influenced by several factors, among which were the Lollards; the New Learning, with its exposure of ecclesiastical corruption and its promotion of study of the Scriptures; German Protestantism; the banishment of English Protestants, which brought them into close contact with Continental Protestant leaders; Henry’s contest with the Papacy, which indirectly favored the religious movement. Thus English Protestantism took a course different from that followed by Lutheranism in Germany and Calvinism in other countries. In the Church of England a compromise between Catholicism and Protestantism was developed whereby the articles of faith were basically evangelical, but the prayer book was Catholic in its tendency. Because of the quarrel which had broken out between Henry VIII and the pope, based on purely selfish motives, a political element was introduced into the Reformation which led to that spirit of compromise between Protestantism and Catholicism noticeable in that church even to our day. Henry VIII made himself head of the national church and separated from Rome, although the majority of the people were still Roman Catholic at heart. ⁴⁴ PFF2 385.2

Henry VIII, in 1521, had defended the Catholic faith against Lutheranism. For this the pope called him officially the “Defender of the Faith”—which title he held till his death, and which all later monarchs, both Catholic and Protestant, retained. About 1540 Henry VIII again took his stand, in a booklet, against the Lutheran faith. But having broken with the pope, and having dissolved all the monasteries in England (1535), he gave a certain measure of encouragement to the Protestants in England. After his death, in 1547, Protestantism made substantial progress in England under Edward VI. Though the Reformation was held in check for a few years under Henry’s Catholic daughter, Queen Mary (1553-1558), under Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603), England became predominantly Protestant ⁴⁵—eighty per cent professing the faith, which approximate percentage continued throughout the seventeenth century. PFF2 385.3

2. DISSENTING SECTS ENTER THE PICTURE

Elizabeth was head of the Church of England, or Anglican Church, though, of course, without right to preach, ordain, or dispense the sacrament. Since the Anglican Church retained an organization centered in the bishops (Latin, episcopus), the name Episcopal came to be applied. And from the very beginning the Church of England had a prayer book of its own, called the Book of Common Prayer, which prescribed the order of worship in the church. Elizabeth also decreed that those who did not attend services should be fined. It was partly because of this Act of Uniformity of the Book of Common Prayer, of 1559, that, near the end of her reign, and later, hundreds of nonconformists, including the Pilgrim Fathers, removed to the Netherlands, where they were given that toleration in the Dutch Republic which they had sought in vain from Elizabeth, and her successor, James I. PFF2 386.1

By the latter half of the sixteenth century the Anabaptists, or “Again-Baptists” (so named because they thought infant baptism un-Scriptural and inefficacious, and therefore baptized those who had already been christened), had developed the beliefs and church polity that became the heritage of the Baptists of England and the United States. There was a wide variation in the tenets held by the Anabaptists on the Continent, but by 1575 their more extreme elements, which had discredited their cause, had largely disappeared. In the Netherlands a moderate group, the Mennonites, prevailed. Some believe that the English Baptists and Congregationalists, later called Independents, derived from the exiles in Holland the principle of local self-government, ⁴⁶ which was later so highly prized by the American Congregationalists, such as the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans. Among the Independents were also the Quakers, and the Separatists, who drew completely away from the Anglican Church, and such leaders as Roger Williams, who realized in the New World the ideal of separation of church and state. It was later to no small degree through the influence of the dissenting groups that religious toleration, as well as democracy, came to America. PFF2 386.2