Faith, Scripture, and Grace: Reformation in England Reformation in England: Faith, Scripture, and Grace Author Bevan Watson Supervising Editor Melissa Walter Editor Kate McPherson Copy Editor Leah Hamby Senior Encoder Leah Hamby Encoding and Metadata LEMDO Team Copyright Holder (Content) Kate McPherson Copyright Holder (XML and interface) University of Victoria Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Mitacs Globablink Research Internship

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Early Modern England Encyclopedia

By Bevan Watson, inspired by Michael Best’s Shakespeare’s Life and Times, Internet Shakespeare Editions

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Overview

Historically, England had been part of Western Christianity under the leadership of the Pope in Rome. This all changed in 1534, when Henry VIII separated the English church from Rome using the Act of Supremacy, which made the monarch the Supreme Head of the Church. The English Reformation spent the next decades reforming doctrine and worship to remove traditional Catholic religious practices from mainstream belief in England. For example, reformists argued that transubstantiation, the ritual of the Eucharist in which bread and wine are converted to the body and blood of Christ, was against scripture and led to many superstitions. The new Church of England wanted to detach itself from beliefs it considered superstitious, including worship of saints, purchase of indulgences, and worship and sale of images and relics, among other practices and beliefs.

The Struggles of The Reformation

John Foxe, a 16th century Protestant reformer famously exclaims that because God hath so placed us Englishmen here in one commonwealth, also in one church, as in one ship togetherlet us not mangle or divide the ship, which being divided perisheth (Nice 1005). This statement reveals the close relationship between church and state, but also Foxe’s hopes for national unity. Unfortunately, England’s transition to Protestantism was met with decades-long struggle, creating a sense of uncertainty and division amongst England’s citizens all through the middle of the 16th century.

After Henry VIII died, his young son, Edward VI, reigned with the support of a council of regents from 1547 until his death in 1553. Edward VI and his adult ministers continued his father’s Protestant reign, enacting a second and more radical Reformation, which worked to replace Catholic Mass and other rituals with an English version of the Book of Common Prayer in 1549. For the first time, religious services were held in English rather than Latin, which helped those in the congregation follow the service more easily.

However, after both Henry VIII’s and Edward VI’s Protestant reign, the next successor to the throne, Mary I, changed the country’s religion back to Catholicism. Queen Mary revived Catholic Mass, restored laws against religious dissent, and executed more than 300 Protestants before her death in 1558, essentially creating a counter-reformation.

Elizabeth I, who succeeded Mary I, restored the Book of Common Prayer and Protestant practices, but avoided persecuting all but the most outspoken Catholics. However, during Elizabeth’s reign and that of her successor, James I (1603–1625), religious strife was still a pressing issue. Radical Protestants known as Puritans emerged who wanted to organize society around the godly elect; they believed that there were a few select people who could be considered divine in their beliefs and behaviour.

The Main Principles of Protestantism in Early Modern England
I. Sola fide (meaning by faith alone)

The just shall live by faith. (Romans 1:17)

Previously under Catholic belief, people used holy objects, the intercession of saints, and other rituals performed by the church as protections from evil and a means to salvation (Oldridge 390). The Catholic church held a monopoly on God’s grace which was distributed through the holy sacraments administered by prients and by indulgences, a purchased reduction in the amount of punishment a sinner was expected to undergo. However, when Protestantism became the dominant religion in England, previous Catholic methods were removed from mainstream practices. As a result, people started to rely on faith to protect them from the dangers found within day-to-day life (Oldridge 390). The Protestant doctrine of justification and protection by faith alone removed the need for priestly intervention to mediate between God and an individual.

II. Sola scriptura (meaning by scripture alone)

Due to the Reformation, the Book of Common Prayer and religious ceremonies were now presented in English, rather than Latin. This meant that everyday people could now understand the language of the religious texts and ceremonies they were undergoing, gaining access to the Word of God as revealed in the Bible (Best). However, the translation of scripture into English also created some problems within society as it opened the door for radical interpretations of God's Word (Best).

III. Sola gratia (meaning by grace alone)

For by grace are ye saved, through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

It was common belief in the early modern period that humans were sinful and corrupt by nature, incapable of acting for good or knowing religious truth without the grace of God in their lives to guide them (Best). Reformed churches enforced ideas of predestination, meaning that those who were the elect, a select amount of people who were truly faithful, were given salvation by God’s grace and that everyone else was fated for damnation (Best). And through the concept of election, by which God redeemed a body of Christians through His grace alone, conferred divine favour on the community of the saved (Olridge 392).

Key Print Sources Nice, Jason A. <q>The Peculiar Place of God</q>: Early Modern Representations of England and France. The English Historical Review, vol. 121, no. 493, Sep. 2006, pp. 1002–1018. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/3806065. Oldridge, Darren. Light from Darkness: The Problem of Evil in Early Modern England. The Seventeenth Century, vol. 27, no. 4, Winter 2012, pp. 389–409.
Key Online Sources Church of England. Book of common prayer (1552), The boke of common praier, and administracion of the sacramentes, and other rites and ceremonies in the Churche of Englande 1552. Folger Shakespeare Library, https://digitalcollections.folger.edu/img978. Best, Michael. Faith, scripture, grace. Shakespeare’s Life and Times. Internet Shakespeare Editions. University of Victoria. https://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/religion/protestantism+1.html. Accessed 25 Jan. 2024.