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The Jewel-Harding Controversy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 July 2014
Extract
I cannot oucrslipp some without manifest iniury. that descrue to haue their names enrolled in the first rancke of valiant Confuters: worthy men, but subiect to imperfections, to errour. to mutual reproofe; some more, some lesse, as the manner is. Harding, and lewell, were our Aeschines, and Demosthenes: and scarsely any language in the Christian world, hath affoorded a payre of aduersaries, equiualent to Harding, and lewell; two thundring and lightning Oratours in Jiuinity.
These words, occuring as they do in Gabriel Harvey's Pierces Supererogation (1593), cannot but sound strange to modern ears. The language is, of course, somewhat peculiar, as we might expect from a contemporary of Shakespeare's, and in particular from so pedantic a writer as Gabriel Harvey. But apart from that, the reference of his words—with their apparently exaggerated praise—seems oddly misplaced. If he had spoken of More and Tyndale, or even of Whitgift and Cartwright, his praise might have appeared more intelligible. But who today has heard of Jewel or Harding, at least in terms of literature? Neither of them receives so much as a mention in The Oxford Companion to English Literature, or even in Baugh's voluminous Literary History of England, no doubt because they are regarded as belonging to a brief episode in ecclesiastical history. Yet Harvey speaks of them, in openly literary terms, as “two thundring and lightning Oratours in diuinity,” and even dares to compare them with the great Athenian orators, Aeschines and Demosthenes. So the question arises: Was he merely deluding himself with a spirit of exaggeration—a spirit not unknown in Shakespeare's England? Or was he, after all, recording a widespread feeling among Shakespeare's contemporaries which has somehow vanished like a bubble on the river of time?
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References
1 Harvey, G., Pierces Supererogation, (1593), p. 13.Google Scholar
2 Lewis, C. S., English Literature in the Sixteenth Century (London, 1954)Google Scholar. merely mentions “a jungle of controversies to which (Jewel) rashly committed himself by his so-called Challenge Sermon in 1559,” p. 306.
3 See DNB Vol. VIII:1223.
4 See A Brieff discours off the troubles begonne at Frankford in Germany Anno Domini 1554 (1575), where Jewel's part is mentioned, pp. xxxviii–xxxix.Google Scholar
5 The influence of Bullinger on the formation of the Anglican Church is shown in Robinson, H., ed., The Zurich Letters, Parker Society, (1842–1845).Google Scholar
6 See DNB Vol. VIII:1223.
7 The copie of a Sermon (1560), sig. Fviir - Fviiiv.
8 An Apologie, (1564) fol.31r.
9 Answere, fol.121v-122r.
10 An Apologie, fol.2r.
11 Whitaker, W., An Answere to the Ten Reasons of Edmund Campian (English tr. 1606), p. 144Google Scholar; and Bridges, J., The Supremacie of Christian Princes (1573), p. 35.Google Scholar
12 Answere, fol. 14r.
13 Ibid., fol.14v.
14 Ibid., fol.16v.
15 Ibid., fol.18r+v.
16 Ibid., fol.234v.
17 Briefe examination, sig. *4v.
18 Iesuitismi, p. 648. “Harding's book was bought and welcomed by many, while Harding himself—like another Caesar proclaiming, ‘I came, I saw, I conquered’—celebrates a triumph with his followers, but before the victory.”
19 Refutation, p. 133.
20 Ibid., p. 460.
21 Briefe Treatise, fol. 1.
22 See English translation, first printed with Whitaker's, Answere, p. 121.Google Scholar
23 Treatise, p. 502.
24 Later translated by Whitaker, W. into Latin, as Ioannis luelli Sarisbur…aduersus Thomam Hardingum uolumen alterum (1578).Google Scholar
25 Replie, sig. 2v.
26 Ibid., sig. 3r.
27 Ibid. sig. *1r.
28 Ibid., p. 644.
29 Ilesuitismi, p. 648. “Jewel was not yet ready to give in or recant, as Harding wanted and hoped, but went on with even more determination to show up the man's frauds and fallacies out of Scripture, the Fathers and the Councils, by publishing his Refutation - or, as he himself called it, his Reply.”
30 Answere, p. 144.
31 The Supper, fol. 328v.
32 Reioindre, sig. *iir.
33 Ibid., sig. *iiiiv.
34 Ibid., sig. Biiiv.
35 Ibid., sig. Cir+v.
36 Ibid., fol. 315r.
37 A Sparing Restraint, sig. *ir.
38 Apologie, sig. Biiir.
39 Ibid., sig. Miir.
40 Admonition, p. 66.
41 Declaration, p. 12.
42 Confutation, sig. *6r.
43 Ibid., fol. 4r+v.
44 Ibid., fol. 8v.
45 Ibid., fol. 24v.
46 Ibid., fol. 30v-31r.
47 Ibid., fol. 57v.
48 Defence, sig. Aiiv.
49 Ibid., sig. Bivv.
50 Ibid., p. 2.
51 Ibid., p. 7.
52 Ibid., p. 17.
53 Ibid., p. 65.
54 Ibid., p. 596.
55 Ibid., sig. Rrr.iiv.
56 Certaine Sermons, sig.qiiv.
57 Refutation, p. 75.
58 Relation, p. 54 (bound with Vol. II of A Treatise of Three Conversions).
59 See DNB Vol. X:818.
60 Of Prayer, sig. a.viv.