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The Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum of 1552 and the Furthering of Discipline in England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

James C. Spalding
James C. Spalding
Affiliation:
Mr. Spalding is professor of religion inthe University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa
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Extract

In November, 1549, at the beginning of the third session of King Edward VI's first parliament, legislation was introduced intending to facilitate the reformation of the ecclesiastical laws of England. In the House of Lords, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and others submitted a bill “touching Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction” which would have given the bishops and their ordinaries the power to excommunicate and to imprison those who were in need of discipline in order to help tidy up what was regarded then to be an immoral and disorderly nation. This bill passed the House of Lords and was sent down to the House of Commons for consideration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 1970 , pp. 162 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1970

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References

1. For this and following references to bills, see the Journals of the House of Lords, I, 359, 360, 366, 367, 369, 371, 384, 387, 428Google Scholar, Journals of the House of Commons, p. 11, 13, 15, 16.

2. The Submission of the Clergy is in Gee, H. and Hardy, W. J., Documents Illustrative of English Church History (London: Macmillan, 1896), p. 176 ffGoogle Scholar. For the four acts see Statutes of the Realm, III, 460–461 (1534); 548 (1536); 976 (1544); IV, 111 ffGoogle Scholar. (1550).

3. For the resentment toward Canon law on the part of common lawyers, see Ogle, Arthur, The Tragedy of the Lollard's Tower (Oxford, 1949)Google Scholar. See also LeVon Baumer, Franklyn, “Christopher St. German,” The American Historical Review, 42 (07, 1937) 631–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. The Patent Roll list of Feb. 12, 1552 included the following eight bishops: Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, Nicholas Ridley of London, John Ponet of Winchester, Thomas Goodrich of Ely, Miles Coverdale of Exeter, John Hooper of Gloucester, William Barlow of Bath and Wells, and John Scory of Rochester. The eight divines were John Taylor of Lincoln, Richard Cox, Matthew Parker, Anthony Cooke, Peter Martyr Vermigli, John Cheke, John Alasco, and Nicholas Wotton. Wotton had replaced Hugh Latimer who had originally been on the Privy Council list of Oct. 6, 1551. The eight civilians were William Petre, William Cooke, Rowland Taylor of Hadley, William May, Batholomew Traheron, Richard Lyell, and Richard Reade, William Cooke had replaced Thomas Smith on the Oct. 6 list and Reade had replaced Ralph Skinner. The eight common lawyers were James Hales, Thomas Bromley, Richard Goodrich, John Gosnold, William Stamford, John Caryll, John Lucas, and Robert Brooke. Most of these men may be found in the Dictionary of National Biography. Those few not in that dictionary were either prominent jurists or members or parliament. For the lists see Acts of the Privy Council, New Series, III, A.D. 1550–1552, (London, 1891), 382Google Scholar; Literary Remains of King Edward the Sixth, edited by J. G. Nichols (London, 1857), p. 397Google Scholar; Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edward VI, Vol. IV, 1550–1553 (London, 1926), 354.Google Scholar

5. The minute of the Privy Council for Oct. 6, 1551 reads “viii of these to rough-hewe the Cannon Lawe, the rest to conclude it afterwards.” See Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Edw. VIII, Vol. IV, 114 for the Nov. 4 and Nov. 11 listings.Google Scholar

6. Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation ([Parker Society] Cambridge, 1847), II, 444Google Scholar (John ab Ulmis to Bullinger, Jan. 10, 1552); 503 f. (Peter Martyr to Bullinger, March 8, 1552); Martin Micronius to Bullinger, March 9, 1552.

7. Journals of the House of Lords, I, 428.Google Scholar

8. Original Letters, I, 123.Google Scholar

9. Literary Remains of King Edward VI, p. 547.Google Scholar

10. The text of the Imperial Ambassador Seheyvfe's notes has been printed in Gairdner, James, Lollardy and the Reformation in England (London: Macmillan, 1911), pp. 400 fGoogle Scholar. Gairdner's translation of the text is on p. 363.

11. Literary Remains, p. 574. The kings' minutes for his last will was in the handwriting of Secretary William Petre, one of the civilians on the committee of 1532. At this time the very term “canon law” seemed to have been rejected in favor of “ecclesiastical law.”

12. Harleian MS. No. 426 in the British Museum.

13. Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum.… Londini, John Day, 1571. (Edition of John Foxe). This was republished in 1640, 1641 and in a modern edition by Cardwell, E., The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws as attempted in the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth (Oxford, 1850)Google Scholar. References to the Parliaments of 1559 and 1571 are in Neale, J. E., Elizabeth I and Her Parliaments 1559–1581 (New York: Norton, 1958), pp. 63, 64 and 195–197Google Scholar. The Convocation of 1562 is referred to in Wilkins, D., Concilia Magnas Britanniae, (London, 1737), IV, 239.Google Scholar

14. Cardwell, Edward, Synodalia, 2 vols. (Oxford, 1842), II, 550 f.Google Scholar

15. Brightman, E. A., The English Rite (London, 1915), II, 984 fGoogle Scholar. has the ordinal in three recensions printed in parallel columns. See Martini Buceri Opera Latini, edited by F. Wendel (Paris and Gutersloh, 1955), vol. XV, 62.Google Scholar

16. The Two Liturgies … in the Reign of Edward VI ([Parker Society], Cambridge 1834), pp. 513, 561Google Scholar; see also English Reformers, edited by T. H. L. Parker (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1966), p. 171.Google Scholar

17. Vermigli, P. M., Melachim, id est Regum Libri … (Tiguri, 1566)Google Scholar, folio 105 verso and In selectissimam Pauli priorem ad Corinthios … (Tiguri, 1562–first published 1552), under chapter 2Google Scholar. See McLelland, Joseph C., The Visible Words of God (Edinburgh and London: Oliver and Boyd, 1957), pp. 123. 125Google Scholar. The Works of Nicholas Ridley ([Parker Society], Cambridge, 1841), p. 123Google Scholar. The Eleven Articles are in Hardwick, Charles, A History of the Articles of Religion (Cambridge and London, 1851), p. 327.Google Scholar

18. The Works of Thomas Cranmer ([Parker Society] Cambridge, 1844-1846), II, 188–202Google Scholar. See Ridley, Jasper, Thomas Cranmer (Oxford: Clarendon, 1962), pp. 296 f.Google Scholar

19. In his 1552 commentary on I Corinthians. See McClelland, p. 202.

20. Cardwell, , The Reformation of the Ecclesiastical Laws, pp. 109–111.Google Scholar

21. Ibid., pp. 93 f.

22. Ibid., p. 271.

23. Ibid., p. 133.