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The Anglican Via Media: The Idea of Moderation in Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2018

T.L. Holtzen
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Abstract

This essay examines the concept of the Anglican via media and its historical development into its present form. It argues that the Anglican via media is properly understood not as a fixed program of reform, but as moderation in reform, following the classical notion of moderation as a mean between two extremes. The essay traces the theological theme of moderation in reform through the figures of Jewel, Parker, Hooker, Hall, Montagu, Cosin, Forbes, Bramhall, Puller, Knox, to Jebb’s idea of Anglican exceptionalism, and, ultimately, to Newman’s attempt to create the doctrine of the Anglican via media.

Keywords

AnglicanismCatholicismmoderationNewmanPuritanismreformvia media
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 48 - 73
Copyright
© The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2018 

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Footnotes

1.

The Revd T.L. Holtzen, PhD, is Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, Nashotah, WI, USA.

References

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30. Hall, Works, X, p. 480.

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32. Hall, Works, X, p. 487.

33. Hall, Works, X, p. 480.

34. For example, Article 16 taught restoration after fall from grace, even in the case of some mortal sins. Further, the Westminster Confession of Faith had placed the doctrine ‘Of God’s Eternal Decree’ as third, after the doctrine ‘Of Holy Scripture’ and ‘Of God, and of the Holy Trinity’ whereas the English Church gave predestination much less importance as Article 17. This can be seen also in the difference between the Preface to the Articles of Religion which said they were ‘for the avoiding of the diversities of opinions, and for the stablishing of consent touching true religion’ and that of the Westminster Confession whose purpose was ‘for the settling of the government and liturgy of the Church of England; and for the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the said Church from all false aspersions and interpretations’. Respectively, Bray, Gerald (ed.), Documents of the English Reformation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), p. 285Google Scholar; and ‘An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament … June 12, 1643’ as in Westminster Confession, corrected and reset ed., reprint, 1646 (Glasgow: Free Presbyterian Publications, 1994), p. 13Google Scholar.

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36. Letter dated June 24 in Cosin, John, The Correspondence of John Cosin, D.D., Sutees Society (Durham: Andrews & Co., 1869), p. 21Google Scholar. Elsewhere Montagu used similar language to describe the position of the English Church as one between ‘Jesuite or Puritan’ (p. 40) and ‘Puritans … Popery’ (pp. 48-49).

37. Cosin, Correspondence, pp. 5, 13, 15.

38. Forbes, William, Considerations Modestae et Pacificae Controversiarum Justifcatione, Purgatorio, Invocatione Sanctorum, Christo Mediatore, et Eucharistia (2 vols., repr. 1658; Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology; Oxford: J. H. Parker, 1850)Google Scholar. See Forbes’ summaries of justification (pp. 495–501), purgatory (pp. 136–38), invocation of the saints (pp. 313, 223), Christ the mediator (pp. 363–64), and the Eucharist (pp. 507, 611–13).

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54. Puller, Moderation, p. 28. Also, quoting Hammond, “‘it being the dictate of natural reason in Aristotle, that the middle virtue is most infallibly known by this, that it is accused by either extreme as guilty of the other.’”

55. Puller uses the term ‘Protestant’ to refer to Puritans often, that is: ‘… they who call themselves our Protestant Dissenters, cannot be induced to come into entire union with our excellent reformed Church; but rather choose to unite with those Romanist in many of their unreasonable cavils’. Puller, Moderation, p. xxx. See also pp. 60, 252, 254, 262, 269, 271, 288, 289, 299, 306, 307, 308. For ‘Protestant’ generally see pp. 34, 53, 57, 125, 146, 215, 247, 251, 257, 262, 272, 284, 285, 289, 321, 331.

56. Puller, Moderation, p. 33.

57. Puller, Moderation, pp. 265–66.

58. Puller, Moderation, p. 272.

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60. Puller, Moderation, p. 292.

61. Puller, Moderation, p. 331.

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72. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, pp. 7, 8, 10.

73. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 8.

74. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 16.

75. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 23.

76. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 23.

77. Newman, John Henry, The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman (32 vols.; ed. Charles Stephen Dessian et al.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978–2008), pp. 314Google Scholar, 325. Jebb’s treatise was also behind Newman’s controversy with Abbé Jager over tradition. See Allen, Louis, John Henry Newman and the Abbé Jager: A Controversy on Scripture and Tradition (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

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98. Newman, Apology, p. 73.

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102. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 37–38.

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104. Newman, Via Media I, p. 40.

105. Newman, Via Media I, p. 41.

106. Newman, Via Media I, p. 41.

107. Newman, Via Media I, p. 42.

108. Newman, Via Media I, p. 42.

109. Newman, Via Media I, p. 42 n. 5; Canon 30.

110. Newman, Via Media I, p. 49.

111. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 49–50.

112. Newman, Via Media I, p. 51.

113. Newman, Via Media I, p. 51.

114. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 52–53.

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117. Newman, Apology, p. 71.

118. Newman, Apology, p. 71, i.e., Trinity, incarnation, atonement, original sin, regeneration by the supernatural grace of the sacraments, apostolic succession, the necessity of both faith and obedience, and future punishment for the wicked.

119. Newman, Apology, p. 72.

120. Newman, Apology, p. 111.

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