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Historian or Prophet? John Bale’s Perception of the Past*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Susan Royal
Susan Royal*
Affiliation:
Durham University
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Extract

The late medieval prophetic tradition played a significant role in how John Bale (1495–1563), England’s first Protestant church historian, formulated his ideas about the nature of revelation, which would become a contentious issue in the course of the Reformation. It is the goal of this essay to examine this first-generation evangelical’s views, which will bring us closer to understanding prophecy and its legitimacy in Reformation-era Europe. In an influential essay, Richard Southern illustrates the important role of the prophetical tradition in premodern historical writing: ‘Prophecy filled the world-picture, past, present, and future; and it was the chief inspiration of all historical thinking.’ But while its significance is easy to pinpoint, the varied nature of prophetic revelation does not make for easy delineations or definitions. Southern names four types of prophecy in the Middle Ages: biblical (Daniel, Revelation); pagan (sibylline); Christian (such as that of Hildegard of Bingen); and astrological (stars and celestial events). Of course, even these are not clearly distinct categories; Southern notes that Merlin is ‘half-Christian, half-pagan’. Lesley Coote points out that the ‘subject of political prophecy is king, people and nation’, separating this from theological, apocalyptic prophecy, though she also asserts that the two are closely related. Bernard McGinn remarks that in the later Middle Ages, prophecy is ‘seen as a divinatory or occasionally reformative activity – the prophet as the man who foretells the future, or the one who seeks to correct a present situation in the light of an ideal past or glorious future’.

Type
Part I: The Churches’ Use of the Past
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 49: The Church on its Past , 2013 , pp. 156 - 167
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 2013

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank those who offered comments on this communication at the EHS Summer Meeting, and the society itself for a bursary that allowed me to attend. Innumerable thanks also go to Alec Ryrie for his insightful comments and suggestions on several drafts of this essay.

References

1 Southern, R. W., ‘History as Prophecy’, TRHS ser. 5, 22 (1972), 159–80 Google Scholar, at 160.

2 Ibid. 168.

3 Coote, Lesley A., Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval England (York, 2000), 14.Google Scholar

4 Ibid. 4.

5 McGinn, Bernard, Visions of the End (New York, 1998), 4 Google Scholar; see also Lerner, Robert E., ‘Medieval Prophecy and Religious Dissent’, P&P, no. 72 (1976), 3–24.Google Scholar

6 Barnes, Robin Bruce, Prophecy and Gnosis: Apocalypticism in the Wake of the Lutheran Reformation (Stanford, CA, 1988), 95.Google Scholar

7 Sharpe, Kevin, ‘Reading Revelations: Prophecy, Hermeneutics and Politics in Early Modern Britain’, in idem and Zwicker, Steven N., eds, Reading, Society, and Politics in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2003), 122–63, at 127CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Backus, Irena, Reformation Readings of the Apocalypse (Oxford, 2000), 3–36.Google Scholar

8 Pelikan, Jaroslav. ‘Some Uses of the Apocalypse in the Magisterial Reformers’, in Patrides, C. A. and Wittreich, Joseph, eds, The Apocalypse in English Renaissance Thought (Manchester, 1984), 74–92, at 75.Google Scholar

9 Luther, Martin, Preface to the Revelation of St John, in LW 35, 399–400.Google Scholar

10 Ibid. 400.

11 Barnes, Prophecy and Gnosis, 96–9; Cameron, Euan, ‘Philip Melanchthon: Image and Substance’, JEH 48 (1997), 705–22, at 711Google Scholar; Kusukawa, Sachiko, The Transformation of Natural Philosophy :The Case of Philip Melanchthon (Cambridge, 1995)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Methuen, Charlotte, ‘The Role of the Heavens in the Thought of Philip Melanchthon’, JHI 57 (1996), 385–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 Joye, George, The exposicion of Daniel the prophete gathered oute of Philip Melanchton, Iohan Ecolampadius, Chonrade Pellkane & out of Iohan Draconite. &c. (Antwerp, 1545), fol. 5v.Google Scholar It is likely that Joye knew Bale and that Bale would have been familiar with his work: Joye’s printer, Antonius Goinus, also published Bale’s works (including the Brefe Chronycle) until 1546 in Antwerp, and although Bale’s movements during his first period of exile remain obscure, it is believed that Joye was actually living in Antwerp and not editing from afar – so a direct personal connection is probable. On Bale’s movements, see Happé, Peter, John Bale (New York, 1996), 11 Google Scholar; for Joye, see Butterworth, Charles C. and Chester, Allan G., George Joye 1495?-1553: A Chapter in the History of the English Bible and the English Reformation (Philadelphia, PA, 1962), 205.Google Scholar

13 Fairfield, John Bale, 73–5.

14 Engammare, Max, ‘Calvin: A Prophet without a Prophecy’, ChH 67 (1998), 643–61, at 648.Google Scholar

15 Ibid. 644.

16 Johnson, Dale, ‘John Knox, Scripture, and Prophecy’, in Parish, Helen and Naphy, William G., eds, Religion and Superstition in Reformation Europe (Manchester, 2002), 133–53, at 147.Google Scholar

17 Ibid.; Lotz-Heumann, Ute, ‘“The Spirit of Prophecy Has Not Wholly Left the World”: The Stylisation of Archbishop James Ussher as a Prophet’, in Parish, and Naphy, , eds, Religion and Superstition, 124.Google Scholar The relationship between preaching and prophesying in the early Reformation is underscored by the establishment of the Prophezei in Zürich, where Scripture was interpreted and sermons were prepared: see Locher, Gottfried W., Zwingli’s Thought: New Perspectives (Leiden, 1981), 27–30.Google Scholar

18 Engammare, ‘Calvin’, 643.

19 Lotz-Heumann, ‘Archbishop Ussher’, 119–32.

20 Sermons by Hugh Latimer, ed. George Elwes Corrie (Cambridge, 1844), 320–1. I am grateful to Alec Ryrie for this reference.

21 See Jotischky, Andrew, The Carmelites and Antiquity (Oxford, 2002).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22 For Bale’s manuscripts, see Crompton, James, ‘Fasciculi Zizaniorum’, JEH 12 (1961), 35–45, 155–66 Google Scholar; Davies, W. T.. ‘A Bibliography of John Bale’, Oxford Bibliographical Society: Proceedings and Papers 5 (1936-9), 201–79 Google Scholar; McCusker, Honor, ‘Books and Manuscripts formerly in the Possession of John Bale’, The Library ser. 4, 16 (1935–6), 144–65 Google Scholar; Bale, John, Index Britanniae Scriptorum, ed. Poole, Reginald Lane and Bateson, Mary, intro. Brett, Caroline and Carley, James P. (Woodbridge, 1990).Google Scholar

23 Bale, John, The image of bothe Churches (London, 1548), sig. Aiiiiv.Google Scholar

24 Fairfield, Leslie P., John Bale: Mythmaker for the English Reformation (Eugene, OR, 1976), 71 Google Scholar; King, John N., English Reformation Literature (Princeton, NJ, 1982), 63 Google Scholar; Minton, Gretchen E., ‘“Suffer Me Not to be Separated, and Let my Cry Come unto Thee”: John Bale’s Apocalypse and the Exilic Imagination’, Reformation 15 (2010), 83–97 CrossRefGoogle Scholar

25 Evenden, Elizabeth and Freeman, Thomas S., Religion and the Book in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2011), 39.Google Scholar

26 For instance, Foxe incorporated Bale’s martyrology of Oldcastle nearly verbatim in the first edition of his Acts and Monuments: see Foxe, John, The Unabridged Acts and Monuments Online or TAMO (1563 edn) (HRI Online Publications, Sheffield, 2011), 313–33, <http//www.johnfoxe.org>, accessed 1 July 2011.,+accessed+1+July+2011.>Google Scholar Foxe’s characterization of Oldcastle, based on Bale’s Brefe chronycle, caused polemical controversy in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: see Monta, Susannah and Freeman, Thomas S., ‘Holinshed and Foxe’, in Kewes, Paulina, Archer, Ian and Heal, Felicity, eds, The Oxford Handbook of Holinshed’s Chronicles (Oxford, 2012), ch. 13.Google Scholar I am grateful to the authors for allowing me to see the manuscript prior to publication.

27 Bauckham, Richard, Tudor Apocalypse (Abingdon, 1978), 38–90 Google Scholar; Firth, Katharine R., The Apocalyptic Tradition in Reformation Britain, 1530–1645 (Oxford, 1979), 32–68 Google Scholar; Fairfield, John Bale.

28 Bale, John, The actes of Englysh votaryes comprehendynge their vnchast practyses and examples by all ages (Antwerp, 1546), Cvir.Google Scholar

29 Bale, John, A brefe chronycle concerninge the examinacyon and death of the blessed martyr of Christ syr Johan Oldecastell (Antwerp, 1544), Aviiir-Bir.Google Scholar

30 Bale, John, The Vocacyon of Johan Bale (Wesel, 1553), sig. BivGoogle Scholar; see also Fairfield, John Bale, 110–11.

31 Parish, Helen L., Monks, Miracles and Magic: Reformation Representations of the Medieval Church (Abingdon, 2005), 45–70.Google Scholar

32 Bale, The actes of Englysh votaryes, E2v-3r; cf. Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People 4.2, ed. and transl. Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors, OMT (Oxford, 1969), 332–5.

33 Bale, The actes of Englysh votaryes, Gviv.

34 Ibid., Eivr; cf. 2 Thess. 2: 1–12.

35 Ibid., Cvir.

36 Ibid., Bir.

37 For a reference to this passage, see ibid., Fir.

38 Ibid., Diiir.

39 Ibid., Eivr.

40 See Geoffrey of Monmouth, The History of the Kings of Britain, ed. Reeve, Michael D., transl. Wright, Neil (Woodbridge, 2007), 148 (Book VII).Google Scholar

41 Bale, John, The first examinacyon of Anne Askewe (Wesel, 1546), Aiir.Google Scholar

42 Ibid., Aiijr; see Bede, , The Reckoning of Time 68, ed. Wallis, Faith, TTH 29 (Liverpool, 1999), 240–1.Google Scholar

43 Bale also sought to mend John Wyclif’s reputation: see Aston, Margaret, ‘John Wycliffe’s Reformation Reputation’, in eadem, ed., Lollards and Reformers: Images and Literacy in Late Medieval England (London, 1984), 243–72, at 244–6.Google Scholar

44 Bale, Brefe chronycle, Dviv.

45 Ibid., Eir (my italics).

46 Ibid., Giir.

47 The same type of paratextual component is also evident in an example from the Wittenberg press of Nickel Schirlenz, in which a work from the medieval prophetical tradition is appended to an evangelical text: a German translation of the Magdeburg prophecy serves as an appendix to pseudo-Pflaum’s Practica (1532): see Barnes, Prophecy and Gnosis, 57; Lerner, Robert E., The Powers of Prophecy: The Cedar of Lebanon Vision from the Mongol Onslaught to the Dawn of the Enlightenment (Ithaca, NY, 2009), 166.Google Scholar

48 Bale, Brefe chronycle, Gviiir.