Wisdom of Saints: Nicholas Ridley

Feast of Nicholas Ridley Bishop, Martyr, 1555

ALMIGHTY God, by whose grace and power thy Martyr Cyprian was enabled to witness to the truth and to be faithful unto death: Grant that we, who now remember him before thee, may likewise so bear witness unto thee in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and reigneth, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Nicholas Ridley is a great example of one of the Anglican Reformers and martyrs, and also highlights the fact that just because someone is venerated by the Church it doesn't mean that absolutely everything they said was true and that we are not called to test their teachings to ensure orthodoxy.

Born in the early 16th century to a wealthy Christian family, Nicholas received an excellent education. At college, he likely met many of his contemporary reformers such as Thomas Cranmer and Hugh Latimer. The early 16th century, even before the Continental Reformation began, was building towards it, particularly among academic theological circles, and Ridley was among the reform-minded students of his day. He was ordained a priest in 1525 after obtaining his Master’s degree from Cambridge. He spent some time furthering his education in Parish and returned to Cambridge in 1530 where he began to teach, also becoming the Chaplain of Cambridge University in 1534.

With some measure of seniority and authority, in 1534 he wrote against Papal Supremacy, declaring that the Bishop of Rome had no more authority in the realm of England than any other foreign bishop. His reform-mindedness and possibly having earlier caught the eye of Thomas Cranmer, now Archbishop of Canterbury, Ridley was appointed by Cranmer as one of his chaplains. His career advanced more rapidly and after a number of additional appointments he was made chaplain to King Henry VIII.

This in fact caused him some problems. Ridley’s reform-mindedness brought him into some degree of contention with King Henry VIII who, while rejecting the Bishop of Rome’s jurisdiction over England, did not reject the Catholic faith as it had been received, nor did he accept arguments of any errors in doctrine being promoted by the Church of the West. In 1543 he was accused of heresy, in particular that while vicar of Herne Church he had called for the Te Deum to be sung in English rather than Latin, that he had spoken against the efficacy of private confession and also that he had condemned some of the Church’s ceremonies. Ridley had already by this point obtained a reputation for oratory and when he was examined by the King’s royal commissioners, he managed to defend and acquit himself of the charges.

Cranmer continued to defend Ridley and offered him promotion until his eventual appointment as Bishop of Rochester. By this point in 1547 Henry VIII had died and Edward VI had been crowned king. During his regency, reform of the Church was the order of the day and Ridley’s views found favour. When he was installed as Bishop, he ordered that all the altars in his diocese be removed and replaced with simple tables. In 1548 he began helping Thomas Cranmer with assembling and editing the Book of Common Prayer.

He was translated to the see of London in 1550 after the previous year having been part of the commission that had removed the previous Bishop of London, Edmund Bonner, who had come into conflict with the Crown over the question of supremacy and jurisdiction due to growing concerns over the effect of Royal Supremacy.

Ridley similarly made his own mistake when in 1553 he supported the succesion of Lady Jane Grey to the throne over princesses Mary or Elizabeth. When Queen Mary took the throne, he sought her out to beg her pardon but was promptly arrested and imprisoned. In 1554 he, along with Hugh Latimer and Thomas Cranmer, were sent to Oxford to stand trial for heresy and were convicted, and sentenced to continued incarceration.

New laws were passed making heresy a capital offence, and Latimer and Ridley were both again summoned for trials under this new crime. Both were convicted and sentenced to death. October 16th 1555, alongside Hugh Latimer, another of the English Reformers, he was put to death by burning at the stake in Oxford. Many others were put to death in this period, which is known as the Marian Persecutions.

He is notable for his contribution to the Book of Common Prayer, the 42 Articles of Religion which would later be edited into the 39 Articles of Religion during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. While his works are not without error, there can be found no fault in his traditional use of Anglican theology. He looked to Holy Scripture and he looked to the Fathers for interpretation.

When questioned in his final heresy trial on his views towards the Real Presence, his response was to cite a ninth century monk, whom he said, “pulled me by the ear, and that first brought me from the common error of the Romish church, and caused me to search more diligently and exactly both the Scriptures and the writings of the old ecclesiastical fathers in this matter.” In that same heresy trial he would later quote St Augustine of Hippo saying, “For Christ to be corporally here on earth, when corporally he is resident in heaven, is clean contrary to the holy Scriptures, as Augustine saith: ‘The body of Christ is in heaven: but his truth is dispersed in every place.’”

His refusal to recant showed a conviction of his faith, rooted in the Scriptures and writings of the Fathers, which influences many traditionalist Anglicans today and which was, in his day, at the very heart of the English Reformation. When it is claimed that the goal of the English Reformation was to restore the Church in the realm of England to the faith, order and tradition of the Early Church under the authority of Holy Scripture, it is to the works of men like Ridley that we can point and show proof of the point.

On the History of the Prayer Book

The Second Sunday in Advent

BLESSED Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Advent

ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, now and ever. Amen.

When the Church of England gained its independence from the Bishop of Rome, there was no equivalent to the Prayer Book in use in England. Different books existed for different rites. For instance, the Sarum Rite Missal which provided for the Eucharist, The Breviary provided for the daily offices while The Ritual included rites related to the other sacraments such as baptism, marriage and the funeral rites. The Pontifical was the Bishop’s book which included rites for ordinations.

These were maintained during the reign of Henry VIII who, despite having removed the Pope’s temporal authority over the Church and Realm of England, did not support continental reformers in the Protestant movement. It was not until the reign of his successor, Edward VI, that Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was able to compile the first version of the Book of Common Prayer, which collected the various offices and sacraments together, and provided for them in English. The title Book of Common Prayer can be misleading to some because Common was not meant to refer to it as being ordinary, but rather that it was shared by all. This was in keeping with the restoration of the practices of the early church of holding services in the local vernacular, rather than the later practice which had developed in the Western Roman Church which had required all services to be held in Latin regardless of local vernacular and whether or not the people would understand anything.

Cranmer’s work began in 1547 upon Edward VI’s coronation and the first version of the Book of Common Prayer was completed and authorized for use in 1549. It represented a slightly reformed theology, in keeping with Cranmer’s personal views, and collected the daily offices, readings for Sundays and Holy Days throughout the year, the Holy Communion, baptism, confirmation, holy matrimony, visitation of the sick and burial. An ordinal with rites for the ordination of Bishops, Priests and Deacons was added in 1550. The entire Prayer Book was only intended to be temporary and was supplanted by a new version in 1552.

The 1552 Prayer Book included several more revisions from the 1549 version, adjusting and removing certain aspects of Roman influence and doctrine. By the time of the 1552 version, it was quite explicit in the Prayer Book that humanity could offer no works to God which would contribute to their salvation, in contrast with Roman doctrines on salvation. Other aspects of Roman practice remained, however. The Sarum Rite was created in the 11th century, and thus it included within the Nicene Creed the filioque. The filioque has been preserved in the Book of Common Prayer since, however several ecumenical statements between the Anglican Communion and Eastern Orthodox Church have stressed that future revisions of Anglican Liturgy would remove the filioque clause.

With the death of Edward VI in 1553, however, the Roman Catholic Queen Mary I took the throne, and the Marian persecutions began as Roman practices were restored. Thomas Cranmer was burned at the stake in 1556, however his work survived him as Cranmer’s 1552 Book of Common Prayer was restored in 1559 upon the coronation of Queen Elizabeth I. Over the next hundred years, several more revisions would take place as the English Civil Wars would challenge the religious status quo in England.

At the relative end of this bloody and destructive period, a new Prayer Book was published in 1662. This final version for the Book of Common Prayer, published along-side the Ordinal, represented a final acceptance of the fractured reality of English Christianity. While the previous Prayer Books were essentially used by all Christians in England, by the time the 1662 Prayer Book was published, it was the book used by Anglicans, while nonconformist protestants would develop their own liturgical books and styles. The 1662 Prayer Book represents the first truly Anglican Prayer Book, through it continues to hold to much of the language and theology of Cranmer’s original 1549 version.

The 1662 Prayer Book is viewed, alongside the Ordinal and 39 Articles of Religion, as one of the formularies of Anglicanism, as its doctrine fully reflects the breadth of Anglican doctrine in the way that was desired of the 1552 Prayer Book, which continental German reformer Martin Bucer hoped would make “fully perfect” the doctrines made implicit in the 1549 Book.

In addition to its doctrinal implications, the Book of Common Prayer 1662 is considered a literary classic, having introduced many phrases into the English language. While it was written in the language of the people, Cranmer maintained a particular poetic style that has made the Book of Common Prayer a classic along the lines of Shakespeare and the King James Bible. Such lines include, “speak now or forever hold your peace,” from the sacrament of Holy Matrimony or the even more famous, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” from the funeral rite.

As Anglicanism spread throughout the world with the expansion of the British Empire, so did the Book of Common Prayer. The Prayer Book has been locally adapted in many places, sometimes with more or less changes. In Canada, the 1962 Prayer Book minimally updates the language—mainly adjusting spelling to more conventional modern spelling while maintaining the original language and poetry—and rather simply adding some local observances, prayers suitable to local occasions and so forth. Others, such as the American Episcopal Church’s 1979 Book of Common Prayer represent a significant break from the 1662 Prayer Book tradition.

While the Book of Common Prayer remains extremely popular, it has been supplanted, both in England and in Canada, by modern alternative service books. Common Worship was introduced in the Church of England in 2000, and contains significantly revised liturgies, far less restrictive rubrics and updated language, while the Anglican Church of Canada had similarly authorized the Book of Alternative Services in 1985 with similar modifications. While these books have become the most commonly used, their strongest proponents do tend at least to view them as being in continuity with the Prayer Book and reflective of the theology and doctrine espoused by Cranmer.

The modern philosopher Roger Scruton, however, takes the approach of a purist, saying that, “To describe the new services as ‘alternatives’ to Cranmer is like describing Eastenders as an ‘alternative’ to Shakespeare, or Lady Gaga as an ‘alternative’ to Bach.” Debates over the effect of language are central to the discussion of the continued relevance of the Prayer Book, and the utility of modernised alternatives such as Common Worship and the Book of Alternative Services.

On Anglicanism

The Ninth Sunday after Trinity

GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without thee, may by thee be enabled to live according to thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Anglicanism, in its modern form, did not appear as an identity immediately upon the independence of the English Church from Rome under Henry VIII. Henry VIII remained staunchly Catholic in doctrine, as evidenced by the Act of Six Articles which professed decidedly Roman Catholic views on a number of issues being addressed in the Reformation. While the monarch was decidedly Catholic in view, many of the clergy in the Church of England welcomed the reformation theologies, notably Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury. It would take over a century of religious strife between different groups of Protestants and Roman Catholics before we would see the emergency of an identifiable Anglicanism by the latter half of the 17th century which could be associated with modern Anglicanism.

The Church of England remained officially Roman Catholic in doctrine until the death of Henry VIII in 1547. He was succeeded by his son Edward VI who took the throne at the age of nine and died at the age of fifteen. His entire reign was controlled by a regency, which allowed for church leaders like Thomas Cranmer to implement reformation theology in the Church of England. Though he was not of the age of majority, Edward VI had an interest in religion, and having been raised as a protestant (having been born after the Act of Supremacy and his father’s excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church) and largely supported Cranmer and the other reformers. It was during Edward VI’s reign that the first Book of Common Prayer was published in 1549.

Upon his death, Mary I took the throne. A staunch Roman Catholic, she initiated a persecution of Protestants in England, repealed protestant laws and initiated a reconciliation with Pope Julius III. Some 280 protestant reformers were executed under the Marian persecution, including Archbishop Thomas Cranmer. Another 800 Protestants escaped the persecution by entering into exile on the continent in primarily protestant countries in the north.

After only four years on the throne, Mary I died of influenza and was succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I. Elizabeth, like Edward VI, was a protestant reformer who established a religious settlement that managed to appease both Roman Catholics and puritan Protestants. The settlement lasted throughout Elizabeth’s reign, though it did not appease Rome itself. In 1570, Pope St Pius V issued a papal bull declaring Elizabeth a pretender to the throne (in favour of Mary Queen of Scots), a heretic and excommunicated any Britons who followed her. The bull provoked greater suspicion towards Catholics on the part of Protestants. It did not help that the bull called on Elizabeth to be overthrown, leading to plots to kill her and install Mary, Queen of Scots in her place. Elizabeth had previously allowed private Roman Catholic worship under the Settlement however the bull caused a crackdown on Catholics in England.

At the time of Queen Elizabeth’s death, the Church of England was the only official church in England. Roman Catholics were at different points allowed to worship in private, though there were no public Roman Catholic churches. Within the Church of England, however, there were numerous emerging identifications. A number of Protestants who had fled to the continent during the Marian persecutions adopted more radical continental Protestantism. Upon their return to England under the reign of Elizabeth, they became identified as Puritans, and advocated further reform within the Church of England, though their direct influence in the Church was legally limited. The middle way between those who either secretly or privately maintained allegiance to Rome and the Puritans had come to identify themselves as Anglicans by the time of Elizabeth’s death. They maintained some Catholic practices along-side the reformed theology embodied in the 1559 Book of Common Prayer.

The remainder of the 17th century would largely be characterised by a theological conflict between the Anglicans, who were satisfied with the Elizabethan Settlement, and the Puritans who sought to enforce further reforms. This tension would be one of the leading causes of the English Civil War which led to the establishment of the English Commonwealth during the Interregnum and the Restoration, which saw the publication of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and the Glorious Revolution of Parliament. While these events would see continued struggles between the three groups, but the end of the 17th century, a form of religious toleration was put in place whereby Catholics were banned from numerous public positions, but otherwise allowed to continue the private practice of their religion. Anglicans gained completely control of the Church of England and their ‘middle way’ values became the established doctrine of the Church to the exclusion of the Puritans and other protestant groups. While Anglicans controlled the Church of England, it came at the expense of a religious plurality in England. Presbyterians, Anabaptists and other protestant groups continued to exist outside of the Church of England.

For the 17th and 18th centuries, there remained a strong Protestant and anti-Roman Catholic influence on the Church of England, in particular in relation to its practices and forms of worship, but the formularies and doctrines of the Church had been established. The Book of Common Prayer and Ordinal of 1662 and the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion bear witness to the Anglican interpretation of Christian truth, alongside the ecumenical creeds, revealed through Holy Scripture.

These formularies would be exported abroad, for instance to the Church of England in Canada which was renamed the Anglican Church of Canada in 1955, and would thus form the core doctrine of the entire worldwide Anglican Communion.

Today, Anglicanism encompasses a wide variety of theological and liturgical perspectives, of which Anglo-Catholicism is one. Commonly, the Church is divided along three lines: High Churchmanship, Low Churchmanship and Broad Churchmanship. These perspectives, and the theological perspectives held by significant numbers of Anglicans can often trace their roots to influences from the time of Elizabeth through to the restoration. Anglicanism sits aside a broad religious plurality that includes all forms for Protestantism and Roman Catholicism, while the Church of England itself remains the established church of England.