The influence of the German reformer Martin Luther (1483–1546) in opposition to the Roman Catholic church was soon felt in England. Henry VIII (1491–1547; reigned 1509–1547) was then on the throne. He wrote a tract against Luther, and for this, the Pope rewarded him the title, “Defender of the Faith.” This was in 1521.
Not long afterwards, Henry wanted to get a divorce from his wife Catharine of Aragon (1485–1536), even though her wifely conduct had been blameless in every respect. The Pope refused to sanction the divorce. King Henry became angry, and determined that the Pope should no longer be head of the Church of England; he, himself, would be head of it instead. This was in 1534. Henry cared nothing about religion. He put an end to the Pope’s authority in England, because his own inclinations were opposed. He did nothing towards easing the people of their oppressions. He simply exchanged their foreign yoke for a domestic one. He divided the Pope’s spoils between himself and his bishops, who did not support their father in Rome so long as they enjoyed privileges and revenues under another head.
These events favored the progress of a real reformation, although this was not the King’s intention. He recognized the authority of the Scriptures, and immediately renounced the worship of saints and images; but the corporeal, substantial presence of Christ in the Eucharist [that is, the fallacy otherwise regarded among Catholics as the Real Presence], and many other superstitions of Rome [that is, the Vatican], were retained, and anyone who spoke against them were to be burned as a heretic.
Henry was succeeded by his son Edward VI (1537–1553; reigned 1547–1553). He was only nine-years-old when he ascended the throne. He was conspicuously free from dogmatism and superstition, and welcomed the instructions of Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556) the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Edward Seymor (1500–1552) the first Duke of Somerset, by whose aid and influence, he prepared himself to promote sound religion. A real reformation from Roman Catholicism, and an advancement towards true godliness occurred. The order of public worship was a liturgy or book of common prayer, established by act of Parliament. It contained a much more purer form of worship than had previously been known, but it still retained rites and ceremonies of which those who would have the Bible as their only rule of faith and practice disapproved. The ecclesiastical vestments that had been worn by the Catholics were especially disliked by the more zealous reformers, who considered them as only relics of Roman Catholicism. A few reformers, along with John Rogers (later the martyr of Smithfield, London; died February 4, 1555), “renounced all ceremonies practiced by the Catholic Church, thinking that every single hair of Catholicism should not only be cut with scissors, but shaven with a razor; yes, every stump of it plucked out.”
Mary I (1516–1558; reigned 1553–1558) came to the throne in 1553. She restored Roman Catholic supremacy in England. The true reformers fled for their lives. Many who failed to escape to continental Europe were burnt at the stake.
A large number of those who fled from the storm of persecution became exiles in Frankfurt. The city’s magistrates gave them the use of a vacant church building, on condition that they would not diverge from the French Reformed Church, either in doctrine or ceremonies. According to these conditions, they drew up a liturgy, omitting the litany with its responses, along with a number of other trivial ceremonies in the English prayer book, and declined the use of the surplice. They took possession of the church building assigned to them on July 29, 1554. They then messaged their brothers who had fled to other places to come and join them. They sent for Mr. John Knox (c. 1514?–1572), who was at Geneva, to come and be one of their ministers. Before long Dr. Richard Cox (c. 1500?–1581), having come to Frankfurt with some of his friends, disregarded the conditions of the newly-formed church, and interrupted the public services with loud responses. On the next Sunday, one of his friends ascended the pulpit, and read the entire litany from the English prayer book. Mr. Knox reprimanded them for a breach of the terms of agreement that the church had entered into, and affirmed that there were some fallacious and superstitious things in the book of common prayer. It was this dispute that gave rise to the Puritans, and to that separation from the church of England which continues to this day.
When Elizabeth I (1533–1603; reigned 1558–1603) came to the throne, the exiles returned home. She abolished Roman Catholicism as the religion of the state, but instead of stripping England’s religion of the numerous pompous ceremonies with which it was encumbered she was inclined rather to keep it as near as possible to the Roman Catholic ritual. When one of her chaplains preached before her in defense of the real presence [that is, the Roman Catholic doctrine which asserts that in the Holy Eucharist Jesus is literally and wholly present — “body and blood, soul and divinity” — under the appearances of bread and wine], she publicly thanked him. Having appointed a committee of theologians to revise King Edward’s liturgy, she commanded them to remove all passages offensive to the Pope. She prompted an act of parliament to be passed, requiring every minister to endorse the doctrines, and to conform to all the rites and ceremonies instructed in the liturgy. Many could not conscientiously conform to these requirements, and were consequently made the targets of severe persecutions. Those who varied in this way from the court religion, who desired a more thorough reformation and a purer form of worship, were stigmatized as Puritans. What was originally intended as a term of reproach has become a badge of honor throughout the civilized world.
— Ron Metheny
[“Anecdotes of the Puritans” (1849)
written by Joseph Alden
(pp. 9–13; annotated and updated into modern English)]
Comments