Reformed Churchmen

We are Confessional Calvinists and a Prayer Book Church-people. In 2012, we remembered the 350th anniversary of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer; also, we remembered the 450th anniversary of John Jewel's sober, scholarly, and Reformed "An Apology of the Church of England." In 2013, we remembered the publication of the "Heidelberg Catechism" and the influence of Reformed theologians in England, including Heinrich Bullinger's Decades. For 2014: Tyndale's NT translation. For 2015, John Roger, Rowland Taylor and Bishop John Hooper's martyrdom, burned at the stakes. Books of the month. December 2014: Alan Jacob's "Book of Common Prayer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Book-Common-Prayer-Biography-Religious/dp/0691154813/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1417814005&sr=8-1&keywords=jacobs+book+of+common+prayer. January 2015: A.F. Pollard's "Thomas Cranmer and the English Reformation: 1489-1556" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-English-Reformation-1489-1556/dp/1592448658/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420055574&sr=8-1&keywords=A.F.+Pollard+Cranmer. February 2015: Jaspar Ridley's "Thomas Cranmer" at: http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Cranmer-Jasper-Ridley/dp/0198212879/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1422892154&sr=8-1&keywords=jasper+ridley+cranmer&pebp=1422892151110&peasin=198212879

Saturday, August 31, 2013

Mr. (Rev. Dr. Prof.) Bray: Outline of "Documents of the English Reformation"

Bray, Gerald, ed. Documents of the English Reformation. Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994.

There are 665 pages with appendices. The Mr. (Rev.Dr.) Bray will invite one to histories, documents and “more friends.” I'm afraid few things can be said of significance about Mr. (Canterbury) Cranmer or the English Reformation without the political and legal framework as Mr. Bray outlines. And using the proletarian notion of America's "Constitution," a plebescite view, coupled with ahistorical and un-appreciating harangues about Erastianism, will fail to appreciate or will becloud one thing: Royal rule established an English Bible, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and a firm Protestant basis for English descendants. "Without" Henry, Edward and Elizabeth, with all their imperfections, we would still be Papal, Roman Anglicans (1.0ers) or, little better, Non-Papal Roman Anglicans (2.0ers, like Tractarians).   Good Lord, deliver us from that fate!  Nor is this a brief for Royal Absolutism nor for the ham-handedness or repressions of Mr. Laud and his Anti-Calvinists in the next century. Rather, it is a brief that "without the Royals and Tudor constancy," no English Reformation, period. Mr. Bray helps to afford the construct for wider inquiry.  



A 2005 edition is available at: http://www.amazon.com/Documents-English-Reformation-Revd-Gerald/dp/0227172396/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374785087&sr=1-1&keywords=gerald+bray+english+reformation

Mr. Bray builds the structure on six foundations:

The Break with Rome (1526-1534), pp. 9-112

1. Tyndale’s Preface to the New Testament (1526), 1534
2. Tyndale’s Preface to the Pentateuch, 1530
3. Acts for the Pardon of the Clergy, 1531 (22 Henry VIII, c. 20)
4. The Supplication of the Commons, 1532
5. The Reply of the Ordinaries, 1532
6. The Submission of the Clergy, 1532
7. Act for the Conditional Restraint of Annates, 1532 (23 Henry VIII, c.20
8. Act in Retraint of Appeals, 1533
9. Act for the Submission of the Clergy and Restraint of Appeals, 1534
10. Act Restraining the Payment of Annates and Concerning the Election of Bishops, 1534
11. The Ecclesiastical Licences [sic] Act, 1534
12. The Abjuration of Papal Supremacy by the Clergy, 1534

Henrician Reformation (1534-1547), pp. 113-246

13. The Act of Supremacy, 1534
14. The Suffragan Bishops Act, 1534
15. The Wittenberg Articles, 1536
16. The Ten Articles, 1536
17. The First Henrician Injunctions, 1536
18. The Second Henrician Injunctions, 1538
19. The Thirteen Articles, with Three Additional Articles, 1538
20. The Act of Six Articles, 1539
21. Cranmer’s Preface to the Great Bible, 1540

Cranmer’s Reformation: Edward VI (1547-1553), pp. 247-314

22. The Edwardian Injunctions, 1547
23. The Sacrament Act, 1547
24. The Election of Bishops Act, 1547
25. The Act of Uniformity, 1549
26. The Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, 1549
27. The Preface to the Ordinal
28. Act to Take Away all Positive Laws Against the Marriage of Priests, 1549
29. The Act of Uniformity, 1552
30. The Forty-Two Articles, 1553
The Thirty-Eight Articles, 1563
The Thirty-Nine Articles, 1571

Reaction and Recovery (1553-1559), pp. 315-354

31. The Marian Injunctions, 1554
32. The Act of Supremacy, 1559
33. The Act of Uniformity, 1559
34. The Elizabethan Injunctions, 1559
35. The Eleven Articles, 1559

Progress of Protestantism (1560-1625), 355-480

36. The Preface to the Geneva Bible, 1560
37. The Preface to the Rheims Bible, 1582
38. Archbishop Whitgift’s Articles, 1583
39. The Lambeth Articles, 1595
40. The Preface to the Douay Old Testament, 1609
41. The Preface to the Authorized (King James) Version, 1611
42. The Irish Articles, 1615
43. The Canons of the Synod of Dordt

Protestant Schism and Final Settlement (1625-1700), pp. 481-592)

44. The King’s Declaration, 1628
45. The Solemn League and Covenant
46. The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1647
47. The Savoy Declaration, 1658
48. The Declaration of Breda, 1660
49. The Act of Uniformity, 1662
50. The Preface to the Book of Common Prayer, 1662
51. The Test Act, 1673
52. The Tolerance Act, 1689
53. The Second London (Baptist) Confession of Faith, 1689
54. The Act of Settlement, 1700

Supplementary Texts, 593-654
1. The First and Second Statutes of Provisors, 1351 and 1390
2. The First Statute of Praemunire, 1353
3. The Second Statute of Praemunire, 1393
4. The Augsburg Confession, 1530

Appendixes, pp.655-665

1. Sovereigns of England (1485-1714) and Archbishops of Canterbury (1486-1715)
2. Sovereigns by Regnal Years
3. Popes 1484-1721
4. Dates of Easter and Moveable Feasts 1485-1715
5. From the Augsburg Confession to the 39 [sic] Articles: A Comparative Table
6. From the 39 Articles to the Westminster Confession
7. TheWestminster Confession and the 39 Articles directly compared
8. The Westminster Confession and its Offspring compared

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