Immutable Kingdom – Part 38

The Immutable Kingdom – Part 38

By Scott A. Klaft

(The Development of Denominations continued…)

As James I required uniformity to the Church of England, the Puritans and Catholics were not the only groups to be persecuted for their resistance in British lands. There was also strict oppression forced on the Unitarians, Anabaptists, and the Quakers.

The Quakers

The Quaker movement developed out of the Anabaptist movement; and, around 1650, the attention drawn to the Quakers in England was not the type normally desired. The leaders of this unusual group were George Fox and James Nailer. Nailer was described as a “half-mad fanatic” and single handedly discredited the entire Quaker community by his misdirected zeal. His followers were widely considered public nuisances when they would disturb other group’s worship services by denouncing the preachers as a false prophets and lying witnesses. Nailer was eventually arrested, and the prisons filled with his unquestioning followers. Nailer’s fanaticism was stringently denounced by George Fox, and his followers developed a deeply personal piety. They opposed war, refused to take oaths, and objected to all ministerial orders, but instead relied upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit individually.

The Baptist Church

There were several forces combining to initiate the Baptist Church movement in England. Stemming from the Anabaptist movement on the continent, there was a revival of the teachings of Wycliffe and the Lollards. Two men came out of this background to begin the Baptist Church: John Smyth and Thomas Helwys. Abandoning the Anglican Church and becoming the minister of an independent congregation, Smyth sought sanctuary from Anglican persecution in Holland. While still on the continent, Smyth, Helwys and others began the noble mission to rediscover the New Testament church, rejecting councils and creeds, and accepting the scriptures as their only authority.

Eventually Smyth came to the conclusion that baptism was only for the believer and proceeded to “baptize” himself by pouring; Helwys and the rest of the congregation followed form. Associated at first with the Mennonites of Amsterdam, who were mainly Armenian in philosophy, Smyth rethought and rejected his Calvinistic teaching that Children were born in sin, and therefore rejected infant baptism. Helwys agreed in this, but broke with Smyth over church organization, teaching a modified episcopacy. In this state of division, Smyth died and Helwys returned to England in 1611, setting up what is typically regarded as the first Baptist Church on British soil. By 1644, their number had increased to fifty congregations, but the Particular Baptists (who were Calvinistic) wanted to separate from the General Baptists who organized their own distinct association.

Their mode of “baptism” (sprinkling or pouring) was eventually replaced by immersion only after working through some contention over who could baptize whom, seeing that none had yet been immersed. The Particular Baptists progressed under a loose association, while the General Baptists organized their first general assembly in London in 1654. The Baptist Church was irreconcilably divided in theology between the Calvinistic and Armenian positions from the start.

Wesleyans and the Methodists

The established Church of England employed very few of the principles of the Reformation movement, remaining a system of outward ceremony and cold formalism. While this caused many groups to part ways to concentrate on their own form of the Protestant movement, there was another active movement happening within the Church of England itself. Unsatisfied by the ritualistic practices of the clergy, certain ones began to seek to restore the piety and spiritual zeal they thought belonged with true Christianity. The personalities of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitfield gave great motion to this movement.

(To Be Continued Next Week)

Immutable Kingdom – Part 37

The Immutable Kingdom – Part 37

By Scott A. Klaft

Development of Denominations

Political and religious unrest prevailed in England, creating an especially good environment for all types of reformers to promote their various and particular views. Well-educated theologians were given vital positions in England’s Universities, and many refugees from the continent sought safety on English soil. The moderate reformers from France and Germany whose teachings reflected those of Luther and Calvin were given protection and buildings in which to meet. The more radical reformers were treated with disdain, and the truly extreme Anabaptists were occasionally burned at the stake. Allegiance to the “Apostles Creed” became the basis of social acceptance. Many foreign reformers were highly dissatisfied with being restricted from returning to the New Testament pattern in the English churches. Independent groups therefore soon materialized.

The Romanists

Some in England remained loyal to the Pope and continued to worship as they always had. During the reign of Elizabeth, these sought to secure buildings where their bishops could carry on services, but they received a denial with the statement that “no new faith had been set up but that which had been commanded by God, preached by the primitive church and unanimously approved by the ancient ‘church fathers.’” As a result, the Pope excommunicated Elizabeth, declared the throne vacant, absolved all Catholics from any allegiance to the English throne, and commanded all who remained loyal to him to separate themselves from the Church of England. They who did so formed the English Romanist Church. When the Pope awarded medals for the massacre of twenty thousand Protestants in France in 1572, the bitterness against Romanism in England multiplied. Several Romanists were executed by Elizabeth, not for their beliefs, but for social disruption and threatening the throne.

The Dutch Reform

Protestants in the Netherlands, whether they were Calvinist, Lutheran, or Anabaptist, were all persecuted severely by Duke Alva, driving many Dutchmen to the safety of England. The start of the Dutch Reformed Church was amplified by many Huguenot families fleeing the massacre in France. In 1581, Robert Brown became the leader of a large group of Calvinists who continued to grow after his departure. They became known as the Congregational Church.

The Presbyterians

As a result of pamphlets opposing the ‘Episcopacy’ (The system of rule in the Church of England) written and distributed by Thomas Cartwright in 1572, another group adopted the system of government designed by John Calvin. The first Presbyterian Church was formed in England.

The domination of the English bishops brought a fervent opposition by the Scottish reformers, and a fiery preacher named John Knox became their leader. His sermons against image-worship so stirred the people, they went throughout Scotland destroying all of the ornaments, statues, and stained glass they found in church buildings. Civil war broke out involving England and France, and John Knox effectively became the ruler of Scotland. Presbyterianism was established, and the Episcopacy was banned. The Puritan Congregationalists and Presbyterians now had greater freedom until James I came to the English throne in 1604. He decided to restore British authority over the churches, rejecting Presbyterianism, and enforcing strict conformity to the Church of England once more.

Forcing uniformity drove many Puritans to seek freer lands, and in 1620, a ship named the Mayflower landed at Plymouth Rock. From that time, a continual stream of Puritans left the British Isles for the new colonies in America. A bit of irony is that despite leaving England for religious toleration, these pilgrims refused to accept others into their colonies who interpreted the scriptures differently, as they attempted to make their own Puritanism supreme and exclusive.

(The Development of Denominations continued next week)

Hello world!

Due to “Blogger” giving me trouble with editing and formatting my blogs in Robetron’s Rumblings, I have switched to Word Press. I hope it will work out better. I have imported all of the articles from the former blog site, so you should not fall behind with the current Church History series I am writing and publishing, “The Immutable Kingdom.” I hope you enjoy my work, and that you will be edified by the information.

God bless.

-Scott

Immutable Kingdom – Part 36

The Immutable Kingdom – Part 36

By Scott A. Klaft

The Changing of the Guard

At the age of nine, Edward VI ascended to the throne at the death of Henry VIII in 1547. Too young yet to handle such responsibility, Edward ruled through his uncle, the Duke of Somerset, who had very definitive reformatory religious views. The churches of England were headed in the direction of genuine reformation. Cranmer, Henry’s appointed Archbishop, gave to the Duke the moniker of “Lord Protector and Encourager,” and religious life in England was now changed by royal-order rather than a collective assembly, or by parliament. Now under the influence of reformatory thought, the Protestants found encouragement to return into England, and they began to promote real reformation there. Edward, however, died at the age of fifteen in 1553. Mary, the daughter of Catherine of Aragon, ascended to the throne. The Reformation movement in England would not continue unhindered.

From the time of Henry’s break with the Pope years earlier, it was insisted that the religion of the throne would be the religion of the people, but Mary was brought up strictly Catholic. The people were again commanded to return to faithful allegiance to the Pope. At first, the Pope demanded complete return of all property formerly held by the Catholic Church, but he was talked out of it by one of his Cardinals, lest the opposition grow too strong.

As Protestant ideas were being promoted during the reign of Edward, many people came to have a strong, sincere conviction of those beliefs. Many could not return to Catholicism in good conscience. In the six years of Mary’s reign, two hundred eighty eight people were put to death for their refusal to recognize the Pope’s authority, a condition forever cementing the derogatory nickname for the Queen, “Bloody Mary.” Among those martyred were the “bishops” Ridley and Latimer who were condemned to die together on September 30, 1555. They were fastened by a single chain to the stake, back to back. As the fire was kindled, Latimer attempted to cheer Ridley by saying, “Be of good comfort Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God’s grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”

For six more months, Cranmer was exhorted by his enemies to recant his previous writings and public disputations against the Pope that he could receive pardon. He weakened to these temptations and signed seven documents of recantation. When the promised pardon did not come, he pledged, that on Saturday, March 31, 1556 he would publicly recant. When a great assembly was present to hear it, Cranmer courageously denied his former recantations and boldly preached against Catholicism. He was immediately arrested and led to be burned at the stake. As the flames grew, Cranmer thrust his hand with which he signed those recantations in to the fire saying, “the hand that sinned the most must be burned first,” and repeated over and over, “this unworthy hand.” He held it to the flame until it was entirely consumed.

The courage that Ridley, Latimer, and Cranmer displayed in refusing to turn the minds of the people back to Catholicism actually turned many toward the Reformation. When Elizabeth came to the throne in 1559, the political pressure to reform was such that she was forced to yield and legitimize the reformed churches.

Elizabeth, for a time, was able to walk the thin line of compromise between the Catholics and the Reformers. In private, she practiced like the Catholics; but publicly, she pleased the Protestants by legalizing their existence. The Pope excommunicated her as a Calvinist, but her true religious conviction seemed sincerely on the middle ground. Like Luther, she retained the cross, candle, stained glass, and many of the outward forms of Roman Catholicism. In 1559, she took the title “Supreme Governor of Things Ecclesiastical and Spiritual As Well As Temporal” (though she never claimed the ability to remit sins or ordain priests). She also required all people to attend a church service or pay a fine for non-attendance. There were many attempts thereafter by the Catholics to regain power in England, but all went without success.

(Next week: The Development of Denominations)