Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Theologies of Episcopacy in mid-Tudor England
- 2 Models of Episcopal Office
- 3 Bishops of the English Church, 1520–1559
- 4 The Bishop and Preaching
- 5 Bishops and the Provision of Education
- 6 Prayer and Sacrifice: the Life of the Bishop
- 7 Episcopal Activity I: the Eradication of Heresy
- 8 Episcopal Activity II: the Propagation of the Ministry
- 9 Conclusion: the Old Episcopate in a New Order
- Appendix I Prosopography of the bishops in office, 1520–1559
- Appendix II The dioceses
- Appendix III The education of the bishops
- Appendix IV The bishops of Sodor and Man
- Bibliography
- Index of Scriptural References
- General Index
2 - Models of Episcopal Office
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Dedication
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 Theologies of Episcopacy in mid-Tudor England
- 2 Models of Episcopal Office
- 3 Bishops of the English Church, 1520–1559
- 4 The Bishop and Preaching
- 5 Bishops and the Provision of Education
- 6 Prayer and Sacrifice: the Life of the Bishop
- 7 Episcopal Activity I: the Eradication of Heresy
- 8 Episcopal Activity II: the Propagation of the Ministry
- 9 Conclusion: the Old Episcopate in a New Order
- Appendix I Prosopography of the bishops in office, 1520–1559
- Appendix II The dioceses
- Appendix III The education of the bishops
- Appendix IV The bishops of Sodor and Man
- Bibliography
- Index of Scriptural References
- General Index
Summary
Three passages from the Pastoral Epistles, 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and 4:14, 2 Timothy 1:6–7, and Titus 1:7–9, appear again and again in discussions of the office of bishop during the period of the Reformation in England. They also find their place in all the rites of episcopal consecration, and are often quoted in prayers central to the action of consecrating. Subject to varying interpretations, they supported a number of conflicting definitions of the essence of episcopacy. Amongst the Church Fathers, the writings and example of Augustine and Cyprian seem to have been most important as model bishops in the movement of reform which was centred around the episcopal office. Several bishops are known to have possessed the works of Augustine, while the works of Cyprian were less widely known; his De unitate ecclesiae was not published in England until the seventeenth century, a Latin edition in 1632 with the first English translation not published until 1681. On the other hand, manuscript copies of the Fathers, especially of Augustine, circulated widely in England in the fifteenth century, and a number of foreign printed editions were available by 1520. Erasmus had brought out his own editions of Jerome in 1516, of Cyprian in 1520, and of Augustine in 1529, and it seems likely that the significant number of bishops in the English Church who had been touched in some way by Erasmian reform would have been aware of this work and indeed, Augustine appears to have been the principal patristic influence upon John Fisher.
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- Bishops and Reform in the English Church, 1520–1559 , pp. 43 - 60Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2001