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A New Version of a Mid-sixteenth century Vernacular Tract on the Eucharist: A Document of the Early Edwardian Reformation?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 March 2011
Extract
The document presented here makes available a hitherto unknown version of an anonymous vernacular tract dating from the middle years of the sixteenth century. The only known version of the tract until now — extant in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge — was first published by Dr P. N. Brooks in an appendix to his monograph on Thomas Cranmer's eucharistic doctrine (1965).Beyond placing it in the ‘mid-sixteenth century’, Brooks did not attempt t 0 attribute it to an author or indicate its precise historical context beyond suggesting that it provided a ‘valuable period example of the Lutheran understanding of the eucharistic presence’ such as was favoured by Richard Cheyney (bishop of Gloucester, 1562-79) and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in the period between abandoning transubstantiation and embracing a version of the Reformed doctrine. The longer version of the tract which has since come to light in the Bodleian would seem to call for some reassessment of that estimate. For while consistent with a Lutheran doctrine of the eucharistic presence, the Bodleian version concludes with sections on eucharistic adoration and oblation (not found in the Corpus MS). This suggests a closer affinity with the position championed by opponents of the religious changes in the reign of Edward VI, or at least an attempt at a doctrinal consensus between those of the ‘old’ persuasion and those of the ‘new’.
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References
1 Bodleian Library, Oxford, MS Add. C. 197, fos 6Ir-4r.
2 Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS 102, paginated 195-204 (hereinafter cited as C).
3 Brooks, Peter, Thomas Cranmer's Doctrine of the Eucharist: an essay in historical development, London 1965, 112–20.Google Scholar
4 Ibid. 37n, 112.
5 The presence in Cranmer's collection of a quotation from the letter Ad Caesarium monachum which Peter Martyr Vermigli had copied from a MS in Florence before leaving Italy suggests a date for the final form of the collection after his arrival in England in December 1547. The absence, on the other hand, of any quotation from Justin Martyr, a key witness in Cranmer's argument in his later Defence (1550), points to the completion of ‘De re sacramentaria’ before 1549/50.
6 I hope to discuss the matter more fully in a future article entitled, ‘The “Book of Doctrine”, the Lords' Debate and the first Prayer Book of Edward VI: an abortive attempt at doctrinal consensus?’. The watermark of the paper, a version of the all too common ‘hand’, and the handwriting are not incompatible with the date suggested here.
7 A Catalogue of the…Library of the Late Alfred John Horwood, Esq., London [1883], 91,Google Scholar sold at Sothebys, 12 June 1883, lot 1327.
8 Part ii of his Tractatio de Sacramento eucharistiae, London 1549,Google Scholar. Pollard, A. W. and Redgrave, G. R., A Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1475-1640 (hereinafter cited as STC), London 1926, 24673;Google Scholar English translation by N. Udall, 1550, STC 24665.
9 Burnet, G., History of the Reformation, ed. Pocock, N., Oxford 1865, v. 197–217.Google Scholar
10 The clearest example of such a divergence occurs in section 8, lines 165-74, where B instances miracles associated with Christ's body to reinforce the general argument from divine omnipotence. But the argument itself is firmly stated in C at a number of points (e.g. section 6), and at other places C affirms the real presence with equal force (cf. the additional passage in C at the end of section I (see n. 38 below).
11 Tract 12, lines 243-6. Cf. Smith, Richard, The assertion and defence of the sacramente of the aultar, London 1546, STC 22815,Google Scholar sig. EIr-v. Peryn, William, Three godlye and notable sermons, London 1546,Google Scholar. Jackson, W. A., Ferguson, F. S. and Pantzer, K. F., A Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1475-1640, revised edn (hereinafter cited as RSTC), London, 1976, 1986, 19785.5, sig. J2rGoogle Scholar.
12 Tract 13, lines 253ff., 258ff., 269-72. Cf. Smith, Richard, A confutation of a certen book called a Defence [by Cranmer], Paris ?155O, STC 22819, sig. D2r-v, T6r;Google ScholarAssertion and defence, sig. S7v-8r. Gardiner, Stephen, A detection of the deuils sophistrie, London 1546, STC 11591. sig. LlGoogle Scholar.
13 Tract 1, lines 1-12.
14 Hughes, P. L. and Larkin, J. F., Tudor Royal Proclamations, I: The Early Tudors (1485-1553), New Haven 1964, no. 296, 411 ff.,Google Scholar reinforcing the earlier Act ‘Against Revilers and for Receiving in both kinds’ (I Edward vi, cap. i). See also proclamations of 6 Feb. and 8 Mar. 1548, ibid, nos 2gg, 300; 24 Apr., no. 303; and 23 Sept., no. 313. A similar concern was expressed for liturgical unity culminating in the 1549 Act of Uniformity.
15 Tract 1-2, lines 19-64.
16 E.g. Gardiner, Stephen, An explication and assertion (1551)Google Scholar quoted in , Cranmer'sAnswer (1551),Google Scholar. Writings and Disputations…relative to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, ed. Cox, J. E. (hereinafter cited as Cranmer, PSI), (Parker Society 1844), 62Google Scholar.
17 A Catechism set forth by Thomas Cranmer, ed. Selwyn, D. G., Appleford 1978, 104ff., 208.Google Scholar
18 Contrast Cranmer's own view in 1551, e.g. Answer in Cranmer, PS I, 15, 34.
19 The clearest examples of such echoes are set out in the notes accompanying the text of the Tract.
20 Tract 13, lines 248-53, 264-5; Tract 14, lines 266ff. For the Prayer Book parallels see nn 58, 63 below.
21 Tract 13, line 258; Tract 14, lines 271-2; see nn 59-61, 65, below.
22 For the attempt to ascertain the views of the bishops and divines on the forthcoming liturgical changes see the ‘Questions on the mass’ issued early in 1548 and the replies to them. , Burnet, History, v. 197–217. For evidence of such discussions relating to doctrinal as well as liturgical matters, see the Royal Proclamation inhibiting preachers issued from Windsor on 23 Sept. 1548: ‘minding to see very shortly one uniform order throughout this his realm, and to put an end to all controversies in religion… (for which cause at this time certain bishops and notable learned men, by his highness' commandment, are congregate)’,Google Scholar. , Hughes and , Larkin, Proclamations, no. 313, 432-3;Google Scholar see also the Lord Protector's warning to Stephen Gardiner to refrain from mentioning any controversial matter relating to the sacrament in his forthcoming St Peter's Day sermon (June 1548) because ‘the questions and controversies rest at this present time in consultation; and, with the pleasure of God, shall be in small time, by public doctrine and authority, quietly and truly determined’. Foxe, John, Acts and Monuments, ed. Pratt, J., London 1877, vi. 86Google Scholar.
23 The dissatisfaction expressed by Bullinger's correspondents at the views of Cranmer and other bishops at the tim e is well know n from the Zurich letters, Original Letters, tr. and ed. Robinson, Hastings (Parker Society 1846-1847), nos 150, 151, 185, 186.Google Scholar To this may be added the evidence of three treatises of the same year which set out to acquaint those in positions of influence with the Protestant counter-arguments to current ‘conservative’ theology (such as found in the Cologne Antididagma of 1544) on the eucharistic adoration and sacrifice and the real presence. Bonner, Richard, A treatyse of the ryght honourynge and wourshypping of…Christe in the sacrament, London, 14 11. 1548, STC 3287,Google Scholar addressed to Cranmer. Geste, Edmund, A treatise againste the preuee masse, London 1548, STC 11802,Google Scholar dedicated to Joh n Cheke, tutor to the young king; Peter Martyr Vermigli, ‘Of the Sacrament of Thanksgiving’, from Westminster, I Dec. [1548], BL, Royal MS 17C. V, addressed to the Lord Protector.
24 I hope to explore this possibility and that of the problems surrounding the longer (B) and shorter (C) texts more fully in a future article. It is not certain from the state of the MS whether the material in B, absent from C, is an addition to the text of the Tract or whether C is a deliberately shortened version of B. As indicated in the edition of the Tract which follows, the text of C ends at the foot of p. 204 (a verso leaf) in the MS, and there is no concluding ‘finis’ at the end of C, unlike the conclusion of B. This fact might indicate that C is an imperfect copy of the Tract, lacking sections 10-14. On the other hand, there is no evidence that a further leaf or leaves of C containing this additional material has been later detached from the MS.
25 The distinctive expression ‘high mysteries’, here and below, lines 8fF. (as distinct from ‘Holy Misteries’ used in the 1549 Prayer Book) is paralleled in the Proclamation of 27 Dec. 1547. , Hughes and , Larkin, Proclamations, no. 296;Google Scholar I Edward vi, cap. i. Gee, H. and Hardy, W. J., Documents Illustrative of English Church History, London 1896, 323;Google Scholar and the 1548 Order of Communion, sig. A2V.
26 ‘blessed’, B only. The form of the institution narrative which follows exhibits striking verbal resemblances to the 154. Prayer Book version, The First and Second Prayer Books of Edward VI, London 1957, 222ff., andGoogle Scholar. , Cranmer'sCatechism (1548), 206,Google Scholar unlike that in the Latin canon of the mass and the King's Book (1543), ed. Lacey, T. A., London 1932, 51Google Scholar.
27 ‘Take eat’, B only.
28 ‘that is given tor you’, B only.
29 ‘that is shed for you’, B only.
30 ‘Celebracion’, B. C: ‘ministracion’.
31 At this point, C includes the following, part ofwhich occurs in B at lines 36-41 below: ‘whoe wourketh the same thyng that he did at his last Suypper, being with his apostles And forasmuche as then he saide unto them that thei sholde take/eate, and drinck that which he gave them saing it was his bodie and his bludd Yt is most stedfastilie to be beleved that his wourdes bothe then wer and also now be (whensoever by the minister in the consecration of this sacrament thei be duelie pronowriced)…’.
32 ‘because the ar’, B. C: ‘forasmuche as thei be’.
33 C reads at this point: ‘is the doer and worker in this most holie sacrament…’.
34 ‘by his dyvyne powre…his appostles’, B only.
35 ‘worketh’, B. C: ‘maketh’.
36 ‘ther is present…which thyng’, B only.
37 ‘distributed’, C adds: ‘in rememberaunce of Christes death and passion with thanckesgyving’. Cf. 1549 Prayer Book, second exhortation, 216 and eucharistic prayer, 223; 1552 Prayer Book, eucharistic prayer and communion, 389.
38 C includes at this point a strong affirmation of the real presence: ‘It is therfore certainlie to be beleaved that in this holie Sacrament is present the bodye and bludd of our Lorde Jesus Christ according to the plaine meaning and intent of Scripture which in this thinge is as the wourdes in ther owne proper nature doe signifie without figure, trope metaphore or allegoric’
39 C reads at this point: ‘Wherfore noe faithfull Christian man maye thincke that there is in this sacrament non e other thing then the onlie presence and substaunce of the outward signes or tokens of…’.
40 ‘receyved in this sacrament’, B only.
41 ‘in this sacrament’, B only.
42 ‘vouchsave…one body with him’, lines 66-70; cf. ‘for whom he hath not onely geuen his body to death, and shed his bloude, but also doothe vouchesaue in a Sacrament and Mistery, to geue us his sayed bodye and blood to feed upon spiritually’, 1549 Prayer Book, second exhortation 216; ‘we bee made one with Christ and Christ with us’, first exhortation, 215; ‘and made one bodye with thy sonne’, eucharistic prayer, 223; ‘for that thou hast vouchsafed to feede us in these holy Misteries, with the spirituall foode of the most precious body and bloud of thy sonne’, prayer of thanksgiving, 227.
43 ‘to dwell in us…consolacon’; cf.: ‘that they may dwell in Christe, and haue Christ dwellying in theim, 1548 Order of Communion, sig. A2V; ‘then we dwell in Christ and Christ in us’, 1549 Prayer Book, first exhortation, 215; ‘for us to fede upon spiritually to our endles comfort and consolacion’, ibid.
44 Cf.: ‘And to thende that wee should always remembre the excedyng loue of our master and onely sauior Jesu Christe, thus diyng for us’, 1549 Prayer Book, first exhortation, 215.
45 ‘worthely’, B only.
46 Cf. the passage from the 1549 Prayer Book in n. 42 above.
47 ‘to <be>’, so C.
48 ‘receyved’, B. C: ‘conceaved’.
49 ‘the thyng’, B. C: ‘this mistery’.
50 ‘putting <awaie>’, so C.
51 C reads: ‘And wheras mans sensuall reason will ryse and obiect…’.
52 C reads at this point: ‘cometh but of dulnes and lacke of faithe and understanding’, and omits the section that follows in B (lines 166-74).
53 ‘inclosed’. Reading uncertain in B, apparently ‘indued’, though presumably ‘enclosed’ rather than ‘included’ is intended. C: ‘compassed’ [?]. The words ‘but ffaithe instructed…the devene powre of Christ’ (lines 179-80) occur only in B.
54 ‘or available’, B only. Reading in B uncertain, but the meaning intended appears to be ‘profitable’ or ‘availing’. Cf. Heath's use of ‘vayloable’ in the 1548 Lords' Debate: ‘Example of an olde man and a sicke. They eate one meate but not alike vayloable’, fo. 16r.
55 Cf.: ‘that we be very membres incorporate in thy Misticall bodye’, 1549 Prayer Book, prayer of thanksgiving, 227.
56 ‘un’. Reading uncertain, possibly ‘not’.
57 ‘Nemo autem illam carnem manducat nisi prius adorauerit’, Enarratio in Psalmum xcviii. 9. This text, much quoted in favour of the eucharistic adoration, was adduced by Thirlby in the Dec. 1548 House of Lords' Debate, BL, MS Royal 17B XXXIX, fo. 6v.
58 Cf.: ‘to geue thine only sonn e Jesu Christ to suffre death upon the crosse for our redempcion, who mad e there (by his one oblacion once offered) a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifyce, oblacion, and satysfaccyon, for the sinnes of the whole world’, 1549 Prayer Book, eucharistic prayer, 222.
59 Cf. Cranmer's reply: ‘a memory and representation of that very true sacrifice’, 1548 Questionnaire on the Mass. , Burnet, History, v. 201Google Scholar.
60 Cf.: ‘this our Sacrifice of praise and thankes geuing…’, 1549 Prayer Book, eucharistic Prayer, 223.
61 Cf.: ‘to celebrate the commemoration of the most glorious death of thy sonne…’, ibid., prayer for the Church, 222.
62 Cf.: ‘and in his holy Gospell commaund us…according to the Instytucyon of thy derely beloue d sonne…’, ibid, eucharistic prayer, 222, 223.
63 Cf.: ‘most humbly beseching thee to graunt, that by the merits and death of thy sonne Jesus Christ, and through faith in his bloud, we and al thy whole church, may obteigne remission of our sinnes, and all other benefits of hys passyon…’, ibid, eucharistic prayer, 223.
64 ‘ys’. This appears to be the reading in the MS though the sense seems to require (in view of what follows) ‘nor ys it’.
65 Cf.: ‘to declare and set forth his death and most glorious passion, until his coming again’, I Edward VI, cap. i. , Gee and , Hardy, Proclamations, 323;Google Scholar ‘to celebrate a perpetuall memory of that his precious death…do celebrate, and make here before thy diuine Maiestie. with these thy holy giftes, the memoryall…’, eucharistic prayer, 222, 223.