Jane Dawson

The Scottish Reformation and the Theatre of Martyrdom

Poor John Knox felt a distinct sense of inferiority when he sat down to write the first book of his History of the Reformation in Scotland . Unlike his English friend John Foxe, he could not draw upon the stories of hundreds of martyrs and fit them into the complete history of the persecuted Church from its beginning until the present day. To make matters worse, Foxe would duplicate Knox’s labours by incorporating the stories of most of the Scottish martyrs into his 1570 edition of the Acts and Monuments . In his ambition to be both the historian and the martyrologist of the Scottish Reformation, Knox thought he faced an immediate and apparently overwhelming problem: that of a distinct shortage of martyrs. Yet he was quickly reassured once he began assembling the details of those who had vigorously opposed the ‘manifest abuses, superstition and idolatry’, which characterized the Catholic Church in Scodand before the Reformation. Martyrs soon began to appear before his eyes, and Knox consoled himself, ‘Albeit there be no great number, yet are they more than the Collector would have looked for at the beginning.’

''The Face of Ane Perfyt Reformed Kyrk': St Andrews and the early Scottish Reformation

With supreme self-confidence the St Andrews kirk-session declared on 31 May 1564: Seing it hes pleased the gudnes of the Eternall, our God, of his meir mercy, to deliver and reduce us furth of the bondage and yok of Antecrist, to the lycht of the Ewangell of Jesus Crist be plenteows prechyng of the same; so that the face of ane perfyt reformed kyrk hes beyn seyn wythin this cite be the space of fyve yearis, the sacramentis deuly ministrat, all thingis done in the kyrk be comly ordor establesched, disciplyn used and resavit wythowtyn contempt or ony plane contradiccione of ony person’.

Book Review: Robert Barnes and the Reformation Korey D. Maas, The Reformation and Robert Barnes: History, Theology and Polemic in Early Modern England (Rochester, NY/Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell & Brewer Ltd, 2010. £60. pp. 250. ISBN: 978-1-84383-534-9)

This is a re-examination of the career and writings of the early English evangelical, Robert Barnes whose execution for heresy in 1540 turned him into a Protestant martyr. Barnes has been hailed as one of the leading theologians among the early English evangelicals and the popularizer of Lutheran doctrines for a native audience. Before this monograph, the best summary of Barnes’ career had remained Gordon Rupp’s perceptive, though brief, essay in his Studies in the Making of the English Protestant Tradition (1947). One of the strengths of Dr Maas’ detailed study is the way in which he frees his subject from being evaluated solely as a martyr or exclusively within an English context. As he demonstrates, Barnes’ influence was felt throughout European Protestantism. Latin writings as well as his vernacular works enabled Barnes to make a significant contribution to the development of the Protestant historiographical tradition. Having covered the biographical material in the first chapter, the second demonstrates how Barnes held Lutheran positions on three key doctrinal areas, justification by faith alone, the eucharist, and the doctrine of the Royal Supremacy. Though not providing original doctrinal insights, Barnes did develop an important new methodology that employed history in the service of theological polemic. Dr Maas’ shorthand label ‘historical theology’ might be confusing to readers but the chapter headings of ‘history in theology’; ‘theology in history’ and the ‘historical-theological programme’ [chs 3-5] give a better sense of Barnes’ method. The reformer mined ecclesiastical history sources to produce a sharp-edged theological polemic. Although previously dismissed as a ‘scissors and paste’ approach, Maas shows why it was a major development for Protestantism. Through historical examples Barnes was able to undermine fatally [in Protestant eyes at least] the authority of the papacy and the strength of Catholic tradition. In his detailed analysis, the author reveals the necessity of consulting the 1534 edition of Barnes’ was declared heretical, having undermined the confession that would have spared his life by writing a private letter to the Pope claiming that ‘his heresies were nothing of the sort’. Hannam has an eye for these messy details of history: undeniably brave, Bruno’s own misguided obstinacy certainly contributed to his death; Robert Bellarmine (the Jesuit professor who drafted the charges against him) ‘a religious fundamentalist’ who ‘like so many other people in history...had a misguided sense that he had to do his duty, however unpleasant’ was also ‘a brilliant intellect’, whose ‘manners and kindness were legendary’. It is a tale well told, one populated by characters such as Thomas Bradwardine, the ‘Mathematical Archbishop of Canterbury’, as well as familiar figures such as Francis Bacon and William of Ockham whose work is thus set into a wider context of debate and scholarship. One-time chaplain to Edward III, Bradwardine was one of the Merton Calculators, an influential group of scholars whose work on natural philosophy and mathematics was to have a long-lasting influence even foreshadowing the work of Galileo. Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize its author is well qualified for his task with a PhD from Cambridge on the history of 16thcentury science, after originally reading physics at Oxford. Of course, even then, an unashamedly popular book such as this will have its detractors: there are those who resent anything so populist on principle, and Hannam is occasionally guilty of generalisation and hyperbole – for instance, his claim that humanists were ‘incorrigible reactionaries’, and the author of the Canterbury Tales is more familiar as Geoffrey (not William) Chaucer. There are also those for whom – regardless of the facts of history – the church will always be an obscene monolith bent on suppressing scientific inquiry, and some of a more secularist bent, even as they applaud his scholarship, have questioned Hannam’s motives for writing the book, attempting to caricature him as an apologist. But in seeking to correct historical misconceptions and to encourage conversation Hannam has acquitted himself admirably.

Book Review: Miracles in the Middle Ages

a wider range of texts (in full) and an extensive At f7.99 these slim volumes are not particularly supporting account of the debate. In terms of better priced than their competitors. The format portability and size, the challenge from Hicks The is standard, so students would become used to it. Existence of God would be serious if that useful They are clearly written, and are intended to invite book were not,, inexcusably, still out of print. engagement with the text both good. On balance The glossaries are curious mixtures. The one for though, I think there are better summaries out there, Kant gives admirable summaries of complex ideas so I shall not be recommending these books to my in a few lines including autonomy and categorical 10 students. imperatives. At the same time, it includes trite PATRICK ALLSOP dictionary style definitions of such words as physics, St Pauls School, London logic and desire. In that for Aquinas, the definitions for evil, Jesus Christ and soul are so basic as to be useless, while the comments on First Mover and MIRACLES IN THE MIDDLE AGES immovable are defective. In Mills Utilitarianism, the summary of Epicurus/Epicurean is inaccurate, Robert Bartlett, The Hanged Man (Princeton, iNj: though the definitions of Act and Rule Utilitarianism Princeton University Press, 2-004.

The Protestant Earl and Godly Gael: The Fifth Earl of Argyll [c. 1538-73] and the Scottish Reformation

I4.95. PP. ix + are clear and sensible. i68. ISBN o-69i-i2.604-6). The suggestions for further reading show the This delightful short book is a fascinating same inconsistency. The Aquinas list includes investigation into a medieval miracle. As its title not only the Pegis edition of the Basic Writings reveals a man was hanged and was resurrected, which are used for the detailed summary, but also 10

The Politics of Religion in the Age of Mary, Queen of Scots: The Earl of Argyll and the Struggle for Britain and Ireland

Above the entrance doorway at Carnasserie Castle in mid-Argyll there is a finely carved panel containing the coat of arms of Archibald Campbell, fifth Earl of Argyll, and his first wife, Lady Jean Stewart. Along the foot of the panel, in the script employed in Gaelic manuscripts, there is a motto which reads: ‘DIA LE UA NDUIBH[N]E’ or ‘God be with O Duibhne.’ The designation O Duibhne referred to the fifth Earl of Argyll as chief of Clan Campbell. The inscription and its setting provide a perfect illustration of the different cultures and traditions which the fifth Earl combined in his personal and public life and permitted him to be both a Protestant earl and a godly Gael. The short Gaelic phrase of the motto was the first post-Reformation inscription within the Gaidhealtachd or Gaelic-speaking area, which covered the Highlands and Islands of Scotland.