Oaths and the English Reformation (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)

Oaths and the English Reformation (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History)

Language: English

Pages: 285

ISBN: B009P2F0YA

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


The practice of swearing oaths was at the centre of the English Reformation. On the one hand, oaths were the medium through which the Henrician regime implemented its ideology and secured loyalty among the people. On the other, they were the tool by which the English people embraced, resisted and manipulated royal policy. Jonathan Michael Gray argues that since the Reformation was negotiated through oaths, their precise significance and function are central to understanding it fully. Oaths and the English Reformation sheds new light on the motivation of Henry VIII, the enforcement of and resistance to reform and the extent of popular participation and negotiation in the political process. Placing oaths at the heart of the narrative, this book argues that the English Reformation was determined as much by its method of implementation and response as it was by the theology or political theory it transmitted.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lollard and evangelical) contained some kind of oath. Ecclesiastical authorities employed the oaths de veritate dicenda, of purgation, and of abjuration because such oaths added spiritual muscle to the Henrician authorities’ campaign against heresy. The oath de veritate dicenda and the oath of purgation guarded against heretics lying about their past and current heretical beliefs, and the various oaths of abjuration sought to prevent heretics from continuing to hold heretical beliefs at their

swearing was a form of worship lay behind the extremely common denunciation of oaths by creatures. To swear by a creature was to give that creature the honour, worship, and glory that belonged only to God. It was a kind of idolatry. Virtually every medieval and early modern treatise that discussed oaths condemned swearing by creatures.20 Indeed, many writers followed Jerome and construed Jesus’ command in Matthew 5 to mean that one should not swear by creatures since Jesus qualified his statement

SP Venice CAP CCCC CIC CUL Foxe, AM (1583) Foxe, AM (Townsend) GL HHS Borthwick Institute for Archives British Library Calendar of Letters, Despatches, and State Papers, relating to the Negotiations between England and Spain Preserved in the Archives at Simancas and Elsewhere. Ed. Pascual Gayangos. Vols. iv and v. London, 1879–88 Calendar of State Papers and Manuscripts, Relating to English Affairs, Existing in the Archives and Collections of Venice, and in Other Libraries of Northern Italy.

whether Henry ever knew of Warham’s prepared defence. If so, it would have infuriated him, for Warham not only placed the episcopal oath to the Pope above the episcopal oath to the king but also justified his actions by citing his own oath to the Pope. Ironically, the same event that prevented Warham from publicly articulating his defence, namely his death, led to the most dramatic display of the contradictions between the oaths of a bishop-elect in the sixteenth century. With Warham gone, Henry

pedibus sancte ecclesie ejusdem stabiles in fide catholica paupertatem et humilitatem, et secundum Evangelium Domini nostri Jesu Christi, quod firmiter promisimus observemus’; Wright (ed.), Three Chapters, 41–2 (LP, vii 841). Ellis (ed.), Original Letters, ser. 2, ii:92. Wilkins (ed.), Concilia, iii:790; Burnet, History of the Reformation, iv:217–18. The professions of 1534 to 1536 as a response to previous oaths 109 In Henry’s proclamation of 9 June 1535 enforcing the statutes for abolishing

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