American Society of Church History

The Doctrine of Predestination in the Early English Reformation

Author(s): Dewey D. Wallace, Jr.
Source: Church History, Vol. 43, No. 2 (Jun., 1974), pp. 201-215
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the American Society of Church
History
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 The Doctrine of Predestination
in the Early English Reformation
DEWEY D. WALLACE, JR.
It has typically been said of the English Reformation that the doctrine of un-
conditional predestination (that is, predestination without foreknowledge of merit
or repentance but solely as an act of God's will to redeem some of mankind as a
manifestation of grace) was neither emphasized nor of central importance until
the "Genevan" influence of the returning Marian exiles and the wide dissemina-
tion of Calvin's writings in England after the accession of Elizabeth.1 It is the
purpose of this article to show that, (1) a soteriologically rooted doctrine of un-
conditional predestination of the type characteristic of the so-called "Rhineland
1. Charles Davis Oremeans, The Reception of Calvinistic Thought in England (Urbana:
University of Illinois Press, 1949), p. 27, concludes that there was little continental
Reformed influence in England until after the reign of Henry VIII. The most recent
thorough statement of the case for the "non-centrality" of predestination in the early
English Reformation is by 0. T. Hargrave, "The Doctrine of Predestination in the
English Reformation" (Ph. D. diss., Vanderbilt University, 1966), pp. 23-24, 32, 49,
75, 91, 96, 154, 157, 234, who argues that a distinctly moderate version of the doctrine
prevailed in the English Reformation prior to Genevan influence.
There are certain matters of interpretation to be considered which led to disagree-
ment with this useful and carefully researched work. Without denying that predestination
was defined more sharply in the second half of the sixteenth century than in the first,
or that Calvin taught a version of double-predestination more strict than many of his
"Reformed" predecessors (though see infra, n. 8), one finds little evidence that Cal-
vin's influence introduced anything really new into the teaching on predestination mak-
ing it more extreme than before. Not only is the doctrine of reprobation more common
before Genevan influence than Hargrave thinks, but also are many of the points he
makes in establishing the "moderation" of the pre-Genevan English doctrine found in
Calvin himself as well as in the Swiss Reformers before him. Hargrave suggests (pp. 24,
62, 74) that the early "moderate" doctrine was soteriological, but it has been pointed
out that for Calvin himself predestination is soteriological in significance, Edward A.
Dowey, Jr., The Knowledge of God in Calvin's Theology (New York: Columbia Uni-
versity Press, 1952), pp. 186-188; Kilian McDonnell, John Calvin, The Church, and the
Eucharist (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1967), pp. 169-170, 198-200;
Francois Wendel, Calvin, The Origins and Development of His Religious Thought, trans.
Philip Mairet (London: William Collins, Sons and Co., 1963), pp. 267-268; for Calvin
himself see Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis
Battles (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1970), 2:921, 961, 960, 970.
Hargrave also finds "moderation" in the argument that the reprobate are damned
for the sins they commit (pp. 22, 36, 43, 48), but this is a commonplace of Reformed
theology and depends upon an Augustinian understanding of freedom, whereby the sin-
ner freely, that is, willingly and without compulsion, sins and therefore is responsible
though he could not have done otherwise, and is finally damned for the sins he has ac-
tually committed. That Calvin too argues in this way, see Wendel, p. 281; Calvin, Insti-
tutes, 2:957-958, 961, 981; Calvin, Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, trans.
J.K.S. Reid (London: James Clarke and Co., 1961), pp. 22-23, 91, 116-117, 122. Har-
grave overstates the differences between Calvin and earlier Reformed theologians on
predestination (pp. 67, 75, 88-89), and does not sufficiently recognize the way the for-
mer built upon the pattern of theology established by the latter. Wilhelm Panck, The
Heritage of the Reformation (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 90, argues
that Calvin repeats Bucer's predestinarianism (see also infra, n. 5).
Finally, Hargrave fails to see how centrally related predestination is to such doc-
trines as justification, the church, the sacraments and the Christian life. On the other
hand, D. B. Knox, The Doctrine of Faith in the Reign of Henry VIII (London: James
Clarke and Co., 1961), pp. 13, 31, 66, 224, 233, recognizes the importance of predestina-
tion in the early English Reformation although his focus is on justification and pre-
destination is brought in tangentially to that doctrine.

Mr. Wallace is associate professor of religion in The George Washington Uni-

versity, Washington, D. C.
201

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202 CHURCH HISTORY

Reformers"2 was central to key figures of the early English Reformation

cepted and expressed by many other leaders and theological writers of
glish Reformation prior to the accession of Mary and was upheld by im
and influential continental divines resident in England; (2) the doctrine
destination in the English Reformation had been developed to the poin
probation and double predestination and frequently expressed as such bef
(3) while this predestinarian emphasis in English Protestant theology w
large extent the result of the influence of the continental Reformation, it ha
received prior to the return of the Genevan exiles and the pervasive inf
Calvin in Elizabethan England. Thus the Genevan influence reinforced an
refined English predestinarian theology. It might be added that Calvin
ence ought not to be considered an unusually harsh one with respect to
nation; not only does Calvin follow the general pattern of earlier Reform
ology, but also does Reformed theology in the later part of the sixteent
tend toward a more rigid and scholastic version of the doctrine quite apa
Calvin, whose real influence could well operate in the opposite direction
recent study by Brian Armstrong shows.3

Before looking at the evidence for the importance of predestination

English Reformation prior to 1553, a quick glance at the significance of
trine in the early continental Reformation will be needed. While a doct
unconditional election is strongly implied in Lutheran theology with its i
that redemption is entirely a gift of God quite apart from human mer
while it is even stated explicitly in such a tract as Luther's reply to Er
"The Bondage of the Will",4 it was among the Swiss and Rhineland R
who differed from Luther on the eucharistic presence that a marked em
the doctrine and its formulation appeared.5 Among these Reformed th
2. This phrase of course came into general currency after Leonard J. Trinter
Origins of Puritanism," Church History 20 (1951): 37-57, showed the impor
this group as an influence upon the early English Reformation; with respect t
ology of the covenant he saw Genevan influence as coming late after the basi
had been established as a result of earlier continental influence from reformers such as
Zwingli, Bullinger, Oecolampadius and Bucer.
3. Brian Armstrong, Calvinism and the Amyraut Heresy, Protestant Scholasticism and Hu-
manism in Seventeenth-Century France (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1969),
pp. xvii, xix, 32, 38, 42, 136-137, argues for the moderation and soteriological "rooted-
ness" of Calvin's doctrine of predestination and suggests Beza as one of the fathers of
the more scholastic version of the doctrine in which it becomes the keystone of a theo-
logical system built around the decrees of God. William Perkins was an important
English figure in the development of this scholastic doctrine of predestination. For
other discussions of Calvin on predestination see Dowey, pp. 186-188, 209-219, 250-251;
Wendel, pp. 263-284; and J. K. S. Reid in his introduction to Calvin, Concerning the
Eternal Predestination of God, pp. 9-44.
4. For a recent discussion of Luther on the will's freedom, see Gerhard Ebeling, Luther,
An Introduction to His Thought, trans. R. A. Wilson (Philadelphia: Fortress Press,
1970), pp. 210-225.
5. For a full discussion of the doctrine of predestination in Bucer see W. P. Stephens,
The Holy Spirit in the Theology of Martin Bucer (Cambridge: University Press,
1970), pp. 24-34; Stephens writes, "The doctrine of presdestination or election is one
that shapes the whole of Bucer's theology" (p. 23) and ". . . the doctrine of election
plays a central part in Bucer's theology, even when it goes almost unmentioned, it is
the presupposition underlying his theology" (p. 24). It is a commonplace that Zwingli
had a predilection for predestination and Augustinian theology; see Jean Rilliet,
Zwingli: Third Man of the Reformation, trans. Harold Knight (London: Lutterworth
Press, 1964), p. 123; Frank Hugh Foster, "Zwingli's Theology, Philosophy, and Ethics,"
supplementary chapter in Samuel M. Jackson, Huldreich Zwingli, The Reformer of Ger-
man Switzerland, 1484-1531 (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1901), p. 382; G. W.
Bromiley, ed., Zwingli and Bullinger (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1953),
pp. 33-34. Bullinger, though usually cautious in his expression of the doctrine, nonethe-

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EARLY ENGLISH REFORMATION 203

the doctrine of unconditional predestination had at least a twofold s

function and was thus rooted in their understanding of redemption an
tion to mankind. In the first place, as for Luther, it was related to the
on the gratuity of salvation, which was of course the basic Reformati
that redemption was God's gracious gift apart from any human dese
better to make that point than to insist upon God's eternal predestina
medieval Augustinian tradition had already done?6 Thus predestin
central doctrine because it was rooted in the basic Protestant religious
and affirmation of justification by grace through faith and could be
pressed into service as a protector and guarantee of that insight. Bu
in Reformed theology only begins in justification-its penultimate go
sanctification or "holiness" by which the elect come to their ultimate g
It was characteristic of the Rhineland Reformers and especially Buce
redemption in terms of a whole "order of salvation" in which sanctif
crucial part and in which it was closely related to predestination as
holiness."7 Characteristic, then, of this early Reformed version of pr
was its close relation to the doctrine of salvation, both to justificati
sistence upon its gratuity and to sanctification as the insistence that short
tude, the purpose of God's predestination is the holiness of the redeem
Though usually avoided in confessional formulations, reprobation a
predestination (reprobation may only mean the damnation of the no
double predestination usually refers to a specific divine decree to repr
often implied and sometimes explicitly expressed by the Reformed t
The presence of such a formulation is usually taken as evidence of a m
and "advanced" doctrine of predestination, and while this may well b
the point has probably been over-stressed. The decree of election im
of God in passing over some, and it is misleading to make too much
or not a given theologian goes beyond election to reprobation in his ve
doctrine of predestination. A more significant division between doctr
destination is not whether it is single or double, but between those ve
its soteriological impact remains central and those where the doctrine
organizing principle for a theological system and is thus intertwined
less gave it importance, ITeinrich Bullinger, Commonplaces of Christian Relig
(London:1572), fols. 104v, 106r, 135v, 144r-v. Of the first reformer of Fren
Switzerland it can be said, "Pour Farel, comme pour Calvin on Viret, nier la
tion revenait ruiner 'Evangile . . .", Louis Aubert, "L'Activitd de Farel de 1550
A 1555...", in Guillaume Farel, 14-i9-1.65, Biographie Nouvelle tcrite D'
Documents Oriainaux Par T7n Groure D 'Historiens, Professeurs et Pasteurs De Suisse,
De France et D'Italie (Paris: ]iditions Delachaux & Niestle, 1930), p. 640.
6. Heiko A. Oberman, ed., Forerunners of the Reformation, The Shape of Late Medieval
Thought Illustrated by Key Documents (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966),
pp. 123-131; Heiko A. Oberman, The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and
Late Medieval Nominalism (rev. ed.. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, 1967), pp.
185, 204-205; Heiko A. Oberman, Archbishop Thomas Bradwardine, A Fourteenth Cen-
tury Augustinian (Utrecht: Kemink e Zoon N.V., 1957), pp. 95, 115, 135, 148, 226.
7. Stephens, p. 24n, 37, 38, 171; Calvin too links election to sanctification, Concerning
the Eternal Predestination of God, p. 134; Institutes, 2:934-935, 960.
8. Stephens, p. 24, says of Bucer that, "Predestination expresses a division of men into
elect and reprobate, an irrevocable division that rests on God's free decision." Wendel, p.
282, 282n. 148, argues that Calvin's double decree doctrine derives partly from
Bucer. Bullinger seems to have avoided the double predestinarian formulation; for his
relationship to Calvin and predestination see Andre Bouvier, Henri Bullinger le Succes-
seur de Zwingli, d'apres sa Correspondance avec les reformes et les humanistes de lanque
frangaise (Paris: Librairie E. Droz, 1946 pp. 53-58. Even the extent to which Calvin
himself taught or emphasized double predestination has been raised recently, see Dowey,
pp. 209-217, Wendel, p. 280-284, and Armstrong, pp. 189-191.

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204 CHUKCH HISTORY

whole consideration of providence, something which became increasingly the case

in the later part of the sixteenth century.9 In any case, as time elapsed and as
the need for clear statement and logical consistency in controversy became more
pressing, the reprobationary and double predestinarian formulations became more
common.

Turning to the English Reformation, I will examine the evide

logically rooted doctrine of unconditional predestination an
tionary and double predestinarian formulations and assess thei
importance in the theology of early English Protestantism. Am
ers who have been dubbed "England's Earliest Protestants" ther
able emphasis upon the doctrine of unconditional predestinatio
dale, especially in his earlier works, again and again strikes
tuitous redemption,10 and this frequently takes the shape o
predestination: "In Christ God loved us, his elect and chos
world began"; "By which predestination our justifying and salv
taken out of our hands, and put in the hands of God only"; th
Christ was predestinate, and ordained unto eternal life, before
"In Adam are we all . .. wild crab-trees, of which God choos
will."ll In The Parable of Wicked Mammon and An Answe
More's Dialogue, Tyndale refers often to the problem of free w
tion, merit and works-righteousness, accusing his opponents o
recurrent are such themes in these works that one could affirm that belief in
predestination is the background for practically all of the major arguments. More-
over, predestination is related in these treatises to justification.12 The relationship
of predestination to sanctification becomes closer in Tyndale's later writings, in
which he became more concerned with the Christian's obedience to the divine
law :13 the elect were chosen before they did good works in order that they might
do them; "God hath created and made us new in Christ, and put his Spirit in
us, that we should live a new life, which is the life of good works"; "In Christ
God chose us, and elected us before the beginning of the world . . . for because
that we should do good works"; elsewhere he refers to "God's elect, which he
9. Supra, n. 3.
10. William Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises and Introductions to Different Portions of the
Holy Scriptures, ed. Henry Walter (Parker Society vol. 42, Cambridge: University
Press, 1848), pp. 17-19, 23, 155, 429-430; William Tyndale, Expositions and Notes on
Sundry Portions of the Holy Scriptures, Together with the Practice of Prelates, ed.
Henry Walter (Parker Society vol. 43, Cambridge: University Press, 1849), pp. 74-77,
103, 122, 181, 190.
11. Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises, pp. 14, 505, 63, 113.
12. Ibid., pp. 50-56, 77-78, 89, 109-113; William Tyndale, An Answer to Sir Thomas More's
Dialogue, The Supper of the Lord . . . and Wmt. Tracy's Testament Expounded, ed.
HIenry Walter (Parker Society vol. 44, Cambridge: University Press, 1850), pp. 35-36,
39-40, 174, 191-193.
13. Recent studies of Tyndale such as William A. Clebsch, England's Earliest Protestants
1520-1535 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1964), pp. 137-204, Leonard J. Trin-
terud, "A Reappraisal of William Tyndale's Debt to Martin Luther," Church History
31 (1962):24-25, Jens G. Moller, "The Beginnings of Puritan Covenant Theology,"
Journal of Ecclesiastical History 14, no. 1 (1963): 50-54, and C. H. Williams, Wil-
liam Tyndale (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1969), pp. 132-134, recognize the in-
sistence upon law and obedience in his theology. Perhaps, however, recognition of the
importance of predestination in Tyndale will help to minimize sharp distinctions be-
tween the early and late Tyndale. Central to him always is the theme of God's grace:
in his early writings he deals primarily with this in a "Lutheran" fashion, stressing
free justification; in his later writings, under greater "Swiss" or "Rhineland" influ-
ence, he stresses God's free grace in sanctification by which the elect are made holy
and obedient unto salvation. But in both cases God's initiative in predestinating pro-
vided the larger context.

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EARLY ENGTI.SH REFORMATION 205

hath chosen to give them his Spirit, and to write his law, and the fai
Son, in their hearts."14 Tyndale also asserts the doctrine of reprobati
may not we ask why God chooseth one and not another; either think
is unjust to damn us afore we do any actual deed; seeing that God hat
over all his creatures of right, to do with what he list, . . . "15
John Frith was another significant figure among "England's Earlie
testants", probably second in importance to Tyndale. While the doctr
destination was important to Tyndale, standing in the background of m
theological reasoning, for Frith it seems even more central. In his
troversial work on purgatory, the argument from predestination is o
favorites, and the context gives it a close relation to free justification
is God's gift, by an "election of grace"; "Whom God predestinated them
and whom hee called, them he iustified: and what dyd he with them
he cast them in Purgatory there to be clensed?"; the elect will receive
of glory at the last day, not purgatory ;1 and furthermore election to
comes part of the argument against purgatory:
Christ chose us in hym before the begynnyng of the worlde, that
bee holy and without spotte in his sight. Ephes. 1. If through his ch
election we be without spot in his sight, alas what blind unthakefuln
to suppose that he will yet have us tormented in Purgatory.'7
In a short treatise dealing with Baptism predestination is again cent
tism for Frith is a sign of redemption to the elect, a sign of grace "be
to the predestinate. Infants are to be baptized because "God's election
from our eyes."'8
But it is in his treatise A Mirrour or Glasse to Know Thy Selfe th
gives the most sustained attention to predestination. This is a short w
around the theme of God's gifts: that all good comes from God, why
us good gifts, and how we ought to respond to these gifts are the sta
poses of the three chapters. The whole work is an assertion of predesti
its effects in the elect. Eternal life is such a gift of God to the elect.
means by which the elect come to eternal life: ". . . the moste gloryo
concerning our soules, come from God even of his meere mercye and favou
he sheweth us in Christ, . . . as predestination, election, vocation and
tion." Nor does predestination have reference to foreseen good works
it is insisted that the elect must be busy with good works, the specific
election to sanctification does not appear in Frith.20 But a clear statem
ble predestination does:
And thys are we sure of yt womesoever he chuseth, them he sav
mercy: and whome he repelleth, them of his secrete and unsearchab
ment he condemneth. But why he chuseth the one and repelleth the
quire not (saythe S. Austine) if thou wilt not erre.21
14. Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises, pp. 110-111, 90, 77, 449.
15. Ibid., p. 89.
16. John Frith, Works, in The Whole Workes of W. Tyndall, Iohn Frith, and Doct. Barnes,
Three Worthy Martyrs, and Principall Teachers of this Churche of England, collected
and compiled in one Tome together, beyng before scattered, & now in Print here ex-
hibited to the Church, [ed. John Foxe] (London: by lohn Daye, 1573-1572), pp. 28, 17,
55.
17. Ibid., p. 10.
18. Ibid., pp. 91, 92, 95.
19. Ibid., pp. 83, 84.
20. Ibid., pp. 86, 89-90.
21. Ibid., p. 84.

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206 CHURCH HISTORY

Of significance along with Tyndale and Frith among "England's

Protestants" was Robert Barnes. For him too predestination is importan
guarantor of the freedom of grace in salvation. He stresses the utter ina
man to move towards God unless first moved by grace.22 The themes of
tion and double predestination come out more thoroughly in Barnes than
dale or Frith:

For yf it be his wyll to shewe his wrathe, and to make his power knowne,
over the vessels of wrath, ordeyned to dampnacion, and to declare the ryches of
his glory, unto ye vessels of mercy, whiche he hath prepared, and elected unto
glory. What hast thou therewith to do?
. . . there be certayne open places of scripture, yt gyve onely the cause to
God, alonely of election, and also of reprobacyon. . 23
To Barnes the mere will of God alone determines who is elect and who reprobate
without any attention to foreseen merit, and he also speaks of God's hardening
of the hearts of the reprobate ("he indurateth them, and blyndeth them, & gyveth
them no grace to amende"), citing the biblical example of Jacob who was elected
and Esau who was "reproved" before either was born or had done good or evil.24
Barnes is sometimes described as the most "Lutheran" of the early English Prot-
estant writers, but his emphasis on double predestination does not point in that
direction.25

The doctrine of predestination is present and important in other, lesser figures

among the early English Protestant writers. In 1527 William Roy published a
translation of a "German" theological work the original of which is uncertain but
which Clebsch identifies as expressing a Zwinglian viewpoint and as having been
current in Strassburg.26 In it appears the following statement of double pre-
destination:

Where as we are all from the begynynge reserved/by his eternall preordinacion
and godly wisdom/other [either] to death everlastynge/ or els predestinate
unto life eternall. Which godly secret shall fyrst be declared in the last daye
of iudgment ordened alonly for to reprove openly the vessels of inquitie/utterly
apointed unto the perpetuall fyre of hell....27
Simon Fish, another early propagandist for the Protestant cause, also pub-
lished a translation of a continental treatise asserting predestination, which also
probably came from the ambience of the Swiss Reformation.28 Its references to
predestination are set in a soteriological context and related to the freedom of
22. Robert Barnes, A Supplication Unto the most gloryous prynce Henry the viii (Lon-
don: by Iohn Bydell, 1534), sigs. N 2ff., 0 2v, 0 3v.
23. Ibid., sigs. P 2v, P 3v.
24. Ibid., sigs. 0 2v, P 2, P 3, P 4r.
25. He is so considered in Neelak S. Tjernagel, ed., The Reformation Essays of Dr. Robert
Barnes (London: Concordia Publishing House, 1963), pp. 13, 15-16, 19. Clebsch, p. 69,
however, maintains that he moves away from Lutheranism, even with respect to his
doctrine of the Eucharist. Tyndale and Frith clearly teach a "Swiss" doctrine of the
Supper (Tyndale, Doctrinal Treatises, pp. 366ff; Frith, pp. 107ff, 118, 129, 141). Hor-
ton Davies, Worship and Theology in England, From Cranmer to Hooker 1534-1603
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), p. 95, shows the dependence of Frith's
Eucharistic theology on Oecolampadius.
26. Clebsch, pp. 233-234. In its first printing it bore the title A Brefe Dialoge/bitwene
a Christen father and his stobborne Sonne and was published in Strassburg. It was re-
printed in 1550 with the title The True belief in Christ and his sacramentes set forth
in a Dialoge betwene a Christen father and his sonne, ....
27. William Roy, trans., The True beliefe . . . (London for Gwalter Lynne, 1550), sig.
Cviiv.
28. This work was apparently translated by Fish from a Dutch version but it may well
go back to a French original by William Farel, Clebsch, pp. 245-248.

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EARLY ENGLISH REFORMATION 207

God's grace.29
George Joye too wrote in behalf of the Protestant cause in those
of the English Reformation. In the first of his works in which he
own theological viewpoint (much of his work consisted of translat
The Rekening and declaration of the faith and belief of Huldrik Zw
compilations of primers)30 he affirms predestination in connection
cussion of justification-". . . we are iustified before God only in
chosen in Chryst before the worlde was created."31 In two later w
ing Bishop Stephen Gardiner he returns to this theme in the course
Barnes and accusing Gardiner of Pelagian heresy. To Joye, predesti
guarantor that justification is gratuitous;32 the theme of election to
pears ("we be predestined saith paul to this ende that we shulde here
holye and blameles before god by love")33 and he is willing to u
predestination formula ("God wil have mercye of whom he lyst, and
it lyketh him").34
Like Joye, Miles Coverdale, another of these early Protestant w
pressed his belief in gratuitous redemption while defending Barnes
cusation of heresy. Predestination is implied in his treatment of jus
and it is affirmed that the end of God's grace in salvation is true h
believer.35
Mention should also be made of John Bale, one of the most forceful of the
early Protestant pamphleteers, who writes: "But they onlie shall possesse that,
[the Kingdom of God] which are wrytten in the lambes boke of lyfe, or that
were predestinate ther unto in Christ, before the worlds constytucyon, to be holye
and unspotted in hys syght."36
Among these lesser Protestant spokesmen during the reign of Henry VIII
reference must be made to William Turner. In 1537 (there were later reprints
in 1538 and 1548) he published a translation of a compendium of Protestant the-
ology by the Lutheran reformer Urbanus Rhegius. What is instructive about this
publication is that he added a statement at the end of Rhegius's work which claims
29. Simon Fish, trans., The sumine of the holye scrypture and ordynary of the Christen
teaching/the true Chrysten faythe/by the whiche we be all iustified . . . (Antwerpt;
1535), sigs. Aiii-iv (of the prologue), fols. iv, xiv. It was first printed in 1529, pre-
sumably at Antwerp also. Among its references to predestination is this passage:
"The everlastynge lyfe is not his that wyll or that renneth after it, but it is in the
hondes and wyll of God to Gyve it to whome he wyll by his mercy," fol. xxir.
30. For details concerning Joye's work, see Clebsch, pp. 205-228 and 0. G. Butterworth
and A. G. Chester, George Joye 1495?-1553, A Chapter in the History of the English
Bible and English Reformation (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1962).
31. George Joye, The Letters Whyche Johan Ashwell Priour of Newnham Abbey . . .
sente secretly to the Byshope of Lincolne, in the yeare of our Lord 1527, where in
the sayde pryour accuseth George Joye . . . wyth the answere of the sayde George
. . (Antwerp: 1531?), sig. Biiiv.
32. George Joye, George Joye Confuteth/Winchesters False Articles (Wesill in Cliefelande;
1543), fol. xix; George Joye, The Refutation of the byshop of Winchesters derke dec-
laration of his false articles . . . (London: 1546), fols. xlvii, lv-lvii.
33. George Joye, The Refutation, fol. xlviiv; see also fol. xlviiir.
34. Ibid., fol. xlixv; see also fol. lr.
35. Miles Coverdale, A Confutacion of that treatise which one Iohn Standish made agaynst
the protestacion of D. Barnes in the yeare 1540 (Zurich: 1541T), sigs. Bviiiv, Ciir-Ciiiv
Evii-Eviii, Ii, Ivv-Ivir. For the determination of the early date (1541) for this work
see J. F. Mozley, Coverdale and, His Bibles (London: Lutterworth Press, 1953), p. 329.
36. John Bale, The Image of bothe churches . . . Compyled by Iohn Bale an exile also in
this life for the faythfull testimonye of Jesu (London: by Richarde Iugge, 1548), sig.
OOviv. Published only after Edward VI's accession, this work was written while Bale
was in exile during the lifetime of Henry VIII, as internal evidence makes clear (for
example, sig Avir).

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208 CHUICH HISTORY

to deal more fully with the "artycles of fre wyll, Fayth, Good woor
Merytes", and this addition brings out the distinctively Reformed doc
destination which is of course absent in the translation of Rhegius's
the addition, predestination is related to justification as the insistenc
of God's mercy; it is related also to sanctification: ". . he hath ch
or [ere] ever ye fundacyon of ye worlde was layed, that we shulde b
without blame before him in love"; and there appears one of the mo
statements of a decree of reprobation: "Therefore, whan God wolde sh
and to make his power knowen, he brought foorth with great pacyen
sels of wrath, which are ordeyned to damnacyon, that he myght decla
of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he hath prepared unto gl
Finally, among Protestant publications of Henry VIII's reign t
full treatment of the doctrine of predestination in Launcelot Ridley's
on the Epistle to the Ephesians. He was a cousin of the more fam
Ridley and was appointed one of the six preachers of Canterbury Ca
1541. In his commentary God's choice of the elect is said to have pre
foundation of the earth, and to have been of God's mere "grace/wyll/
Predestination insures the freedom of redemption, and its purpose
tion: ". . . god elected us in hym before the begynninge of the worl
shulde be holy."38
The official doctrinal formularies and semi-official publications o
VIII's reign make little mention of predestination, and even their di
such Protestant distinctives as justification by faith is sometimes di
sertions of the kind of popular Pelagianism characteristic of the king
logical convictions.39 Nonetheless, even in material of this type one
finds hints of the Reformed view of predestination. "Matthew's Bib
by royal permission, for a while included a set of notes and introdu
of which were derived from such continental figures as Bucer, O
Oecolampadius as well as from English Protestants like Tyndale and
in several places these notes affirm predestination.40 There is at lea
37. [Ubanus Rhegius], A compaison betwene the Olde learnynge & the Newe
out of latin in Englysh by Wyliam Turner (Southwarke: James Nicolson
[H]ir, [H]iiiv, [Hjiv of the supplement, "To the Christen Reader." This su
appeared in the 1537 edition and then subsequently in 1538 and 1548. It is
Turner's own work since the 1548 title page says "Augmented by W. Turn
checked the 1526 latin edition of Rhegius's work and it does not have such
ment. This supplement has a quite different tone from the translation o
work, and it obviously adds to his Lutheran theology a Reformed doctrine of
the order of salvation.
38. Launcelot, Ridley, A Comnmentary in Englyshe upon Sayncte Paules Epystle to the
Ephesyans/for the instruccyon of them that be unlerned in tonges . . . (1540), sigs
Aviir, Aviiir, Bir-v.
39. For discussion of the official formularies, see E. G. Rupp, Studies in the Making of the
English Protestant Tradition (Cambridge: University Press, 1947), pp. 128-154;
Knox, pp. 152-167; for the text of the important formularies see Charles Lloyd, ed.,
Formularies of Faith Put Forth by Authority During the Reign of Henry VIII (Ox-
ford: University Press, 1856). As for Henry's own theology, John Scarisbrick, Hen-
ry VIII (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1969), pp. 406,
408, characterizes it as a "merit-theology", having "strongly Pelagian tendencies."
40. The Byble, that is to say, al the holy scripture ("Matthew's Version," 1551), the
"Prologue to Romans" especially the comment on Rom. 8-10; the topical table under
"Fre chose or fre wyll", "Election", and "Predestination" gives summary state-
ments followed by scriptural references. For the authority of this version see Rupp, p.
50; for discussion of its compilation and the date and provenance of its notes, see S.
L. Greenslade, "English Versions of the Bible, 1525-1611," in The Cambridge His-
tory of the Bible, vol. 3: The West from the Beformation to the Present Day, ed. S. L.

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EARLY ENGLISH REFORMATION 209

official character pertaining to the "Postils on the Epistles and Gosp

were produced under the editorship of Richard Taverner in 1540, an
ly intended as an aid to preaching and instruction in the Henrician c
Without being entirely consistent (as one would expect of a composi
tion) these "postils" frequently affirm redemption by grace irrespect
and in at least one case teach predestination, referring to the "electe"
named "before the foundation of the world was layde."42 Surprisingly
the doctrine of reprobation appears in the devotional work of Henry
Catherine Parr, who writes that to "wicked men", "it semeth to them God
because he hath elected sum, and sum reproved."43

With the accession of Edward VI the restraints on full and explic

sion of Reformed doctrine were gone. Theological leadership came fr
rections: continental divines invited to England to aid in its reform
some of the bishops and their supporters among the English clergy w
quietly during the late king's life but could now express themselves
outstanding figure among the foreign divines was clearly Bucer him
influence had long been exerted on English Protestantism and who was
the Regius Professorship of Divinity at Cambridge and called upon c
for theological and ecclesiastical advice by Archbishop Cranmer and
Since Bucer was in large part the father of the type of predestinari
being traced here, it is unnecessary to repeat his views. While in En
ever, he was most occupied by the Eucharistic controversy, though
sume he continued to teach what he always had on the subject of pred
Next in importance among the foreign divines resident in England d
reign of Edward VI was Peter Martyr, who was given the positio
of Professor of Divinity. Like Bucer while in England he was m
with the doctrine of the Eucharist. Nonetheless, he too was a faithf
of the Reformed doctrine of predestination with its soteriological r
justification and sanctification, its place in an order of salvation and
of reprobation.45 The Puritan writer William Prynne declared much
Greenslade (Cambridge: Uniersity Press, 1963), pp. 149-153. The notes in
Bible" go back to the 1537 edition.
41. For the character and complex bibliography of these works see T.H.L. P
English Reformers (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1966), pp. 221-
42. Richard Taverner, The Epistles and Gospelles with a brief Postyl upon th
after Easter tyll Advent . . . (London: by Richard Bankes, 1540), fols. xix-x
43. The Lamentacion of a synner, made by the moste vertuous Lady quene C
(London: Edwarde Whitechurche, 1548), sig. Fvr. See also sigs. Cv-C
James K. McConica, English Humanists and Reformation Politics under Henry VIII
and Edward VI (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), pp. 201, 215, treats this book as
evidence of Erasmian humanism at court; her book could perhaps also be an indication
of a Reformed theology of grace there.
44. For Bucer's English influence, see Constantin Hopf, Martin Bucer and the English
Reformation (Oxford: Basil Blackwell and Mott, 1946); Hastings Eells, Martin Bucer
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1931), pp. 401-414; and Harry C. Porter, Befor-
mation and Reaction in Tudor Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1958, pp.
51-52.
45. His teaching on predestination appears in The Common Places of the most famous
and renowned Divine Doctor Peter Martyr (London: 1583), where he affirms that
"Free iustification also should perish, except we be rightlie taught of predestination"
(part 3, p. 3b); the "godly" "are predestinate, to be made like unto the image of the
Sonne of God . . . and to walke in good works" (part 3, p. 4b); "Wherefore repro-
bation is the most wise purpose of God, whereby he hath before all eternitie, constantlie
decreed without any iniustice, not to have mercie on those whom he hath not loved,"
(part 3, p. llb); See also Part 3, pp. 9-10, 13-14, 16, 18-19, 22, 25. Th portion of the
Common Places dealing with predestination appeared much earlier as a treatise on

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210 CHURCH HISTORY

polemical context, that according to William Whitaker (who was himself

ficant formulator of the doctrine of predestination in later times and
figure in the dispute leading up to the Lambeth Articles of 1595) B
Martyr "did professe this Doctrine of absolute and irrespective Reprob
both our famous universities."46

The only one of the foreign theologians who published on the subject
destination while in England was Bernardino Ochino, like Peter Martyr a
exile who had come under the influence of the "Reformed" camp and h
some time in Geneva. In 1550 Ochino's Fouretene sermons concernyng t
destinacion and eleccion of god . . . were published in London.47 It is ir
Ochino, later known as an opponent to the strict doctrine of predestin
should in these sermons be a faithful expositor of the Reformed doctrin
conditional predestination. Ochino asserts that the teaching of predesti
important because it assures us of the free grace of God-"he that is off
wyth predestinacion, ... is also offended wyth the Gospell." He relates p
nation to sanctification: ". .. we were not then chosen bycause we were
but because we shoulde be holly bi his election ... he hath then elected u
ende (that regenerate by Christe Jesu) we shuld walke to God by goode
yt we maie be holye and inreprehensible, before his presence."49 Further
speaks of God hardening and blinding the reprobate, "Yet for all this go
not, for he is not holden nor bound to geve us this grace, he may harden
lify after his owne pleasure."50 Indeed, he goes so far as to say "Christ
save a reprobate, nor dam an elect."51
Among the English leaders of the Edwardian Reformation there was n
tion in expressing fully Protestant views on justification and redempti
views were officially expressed in the Book of Homilies and the Forty-
predestination inserted into his Commentary on Romans, which came out in
translation in 1568 and in the original latin in 1558. In Joseph C. McLelland, "The
Reformed Doctrine of Predestination according to Peter Martyr," Scottish Journal of
Theology 8 (1955): 257-271, it becomes clear that Martyr's theology focused on the
same sort of order of salvation as Bucer's, and that it gave a central place to predes-
tination in relation to justification and sanctification (pp. 261, 267). McLelland, p. 271,
does argue that Martyr was more moderate than Calvin with respect to double pre-
destination; but Martyr speaks frequently of the reprobate, and McLelland acknowledges
that for him there is a divine "rejection" of some. On the other hand Armstrong, pp.
37-38, 129-131, 158, 188, considers Martyr one of the founders of the most rigid
and scholastic type of doctrine of predestination.
46. William Prynne, Anti-Arminianisme, or the Church of Englands Old Antithesis to New
Arminianisme . .. (London: 1630), p. 102.
47. The publication history of Ochino's sermons is complicated: there were two 1550 pub-
lications, one of fourteen sermons dealing with predestination, and another of twenty-
five sermons of which the last fourteen are the ones on predestination; an earlier
(1548) printing of some of his sermons does not include any of those on predestina-
tion; in 1570 the twenty-five sermons, including the fourteen on predestination, were re-
printed. These sermons on predestination were apparently an English version of Italian
originals written while Ochino was in Geneva, Karl Benrath, Bernardino Ochino of
Siena: A Contribution Towards the History of the Reformation, trans. Helen Zimmern
(New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1877), pp. 164, 208. Porter, p. 338, mis-
takenly says that Ochino preached "a notable series of anti-Calvinist sermons" while
in England.
48. Benrath, pp. 152-153, 163-164, 250-260, says that while in Geneva Ochino was in agree-
ment with Calvin on predestination but that later, after leaving England, he abandoned
this strict predestinarianism.
49. Certayne Sennons of the ryghte famous and excellente Clerk Master Bernardine
Ochine . . . (London: by Ihon Day, 1550), sigs. Fviir-v, Fviiir-v, Gvir, Hiiiv,
Kviv-Kviir, Lviv.
50. Ibid., sigs. Liir, Lviir, Lviir-v, Mir.
51. Ibid., sig. Lviv.

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EARLY ENGLISH REFORMATION 211

ticles. The Homilies everywhere treat salvation as a divine gift,

specifically develop the doctrine of predestination. In the Articles, h
conditional predestination is clearly and explicitly taught: predesti
lated to the free grace of justification, and also to sanctification w
that the elect "be made lyke the image of his onelye begotten sonne
they walke religiously in good workes . . .";53 reprobation is omitt
Articles, but the same is true generally of the Reformed confessio
time, including those written in Geneva.54 Too much has been mad
posed distinctiveness of this article because of the absence of reprob
emphasis on election as "in Christ" as well as on assurance as th
predestination.55 A catechism printed with the Forty-Two Articles
was the work of John Ponet, the bishop of Winchester, also taught
predestination and related it to sanctification.56

To turn to individuals, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer had a fi

the Reformed theology of salvation as a gift of God as his part of
shows;57 this familiarity with Reformed theology stretched back early i
time.58 From some manuscript annotations of Cranmer which a
early as 1538 comes the statement ". . . our election cometh only a
the benefit and grace of God."59 Nicholas Ridley, closely associated
mer, wrote a treatise on predestination which has been lost; it was a
to the dispute over the doctrine which the "establishment" reform
certain "freewillers" during imprisonment under Mary. While he wr
ly of the doctrine in a letter concerning the matter, Ridley's treatise
as a refutation of these "freewillers."60 Hugh Latimer's writings som
a doctrine of predestination, but generally treat the issue with cons
tion. Predestination seems of less than central importance to him,
52. Certayne Sermons, or homilies, Appoynted by the kynges Maiestie, to be declared
and redde . . . (London: Edward Whitechurche, 1547), sigs. Biiiv-Ciiiv, Civr-v, Diir,
Diiir-v, Divr, Eir, Hir.
53. Charles Hardwick, A History of the Articles of Beligion (London: George Bell and Sons,
1895), pp. 310-315.
54. Several early Reformed confessions do not mention reprobation or the double decree, for
example, the first and second t"Helvetie" confessions, the Heidelberg Catechism, the
Confession of Faith of Geneva and the Geneva Catechism. The French Confession of
Faith, the Belgic Confession and Scotch Confession of Faith, all later than the Forty-
Two Articles, mention the reprobate as those passed over in election. The seventeenth-
century Canons and Decrees of the Synod of Dort, Westminster Confession of Faith
and Irish Articles, the last of "Anglican" ambience, all teach a decree of reprobation.
The reticence of the English articles on this point does not differentiate them from
the Reformed confessions of its own time.
55. That election was "in Christ" was a corrollary of a soteriologically rooted doctr
predestination indicating that God's purpose to elect was not an act of His prov
irrespective of the Redeemer, and the formula can be found in Calvin (McDonn
169-170, 198; Dowey, pp. 187-188; Calvin, Institutes, 2:934, 941, 970). Calvin al
phasizes assurance as a function of predestination (Wendel, pp. 276-277; McDon
p. 200; Calvin, Concerning the Eternal Predestination of God, pp. 20-22, 56, 75
vin, Institutes, 2:922, 969-970, 975-976), and this motif becomes even more imp
in later Puritan theology.
56. A Short Catechisme, or playue instruction . . . (London: Tho. Day, 1553), fols. x
xxxviii. William P. Haugaard, "John Calvin and the Catechism of Alexander N
Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte (Jahrgang 61, 1970, Heft 1), p. 55, 55n, disc
the relation of Ponet's catechism to later ones.
57. Certayne Sermons or homilies, sigs. Civr-v, Diir, Diiir-v, Divr, Eir, Hir.
58. Knox, pp. 167-171.
59. Miscellaneous Writings and Letters of Thomas Cranmer, ed. John E. C
Society vol. 16, Cambridge: University Press, 1846), p. 95.
60. The Works of Nicholas Ridley, ed. Henry Christmas (Parker Society vol. 3
bridge: University Press, 1841), pp. xv-xvi, 367-368.

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212 CHURCH HISTORY

passages in his sermons may imply the possibility of falling from gr

tion impossible to a strict Reformed orthodoxy. Always a moralist in
he seems less firmly wedded to the Reformed doctrine of predestinat
other leading figures of the English Reformation.61 John Hooper affir
destination more straightforwardly62 but, as contemporary corresponde
agreed with Bullinger against Calvin (and the English correspondent B
mew Traheron) that reprobation followed the foreseen fall rather th
decree of nonelection consequent upon it.63 It is ironic that Hooper, so
as the "proto-Puritan" of Edward's reign, should be singled out by Tr
the one significant English Reformer who did not entirely agree wit
this point. English theologians, however, were dependent for their un
ing of this doctrine on others besides Calvin, and certainly Bullinger's influ
long been exerted on them. Also among these significant reformers wh
influence during Edward VI's reign was Thomas Becon, one of Cranme
lains. An early writing from the reign of Henry VIII shows him acce
destination;64 during Edward's reign he expressed it more clearly, ("o
salvation dependeth not of any external work, but of the free electio
doubted grace of God")65 and since he survived into Elizabeth's reign
teresting to find him still affirming his predestinarian position then.66 Th
of election to holiness also appears in Becon.67 Finally among these Ed
reformers mention should be made of John Philpot, archdeacon of W
No published writing of Edward's reign shows him a proponent of th
of predestination, but when examined for heresy during the Marian y
teresting dialogue followed, which both suggests the growing importan
vin and also the attitude that with regard to predestination Calvin offer
novel:
[Philpot:] Where is there one of you all, that ever hath been able to answer
any of the godly learned ministers of Germany, who have disclosed your counter-
feit religion? Which of you all at this day is able to answer Calvin's Institu-
tions, who is minister of Geneva?
Dr. Saverson: -A godly minister, indeed, of receipt of cutpurses and run-
agate traitors! And of late, I can tell you, there is such contention fallen be-
tween him and his own sects, that he was fain to flee the town, about pre-
destination .. .
Philpot: -I am sure you blaspheme that godly man, . . For in the mat-
61. Sermons of Hugh Latimer, ed. George Corrie (Parker Society vol. 27, Cambridge: Uni-
versity Press, 1844), pp. 305-306; Sermons and Remains of Hugh Latimer, ed. George
Corrie (Parker Society vol. 28, Cambridge: University Press, 1845), pp. 7, 147, 175,
194, 205-206.
62. Early Writings of John Hooper, ed. Samuel Carr (Parker Society vol. 20, Cambridge:
University Press, 1843), pp. 263-264; Later Writings of Bishop Hooper, ed. Charles
Nevinson (Parker Society vol. 21, Cambridge: University Press, 1852), pp. 25, 225-226,
274.
63. Hastings Robinson, trans. and ed., Original Letters Relative to the English Reformation
Written During the Reigns of King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, and Queen Mary:
Chiefly From the Archives of Zurich, 2 vols. (Cambridge: University Press, 1846-1847),
1:325-328; 2:406.
64. The Early Works of Thomas Becon, ed. John Ayre (Parker Society vol. 2, Cambridge:
University Press, 1843), pp. 72-73, 280.
65. The Catechism of Thomas Becon, ed. John Ayre (Parker Society vol. 3, Cambridge:
University Press, 1844), pp. 11, 221-222.
66. Prayers and Other Pieces of Thornas Becon, ed. John Ayre (Parker Society vol. 4,
Cambridge: University Press, 1844), pp. 316, 318, 608, 616. See also Derrick S. Bailey,
Thomas Becon and the Beformation of the Church of England (Edinburgh: Oliver and
Boyd, 1952), pp. 38, 105.
67. The Early Works of Thomas Becon, pp. 80-81.

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EARLY ENGLISH REFORMATION 21S

ter of predestination he is in none other opinion than all the docto

church be, agreeing to the scriptures.68
Several publications of the Edwardian years express the doctrine o
nation more strongly than do these leading reformers. A translation
by St. Augustine bearing the title A Worke of the predestination of s
ten by the famous doctor S. Augustine byshop of Carthage, translated
Lesse, a London layman acquainted with John Bale, has an introducto
by Lesse in which he insists on the importance of the doctrine of pre
because it protects grace as the free gift of God. Lesse attacks oppon
doctrine, whom he calls "the anabaptists and frewyl masters" as "ha
heddes ye eyse of cocatrices in ther tongs the stings of adders, and in the
the poyson of, todes" for their denial of predestination.69 Another p
1550 Of Predestination and Election by lohn Lamberd minister of th
Elwam also deals polemically with the issue, attacking opponents of th
This Lamberd is difficult to identify, but his viewpoint is straightfor
in its doctrine of reprobation: while God has chosen the elect before
was made, he has also "ordeyned the vessells of wrath to dampna
"the passion of Christe can not save a reprobate." God has "predes
to be chyldren of perdicion."70 Robert Crowley, later to be well know
tan leader, in a 1548 publication affirmed double predestination in t
refuting the recantation of Nicholas Shaxton, a Henrician bishop who
to recant Protestant opinions in 1546.71 Crowley is quite incautious
ment of reprobation, asserting without any hesitation that God prede
to be wicked, a way of expressing the doctrine which the more t
astute avoided.72 Lastly among these lesser publications, mention shou
of an apparently lost work of Anthony Gilby, later, like Crowley, to
a Puritan stalwart. Gilby was an exile in Geneva during the Marian y
then and later wrote on predestination, teaching without any ambigu
ble decree. He is sometimes cited as a prime example of the predesti
fluence of the Genevan exiles. However, according to his own testim
firmed reprobation as early as 1553, before his exile, in a commenta
upon the biblical prophet Malachi.73
68. The Examinations and Writinqs of 7John Philpot, ed. Robert Eden (Parker
34, Cambridge: University Press, 1842), p. 46. Philpot's part in the priso
versy with the "freewillers" and a letter written from imprisonment to
gation further bear out his commitment to the doctrine of predestination, ib
223-224, 270, 307.
69. A Worke of the predestination of saints wrytten by the famous doctor S. lAugustine
byshop of Carthage, and translated out of Latin into Enalvshe, by Nycholas Lesse,
Londoner. Item, another worke of the sayde Augustine, entytuled, Of the vertu of per-
serverance to thend, translated by the sayd N. L. (London: by the wydowe of Jhon
Herforde, 1550), unpaginated epistle "To the right vertuous Lady Anne, douchesse of
Somerset. "
70. Of Predestination and Election made by lohn Lambert minister of the church of El-
ham Anno 1550 (Canterbury: I. Mychell, 1550), sigs. Aii, Aiii, Aiv, Bi, Aii (after com-
pleting B the signatures begin with A once more).
71. Robert Crowley, The Confutation of XIII Articles, whereunto Nicholas Shaxton, late
byshop of Salisburye subscribed and caused to be set forth in print the yere of our
Lord mcxlvi, when he recanted in Smithfielde at London at the butrning of mestres Anne
Askue, . . . (London: by Iohn Day and William Seres, 1548) sigs. Jiv, Kvir, Kviir.
72. Ibid., sig. Jiiir.
73. Anthony Gilby, A Briefe Treatyse of Election and Reprobacion (Geneva?: 1556), sig.
Aiir, says that "Whereas thre yeres agoe . . I dyd wryte of this matter of elec-
tion and reprobation, which is called predestination, in a certain Commentary
upon the Prophete Malachy, by the occasion of this texte, 'I have loved Jacob and I
have hated Esau,' . . . accomptyne thys doctrine so necessary, that upon all occasions it

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214 CHURCH HISTORY

Though it goes beyond the chronological limits of this study, one sig
episode in the story of English predestinarian theology which fell in the
years calls for comment, the prison controversy between the "freewill
some of the imprisoned Edwardian reformers. The detailed story of this
has been told before,74 but one aspect of it is quite relevant to the prese
pose, and that was the intensity of the participation in the matter of J
ford, who had been a friend of Bucer75 and chaplain to Ridley when th
was Bishop of London. Although others took part in the debate against t
willers", including Cranmer, Ridley, Philpot, Robert Ferrar and Rowland
Bradford emerged as the leader of the attack upon them. An examinati
stated reasons for opposing these heretics explains the intensity of fee
could be generated by the doctrine of predestination and also why it w
sidered to be so central to Reformed theology. Bradford returns contin
the soteriological significance of predestination: the doctrine is essenti
of its role in guaranteeing free justification and because it explains the t
of sanctification.76 To Bradford, predestination is a thoroughly "existen
trine, a source of comfort, assurance and inspiration:
For what destroyeth enormities so much as it doth? It overthroweth t
pestilent papistical poison of doubting of God's favour, ... It comforte
comfortably in the cross. ... It enforceth men to love and carefully t
for their brethren, utterly impugning the contempt of any. It provoketh t
and is the greatest enemy to ungodliness that can be, . . . It maketh ma
and continually to give over himself to be careful, not for himself, but
brethren and for those things that make to God's glory.. It sett
Christ's kingdom, and utterly overthroweth the wisdom, power, ablen
choice of man, that all glory may be given only to God.77
owght wythe reverence to be uttered, to the glory of God ... .." Dan G. Dann
thony Gilby: Puritan in Exile - A Biographical Approach," Church Hi
(1971):415-416, 416n, analyzes Gilby's treatment of predestination and asser
independence of Calvin while seeing him as closer to Beza; he comments on
Gilby relates predestination to good works, but thinks that Gilby's version of pr
tion is less soteriological in emphasis than Calvin's. Danner also says that Gi
emphasis on election to good works was not characteristic of Calvin, but for t
site view see Ronald S. Wallace, Calvin's Doctrine of the Christian Life (Edinb
Oliver and Boyd, 1959), pp. 197-199, who says p. 199, "For Calvin, the whole
of our election is, indeed, our santification." See also supra, n. 7.
74. Most recently by 0. T. Hargrave, "The Freewillers in the English Refo
Church History, 37 (1968) :271-280. His contention that the "freewillers" do
long in a "radical reformation" ambience but are rather representatives of
of 'proto-Arminian' outlook, needs further investigation. The older view of C
Burrage, The Early English Dissenters in the Light of Recent Research, 2 vo
York: Russell and Russell, 1912), 1:50-53, placed them among early "nonconf
radicals.
75. E. G. Rupp, "John Bradford, Martyr," London Quarterly and Holborn Review 32
(January 1963): 51.
76. The Writings of John Bradford , . . . Containing Sermons, Meditations, Examinations,
ed. Aubrey Townsend (Parker Society vol. 5, Cambridge: University Press, 1848), pp.
53, 65, 76, 211-220, 307-330; The Writings of John Bradford, . . . Containing Let-
ters, Treatises, Remains, ed. Aubrey Townsend (Parker Society vol. 6, Cambridge:
University Press, 1853), pp. 92, 102, 113, 128-131, 164-167, 169-171, 194-195. Porter,
pp. 339, 341, denies that Bradford taught unconditional election because he says that
only those who fail to repent shall be damned; but this formula is typical of Reformed
theology-it is simply to affirm as Calvin himself did (see supra, n. 1), that no one
is damned except for his sins. In several passages Bradford teaches a predestination
that is irrespective of foreseen merit or repentance and is wholly a work of God's
grace (The Writings of Bradford . . . Containing Sermons, pp. 211, 217, 219, 311;
The Writings of Bradford . . . Containing Letters, p. 130). E. G. Rupp, "John
Bradford, Martyr," p. 52, calls Bradford "Perhaps the first Calvanist among the English
Reformers. '"
77. Writings of Bardford . . Containing Sermons, p. 308.

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EARLY ENGLISH REFORMATION 215

English Protestant theology prior to 1553, indebted to the contin

mation in this as in other areas, was strongly predestinarian and refl
of theology one finds among the Swiss and "Rhineland" reformers
Bucer. The doctrine of unconditional predestination was important an
central to such pioneering English reformers as Tyndale, Frith, Bar
their lesser colleagues and allies; it occasionally turned up even in o
proved publications during the reign of Henry VIII; it was expl
by the reformers of the Ewardian years both individually and in t
of the national church; it was taught by foreign theologians residen
during the same period; and even under the shadow of martyrdom
Marian reaction time was found for its explication. This English ve
doctrine of predestination, like that of Bucer (and Calvin), was fir
soteriology, related as it was to a whole order of salvation. Esp
soteriologically significant as the guarantor of the freedom of grac
tion and redemption, and as it was related to sanctification as its ca
fication related to it as its penultimate end. Nor was the teaching of
and double predestination absent from English theology in this pe
discounting the importance of Genevan influence in England after
of Elizabeth, with regard to predestination that influence did not
offer anything which could be called a really new departure. Even
teach a version of double predestination stricter than most of his c
English predecessors he was reaping where they had sown, and follow
conclusions their teachings. The major change in the Reformed doc
destination came not with Calvin but in the latter part of the sixte
and early in the seventeenth century, when predestination was inc
vorced from its original soteriological moorings in Reformed theolo
the organizing principle in scholastic theological systems built aroun
decrees.78 Any assertion that with respect to the doctrine of predestinat
Protestant theology developed along its own moderate native lines, o
casionally interrupted by alien incursions from the continent is to
close interconnections between the continental reformation and the r
in England.
78. Armstrong, pp. 32, 39-40, 186-137.

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