The Loyal Opposition; Tudor Traditionalist Polemics, 1535-1558 by Ellen A. Macek

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS Early Modern European The Loyal Opposition; Tudor Traditionalist Polemics, 1535-1558. By Ellen A. Macek. [Studies in Church History,Vol. 7.] (NewYork: Peter Lang. 1996. Pp. xv, 299. $53.95.) It has long been recognized that the term 'Catholic' is unsatisfactory when applied to those within the English church who resisted the advance of Protestantism in the mid-sixteenth century. Either 'conservative' or 'traditionalist' is better, but it is very hard to devise a satisfactory category in which to place them. In this study, Ellen Macek's subtitle is unexceptionable,but the use of the word 'opposition' raises serious problems. In what sense were Gardiner and Tunstal opponents of HenryVDTs changes? Moreover, these same men were in power under Mary. The terminology is more difficult than the substance, because what these men were endeavoring to do for most ofthe time was to keep an English church controlled by the Crown in line with traditional doctrine on such important issues as justification and the sacraments.There can be little doubt that they spoke for the majority of English people, but there was no bottom line to their argument, because they had no alternative theory of ecclesiastical authority. As long as Henry VIII was alive they could sustain a viable position, because their opponents were the "reforming faction" rather than the king himself.The short reign of Edward VI disillusioned them, when the Royal Supremacy which they had hitherto supported was used to destroy what they regarded as the fundamentals of the Christian faith.They embraced Mary's conservative reaction with enormous relief, but many of them were less than enthusiastic about the papacy, merely accepting that the Royal Supremacy had proved to be a broken reed for the protection ofwhat they considered to be essential religious truth. Dr. Macek is correct in claiming that these writers have been unduly neglected . A generation ago their existence was barely acknowledged, and although they now enjoy a relatively high profile in revisionist studies of the English Reformation, what they actually wrote has been little studied. Here the emphasis is upon two main areas of doctrine, justification and the sacraments, and one of methodology, the extent of humanist influence. Within these 462 BOOK REVIEWS463 parameters it is a thorough and lucid study, showing both the continuities and discontinuities with late medieval theology, and the extent to which positive thinking was obstructed by polemical priorities. It does not, however, make clear the extent to which these writers evaded controversial issues where their conservative instincts were at odds with their humanist training.'Purgatory,* for instance, does not even appear in the index, and vernacular scriptures are "but slenderly handled," as they themselves might have said. What is done is well done, and a useful contribution to understanding, but there is scope for more than one work of this kind. One of the most interesting points arises almost incidentally toward the end, when Dr. Macek points out that the true heirs of these mid-Tudor traditionalists were less the Catholic recusants of the next, and subsequent, generations, than the High Anglicans of the Laudian church and the Tractarian movement. Gardiner , Bonner,Tunstal, Smith, and their fellows were only ultramontane to a limited extent and when forced by circumstances. The intense papalism of Reginald Pole was alien to them, and they paid little attention to such progress as the Council ofTrent had made by 1558. In most respects they were less an opposition than the purveyors of an alternative Anglican vision. David Loades Oxford Dangerous Talk and Strange Behavior.Women and Popular Resistance to the Reforms ofHenry VJII. By Sharon L. Jansen. (NewYork: St. Martin's Press. 1996. Pp. viü, 232. $39.95.) This is a series of case studies of women involved in opposition to Henry VHFs proceedings in the 1530's.The particularly thorough investigations ordered by the government in these years makes such an investigation unusually possible. Margaret Cheyne, alias Lady Bulmer, was the only woman to be executed for direct involvement in the Pilgrimage of Grace. Elizabeth Barton, the "Nun of Kent," already well known as a visionary, was hanged in 1534 for prophetic warnings against Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn. A...