The Reformed and Celibate Pastor: Richard Baxter’s Argument for Clerical Celibacy, by Seth D. Osborne

Abstract

Richard Baxter was a dominant figure in seventeenth-century English religion, and his influence and importance are now coming into sharper focus with the publication of a splendid modern edition of his autobiography Reliquiae Baxterianae in five volumes in 2020, the prospect of a critical edition of his letters, and the creation of a global and aptly named Baxter Association which meets biannually online to share scholarly work on the man and his times. Seth D. Osborne’s book is an impressive contribution to the current reassessment of Baxter’s thinking. It addresses two central and linked questions. Why did Baxter advocate clerical celibacy, in contrast to many of his protestant contemporaries, and how should we best understand Baxter’s decision to marry in later life (which surprised many friends and foes), and his considered view after his wife’s death that, notwithstanding their happiness together, the case for ministerial celibacy still stood? Osborne demonstrates that Baxter prized matrimony and ‘the soul care’ it should provide for building up household units of Christian devotion and discipline. Where he differed from many was in his view that both clergy and laity should consider whether marriage or celibacy was the most expedient for exercising Christian piety. Matrimony was a sin for those who could foresee that it would limit their service to God, in contrast to the conventional protestant position that marriage was the default option and staying single required a clear call. Very few clergy, Baxter claimed, could serve God better as married men. Osborne sees Baxter’s celebrated ministry at Kidderminster (1647–60) as a decisive influence here. The minister should know the spiritual state of every parishioner, exercise ecclesiastical discipline and be active in local ministerial associations: in short, he should undertake tireless pastoral work which would be necessarily compromised by the distractions and competing demands of family life. To this Baxter added the standard argument that marriage would inevitably limit a minister’s charity. As he stated in Gildas Salvianus: The Reformed Pastor (1656), only now was the ‘kingdom of darkness’ beginning to totter, so there could be no rest or respite for his pastoral mission. Osborne identifies what he calls ‘particularities’ of Baxter’s character which, he argues, reinforced his views: among them were his awareness of time’s winged chariot, underpinned by recurrent illnesses, his emphasis on the comforts of heaven over earth, and his unswerving pursuit of truth, as he saw it, however singular or controversial that might be.