1. The Erastian Bondage of the Church:

The promise of Magna Charta “that the English Church shall be free and have her rights entire and her liberties inviolate,” went largely unfulfilled. The autonomy of the Church was dreamt of by men like Stephen Langton and Robert Grosseteste, but it was never realized. In the Middle Ages it was restricted by the assertion of the jurisdiction of the Pope on the one hand, and of the King on the other. Magna Charta marked the humiliation of the King and met with the prompt condemnation of the Pope. By a long series of events between ca. 1350 and ca. 1570, the Pope's cause in England was lost, and in the same course of events the royal power was greatly enhanced. So far as constitutional autonomy was concerned the Church was now in a weaker state than before. The gates of a prison-house of Erastianism closed about her. A blight fell upon her governing institutions. Her Convocations were not permitted to function, and after 1718 were discontinued, except for pro forma meetings held for the purpose, as Edmund Burke phrased it, “of making some polite ecclesiastical compliments to the King.” Burke spoke for the politicians of his century when he added: “It is wise to permit its legal existence only.” Because Convocation's last acts had been attended by strife, the fear that its revival would mean a renewal of unseemly contention was habitually invoked as an answer to the few who ventured to suggest that step.

In the past, church historians have too often neglected the influence of social forces on the development of theological ideas. I propose therefore to study the Tractarians' conception of authority with reference to their social environment rather than with reference to their theological heredity.

Since the opening of the century there has been a marked awakening of interest in the works of John Peckham and an increasing appreciation of his importance in many areas of medieval life and thought. As lecturer at Paris and Rome, as Provincial Minister of the Franciscans in England, and as Archbishop of Canterbury, this active and learned scholar devoted his attention to many literary and executive tasks, making substantial contributions in such varied fields as theology, philosophy, religious education, homiletics, canon law, Franciscan history, science, liturgies, and poetry.

It is an interesting matter of conjecture just how long it would have taken for John the Baptist to transfer the leadership of the religious group which he founded to Jesus, if John had kept free from the toils of the Roman law and Herod had not set him aside. Judging by the persistence of the John cult among the churches of the East we may believe that the process would have been slow. Just so the modern missionary, whose era may be dated during the past one hundred and fifty years, although he has always announced that his rôle was that of John the Baptist, has nevertheless moved slowly in helping the national leaders to “increase” while he “decreased.”