Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T10:48:27.617Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Anglican Via Media: The Idea of Moderation in Reform

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2018

T.L. Holtzen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This essay examines the concept of the Anglican via media and its historical development into its present form. It argues that the Anglican via media is properly understood not as a fixed program of reform, but as moderation in reform, following the classical notion of moderation as a mean between two extremes. The essay traces the theological theme of moderation in reform through the figures of Jewel, Parker, Hooker, Hall, Montagu, Cosin, Forbes, Bramhall, Puller, Knox, to Jebb’s idea of Anglican exceptionalism, and, ultimately, to Newman’s attempt to create the doctrine of the Anglican via media.

Keywords

AnglicanismCatholicismmoderationNewmanPuritanismreformvia media
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Anglican Studies , Volume 17 , Issue 1 , May 2019 , pp. 48 - 73
Copyright
© The Journal of Anglican Studies Trust 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1.

The Revd T.L. Holtzen, PhD, is Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology at Nashotah House Theological Seminary, Nashotah, WI, USA.

References

2. Herbert, George, The Complete English Poems (ed. John Tobin; New York: Penguin Books, 1991), p. 102Google Scholar.

3. Patrick, Simon, A Brief Account of the New Sect of Latitude-Men, &C. (London, 1662), p. 4Google Scholar.

4. For a helpful overview of the history of the interpretation of the Anglican via media see Wallace, Dewey D. Jr, ‘Via Media? A Paradigm Shift?’, Anglican and Episcopal History 72.1 (March 2003), pp. 2-21Google Scholar.

5. MacCulloch, Diarmaid, ‘The Myth of the English Reformation’, Journal of British Studies 30 (January 1991), pp. 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6. MacCulloch, ‘The Myth of the English Reformation’, p. 1.

7. Aristotle, The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation (ed. Jonathan Barnes; Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), II, pp. 1748–1750 (1107a-1108a)Google Scholar.

8. Horace, The Odes and Episodes (trans. C.E. Bennett; Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1952), p. 131Google Scholar.

9. Ovid, Metamorphoses (2 vols.; trans. Frank Justus Miller; Loeb Classical Library; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1921), I, pp. 68–69 (2.136-37)Google Scholar.

10. Aristotle, The Complete Works of Aristotle, II, p. 1789 (1138b).

11. Dixon, Richard Watson, History of the Church of England (6 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1878–1902), VI, p. 161 n 2Google Scholar. The Latin text is as follows: ‘Etsi vero, ut illi superiores non debemus esse superstitiosi, nec ut isti posteriores, furiosi, tamen esse possumus officiosi, ut media quaedam via, et regia, et divina et aequabilis, teneatur.’

12. Jewel, John, An Apology of the Church of England by John Jewel (ed. John E. Booty; New York: Church Publishing, 2002), pp. 22–39Google Scholar.

13. Jewel, Apology, p. 93.

14. Jewel, Apology, p. 98.

15. ‘Letter IX’, in The Zurich Letters (trans. and ed. Hastings Robinson; The Parker Society; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1842), p. 23Google Scholar.

16. Collinson, Patrick, ‘Sir Nicholas Bacon and the Elizabethan Via Media’, in Godly People: Essays on English Protestantism and Puritanism (London: Hambledon Press, 1983), p. 137Google Scholar; Chadwick, Owen (ed.), The Mind of the Oxford Movement (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1960), pp. 15–16Google Scholar; Chadwick, Owen, The Spirit of the Oxford Movement: Tractarian Essays (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 6–7Google Scholar; Bernard, G.W., ‘The Making of Religious Policy, 1533–1546: Henry VII and the Search for the Middle Way’, The Historical Journal 41.2 (1998), pp. 321–349CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17. ‘Letter CXXVII,’ in Correspondence of Matthew Parker, D.D. (ed. John Bruce and Thomas Thomason Perowne; The Parker Society; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1853), p. 173Google Scholar.

18. ‘Letter CLXIV’, in Correspondence of Parker, p. 215.

19. Hooker, Richard, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity: A Critical Edition with Modern Spelling (ed. Arthur Stephen McGrade; 3 vols.; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), I, pp. 210–211 (4.8, 4.8.3)Google Scholar. On ‘moderation’ and ‘mediocrity’ see I, pp. 211 (4.8.3), 239–241 (4.14.6); II, pp. 1, 2 (5. Dedication 2, 4), 183 (5.62.5), 292 (5.77.14).

20. Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, I, p. 211 (4.8.3). For Hooker’s use of France to refer to the French-speaking Calvinists in Geneva see the commentary in Hooker, Richard, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie (gen. ed. W. Speed Hill; 7 vols.; The Folger Library Edition of Hooker’s Works; Cambridge, MA & Tempe, AZ: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press & Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1977–98), IV, p. 622Google Scholar.

21. Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, I, p. 212 (4.8.4).

22. Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, I, pp. 240-41 (4.14.6).

23. Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, I, p. 213 (4.9.2).

24. Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, II, p. 144 (5.52.4).

25. Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, II, p. 223 (5.67.2).

26. Hooker, Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, II, p. 222–23 (5.67.2).

27. Hall, Joseph, ‘Via Media: The Way of Peace’, in The Works of Joseph Hall (12 vols.; Oxford: D. A. Talboys, 1837–39), X, pp. 474–498Google Scholar. This treatise was written by Hall as Dean of Worcester before his enthronement as Bishop of Exeter (1627) and translation to Norwich (1641).

28. Hall, Works, X, pp. 480, 491, 494, 496, 498.

29. Hall, Works, VI, pp. 365-461.

30. Hall, Works, X, p. 480.

31. Hall, Works, X, p. 494.

32. Hall, Works, X, p. 487.

33. Hall, Works, X, p. 480.

34. For example, Article 16 taught restoration after fall from grace, even in the case of some mortal sins. Further, the Westminster Confession of Faith had placed the doctrine ‘Of God’s Eternal Decree’ as third, after the doctrine ‘Of Holy Scripture’ and ‘Of God, and of the Holy Trinity’ whereas the English Church gave predestination much less importance as Article 17. This can be seen also in the difference between the Preface to the Articles of Religion which said they were ‘for the avoiding of the diversities of opinions, and for the stablishing of consent touching true religion’ and that of the Westminster Confession whose purpose was ‘for the settling of the government and liturgy of the Church of England; and for the vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the said Church from all false aspersions and interpretations’. Respectively, Bray, Gerald (ed.), Documents of the English Reformation (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994), p. 285Google Scholar; and ‘An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament … June 12, 1643’ as in Westminster Confession, corrected and reset ed., reprint, 1646 (Glasgow: Free Presbyterian Publications, 1994), p. 13Google Scholar.

35. White, Peter, Predestination, Policy, and Polemic: Conflict and Consensus in the English Church from the Reformation to the Civil War (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 215–216CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the ascription of The Gag of the Reformed Gospel to Heighman rather than Matthew Kellison, see p. 218.

36. Letter dated June 24 in Cosin, John, The Correspondence of John Cosin, D.D., Sutees Society (Durham: Andrews & Co., 1869), p. 21Google Scholar. Elsewhere Montagu used similar language to describe the position of the English Church as one between ‘Jesuite or Puritan’ (p. 40) and ‘Puritans … Popery’ (pp. 48-49).

37. Cosin, Correspondence, pp. 5, 13, 15.

38. Forbes, William, Considerations Modestae et Pacificae Controversiarum Justifcatione, Purgatorio, Invocatione Sanctorum, Christo Mediatore, et Eucharistia (2 vols., repr. 1658; Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology; Oxford: J. H. Parker, 1850)Google Scholar. See Forbes’ summaries of justification (pp. 495–501), purgatory (pp. 136–38), invocation of the saints (pp. 313, 223), Christ the mediator (pp. 363–64), and the Eucharist (pp. 507, 611–13).

39. Forbes, Considerations, II, p. 507. See also Chapman, Mark D., The Fantasy of Reunion: Anglicans, Catholics, and Ecumenism, 1833–1882 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 136CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

40. Bramhall, John, The Works of Archbishop Bramhall (5 vols.; Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology; Oxford: John Henry Parker, 1842–1805), II, pp. 580–599Google Scholar. See also II, pp. 35, 187, 305, 311, 347, 546; I, pp. 106, 11, 168, 179, 197.

41. Bramhall, Works, I, p. 168.

42. Bramhall, Works, I, p. 197.

43. Bramhall, Works, I, p. 197.

44. Bramhall, Works, I, p. 197.

45. Bramhall, Works, I, p. 197.

46. Bramhall, Works, I, pp. 197-98.

47. Bramhall, Works, I, p. 199.

48. Bramhall, Works, I, p. 199.

49. Bramhall, Works, II, p. 62.

50. Bramhall, Works, II, pp. 34–35.

51. Bramhall, Works, II, p. 35.

52. Taylor, Jeremy, The Whole Works of the Right Rev. Jeremy Taylor, D.D., Lord Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore (10 vols.; rev. and corr. Charles Page Eden; repr. 1970; London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1847–54), VIII, p. 422Google Scholar.

53. Puller, Timothy, The Moderation of the Church of England: Considered as Useful for Allaying the Present Distempers Which the Indisposition of the Time Hath Contracted (ed. Robert Eden; repr. 1843; London: A. Pigott, Hennington-Gate, 1679), pp. 2–19Google Scholar. Puller follows St Thomas’s Summa 2a2ae.120.1, and cites Nichomachean Ethics, 5.10 for understanding ἐπιείκεια but holds that it carries the same meaning as Aristotle’s mean discerned by right reason (ὀρθòς λόγος in Nichomachean Ethics 6.1) so that he may ground the idea in Scripture.

54. Puller, Moderation, p. 28. Also, quoting Hammond, “‘it being the dictate of natural reason in Aristotle, that the middle virtue is most infallibly known by this, that it is accused by either extreme as guilty of the other.’”

55. Puller uses the term ‘Protestant’ to refer to Puritans often, that is: ‘… they who call themselves our Protestant Dissenters, cannot be induced to come into entire union with our excellent reformed Church; but rather choose to unite with those Romanist in many of their unreasonable cavils’. Puller, Moderation, p. xxx. See also pp. 60, 252, 254, 262, 269, 271, 288, 289, 299, 306, 307, 308. For ‘Protestant’ generally see pp. 34, 53, 57, 125, 146, 215, 247, 251, 257, 262, 272, 284, 285, 289, 321, 331.

56. Puller, Moderation, p. 33.

57. Puller, Moderation, pp. 265–66.

58. Puller, Moderation, p. 272.

59. Casaubon, Exercit. in Baron. Ep. Ded. Lond. 1614 in Puller, Moderation, p. 330.

60. Puller, Moderation, p. 292.

61. Puller, Moderation, p. 331.

62. Puller, Moderation, p. 331.

63. The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, 1662 (ed. Brian Cummings; New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), p. 209Google Scholar.

64. Book of Common Prayer Texts, p. 210.

65. Book of Common Prayer Texts, p. 210.

66. Knox, Alexander, Remains (4 vols.; ed. J.J. Hornby; London: James Duncan, 1834–37, 2nd edn), III, p. 43Google Scholar.

67. Knox, Remains, III, pp. 65–66.

68. Bramhall, Works, II, pp. 69, 463; V, pp. 218, 271; Puller, Moderation, pp. 24, 58–60.

69. Jebb, John, A Tract for All Times, but Most Eminently for the Present. Peculiar Character of the Church of England, as Distinguished from Other Branches of the Reformation, and from the Modern Church of Rome (repr.; London: Rivingtons, 1835 [1815]), p. 3Google Scholar.

70. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 4.

71. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, pp. 4–5; Bray, Documents of the English Reformation, p. 327, par. 20.

72. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, pp. 7, 8, 10.

73. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 8.

74. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 16.

75. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 23.

76. Jebb, Peculiar Character of the Church of England, p. 23.

77. Newman, John Henry, The Letters and Diaries of John Henry Newman (32 vols.; ed. Charles Stephen Dessian et al.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978–2008), pp. 314Google Scholar, 325. Jebb’s treatise was also behind Newman’s controversy with Abbé Jager over tradition. See Allen, Louis, John Henry Newman and the Abbé Jager: A Controversy on Scripture and Tradition (London: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

78. Newman, John Henry, Tracts for the Times. X. The Works of Cardinal John Henry Newman Birmingham Oratory Millennium Edition (ed. James Tolhurst; introduced with notes by James Tolhurst; Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2013), pp. 102–128Google Scholar. For the attribution of these tracts to Newman, see Liddon, H.P., Life of Edward Bouverie Pusey (4 vols.; London: Longmans, 1893–97), III, pp. 475–476Google Scholar.

79. Newman, Tracts for the Times, p. 108.

80. Newman, John Henry, The Via Media of the Anglican Church (ed. H.D. Weidner; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. xiiiGoogle Scholar.

81. Newman, John Henry, Lectures on the Doctrine of Justification (repr.; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 3rd edn, 1908 [1874]), p. ixGoogle Scholar.

82. As Newman said in the preface to the third edition of The Via Media ‘the formal purpose of the Volume was … the establishment of a doctrine of its own, the Anglican Via Media’. Newman, John Henry, The Via Media of the Anglican Church (2 vols.; repr.; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1901 [1837]), I, p. xvGoogle Scholar.

83. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 15–16.

84. Newman, Via Media I, p. 17.

85. Newman, Via Media I, p. 16.

86. Newman, Via Media I, p. 7.

87. Newman, Via Media I, p. 17.

88. Nockles, Peter B., The Oxford Movement in Context: Anglican High Churchmanship 1760–1857 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 41–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

89. Newman, Via Media I, p. 17.

90. Newman, John Henry, Apologia Pro Vita Sua (ed. Martin J. Svaglic; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967), p. 50Google Scholar.

91. Nockles, Oxford Movement, pp. 113–18.

92. Newman, Apology, p. 85.

93. Newman, Via Media I, p. 23; Newman, Apology, p. 74.

94. Newman, Apology, p. 70.

95. Newman, Via Media I, p. 25.

96. Newman, Via Media I, p. 24.

97. Newman, Via Media I, p. 23.

98. Newman, Apology, p. 73.

99. Newman, Apology, p. 74.

100. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 31–32.

101. Newman, Via Media I, p. 35.

102. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 37–38.

103. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 39–40.

104. Newman, Via Media I, p. 40.

105. Newman, Via Media I, p. 41.

106. Newman, Via Media I, p. 41.

107. Newman, Via Media I, p. 42.

108. Newman, Via Media I, p. 42.

109. Newman, Via Media I, p. 42 n. 5; Canon 30.

110. Newman, Via Media I, p. 49.

111. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 49–50.

112. Newman, Via Media I, p. 51.

113. Newman, Via Media I, p. 51.

114. Newman, Via Media I, pp. 52–53.

115. Newman, John Henry, Certain Difficulties Felt by Anglicans in Catholic Teaching Considered (2 vols.; New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1901), I, pp. 363–400 (379, 392)Google Scholar.

116. Newman said, ‘I have written in all, (good or bad) 5 constructive books—My prophetical office (which has come to pieces)—Essay on Justification—Development of Doctrine—University Lectures (Dublin) and this [Grammar of Assent].’ Newman, Letters and Diaries, XXIV, pp. 390–91. His Prophetical Office and Lectures both were attempts to establish the Anglican via media.

117. Newman, Apology, p. 71.

118. Newman, Apology, p. 71, i.e., Trinity, incarnation, atonement, original sin, regeneration by the supernatural grace of the sacraments, apostolic succession, the necessity of both faith and obedience, and future punishment for the wicked.

119. Newman, Apology, p. 72.

120. Newman, Apology, p. 111.

121. Newman, John Henry, An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1989), p. 437Google Scholar.