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‘By this mark you shall know him’: clerical celibacy and Antichrist in English Reformation polemic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Helen L. Parish
Helen L. Parish*
Affiliation:
Jesus College, Oxford
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Extract

‘Antichrist’, wrote William Tyndale in 1528, ‘is not an outward thyng, that is to say a man that should sode[n]ly appeare with wonders as our fathers talked of him. No, verely, for Antichrist is a spirituall thing. And this is as much to say as agaynst Christ, ye one that preacheth against Christ.’ Such a definition of Antichrist marked a departure from the traditional medieval legend, which was based upon the prophecy of a single future figure of evil. This new image of Antichrist as a permanent and spiritual presence in the world is a central feature of English Protestant polemic, informing interpretations of both biblical prophecies, and the history of the Church. It was not history which engendered right understanding of Scripture, but Scripture that offered the means of interpreting the past. The Bible offered paradigms for the understanding of history because it was the embodiment of divine truth, which was irreproachable and immutable. In the words of John Bale, ‘yet is the text a light to the chronicles, and not the chronicles to the text’.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 33: The Church Retrospective , 1997 , pp. 253 - 266
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1997

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References

1 Tyndale, William, Parable of the Wicked Mammon, in Foxe, John, ed., Whole Works of W. Tyndale, John Frith, and Doctor Bames (London, 1573) [hereafter WW], p. 60 Google Scholar.

2 Bullinger suggested that the medieval legend actually concealed the working of Antichrist in the Church: Heinrich Bullinger, Of the end of the world, and iudgement of our Lord Jesus Christ to come, trans. T. Potter (London, c. 1580), fol. 4r; Richard Bauckham, Tudor Apocalypse: Sixteenth Century Apocalypticism, Millennarianism, and the English Reformation from John Bale to John Foxe and Thomas Brightman, Courtenay Library of Reformation Classics, 8 (Sutton Courtenay, 1978), p. 99.

3 John Bale, Image of Both Churches (London, 1550), sig. Aiiv.

4 Ibid., sigs. Kiii’, Kvii’, Miiiv; Tyndale, Answer to More, in WW, p. 412; Tyndale, Wicked Mammon, in WW, p. 60; George Joye, Exposicion of Daniel the Prophete (Geneva, 1545), sig. Qiiir-v; John Old, A short description of Antichrist (Emden, 1555), sig. Aviir.

5 Tyndale, Answer to More, in WW, p. 268.

6 I Cor. 7. Bale, John, A Declaration of Edmund Bonner’s Articles (London, 1560)Google Scholar, fols 6r, 16v; Bullinger, Heinrich, Golden Book of Christian Matrimony (London, 1543), sig. Aiiv Google Scholar.

7 I Tim. 4. Cf. Becon, Thomas, A Comfortable Epistle, ed. Ayre, J., PS (Cambridge, 1844), p. 198 Google Scholar; Bale, Declaration, fol. 11r.

8 Ponet, John, A defence of the manage of Preistes, by Scripture and Aunciente Wryters (London, 1549)Google Scholar, sig. Cir.

9 Frith, John, A Pistle to the Christen Reader (Antwerp, 1529)Google Scholar, fol. 17r.

10 Bale, John, Yet a course at the Romish Fox (Zurich, 1543)Google Scholar, sig. Iviv. For a similar argument, against Cardinal John of Cremona, see Ponet, Defence, sigs Cviiir-Dir, Aivv; Joye, Daniel, sigs Sviiir-Tiv, citing Oecolampadius.

11 Bale, Romish Fox, sig. Ml; Bale, Mystery of Iniquity (Geneva, 1545), fols 2r, 10v.

12 Frith, Pistle, fols 53v-4r, 67r, 71v.

13 Ponet, Defence, sigs Aviv Bvt-v: Bucer, Martin, Cratulation (London, 1549)Google Scholar, sigs Eviir, Fiiiv.

14 Tyndale, Answer to More, in WW, p. 310.

15 Calvin, John, The Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians, and the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, ed. D. W. and Torrance, T. F. (Edinburgh, 1964), p. 261 Google Scholar; Calvin, John, The First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, ed. Torrance, W. D. (Edinburgh, 1960), p. 134 Google Scholar.

16 Bale, Image, sig. Jir-v; cf. Rev. 6.2.

17 Ibid., sig. Kiir-v. The forbidding of marriage, along with the introduction of relics, fasts, and the doctrine of purgatory, was also used to identify the inception of the period of the black horse, epitomized for Bale in the pontificate of Boniface III: ibid., sigs Kviiiv-Liv.

18 Bale, Image, sigs Riiv, Rviiiv, Siiir; Bale, Romish Fox, sig. Civv; Frith, Pistle, fol. 46v. Cf. Rev. 9.20-1.

19 Bullinger, Heinrich, A Hundred Sermons upon the Apocalypse (London, 1561)Google Scholar, sig. Qiir-v; Bale, Image, sig. Nivv. Cf. Rev.7.

20 Bale, Image, sigs Eiiir-Fvir.

21 Ibid., sigs Fviiiv-Giiir.

22 Bale, Image, sigs Avt-Aviv; Bullinger, Sermons, sig. Mmir. Cf. William Turner, A New Book of Spiritual Physick (Basle, 1555), sig. Lvv.

23 Melanchthon, Philip, A Very Godly Defence… defending the marriage of preistes (Antwerp, 1541)Google Scholar, sig. Bivv; Gualter, Rudolph, Antichrist: that is tosaye A true reporte that Antichriste is come (Southwark, 1556)Google Scholar, sigs L2v-L3r.

24 Bullinger, Sermons, sig. Ssit-v.

25 Pilkington, John, A Confutation of an Addition, PS (Cambridge, 1842), pp. 564–5 Google Scholar; Foxe, Acts and Monuments, 2, p. 120.

26 Bale, John, The Pageant of Popes (London, 1574)Google Scholar, sig. Liiv; Bale, John, The Actes of the Englysh Votaries, pt II (London, 1561)Google Scholar, fols 32v-4v.

27 Bale, Mystery, fol. 17v.

28 Bale, Romish Fox, sig. Kiiir; idem, Pageant, sig. Liir.

29 Tyndale, Answer to More, in WW, p. 115.

30 Bale, Romish Fox, fol. 16v. Cf a similar allegation made against John XIII, Bale, Pageant, sigs Iiiv, Iviiiv, Liir, Liiiv, Zviv; idem, Image, sigs Kviiiv-Lir; idem, Mystery, fols 16v, 58r. Bale was the first English writer to emphasize the pontificate of Silvester II in providing a chronology for the working of the mystery of iniquity.

31 John Foxe followed Bale in accusing Silvester and Hildebrand of necromancy, although he did not overtly associate their insistence on clerical celibacy with such practices: Acts and Monuments, 2, pp. 94–5, 119–21, 125, 128.

32 Bale, Votaries, I, sigs Avv-vir, Bivv, Cviiv; Rainer Pineas, ‘William Tyndale’s influence on John Bale’s polemical use of history’, ARC, 53 (1962), p. 86.

33 Bale, Votaries, I, sig. Dviiir.

34 Ibid., I, sig. Eiiv. Bale must have known that his chronology was mistaken, since Bede clearly dated Theodore’s consecration to 668; Fairfield, L. P., John Bale, Mythmaker for the English Reformation (West Lafayette, Ind., 1976), p. 98 Google Scholar, n.46. Foxe accepted the significance of the year 666, the time at which Theodore had brought Roman religion to England, but regarded Mohamet as the beast: Acts and Monuments, 1, p. 355.

35 Bale, Votaries, I, sig. Hvr; idem, Mystery, fol. 19r. Cf. Foxe, Acts and Monuments, 2, p. 68.

36 Bale, Votaries, 1, sig. Fiiv.

37 Ibid., fol. 67v.

38 Bale, Image, I, sig. Bir; cf. idem, Mystery, fols 40v, 66v.

39 Joye, Daniel, sig. eiiir.

40 Bale, Romish Fox, sig. Kiiir-v.

41 Turner, William, Rescuynge of the Romishe Fox (Bonn, 1545)Google ScholarPubMed, sigs Hviiir-Hviiiv; idem, Huntyng of the Romyshe Wolfe (Emden, ?1555), sig. Evir-v.

42 Bale, Image, sigs Gvv-Gviv.

43 Ibid., sigs Sviiv-Sviiir. Bale’s identification of the horns which had already been revealed appeared to reflect his pessimism regarding events in England, since while the King of Denmark and the Duke of Saxony were included in the list, Henry VIII was not.

44 Hooper, A Brief and Clear Confession in The Later Writings of Bishop Hooper, ed. C. Nevinson, PS (Cambridge, 1852), p. 56.