A discussion starter from Peter Toon
In no place in England in the reign of Elizabeth I was the battle for the soul of the Church of England so clearly and learnedly waged as it was for a short time in the Spring of 1586 in the Inns of Court in London, where lawyers had their offices and chambers. It was in the building, known as the Temple Church, that assembled barristers heard on Sunday mornings the message of Reformed Catholicism from the "Master of the Temple" and in the afternoon that of Genevan Presbyterianism from "the Puritan Lecturer." And the two contestants and preachers were the Anglican, Richard Hooker, and the Puritan, Walter Travers. Hooker was a learned young man, wholly dedicated to the preservation of the Anglicanism of the Elizabeth Settlement, and Travers, just a little older, believed that the Church of England was not truly reformed and needed to institute more changes, including the abolition of the Order of Bishops and the required use of The Book of Common Prayer. Had he not been so militantly Presbyterian and Puritan, Travers would have been "the Master" rather than "the Lecturer." However, despite their profound differences on church polity and forms of worship, they had much in common, including the developed doctrine of Justification by Faith alone.
During the month of March of 1586, Hooker preached three sermons , based on texts from the prophet Habakkuk, on the themes of Justification, Sanctification and the possibility of salvation within the Church of Rome. These were later published, with footnotes often in Latin, under the title, A Learned Discourse of Justification, Works, and how the Foundation of Faith is overthrown. But before they were officially printed and published, reports and summaries of them were circulated amongst the highly educated constituency of the Inns of Court and with these also appeared responses and critiques, especially from Travers. Soon Travers was silenced by Whitgift, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Hooker was able to continue as Master in an Anglican manner for six years, when he left in order to give his primary attention to the writing of his most famous book, Treatise on the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, for which he is justly famous and reckoned one of the primary theologians of The Anglican Way.
In the three sermons, and then in the Learned Discourse, Hooker stated with great clarity the developed Reformation doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, through Christ alone, and issuing in good works, done in love for the glory of God. As he did this, he also stated and criticized the Roman doctrine of justification through the "sacramental system" as set forth by the Council of Trent in its canons and decrees. In all this Travers could find little to disagree with for on Justification by Faith alone there was basic agreement between Anglicans, Presbyterians and Lutherans.
Yet Travers and his fellow committed Puritans were very disturbed by the other major theme advanced by Hooker. This was his contention that, while the Church of Rome taught many errors and practiced many false forms of religion, it was still in a certain sense a Christian Church for it held securely to the basic Christian Confession of Faith. Thus it was reasonable to suppose that the thousands of Englishmen who had lived in the pre-reformed Church in England, who were not responsible for the creation and propagation of the Roman errors, and who sincerely accepted their sinfulness and looked to Jesus as Savior, were shown mercy by God at the last, despite their involvement in a error and heresy.
For Travers, the Church of Rome was wholly apostate and salvation by grace through faith was not possible within its system at all by anyone; thus he was extremely critical of Hooker on this point. He attacked Hooker even though Hooker most clearly taught that the Church of Rome had been and remained in gross error and tended thereby to deny the very foundations of Christian faith and truth. Thus it was in their attitudes to Rome and its traditions that the Reformed Catholic and the Puritan Presbyterian divided.
From the Inns of Court 1584 to American Anglicanism 2007
In the present, ongoing crisis of Anglicanism, centered on sexual morality, there is the powerful temptation presented to devout Anglicans to leave the Anglican Way and find a home in Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, or one of the many forms of modern evangelical Protestantism.
One major reason for the present crisis in Anglicanism and for the temptation to leave its ranks is that Anglicans have (generally speaking) lost that doctrine which Hooker and Travers held in common, even as Cranmer, Luther and Calvin had held it in common—Justification by Faith alone issuing in holiness of life with good works. Modern liturgies since the 1960s have in general been composed by persons who are not aware of or do not believe this doctrine; and, of course, the Roman Liturgy specifically denies it, as also in principle does the Orthodox Liturgy.
If we pay any attention to "the judicious Mr. Hooker" at all on this matter we would do two things at least:
(1) we would work hard to recover the fullness of the doctrine of Justification by Faith alone, along with Sanctification by the Holy Spirit of the justified; and
(2) we would follow his charity towards Roman Catholicism not by pretending that it has changed its erroneous doctrine of justification through the sacramental system and by human works but by recognizing that it has held the basics of belief and morality—set forth in the Creeds—even while it has added serious doctrinal errors to the Creedal foundations ( e.g., the doctrine of the Papacy and advanced doctrines of the Blessed Virgin Mary).
The Anglican Way is Reformed Catholicism and this means that while in charity we can and must say many good things about the Roman Catholic Church and its members, we cannot accept it as a Church that is truly subjected to the Word of God written.
On the other hand ,we can and must also say many good things about popular evangelical Protestantism, but we cannot join it in either its unfounded, generalized criticism of Roman Catholicism, or in its serious dumbing-down of the scriptural, twin doctrines of Justification by Faith alone with Sanctification by the Spirit issuing in good works.
Before Anglicans rush off in any direction let them make or find time to read "the judicious Mr. Hooker."
The Revd Dr Peter Toon June 5, 2007 drpetertoon@yahoo.com
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