Richard Jewel's Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae and Anglican church history

John Jewell

The 16th century was a highly contentious time in the relationship between the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church. Issues that had been brewing since the days of Henry VIII began to resurface as both denominations attempted to assert their theological and historical legitimacy. John Jewell, Bishop of Salisbury, played a significant role in this dispute and his classic Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae (Jewel, 2010) raised many highbrows throughout both England and Rome and remains one of the most significant documents in the history of the Anglican Church.

John Jewell was born in Bude, a small seaside resort town on the Atlantic Ocean in 1522 (Jenkins, 2006). As a young boy he demonstrated tremendous academic ability and he was educated in the Anglican tradition. When Catholic Queen Mary ascended to the throne outspoken Anglican followers such as Jewell were subject to some pressures to endorse certain Catholic theological provisions. Initially Jewell did so but he eventually fled to Germany in order to avoid being forced to endorse further Catholic doctrines.

Jewell returned to England when Queen I took over the English crown. Soon thereafter Jewell was elected bishop of Salisbury in which position he remained for the rest of his life. Jewell died in 1572 at the age of 50 years.

The crowning achievement of Jewell's life was the publication of his treatise, Apologia Ecclesiae Anglicanae (An Apology in Defence of the Church of England). Jewell's treatise was published in 1562 and includes a brief history of the persecutions that Protestants of all sects had to undergo at the hands of the Catholic Church. The most significant contribution made by Jewell's treatise, however, was his taking issue with the Catholic Church relative to the Anglican Church's true role in the field of theology. He argues that the Anglican Church is the true apostolic succession to the first centuries of Christianity and that it was not a new Church. In an effort to make his point to the entire world and not just to members of the Anglican Church in England Jewell published his work in Latin so that it could be disseminated throughout all of Europe. As a final point in his treatise, Jewel also took serious issue with the various ways that he felt that the Catholic Church was morally and theological corrupt. This corruption Jewell claimed had been going on in the Catholic Church since its earliest days and that such corruption was absent in the Anglican Church.

The importance of Jewell's work is that it was the first attempt by anyone associated with the Anglican Church to address the Roman Catholic hierarchy regarding the split between the two denominations. Jewell is careful to point out the differences between the two Churches is not political but theological. He challenged the Roman Catholic Church by asserting that the Anglican Church had not revolted from the Church and the Church should cease from referring to followers of the Anglican Church as heretics.

Jewell's primary theological differences, and those of the Anglican Church, concerned the Roman Church's views on transubstantiation, purgatory, celibacy of clergy, and the worship of saints and images (Collinson, 1986). His views were that the Roman Catholic Church had lost its way in professing such beliefs and that the process of Reformation that resulted in the founding of the Church of England. Jewell argued that the Church of England was the true Church and was actually the restoration of the true church. The basis of Jewell's argument that the Church of England was that church authority should not be based on ideas of succession as the Roman Catholic Church claimed but on the whether a church followed the Word of God. In Jewell's opinion the fact that Roman Catholic Church based its authority on its direct succession from St. Peter was insignificant and the fact that the Church of England had followed the Word of God gave it legitimacy as the true Church.

The importance of Jewell's apology to the Church of England is obvious. He took on the Roman Catholic Church and theologically argued the legitimacy of the Anglican Church toe to toe with Rome. The Reformation movement in general also saw Jewell's treatise as a defense of Protestantism in general. The popularity of Jewell's work in England and throughout the European continent served to provide the Protestant Reformation movement creditability and provided a basis for papist control finally be abolished throughout the various Protestant denominations.

The importance of Jewell to the Church of England was apparent during his lifetime by the degree that church and government officials conferred with him. When the Roman Catholic Church was conducting its Council of Trent, it was Jewell that was consulted regarding what England's attitude should be toward it and no less an authority than Richard Hooker spoke of Jewell as being the "worthiest divine that Christendom hath bred for some hundreds of years (Hooker, 1977: p.171)."