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This book assesses the understandings of the Christian doctrine of royal priesthood, long considered one of the three major Reformation teachings, as held by an array of royal, clerical, and popular theologians during the English Reformation.
List of contents
- Introduction
- 1: John Wyclif's Universalist Approach to Universal Priesthood
- 2: Royal Priesthood in Late Medieval England
- 3: Common Priesthood in the Early English Reformation
- 4: Royal Priests: Henry VIII and Edward VI
- 5: Priestly Magistrates: Thomas Cromwell's Faction
- 6: Thomas Cranmer: The Ministerial Priesthood is 'Necessary'
- 7: Thomas Cranmer: The People's Priesthood
- 8: The Reformation of the Queens
About the author
Malcolm B. Yarnell III is Director of the Center for Theological Research and Professor of Systematic Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Summary
Royal Priesthood in the English Reformation assesses the understandings of the Christian doctrine of royal priesthood, long considered one of the three major Reformation teachings, as held by an array of royal, clerical, and popular theologians during the English Reformation. Historians and theologians often present the doctrine according to more recent debates rather than the contextual understandings manifested by the historical figures under consideration. Beginning with a radical reevaluation of John Wyclif and an incisive survey of late medieval accounts, the book challenges the predominant presentation of the doctrine of royal priesthood as primarily individualistic and anticlerical, in the process clarifying these other concepts. It also demonstrates that the late medieval period located more religious authority within the monarchy than is typically appreciated. After the revolutionary use of the doctrine by Martin Luther in early modern Germany, it was wielded variously between and within diverse English royal, clerical, and lay factions under Henry VIII and Edward VI, yet the Old and New Testament passages behind the doctrine were definitely construed in a monarchical direction. With Thomas Cranmer, the English evangelical presentation of the universal priesthood largely received its enduring official shape, but challenges came from within the English magisterium as well as from both radical and conservative religious thinkers. Under the sacred Tudor queens, who subtly and successfully maintained their own sacred authority, the various doctrinal positions hardened into a range of early modern forms with surprising permutations.
Additional text
Royal Priesthood in the English Reformation is an outstanding contribution to studies in Tudor religious thought as it corrects the view that the universal priesthood was essentially individualistic by situating more firmly in the relevant primary sources.
