The Martyrs of the English Reformation

In the Anglican Church, October 16 is set down as the day for the remembrance of the Reformers and Martyrs of the English Reformation. It is a commemoration of the three hundred or so men, women and children of the Church of England who were burned at the stake at the command of Queen Mary and her bishops in the second half of the 16th century. They died for their conviction that the teaching of Scripture constituted true Christianity. Even when the church, its Popes, bishops and theologians, its councils and Synods contradicted Scripture – they held that Scripture was to be obeyed. And they would not be moved from that, not for the sake of harmony, not for the sake of promotion not even for the sake of saving their own lives. They were among the first Christians to be called evangelicals – a word intended to be an insult, but made by their deaths into a badge of honour.

On October 16, 1555 Hugh Latimer, Bishop of Worcester and Nicholas Ridley, Bishop of London were burned at the stake in Oxford outside Baliol College. What were the heinous crimes of which they were convicted? What were the seditious and unstable opinions they held that warranted the supreme penalty?

They believed that the Bible alone is the rule of faith, able to make us wise to salvation and to quote Latimer that, “A layman fearing God is much more fit to understand holy Scripture than any arrogant or proud priest, yea than the Bishop himself, be he never so great and glittering”.

As to the way of salvation, Latimer said,

“Stick to the Word of God which teaches that Christ is not only a judge but a justifier, a giver of salvation, and a taker away of sin. He purchased our salvation through his painful death and we receive the same through believing in Him... all merits and works are excluded and taken away. It is Christ’s doing only. God has given him to us to be our Deliverer and to give us everlasting life”.

The particular issue for the church that burned them as heretics was the nature of the Lord’s Supper. The Martyrs of the English Reformation all refused to agree with the teaching of the church that Jesus was bodily present in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper. But we shouldn’t think of that as a fine theological point. They saw the consequences of the doctrine of the ‘real presence’ of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper. They saw that that was a teaching which overthrew Scripture in a number of ways. It meant that the work of Jesus was not finished when he died on the cross, and if not finished then not complete and not certain in its outcomes. They saw that it exalted religious officials as people who stood between God and ordinary people and therefore diminished the glory of Jesus as our only mediator and advocate. They saw that it was idolatrous – as bread and wine and items of furniture received the honour due only to the Risen Christ. They saw that the teaching of the bodily presence of Jesus in the bread and the wine destroyed utterly the biblical picture of Jesus as fully human.

They didn’t die lightly, or recklessly. They died for the gospel as you and I know it, they died for the truth about God, his Christ and his people as it is revealed in his Word. They are a powerful example of people who heard and did the Word of God. And people who will hear God’s word and do it are people who, like the reformers, will turn their world upside down – as they exalt Christ and proclaim his gospel.

Author: Kanishka Raffel, Rector of St Matthew's Shenton Park, Western Australia