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Conformist Clericalism? Richard Bancroft’s Analysis of the Socio-economic Roots of Presbyterianism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Peter Lake
Peter Lake*
Affiliation:
Royal Holloway and Bedford New College
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Extract

If the English Reformation can be seen as an extended transaction between the laity and the clergy, then its outcome is surely well described, in Claire Cross’s phrase, as the ‘triumph of the laity’. While most Elizabethan Protestant divines were more than happy about the spiritual aspects of that triumph, they were altogether less enthusiastic about its impact on the standing of the clergy. Certainly the independence, status, and thus the material wealth of the clergy were subjects of concern for many Elizabethan Protestants. Presbyterians, moderate Puritans, conformists, both ‘wet’ and ‘dry’, all were much exercised by the problem of the status and financial independence of the clerical estate. But while they may have shared a common concern with the question, the different priorities and values which divided Elizabethan Protestant divines amongst themselves inevitably coloured their attitude to church property and clerical status. In particular the issue provided a central strand in the polemical exchange between Presbyterians and conformists, as each tried to label the other as the clergy’s own worst enemy in its protracted, indeed interminable, negotiations with lay society for improved pay and conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 24: The Church and Wealth , 1987 , pp. 219 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987

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References

1 The subtitle of Claire Cross’s Church and People (Fontana, 1976).

2 Collinson, P., English Puritanism (London, 1983), p. 26 Google Scholar.

3 Bancroft, R., A Survey of the Pretended Holy Discipline (London, 1593), p. 52 Google Scholar.

4 Bancroft, A Survey, p. 122.

5 Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 154–5, 178–9.

6 Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 282, 301–3, 423.

7 Bancroft, R., Dangerous Positions (London, 1593), p. 32 Google Scholar.

8 Bancroft, A Survey, p. 246.

9 Bancroft, A Survey, p. 432; Bancroft, R., A Sermon preached at Paul’s Cross the 9 of February, being the first Sunday of the Parliament, Anno. 1558 (London, 1589), pp. 40–1 Google Scholar.

10 Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, p. 44; Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 161–2, 165, 170–1, 185–7, 100, 194, 217, 221.

11 Bancroft, A Survey, p. 154.

12 Bancroft, A Sermon, pp. 24–5.

13 Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 154, 327–8.

14 Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 432–3. Once the discipline was set up Bancroft felt certain that any minister worth his salt could overrule ‘twelve simple men all of them unlearned as being either apronmen, artisans or merchants’. Bancroft, A Sermon, pp. 24–5.

15 Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 456–7.

16 Peel, A., ed., Tracts ascribed to Richard Bancroft (Cambridge, 1953), p. 57 Google Scholar.

17 Peel, Tracts ascribed to Richard Bancroft, p. 58; also see Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, pp. 44–5 and A Survey, pp. 62–3.

18 Peel, Tracts ascribed to Richard Bancroft, pp. 70–2.

19 Peel, Tracts ascribed to Richard Bancroft, pp. 71–3.

20 Bancroft, ASurvey, pp. 232–7; Peel, Tracts ascribed to Richard Bancroft, pp. S9–60.

21 Peel, Tracts ascribed to Richard Bancroft, pp. 85–8.

22 Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, p. 44; Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 185–7, 191–4.

23 Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 456–7.

24 The basic thrust of all Bancroft’s anti-Presbyterian polemic was towards the unmasking of the political threat represented by the discipline. It was organized around an attempt to assimilate Presbyterianism to resistance theory and a view of Puritan subversion which linked the Marian exiles with recent events in Scotland and the activities of the English classis movement. For this view see Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, passim.

25 Bancroft, A Survey, pp. 227–33, 236–8.

26 Bancroft, Dangerous Positions, pp. 29, 61, 130.

27 For a more extended treatment of conformist attitudes to these issues, with particular reference to Hooker, Saravia, and Matthew Sutcliffe see P. Lake, Presbyters and Prelates; Presbyterianism and English Conformist Thought from Whitgift to Hooker (forthcoming, 1987?).