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John Strype as a source for the study of sixteenth-century English church history
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
Because he was not a medievalist John Strype does not find a place in David Douglas’s classic study of the golden age of English antiquarian scholarship, English Scholars 1660–1730. Yet in terms both of his output and of his influence on the subsequent development of the study of English church history Strype is arguably one of the most important scholars that the age produced. Even to-day, nearly 250 years after his death, the twenty-five volumes of his works in the Clarendon press reissue of the 1820s are still a standard source for the study of English church history in the sixteenth century and it is difficult to open a book dealing with any aspect of the English reformation, which does not have its quota of references to Strype. At the same time, as any one who works on the period knows, Strype’s standing as an ecclesiastical historian is ambiguous. If, on the one hand, he is widely quoted, on the other, he is frequently attacked for his mistakes and his works are notoriously full of pitfalls for the unwary. It is therefore perhaps appropriate, in a volume devoted to ‘the Sources, Materials and Methods of Ecclesiastical History’, to consider, first, what is Strype’s value to-day as a source for the study of the English reformation and, secondly, the question of his reliability as a church historian. The two questions, one should stress, are distinct, although they are not unrelated.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History , Volume 11: The Materials Sources and Methods of Ecclesiastical History , 1975 , pp. 237 - 247
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1975
References
1 Douglas, David C.,English Scholars 1660-1710 (2 ed London 1951)Google Scholar.
2 For the details of Strype’s life, see DNB; Biographia Britannica (London 1747-66) VI, i, pp 3847-50. The latter contains an interesting account of the circumstances of Strype’s appointment as minister of Leyton (p 3847, n A).
3 See the extract from the letter of Strype to Knight, Samuel, 19 January 1729, printed in Gentleman’s Magazine (London 1791) i, p 223 Google Scholar.
4 Strype, [John], Annals [of the Reformation and Establishment of Religion, and other various occurrences in the Church of England, during Queen Elizabeth’s Happy Reign], 4 vols in 7 (Oxford 1824) I, i, p viiGoogle Scholar.
5 Strype was granted permission to use the Harleian library on 26 May 1707; see [The Diary of Humphrey] Wanley [1715-1726, ed , C. E. and Wright], Ruth, The Bibliographical Society, 2 vols (London 1966) I, Intr, p xxiGoogle Scholar.
6 Strype’s correspondence, which contains numerous letters from contemporaries relating to his historical collections, is preserved in the Baumgartner MSS in the Cambridge University Library. See A Catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge (Cambridge 1856-67) V, pp 1-159.
7 J. F. Mozley states that the Willys family ‘lent’ the Foxe papers to Strype, Mozley, J.F., John Foxe and his Book (London 1940) p ix Google Scholar; and this appears to be confirmed by Strype’s own remark in the preface to his Cranmer (1694) that ‘I have been conversant in what remaineth of the papers of John Fox, communicated to me by the favour of my good friend William Willys, of Hackney, Esquire,’ Strype, [John], [Memorials of the Most Reverend Father in God Thomas] Cranmer, [Sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury], 2 vols (Oxford 1840) I, pp xiii–xiv Google Scholar. Later, however, in a statement made after all the parties concerned were dead, he claimed that they ‘were given me long since by Mr Will. Willis of Hackney deceased, who was Executor to Sr Richard. Willis Kt. yt married ye Heir of Foxes Family’; see [Cambridge University Library, Baumgartner MSS, Patrick Papers, vol 40, no 7], ‘Mr Strypes Case’ [August 1714] p 4.
8 See Wanley, I, pp xxi-xxii, and Wright, C.E., Fontes Harleiani, British Museum Bicentenary Publications (London 1972) p 321 Google Scholar. The remainder of the Foxe papers, which Strype retained in his possession, were sold with the Burghley papers and are now in the Lansdowne collection.
9 The exact details of this transaction are obscure. For Strype’s version of this episode, see ‘Mr Strypes Case’.
10 Л A Catalogue of the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum (London 1819) preface, p ix.
11 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Most Hon. The Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., &c., preserved at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, in progress (London 1883-) vols 1-8.
12 In the preface to his Cranmer, Strype claims to be modelling himself on ‘a good practice first begun by Mr. Sumner of Canterbury’ in his Antiquities of Canterbury, (i.e. William Somner, , The Antiquities of Canterbury. Or a Survey of that Ancient Citie, with the Suburbs, and Cathedrall, London 1640 Google Scholar) Cranmer, p xv.
13 See Strype, John, Ecclesiastical Memorials, relating chiefly to Religion, and the Reformation of it, and the Emergencies of the Church of England, under King Henry VIII, King Edward VI, and Queen Mary I, 3 vols in 6 (Oxford 1822) I, i, preface, pp xii-xiiiGoogle Scholar.
14 Maitland, [S.R.], Remarks [on the First Volume of Strype’s Life of Archbishop Cranmer, recently published by the Ecclesiastical History Society] reprinted from the British Magazine (London 1848) p 4 Google Scholar.
15 For examples from Strype’s Cranmer, see Maitland, Remarks, pp 5 et seq.
16 Ibid p 10.
17 Strype, Annals, I, i, p viii.
18 Ibid I, ii, p 372.
19 Strype, [John], [The Life and Acts of John] Whitgift, [D.D., the third and last Lord Archbishop of Canterbury in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth], 3 vols (Oxford 1822) I, p 227 Google Scholar.
20 Ibid p 213.
21 Ibid p 530.
22 Strype, Annals I, ii, p 372.
23 Ibid.
24 Strype, Whitgift, I, p 347.
25 Ibidp 38.
26 Ibidp 301.
27 Maitland, Remarks, esp pp 9-13.
28 Strype, Annals, I, ii, Appendix, pp 392-8 and pp 459-64.
29 Ibid I, i, pp 74-6.
30 Burnet, Gilbert, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 4 vols in 7 (Oxford 1829) II, i, pp 754-7Google Scholar, and II, ii, pp 459-64; Camden, William, The History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princess Elizabeth, Late Queen of England (4 ed London 1688) p 16 Google Scholar.
31 Strype, Annals, I, i, p 119.
32 Ibid p 75.
33 Ibid pp 120-1.
34 The most recent scholar to investigate the problem is W. P. Haugaard, who considers that Guest was the author of the letter but that it relates to an earlier scheme by Elizabeth for adopting the 1549 prayer book as the basis of the 1559 settlement. See Haugaard, W.P., Elizabeth and the English Reformation (Cambridge 1968) p 109 Google Scholar and ‘The Proposed Liturgy of Edmund Guest’, Anglican Theological Review, 46 (Evanston 1964) pp 177-89.
35 Thompson, W.D.J.Cargill, ‘A Reconsideration of Richard Bancroft’s Paul’s Cross Sermon of 9 February 1588/9’, JEH, 20 (1969) esp pp 253-6Google Scholar.
36 Ibid pp 255-6.
37 Maitland, S.R., Notes on Strype (Gloucester 1858)Google Scholar which contains a draft prospectus which he had compiled some years earlier for a new edition of Strype’s Works, which was never published.