The Apology of the Church of England

The Apology of the Church of
England

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Apology of the Church of England,
by John Jewel, Edited by Henry Morley
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Title: The Apology of the Church of England
Author: John Jewel
Editor: Henry Morley
Release Date: February 5, 2006 [eBook #17678]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
APOLOGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND***

Transcribed from the 1888 Cassell and Company edition by David
Price, email [email protected]

THE APOLOGY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.
BY JOHN JEWEL,
Bishop of Salisbury.
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED: LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK
& MELBOURNE. 1888.

INTRODUCTION.
The great interest of Jewel's "Apology" lies in the fact that it was
written in Latin to be read throughout Europe as the answer of the
Reformed Church of England, at the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's
reign, to those who said that the Reformation set up a new Church. Its
argument was that the English Church Reformers were going back to
the old Church, not setting up a new; and this Jewel proposed to show
by looking back to the first centuries of Christianity. Innovation was
imputed; and an Apology originally meant a pleading to rebut an
imputation. So, even as late as 1796, there was a book called "An
Apology for the Bible," meaning its defence against those who
questioned its authority. This Latin book of Jewel's, Apologia Ecclesiae
Anglicanae--written in Latin because it was not addressed to England
only--was first published in 1562, and translated into English by the
mother of Francis Bacon, whose edition appeared in 1564. That is the
translation given in this volume. The book has since had six or seven
other translators, but Lady Ann Bacon's translation was that which
presented it in Queen Elizabeth's time to English readers, and it had the
advantage of revision by the Queen's Archbishop of Canterbury, her
coadjutor in the establishment of the Reformed Church of England,
Matthew Parker. It was published, with no name of author or translator
on the title-page, as "An Apologie or answere in defence of the
Churche of Englande, with a briefe and plaine declaration of the true
Religion professed or used in the same." The book was prefaced by a
letter, "To the right honorable learned and vertuous Ladie, A. B." [Ann

Bacon] "M. C. wisheth from God grace, honoure, and felicitie," where
M. C. signifies Matthew Cantuar, Matthew Parker, Archbishop of
Canterbury, whom Lady Ann Bacon had made her judge, and whose
judgment, the letter says, her book had singularly pleased.
Lady Ann Bacon was the second daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, who
was tutor to King Edward VI. Sir Anthony gave to his five daughters a
most liberal education. His eldest daughter, Mildred, married Sir
William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, while Ann became the second
wife of the Lord Keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon. Their father had made
Mildred and Ann two of the most learned women in England.
John Jewel was forty years old when he wrote the "Apology." He was
born in Devonshire in 1522, on the 24th of May, at the village of Buden,
near Ilfracombe. He studied at Oxford, where he became tutor and
preacher, graduated as B.D. in 1551, and was presented to the rectory
of Sunningwell. At the accession of Queen Mary he bowed to the royal
authority, but he was a warm friend and disciple of Peter Martyr, who
had come to England in 1547, at the invitation of Edward VI., to take
the chair of Divinity at Oxford. On the accession of Queen Mary, Peter
Martyr (who was born at Florence in 1500, and whose family name was
Vermigli) returned to Strasburg, and went thence to Zurich, where he
died in 1562. Jewel, repenting of his assent to the new sovereign's
authority in matters of religion, followed his friend Peter Martyr across
the water, and became vice-master of a college at Strasburg. Upon the
accession of Elizabeth, in 1588, Jewel came back, and he was one of
the sixteen Protestants appointed by the Queen to dispute before her
with a like number of Catholics.
In 1559 John Jewel was appointed a commissioner for securing, in the
West of England, conformity with the newly-arranged Church service,
and he had to see that the Queen's orders were obeyed in the churches
of his native county. Before the end of the same year he was
consecrated Bishop of Salisbury. He was most zealous in performance
of all duties of his charge. To his good offices young