his authority without our ordinances and precautions; so that it is
idly and scurrilously said, by way of joke, that, as heretofore Christ
was cast out by his enemies, so he is now kept out by his friends.^18That England’s religious situation did not even possess the promise of
Edward’s church, or that it could only be imperfectly realized, Jewel had
originally blamed upon those traditionalists – primarily the bishops –
who had in 1559 retained the ability to impede reform. The bishops,
however, though formidable because of the positions they occupied in
the House of Lords, were not the only problem, as they only impeded
reform on the formal level of keeping it from being effected by statute.
Yet whatever the resistance or obstacles offered by either Catholics or the
temporizers, Jewel was of the mind that where it concerned the laity,
ignorance would evaporate before the Gospel, and informed Martyr in
August 1559 that this was not merely a desired end, but indeed was an
unfolding reality, for ‘We found everywhere the minds of the masses
rather bent to religion; indeed, even there in all those places where we
thought there would be the most difficulty’.^19 By the following March he
would write how after a sermon at Paul’s Cross up to 6,000 people
would stay afterwards to sing; all, Jewel adds, to the great annoyance of
the devil and the ‘mass-priests’ (sacrificios).^20 Nonetheless, in April he
likened the speed of the change of religion to the pace of the delivery of
his letters to Martyr, for ‘they [the letters] are either stuck somewhere or
other, and imitating our religion are in laziness and leisure, or are lost
along the way’.^21
Jewel explicitly linked the political considerations which accompanied
religious change to any hope of a welcome for Martyr and his return to
Oxford, even if only in spirit if not also in reality. In a subsequent letter,
little more than a month later, Jewel assured Martyr that Elizabeth is
possessed with the best intentions towards him, and that not only she,
but others (archbishop Parker, inter alios) desired his return to England.
Jewel, however, can only acquiesce to Martyr’s return if the invitation
took an earnest, serious and honorable form. Martyr’s theology carried
political baggage, as members of Elizabeth’s government as well as
representatives from Wurttemberg saw in his Eucharistic doctrines an
impediment to negotiations with the German Lutheran principalities.^22
Despite these misgivings Jewel entertained hope of a thorough
reformation, as both his hasty return and early letters disclose. But with
THE STRUGGLE FOR THE ELIZABETHAN CHURCH 55
(^18) Jewel, letter to Peter Martyr, 14 April 1559, in Works, IV, p. 1205.
(^19) Ibid., IV, p. 1216.
(^20) Ibid., IV, p. 1230.
(^21) ‘Et fieri potest, ut saepe fit, ut aut haereant uspiam, et ignavae atque otiosae imitentur
religionem nostram, aut etiam perierint in itinere.’ Ibid., IV, p. 1206.
(^22) McClelland,Visible Words, p. 45.