Maclear and Williams on Article XXXV: Of the Homilies

i. The Title of this Article was originally Homilies, ” Homilies,” and in 1571, De Homiliis, ” Of Homilies.” In 1563 the statement about the Homilies, without the Title, was appended to the preceding Article on Ecclesiastical Traditions. The Catalogus Homiliarum, so entitled, con- stituted the next Article, Art. XXXIV. of that year. In 1 571 the Title De Homiliis and the text subjoined were introduced as an independent Article by Archbishop Parker.

ii. The Word Homily1 denotes (1) a familiar or colloquial discourse2, (2) an inartificial, popular address delivered to a congregation3. From the beginning of the Church’s activity the preaching of Sermons and Homilies formed a very important department of its teaching office, and mainly took the form of comments on the Divine Scriptures, and expositions of large consecutive passages. These expositions and “teachings4” lived on during the

1 The substantive ‘OiXi’a occurs in I Cor. xv. 33, p6eipovtrii/ ifer] XPV9’ 6/j.Mai KaKod. Here the word is used in the sense of ” evil company,” ” Evil company doth corrupt good manners.” The verb from which it is formed oc- curs more frequently in the New Testa- ment. Thus in S. Luke xxiv. 14 we are told of the two journeying to Em- maus thaXthev co ///iinnd(wfj.l\ovv) with each other of all those things which had happened ; and in Acts xx. 11 we find S. Paul at Troas talking to those as- sembled (ojtuXTjaas) a long -while, even till break of day ; and it is said on an- other occasion that Felix communed with Paul (w/uXei) Acts xxiv. 25.

2 In Xenophon Mem. 1. ii. 6 and 15 the word 6/uX/a is used for the in- struction which a philosopher gave his pupils in familiar conversation.

3 The word did not pass into com- mon use in this sense in Latin before the fifth century. Victor Vitensis to- wards the end of that century speaks of Augustine’s popular addresses, ” quos

[…]

4 The most primitive types of Homi- lies are perhaps the discourses which accompanied the celebration of the Holy Eucharist (Acts xx. 7 sqq). To these Justin Martyr refers as follows: eJVa iravaafiivov rod avo.yivu3TO<i 6 trpoeo-Tws Sia \6yov tt)c vovBealav ko.1 irpoKX-qaiv ttjs twv koKCiv tovtwv fufir/- cews iroieirai, Apol. i. 67. Another in- stance is the instruction, which was delivered to the Catechumens at the Traditio Symboli, and of this S. Au- gustine’s Sermo ad Catechumenos is a specimen. This instruction in subse- quent times assumed a fixed form, and was termed in the Latin Church Pree- fatio Symboli. Exhortations from the Holy Scriptures form a great part of the writings of S. Cyril of Jerusalem, S. Chrysostom, S. Gregory of Nyssa, S. Gregory Nazianzen, and S. Basil in the East, of S. Ambrose, S. Augustine,

Middle Ages1, and the habit of preaching varied with the fervour or languor of the Church. In the East it gradually- died out, and at present hardly forms any part of the public worship of the Church. In the West it never entirely ceased even in the worst of times. Preaching at the time of the Reformation had greatly deteriorated. The practice had almost been abandoned by the parochial Clergy and left to the Friars. The Reformers, before the actual breach with Rome, had already begun to use this weapon for their own purposes, and when the breach had taken place, they saw plainly its great importance2.

iii. The First Book of Homilies was the first book pertaining to the teaching of the Church of England which was put forth in the reign of Edward VI. Of the Twelve Homilies which it contained three at least, including that

Of the Salvation of all Mankind, Of the trice and lively Faith, and the Exhortation to the reading and knowledge of the Holy Scripture, appear to have been written by Cranmer himself, while those Of the Misery of all Mankind and Of Christian Love and Charity were the work of Bishop Bonner and his Chaplain3. Nine editions of this book were printed before the end of 1547, but they were

and S. Leo in the West. Bede’s Homi- Sermons of S. Bernard, of eminent

lice de Tempore were much used by preachers belonging to the Dominican

those who were unable or unwilling to Order, of Savonarola, of S. Anthony of

compose sermons. Charles the Great Padua exerted a great effect. For the

commissioned Paul Warnefrid to draw names of authors of mediaeval Sermons

up a collection of Homilies from the which were deemed most worthy of

Fathers. In a.d. 813 the Council of preservation after the invention of

Rheims enjoined the Bishops to preach printing, see Bp Forbes On the Articles,

Sermons of the Fathers in the dialect p. 692.

of their several dioceses. The Col- 2 Postih on the Epistles and Gospels

lection of /Elfric was probably the were, with Cranmer’s sanction, edited

successor of various other collections and in part composed by Richard

of English Homilies, some of which Taverner, Clerk of the Signet to

may have existed before the time of Henry VHIth, as early as 1540.

Charles the Great. See Smith’s Diet. 3 Hardwick’s History of the Refer-

Christian Antiqq. ii. p. 782. motion, p. :n, n. 5. 1 During the Middle Ages the

received with scant favour. If the Priest misliked both them and the ” Men of the New Learning,” from whom they emanated, he read them unintelligibly. If the people objected to them, there was such talking and babbling in church, that not a word could be heard1.

iv. The Second Book of Homilies. It was intended during the reign of Edward Vlth to put out a fresh Book of Homilies, but this was prevented by his death and the accession of Queen Mary2. When Elizabeth came to the throne, a second Book of Homilies was drawn up, and together with the Thirty-Nine Articles was submitted to Convocation in 1562. The queen took some time to consider them and they were not in the hands of the public till Aug. 1, 1563. These new Homilies, twenty in number, were, it is supposed, to a great extent the work of Bishop Jewel. But their authorship has not in every case been ascertained, and a considerable portion of the material, out of which the book was framed, is traceable to foreign sources3.

v. Their Reception. At first, as we have seen, it was necessary to enjoin the Clergy to read the Homilies distinctly, on account of the general dislike of the innova- tions they contained. In the course of time, however, the tone of feeling changed, and the Puritans were the chief

1 Hence the necessity for the words of the Article, “eas in Ecclesiis per ministros diligenter et clare, ut a populo intelligi possint recitandas esse judicavimus.”

2 Bonner, however, published some Homilies in Mary’s reign.

S. Cyprian; Horn, xviii. “Of Matri- mony, is derived half from Veit Die- tricke of Nuremberg, and half from S. Chrysostom; Horn. xix. “Of Re- pentance,” is translated to a great extent from Rudolph Gualther. The xxist “Against Rebellion” was added on the occasion of the rising in the North of England instigated with a view of restoring the Roman obedience by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland,

party who disliked them1, on the ground that nothing uninspired ought to be read in church. The Homilies were now enjoined to be read by way of stifling “the prophesyings2,” and for this reason were appealed to by James I., who directed their use3. There is little danger in these days of the Homilies being esteemed by the people as of like authority with Holy Scripture, and the objection to them on this ground would equally apply to the use of Sermons and Hymns as part of public worship.

vi. Their Authority. The measure of the authority

of the Homilies has been diversely estimated. While some would hardly attach to them any real value, others would elevate them almost to the position of a standard of doctrine. Their value is sufficiently expressed in the words of the Article itself, when it says that they “contain a godly and wholesome doctrine,” necessary for the times in which they were drawn up. We are not required to ex- press approval of every statement which occurs in them. The assent we are called upon to give to them is general,

325 sqq., 341 sqq.; Cardwell, Doc. Ann. i. pp. 389 sqq.

not specific. They were well adapted for the age which called them forth, and are of no little value as reflecting the views of those, who reformed our services and drew up our Articles, and as throwing light on documents more authoritative than themselves1.

Notes

• Hardwick’s History of the Refer- mation, p. 249, n. 4. Of Homily x., on “Certain Passages in Scripture,” a few sentences were taken from a tract of Erasmus; Homily xi. “Of Almsdeeds” is greatly drawn from
• Hardwick On the Articles, p. 205; History of the Reformation, p. 232. Many of the exiles during the reign of Mary, unaccustomed for some years to such services as those of the English Church, no sooner returned than they lost no time in expressing their dis- like of them. “Remove Homylies, Articles, Injunctions” was soon the cry.
• The “Method of Prophesying,” especially rife in East Anglia, under the patronage of Parkhurst, Bishop of Norwich, was rigorously suppressed by Archbishop Tarker in 1574. About two years later Archbishop Crindal though opposed by the queen, who held that the remedy would be found in great measure in the use of the Homilies, attempted to regulate “the Prophesyings.” Strype’s Grindal, p.
• See his directions concerning “preachers,” dated Aug. 4, 1622. They were due in part to the action of Knight, an Oxford Preacher, who had defended the right of the subject to arm against the sovereign. The king immediately “tuned the pulpits “by requiring Archbishop Abbott to issue, through his suffragans, six “Direc- tions,” to the Preachers, which limited the subjects to be treated of to such as were warranted by the formularies of the Church, and forbade the discussion of such matters as predestination, and the royal prerogative, and all this under penalty of suspension. Collier, Eccl. Hist. i. pp. 723 sqq. ; Cardwell, Doc. Ann. ii. 198 sqq.
• Bp Browne, On the Articles, p. 777.