A newly published novel, Wolf Hall by Hilary Martel, concerns Thomas Cromwell who rose from assistant to Cardinal Wolsey, Lord Chancellor of Henry VIII, to the monarch’s chief minister noted for his efficient confiscation of the properties of the English monasteries. Many will recall Cromwell’s portrayal in the film of Sir Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons, where at the conclusion his prosecution of More he tells the goodfellows on the jury they need not retire to confer since their verdict is obvious. Books by Hilaire Belloc are always readable and he has several on that period, such as Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Cranmer.
The separation of the English Church under Henry VIII from the universal church is the backdrop to the dramatic announcement by Cardinal Levada (formerly archbishop of San Francisco) of Pope Benedict XVI’s document on the entrance of Anglicans into the Catholic Church. Lack of historical knowledge leads many commentators to incomplete understanding of the developments.
Unlike many churches during the Reformation, the Anglican Church became schismatic (not heretical) similar to the Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox Churches. But not exactly as the Orthodox churches (whose bishops are valid in view of Rome) due to doubts if there were valid bishops at the time of Queen Elizabeth I. Under her sister, Queen Mary, the Archbishop of Canterbury was Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500-1558). The then pope was suspicious of Pole and other cardinals (those in Rome were imprisoned) and refused to confirm the English bishops nominated by Pole. When Pole died at the same time as Queen Mary, Elizabeth I was able to appoint many new bishops without concern for the validity of their consecrations.
Henry VIII and Elizabeth I tended to be orthodox in their personal beliefs; they sought to maintain a national Catholic church with bishops. The monasteries had been suppressed for their properties, but monastic establishments remained in the fellows of the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge. The fellows could not marry until about 1870. Since the Catholic Church underwent reform at the Council of Trent, the Anglican Church retained many features of the medieval Catholic Church. While the Second Vatican Council (1965) introduced the vernacular liturgy, it made changes in the mass and hymns disturbing to serious and devout Catholics. Anglican Old Sarum liturgy can seem more traditional to Catholics. While European states destroyed the limitations on power of medieval society, England (and United States) were the sole inheritors of medieval institutions and constitutionalism.
The new Vatican guidelines permit ‘corporate’ joining of Anglicans as a group (parish or diocese) rather than only personal. Thus they can have autonomy to preserve their liturgy and customs administered by clergy coming from the Anglican Church. Earlier, when Anglican or Lutheran clergy who were married wished to become Catholic priests, they were ordained as Catholic priests but tended to serve as hospital chaplains or in administration. In recent decades, married convert priests have served in Catholic parishes.
2.
The main topic in the news stories related to the matter of married clergy. To begin with, the Latin Catholic Church of Western and Central Europe (and now of the Americas, Asia and Africa) is only one of more than twenty Catholic Churches, all in communion with the Holy See in Rome. If we start with the origins of Christianity, it occurred when a large territory east and west of Jerusalem spoke a common language – Greek, or Koine which was a commercial Greek spoken in the cities created by Alexander’s successors. Greek was spoken from Magna Graecia (Sicily and Southern Italy) to the Indus Valley. When St. Peter became first bishop of Antioch (one of the greatest of the Greek speaking cities) the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. But the people in rural areas spoke their own languages and the liturgies of all the Catholic Churches reflected the local languages which had separate administrations; thus, the more than twenty Catholic Churches. When I was in high school, Fordham University held an annual week-long summer program on all the Catholic Churches with lectures and noon liturgies on Edwards Parade in front of the plaza at Keating Hall. I regularly attended them.
Like the Apostles, the Christian clergy were married; but when monasticism arose in Egypt in the 3rd century, the seeking of a rigorous life precluded marriage. Overtime it became the tradition that bishops should not be married, and Eastern bishops have been selected from monks. (About two decades ago the Anglican bishop of London became a Catholic priest, but since Bishop Leonard was married he was not consecrated a Catholic bishop.)
The Latin Catholic Church was located in the Western Roman Empire which was the least economically developed area. Unlike the Eastern Catholic Churches the limited money economy made it difficult to support the clergy and families. There was the temptation for clergy to alienate church property to their children given the lack of money. Unlike the more developed Catholic Churches, the poorer Latin Church opted to deviate from the Christian tradition of married clergy to model the priests on the monks. These decisions were made by local synods and councils, and eventually covered the whole Latin Church. But it was always a deviation from the Catholic Churches and is an easily reversed ordinance as it has nothing to do with dogma. (I recommend David Newsome, The Convert Cardinals (1993), which concerns the parallel lives of two Anglican priests who became 19th century Cardinals. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), a leader of the Oxford Movement, founded the Catholic Oratory of Birmingham; he was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII. Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) was an Anglican Archdeacon who became a Catholic priest after the death of his wife. Manning was consecrated Archbishop of Westminster and was a supporter of strong declarations at the First Vatican Council unlike Newman.)
Copyright © 2010 The Atlas Network.
Developed by The Liberty Lab