Edward Payson (1783-1827)
HEAVEN'S JOY AND REPENTANCE
Edward Payson (1783-1827) Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.—Luke 15:10
W HY do the inhabitants of heaven rejoice over repenting sinners?...God does not rejoice in the repentance of sinners because it can add anything to His essential happiness or glory. He is already infinitely glorious and happy, and so would continue, though all the men on earth and all the angels in heaven should madly rush into hell…Why then does God rejoice when we repent?
He rejoices because His eternal purposes of grace and His engagements to His Son are then fulfilled. We learn from the Scriptures that all who repent were chosen by Him in Christ Jesus before the world began and given to Him as His people in the covenant of redemption…
God rejoices when sinners repent because bringing them to repentance is His own work. It is a consequence of the gift of His Son and is effected by the power of His Spirit. The Scriptures inform us that He rejoices in all His works. With reason does He rejoice in them, for they are all very good. But if He rejoices in His other works, much more may He rejoice in this, since it is of all His works the greatest, the most glorious, and the most worthy of Himself. In this work, the image of Satan is effaced1 and the image of God restored to an immortal soul. In this work, a child of wrath is transformed into an heir of glory. In this work, a smoking brand is plucked from eternal fires and planted among the stars in the firmament of heaven, there to shine with increasing luster forever and ever! And is not this a work worthy of God, a work in which God may…rejoice?
God rejoices in the repentance of sinners because it affords Him an opportunity to exercise mercy and show His love to Christ by pardoning them for His sake. Christ is His beloved Son in Whom
He is ever well pleased. He loves Him with an infinite love as He loves Himself: [it is] a love that is as inconceivable by us as His creative power and eternal duration. He loves [Christ] not only on
1 effaced – wiped out; destroyed.
Heaven's Joy and Repentance
account of the near relation and inseparable union that subsists between them, but for the perfect holiness and excellence of His character, especially for the infinite benevolence that He displayed in undertaking and accomplishing the great work of man's redemption. As it is the nature of love to manifest itself in acts of kindness toward the beloved object, God cannot but wish to display His love for Christ and to show all intelligent beings how perfectly He is pleased with His character and conduct as Mediator2 …
God rejoices when sinners repent because it gratifies Him to see them escape from the tyranny and from the consequences of sin.
God is light—perfect holiness. God is love—pure benevolence. His holiness and His benevolence both prompt Him to rejoice when sinners escape from sin. Sin is that abominable thing that He hates. He hates it as an evil or malignant and as a bitter or destructive thing. It is indeed both. It is the plague, the leprosy, the death of intelligent creatures. It infects and poisons all their faculties.
[It] plunges them into the lowest depths of guilt and wretchedness and pollutes them with a stain that all the waters of the ocean cannot wash away, that all the fires of hell cannot remove, from which nothing can cleanse them but the blood of Christ.
Such is the malignity of its nature that could it gain admittance into the celestial regions, it would instantly transform angels to devils and turn heaven into hell…Already has sin transformed angels to devils. Already has it converted this world from a paradise to a prison…It has brought death into the world and all our woe…Even now it stalks through our subjugated3 world with gigantic strides, spreading ruin and wretchedness around in ten thousand forms. Strife and discord, war and bloodshed, famine and pestilence, pain and sickness follow in its train…
Would we see these evils consummated and learn the full extent of that wretchedness that sin tends to produce, we must follow it into the eternal world. [We must] descend into those regions where peace [and] hope never come. There by the light of revelation, behold sin tyrannizing over its wretched victims with uncontrollable
2 Mediator – It pleased God in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus
His only begotten Son, according to the Covenant made between them both, to be the Mediator between God and man; the Prophet, Priest and King; Head and Saviour of His Church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world: Unto whom He did from all eternity give a people to be His seed, and to be by Him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. (The 1677/89 London Baptist
Confession of Faith 8.1) 3 subjugated – enslaved.
Heaven's Joy and Repentance
fury, fanning the inextinguishable fire and sharpening the tooth of the immortal worm. See angels and archangels, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers stripped of all their primeval4 glory and beauty, bound in eternal chains and burning with rage and malice against that Being in Whose presence they once rejoiced and Whose praises they once sang. See multitudes of the human race in unutterable agonies of anguish and despair, cursing the Gift, the Giver, and Prolonger of their existence, vainly wishing for annihilation to put a period to their miseries. Follow them through the long, long ages of eternity and see them sinking deeper and deeper in the bottomless abyss of ruin, perpetually blaspheming God because of their plagues, and receiving the punishment of these blasphemies in continual additions to their wretchedness. Such are the wages of sin. Such the inevitable doom of the finally impenitent.
From these depths of anguish and despair, look up to the mansions of the blessed and see to what a height of glory and felicity the grace of God will raise every sinner that repenteth. See those who are thus favored in unutterable ecstasies of joy, love, and praise, contemplating God face to face, reflecting His perfect image, shining with a splendor like that of their glorious Redeemer.
[See them] filled with all the fullness of Deity and bathing in those rivers of pleasure that flow forever at God's right hand…View this, and then say whether infinite holiness and benevolence may not with propriety rejoice over every sinner that by repentance escapes the miseries and secures the felicity here so imperfectly described!
Why does the Son of God rejoice over every sinner that repenteth?...If it be asked why Christ rejoices over repenting sinners, we reply, because He has given them spiritual life and nourishment, because He has redeemed them with His own precious blood from eternal wretchedness and despair. In the joy arising from other sources, He participates with His Father and the Holy Spirit.
But this is a cause of joy almost peculiar to Himself. It was long since predicted respecting Him, that He should see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied (Isa 53:11). In other words, that He should see the effects of His sufferings in the repentance and salvation of sinners and consider this as a sufficient recompense for all the toils and sorrows through which He was called to pass! This prediction is daily fulfilling. Our Immanuel sees the fruit of the travail of His soul in every sinner that repenteth and rejoices that His agonies were not endured in vain…
4 primeval – original.
Heaven's Joy and Repentance
Who can conceive of the emotions with which the Son of David must contemplate an immortal soul drawn to His feet by the cords of love, whom He has rescued from the roaring lion at such an infinite expense? If we love, prize, and rejoice in any object in proportion to the labor, pain, and expense that it has cost us to obtain it, how greatly must Christ love, prize, and rejoice in every penitent sinner! His love and joy must be unutterable, inconceivable, infinite…And permit me to add, if He thus rejoices over one sinner that repenteth, what must be His joy when all His people are collected out of every tongue and kindred and nation and people and presented spotless before His Father's throne?…How great must that joy, that happiness be, which satisfies the benevolence of Christ!
Why do the angels rejoice over every sinner that repenteth?
They rejoice when sinners repent because God is glorified and His perfections are displayed in giving them repentance and remission of sins. The perfections of God are to be seen only in His works.
His moral perfections are to be seen only or at least principally in His works of grace. There is more of God, more of His essential glory displayed in bringing one sinner to repentance and forgiving
His sins for the sake of Christ, than in all the wonders of creation…In this work, creatures may see, if I may so express it, the very heart of God.
From this work, angels themselves have probably learned more of God's moral character than they had ever been able to learn before. They knew before that God was wise and powerful, for they had seen Him create a world. They knew that He was good, for He had made them perfectly holy and happy. They knew that He was just, for they had seen Him cast down their own rebellious brethren from heaven to hell for their sins. But until they saw Him give repentance and remission of sins through Christ, they did not know that He was merciful. They did not know that He could pardon a sinner.
And O! What an hour was that in heaven, when this great truth was first made known, when the first penitent was pardoned! Then a new song was put into the mouths of angels, and while with unutterable emotions of wonder, love, and praise, they began to sing it, their voices swelled to a higher pitch, and they experienced joys unfelt before! O how did the joyful sounds, "His mercy endureth forever," spread from choir to choir, echo through the high arches of heaven, and thrill through every enraptured angelic breast! And
Heaven's Joy and Repentance
how did they cry with one voice, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luk 2:14)!
Nor is the mercy of God the only perfection displayed in this work. There is more power and wisdom displayed in bringing a sinner to repentance than in creating a world! Therefore, as the sons of God sang together and shouted for joy when God laid the foundations of the earth, so with still greater reason do they rejoice at beholding the wonders of the new creation in the souls of men!
They delight to watch the beginnings of spiritual life in those who had long been dead in sin: to see light and order breaking in upon the natural darkness and confusion of the mind, to see the image of Satan disappearing, and to trace the first lineaments5 of the image of God in the soul. With inexpressible satisfaction do they see the heart of stone transformed to flesh, notice the first penitential tears that flow from the sinner's eyes, and listen to the imperfectly formed petitions, the infant cries of the young child of grace. With the utmost readiness do they descend from their blissful abode to minister to the newborn heir of salvation and surround him in joyful throngs, celebrating his birthday with songs of praise.
"Behold," they cry, "another trophy of sovereign, all conquering grace!" Behold another captive delivered by the Son of David from the bondage of sin, another lamb of His flock rescued from the paw of the lion and the jaws of the bear! See the principalities and powers of darkness foiled. See the strong man armed cast out. See the kingdom of Jesus extending. See the image of our God multiplied.
See another voice tuned to join in the hallelujahs of the heavenly choirs. This, O our Creator, is Thy work. Glory to God in the highest! This, O adorable Immanuel, is the effect of Thy sufferings.
Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessing and honor and power be unto Him that sitteth on the throne and to the Lamb forever!…
O then, be persuaded, my friends…be persuaded to give joy to God, to His Son, and to the blessed angels, to make this day a festival in heaven by repenting.
From "Joy in Heaven over Repenting Sinners" in The Complete Works of Edward Payson,
Vol. 3, Sprinkle Publications, www.sprinklepublications.net.
Repentance is a turning from sin unto God, through Jesus Christ; and faith is the acceptance of Christ in order to our return to God. So that whoever believes repents, and whoever repents believes.—Charles Hodge
5 lineaments – definitive or characteristic features.
APPENDICES
__________
INDEX OF AUTHORS
Thomas Boston (1676-1732) ............................................................................... 7
Scottish Presbyterian minister and scholar. Author of Human Nature in Its Fourfold State (1720), Notes to the Marrow of Modern
Divinity (1726), and many other treatises and sermons. Born in Duns, Berwickshire.
Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) ........................................................... 140, 168, 189
Scottish Presbyterian minister whose poems, hymns, and religious tracts were widely popular during the 19th century. His three series of Hymns of Faith and Hope (1857-1866) introduced hymns that are still sung throughout the English-speaking world, such as "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say," "I Was a Wandering Sheep," and "I Lay My Sins on Jesus." Born in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Thomas Brooks (1608-1680) ........................................................................... 195
Nonconformist Puritan preacher. An advocate of the Congregational way. His written works fill six volumes.
James Buchanan (1804-1870) ......................................................................... 124
Prolific and popular writer with the reputation as an earnest, eloquent, and powerful evangelical preacher in the Free Church of Scotland. Best known for The Office and Work of the Holy Spirit and The Doctrine of Justification. Born in Paisley, Scotland.
Index of Authors
John Calvin (1509-1564) .................................................................................. 172
The father of Reformed and Presbyterian theology. During the course of his nearly 25 year ministry in Geneva, Calvin lectured and preached an average of five sermons a week in addition to writing a commentary on nearly every book of the Bible, as well as numerous treatises on theological topics. His correspondence fills eleven volumes. Born in Noyon, Picardie, France.
Samuel Davies (1723-1761) ............................................................................. 255
Presbyterian minister; fourth president of Princeton and preacher during the Great Awakening; born near Summit Ridge, Delaware,
USA.
Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) .................................................................. 44, 98
American Congregational preacher. Regarded as America's greatest evangelical theologian and well-known for his preaching in the Great Awakening along with George Whitefield. Author of Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, and numerous other titles. Born in East Windsor,
Connecticut Colony.
Ebenezer Erskine (1680-1754) ....................................................................... 186
Evangelical divine and founder of the Secession Church of Scotland and popular preacher. Born in Dryburgh (Scottish Borders).
John Gill (1697-1771) ....................................................................................... 242
English Baptist minister, theologian, and biblical scholar; born in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England.
Charles Hodge (1797-1898) ............................................................. 111, 117, 176
The most influential American Presbyterian theologian of the nineteenth century. Taught theology at Princeton Seminary. Best known for his three volume Systematic Theology. Born in Philadelphia, PA.
Thomas Manton (1620-1677)...................................................................... 18, 37
Nonconformist Puritan preacher. Graduated from Oxford and preached until forbidden by the Act of Uniformity of 1662. From 1662 to 1670 he preached in his own house, but was finally arrested and imprisoned for six months. Subsequently became preacher for London merchants in Pinners' Hall. James Ussher called him
"one of the best preachers in England." Appointed as one of three clerks at the Westminster Assembly. Born in Lawrence-Lydiat, county of Somerset, England.
Index of Authors
John Murray (1898-1975) ................................................................................ 234
Reformed theologian; studied at Princeton Theological Seminary under J. Gresham Machen and Geerhardus Vos. Taught at Princeton Seminary, then helped to found Westminster Theological
Seminary, where he taught systematic theology from 1930 to 1966; an early trustee of The Banner of Truth. Besides the material in the four-volume Collected Writings, his primary published works are a commentary on Romans, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, Principles of Conduct, The Imputation of Adam's Sin, Baptism, and Divorce. Born in Badbea, near Bonar Bridge, Sutherland county, Scotland.
John Owen (1616-1683) ...................................................................................... 93
Called "The Prince of the Puritans" and committed to the Congregational way of church government. He was a chaplain in the army of Oliver Cromwell and vice-chancellor of Oxford University, but most of his life he served as a minister in congregational churches. His written works span forty years and run to twentyfour volumes representing among the best resources for theology in the English language. Born to Puritan parents in the Oxfordshire village of Stadhampton.
J. I. Packer (see note, page 17 ) ............................................................................ 11
Anglican theologian. Born in Gloucestershire, England.
Edward Payson (1783-1827) ........................................................................... 262
American Congregational preacher; his sermons were reprinted in three volumes. Born in Rindge, New Hampshire, USA.
William Pemble (1591-1623) .......................................................................... 147
Puritan, educated Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated in 1614, having been tutored by the Puritan Richard Capel. He worked at his studies and preaching so hard that it damaged his health, and he died of a fever in 1623. Born in Egerton, Kent.
Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952) ....................................................... 64, 76, 132, 245
Pastor, itinerate Bible teacher, excellent exegete and voluminous author of Studies in the Scriptures, and many books including his well-known The Sovereignty of God and The Attributes of God. Born in Nottingham, England, immigrated to the USA, studied briefly at Moody Bible Institute, Chicago, served pastorates in the USA and Australia, and later returned to his homeland in 1934.
William S. Plumer (1802-1880) ..................................................................... 219
American Presbyterian minister; author of numerous Christcentered books; born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, USA.
Index of Authors
J. C. Ryle (1816-1900) ........................................................... 22, 33, 153, 210, 222
Bishop of the Anglican Church in Liverpool. Revered author of Holiness, Knots Untied, Old Paths, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, and others. Born at Macclesfield, Cheshire County, England.
Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) ........... 27, 42, 47, 57, 68, 107, 163, 237, 251
Influential English Baptist. Known as the "Prince of Preachers."
He Preached regularly to more than 6,000 at the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London. The collected sermons of Spurgeon during his ministry fill 63 volumes. The sermons' 20–25 million words are equivalent to the 27 volumes of the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and stand as the largest set of books by a single author in the history of Christianity. Born at Kelvedon, Essex,
England.
Robert Traill (1642-1716) ................................................................................ 151
Presbyterian. Educated at Edinburgh, Scotland. Ended his days as a faithful minister in London. Born in Elie, Fifeshire, Scotland.
Thomas Watson (c. 1620-1686) .............................................................. 226, 249
Nonconformist Puritan preacher and prolific author of A Body of Divinity, The Lord's Prayer, The Ten Commandments, Heaven Taken by Storm, and numerous others. Actual place and date of birth unknown; most likely born in Yorkshire, England.
Octavius Winslow (1808-1878)......................................................................... 85
Baptist, and later Anglican, minister. He was a descendant of one of the Pilgrim Fathers, born in London, England, and raised in New York. He was ordained as a pastor in 1833 and held pastorates in New York and England, where he became one of the most valued ministers of the nineteenth century, serving in Leamington
Spa, Bath, and Brighton. In 1861 he spoke at the opening of Spurgeon's Tabernacle in London. A prolific author of more than
40 books, his devotional writings exhibit his Reformed, experiential convictions and distinctive, warm, ardent style. He is the author of Help Heavenward, No Condemnation, Personal Declension, and The Work of the Holy Spirit.
THE STORY OF THE PURITANS
"Almost no one reads their writings now." 1 So wrote William Haller in his 1957 book, The Rise of Puritanism. His comment was true then, but it is not true now. Since 1957 there has taken place a Reformed theological renewal that has its roots in Puritan books.2 In addition to the extensive publishing achievement of Banner of Truth and Soli Deo Gloria publishers, there are many other publishing houses in the business of reworking and publishing the Puritans: Reformation Heritage Books, Evangelical Press, Still Waters
Revival Books, Solid Ground Christian Books, Grace Publications, Sprinkle Publications, Pilgrim Publications, and Northampton Press, to name a few. Included in the republication of Puritan writings is the translation of Puritan expositions in other languages. For instance, Jeremiah Burroughs' The Rare Jewel of Christian
Contentment has recently been published in Albanian, Arabic, French, Indonesian, Korean, Persian, Portuguese, and Spanish.3
The need for a popular historical background into which we can readily set the Puritan authors is one of the reasons for this presentation. I would urge newcomers to the Puritans to memorize the names and dates of the monarchs for the 16th and 17th centuries.
The time grid is essential. Each monarch put his or her own peculiar stamp on that part of the story. Compared to the monarchy today, the kings and queens of that era seemed to wield supreme authority. In fact their powers were ill-defined. He/she had no standing army, was often short of money, and had to govern bearing in mind the goodwill of the land-owning classes who were the natural leaders in society.
In his A Short History of the English People, J. R. Green declared, "No greater moral change ever passed over a nation than passed over England during the years which parted the middle of the reign
1 This article is abstracted from The Story of the Puritans, booklet available from Chapel Library.
The full work by Hulse, An Introduction to the Puritans, is a 220 page quality hardback available from Evangelical Press and in Christian bookstores.
2 Robert Oliver, "The Recovery of the Reformed Faith in Twentieth Century England," Evangelical
Library Lecture for 1997. See also The Theological Renewal 1950-2000, Reformation Today,
162.
3 Burroughs' classic is abridged and simplified with the title Learning to Be Happy, published by Grace Publications and distributed by Evangelical Press. An abridgment using Burroughs' original words is available from Chapel Library.
The Story of the Puritans
of Elizabeth to the meeting of the Long Parliament (1640-1660).
England became the people of a book, and that book the Bible." 4
This may sound exaggerated, but we can be sure that what Green meant is that the Puritans eventually came to wield a spiritual influence well beyond their proportion, for they always formed a minority. It will help to see the story in perspective by recalling that the population of England in 1500 was about two million and in 1600 approximately four million. As for religion, in spite of enforced church attendance, it is doubtful whether more than a quarter of the population of England during that period could be said to have any religion at all.5 It is interesting to observe that the population of England is now about 48 million and has
13,000 parishes with 10,000 clergy, 8,000 of whom are paid. This general observation needs to be remembered not only for the whole time that we will be viewing, but even more so today when those who profess and practice the Christian Faith constitute probably less than ten percent. Ralph Josselin in his Essex parish did not celebrate communion for nine years, and when he did in 1651, only
34 qualified! Josselin spoke of three categories of parishioners— first, those who seldom hear preaching; second, those who are
"sleepy hearers;" and third,"our society," a small group of the godly.6
Nominalism has always characterized the great majority of Anglicans. It was so then as it is now. By about 1600 the number of Puritan ministers had increased to about ten percent, that is about 800 of the 8,000 Church of England clergy. By 1660 this proportion had increased to about twenty-five percent. And between 1660 and 1662, about 2,000 were forced out of the National Church.7
Before the Reformation the English Church was Roman Catholic. In character it was "a collection of practices, habits and attitudes rather than an intellectually coherent body of doctrine." 8
The Protestantization of England was essentially gradual, taking place slowly throughout Elizabeth's reign, "here a little and there a little," and very much in piecemeal fashion. From about 1600 growth accelerated. At the time of Henry VIII's breach with Rome,
England was officially completely Roman Catholic. In 1642 it is estimated that not more than two percent was Catholic, but ten
4 J. R. Green, 1878 and 1909, 460.
5 M. M. Knappen, Tudor Puritanism, Chicago Press, 1939, 380.
6 John Spurr, English Puritanism 1603-1689, Macmillan ,1998, 37 & 41.
7 Commended reading on the Great Ejection is Daniel Neal, History of the Puritans, Vol. 3.
8 Kenneth Hylson-Smith, The Churches in England from Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II, Vol. 1,
1558-1688, 240, citing Loades, The Mid-Tudor Crisis, 161.
The Story of the Puritans
percent of the peerage was still so. Throughout this period, England was a sacral society. Everyone was required to conform to the Church of England. This resulted in recusants, who refused to attend the Church of England services, either for Puritan reasons or out of loyalty to the Roman Catholic Church. From 1570 to 1791 this was punishable by a fine and involved many civil disabilities.
Recusants tended to lie low and keep out of trouble. It was during the period 1640 to 1660 that Christian denominations surfaced:
Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers (all these together representing only about five percent of the population).9
The Toleration Act of 1689 marked the end of the Church of England's claim to be the single all-inclusive Church of the English people, although it remained the Church established by law.
In 1568 there were "many congregations of the Anabaptists in London, who called themselves 'Puritans' or 'the unspotted lambs of the Lord' " 10 It has been widely accepted that the word "Puritan" first came into use in connection with these groups.11 It was during the Elizabethan period (1558-1603) that the Puritans grew increasingly as a distinct brotherhood of pastors who emphasized the great centralities of Christianity: faithfulness to Scripture, expository preaching, pastoral care, personal holiness, and practical godliness applied to every area of life. The word "Puritan" began to be used to refer to these people who were scrupulous about their way of life. "The godly," or those who were not nominal, were dubbed Puritans.12 Those who cared about the gospel (gospellers) and who sought to propagate the gospel were Puritans. As the Scriptures warn, the godly can expect to bear reproach for their holy way of life. The godly of that time were derided as killjoys and nick-named "Puritans."
A new meaning developed and this came about through the Arminian/Calvinist controversy.13 Those ministers in England who subscribed to the doctrines of grace were called Puritans. When submitting a list of names for preferment (promotion), the dogmatic Arminian Archbishop William Laud placed a "P" beside the
9 Michael Watts, The Dissenters - From the Reformation to the French Revolution, Oxford, 1985.
Watts provides a detailed analysis of statistics.
10 Ibid, 20, citing J. Stowe, Three Fifteenth Century Chronicles, ed. J. Gardiner (Camden Society),
1880, new series, xxviii. 143.
11 Hylson-Smith, op.cit., 61.
12 Patrick Collinson, Godly People - Essays on English Protestantism and Puritanism, Hambledon
Press, 1983, 1.
13 For a more complete explanation of this controversy, see The Doctrines of Grace in the Gospel of John, Truth and Error, Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility, or Introductory Essay to the Death of Death, each reprinted by and available from Chapel Library.
The Story of the Puritans
Puritans thus warning against their convictions, and an "O" beside others for orthodox, as Laud interpreted that term, conveying the meaning that they were acceptable.
The word "Puritan" has been used much as a term of derision.
But it is no more so today. In the twenty-first century, churches everywhere increasingly recognize the high value of the Puritan's writings, a rich spiritual legacy to the church for all time from men who knew God, studied the Scriptures, and sought to apply them whole-heartedly to all of life.
—Erroll Hulse; Editor, Reformation Today; Leeds, England
The English Monarchs from 1491 to 1689
The Tudor line HENRY VIII (1491-1547) Key: Divorced, Beheaded, Died, Survived
Div first wife Catherine of Aragon, who bore Mary, later to become queen
B second wife Anne Boleyn, in 1533 bore Elizabeth, later to become queen
D third wife Jane Seymour, who bore Edward, later to become king
Div fourth wife Anne of Cleves, marriage supposedly not consummated
B fifth wife Catherine Howard
S sixth wife Catherine Parr
EDWARD VI (1537-1553) died aged only 16. During his reign England moved politically in the direction of Protestantism.
MARY (1553-1558) nicknamed 'Bloody Mary' because of her cruelty. She ordered about 270 burned at the stake for their faith. Mary married Roman Catholic
Philip, son of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, in 1554.
ELIZABETH (1558-1603) principal events:
The Elizabethan Settlement
Elizabeth excommunicated by the Pope of Rome
Attack by the Spanish Armada
The Stuart line JAMES I (1603-1625) principal events:
The Hampton Court Conference
Publication of the King James Version (Authorised Version)
The Synod of Dort rejects Arminianism
Richard Montagu's anti-Calvinist treatise points to the rise of Arminianism
CHARLES I (1603-1640) principal events:
For eleven years Charles rules without Parliament
Imposition of new Prayer Book provokes riots in Edinburgh
1640-1660 Rule by Parliament
Civil War
1643-1647 The Westminster Assembly
Archbishop William Laud executed
Charles I executed
Death of Oliver Cromwell
CHARLES II (1660-1685)
The Act of Uniformity and the Great Ejection of Puritan pastors