The Initial Elizabethan Response To The Geneva Bible
THE INITIAL ELIZABETHAN RESPONSE TO THE GENEVA BIBLE
The religious reforms introduced by Elizabeth I in 1559 included explicit demands both that an English Bible should be set up in every parish church and that no person should be inhibited from reading such Bibles. But which version? The Great Bible, which appeared in 1539, was last printed in 1553, shortly before Mary Tudor's accession, and it seems that many copies of this printing survived Mary's reign. There is ample documentary evidence that this version was initially installed in churches; demand was such that it was reprinted in folio editions in 1562 and 1566. Aware of the importance of the religious reforms introduced by Elizabeth, Whittingham included a dedicatory epistle to the English monarch, praising her explicitly for her many religious virtues. The none-too-subtle subtext of this dedicatory epistle could hardly be missed: Whittingham wanted his to be the Bible of choice for use in churches.
Yet, despite its obvious popular appeal, the Geneva Bible was studiously ignored by the authorities of the Church of England. The truth of the matter is that they felt threatened by it. It was clear that Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504–75) disliked the Geneva Bible, not on account of the translation it offered, but because of the notes that accompanied it. Like Matthew's Bible before it, the Geneva Bible alienated the establishment on account of its marginal notes.
In a letter to William Cecil, dated March 9, 1565, Parker commented that it would “do much good, to have diversity of translations and readings.” Parker devised a way to destroy both the sales and influence of the Geneva Bible. He would produce a translation of the Bible, based on the Great Bible, which would be much more acceptable to the authorities of the Church of England. The translators were given strict instructions: they were only to depart from the Great Bible translation when strictly necessary, and they were to avoid any form of polemical or controversial annotations to the text. It is here that we can see Parker's real concerns about the Geneva Bible.
Writing to Elizabeth I in 1566, Parker complained bitterly about the “diverse prejudicial notes” of earlier translations—a clear reference to the annotations of the Geneva Bible. What Parker disliked, of course, was much appreciated by his many critics—and the reading public, who obstinately kept on buying the Geneva Bible.
Parker's anxiety was that the Geneva Bible's annotations in effect offered an interpretation of certain biblical passages that contradicted those found in the Books of Homilies—in effect, a collection of “authorized sermons,” dating from the reign of Edward VI, which were intended to be read aloud in churches. Concerned about maintaining control over what was taught in the churches throughout the realm of England, Parker intended to ensure that the Bibles set up in churches for the purpose of reading aloud, and sermons preached upon themes or biblical passages, were in line with the teachings of the newly established Church of England.
The Elizabethan Settlement of Religion was a delicate creature. This Settlement of Religion can perhaps best be thought of as reaching a judicious compromise between the various religious factions within England at the time. The English national church would have an essentially Catholic structure—for example, retaining clerical robes and bishops—while adopting a basically Protestant set of beliefs, as would be set out in the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion in 1563. These articles, issued under Elizabeth I, would be bound into prayer books to ensure that clergy were familiar with them. The Settlement was a compromise, and was widely recognized as such. Protestants were inclined to accept it on the basis of the hope that the concessions made to them were merely the first phase in a process that would lead to other, more significant victories later. As it happened, these hopes—which had been encouraged by Elizabeth as a means of securing assent to her proposals—were to prove unfounded. In private, Elizabeth initially seems to have seen religion as a matter of no great importance, provided that it did not interfere with national life. She declined to “make windows into men's souls,” and argued that “there is only one Jesus Christ and all the rest is a dispute over trifles.”
External conformity suited her purposes well. Many historians have argued that Elizabeth's Settlement of Religion probably spared England a religious war, such as that which ravaged France in the second half of the sixteenth century.
Elizabeth had indeed introduced some Protestant ideas into the Church of England. The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, for example, took a strongly Protestant position on matters of doctrine, rejecting many traditional Catholic teachings. Yet Elizabeth wanted to reassure Catholics within England, not least because she feared the possibility of a civil war that might end up by dragging England into conflict with its powerful Catholic neighbors, such as Spain. She, therefore, retained many more traditional Catholic practices and institutions, including bishops and the requirement that clergy should wear robes. It was an uneasy balance, which tried to achieve peace by placating both Protestants and Catholics. Inevitably, it was an unstable situation, which could easily fall apart if controversy were to break out.
Like an ecosystem, the Elizabethan Settlement of Religion included complex checks and balances to ensure that no religious party could gain control of the church or plunge it into the bitter religious controversies of an earlier period. As Parker well knew, England needed religious stability. The Geneva Bible, by offering an attractive and coherent commentary on the Bible, based on a strongly Protestant theological position, could easily undermine that stability. Those who wanted to direct the Church of England in a much more specifically Protestant direction would find ample ammunition for their campaign in the marginal notes of the Geneva Bible.
That Parker's anxieties over the Geneva Bible were well founded can be seen from the behavior of its chief translator, William Whittingham, on his return to England from Geneva. In 1563, Whittingham was appointed dean of Durham, a cathedral city in the north of England. His attempts to introduce the radical Protestantism he knew from Geneva to this traditionally conservative northern cathedral met with resistance and controversy, eventually forcing the archbishop of York to intervene in 1578. Whittingham had shown that the fragile truce between the warring religious factions in England could easily be blown apart, leading to tension and anger. The archbishop knew that he had to act to preserve religious stability; his only option was to sack Whittingham.
As things worked out, the archbishop's efforts to remove him from office ultimately proved unnecessary. Whittingham died in 1579. Yet the precarious nature of the Elizabethan Settlement had been more than adequately demonstrated through the episode. From now on, anything that might destabilize the Elizabethan equilibrium was vigorously resisted by the church establishment.