In the late 16th century and flowing through the 17th century was that period known as The English Renaissance. So many names spring quickly to mind beginning with Elizabeth I who appreciated the aesthetic. Associated with her are names like Spenser, Shakespeare, Sidney, Marlowe, Raleigh, Byrd and Tallis. The flowering did not stop with Elizabeth's death, but continued through the reigns of James I and his son Charles I. So other names were added to the list: Gibbons, Bacon, Crashaw, Stone and Peacham to mention just a view. Not overshadowed by them were some divines like Donne, Herbert, Andrewes, Cosin, Frank and Taylor whose sermons were among the best of literature written at this time. These and other divines who upheld the Catholic values of worship and doctrine came to be known as the Caroline Divines (some of these others include, Juxon, Sheldon, Hammond, Farindon, Gunning, Hacket, Curle, Duppa, Bramhall and Thorndike). Eliot, himself a fine poet and dramatist of the twentieth century, commenting on Andrewes' sermons described them as ranking "with the finest English prose of their time".
The English Church owes so much to these divines and especially to Andrewes as their mentor. Eliot described him as having "the voice of a man who has a formed visible Church behind him, who speaks with the old authority and the new culture. Andrewes is the first great preacher of the English Catholic Church." Under their mentor they promoted the Catholic faith in the Reformed Church, and when persecuted for this during the Interregnum through deprivation or and or exile they patiently bore it for their Mother Church. Any suffering was considered worthwhile as it was but a taste of Christ's sufferings at Calvary.
At what seems a crisis time in the Anglican Communion at the beginning of the third millennium, it would be good for many Anglicans to reflect on what the Caroline Divines' legacy is to the English Church. I think the first thing they would insist on is obedience to the faith as handed down by the Fathers of the Church from Apostolic time and upheld by Holy Scripture, and certainly not anything that was modern.
The central doctrine of that faith was the Incarnation when the eternal Word took our flesh. This like the doctrine of the Trinity is one of the great mysteries of the Church. "That Heaven should thus come down to Earth, that God should become Man; that the Father of Eternity should be born in time", never ceased to amaze Andrewes. The Incarnation for Andrewes and all Caroline Divines, as described by Dean Church at the end of the nineteenth century meant living in "adoration, self-surrender and blessing, and in awe and joy of welcoming the Presence of the Eternal Beauty, the Eternal Sanctity and the Eternal Love, the Sacrifice and Reconciliation of the world." It was therefore as much a sensuous experience as spiritual, which further separated then from the Puritans who focused more on Christ as their "Captain", leading them in the battle against sin and all evil in this world.
One aspect of the Incarnation that these Divines also emphasised was the kenosis. Like the early Fathers they were full of wonder that the Logos would be as Frank put it:
poorly born; in a stable amongst beasts; poorly wrapped in rags, poorly cradled in a manger, poorly bedded upon a lock of hay, poorly attended by the ox and ass, poorly every way provided for; not a fire to dress him at in the depth of winter, only the stream and breath of the beasts to keep him warm; cobwebs for his hangings, the dung of the beasts for his perfumes, noise and lowings, neighing and brayings, for his music; every thing as poor about him as want and necessity could make it.
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Closely associated with the Incarnation is the Sacrament of the altar. As Andrewes preached at Christmas 1618, the Child in the cratch will lead us to Him in the Sacrament, which outwardly like the cratch seems of little value but inwardly what treasure. "Of the sacrament we may well say Hoc erit signum," but through the sign, "invenietis Puerum ye shall find this Child". For finding His flesh and blood, you cannot miss but find Him too." Thus by "infirma et egena elementa" we find Christ just as the shepherds "did this day in præsepi jumentorum panem Angelorum," "in the beasts' crib the food of angels; which very food our signs both represent and present unto us." Christmas 1612 saw Andrewes preaching, "And this day they first came together, the Word and flesh; therefore, of all days, this day they would not be parted." Two years later he concluded his Nativity sermon with this commendation. "This then I commend to you, even the being with Him in the Sacrament of His Body - that Body that was conceived and born, as for the other ends so for this specially, to be 'with you'; and this day, as for other intents, so even for this, for the Holy Eucharist." Taylor defined this succinctly when he stated that the Crib is the "altar where first lay that 'Lamb of God' which was afterwards sacrificed for the sin of all the world"
Mark Frank also preached on this togetherness in a mystical and beautiful fashion.
He is now ready by and by to give Himself to eat; you may see him wrapped ready in the swaddling clothes of his blessed sacrament; you may behold him laid upon the altar as in his manger. Do but make room for him, and we will bring him forth, and you shall look upon him, and handle him, and feed upon him: bring we only the rags of a rent and torn and broken and contrite heart, the white linen cloths of pure intentions and honest affections to swathe him in, wrap him up fast, and lay him close to our souls and bosoms. It is a days of mysteries: it is a mysterious business we are about; Christ wrapped up, Christ in the sacrament, Christ in a mystery; let us be content to let it go so, believe, admire, and adore it. It is sufficient that we know Christ's swaddling clothes: his righteousness will keep us warmer than all our winter garments; his rags hold out more storms than our thickest clothes: let us put them on. His manger feeds us better than all the Asian delicates, all the dainties of the world; let us feed our souls upon him.
It follows that Calvary was inseparable from the cratch and Sacrament. Taylor wrote, "What Christ begun in His Incarnation, He finished in His body on the cross, and all the whole progression of mysteries in His body was still an operatory of life and spiritual being to us; the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper being a commemoration and exhibition of this death which was the consummation of our redemption by His body and blood."
The celebration of the Eucharist for the Caroline Divines was the focus for all worship as it had been in the early Church, and they agreed with those early Fathers that it should be celebrated frequently. Those of us who attend daily Mass know how very special this is and know exactly what Andrewes meant when he stated that never are we as close to Christ as when we receive Him at the altar. Then we are almost angelic. He and all Caroline Divines knew in the phrasing of Augustine, unless we eat the Body of Christ we cannot be the Body of Christ in this world. Or in the words of Mark Frank, "This day, my beloved, you have taken Christ by the hand of the holy Sacrament: that was your morning service: take him now henceforward by continuance in well-doing, by loving God, by loving your neighbour those two arms of charity.
So it is not surprising that it dominated their preaching and teaching. "The chief point is that in the Sacrament Christ himself is received." It is our perpetual Bethlehem, the manna from heaven, and at the end of life the viaticum as the soul journeys onwards. At the altar is our mystical union with our beloved Lord. "We are said to come to Christ in Baptism, ... in the hearing of the word," and in preaching, "but Christ receiveth none of these, but that we come to him as is panis vitae, when we come to Christ, as he offers himself in the Sacrament."Christ gathers "us as close and near as alimentum alito, that is as near as near may be." Indeed it is more, for by "that blessed union" it enables us to enter into "the highest perfection we can in this life aspire unto."
WORSHIP THE LORD IN THE BEAUTY OF HOLINESS
TEACH THE FAITH OF THE FATHERS
UPHOLD THE DOCTRINEs OF THE FIRST FOUR ECUMENICAL COUNCILS
GIVE DUE HONOUR TO MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD AND ALL THE SAINTS
RECEIVE THE BODY AND BLOOD OF CHRIST OFTEN
CELEBRATE THE EUCHARIST FREQUENTLY
Closely connected with the Eucharist was to worship God in the beauty of holiness. When we know that Christ is presenton the altar then of course He deserves all honour and reverence and beauty. Nothing is too good for our Lord. Let us cast our minds back say to the 1630's on a feast day, Pentecost, and try to visualise the celebration of
the Liturgy by the Caroline divines.
The organist has ascended the loft, the clergy and choir have robed in the sacristy, the candles have been lit, and the alms dish catches the morning sun. The cathedral awakens as the organ plays a Whitsun hymn as the clergy, in their red copes, process to the sanctuary while the heavenly voices of the choir echo throughout this Norman cathedral as they make their way to choir stalls. Before the altar the clergy bow lowly; the celebrant is the Dean, the epistoler, one of the prebendaries and the gospeller, the archdeacon. Being an important feast day, incense is used, candles glow on the altar decked in its richly embroidered frontal, and a special anthem is sung by the choir. The sermon by the Dean, close to an hour, explains the meaning of Pentecost and urges his congregation to allow the Holy Spirit to work through them, so that their lives may be Christ-like. At the offertory the elements are offered with great solemnity, while the prayer of consecration is chanted in a dignified tone, but there is no elevation as in pre-Reformation days. The parishioners come up to the Communion rail to receive the Sacrament. The service ends as it had started, with the sound of the organ filling the cathedral, a fitting conclusion to this whole service that has been offered to the glory of God with much splendour, reverence and dignity.
When celebrating the Eucharist the priest is also celebrating the Lord's death until He comes again. It is not a re-enacting of Calvary as that can never happen again. Christ can only die once and this is where Roman Catholics are wrong argued Andrewes and other Caroline Divines. The altar is not another Calvary but a remembrance, as St. Paul says of that sacrifice. Yet during that celebration the congregation should be conscious of Calvary and the sacrifice made there. One way, as suggested by Andrewes, is when we receive the Cup of Salvation for "'the remission of sins'", we should try to hear the cry of our Saviour from the cross. "Blood, ... also hath 'a voice,' specially innocent blood, the blood of Abel, that cries loud in God's ears." Yet this is not as "loud as the blood whereof this 'cup of blessing' is 'the communion;' the voice of it will be heard above all, the cry of it will drown any cry else. And as it cries higher, so it differs in this, that it cries in a far other key." Unlike Abel's cry, Our Lord cries "not for revenge but for 'remission of of sins for our salvation that, whereof it is itself the price and purchase for our salvation in the 'great and terribled day of the Lord, when nothing else will save us." Simultaneously we should also hear those "four syallables salvabitur.
The cries of Christ in turn stimulate the visual, and so we see Him "'visibly crucified among us,'" "when in the memorial of the Holy Sacrament, 'His death is shewed forth until He come.'" By having His crucified body before our eyes, it reminds us that in the Sacrament we are partakers "of his sufferings" and united with Him in those sufferings.
The Caroline Divines, like Augustine saw Calvary as giving the "twin sacraments" of the Church. At Calvary His death was made "the medicine", of which "the Water and the Blood" flowed from His wounded side "to be the ingredients" for them". This Andrewes illustrated in his 1597 Passion sermon when he explained that Zechariah had preached that "out of His pierced side God 'opened a fountain of water to the House of Israel for sin and for uncleanness'; of the fullness whereof we all have received in the Sacrament of our Baptism." The prophet had called the blood that "'blood of the New Testament'" which runs "in the high and holy mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ." "There may we be partakers of the flesh of the Morning Hart, as upon this day killed" and receive remission of sins when we are "partakers of 'the cup of salvation,' 'the precious blood'" "'which was shed for the remission of our sins.'"
As both these sacraments are embedded in the life of Christ Andrewes often referred to the covenant made between God and man as one of love. In this covenant the love of the Father was truly manifested when His Son descended "from heaven to earth for" mankind and sought him "in all the ways wherein ... [he] had lost ... [himself]." After Baptism Christians belongs to God as an "admirable and happie contract was made between us." If Christ then has delivered us from the slavery of sin, how more reverend should we "speak of that other Blessed Sacrament", which the Lord, "instituted and ordained, for a remedy of all the miseries which have befallen" mankind, and for "the many sins" they have committed since Baptism. The Eucharist is thus "a Salve and cure for all [man's] spirituall diseases", and in these two sacraments God could not have given more for "blessings of this World or the World to come".
It may seem that the Andrewes' sacramental approach to covenant theology lessened man's commitment. Not so! Andrewes always focused on the obligation to "hoc facite", and the need for repentance, as these were the ways a sinner could always return to God, and be "in best terms of disposition to covenant with Him." He also, like the federal theologians, emphasised the contractual nature of the covenant whereby both sides have obligations. On the part of Christians, "by undertaking the duty He requireth, we are entitled to the comfort which here He promiseth."
Caroline Divines had a more dignified attitude towards mankind than their contemporary Puritans had. After all he was made in the image of God who was ever wanting man's goodness. As Thomas Jackson expressed it:
The end of His love to man is to make him happy by being like Him in the love of goodness. Thus in every moment of this life we have a pledge of His bounty to assure us of a better inheritance, the very first neglect whereof might in justice condemn us to everlasting bondage: the often and perpetual neglect turns claims of eternal love into an eternal consuming power.
When man was first created, he was in a state of grace, as the Holy Spirit not only hovered but also was very much imbedded in Creation, including man. However he soon found himself "out of grace ... and without grace, as sinners and in errors wandering up and down". But Christ "has enabled us to attain the second estate also which Adam had only a reversion of, and lost by breaking of the condition whereto it was limited. And so to this second restored so many as ... are not only of that mass or lump whereof Adam was the first fruits, for they are interested in the former only, but that are besides of the nova conspersio where Christ is the primitiae.
Two of the main doctrines taught by the Caroline Divines were the availability of salvation and grace to all. Jesus Christ died for all and promised the Spirit to all who asked for it. That does not say they diminished the existence of sin and its effects upon Christians. Indeed sin was a common theme in their sermons. Preaching in Lent, Frank informed his auditors that sin could only result in death, whilst "all ugliness and deformity in things or actions it is sin that caused it, or sin that is it." Farindon described it as "an aversion and turning of the soul from God." But sin was always juxtaposed to the joy a sinner experiences when he/she knows that he/she has been forgiven and the mercy of God. Donne described this mercy as greater than all the atoms of the air.
Donne further informed his congregation that one benefit of God's mercy is ever available through His signs in Christ, and "we know where to find Christ; in His house, in His Church; ... where the Word is rightly preached, and the sacraments duly administered." Therefore we must not despise the "sacramental...ritual and ceremonial things, which assist the working of the sacraments." Indeed those who refuse such signs "which are induced by His authority, derived from Him, upon men in His Church", do in fact disobey God.
Linked with teaching on sin was also the need for repentance and confession The emphasis was always on turning turning away from sin and turning towards God. "This duty of turning [is] the true nature of repentance," stated Farindon. Just as sin is "turning of the soul from God, so by our repentance we do 'start back, and alter our course,' work and withdraw ourselves 'from evil ways, and turn to the Lord:'" Thus "'Turn you, turn you, then is 'dictum Domini, a voice from heaven,' a 'command from God Himself.' He would save us, but He will not save us without repentance." Although God could have forced us "to turn" to Him, yet He does not as. "He is wise. yet He will destroy us if we will not turn."
"Contrition is not one initial act of sorrow for sin past, but also a current permanent state of sorrow and humiliation for sin present, and through the whole life never out-dated," stated Hammond in his "Practical Catechism". We need to confess our sins regularly. In this catechism Hammond outlined what was needed for a humble confession:
1.by confessing that I am a sinner who have worthily deserved his wrath;
2.by enumerating particular sins;
3. by aggravating these sins upon myself;
4. by comprising all unknown and unconfessed sins in some general confession.
Hammond also upheld the benefit of auricular confession as one profits from the comfort to receive absolution" and "the advice of others."
In a sermon preached on Confession and Absolution at Queen's College, Cambridge in 1637 Anthony Sparrow also taught of the humility in making a confession, but he went further seeing auricular confession as necessary for salvation :
1. It must be humilis accusans nos ipsos. We must accuse our selves, not laying the blame on others. 2. It must be penitens et cum dolore, with grief and sorrow for them. 3. Integra et perfecta, we must confess all our sins we know, not willingly concealing any. 4. Cum proposito obediendi, with a purpose of obedience for the time to come.
Sparrow articulated the importance of auricular confession and the Priest's office to absolve sin and the penitent's need for it. He insisted this was the teaching of the Fathers such as Augustine, Chrysostom, Gregory, Ambrose and Cyprian, and so all who assent to Church of England "cannot deny the Priest the power of remitting sins: and since he can in the name of God forgive us our sins, good reason we should make our confession to him." Obviously God would never have given priests "this power of absolution" unless we needed it, and the only way we can obtain this is by confessing our sins to a priest. Therefore:
He that would be sure of pardon, let him seek out a Priest, and make his humble confession to him; for God, who alone hath the prime and original right of forgiving sins, hath delegated the Priests his Judges here on earth, and given them the power of absolution; so that they can in his name, forgive the sins of those that humbly confess unto them.
By honestly confessing our sins this way, God forgives ours sins through the absolution granted by the priest. Indeed Sparrow maintained that the only way we can avoid the wrath of God on Judgment Day is by confessing our sins in the confessional.
The only way to prevent the terrible judgment of the last day, is timely to confess our sin to God, and to the Priest. For, if we confess in humility our sins with grief and sorrow for them; if we confess them faithfully, not concealing any, and with a purpose of amending our lives: be our sins what can be, they cannot be so great, so grievous, but God will forgive them.
If we do this then we can be assured that
The Father of mercies will behold us with the eye of pity, will melt us with his grace, embrace us with the arms of mercy, will own for us his sons, and clothe us with the robes of righteousness, and lastly will slay the fatted Calf that we may eat and be merry.
Not all Caroline Divines insisted that auricular confession was necessary for salvation, but all saw the benefits from this type of confession. Repentance and confession enabled all to receive salvation. It was also the gateway to receive grace. Every person receives natural grace to live morally, but we need spiritual grace to inherit the kingdom of heaven. This is given to us in baptism and providing we are faithful and persevere to the end we shall indeed inherit the promise of the heavenly kingdom. "The grace of the Gospel of Christ it is that first revealed the hopes of glory: thence the kingdom of heaven is heard of first, - there first of grace for glory: grace was single grace, till Christ took a second nature to double it, to grace all to us." Frank 1.103
Bramhall stated that "we have all made shipwreck of Baptismal grace by sin, since all without exception do stand in need of `a second plank' to save them from drowning .... `He who covers his sins, will not prosper; but whoso confesses and forsakes them, will have mercy.'" He suggested that one of the reasons that his contemporaries did not make better use of auricular confession was because this sacrament had been "grossly abused" by the Romanists who taught that it was "absolutely necessary to salvation by Divine institution" and by making it more a profit "for the Confessor's purse" than for the penitent's spiritual being. Protestants on the other hand make confessions too general and very seldom reveal those great sins. Thus "it is not so much sin, as impenitence, for which men are damned." Therefore we need to confess them honestly and humbly, especially before receiving the Blessed Sacrament. "We ought to repair to the participation of this with as great care and anxiety, as if we were immediately to depart out of this world." Of course it is possible to fall from grace when we sin and do not repent.
WORSHIP
THE EUCHARIST
THE UNIVERSALITY OF GRACE AND SALVATION
Within the blessed Trinity, it is the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son who is the bestower of grace. This grace is freely given and always available. Anybody who sought it, would never be denied it. "The grace of God is not bound but free," explained Andrewes, while Gore could declare that "God for his part is so gracious that he denies His grace to none but offers it, and (if I may say so) gives it to everyone who will but ask and accept it." For Gore the grace of God was simply "the favour and goodwill of God", which is lavishly and graciously imparted to "every one as He sees in His wisdom to be enough and sufficient for him."
There was nothing sweeter, gentler or kinder than Grace as it lodged in the hearts of men, so well illustrated by Hammond. Grace or the presence of the Holy Spirit which comes "from above .... lodges ... in the heart of man, in the whole soul; not in the understanding [and] not in the will", where he works firstly "as an harbinger .... to sweep and sweeten the soul in preparation for His residence." Secondly He comes "as a private secret guest ... to lodge with us ... and sow the seed ... in his heart." Thirdly He enters "as an inhabitant or housekeeper" where He dwells to "help, perfect and improve our faith". This means that "every man in the Christian Church has frequently in his life a power to partake of God's ordinary preparing graces."
When Gore preached on the sweetness and beauty of God's infinite grace, he implored his auditors to sample it, O taste and see. Hence he compares the experiencing of the "gracious supply" of God's grace, to that of the taste of honey. "As a man can never truly tell the sweetness of honey, till he has tasted it first, so can he never truly see nor perceive nor understand how gracious a God, the God of Heaven is till he have first had a taste of God's grace, and an experience of God's favour in himself and for his own soul."
In his sermon Gore continued that God continually "offers his grace in the Word and Sacraments, His will is graciously and freely to bestow it, if sinful men were but like-minded to receive it, and to make themselves capable of so great a mercy by desiring it."
Taylor indicated that in the Scriptures there were "two births besides the natural". The first of these was "to be born of water and the spirit (Jn 3:5);" the second was "to be born of Spirit and fire (Mt 3:11)." The Spirit took two expressions, the first was as "it descended in the shape of fiery tongues" at Pentecost, and secondly as "the watery Spirit [which] washed away the sins of the church." This Spirit is given first in baptism. In the actual baptising the Holy Spirit is invoked so that the new "heirs of everlasting salvation ... may continue [God's] servants and attain [His] promises." The baptized is now transformed as a child of God.
So for the Caroline Divines the main channel by which Grace is continually flowing and given is through the sacraments, begun in baptism when the baptised is "translated from the state of nature to the state of grace", or "changed from that state wherein he was born the child of the first Adam unto the state of grace by the second Adam."
After baptism, the child when old enough is prepared for the lesser sacrament of Confirmation. He is instructed in the faith so he himself can confirm the promises made on his behalf at Baptism. Before his confirmation, a child was taught the Catechism in which he learnt to pray to His heavenly Father for grace so that the "Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule" his heart.
Confirmation is the doorway to participate in the richest of all sacraments, the Holy Eucharist. Here we receive the greatest gift possible. Under the guise of bread and wine, our Lord gives Himself to the communicant when at the altar the "hungry soul is treated with the Bread of Angels and the Manna which descends from heaven." In this sacrament:
Our souls are nourished by the Body and Blood of Christ; our bodies are sealed to a blessed resurrection, and to immortality; our infirmities are strengthened, our graces increased, our pardon made more certain; and when we present ourselves to God, having received Christ's body within us, we are sure to be accepted, and all the good prayers we make to God for ourselves and others are sure to be heard.
In the sacrament of penance, when a penitent truly and humbly repents and confesses his/her sins he/she is bathed in God's grace with assurance of pardon and forgiveness, restoration and renewal. In this state "God by His Holy Spirit works inward renovation" and assures "holy life and conversation." Grace given also helps the penitent to strive against relapses and to live faithfully to Christ. Thus through using this grace man is capable of attaining his former glory. The potential was there. "Good he was, but bad he might be: Righteous out of the hands of God; but left unto himself, in the hands of his own counsel unrighteous. That changing state of being, if happily he should change, his alteration might be his." Grace made possible this alteration. In the three other lesser sacraments grace is also given and received by those who are married, ordained or sick.
There are indeed many gifts that we receive through grace. The most important is the gift of love as "the greatest thing we can give to God" is our love for Him "and our neighbours". It is indeed the gift of love which in essence does "the work of all other graces".
Another is the "the spirit of rejoicing". As Taylor expressed it, "There is a certain joy and spiritual rejoicing that accompanies them in whom the Holy Ghost does dwell; a joy in the midst of sorrow." Grace also gives "the great ornament and jewel of the Christian religion" - humility - more valuable than "all the wisdom of the world"". It also bestows temperance and chastity, modesty and brings a "contentedness in all the duties of religion." There were too the gifts of peace long-suffering, gentleness, comfort and healing for "those sad and heavy hearts", and for those "in conflict". Grace also cures and heals "those bodily ailments and infirmities which God for sin does ... chasten and correct us for our follies." He is the Comforter "to cast away from us all hurtful things" . So God "offers grace sufficient" for these, but it is for man to "use that grace which is now offered."
Grace is furthermore bestowed to lead man into the knowledge of truth. "By grace we shall accomplish what truth requires at our hands." Andrewes made it clear that it is the only "storehouse" to enable us to know truth. Grace was also poured into our souls to give an "assurance of faith and hope". Overall in the words of Taylor "The Spirit of God is given to all who truly belong to Christ, as an antidote against sorrows, against impatience, against the evil accidents of the world, and against the oppression and sinking of our spirits under the cross."
God's grace goes before us in all things, illustrated by Thomas Jackson, when commenting on "'Prevent us O Lord'":
The sum is that without God's preventing grace, or peculiar disposition of his favourable providence, we cannot do any good works at all, though civilly or morally good, ... nor any works spiritually good without God's assistant grace or gifts of the Spirit inherent in us. In the latter clause of the same prayer, `that in all our works begun, continued and ended in thee, we may glorify thy holy name and finally by thy mercy obtain everlasting life', ... we pray, that we may glorify God's name by our good works, this argues the necessity unto salvation, if not to justification. And when we pray, that after we have glorified God's name by our good works we may attain everlasting life, by God mercies in Christ, and through Christ; this is an argument most concludent that we must not rely upon, or put our confidence in the best works which we do, though we do them continually, but in God's mercies and Christ's merits only.
The Caroline Divines theology gave a welcome and healthy balance to theology in the 17th century when much of the English Church came under the influence of the new teachings from the Continent, notably Calvinism.
