So this semester will (mercifully) be done next week, but let's kick off some discussion on the episcopacy in light of this recent opinion piece found on Anglican Ink. http://anglicanink.com/article/angl...rch-all-conservative-north-american-anglicans What did the actual English Reformers believe about the episcopacy? Richard Hooker says this (and lot's more) concerning the Puritans... …a very strange thing sure it were, that such a discipline as ye speak of should be taught by Christ and his apostles in the word of God, and no church ever found it out, nor received it till this present time; contrariwise, the government against which ye bend yourselves be observed every where throughout all generations and ages of the Christian world, no church ever perceiving the word of God to be against it. We require you to find out but one church upon the face of the whole earth, that hath been ordered by your discipline, or hath not been ordered by ours, that is to say, by episcopal regiment, sithence the time that the blessed Apostles were here conversant.1 1 Richard Hooker, Works, ed. John Kebel, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1845), 156. Thoughts and/or sources for English reformation thought?
@anglican74 - Not formally. I go to a Presbyterian seminary so I get Calvin, Bavinck, Turretin, and Van Til to the brim. The parish I attend has assigned many readings from an Anglican patrimony so I end up purchasing reprints and such like Hooker's Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity. Being a part of a program like this has validated the concept of 'reading for orders' in my mind. So I study him on my own. This summer I'm doing my big baptism push to help me prepare for my deacon exam.
Thank you for that background information. I am thoroughly enjoying Richard Hooker's opinions, the ones I do find like here!
In my mind the reformation started in about 1530 and was not finished till about the so-called Gloriuos Revolution 1688, with a near death experience for the Church in England. Though the Church was restored (1660 ) with the ideas of the Reformation paramount (English Reformation. mind you) it was badly damaged. After the loss of the Nonjurors (1688) and the split that that caused it. This plus the succession of Protestant i.e Calvinist or Lutheran Kings brought about an era of latitude that has finally taken over the Church of England, with the so called, 'traditionalists', being more influenced by the spirit of the age, than by traditional anglican teaching. Sources? Heylin's History of tthe Reformation in England. 2 Vols./ Bishop Colliers Eccclesiastical History of the Church in England. Vol's 1/9. and Dixon's History of the Church of England . 3 Volumes. (Covering Henry, To Eliza.) Plus most of Bishop Hickes's writings.Non Juring Bishop died 1714/5.? [