Be A Good Soldier

Last week we started a new series on 2 Timothy. We looked at chapter 1 and I suggested that Paul’s central message to Timothy was, ‘Don’t be ashamed of the gospel’.

Today we’re moving on to chapter 2. But I’m going to approach the passage by a different route. I’m going to take a look at three men who played a significant part both in Christian history and in British history. I think they’re a great example of what Paul is talking about. After that, we’ll come back to chapter 2.

The three men are Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer. They were respectively, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishop of London and Bishop of Worcester.

Do you know what they’re famous for? They were burned at the stake.

What was the issue? The issue which they were finally tried on was the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation: that Christ is physically present in the bread and wine which we take at the Lord’s Supper.

We might think it’s absurd that anyone would die for an issue like this. But conversely, we might think that these men give us a wonderful example of courage in holding fast to their principles. Let’s take a look at their story and you can decide what you think.

Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer lived at the time of the English Reformation – the time when Christians in Europe rejected the authority of the Catholic Church and formed a new grouping, Protestants. As Baptists we are part of that grouping – so Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer played a part in our history.

The English Reformation was from about 1527 to 1563, just a little after the Reformation in Europe. But the foundations of the English Reformation were quite a bit earlier. One person in particular was its morning star. He was John Wycliffe. He lived from about 1328 to 1384. Wycliffe emphasised many of the principles which were later taken up by the Reformers, especially the idea that scripture must be our authority, not the church. William Tyndale, whom we associate with the first English version of the Bible to be printed, was also a leading figure in the Reformation.

So, by the time we come to Cranmer, Ridley and Latimer, some people in England were already protesting about the authority of the Catholic Church.

Enter Henry VIII. Henry VIII also had a dispute with the Catholic Church, or at least, with the Pope. But his dispute wasn’t over the matter of scripture or transubstantiation; it was the matter of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. Henry resolved his problem by rejecting the authority of the Pope and declaring himself head of the English Church! Henry appointed Thomas Cranmer as Archbishop of Canterbury. Cranmer helpfully annulled Henry’s marriage to Catherine and five days later he declared Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn valid. Henry VIII wasn’t happy with Anne Boleyn either and about three years later he had her executed. But that’s another story.

Over the following 10 years there was a whirlwind of activity. As you may imagine lots of people were unhappy with Henry for separating from the Catholic Church. Many of them were executed.

In 1547 Henry VIII died. His only legitimate son, Edward, became king. He was just nine. It was during Edward’s reign that Protestantism was established for the first time in England. But there were storm clouds not far away. Edward fell ill. In 1553 he knew he was dying. He named his cousin, 16-year-old Lady Jane Grey, a committed Protestant, as his successor. Edward died at the age of 15.

But Lady Jane Grey’s succession was on shaky ground. Edward’s half-sister Mary contested it and she became queen. Mary was a staunch Catholic.

So, what would become of the people who had supported the Protestant Reformation? The outlook wasn’t good.

Thomas Cranmer was the architect of the English Reformation. He had supported Lady Jane Grey to become queen in favour of Mary. Nicholas Ridley was Bishop of London. He had preached that neither Mary nor Elizabeth, his daughter by Anne Boleyn, could succeed to the throne. Hugh Latimer was Bishop of Worcester and a leading reformer. The three men were in trouble.

Mary got on with the job of restoring Catholicism. For the most part Protestants did nothing. They didn’t like what the queen was doing but they didn’t question her authority to do it. Cranmer, the archbishop, spoke up to reject the queen’s catholicizing policy, but rather quietly. A rumour went about that he had conformed to the queen’s wishes. He couldn’t allow that! He wrote a letter in which he made his position very clear. He was committed to the Tower and indicted for high treason. After three months of solitary confinement, Cranmer was placed in a cell in the Tower with Latimer and Ridley. The authorities then decided to move them to Oxford where there would be a show trial to highlight the error of their ways.