The Oxford Martyrs — whose feast-day was celebrated yesterday in worldwide Anglicanism — were three men who held ecclesiastical rank and power in England under Edward VI, the boy-king, and were killed by the state under his sister and successor, Mary.
It is very unlikely they ever heard of a Spanish nun named Teresa (see DM Oct 16) or that she knew about them, even though they were contemporaries. They had, indeed, very little if anything in common with Teresa of Avila, having contributed, or at least going along with, the dissolution of monasteries which happened under the previous king, Henry VIII.
Their faction understood the vows that nuns and monks made before God as unbiblical. Therefore, they thought that vows should be prohibited. My understanding and recovery of the meaning of vows (see DMs Sept. 24, 25, and 26) happens, of course, within a postmodern frame that allows for a much larger freedom of thinking and behavior. They were instead living at the onset of Western modernity, which showed its rigidity right away.
Hugh Latimer and Nicolas Ridley were burned at the stake on October 16, 1555; Thomas Cranmer was brought to witness their horrible end from a high tower, but after a series of recantations, he was finally martyred in the same way on March 21, 1556.
It is unclear whether these three men could have saved their lives had they consistently affirmed that the pope was the supreme authority in the Church. In any case, they believed that the people of England should be able to hear the Bible read to them in English, to participate in the Eucharist through bread and wine around a common table, and should be taught that the miraculous change happening at each celebration of the Lord’s Supper — as they called it — was that of the hearts, not that of bread and wine.
These three people died for their beliefs. For wanting the religion of Christ to become more democratic and less hierarchical, more personal and less esoteric, more about the union of the people with each other and less about individual efforts to please God.
But they also contributed to the expulsion of about 12,000 people from monasteries and nunneries — around 1.5% of the population of England. In many cases, these people were forced to marry as the heterosexual family became the social norm.
The Oxford Martyrs somehow began the process of reading the Bible historically, but they were also convinced that it could be used as the arbiter of all truth. They certainly were giving more weight to their interpretation of the Bible than to the lived mystical experience of the divine.
In short, the Oxford Martyrs embody the jumble of contradictory themes which would have been later unraveled, in the course of the modern religious history of the English-speaking world.
Even those of us who have rejected this history entirely, or those who come from a different stream (including myself), are deeply affected by it.
Ironically, one of the best books on Teresa of Avila was written only twenty years ago by Rowan Williams, a successor of Thomas Cranmer to the see of Canterbury.
The recent election of Sarah Mullally to the same ecclesiastical dignity is yet another step, and a cause of conflict, for the tradition of Anglicanism, which originated in such fraught and tragic circumstances as the martyrdom of bishops Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer.
Banner Image: The 1760 Cambridge Edition of the King James Bible, “with the former Translations diligently compared and revised, by His Majesty’s Special Command.” Wikimedia Commons
Queries for Contemplation
Are you aware of the subtle influences that the modern history of English-speaking Christianity has upon you?
Related Readings by Matthew Fox
A New Reformation: Creation Spirituality & The Transformation of Christianity
Prayer, A Radical Response to Life
Original Blessing: A Primer in Creation Spirituality
Confessions: The Making of a Post-Denominational Priest
Christian Mystics: 365 Readings & Meditations
Matthew Fox: Essential Writings on Creation Spirituality
3 thoughts on “The Oxford Martyrs”
As someone who grew up in England in an agnostic and anti-clerical family, I joined the Church of England at 17, a process started by reading St. John of the Cross’s poem “On a dark night,” given to me by a friend whose mother had Catholic leanings. I had no idea who he was as Catholicism was a complete unknown to me. I appreciate Anglicanism’s openness to the roles of women as clergy and openness to different beliefs, a unity of differences, even though it can lead to messy disputes.
I left the Church when it left me — in late adolescence. I was disgusted with their ideas about religion. Ironically, I was “inducted” into Christian mysticism within two or three years…but it took me a few more years to realize it. From then on, I’ve been learning.
And one thing I realized was that women were (and are) treated as “brainless baby factories” by much of the Church, for many, MANY centuries. We’re expected to raise BOYS who will learn about the Church and spread its teachings. Women are the “useful idiots” in the Church — and not just in Catholicism.
This is flat-out WRONG.
I see the Christian Mysticism that I believe Jesus taught about (although in somewhat coded language) as the important framework he used. I just don’t see many Christians utilizing it — or even knowing about it.
In many ways, today and maybe always, the Christian Church has followed the culture/society rather than leading it. It is easy just to go along for many people. The radical message of Jesus of bringing liberation and freedom has been denied, ignored, called heresy, and otherwise downplayed. But there are exceptions, and Quakers and Episcopalians in particular have led the way in social justice, including the welcoming of women into the clergy, where they are called “Mother”, at least in my community. Of course, Episcopalians have had their own conflicts around the inclusion of our Queer family. Quakers don’t have any hierarchy. I think we don’t realize how much the Church has absorbed cultural norms until we grow up and begin reading people like Matthew, Richard Rohr, Bishop Spong, and others.