Dying for daring to differ

Dangerous as it is to talk about martyrs, there is also much danger in Christians forgetting the stand they took against Papal authority.

It is not as easy to celebrate the memory of martyrs as it once was. In doing so we are also implicitly condemning their persecutors, and there is a danger that we may simply inflame old quarrels which have run their course. Perhaps the way in which Australians and Turks can both remember ANZAC Day without hatred is a model for us.

I am saying this because this year sees the 450th anniversary of the burning at the stake of Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley at Oxford. They perished because of their embrace of Protestantism and their strong rejection of Papal authority and Roman Catholic doctrine.

While there is a danger in talking about the martyrs, there is a much greater danger in forgetting them. Our church life to this very day is rightly shaped by the stand they took. Their principles are our principles, and although they conflict with Roman Catholic doctrine (as many of them still do) we must retain them. To forget our history is to lose our identity. More important, it is to lose touch with key biblical doctrines.

In particular, we accept the supreme and unique authority of scripture even over Councils and traditions of the church and the teaching of the clergy, including the Pope. This commitment to Scripture leads to highly significant differences in areas such as the power of sin, the meaning of the atonement, justification by faith, the function of ordained and lay ministry and the nature of holiness.  Latimer and Ridley dared to differ strongly from Roman Catholic beliefs about the Holy Communion, and this was one of the things which cost them their lives. 

One of the continuing problems which Protestants have with Roman Catholicism is in the area of doctrines or practices which are added to the faith – such things as the veneration of saints, belief in purgatory and devotion to Mary. Over the last 30 years Anglican and Roman Catholic theologians have been discussing these differences. They have produced a series of reports which have had the tendency of finding common ground.

Last month, for example, the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission produced a study of the role played by the Virgin Mary. It is important to acknowledge developments in biblical knowledge since the 16th century. The report had some good things to say about the unique place of Jesus Christ.

On the other hand, I have to say that I am far from convinced that it is possible to reconcile Anglican and Roman Catholic teaching on a range of key issues, for example the status of Mary, and in particular the traditional Roman Catholic view of her which has been endorsed in the report.

Frequently, when the Reformation is referred to in public debate it is suggested that the real cause of the split was merely Henry VIII’s marital problems. This is both ignorant and offensive to the memory of these great Christian leaders.

Southern Cross will publish brief biographies of Bishops Latimer and Ridley later in the year. I hope that you read them with gratitude and profit.

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