Bryan D. Spinks. Sacraments, Ceremonies, and the Stuart Divines: Sacramental Theology and Liturgy in England and Scotland, 1603-1662. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002. xiv + 240 pp. $79.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-7546-1475-3.
Reviewed by William Gibson (Faculty of Arts, Basingstoke College of Technology)
Published on H-Albion (November, 2002)
Seventeenth-century sacramental studies have been dominated by C. W. Dugmore's 1942 study and Brooks Holifield's more focused 1974 book on puritan sacramentalism in England and America. Of late this field has generated a number of important studies, including Arnold Hunt's excellent article on "The Lord's Supper in Early Modern England" in Past and Present (1998). The rationale of Bryan Spinks, professor of Liturgical Studies at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale Divinity School, for a new study is, first, to step back from the narrow examination of the sacraments, and to relocate them in the wider liturgy. Secondly, it is to consider them from both Scottish and English perspectives. Since both James I and VI and Charles I tended to "manage" religious policy across the border, there is some sense in seeking to treat the two kingdoms as a single piece.
Spinks shows that the inheritance of the sixteenth century was different in England and Scotland, though both drew heavily on continental divines. English sacramentalism reflected the Episcopal compromise that the Reformation became under Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. In Scotland the Reformation effected a very different view of the sacraments that Spinks contrasts with England. For example, the Church of England retained existing baptismal fonts; in Scotland they were replaced with bowls, often sited next to the pulpit. The same applied to the Eucharist, celebrated at altars in England and usually communion tables in Scotland. Under James I and VI liturgical differences emerged in both England (at the Hampton Court conference) and in Scotland (in the Five Articles of Perth). While the discord in both kingdoms appeared to be about liturgy, with such issues as kneeling and sitting during church services dominating, Spinks makes clear that these were in fact symptomatic of deeper theological divisions on the nature of the sacraments. Were they signs of grace? Or instruments of grace? Or even conduits of grace?
Gradually in both England and Scotland, what Spinks calls "Patristic reformed churchmen"--usually but not always Arminian--diverged from Calvinist churchmen in their attitudes to both the liturgy and sacraments. During the Civil War and the Interregnum, while the Church of England became re-modeled on Presbyterian lines, sacramental issues remained a source of division. For while the Westminster Directory essentially supported Calvinist Presbyterian theology there was a wide freedom to retain the Book of Common Prayer. But this temporary convergence of the English and Scottish churches was broken at the time of the Restoration, when the Savoy Conference returned England to a mid-sixteenth century liturgy, and Scotland remained on a Calvinist Presbyterian trajectory.
Thus far Spinks traces in the microcosm of sacramental theology a pattern of church policy that applies equally to broader themes. But Spinks also draws out some contrasts between England and Scotland. For example, Scotland drew more heavily on diverse European Calvinist influences; whereas in England the Book of Common Prayer provided narrow parameters within, or against, which sacramental theologians wrote. Spinks is also skilled in detecting and delineating strands in sacramental theology. Lutheranism is differentiated from "reformed" sacramental theology and the sacramental positions of Bucer, Calvin, Bullinger, Vermigli, and Usinus are carefully traced. Another key strength of the book is the way in which Spinks connects attitudes to the sacraments with liturgical developments. This is especially clear in Scotland, where theologians and churchmen found that their views of the sacraments determined their attitudes toward vestments, ceremonial and liturgy.
This is an erudite and impressively researched book, drawing on often neglected seventeenth-century churchmen and theologians. As a national synoptic study of sacramental theology it is peerless, and will undoubtedly become a key work for theologians of the period. Thus far, Spinks's book can be warmly welcomed. One reservation about the book remains, however, for the general student of historical theology, and even for those of the seventeenth century. What does such a microcosmic study--albeit one so finely drawn--add to our knowledge of the seventeenth century church in England and Scotland? Ecclesiastical historians already knew that James I's response in England to militant Calvinism in Scotland was to seek to restrain it. Hence William Laud's determined and aggressive Arminianism was James's preferred policy in England. The rich multiplicity of strands of sacramental thought in the Church of England in the seventeenth century has been detected by historians like Kenneth Fincham, Nicholas Tyacke, Ian Green, and others. Similarly it is not news that the Civil War and Interregnum in England brought an abandonment of episcopacy and Anglicanism and promoted a diverse theology far more akin to that found in Scotland. And this was stamped out at the Restoration. In other words, while Spinks's book fills in the detailed sacramental fretwork of seventeenth-century theology, it is not clear that it changes or amends our overall view of the period. Spinks makes some interesting comparisons between England and Scotland, but ultimately his case for studying them "as a piece" boils down to the fact that they both witnessed a wide diversity of views. That being said, however, Spinks's book is clearly addressed to a scholarly audience. This is a study for the graduate student and the professor, who will doubtless appreciate the nuances and delicacy of Spinks's analysis.
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Citation:
William Gibson. Review of Spinks, Bryan D., Sacraments, Ceremonies, and the Stuart Divines: Sacramental Theology and Liturgy in England and Scotland, 1603-1662.
H-Albion, H-Net Reviews.
November, 2002.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=6919
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