Robert Sanderson (1587–1663)

Over the course of the reigns of the last two Tudors and first three Stuarts – just in excess of a century – the national established Church of England was disestablished twice and re-established twice. Following the return to Rome under Mary, Elizabeth's settlement re-established the English Church under the royal supremacy, set down church doctrine and liturgy, embarked on a reform of canon law and so consolidated an ecclesial polity which many today see as an Anglican via media between papal Rome and Calvinist Geneva. However, as a compromise, the settlement contained in itself seeds of discord: it outlawed Roman reconciliation and recusancy; it extended lay and clerical discipline by the use of ecclesiastical commissioners; and it drove Puritans to agitate for reform on Presbyterian lines. While James I continued Elizabeth's policy, disappointing both Puritans and Papists, Charles I married a Roman Catholic, sought to impose a prayer book on Calvinist Scotland, asserted divine-right monarchy, engaged in an 11-year personal rule without Parliament and favoured Arminian clergy. With these and other disputes between Crown and Parliament, civil war ensued, a directory of worship replaced the prayer book, episcopacy and monarchy were abolished and a Puritan-style republic was instituted. The republic failed, and in 1660 monarchy was restored, the Church of England was re-established and a limited form of religious toleration was introduced under the Clarendon Code. In all these upheavals, understandings of the nature, source and authority of human law, civil and ecclesiastical, were the subject of claim and counter-claim. Enter Robert Sanderson: a life begun under Elizabeth and ended under Charles II, a protagonist who felt the burdens and benefits of the age, Professor of Divinity at Oxford and later Bishop of Lincoln, and a clerical-jurist who thought deeply on the nature of human law and its place in a cosmic legal order – so much so, he may be compared with three of his great contemporaries: the lawyer Matthew Hale (1609–1676), the cleric Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) and the philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588–1678).

Second Copy of Suma Evangelijų from the First Edition of Knygos Nobažnystės (1653)

It has long been thought that the only known 1653 copy of the first edition of the Knygos Nobažnystės is preserved in Sweden. The sammelband consists of a hymnal without a separate title page, the postil “Suma Evangelijų”, and the prayer book “Maldos krikščioniškos” with the catechism Katekizmas arba trumpas pamokslas. One part (the postil “Suma Evangelijų”) of the Knygos nobažnystės is preserved in the library of the Emeryk Hutten-Czapski National Museum in Kraków. It has hitherto been classified by bibliographers as a counterfeit edition, but a comparative analysis leaves no doubt that it is the second known copy of the first edition of the Knygos Nobažnystės postil “Suma Evangelijų”.

The pandemic’s mass: an Anglo-Catholic essay on certain Eucharistic issues raised by COVID-19

This article explores a number of issues related to the challenges introduced by the COVID-19 pandemic as it concerns the celebration of the Eucharist and attempts to do so from an Anglo-Catholic perspective. The article considers the overarching question of the extent to which the Church is willing to be open to practices that do not fully express the ideal or the fullest expression of the liturgy in light of serious mitigating circumstances. The following constellation of issues related to the Eucharist and the pandemic are examined: the prohibition against celebration of the Eucharist in light of the historical realities about the frequency of communion reception; the basis in the prayer book for the practice of spiritual communion and reception of communion in one kind; the theological challenges of so-called “drive-by Communion”; and the thorny question of a priest celebrating the Eucharist with no other persons in the church building ( sine populo).

At the Crossroad of Confessions

The focus of my study is a mid-seventeenth-century Latin manuscript prayer book. Its most basic characteristics should attract the attention of scholars of the period since it was compiled by a Lutheran married couple from Prešov for their individual religious practice. In examining the prayer book, I was able to identify the basic source of the manuscript, which was previously unknown to researchers: the compendium of the German Lutheran author Philipp Kegel. The manuscript follows the structure of Kegel’s volume and also extracts a number of texts from the German author’s work, which mainly collects the writings of medieval church fathers. In addition to Kegel, I have also been able to identify a few other sources; mainly the writings of Lutheran authors from Germany (Johann Arndt, Johann Gerhardt, Johann Rist, and Johann Michael Dilherr). I give a description of the physical characteristics of the manuscript, its illustrations, the hymns that accompany the prayers, and the copying hands. I will also attempt to identify the latter more precisely. The first compilers of the manuscript were Andreas Glosius and his wife Catharina Musoniana from Prešov. I also organize the biographical data we have about their life and will correct the certainly erroneous provenance of Andreas Glosius, whose name appears in the context of several important contemporary manuscripts, including the gradual of Prešov. In the last part of my paper, I will also show how well known and popular Philipp Kegel’s work was in the early modern Kingdom of Hungary. This is necessary because, although the data show that there was a very lively reception of Philipp Kegel’s work in Hungary, previous scholars have only tangentially dealt with the Hungarian presence of his work.