CONCURRENT with the new sense of nationalism which marked the sixteenth century was a conflict within the church which led to the decentralization of Christendom, and which had a profound effect on the writing of history. The movement which we know as the Reformation found history necessary to the establishment of the positions toward which it was moving. Any argument concerning either theology or church government had, of necessity, to invoke history, and gradually both secular and ecclesiastical history became important to the theses of the Reformers. History, indeed, became one of their major concerns.
No account of the Reformation conceptions of history can, however, fail to record the influence of Saint Augustine's City of God. Vives dedicated a commentary on this work to Henry VIII in 1522, but it was not until 1610 that the original work and the commentary were published in an English translation. The influence of the work was, however, not dependent upon translation, for it had long since provided many of the foundation stones for the building of a Christian interpretation of history.1 In four ways especially Saint Augustine may be reckoned a precursor of the Reformation writers about history. First, he used an account of universal history to justify the ways of God to men. Second, he accepted, though without great clarity, the four kingdoms of Daniel's prophecy as a basis for the division of history. Third, he set the ideal for the Christian prince or ruler in the famous passage often referred to as “The Mirror of Princes.”2Fourth, and of most importance from the point of view of this study, he provided in certain other chapters of Book V the foundation on which was built the conception of history as a manifestation of the judgments of God, for he wrote (in the words of the 1610 translation) that it is incredible that God “would leave the kingdomes of men, and their bondages and free-domes loose and unconfined in the laws of his eternal providence,” in which laws he had included heaven and earth, man and beast, tree and herb.3 More explicitly he wrote also:
the true God that giveth the heavenly kingdome onely to the godly, but the earthly ones both to good and bad, as himself liketh, whose pleasure is all justice; he is to have all power of giving or taking away soveraignty, ascribed unto himselfe alone, and no other, …
And of war he said in a chapter proving “That the originalls and conclusions of warres are all at Gods dispose”:
So likewise doth he with the times and ends of warre, be it his pleasure justly to correct, or mercifully to pitty mankind, ending them sooner or later, as he willeth.5
The use thus made of history by the Church Father who was to influence the thinking of those who wandered far from the later Catholic church is important.
The acceptance of the historical books of the Old Testament both as divine precedent and the source of fundamental material for the writing of history must also be considered as of prime importance in considering the interpretation of the purposes and methods of history by the Reformation historians and educators. But these men knew too the ancient classical historians and orators, and they imposed the specialized Christian philosophy upon the humanistic ideas of historiography instead of creating a rival learning.
Again I have chosen to discuss the contributions of the Reformation to the writing of history by discussing the work of a few representative writers whose books were most familiar in England. As early as 1520 it is said that Luther was advocating the inclusion of history in the education of a Christian youth,6 but it is generally agreed that it was Melanchthon who advanced the study of history to a science in the thinking of the Reformers, and who showed most clearly its place in the movement.7 Menke-Glückert has made the most thorough analysis of Melanchthon's influence and has restudied the evidence for his authorship of the work published as that of Johann Carion.8 I am not concerned here with this vexing problem, and it must suffice to say that the work of Carion gave expression to Melanchthon's ideas on history. It was Englished by Walter Lynne and published in 1550 as The Thre Bokes of Cronicles, gathered from “the beste Authours that have written in Hebrue, Greke or Latine.” It was dedicated by its translator to Edward VI and offered as containing “all that is nedefull to be knowen, concernyng thynges done in tymes passed.”
This work of Carion was first of all a universal history. Furthermore, it contained a preface which advanced the Reformation theses concerning history, and—of primary importance—it advanced the claim of both “heathen” and Bible histories as the supreme teachers, particularly for princes, since both teach political and moral virtues:
For besyde that, the holy scryptures do make mentyon of the wyll of God and of hys worde, and also of Christes spyrytual kyngdome, they teache also of polityke administration, and set forth manye notable examples, whych are necessary to be knowen in the governaunce of a commune weale, and by the whych, the myndes of Prynces may be sturred and inflamed to the endevour of ryght pryncely vertues.
The hystoryes of the Heythen, declare of the ofsprynge and begynnynge of great realmes, and for what causes alteracyons and great chaunges do befall in realmes: besides that, they do conteine also preceptes of vocatyons and powres, by the whych commune weales be stablyshed and preserued.…
Seinge now, that it is necessary that every man had nede of two maner of powers, namely, the politike or external, and beside this by the faith and drede toward God, the examples of either of them are propoundid and set before us in the histories.
Specially it emphasizes the dangers to the state of any change of government and the threats to its very existence of conspiracies. Reading of such things in history is therefore valuable to rulers, and Thucydides’ argument is brought in as proof:
that thereby they maye learne to beware in theyr governaunce, lest any such lyke do befall: For such cases do dayly befall. Yea though the persons do sometyme chaunge in commune welthes, neverthelesse so much as is concernynge the qualytye of mattiers, the worlde is and alwayes abydeth lyke to hym selfe.
Private persons can also learn from history lessons fundamental in a theocracy—and very popular in England:
The magistrate must be obeyed. They, which rebelled against the higher powers, were never unpunished, as Absalon, Catalina, Brutus, Cassius and such like that were therefore punished.
Carion's Chronicle, it must be noted, was the basis of the work of Thomas Lanquet, whose chronicle was seemingly but a less flowing translation and perhaps a less selective one than Lynne's. Lanquet's chronicle was left unfinished at his death and was extended by Thomas Cooper and later also by Robert Crowley. It is generally referred to as Cooper's Chronicle. Lanquet retranslated and extended the Carion preface into a lengthy discourse “Of the Use and Profite of Historyes, and with what Judgement They Ought to be Redde,” indicating in no way his debt to Carion. The chronicle has often been praised, but so far as I am aware, the indebtedness to Carion has not been noted. I note it here because of the importance of realizing how widely the Reformation treatises were disseminated in England.
A second writer on history who was of particular importance in England during the Reformation was Simon Grynaeus.9 His relationship with Erasmus made it natural to send to him the five books of Livy which he discovered. Recommended by Erasmus, Grynaeus came to England, probably in 1531, to search for manuscripts, and was welcomed and also, it would seem, somewhat suspiciously watched by Sir Thomas More.10 Henry VIII called upon Grynaeus for help in considering the matter of his divorce.11 But in the history of English historiography his preface “Concerning the Profite of Readyng Historyes” which was apparently first published at Venice in the 1538 Latin edition of Trogus Pompeius was of greatest significance. It appeared in Golding's translation of Trogus published in 1564 and again in 1570 and 1578. It appeared likewise somewhat abridged and adapted to its use as a dedicatory essay in the Wilkins translation published in 1591. With slight modifications and with no indication of its origin Thomas Lodge appropriated it as his own address to the Courteous Reader “As Touching the Use and Abuse of Histories” prefixed to his translation of the works of Josephus.
Grynaeus advised all men to read histories. As his words were translated by Golding he said:
For what can be thought more pleasaunt or profitable, than sytting as it were in the Theatre or Stage of mans life ... to be made ware and wyse at the perilles of other men, without any daunger on his owne behalfe: to take ensample of all sortes, the which a man may apply to his owne behoofe and utilitie in every thyng: and at suche time as he shall chaunce to be present amonge gret men, when with greatest advisement they do debate most weighty affaires, to be able to discusse the ende and sequele of the same.…
Grynaeus thought that the chief interest in history was in the interpretation of cause and effect. It is not enough for the reader to learn what has been, to enjoy the stories recorded, to bask in past glory, for “an historiographer is but the interpreter of thinges done,” and it is his interpretation that must be the goal of the reader. Neither the reader nor the writer of histories can be free from sin if he is guilty of prejudice or prejudgment in viewing history. The great lesson of history for Grynaeus, however, was that the providence of God governs over all. By the policy of men things are put into execution, but the final outcome of events is determined by God. Man proposes but God disposes, and history shows his handiwork.
The work of Johann Sleidan [Joannes Philippson] has received more respectful attention from modern historians than has the work of most of the chroniclers of the Renaissance because of his nearer approach to modern ideals in the care which he bestowed upon selecting his materials and scrutinizing his authorities,12 but for the purposes of this study his most significant emphasis is upon the importance to Christian thinking of secular as well as Biblical history. In the preface to A Briefe Chronicle of the Foure Principall Empyres, his most important work, translated into English in 1563, he explained:
among us, who make profession of the name of Christe, the Bible obtaineth first place amongest suche kindes of writtinges, the which in deducting the originall beginning of mankynd, doth both declare unto us the will of god, and also give unto us many examples as well of the mercye, as of the yre and wrath of God. After the Bible it consequently behoveth to know all that which is writen of other nations. For nothing almost can come to passe but thereof is, and a great while agone hath bene, set out some resemblance. Wherein the gov-ernours of common weales have great ayde and succour, provided that they be not careles in this kind of instruction.
Like Melanchthon and Carion he went back to the prophets of the Old Testament for the basis of his division of history. Some of these writers of the Reformation had recognized the triple division of history as that which represented the world under the law of nature, then under the law of Moses, and finally under the law of Christ, but others, like Sleidan, accepted Daniel's prophecy of the four empires, in the last of which periods they were living.13 It should be recalled that Sleidan was regarded as the official historian of the Reformation and received a pension from Edward VI while he was in England to carry on his work.14
Joseph ben Gorion was the name which appeared as that of the author of another book the popularity of which was attested by the fact that it went through nine editions in England alone between 1558 and 1615. This book was Englished by “Peter Morwyng of Magdalen College in Oxford,” and its 1558 title reads:
A Compendious and Most Marveilous History of the Latter Tymes of the Jewes Commune Weale, beginnynge where the Bible or Scriptures leave, and continuing to the utter subversion and laste destruction of that countrey and people.15
The history of the Jews could teach Christians useful lessons, the prefatory address to the reader pointed out:
Every man deliteth to behold the pictures of auncient persons, as of Hercules, Hector, Julius Caesar, Arthur, and reverenceth them as thoughe they were halfe Gods: how much more pleasure should it be to behold the lively images of their mindes which appeare in their actes and dedes whyle thei were here in this life, whereby we shoulde learne to knowe good from evil, and by the appliyng of their dedes unto our maners, with considering the event and successe they had of their actions, we maye take ether an example or some admonicion, or occasion to amend our lives, wherein besides pleasure, is also profit. As when thou seest the Jewes here afflicted with divers kinds of misery, because they fell from God: then maist thou be admonished hereby to see the better to thine owne waies, least the like calamities light upon thee, unlesse thou be so fond to thinke God will more spare thee, which art but a wild Olive and but grafted into the stock of faith, if thou bring either noughty fruit or no fruit, then he did the natural braunches which sprang naturally of the rote itself. Thou shalt read here of terrible and horrible eventes of sedicion and rebellion …; in so muche that nothing hastened their destruction so greatlye as their own doggidnesse and intestine hatred. Be thou warned therefore by their harmes, and take hede that thou maist avoid the like.
It will be seen, I think, from this brief account that the Reformers accepted history, both Biblical and profane, both ecclesiastical and secular, as an important part of learning. They emphasized the value of universal history in showing the relation of God to men and nations. They recognized the particular place in political teaching which history occupied. With Thucydides they believed that “like time bringeth like examples, so long as the world lasteth and the course of nature remaineth,” but God the eternal played an important part in their thinking of the persistent laws of cause and effect. And, as will be seen more clearly later, they found the truth of history an antidote to the popular fiction of the time.