Grindal’s Stubborn Letter
Edmund Grindal courageously stood up to the powerful Queen of England. On December 20, 1576, less than a year after his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury, Grindal sent a famous letter to Queen Elizabeth I protesting her direct order to stop preachers from preaching so often. She felt that, given the approved and sanctioned Homilies, a couple of extra sermons per year was sufficient. She was concerned about the growing practice of “prophesyings” (small groups of preachers meeting to discuss and practice their sermons, often in the company of spiritually eager laity). Elizabeth was complicated: a convinced Protestant herself, but her overriding motivation was to keep peace in the land. Elizabeth wanted to stamp out little fires, and she foresaw that preachers left to their own devices could potentially fuel bigger fires of dissent.
Grindal, on the other hand, recognized that preaching the Bible was the primary means by which individuals and whole societies were transformed. He recognized that the “public and continual preaching of God’s word is the ordinary mean and instrument of the salvation of mankind.” Faithfulness to God, for Archbishop Grindal, was more important than earthly success or worldly promotions. His letter to Queen Elizabeth pointed out why she was wrong to suppress public preaching and asked her to keep her nose out of the spiritual government of the church. This earned him house arrest at Lambeth Palace, and he never regained the trust of the good queen the remaining six years of his life.
Grindal and the English reformers knew that the preached word about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ goes forth with the Holy Spirit to convince, convict, and transform individuals and churches by the power of God’s love.
Archbishop Grindal: the Struggle for a Reformed Church 1519-1583, Patrick Collinson
“The Ordinary Instrument of Salvation: Archbishop Grindal on Preaching,” Cornerstones of Salvation, Lee Gatiss