Happy Guy Fawkes Day!
What started out as an anti-Catholic celebration with bonfires and Puritan sermons extolling the blessings of Protestantism, in time became vaguely associated with Protestantism in England, and today it’s basically an excuse for holiday. But Guy Fawkes Day has a history. “In 1605 a Catholic conspirator by the name of Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament, but the plot was detected just in time, and ever since then Fawkes’s failure has been an integral part of English folklore - Bonfire Night, the fifth of November, which is the anniversary of that great event” (Gerald Bray, The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland).
Under Edward VI and Elizabeth I, the Church of England was settled in its theology in the cradle of Protestantism. The Edwardian and Elizabethan “formularies” were determinative, becoming the mind and heart of the Anglican settlement. Anglicans worldwide recognize their identity in the primary authority of Holy Scripture as determined in the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, and the two books of Anglican Homilies.
The English Reformation was a grassroots movement of the people (e.g., Wycliffe, Lollards, English humanism, Tyndale and the English Bible, etc.) but not nearly the extent that the Continental Reformation was. English Protestantism differed from the Reformation elsewhere in its top-down (i.e., political, “Acts of Uniformity”) approach. For this reason it took Great Britain longer for the habits and thinking of Medieval Catholicism to peter out and for Protestantism to gain popular support. This is the undercurrent behind the attempt to blow up the Puritan-led House of Lords and to assassinate King James I - the Gunpowder Plot (also called “The Jesuit Treason”).
On November 4, 1605, the night before the start of Parliament, the room below the House of Lords was packed with enough gunpowder to blow Parliament and the Protestant king to smithereens, 36 barrels full! The group that did this was led by Robert Catesby who sought to restore a Catholic monarchy to the Church of England after many years of intolerance against Catholics. Even though King James I was much more understanding towards Catholics than his predecessors, some Catholics would not accept toleration for an answer. On a routine patrol of the building a guard found the gunpowder and a member of the group, Guy Fawkes, who was left guarding the stash. The plot was foiled and the Church of England maintains it’s Reformation identity to this day.
Roman Catholics and Protestants share some Christian creedal beliefs, of course, but they differ on at least two deal-breaking matters. Protestants see the God-inspired Bible as their primary authority (sola Scriptura) while Catholics put the Bible equally alongside of church tradition as theirs. And Protestants are clear that their own righteousness will never be enough and without the righteousness of God imputed to unworthy sinners (grace), they are without hope. Catholics, on the other hand, claim that they can become innately righteous enough by receiving the grace of the sacraments to deserve salvation. These two matters (and more!) keep me excited about the future of Reformation Anglicanism.
“We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in they manifold and great mercies…”
“Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.”
“The law says “Do this” and it is never done;
The gospel says “Believe this” and it is already done.”