John Hooper, Vestments, and the Gospel
John Hooper was burned at the stake February 9,1555, one of 280 Protestants who died at the hands of Queen Mary. He is remembered as the "Father of Puritanism." The Puritans were profoundly committed Christians who, in their reforming zeal, tended to out-reformed the 16th century reformers. Hooper spent the early 1540s in exile in Zurich, and when he returned home with other Protestant exiles, he was offered the bishoprics of Worchester and Gloucester. But he chose instead to spend a month in Fleet Prison rather than be vested with the “popish rags redolent of superstition” (Alec Ryrie, The English Reformation: A Very Brief History). For Hooper, the gaudy Medieval robes communicated a theology that is not consistent with a Protestant understanding of ministers and Holy Communion. He finally concluded that “vestments” are not a mountain to die on, especially if they kept him from opportunities to minister the gospel.
There is a generosity in historic Anglicanism that comfortably and intentionally distinguishes gospel issues from adiaphora (matters indifferent): essentials from nonessentials. This is the original "via media" of the Church of England, not some invented synthesis between Catholic and Protestant. This charitable generosity distinguished the English Reformation from some other Reformation traditions. Puritans sometimes violated this generosity, prohibiting what was not specifically prescribed in Holy Scripture for fear that Anglicanism would spin out of control into lawlessness. The generosity in Anglicanism is no less needed today than in the 16th century: unwavering commitment to the evangelical essentials, and generosity in matters for which biblical Christians can and will disagree.
Oliver O’Donovan, in his commentary of the Articles of Religion, stated that “There was nothing particularly ‘middle’ about most of the English Reformers’ theological positions - even if one could decide between what poles the middle way was supposed to lie. Their moderation consisted rather in a determined policy of separating the essentials of faith and order from adiaphora…Anglican moderation is the policy of reserving strong statement and conviction for the few things which really deserve them… But it is precisely that, and not some supposed ‘middleness’ between Catholic and Protestant, which gives it a critically important role in twentieth century ecumenism” (On the Thirty-nine Articles: A Conversation with Tudor Christianity).
(For anyone who is interested to know why J.I. Packer and many others like him have been so enamored with and shaped by the devotional writings of Anglican Puritans, we recommend The English Reformation and the Puritans by Michael Reeves, and Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortland.).