‘Because thy God loves England’: Bishop John Jewel and the Catholicity of the Church of England, 1535-1599

John Jewel (Bishop of Salisbury 1559-1571) became the champion of the Church of England mere months after the formation of the Elizabethan religious settlement. He preached a sermon at Paul’s Cross that challenged the Roman Church to prove that certain traditions had existed in the early church; a strategy that allowed him to portray the Church of England as the true inheritor of the apostolic church, due to its pure doctrine and right administration of the sacraments. This sermon started a decade of controversy, which influenced the development of demarcation lines between the Church of Rome and the Church of England.

This thesis argues that Jewel’s work as a polemicist and apologist for the Church of England was a key factor in the development of a Protestant self-identity for the Church of England. Using a unique methodology and a vast knowledge of patristic and Biblical sources, Jewel re-defined the term ‘catholic’ in a way that enabled him to argue for the catholicity of the Church of England while still separating it from the Catholic Church. He gave the English Church authority and legitimacy by portraying it as both part of the true universal church, and yet distinctly English.

Drawing on Jewel’s own works, as well as the works of the men who fought for and against him, this thesis demonstrates that Jewel made a significant contribution to the establishment of the Church of England as a national institution. It shows that Jewel was an active, popular leader who was involved in many of the defining moments of the early Elizabethan church. Also, it shows that his popularity did not end with his death in 1571. Rather, his work continued to influence the development of the Church of England throughout the reign of Elizabeth and beyond.