Robert Barnes stepped on to the stage of the reformation drama on Christmas Eve 1525; though never one of the most famous players in that drama, he would for the next fifteen years remain very close to the centre of the reformation, both in England and abroad. His patrons at home included the architects of English reform, Thomas Cranmer and Thomas Cromwell, as well as Henry VIII himself, who would for a brief period name Barnes his chaplain and occasional diplomat. His associates on the continent were no less eminent, including not only the Wittenberg theologians Martin Luther and Philip...

On the evidence of even a brief survey of his life, Robert Barnes is clearly seen to have been a proponent of the early modern evangelical movement. His commitment to this movement for the reform of the church is seen even more plainly when examining his theology proper, whether on the basis of his published works or of other extant evidence. The details of Barnes’s biography also indicate that he was aligned especially with the Lutheran wing of reformation evangelicalism. And again, an examination of his theology bears this out. Not all have agreed that Barnes can be so easily...

Historians of the early reformation in England have long noted the manner in which history was called upon to bolster the Crown’s case for independence from Rome. Few, for example, fail to reference the 1533 Act in Restraint of Appeals and its mention of ‘divers sundry old authentic histories and chronicles’.¹ It is this use of history for political ends which has most often been noted; and indeed, F.J. Levy seems to speak for many when he writes that ‘the use of history during the early period of the English Reformation was essentially secular, simply because, in the eyes of...

As demonstrated in the previous chapter, a sustained use of historical sources and historical argument is evident in Robert Barnes’s publications of the early 1530s. The conclusion thus proposed was that such historical argumentation was central to the polemical task Barnes had set for himself, even in those writings which appear distinctly theological in nature. It must be admitted, however, that this is not a widely held conclusion. Partially explaining this is the simple fact that most studies of Barnes have focused almost exclusively on his doctrinal conclusions, especially as they relate to the theology of Martin Luther. Not unsurprisingly,...

The emphasis of the previous two chapters has been placed on the manner in which Robert Barnes makes conscious and sustained use of historical sources and historical arguments in what is primarily a theological polemic. On the basis of the evidence there presented, it has become clear that his use of history is more than an afterthought or occasional whim; it is given a central place in his published works. As has been stressed by more than one commentator, however, evangelical appeals to history were neither inevitable nor logically necessary in the controversies of the sixteenth century.¹ This is especially...

If the conclusions of the previous section are correct, and if the programme pursued by Robert Barnes can best be described as one of historical-theological polemic, it must be asked why this particular interpretation has not been previously put forward. Though there is by no means an overabundance of literature on the life and work of Barnes, those authors who have ventured to offer an analysis of his significance for the sixteenth-century reformation almost invariably reach one of two conclusions. Especially among those writers whose unmistakable agenda is to illustrate the Lutheran origins of England’s reformation, Barnes’s significance is summarised...

Despite the high regard in which the Latin works of Robert Barnes were held, the conclusion should not be reached that his English works were without influence. They clearly were. But, as suggested above, the extent to which they could be put to fruitful use was limited not only by the language in which they were written, but also by their doctrinally Lutheran leanings. To be sure, in the early days of the reformation, before confessional lines became rigidly fixed, and when much debate centred upon the doctrine of justification, such leanings were less controversial. So, for example, writing in...