LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

86 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XV
accused of denying the Christ’s corporeal presence in the sacrament. 40 Also,
in drawing up the Wittenberg Articles of 1536 and the Thirteen Articles of
1538, Barnes confessed clearly that
We firmly believe and teach that in the sacrament of the Lord’s body and
blood, Christ’s body and blood are truly, substantially and really present
under the species of bread and wine, and that under the same species they are
truly and bodily presented and distributed to all those who receive the
sacrament. 41
And just as he had on the topic of justification, even at the stake Barnes
reaffirmed his belief in Christ’s corporeal presence in the sacrament. 42
Taking into account just these two doctrines, we can probably stop and
safely identify Barnes as a Lutheran. Any good Protestant could affirm
justification by faith alone. Any good Catholic could affirm Christ’s bodily
presence in the sacrament. But it does not seem unsafe to say that, from the
time of the Reformation forward, the only persons who have held both views
together are those of the Lutheran confession. Because this is so, I had
contemplated titling this paper “Robert Barnes and the Origins of English
Lutheranism”. But this title was rejected since the word ‘origins’ seems to
imply continuity. And the lamentable fact is that there is no historical
continuity between Robert Barnes and modern English Lutheranism. When
Barnes died in 1540, Lutheranism in England was for all intents and
purposes laid to rest with him. Making reference to the title I have chosen—
“Robert Barnes and Early English Lutheranism”—it can be said with only
some slight exaggeration that Robert Barnes was early English Lutheranism.
The Act of Uniformity promulgated under Henry’s successor Edward VI
forbade any faith other than that outlined in the Book of Common Prayer.
And so when the first Lutheran congregation in England, as an exception to
this Act, was founded more than one hundred years after Barnes’s death, it
was not the child of native Lutherans, heirs of those who might have once
heard Barnes preach. It was founded by Danish, Swedish, and German
merchants then living and working in London. 43 So even in modern England,
like so many other places, it would seem that Lutheranism was a commodity
imported especially for Germans and Scandinavians.
What, then, is the particular significance, if any, of Robert Barnes If he
has no other significance (and he certainly does), he stands as an important
40 See LP 8:771; 8:1063; 13/2:498.
41 Documents, 137; cf. 192.
42 Coverdale, Remains, 417. It is noteworthy that John Foxe, who happened to disagree with
him on this point, simply excised this portion of Barnes’s confession when he reprinted it in
his Acts and Monuments.
43 See E. G. Pearce, “A Short History of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain”, Concordia
Theological Monthly 22 (1951): 112-13.