James I (1566-1625)

1603 Death of Elizabeth; Accession of James
1605 Gunpowder Plot (More restrictions against Roman Catholics)
1611 Authorized Version of the Bible (KJV)

Charles I (1600-1649)
1625 Death of James; Accession of Charles, who marries Henrietta Maria of of France, a Roman Catholic.
1633 William Laud becomes Archbishop of Canterbury.
1642 English Civil War
1645 Execution of Laud
1646 Triumph of Presbyterianism
1649 Execution of Charles
1658 Death of Cromwell

Charles II (1660-1685)
1660 Charles II – Monarchy restored.
1662 Revised BCP
1685 Converts to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed.

James II (1685-1688)
A Roman Catholic and upholder of Divine Right of Kings
1688 James flees (The Glorious Revolution)

William III (of Orange) and Mary II (1689-1702)

1689 With flight of James, Parliament declared the throne vacant. Parliament invited William of Orange and his wife Mary (daughter of James) to take the throne.

The Caroline Divines were a group of spiritual writers who followed the Elizabethan settlement, and lived in a period when Anglicanism was now well established. They were far enough removed from the Reformation that Anglicanism was now “normal,” just the way things are. The period when England was Roman Catholic was now a distant memory.

The political background to the period of the Caroline Divines is a history of four terrible kings. The Caroline Divines receive their name from the Latin version of “Charles,” based on the names of two of those kings. It might seem that during a time of political unrest and crisis, not much in the way of good quality theology would be written. Paradoxically, the era of the Caroline Divines is considered to be one of the high points of Anglican history.

The Caroline Divines have two interesting characteristics as theologians. First, they were not theologians in the traditional sense, but were primarily preachers or poets, and their theology is found in their sermons and their poetry. Second is the contrast between the political turmoil taking place in the country as a whole and the profound theological reflection that we find in their writings. Paradoxically, the Caroline Divines say virtually nothing about the political conflicts of the time.

There is a similar parallel in the writings of the 19th century British novelist Jane Austen. Austen wrote her novels during the period of the Napoleonic Wars. Although soldiers play important roles in her plots, the ordinary reader would not know that a major war between England and France provided the historical setting in which Jane Austen’s novels were written. Something similar occurs when we read the writings of the Caroline Divines.

Historical Background

Because Queen Elizabeth never married, she had no children, and her death created the problem of a legitimate succession to the throne. It was decided that James VI, King of Scotland, would be Elizabeth’s successor. In 1603, James entered England from Scotland to become King James I of England. The Puritans were at first enthusiastic about having a Scottish King, and immediately presented James with some requests. They wanted to be rid of the surplice while leading worship and of the sign of the cross in baptism.

James responded by rejecting all of their requests. He had dealt with Presbyterians in Scotland, and had no patience for them now that he was king of England. James not only upheld apostolic succession, he defended in addition a political theory of the Divine Right of Kings. One was king because God intended it, and the authority of the king could not be questioned. James is known for the statement, “No Bishop, no King.”

In 1605, a group of Roman Catholics who attempted to blow up Parliament in the Gunpowder Plot were punished severely. In consequence, Roman Catholicism was placed under even more restrictions than had existed previously. After the Gunpowder Plot, Roman Catholics were no longer a political threat in England.

King James’s most significant historical contribution is likely the Authorized Version of the Bible, which he had translated under the leadership of Lancelot Andrews. Known popularly as the King James Version, it was certainly not known by either name when it was translated. A new translation of the Bible into English after the Great Bible is perhaps the one good thing that James accomplished during his reign. Overall, James was a terrible King. He was not devout or religious. Stephen Neill writes of him in his book Anglicanism: “James I loved the English church, yet he did greater harm than perhaps any other English monarch.”¹

James was succeeded by Charles I, born in 1600. Charles became King in 1625, and married Henrietta Maria of France, a Roman Catholic. If James I’s response had made him unpopular with the Puritans, Charles’s marriage to a Roman Catholic only compounded the problem. Charles proceeded to make the situation even worse in 1633, when he appointed William Laud (1573-1645) as Archbishop of Canterbury. Laud is known for the vicious suppression of his opponents, doing such things as cutting off their ears, branding them, or slitting their noses.

In 1642, Puritans from inside of the Church of England joined with independent groups like Congregationalists and Baptists in the revolutionary English Civil War, leading to the eventual removal of the King by beheading. In 1645, Archbishop Laud was executed. In 1646, Presbyterianism triumphed in the war and became the official church in England, replacing the Thirty-Nine Articles with the Westminster Confession of Faith along with a Larger and Shorter Catechism. In 1649, King Charles was executed.

The Puritan regime lasted approximately ten years. Oliver Cromwell, leader of the Puritan cause, died in 1658. In 1660, the monarchy was restored, and Charles II reigned from 1660 to 1685. Charles’s main contribution to the long term future of Anglicanism was to revise the Prayer Book in 1662. Several centuries later, Parliament would reject a revision of the Book of Common Prayer in 1928, leaving the 1662 Prayer Book in place. The Alternative Service Book appeared in 1980, which was replaced in 2000 by Common Worship, which is not a single text, but a series of books used in many churches. While these revised rites are used in most contemporary parishes, the 1662 Book of Common Prayer is still the official Prayer Book of the Church of England.

In 1685, Charles II converted to Roman Catholicism on his deathbed. He was succeeded by James II, who reigned a short three years from 1685 to 1688. James II was a Roman Catholic, and also an upholder of the Divine Rite of Kings. James was so unpopular that he had to flee the country in 1688. With the flight of James, Parliament declared the throne vacant and invited William of Orange (a Protestant from the continent) and his wife Mary (daughter of James) to take the throne. William and Mary reigned from 1689 to 1702. This replacement by William and Mary of an entire dynasty of bad kings is referred to as the Glorious Revolution.

Several changes followed. Parliament passed the Toleration Act, which guaranteed religious freedom to Non-conformist Protestants, but not yet Roman Catholics or Unitarians. A Bill of Rights restricted the King’s authority over Parliament. A small group of Anglicans who remained faithful to King James were known as the non-Jurors.

The Caroline Divines

An examination of the writings of the Caroline Divines will be preceded by some biographical material. Lancelot Andrews (1555-1626) was born in All Hallows, Barking. In 1571, Andrewes became a fellow at Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, and was ordained a priest in 1580. In 1586, Andrewes became a chaplain to Archbishop Whitgift. In 1588, he became the vicar of St. Giles, Cripplegate. In 1589, Andrewes became Prebendary or Canon of St. Paul’s Cathedral. He became Master of Pembroke Hall in 1589. In 1598, Andrewes declined the bishoprics of Ely in Cambridge and Salisbury. In 1601, Andrewes became the Dean of Westminster Cathedral.

King James I ascended to the throne in 1603, and Andrewes finally became Bishop of Chichester in 1605. Andrewes published his Tortura Torti, a reply to Cardinal Bellarmine the famous Roman Catholic apologist in 1608. In 1609, Andrewes at last became Bishop of Ely, and also published the Responsio ad Apologiam, another response to Bellarmine,.

Andrewes was a prolific linguist who knew numerous languages. He was the chairman of the committee that produced Genesis to Kings in the Authorized Version of the Bible that appeared in 1611. In 1618, Andrewes attended the Senate of Dort in the Netherlands, which had to do with issues of predestination and Calvinism. In 1619, Andrewes became Bishop of Winchester. James 1 died in 1625. Andrewes died a year later, on September 25^th, 1626.

Lancelot Andrewes’ chief contributions are, first, his Ninety-Six Sermons, in which we find most of his theology. Andrewes also authored the unpublished Preces Privatae, or Private Prayers. These are a series of prayers that follow the form of Morning and Evening prayer, and were discovered after his death.

In his Reponse to Bellarmine, Andrewes included a statement of what has become a kind of definitive definition of Anglicanism: “One canon [Bible], reduced to writing by God himself, two testaments, three creeds, four general councils, five centuries, and the series of fathers in that period – the centuries, that is before Constantine, and two after, determine the boundary of our faith,” meaning that Anglicanism understands itself in terms of the canon of Scriptures, the ecumenical creeds and ecumenical councils, and the common agreement of the church fathers for the first five centuries of the Christian era (Responsio ad Bellarm.).

John Donne (1571/1572 to 1631) was raised Roman Catholic. He began his studies at Hart Hall, Oxford, but because he was not an Anglican, he could not graduate. Some time around 1598, Donne conformed to the Church of England. In 1601, Donne secretly married Anne More. More’s father disapproved, and for a while, Donne was imprisoned. Eventually Donne was released, but the marriage ruined Donne’s career, and the couple lived in poverty for many years. Donne was ordained in 1615, and, in 1621, became Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, London, due to the encouragement of the King. After this, Andrewes no longer lived in poverty. In 1623, Donne wrote his Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions. Donne died in 1631.

Donne’s chief contributions to Anglicanism include both his sermons and his poetry, which is more well known. One of Donne’s sermons includes the famous line, “No Man is an Island.” His poems include “Batter My Heart, Three Person’d God,” which provides the lyrics for a hymn in the 1989 Episcopal Church hymnal.

George Herbert lived from 1593 to 1633. In 1614, he became a fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Public Orator of Cambridge University. In 1630, Herbert was ordained a priest. Herbert’s initial goal was to become a politician, but in failing at that, he ended up becoming a small village country parson instead, for which he is most known.

Herbert’s chief contributions include his work, The Country Parson, a kind of manual for priests, and his poetry, most of which is included in a collection titled The Temple. On his deathbed, Herbert gave his writings to his friend Nicholas Ferrar, and instructed Ferrar to do whatever he wanted to with them. Fortunately, Farrer published them, and Herbert has become one of the more well-known poets of the English language. Herbert is quite different from Andrewes and Donne because he did not have a prestigious church career. He was an obscure country parson, but he was considered by those who knew him as the primary example of what an English priest should be.

Finally, Thomas Traherne was almost completely unknown during his lifetime. Traherne lived somewhat later than the other figures – from 1637 to 1674. Born in Hereford, in 1653, Traherne entered Brasenose College, Oxford. He was ordained in 1660, and was, like Herbert, a country priest. We would have known nothing about Traherne except that in 1896 to 1897 some of his poems were discovered. In 1908, a handwritten manuscript was discovered in a book stall in a used bookstore and was published as The Centuries of Meditations.

The Centuries consists of 100 short paragraphs in five sections. There would have been 500 of the centuries, each one a paragraph, but they end in the middle of the fifth section. Through comparing the poetry and The Centuries to some known published writings of Traherne, he was identified as the author. In the last several decades even more of Traherne’s writings have been discovered. A complete English edition of seven volumes has been published.

Integration of Theology and Spirituality

What are some of the characteristics of the Caroline Divines?

First, as noted above, the Caroline Divines lived in the period after the English Reformation, a time when Roman Catholic England was only a memory, and Anglicanism had now become familiar, the way things are.

Second, the Divines were concerned about spirituality, and we find an integration of theology and spirituality in their writings. This is one of the ways in which they are characteristic of Anglicanism. Historically, Anglicanism does not tend to treat spirituality and theology as clearcut distinct categories. In the best Anglican theology, they are integrated – held together.

An example of this integration can be seen in a sermon by John Donne entitled “Of Creation, the Trinity and the Nature of Man.” Donne writes:

But I coin my gold into current money when I apprehend God in the several notions of the Trinity. That if I have been a prodigal son, I have a Father in heaven, and can go to him and say “Father, I have sinned,” and be received by him. That if I be a decayed father, and need the sustentation of mine own children, there is a Son in heaven, that will do more for me than mine own . . . can or will do. If I be dejected in spirit, there is a Holy Spirit in heaven, which shall bear witness to my spirit, that I am the child of God. . . . God is the God of the whole world, in the general notion as he is God; but he is my God, most especially and most applicably, as he receives me in the several notions of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. (John Donne, Sermon “Of Creation, the Trinity and the Nature of Man”)

In the sermon, John Donne shows how the doctrine of the Trinity, which can be considered fairly abstract, is actually practical and down to earth, and can touch us in our every day lives. If we read the Athanasian Creed, it can seem as if the doctrine of the Trinity is about how we can understand that there could be one God and yet three persons, how the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father, and the Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son, but all three are equal in substance, yet there are three distinct persons. Theologians love to speculate about these things, and Richard Hooker would be a prime Anglican example.

What we see in Donne’s sermon, however, and this is typical of his sermons, is how it is that the doctrine of the Ttrinity has practical application for own own prayer life.

George Herbert does something similar in the poem Ungratefulness. Herbert speaks of the Trinity and the Incarnation.

Thou hast but two rare Cabinets full of treasure,
The Trinity, and Incarnation:
Thou hast unlock’d them both,
And made them jewels to betroth
The work of thy creation
Unto thyself in everlasting pleasure.
The statelier Cabinet is the Trinity,
Whose sparkling light access denies:
Therefore thou dost not show
This fully to us, till death blow
But all thy sweets are pack’d up in the other;
Thy mercies thither flock and flow;
That, as the first affrights,
This may allure us with delights;
Because this box we know;
For we have all of us just such another.
(George Herbert, “Ungratefulness,” The Temple)

In this poem, Herbert contrasts the doctrine of the Trinity, which lies beyond immediate human comprehension or experience, with the doctrine of the Incarnation.

Herbert is saying that we do not have access to the Trinity in the theological formulation. We really cannot understand what it means that God could be one essence in three persons. In the Incarnation, however, Jesus Christ has become a human being. In Christ, the eternal Son of God has become one of us. And so Herbert writes: “This may allure us with delights, because this box we know, for we have all of us just such another.” Because I myself have a human body as Jesus Christ incarnate has a human body, I can relate to Jesus as someone like myself. If I cannot understand the Trinity in its abstract nature, I can understand something of Jesus, because in Jesus, God comes to us as a fellow human being like ourselves.

Two-Book Spirituality

The third characteristic of the Caroline Divines is that they have what could be called a “two-book” spirituality. With the translation of the Authorized Version, the King James Bible, and the use in worship of The Book of Common Prayer, Anglicanism has finally become a kind of spirituality that is identified by these two books. It is no longer the case that people are looking back to the Latin mass, which they do not remember. It is no longer the case that people look back to a time when they did not have the Bible in their own language. Rather, the King James Bible and The Book of Common Prayer have by this time become the familiar setting for everyday worship.

In the Caroline Divines, we finally see how Anglicanism works itself out in the second and third generation after Thomas Cranmer, after Elizabeth I, after people are finally getting to know what it really means to be Anglican, to live as Anglicans day in and day out.

The poems of George Herbert are good examples of how this works itself out. Herbert writes poems about every church Office in the Prayer Book.

In a poem titled “Matins,” referring to Morning Prayer, Herbert writes:

I CANNOT ope mine eyes,
But thou art ready there to catch
My morning-soul and sacrifice.
(George Herbert, “Matins”

In the poem “Even Song,” Herbert proclaims his gratitude:

Blest be the God of love
Who gave me eyes, and light, and power this day,
Both to be busy, and to play.
(George Herbert, “Even-Song”)

Herbert also has poems that refer to church architecture. In the poem titled “The Church Porch,” Herbert writes of common prayer:

Though private prayer be a brave design,
Yet public hath more promises, more love:
(George Herbert, “The Church Porch”)

Richard Hooker argued similarly for the superiority of praying publicly using The Book of Common Prayer to private prayer.

And finally, in a poem entitled “The Holy Scriptures,” Herbert compares reading the Bible to looking into a mirror.

Ladies, look here; this is the thankfull glass,
That mends the looker’s eye: this is the well
That washes what it shows.
(George Herbert, “The H. Scriptures I”)

Herbert makes a comparision and contrast between the literal use of a physical mirror and a metaphorical imagery of reading of Scripture as a kind of mirror. When we look at our reflection in a physical mirror and turn away, we are the same as we were before we looked into it. However, when we read the Bible, this changes. When we “look at” the text of the Bible, we see ourselves in such a way that we are caught up short as we see the reflection of our sins. As we read the Scriptures over a period of time, we are transformed and changed by what we read. Herbert uses the word “glass,” by which he means what we would call a mirror, but a highly unusual mirror that mends the eyes of the looker.

For Herbert, the Bible is also a well. When we look into a well, we see our reflection in the bottom, but the Bible is a well that washes or cleanses us when we look into it, which a normal well cannot do.

Love of Beauty and Recovery of Creation

There is also a love of beauty and of the beauty of worship in the Caroline Divines. We can see this love of beauty in the sermons that are written by John Donne and Lancelot Andrews and in their poetry, which are themselves beautiful texts to read.

However, it is perhaps Thomas Traherne, particularly throughout his Centuries, who focuses most on the importance of beauty for knowing God.

In a a typical passage, Traherne writes:

The world is a mirror of infinite beauty, yet no man sees it. It is a Temple of Majesty, yet no man regards it. It is a region of Light and Peace, did not men disquiet it. It is the Paradise of God. It is more to man since he is fallen than it was before. It is the place of Angels and the Gate of Heaven. (Thomas Traherne, Centuries 1.31)

If the Caroline Divines loved beauty, they also loved the beauty of church architecture. Attractive churches are an important aspect of worship. In The Country Parson, Herbert writes about how the priest takes care of his church: “The Country Parson hath a special care of his church, that all things there be decent, and befitting his name by which it is called” (George Herbert, The Country Parson).

This focus on the love of beauty leads to another point. In The Caroline Divines, there is a recovery of the significance of God’s creation and of the beauty of creation. Certain periods in church history emphasize one thing or another. As noted in a previous essay on Richard Hooker, the Protestant Reformation focused primarily on issues of soteriology, on salvation, and particularly on the issue of justification. There was also a great deal of controversy concerning the theology of the sacraments.

A perhaps odd characteristic of the the Protestant Reformation, but perhaps not so odd when we recognize that sometimes when people emphasize one thing, they tend to forget or overlook another, is that the Reformation tended to overlook the significance or importance of the doctrine of creation. For example, in The Thirty-Nine Articles, there is no specific article on creation. In The Book of Homilies, there is no homily about creation.

There is a real shift in the theology and spirituality of the Caroline Divines, but they make it quietly without a lot of fuss. The Caroline Divines rather suddenly notice the neglected doctrine of creation, and this is true of all of them.² We see it in the poetry of George Herbert, we hear it in the sermons of John Donne, and especially we are overwhelmed by it in Thomas Traherne’s writings. For example, in The Centuries, Traherne writes:

Your enjoyment of the world is never right, till every morning you awake in Heaven; see yourself in your Father’s Palace; and look upon the skies, the earth, and the air as Celestial Joys: having such a reverend esteem of all, as if you were among the Angels. The bride of a monarch, in her husband’s chamber, hath no such causes of delight as you. (Thomas Traherne, Centuries 1.28)

Perhaps in Traherne’s case, but also with Herbert, some of this has to do with their being country parsons who served in small rural parishes where they were surrounded by the beauty of nature every day, and this is reflected in their spirituality and their theology.

Cruciform Spirituality

In addition to creation, other doctrinal themes are at the heart of Caroline Divine spirituality and theology. The first is a spirituality focused on the cross. We see this in Thomas Traherne’s Centuries and in the poetry of George Herbert. Traherne draws our attention to the significance of the cross of Jesus:

Would men consider what God hath done, they would be ravished in spirit with the glory of His doings. For Heaven and Earth are full of the majesty of His glory. And how happy would men be could they see and enjoy it! But above all these our Saviour’s cross is the throne of delights. That Centre of Eternity, that Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God! There are we entertained with the wonder of all ages. There we enter into the heart of the universe. There we behold the admiration of Angels. There we find the price and elixir of our joys. (Traherne, Centuries 1.55)

Traherne continues:

Our eyes must be towards it, our hearts set upon it, our affections drawn, and of thoughts and minds United to it. When I am lifted up, saith the Son of Man, I will draw all men unto me. As fishes are drawn out of the water, as Jeremie was drawn out of the dungeon, as St. Peter’s sheet was drawn up into Heaven; so shall we be drawn by that sight from Ignorance and Sin, and Earthly vanities, idle sports, companions, feast and pleasures, to the joyful contemplation of that Eternal Object. But by what cords? The cords of a man, and the cords of Love. (Thomas Traherne, Centuries 1.56)

George Herbert’s poem “Sacrifice” is a lengthy reflection on the paradoxical contrast between Jesus’ divine identity and his death on the cross. Throughout there is a pattern of a short stanza that repeats over and over in the poem. By repeating this stanza, Herbert contrasts what those who crucified Jesus thought was happening with what was actually happening. Herbert writes:

Hark how they cry aloud still, Crucify:
It is not fit he live a day, they cry,
Who cannot live less than eternally:
Was ever grief like mine?
(George Herbert, “Sacrifice”)

Those who crucified Jesus said that it was not fit that he should live another day. What they did not realize was that because he is God incarnate, the one they were crucifying could only live eternally.

In healing not myself, there doth consist
All that salvation, which ye now resist;
Your safety in my sickness doth subsist.
(George Herbert, “Sacrifice”)

Again there is the paradoxical contrast that Jesus’ own death provides the healing for the sickness of those who crucify him. By not coming down from the cross, by not healing himself, Jesus actually enables the healing of those who crucify him.

This is also a spirituality or theology of sin and repentance. The Caroline Divines took sin seriously. In George Herbert’s poem “The Sinner,” he writes:

The spirit and good extract of my heart
Comes to about the many hundredth part.
Yet Lord restore thine image, hear my call:
And though my hard heart scarce to thee can groan,
Remember that thou once didst write in stone.
(George Herbert, “The Sinner”)

The reference to writing in stone is a typological looking back to God ‘s writing of the Ten Commandments on stone whch he gave to Moses. It is also a reference to the passage in the prophet Jeremiah in which Jeremiah writes that we will be given new hearts. Herbert is acknowledging in effect: “I am wicked, sinful, and I cannot change myself. I need your grace to change me, to give me a new heart.”

In the poem “A Hymn to God the Father,” which is found in many hymnals, John Donne writes about God’s forgiveness of our sins:

WILT Thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done;
For I have more.
(John Donne, “A Hymn to God the Father”)

First Donne asks in prayer whether God can forgive these sins which he has done over and over again? Then he asks, what about the sins that he has committed that have caused others to sin?

Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sins their door?
Wilt Thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallow’d in a score?
When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done;
For I have more.
(John Donne, “A Hymn to God the Father”)

Finally, Donne speaks of the worst sin, the sin of despair:

I have a sin of fear, that when I’ve spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by Thyself that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as He shines now and heretofore:
And having done that, Thou hast done;
I fear no more.
(John Donne, “A Hymn to God the Father”)

A subtle pun appears repeatedly. Donne refers to sins he has done and then finishes that God has not done, because of Donne’s sins, and only then concludes, “Thou hast done” because in God’s redemption in Christ, God finally does have John Donne, the redeemed sinner.

Love and Gratitude<

The spirituality of the Caroline Divines is also a spirituality of divine love and gratitude. Love is at the center of their theology of grace, and love enables us to be grateful and to respond to God’s goodness. George Herbert’s poem “Love” is perhaps his most famous example. It begins:

Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
“A guest,” I answer’d, “worthy to be here”;
Love said, “You shall be he.”
‟I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear,
I cannot look on thee.”
Love took my hand and smiling did reply, “Who made the eyes but I?”
(George Herbert, “Love”)

The poem is about God’s grace. God’s love approaches Herbert, but Herbert protests: “I am sinful. I am not worthy to be your guest. So I cannot come to this meal that you are offering me.” God responds, “No, you are going to be my guest.” Herbert protests again: “I cannot look on you because I am sinful.” God then responds, “You cannot look on me? I made your eyes. You can certainly look at me with the eyes I have created.” Herbert finishes with a final protest:

Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them;
let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
(George Herbert, “Love”)

So Herbert only appears to give in. To God he protests again: “You made my eyes, but I have ruined my eyes through my sin.” God however refuses the refusal, and reminds Herbert of the meaning of the cross. “’And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’” Herbert tries one last time:

“My dear, then I will serve.”
“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”
So I did sit and eat.
(George Herbert, “Love”)

To wrap up the poem: Herbert tries to evade the invitation to the end, claiming that he is not worthy to be the guest of God because of his sin, but he is more than willing to serve. God, however, finally has the last word: “No,” replies Love. I am the servant. I will serve you.” And so finally Herbert surrenders. Although he knows that he is not a worthy guest, God has enabled him to be worthy because through Christ’s love, his sins have been taken care of.

Lengthy passages from Traherne’s Centuries focus on God’s love as communicated in the cross of Christ.

God loved thee with an infinite love, and became by doing so thine infinite treasure, Thou art the end unto whom He liveth. For all the lines of His works and counsels end in thee, and in thy advancement. Wilt not thou become to Him an infinite treasure, by loving Him according to His desert? It is impossible but to love Him that loveth. Love is so amiable that it is irresistible. (Traherne, Centuries 1.71)

In answer to the Calvinist question of whether grace is irresistible or not, Traherne insists that it is God’s love that is irresistible. As with Herbert, Traherne finds this love centering on Christ and his cross:

Who have such a Father, having in Him the Fountain of Immortality Rest and Glory, and the joy of seeing Him creating all things for my sake! Such a Son, having in Him the means of peace and felicity, and the joy of seeing Him redeeming my soul, by His sufferings on the cross, and doing all things that pertain to my salvation between the Father and me: Such a Spirit and such a Comforter dwelling in me to quicken, enlighten, and enable me, and to awaken all the powers of my soul that night and day the same mind may be in me that was in Christ Jesus! (Thomas Traherne, Centuries 1.95)

Traherne brings together here the doctrine of God’s love, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of the atonement, and the doctrine of the Spirit’s indwelling, all in one paragraph.

Finally, there is John Donne’s famous sonnet:

Batter my heart, three-personed God, for you
As yet but knock; breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand; o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like a usurpt town to another due,
Labour to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue;
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy:
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you ’enthral me, never shall be free;
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
(John Donne, Holy Sonnets)

Donne’s language here is fairly scandalous. It is certainly erotic, but Donne is saying that it is only as God loves us that we can love back and be free from our sin.

The Sacraments

A common theme for the Caroline Divines is that the sacraments are a mystery. They do not attempt an explanatory theory about what happens in the sacraments any more than Richard Hooker attempted to explain what happens, but they are confident that in the sacraments, God does indeed meet us in Christ. In George Herbert’s poem, “The Holy Communion,” he writes:

First I am sure, whether bread stay
Or whether Bread do fly away
Concerneth bread, not me.
But that thou, and all thy train,
Be there, to thy truth, and my gain,
Concerneth me and Thee.
(George Herbert, “The Holy Communion”)

According to Herbert, what is important in the sacraments is not our theoretical explanations, but that the risen Christ actually meets us in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. Similarly, George Herbert writes in The Country Parson: “THE Country Parson being to administer the Sacraments, is at a stand with himself how or what behaviour to assume for so holy things. Especially at Communion time, he is in a great confusion, as being not only to receive God, but to break and administer Him” (George Herbert, The Country Parson).

Finally, John Donne addresses concerns about proper theories of eucharistic presence in one of his Whitsunday Pentecost sermons:

“[S]o is it for a Christian to enjoy the working of God’s grace, in a faithful believing the mysteries of religion, though he inquire not into God’s bed-chamber, nor seek into his unrevealed decrees. It is Odiosa et exitialis vocula, Quomodo, says Luther, A hateful, a damnable monosyllable, How, how God doth this or that: for if a man come to the boldness of proposing such a question to himself, he will not give over till he find some answer: and then others will not be content with his answer, but every man will have a several one. When the church fell upon the Quomodo [how] in the sacrament, How, in what manner the body of Christ was there, we see what an inconvenient answer it fell upon, that it was done by transubstantiation; that satisfied not, (as there was no reason it should) and then they fell upon others, in, sub [under], and cum [with], and none could, none can give satisfaction.” (John Donne, Sermon XXVII [Preached Upon Whitsunday])

This refusal to provide a theoretical explanation becomes typical of the Anglican understanding of what happens in the sacraments. The affirmation is that the risen Jesus Christ is there. Theologians may have different theories, but it is not the theories that are important. It is the reality of Christ’s presence

Finally, as a possible point of controversy, there is in the Caroline Divines a tendency toward what is called moral casuistry, and a focus on virtue. In his lengthy poem, “The Church Porch,” George writes about the importance of a kind of moral transformation that needs to take place in us.

Harken unto a Verser, who may chance
Rhyme thee to good, and make a bait of pleasure.
A verse may find him, who a sermon flies
And turn delight into a sacrifice.
(George Herbert, “The Church Porch”)

In his poetry, Herbert is trying to make the world a better place, but he knows that our hearts are not changed by what is sometimes called the proclamation of the law: “You need to do better. You need to change.” It is only as we fall in love with God and with Jesus Christ that we will indeed change. And one of the things that Herbert tries to do in his poems is to draw his readers to the love of God through beauty, in such a way that they will be transformed and changed.

The same kind of thing happens in the sermons that someone like John Donne preaches. John Donne’s sermons are not just simply theologically interesting or morally demanding. They are beautifully written. The same is also true of Traherne’s book, The Centuries. When we read The Centuries, we discover that it is not only a book about spirituality. It is a beautiful book that draw us in by focusing on God’s love in not only the cross of Christ, but also the beauty of creation. This is a common theme in the Caroline Divines. They believe that the way one responds to God, the way that one gets to know God, is not through moral exertion, but through coming to love the God who loved us first and whom we meet in the beautiful things that God has given to us that we find all around us around us in creation, but most importantly and most significantly, we encounter God’s love in the incarnation and in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Bishop Fitzsimmons Allison in his book, The Rise of Moralism, the Proclamation of the Gospel from Hooker to Baxter, complains that there is a tendency to moralism in some of the Caroline Divines. In particular, he is concerned about Jeremy Taylor.³ There may be such a danger of moralism in Taylor’s writings, but this is certainly not the case in George Herbert or John Donne or Thomas Traherne,

Domesticity and Pastoral Care<

Domesticity is one of the final contributions of Anglican spirituality that we find in the Caroline Divines, and is a direct consequence of the Protestant Reformation. In the Middle Ages, all clergy were unmarried, because the Roman Catholic church insisted on priestly celibacy. Monasticism also was a spirituality for single people; monks and friars had to take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. There is a corresponding tendency in medieval spirituality to evaluate what is called the “active life” and the married life as lesser forms of spirituality than lives of celibacy and contemplation.

A regularly appearing medieval allegorical interpretation contrasts the two sisters Mary and Martha in the story in Luke’s Gospel in which Jesus visits the two and praises Mary for choosing the better part by listening to his teaching, while Martha is busy preparng the meal. In medieval spirituality, Mary is considered to be the example of the contemplative life. Mary is the one who, like medieval mystics or monks or nuns, would live in a cloister and devote her time to prayer. In contrast, Martha is compared to the “active life” of the ordinary person who is married and is not ordained. While laity and married people were still considered to be Christians, there is a sense in which domestic life is considered to have less value and to be an inferior form of spirituality.

This changed with the Reformation, including for Anglicans. In that clergy were married, there was a sense in which the spirituality that used to be associated with monasticism became associated with the family, and the family became something like its own little monastery. A group of Christians whom George Herbert knew led by a man named Nicholas Ferrar actually formed something like a small monastic community, made up of married families who would pray together. Ferrar’s Little Gidding community worshiped together every day. Their Puritan opponents disparaged them as the “Arminian Nunnery.”

A couple of authors of the last several decades have discussed this Reformation influence on domesticity as a type of spirituality. Simon Schama, a British and Jewish historian, in his book The Embarrassment of Riches emphasizes the centrality of the family for Calvinist spirituality in the Netherlands as a consequence of the Reformation. Lutheran theologian Stephen Ozment writes similarly about the spiritual significance of family in the Lutheran Reformation.⁴

We see something similar in the English Reformation, particularly in George Herbert’s The Country Person, where Herbert writes about the importance of the parson’s family.

The Parson is very exact in the governing of his house, making it a copy and modell for his Parish. He knows the temper, and pulse of every person in his house, and accordingly either meets with their vices, or advanceth their vertues. His wife is either religious, or night and day he is winning her to it. In stead of the qualities of the world, he requires onely three of her; first, a trayning up of her children and mayds in the fear of God, with prayers, and catechizing, and all religious duties. (George Herbert, The Country Parson)

Coupled with this focus on the family is also a pastoral focus that is characteristic of the Anglican understanding of pastoral ministry. The priest is not only someone who preaches, who celebrates the sacraments, but the priest in Anglicanism is someone who cares for his flock. In The Country Person, Herbert writes,

The Countrey Parson upon the afternoons in the week-days, takes occasion sometimes to visite in person, now one quarter of his Parish, now another. For there he shall find his flock most naturally as they are, wallowing in the midst of their affairs: whereas on Sundays it is easie for them to compose themselves to order, which they put on as their holy-day cloathes, and come to Church in frame, but commonly the next day put off both. (George Herbert, The Country Parson)

Herbert is aware that on Sunday morning, lay people do their best to impress the priest. The practice of pastoral visitation meets members of the congregation in their day to day lives. Pastoral visitation is an important part of Anglican pastoral practice.

Theology as Sermons and Poetry

A final characteristic of the Caroline Divines is that they do not write theology in the typical way in which we expect a theology to be written. We find their theology in sermons and written prayers and in poetry. This variety is not intended simply to convey ideas. The sermons, prayers and poems are spiritual devices meant to attract us, to help us to fall in love with God. The Caroline Divines built on the theology of grace and the reading of Scripture and the practice of Prayer Book worship that they had received from predecessors like Thomas Cranmer, John Jewel, and Richard Hooker and began to live it out. They tell us what it means to live a certain kind of life, to pray a certain way, to read Scripture in a certain way, all of which is implied in the Anglican way of being a Christian. This is a two-book spirituality that is grounded in the English translation of the Bible and the worship practices of The Book of Common Prayer.