My Favorite British Monarch

Who was King Edward VI? Today, Dr. Stephen Nichols is joined by special guest Dr. Michael Reeves to discuss the life of this English monarch who helped advance the spread of the Protestant Reformation.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. We’re here at Ligonier’s National Conference, and I was able to meet up with a wonderful church historian, Dr. Michael Reeves. Dr. Reeves, it’s great to have you.

Dr. Michael Reeves: I love being on this podcast. I’ve been on before. Great to be back.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: You have been with us before, and it’s delightful to have you. So, let’s hop right in. Since you are a loyal British subject, I thought we would start with your favorite British monarch.

Dr. Michael Reeves: Oh, well, I think my favorite British monarch has to be Edward VI, who was the son of Henry VIII.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: I was hoping you would say Edward VI. So go ahead. Tell us a little bit about Edward VI.

Dr. Michael Reeves: Well, I think Edward VI is rather overshadowed by the soap opera of his father’s reign. So, everyone knows about The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: Quite a few of them.

Dr. Michael Reeves: There are quite a few of them. And so, they forget about this son Edward. But Edward was a remarkable man and remarkable monarch. He has been called, by serious scholars of the Reformation, a prodigy. He was so gifted. He was, almost without a doubt, the brightest and best-educated monarch we’ve ever had. He could read, write, and speak in four languages, including Greek, and had prodigious scholarly abilities in other subjects as well. And that was because he had the very best tutors that Catherine Parr, Henry VII’s last wife, had arranged. But Catherine Parr was Reformed-minded.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: She was sort of a Reformer herself.

Dr. Michael Reeves: She was. And so, she arranged for tutors, who happened to be rather evangelical. And so, the two children of Henry VII, that grew up under those tutors, Elizabeth and Edward, both grew up with personal evangelical convictions. When we say “evangelical” of this period, it doesn’t have the connotations of today. This is what would later be called Protestant, but at this time, we’re called evangelical, as in people of the gospel.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: Of the gospel. Not contemporary evangelical.

Dr. Michael Reeves: That’s right.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: So under Edward VI, the Reformation made leaps and bounds of progress.

Dr. Michael Reeves: Yes.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: Tell us a little bit of the highlights there.

Dr. Michael Reeves: Well, Edward, he was only nine when he came to the throne, but he already had remarkably thought-through evangelical gospel convictions. And yet, it needed a mature man to be able to help actually to run things. And so, Edward’s uncle, Edward Seymour, who was the Duke of Somerset, who I have a soft spot for, he was made Lord Protector. I have a soft spot for him because he’s my 12th great-grandfather. So, there’s a connection there.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: Now I can see why he’s your favorite monarch.

Dr. Michael Reeves: Yeah. This is a connection. And Edward Seymour with Cranmer, who is the Archbishop of Canterbury and one of the great English Reformers, they really spearheaded a Reformation that Edward VI wanted to see. And so, so much of what was a muddle under Henry VII’s reign of a sort of English Catholicism was swept away. So, chantries, places where priests would pray masses for the souls of those in purgatory, that they were dissolved. Really significantly, preaching in English was made legal. When you are ordained, you are no longer now given clerical robes or priestly vestments. You are given a Bible, showing this is the ministry you’re called to, not to sacrifice, but to preach. And also, a book of homilies was written. And so, homilies, these were like off-the-rack sermons, because so many of the clergy, they hadn’t been trained. They didn’t know how to preach. And so, Cranmer would write a sermon on justification by faith alone and go, “There, read that out,” and you may not have known this beforehand, but they will get good gospel doctrine that way.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: That’s great. These are the Edwardian Homilies. They’re wonderful Reformation texts. Thanks for putting a spotlight on them for our listeners, and this is the king that was sometimes referred to as the Josiah.

Dr. Michael Reeves: King Josiah. That’s right.

Dr. Stephen Nichols: King Josiah for England. Excellent choice, Dr. Reeves, of a favorite British monarch. You've been listening to Dr. Reeves talk about his favorite British monarch. And I'm Steve Nichols, and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.