Abstract
David Llewellyn Jenkins’ Whither God Brings Us is a book very much in the mould of J. C. Ryle’s Five English Reformers. Like Ryle it focusses on martyrs of the English Reformation, drawing openly and copiously on John Foxe’s Book of Martyrs. Moreover, like Ryle’s work it is also written from an unashamedly Protestant and evangelical perspective. Written perhaps more for an interested lay audience than a specifically academic one, Jenkins presents the story of twenty-two Cambridge scholars who were martyred in the reign of King Henry VIII and Queen Mary. While their trials and martyrdom are obviously a central connecting theme, the book offers a wider narrative of their lives and of course their education. Combining accounts of well-known Reformers such as Cranmer, Latimer and Ridely, with lesser-known figures such as Dusgate and Marsh, it is the first work to present the lives of all the Cambridge martyrs side-by-side, something which is certainly very valuable.
Jenkins’ account is engaging and well-written. While perhaps not footnoted as extensively as a standard academic monograph, it is clear that a lot of research has gone into the book, both on the lives of the Reformers and their wider context. Although not attuned to the different currents of late medieval or even Renaissance humanist reform, Jenkins does present helpful discussion of the theology of the Cambridge Reformers, and especially the eucharistic and ecclesiological tensions which prevented it from maintaining a unified front. He also indicates the variegated nature of Cambridge Reform theology, highlighting its various Lutheran, Phillippist, Calvinist, Zwinglian and Buceran facets.
For many readers, however, the problem with Whither God Brings Us will be its markedly anti-Catholic tone. While in recent years Reformation scholarship has become increasingly open about confessional leanings, for most this will probably still prove a step beyond the pale. Certainly the book is no straightforward Protestant hagiography, in that it does not attempt to hide the flaws of its main protagonists. However, the picture of Catholic Reformers such as More, Gardiner and Pole that this work presents, as well as the broader discussion of late medieval Catholic theology, will be judged by most Reformation scholars, even convinced Protestant ones, as significantly wanting. To be fair, however, Jenkins makes no claim to be impartial, and read purely as a celebration of the lives and witness of the Cambridge Reformation martyrs his work certainly has much to commend it.