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GYC Southeast

Great in God's Sight Season 3

Rhonda Grakov

Martin Luther: Captive Conscience

Ulrich Zwingli: Of Switzerland and Sola Scriptura

Marguerite of Navarre: Faith over France

William Tyndale: Singing the Same Note

Menno Simons: A Forbidden Book

Albrecht Dürer: Brushstrokes of the Reformation, Part 1

Albrecht Dürer: Brushstrokes of the Reformation, Part 2

Katherine Parr: The Survivor

Philipp Melanchthon: Nothing but Heaven

Ursula Von Münsterberg: Escape Artist for God

Hello and welcome to Grading God's Sight, the podcast that explores underrated heroes.

This is Season 3, and we're so glad you've joined us for this episode entitled, Catherine Parr, the Survivor.

Please be sure to subscribe and check out the terrific artwork that goes along with today's story on our website thegreatpodcast.org.

Catherine took another shaky breath and tried not to squirm beneath the beady eyes of the man standing next to her.

As she finished saying her vows, she discreetly studied the large king from beneath her lashes, and wondered what was to become of her.

Of course, now she was the Queen of England, but she was also the sixth Queen of Henry VIII, who had earned his reputation as some husband.

He had either divorced or beheaded every 1 of his previous wives except for Jane, who had died after the birth of the crown prince Edward.

Though Catherine couldn't very well have refused the king's offer of marriage, we can sympathize with her reticence.

Her chances for survival were indeed slim, humanly speaking, but stronger forces were at work behind the scenes, and Catherine's increasing faith in God had everything to do with this.

As she stepped off the platform hand in hand with her new husband, Catherine Parr, newly crowned Queen of England, had no inkling of the impact she would have on the English Reformation.

Catherine was born in the Royal Palace in 1512 to Thomas and Maud Parr.

Both of her parents were in the service of the royals, and her mother Maud was a favorite lady-in-waiting to Henry's first wife, Catherine of Aragon.

Little Catherine may even have been named after the Spanish queen.

Maud ensured that her 3 children were well-educated and well-prepared to lead comfortable lives.

She also arranged Catherine's first marriage to the young nobleman Edward Burrow, who tragically died 3 years into the union.

But it was Catherine's second marriage to Lord Latimer that first thrust her into the inner circle of religious dissent.

Her second husband had supported the Pilgrimage of Grace, the rebellion of 1536 that had attempted to restore Catholicism as the official religion in England.

The revolt permanently damaged Lord Latimer's reputation and he fell ill and died several years later.

A widow for the second time, Catherine then established herself in the household of Lady Mary, Henry VIII's first daughter, from his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

It was here that she met the king and received his proposal of marriage, the first that Henry himself directly orchestrated.

Shortly after their marriage in 1543, Catherine converted to Protestantism at the advice of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury and a leading figure of the English Reformation.

As Queen, Catherine took an immediate liking to her stepchildren, and as her newfound faith grew, she determined to give Elizabeth and Edward a Protestant education.

Mary was only 2 years younger than Catherine and was already firmly entrenched in the Catholic tradition, But Catherine hoped to be a good influence on all her stepchildren.

It was her prayer that she would raise up Edward to be a true reformist king and plant in Elizabeth the potential to be a reformist queen should she ever occupy the throne 1 day.

Catherine carefully selected tutors for Elizabeth and Edward, and her impact on them was most notable in Elizabeth.

At 1 point, Elizabeth gifted Catherine with her own translation of Marguerite of Navarre's The mirror of the sinful soul.

Elizabeth also worked on translations of John Calvin's writings for her stepmother.

Catherine's love for her stepchildren was a healing balm to their relationship with their father, Henry, besides creating a lifelong trust between them and herself.

The Queen promoted the use of the vernacular for religious texts and accepted the staunch reformist view that Scripture was the sole authority for the Christian faith.

In 1544, Catherine published an English translation of prayers and psalms, albeit anonymously.

She was careful to do this undercover, because although Henry had appeared somewhat reformist in appointing himself head of the church, He was also known to burn outspoken reformists at the stake.

Henry VIII was such a slippery chameleon that no 1 was entirely sure what was actually inside his head.

He would burn Catholics and Protestants alike, anyone who was too free in airing opinions that were not in line with his personal trains of thought.

Nevertheless, Catherine enjoyed debating the king in topics of religion without realizing that later, this seemingly innocent indulgence would bring her to grief.

Many of Catherine's close friends at court held strong reformist ideals, and by 1545 Catherine's faith was an integral part of her queenship.

She found a great comfort in the truth of salvation by faith alone.

Catherine spent much time in prayer and delighted in the growing union she felt with Christ.

She began writing more passionately and held daily Bible studies in her chambers with her ladies-in-waiting.

After a successful period as regent while Henry fought in France, Catherine's confidence grew still more, and in 1545 she put her name on her book Prayers or Meditations, An English language collection of devotional texts.

It was a brave and risky move because the book contained clear support for justification through faith, which had always been 1 of the most controversial tenets of the new Reformed religion.

However, Catherine was saving her most emphatic writings to be published after the king's death.

While still queen, she wrote The Lamentation of a Sinner, a work that preserved her faith and personal convictions within its pages.

However, the public must not view the Queen as an imperfect sinner, nor could she spell out all her controversial views while Henry still lived.

He would almost certainly have had her executed immediately.

So although she wrote voluminously, Catherine bided her time and waited to publish her bolder writings.

The royal court was a minefield to be navigated with constant caution.

However, no matter how guarded she was, Catherine's daily Bible studies with reformist thinkers, as well as her influence on the royal children, upset the king's counselors.

Bishop Stephen Gardiner cherished a particular distaste for the queen's obvious spiritual leanings.

The king was persuaded by his council to move against Catherine.

Already many reformers had been dragged off to prison or death, including Anne Askew, an outspoken and intelligent young woman who had been invited to speak with Catherine on occasion.

Anne had been arrested and tortured in an attempt to incriminate the Queen, and when she had refused to provide an accusation, she was burned at the stake.

But the hunting party still hounded Catherine, seizing upon the fact that she had frequently held what she thought were innocent religious debates with the king.

Henry began planning to remove her as queen, but Catherine caught wind of the plot and threw herself on his mercy.

She assured Henry of his superior intelligence and pleaded that her motives for debating religion with him had only ever been to take his mind off his painful ailments.

The king's wrath was appeased by her self-abasement, and he apparently saw fit to forgive her.

He neglected, however, to tell the guards, who arrived the next day to arrest her while she was walking with him in the gardens.

Henry sent them away, flustered and embarrassed.

Catherine went on to outlive Henry, who succumbed to illness in 1547.

She published The Lamentation of a Sinner only 9 months after his death.

In it, she wrote of her own conversion to Protestant theology and of her own humility as a sinner.

She wrote, I feel myself to come, as it were, in a new garment before God, and now, by his mercy, to be declared just and righteous.

By faith alone I am sure to be justified, although the dregs of Adam do remain.

After Henry VIII's death, Catherine married her sweetheart Thomas Seymour, but she continued to debate and write about the new way of practicing the Christian faith, even as she retreated to Sudley Castle in Gloucestershire in preparation for the birth of her first child, Mary Seymour.

As she had hoped, her stepson Edward VI's ascent to the throne proved that Catherine's care to inculcate reformist doctrine in him had been successful and would continue to influence his reign.

All around Catherine, the Protestant Reformation in England began to take root.

Unfortunately, she did not live to see it bear fruit under Queen Elizabeth I, for she died in 1548 due to birth complications.

Catherine Parr's queenship gave her the opportunity to promote a revolution in faith throughout England, though her marriage to Henry was a most unexpected avenue for this.

She was highly esteemed in her era as a wise Queen, writer, educator, and religious reformer.

Her influence on major figures like Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Elizabeth I had lasting effects, which reverberate to our day.

As a writer, Catherine is remembered as the first Englishwoman to publish a book under her own name, and her writings were among the first reformed works in the English language.

Catherine Parr's meekness, faith, and bravery to stand for her beliefs, even at risk of own life continue to inspire.

Thank you for listening to Great in God's Sight, a podcast by GYC Southeast.

We hope you have enjoyed this adventure through time and pray it serves to deepen your relationship with God.

While we strive to bring you a unique perspective on each believer, we encourage you to use your God-given curiosity to explore these topics for yourself.

Please remember to hit the subscribe button and share this episode with your friends via text or social media.

Until next time, we wish you God's blessing as you seek to be great in His sight too.

Series

Great in God's Sight Season 3

Katherine Parr: The Survivor

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Great in God's Sight Season 2

Johann Sebastian Bach: This Art Still Lives

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Great in God's Sight Season 3

William Tyndale: Singing the Same Note

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Great in God's Sight Season 3

Albrecht Dürer: Brushstrokes of the Reformation, Part 2

12m

Great in God's Sight Season 1

William Wilberforce, Part 2: The Great Cause

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Great in God's Sight Season 1

Jerome, Cyril, and Methodius: Bibles for East and West

10m

Great in God's Sight Season 3

Martin Luther: Captive Conscience

11m

Great in God's Sight Season 1

Patrick: Unlikely Freedom

10m

Great in God's Sight Season 1

Mark: One Young Man

10m

Great in God's Sight Season 2

The Celestial Railroad: Part 1

13m

Great in God's Sight Season 2

The Celestial Railroad: Part 2

13m

Great in God's Sight Season 1

Columba: The Dove of Scotland

10m

Great in God's Sight Season 3

Philipp Melanchthon: Nothing but Heaven

11m

Sound Doctrine