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Reviews 235 Rex, Richard, 77^ theology of John Fisher, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xii, 293; R.R.P. AUS$99.00. Richard Rex remarks that the theology of Thomas More has attracted more attention than that of Johnfisher,even though, in any professional assessment, the latter's claims are much greater. Justiy or not the appeal of More's other writings has carried over to this department. With this erudite work on Fisher's theology, Rex aims to make up some of the leeway. He wants in particular to determine how Fisher related to the theological tradition, especially scholasticism, and to the theological expressions of humanism. He agrees that for the classical literature itself Fisher had no enthusiasm. The book begins with a background chapter on 'Humanism and scholasticism in late-fifteenth-century Cambridge', in which Rex shows that the supposed conflict between scholastics and humanists was not found at Cambridge, though his broader statement seems at once sweeping and indeterminate: 'The decisive break with scholasticism in EngUsh as in European universities came, if it came at all, not with the advent of humanism but with that of the Reformation' (p. 14). The dominant school was via antique (Thomas and Scotus), and that certainly distinguished Cambridge from the many European universities where the via moderna was in ascendant. In turning to Fisher himself, Rex gives pride of place to the 'preaching bishop' (ch. 2). It is true of Fisher as of other sixteenth-centuryfiguresthat, in posterity's eyes, the pastor has sometimes been lost in the polemicist, a fate for which their own penchant for polemical theology or thetenorof the times must share the responsibility. The prominence given to Fisher's relation to Christian humanism (ch. 3) is related to Rex's whole judgement of Fisher and his role; namely, that he belonged to a reformed circle. His friendship with Erasmus was important but so also was his contact with Reuchlin because Hebrew studies, to which Fisher came late, were driven by fascination with the Cabbala. There follow chapters on Fisher's controversy with Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples over Mary Magdalene and his far more serious encounters with Martin Luther, in which, as Rex shows, he was the centre of a controversial network prefiguring much in the Counter Reformation and its polemical effort. More than his contemporary Catholic controversialists on the continent, Fisher understood where Luther's foundations lay: solafidesand sola scriptura. Four chapters deal with the theological issues: authority, justification, the eucharist and scripture, as he understood them. Most interesting for a brief comment is the chapter on 'Faith, grace and justification', because it measures Fisher against a major opponent on a central issue. Rex rebuts the notion that Fisher was a Semipelagian and places him, like Luther, within the late-medieval Augustinian stream. He recognizes 236 Reviews common ground between Fisher and Luther, although he is plainly not sympathetic to the ecumenical dialogue which has been reconciling the Catholic and Lutheran doctrines of justification (see p. 114). His treatment of Luther is not wholly satisfying. However, this is testimony to the difficulties of this kind of work, when the writing on individual figures is so specialized, complex, and vast. I would have liked more nuances in some places, for example in the first sentence of chapter 8: 'John Fisher's theology of justification, unlike that of Luther and the reformers, left room for the sacraments to play an active part in the Christian life'. The last controversy dealt with here is one which in the end cost Fisher his life: that over Henry VIII's divorce. Rex's assessment over aU is against the stereotype of Fisher as a die-hard conservative. He embraced Biblical and patristic humanism. He was a genuine friend of Erasmus. He believed in the vernacular Bible. Bruce E. Mansfield Department of History University of Sydney Sacks, David H., The widening gate: Bristol and the Atlantic economy 14501700 , Berkeley/Los Angeles/Oxford, University of Catifornia Press, 1991; cloth; pp. xxvii, 464; 6 illustrations; 30 tables; R.R.P. US$45.00 Surviving records of the past can be organized in different ways to produce alternative but often interlocking perspectives of the...

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