COMPARATIVE VIEW OF RELIGIOUS CHANGES. No. III.-CHURCH OF ENGLAND. In the two preceding papers of this inquiry we have described the vicissitudes of Christianity from the period of its introduction to the Protestant Reformation. It is manifest, from this retrospect, that the Christian mission, in its first aspects, appealed to the faith and moral sympathies of mankind unconnected with the institutions of sect or priesthood, temporal ascendancy or acquisitions. In this humble presentment, divested of every pretension that could alarm the jealous apprehensions of established authority, and aided only by inherent claims, it rapidly acquired an unrivalled dominion over the hearts of men, and became the predominant power of the earth. But incorporated with secular interests, the foundation was laid for endless corruptions of the primitive dispensation, and perversion to objects of human selfishness and ambition. These deviations from the original standard of belief and practice produced centuries of theological agitation, consummated by the mighty religious movement of the sixteenth century, that dissolved the unity of the Romish Church, and severed from papal supremacy some of the most powerful states of Europe. Amidst this convulsion the Church of England originated. It is the eldest of the free churches that revolted from the Catholicism of Rome, commencing in the denial of the papal supremacy by Henry VIII.; but it was not till the next reign that the theology of Protestantism really began to be introduced. Under King Henry innovations had been limited to the sovereignty of the church and its temporalities, but under Edward VI. a new doctrinal worship was sought to be raised on the basis of the ancient religion. This was the vital commencement of the existing Liturgy and ecclesiastical establishment, of which the chief founder was Archbishop Cranmer, assisted by the zealous reformers, Bishops Hooper, Ridley, and Coverdale. The serial changes rapidly and energetically introduced by these eminent prelates require to be briefly noticed before either the foundation, superstructure, or present state of the English Church can be correctly understood. The first stone of the new episcopal fabric consisted of the publication, or at least a new version, of the Book of Homilies or sermons, under the direction of Cranmer, to be read to their congregations by such incumbents of parishes as might not be qualified to compose discourses of their own. These were not very favourably received, a written homily being felt to be a drowsy exhibition compared with the show and animation of the former worship. The reading of some of the priests was indifferent, and, according to Latimer, they did so hawk it and chop it that it were as good for the people to be without it for any words that could be understood.' It gave rise, however, to the general use of written sermons in place of the former practice of extemporary declamation. The next great undertaking was the preparation, in place of the Latin Mass Book, of the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments.' The new book contained little that was not in the Mass Book, but was distinguished from it by the addition of the Litany and the omission of many forms held to be superstitious, and by its being throughout in the English language. The Prayer Book was sanctioned by Parliament, and ordered to be used by all ministers in the celebration of divine worship. Nearly contemporary with these changes were other innovations. The statute against the marriage of priests was repealed; the laity in communion with the clergy were admitted to the sacramental cup, and the doctrine of auricular confession given up, confession to God or the church being held sufficient. The most arduous achievement remained, namely, the exposition and settlement of the doctrines of the new church. In the opinion of some these ought to have been the first consideration, but Cranmer thought otherwise, and adopted a more politic proceeding. He first got rid of Gardiner, Bonner, Heath, and Day, stanch adherents of the old learning, and replaced them on the episcopal bench by reform prelates, to whom he submitted the new articles of religion. They were proceeded with in 1551, and finished by the beginning of the next year, when they were published by the royal authority. These articles were forty-two in number, and did not differ in any material point of doctrine from the present Thirty-nine Articles. A digest and revision of the Canon Law, applicable to spiritual courts and offences, completed the cycle of ecclesiastical meliorations. It is to the learning, sagacity, and energy of Cranmer that the accomplishment of this arduous labour may be attributed. It was translated into Latin, and forms an entire body of ecclesiastical law, drawn up under fifty-one titles or heads. But this celebrated code never became the law of the land, it never having received the sanction of the royal authority. For this failure of legal validity various reasons have been assigned, among others that the nation, especially the great men of it, could not endure ecclesiastical discipline. Some of its enactments indeed were severe. Denial of the truth of Christianity was punishable with death. Seduction was punishable by excommunication and forfeiture, adultery by imprisonment or banishment for life. These great ecclesiastical reforms were all effected during the five years of a regency government. Edward VI. died a minor, and it was under his nominal sway that the Protestant fabric of the Anglican Church was founded and reared. It was a noble work, and did honour to the zeal and abilities of the distinguished churchmen by whom it was chiefly accomplished. In the tragical interlude of the next reign the new establishment was suspended, and the old worship temporarily restored; but the insane violence of Queen Mary's proceedings really helped to strengthen and forward the Protestant cause. Her torturings, burnings, and bloody sacrifices irretrievably ruined Popery in the popular estimation, and left on the national mind an impression of its sanguinary bigotry never effaced. The blood of the English martyrs truly proved the seed of the Church. The horrors of the Papist reign did more to spread a horror of Popery through the land than could have been effected by the most zealous denunciations of a Protestant clergy. By their fruits ye shall know them,' and Mary's five years' persecution was a terrific appeal to the experience of the nation. No preaching, no teaching could have told like that of the unhappy victims from the midst of the flames; the sad histories of some, the heroic death of others, could not but touch the hearts of men with pity and admiration, and all became sick of breathing an air rank with the fumes of blood. From such a tainted atmosphere the nation was glad to escape under the auspices of Queen Elizabeth. Of the protestantism of this great princess there could be no doubt, but there were obvious motives on her part for moderation. During the last ten years, the ancient and the new competitive faith had been in alternate ascendancy; each was represented by a numerous party of the coramunity; and in a sovereign ambitious to govern both in peace, it was sage policy not to evince for either a marked predilection. In consequence, at the commencement of her reign she seemed inclined to check the zeal of her own partizans, and show favour to some of the forms at least of their opponents. She naturally loved state and magnificence, and in her estimate the reformed worship had been too much stripped of external ornaments. She had no objection to images in churches; and in the matter of Christ's bodily presence in the sacrament, she recommended such general terms to be adopted as might comprehend both parties. The title of supreme head of the Church' she thought too arrogant an infringement either of the prerogative of the Roman pontiff, or of the divine founder of Christianity. Lastly, Elizabeth was no admirer of married priests, though not disposed to enjoin compulsory celibacy on the clergy. With these modifications the queen entered heartily into the spirit of the Reformation, and soon after her accession effected a counter-revolution in the national religion. The Protestant liturgy was restored, the bench of bishops cleared of its popish occupants by tendering to them the oath of supremacy, and the church of England entirely set up on the Cranmer foundation. Out of ten thousand ecclesiastics, only about one hundred gave up their benefices, rather than conform to the new order of things; showing either laxity of religious sentiment in the clergy, or the unimportant differences that had separated the conflicting worships. Energetic legislation followed for confirming the spiritual supremacy of the sovereign, and for enforcing uniformity in the prayers and services of the church. At a later period, 1571, the Articles of religion were revised, the number being reduced to thirty-nine, and subscription to them by the clergy made imperative. Such were the chief ecclesiastical settlements, partly the results of royal, convocational, and legislative authority. By these the Protestant Reformation may be said to have been closed in this country, and the constitutional bases laid down upon which the existing Church of England is established. As usually follows great changes, there were two classes of dissentients: first, those who thought no reformation had been needed; and secondly, those who held that the reformation had not gone far enough. Hence arose the Nonconformists and Dissenters; the former consisting either of the inconvertible adherents of the old religion, or such as could not conform to the requirements of the new; the latter of the Puritans, who aimed at what they considered a more perfect or Christian regeneration of the doctrines and institutions of the church. Both these descriptions of malcontents form the usual unincorporated remnants that survive social revolutions; they are the extremes of parties, and though from opposite motives, are usually united in a common and bitter hostility to the triumphant section that has thwarted or crushed them. Neither, however, of the discomfited divisions was wholly without plausible causes of dissatisfaction with the new settlement. The Nonconformist might with reason ask, Why disturb the ancient worship for the modern innovation? Substantially the new is the old church; the head has been changed, but the body is left standing; in rites, services, dogmas, and hierarchy, Conformity of Romanism and Church-of-Englandism. 329 English protestantism is only Romanism thinly disguised. This conclusion has been sought to be established by Delaune, in his Plea for the Nonconformists.' He shows that in the several particulars of kneeling at the sacrament, the use of the surplice, the sign of the cross, the rite of confirmation, the use of sponsors in baptism, of a liturgy or form of prayer, of altais, the observance of fasts and festivals, the ceremony of marriage, bowing at the name of Jesus and towards the east, the authority of episcopacy, and the dedication of churches to saints; in all these the Church of England symbolizes not with primitive Christianity, but with the idolatrous forms of Popery, and which idolatrous forms, as previously shown, had been derived from Pagan institutes, which were conformable to Druidism, the aboriginal superstition of the ancient world. The close resemblance between Popery and Church of Englandism ceases to surprise, when it is known, on the authority of Calderwood, that the English service was put together out of three Romish channels: namely, first, the Breviary, out of which the common prayers are taken; second, the Ritual, or Book of Rites, out of which the administration of the sacraments, burial, matrimony, and the visitation of the sick are taken; third, the Mass Book, out of which the consecration of the Lord's Supper, collects, epistles, and gospels are abstracted. The Rubric, or Service Book of Henry the Eighth's time, was the Romish liturgy, partly translated into English. In the next reign the whole, little altered, was rendered into the vernacular tongue. This fact was distinctly affirmed in a proclamation issued by the king to the enthusiasts in the west of England, who had been incited to sedition by the malcontent priests. As to the service in the English tongue,' says Henry, it perhaps seems to you a new service, yet it is indeed no other but the old, the self-same words in English; for nothing is altered but to speak with knowledge that which was spoken with ignorance, only a few things taken out, so fond that it would have been a shame to have heard them in English.'* Between this period and the reign of James I. some alterations were effected, notwithstanding we find that prince thus speaking of the same service. As for our neighbour kirk in England, their service is an evil-said mass in English; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings.'+ Subsequently further alterations were made in the service, but of no great moment; and Charles II, in his preface to the Common Prayer, says, 'the main body and essentials of it, as well in the chiefest materials * Acts and Monuments, vol. ii., p. 1189, quoted by Delaune. |