BOOK I. OF PERSONS ECCLESIASTICAL. CHAPTER I. OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND-THE CHURCH ESTA- THE Church, as is well known, in its most extended sense, The word signifies all those who are by profession Christians, all Church. believers in the Gospel generally, who constitute the visible Church of Christ on earth. But it has also a more limited meaning, in which it is used in the latter part of the nineteenth of our Articles, in which it signifies only the Christians of one country, city, or persuasion. In this latter sense we use it in this work; in which we are speaking only of the Church of England: a particular Church included in an universal. But it has occasioned much difficulty and confusion, that the term by which in this case we designate the particular and universal, is the same; and has been very generally used indiscriminately. Probably neither of these meanings can be taken as the primary one of the word Church, as it is of the Greek Exxλnoia, and of the word thence derived in the Latin, for there the primary idea is evidently the elect, or the assembly, or the general body of the faithful: secondarily only, the temple or place where they meet together for religious worship. Our word, which is nearly similar to that of most of the northern nations, was probably formerly pronounced with the consonants hard, as now in Scotland, and derived from the Greek Tò xugiaxov, belonging to the Lord, or as it has been further, with probability, suggested, xvgiou dixos, or oixía, the Lord's House, thence applied secondarily to those who there assemble." Such at least is the usually received derivation of the word. It may, however, be suggested, that this derivation by no means precludes the possibility, or perhaps the pro a Tomline on the Nineteenth Article. See 2 Burn's E. L. 321, and Rogers's E. L. B Persons ecclesiastical. Formerly regular and secular. Connection of the State. bability, of a primary meaning in our word, such as that of ecclesia, and such as we have used it in this chapter. Kugiaxos, or belonging to the Lord, is equally applicable to either meaning; and if we take the word oixia, or perhaps even oixos, in a meaning which would be strictly classical, to signify a household or family, or a fraternity, we have a primary meaning to our word Church, even more appropriate and satisfactory than that of the Latin word ecclesia. This Church or Christian fraternity has been and is governed, or presided over, by certain ecclesiastical persons of various degrees of authority; and they, together. with the whole body, are subject to one supreme head. Previously to the time of the Reformation in this country, these ecclesiastical persons were divided into regular and secular. Regular, because they lived under certain rules, and were professed in some of the orders of religion, and had vowed three things-true obedience, perpetual chastity, and wilful poverty; such as abbots, priors, monks, and others of such orders regular. And secular, such as did not live under any of such orders, and so called for distinction's sake, as bishops, deans and chapters, archdeacons, canons, parsons, vicars, and such like. And Littleton probably alludes to this distinction, when he speaks of men of religion and of holy church.d But in the reign of Henry VIII., when the monastic rule of life was abrogated, the regular ecclesiastical persons ceased to be any longer recognized by the laws of the country as a part of the church establishment; with these therefore we have no further care. The exact position which the Church of England as such the Church with occupies with respect to the civil government, and the whole community of the state, is matter of political reasoning and speculation, rather than of law; a subject upon which opinions have been, and probably ever will be, widely different; and upon which it would therefore be unwise to enter at any length in a treatise upon those legal subjects which admit of no doubt nor speculation, but which have been firmly settled and determined. The subject however of this union, connection, or alliance, between the Church and the State, whichever of the above terms may be deemed most appropriate, is one which directly or indirectly has a strong bearing upon many questions of Ecclesiastical Law. And without noticing the extreme opinions on the one hand, that the Church and her See the use of this word by Xenophon, Lysias, and Isocrates. t religion are mere creatures of the State; on the other, that the temporal power is wholly dependant or subordinate; and without hazarding any opinion in a question of so much difficulty, it may be useful to mention the condensed opinions of those who are entitled to most weight on this subject. In a recent work, in which the whole question Opinion of has been fully considered, the opinion of Hooker, in his Bishop Hooker. Ecclesiastical Polity, is stated to have been, "That the same persons compose the Church and the Commonwealth of England universally; that the same subject is therefore intended under the respective names of the Church and the Commonwealth; and that it is thus variously named only in respect of accidents, or properties and actions, which are different. His opponents, it is said, contended for a personal separation, which precluded the same man from bearing sway in both; he for a natural one, which did not forbid such an union of authorities. He considered that the Church and the Commonwealth are in this therefore personally one society; which society is termed a Commonwealth, as it liveth under whatsoever form of secular law and government; a Church, as it has the spiritual law of Jesus Christ. That in this society, considered as a Church, the king is the highest uncommanded officer: that his chief ecclesiastical powers are in right of his headship: the right of calling or dissolving the greater assemblies; that of assent to all Church ordinances, which are to have the force of law; the advancement of prelates; the highest judicial authority; and in general an exemption from the ordinary church censures to which others are liable. That the conveyance of power is not to each sovereign in succession, but to one originally, from whom the rest inherit; and the body cannot help itself but with consent of the head, while there is one. That the king's judicial power is subject to Church Law; and it is the head of all, simply because not confined to a district, but legally reaching to all. That kings have authority over the Church, if not collectively, yet divisively understood; that is, over each particular person in that Church where there are kings. That the Commonwealth, when the people are Christians, being ipso facto the Church, the clergy alone ought not to have the power of making laws. Quod omnes tangit ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet." And the fact is, that canons of the clergy in their synods have generally taken no effect as laws, without the approbation of governors. In this country, as we shall have to observe in speaking of the convocation, the laws made by f Gladstone on Church and State. Opinion of Bishop Warburton. Opinion of the clergy in their assemblies have no power to bind the laity, unless confirmed by the parliament, in which case, it is the act of the parliament, not of the clergy, which gives them force and validity. "The king's power of assent," he says, "is a power derived to him from the whole body of the realm; the religious duty of kings is the weightiest part of their sovereignty." The opinions of Bishop Warburton on this subject, are in the same place stated to be, "That civil society, being defective in the control of motives, and in the sanction of reward, has, in all ages, called in the aid of religion to supply the want: the State contemplates for its end the body and its interests; has for its means, coercion; for its general subject-matter, utility. The Church is a religious society of distinct origin; having for its end, the salvation of souls; for its subject-matter, truth; for its instrument, persuasion; regulating motives as well as acts, and promising eternal reward. Though separate, these societies would not interfere, because they have different provinces, but the State having needs as above stated, and the Church wanting protection against violence, they have each reasons sufficient for a voluntary and free convention. Accordingly the societies united, not indeed under any formal engagement, with all the stipulated conditions; but like sovereign and people in the original contract. That is, the theory of the alliance accurately represents the true idea according to which they ought to unite. The conditions of the union are, that the Church receives a free maintenance for the clergy, a share for her security in the legislative body, and a coactive power, to be used in her Spiritual Courts for a purpose, which is also a state purpose, namely, the correction of certain forms of vice. In return for which she surrenders to the State her original independency, and subjects all her laws and movements to the necessity of the State's previous approval. If there be more than one such religious society or church, the State is to contract with the largest, to which will naturally belong the greatest share of political influence." The opinion of Dr. Paley differs somewhat considerably from the foregoing; he says, "that the authority of a g" church establishment is founded only on its utility. That the single end we ought to propose by it, is the preservation and communication of religious knowledge. That every other end, and every other idea, that have been mixed with this, as the making the Church the engine or even the ally of the state, converting it into the means of g Moral and Political Philosophy, chap. x. |