Committee of both Houses to sit during the recess, which the inferior clergy would not consent to, the Convocation was twice prorogued, and ultimately dissolved with the Parliament.

Dr. Tillotson manifested much interest in the suggested union of Protestants, proposing concessions to be made by the Church of England for this object, which he sent to the Earl of Portland by Dr. Stillingfleet. In place of all former declarations and subscriptions to be made by clergymen, Tillotson considered it sufficient,* for those who were to be admitted to the exercise of their ministry in the Church of England, to subscribe one general declaration and promise to this purpose, viz.

"That we do submit to the doctrine, discipline and "worship of the Church of England, as it shall be established "by law, and promise to teach and practise accordingly."

Among other recommendations proposed by the same learned Divine should be mentioned the formation of a new body of Ecclesiastical Canons, with a regard particularly to a more effectual provision for the reformation of manners both in ministers and people.

On the 6th February, 1772, Sir William Meredith presented a remarkable petition to the House of Commons, signed by 250 clergymen of the Church of England, lawyers of the Civil Courts, medical men, and others, praying for relief from the laws relating to subscription, alluding especially to the subscription to the three articles of the 36th Canon, in which some of the petitioners lament "not "only their own, but the too probable misfortune of their

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sons, who, at an age before the habit of reflection can be “formed, or their judgment matured, must, if the present "mode of subscription remains, be irrecoverably bound "down in points of the highest consequence to the tenets of ages less informed than their own."

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This petition was signed by Archdeacon Blackburne, Rev.

* See Cardwell's Conferences, p. 412.

Theophilus Lindsey, Rev. J. Jebb, Messrs. Wyvill, Law, Disney, Chambers, and other men of high consideration for talent, learning, and moral worth. The petitioners state, that they humbly presume that every security, proposed by the subscription to the first of the three Articles of the 36th Canon, is fully and effectually provided for by the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy, prescribed to be taken by every deacon and priest at their ordination, and by every graduate in both Universities. They conceive that they have a natural right, and are also warranted by those original principles of the Reformation from Popery, on which the Church of England is constituted, to judge in searching the Scriptures, each man for himself, what may or may not be proved thereby.

The petitioners find themselves, however, in a great measure precluded from the enjoyment of this invaluable privilege by the laws relating to Subscription; whereby they are required to acknowledge certain Articles and Confessions of faith and doctrine, drawn up by fallible men, to be all and every of them agreeable to the said Scriptures.

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The petitioners, therefore, pray "that they may be relieved "from such an imposition upon their judgment, and be re"stored to their undoubted right as Protestants, of interpreting Scripture for themselves, without being bound by any human explications thereof, or required to acknowledge, by subscription or declaration, the truth of any "formulary of religious faith or doctrine whatsoever, beside Holy Scripture itself."

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Lord George Germain declared on that occasion, that it appeared to him "a melancholy thought, and, indeed, a crying grievance, that his son at sixteen must subscribe, upon entering the University (of Oxford), what he himself "could not understand, much less explain to him, at sixty."

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"Many of these articles," said Lord John Cavendish in the same debate, "are Popish tenets, invented by a crafty priesthood, when they were forging chains for the human "mind, and sinking it into ignorance and barbarism; that,

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SUBSCRIPTION TO ARTICLES.

495

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"being masters in spiritual, they might also become lords "and masters in temporal concerns. What else but this "idea could have tempted them to establish at our Univer"sities such a shocking practice as that (the subscription to "the Thirty-Nine Articles at Matriculation in Oxford) "which has been just now exposed? They acted like true "monks who inveigle into their order young and inexpe"rienced persons, who, they well know, will, after once swearing, be ashamed to recant, or even murmur their dissent, for fear of such reflections as have now been cast, "and unjustly cast (in the debate respecting the clerical petition) upon the petitioners. For my own part, as I am for allowing men a freedom of thought in politics, so "am I for granting liberty of conscience in religion. I "would not expel a man from this House because he differs "from me in opinion about public affairs. Why should I "not follow the same rule in theological matters? We "admit of Dissenters in this House, and yet I do not find "that the indulgence has done us much injury. Methinks "the same reasoning is applicable to the Church. Men's "faces are not more different than their minds. No two

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persons can agree entirely in opinion; and, indeed, the "same individual cannot boast of much uniformity in this "particular. Infancy, youth, manhood, and old age bring "each along with them their peculiar notions and habits; "and the body is not in a more constant state of change "than the mind. Why, then, should we be so rigid in "exacting a conformity in sentiment, which is in the nature "of things impossible? We should allow of a discreet lati"tude of opinion, and bring things as much as possible into "the channel of nature, whom nobody ever neglected with impunity. Instead of shutting our Church, we should "open her doors as wide as possible, and not put it in the power of any man to say that strait is the way and "narrow is the path that leadeth into her bosom.'

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Mr Solicitor-General Wedderburn followed, and observed that "the Universities, which were intended to prepare Stu

"dents for all the learned professions, and to make persons "fit members of Parliament, ought to be under Parlia❝mentary cognizance, if they did not take care to reform "themselves. He could not conceive but that a prescrip"tion was equally efficacious, and proper to be followed, "whether the physician had signed the Thirty-Nine Articles " or not."

No change took place in the system of religious tests at Oxford in consequence of this expression of liberal opinion in Parliament; but at Cambridge the subscription to the three Articles of the 36th Canon at the time of graduation for the first degree of Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws, and Bachelor of Medicine, was, in 1772, modified by the University itself into a subscription to bonâ fide membership with the Church of England as by law established.

Secular exercises, in early times, distinguished the course of instruction for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, both in the University and Colleges of Oxford. Zeal against the Roman Catholic religion probably led, in 1588, to the first innovation into this established custom, when a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Arts was expected to be able to repeat from memory the 39 Articles, and to give a sufficient reason for them, according to the sense of the Scriptures.

Examiners popularly chosen at that time might possibly have had a Puritan bias in conducting such an inquiry into dogmatic theology. The Laudian statutes of 1636 restored the original secular exercises of the University for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, directing that instruction in the 39 Articles should be given by the tutors of colleges, who were appointed by the heads of their respective houses, and the attendance on whose lectures with respect to divinity has now in many cases become optional.

Modern authors of all kinds were to be utterly rejected† in the Laudian system of exercises for the bachelorship of Arts,

* See p. 447 in this work.

+ Ward's Oxford University Statutes, vol. i. p. 86.

and philology was to be included in the examination as well as philosophical subjects.

No persons were to be admitted to take the first degree in Arts, who could not express their thoughts in Latin, with suitableness and aptitude, on matters of daily occurrence.

The maintenance of this rule at the present day would be hardly possible, as Latin has almost ceased to be a spoken language in this country, and the principal direct use of Latin composition is now limited in the Church of England, to the Latin themes required from candidates for holy orders. In 1800 an examination in the 39 articles was introduced at Oxford, as an essential part of the university exercises for the degree of bachelor of Arts, probably with an especial view to divinity students.

Of late years, a non-natural interpretation of the articles of religion has made its appearance intended to exhibit nearly Roman Catholic doctrines in those ancient formularies.

"It is hard," observes Professor Vaughan in his evidence, "to read over the list of subjects required for the degree of "bachelor of Arts now, without being struck by the very large "preponderance of the theological element. A man who can "take a degree is already, in point of attainments, three "fourths of a Clerk in Orders, but he is not one fourth of "any other profession." *

In the year 1834 petitions were presented to both Houses of Parliament from sixty-two resident members of the Senate of the University of Cambridge, praying for the abolition, by legislative enactment, of every religious test exacted from members of the University before they proceeded to degrees, whether of Bachelor, Master, or Doctor, in Arts, Law, or Physic.

The change of external circumstances and the progress of opinion were two reasons wisely adduced by the petitioners for a modification in the civil and ecclesiastical polity of the Universities: but they limited their proposed alter

Evidence of Professor Vaughan, M.A., presented to the Oxford Commission, p. 86.