Puritanic ob Formularies. ENGLAND. too general on the continent. But, on the other hand, it should be recollected that many of the earliest race of jections to the Puritans abhorred the teaching of the Prayer-Book. In their Admonition it is said to be full of abominations,' one passage of the Ordinal they branded as 'ridiculous and blasphemous,' and even that portion of the Church's mind which is transmitted in the Articles, they did not think above suspicion. Some, for instance, were considered 'lame' or mutilated', others 'eyther too sparely or else too darkely set downe.' As in the Prayer-Book they objected to the supplication that all men may be saved3,' so in the Articles they sighed for more distinct assertions of their favourite dogma, that all Christians added to the number of the elect, on falling into sin, must of necessity be rescued from the consequences of their fall. In spite, however, of these scruples not unfrequently repeated, it is certain that the public formularies were thought by a majority of English churchmen to be reconcileable with the Institutio of Calvin5, which accordingly became a sort English containing the order of the causes of See above, p. 249, n. 8 on the 2 Cf. Whitgift's remarks upon this passage in his Answere, pp. 298, 299, Lond. 1573. 3 See Whitgift's Defense, p. 739, Lond. 1574. 4 The authors of the Seconde Admonition, p. 43, Lond. 1573, after denouncing some of the bishops for their tyranny and 'flat heresie in the sacrament,' add that 'some be suspected of the heresy of Pelagius.' For the first, that is, concerning the sacrament, the bishops are notoriously knowne which erre in it, and for free-will not onely they are suspected, but others also. And indeede the booke of the Articles of Christian religion speaketh very daungerously of falling from grace.' etc. This objection to the sixteenth Article frequently recurs. 5 Hence the name 'Calvino-papista,' which the non-conforming Puritans applied to other churchmen: Stapleton, Promptuar. Cathol Part I. p. 285, Part II. p. 116, Colon. 1594. On the vast authority of Calvin see Hooker's ironical note on A Christian Letter (Works, I. 139, n. 33, Oxf. 1841) where he ends by asking Doe we not daily see that men are accused of heresie for hold ing that which the Fathers held, and that they neuer are cleere, if they find not somewhat in Calvin to jus tify themselues,' of oracle and text-book for the students in the Universities. ENGLAND. The same is true of Bullinger's productions, more especially the Decades, which as late as 1586 were recommended by the southern convocation with the hope of facilitating the preparation of young curates who were still unlicensed to preach. Even Whitgift himself and his more active coadjutors, though sympathizing more with St. Augustine than with any of the modern divines", were strongly adverse to those views of Christianity which represented all mankind as equally embraced within the circle of God's love and pity, which insisted on some kind of freedom in the human will as necessary to the constitution of a moral agent, and urged the possibility of spiritual suicide in those who had once become partakers of regenerating grace. The Lambeth Articles approved by the Archbishop on the 20th of November, 1595, are rigorous statements of the very opposite conclusions. Yet the changes which this for- commencemulary underwent, as well as the resistance it eventually reaction. Every minister having cure, and being under the degrees of master of arts, and bachelors of law, and not licensed to be a public preacher, shall before the second day of February next provide a Bible, and Bullinger's Decads in Latin or English and a paper book,' etc. Wilkins, IV. 321. 7 That there was no disposition to accept every thing that bore the name of either Calvin or Luther, is seen from Whitgift's letter to the canons of Lincoln (June 29, 1590), where he blames the dean of that establishment (Griffin) for using language which appeared to attribute actual sinfulness to Christ, although the same language might be found in Luther, Calvin and some others,' whom, the primate and his colleague add, we also in our judgments do therefore mislike:' Nicolas's Life of Hatton, p. 487. Whitgift on a different occasion stated that the doc trine of the Church of England did 8 This manifesto is ultimately ? See Hardwick as above, Append. v. Expressions in the original draft which were 'ad mentem Calvini' were changed into others 'ad mentem Augustini.' Hutton, archbishop ment of ENGLAND. encountered', furnish proofs that England was producing a new race of scholars and divines, who, in proportion as they disengaged themselves from foreign ties and modern influences, proceeded more directly to the source of sacred literature, and raised their 'scheme of divinity upon the noble foundations of the Fathers, the Councils, and the ecclesiastical historians 2.' Before the expiration of the sixteenth century, Hooker had completed his immortal treatise Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, in which the choice thoughts and language and the masterly arguments are scarcely more impressive than the spirit of humility and reverence which is breathed in every chapter. Overal had now succeeded Whitaker at Cambridge, where without materially receding from the principles of St. Augustine, or exposing himself to the reproach of semi-Pelagianism, he advocated doctrines virtually extruded from the Calvinistic system; while Andrewes, not inferior in the depth and area of his learning, nor the lustre of his piety, to any worthies of the bygone generation, had become the champion of the English priesthood and the favourite preacher at the court. The spirit of destruction which in the second quarter of the century effected wonders in condemning creature worship, in up of York, who suggested an alteration 1 They never obtained a synodical Cambridge to regard them as 'the private judgments' of the compilers. Strype, p. 462. 2 The expression of Young, bishop of Rochester, in 1600, when he or dained the future archbishop Laud: see Le Bas, Life of Laud, p. 6, Lond 1836. Men were in truth becoming sick of those 'compendiums and abbreviatures' which had been fashionable for a time in the universities. a course of sums and commentaries,' which in the words of Bacon (Works, 1. 126, ed. 1765) 'is that which doth infallibly make the body of sciences more immense in quantity and more base in sub stance.' rooting theories of human merit, and expelling popery, was now at length succeeded by a deeper, calmer, more constructive spirit,-one whose mission, while it counteracted errors on the right hand and the left, was more especially to vindicate and prove the catholicity of the Church3. IRELAND. IRELAND. It is remarkable that a country which had been ostensibly at least deprived of its political independence by the force of papal instruments, should afterwards become extravagant in its devotion to the pontiffs. At the expiration of nearly four centuries from the conquest under Henry II., English monarchs still continued to govern with the title 'lords' of Ireland. But in 1541 this title was exchanged for 'King,' in order to assert the plenary jurisdiction of the dominant country, and obliterate all traces of connexion with the Church of Rome. For after Henry VIII. had consummated his quarrel with the pontiff in 1534, he lost no time in causing every part of his dominions to recognize his own ecclesiastical supremacy. This recognition was formally completed by the Irish parliament in 1537, but 3 This twofold aspect of the Church of England and the middle place which it has occupied between the Medieval and the merely Protestant systems, has occasioned some perplexity to our continental neighbours both Romanist and Reformed. Thus Gieseler (III. ii. p. 26): So bildete sich die englische Episcopalkirche, welche sich von den Irrthümern der römischen Kirche trennen, aber das catholische Priesterthum nicht fahren lassen wollte, und welche in Folge davon in eine schwankende Mitte zwischen Katholicismus und Protestantismus gerieth, indem sie bald die heil. Schrift als alleinige IRELAND. one large section of the clergy, instigated by messages from the pope1, and headed by archbishop Cromer of Armagh, determined to resist the operation of the measure. On the other hand, Henry VIII. secured to himself an energetic fellow-worker, by the nomination of George Browne2, provincial of the English Augustine friars, to the see of Dublin (March, 1535). Instead, however, of attempting the enlightenment of Ireland through the medium of the native language, it was now the obvious policy of the government to Anglicize the country, by directing that spiritual promotions should be given only to such as could speak English, and that English should be taught in all the parish-schools. The ignorance of the people, which is said to have been extremes, would hardly be corrected by such projects, while on the other hand their nationality was wounded more and more. Throughout the reign of Henry VIII. the ecclesiastical affairs of Ireland observed the same general course which we have noticed in the sister-country. Certain images and relics that ministered to superstition were banished from the churches. Monasteries were dissolved in spite of earnest representations pointing out the benefits which they conferred on almost every order of society. But on the accession of Edward VI. no progress in the way of spiritual and moral reformation is distinctly visible. A new Irish 1 The agents of the pontiff also stimulated some of the disaffected chieftains to recover the importance of their families by rising in behalf of the papal claims. 2 See the Reformation of the Church in Ireland...set forthe in the life of George Browne, printed in The Phenix, I. 120 sq. Lond. 1707. 3 Mant's Hist. of the Church of Archbp. Browne's Letter to p. 115. The same animus is shewn in the phrase 'Church of England and Ireland,' which began to be used in 1538: Ibid. p. 145. Cf. Stat. 1 Edw. VI. c. 1, § 7, which enjoins that the communion shall be administered under both kinds' to 'the people within the Church of England and Ireland.' 5 lbid. 1. 125, 141. 6 The first onslaught was made in 1537. Stat. 28 Hen. VIII. c. 16 [Ireland]: see the particulars in Mant, I. 155 sq. |