injustice the Reformation is guiltless; it left religious endowments, of remote establishment, under the very kind of governance that had been originally provided for them. It likewise left untouched the exterior condition of all parochial incumbents, and of the dignitaries in some cathedrals. None of these were disturbed in their rights, revenues, or privileges, if only willing to recognise the principles regularly sanctioned by their own body, constitutionally consulted. It is true that all restraint was withdrawn upon their discretion as to marriage; but ancient ecclesiastical history shews no departure here from the intentions of those to whom we owe our churches. It exhibits clergymen ordinarily married, whether employed about a cathedral or in a rural parish. Clerical marriages, in fact, although eventually pronounced uncanonical and rendered penal, were never illegal: nor was free license for them anything else than a return to that principle which had originally prevailed. It is the same with the substitution of canons for monks in a few cathedrals. Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical history stamps the Benedictines as intruders, and their expulsion as an act of justice to founders 25. The Reformation, therefore, affords no precedent bearing either upon polity or station, for interference with the clergy, termed secular by Romanists. Of that ancient body, the present ecclesiastical estate of England is the lineal successor and the lawful representative. Nor did the Reformation make any change in our 25 Pages 195, 200, 202, 203. Church's orthodoxy. It was one of Theodore's earliest cares to settle a national establishment upon the principle of assent to the first four general councils, with the supplemental fifth"; a similar base was laid by the Reformers. At Calcuith this was somewhat widened; assent being there given to the first six general councils 27. But Elfric subsequently shows that this extension was not viewed as interfering with Theodore's original principle: it was not, in fact, material; it was little more than a fuller admission of those doctrines which have been pronounced orthodox by the consent of ages". If the Reformers, therefore, had afforded entrance to any such opinions as pass under the name of Unitarian, obvious injustice would have been done to that liberality which has provided our ancient religious endowments. To this innovation, however, Cranmer and his friends were no more inclined than Theodore himself: they jealously guarded the great landmarks of belief which antiquity has established, and which the founders of our churches were equally scrupulous in respecting. In one capital article of faith, undoubtedly, the Reformation effected a signal change: it banished from our churches a belief in the corporal presence; but how 26 36 Page 83. 27 Page 118. 28 "These four synods are to be regarded as the four books of Christ in his Church. Many synods have been holden since; but yet these are of the greatest authority."-JOHNSON's Transl. SPELM. i. 581. WILK. i. 254. 29 The fifth general council is the second of Constantinople, assembled in 553: it condemned the errors of Origen. The sixth general council is the third of Constantinople, assembled in 680: it condemned the Monothelites. this had gained a possession of them had never been thoroughly examined. It was, however, notoriously a doctrine solemnly affirmed by no earlier leading ecclesiastical assembly than the fourth Lateran council: a body sadly late" for adding to the creed, and about which scholars out of Italy were, besides, divided in opinion. Eventually, the Council of Trent stamped a new authority upon transubstantiation". But there was no reason why England should assent: her voice was not heard in the deliberations. Her authorities, however, were then investigating the question at home, and they came to a different conclusion. An independent body was fully justified in acting thus in any case, for which, direction would be vainly sought from ancient councils. In this case, the authorities of England were more than justified. In expelling transubstantiation from our churches, they prevented a leading doctrine from being taught in them, which their founders had expressly repudiated. The disclaimer of ancient England is, perhaps, even stronger here than that of modern. Had transubstantiation, then, when first regularly examined by the national authorities, been imposed upon incumbents, a like violence would have been done to the piety which provided our ancient religious endowments-to that which was done when Episcopalians were ejected-and to that which would be done if Unitarians were admitted. In common with her continental neighbours, England 30 1215. In 1551. The Forty-two Articles were agreed upon in 1552. INTRODUCTION. CONVERSION OF ANCIENT BRITAIN-ATTRIBUTED VARIOUSLY TO APOSTLES ALBAN, THE BRITISH PROTOMARTYR-INTRODUCTION OF ARIANISM- WITHIN little more than a century from our Saviour's passion, Justin Martyr' places Christians in every country known to the Romans. Britain is not expressly mentioned; but her partial conversion has hence allowably been inferred'. Irenæus adds probability to this inference. He declares, in one place, that our holy religion was propagated to earth's utmost bounds by the apostles and their disciples. In another, he names the Celts 1 A.D. 140 is the age assigned | γένος ἀνθρώπων, εἴτε βαρβά by Care (Hist. Lit. Lond. 1688, ρων, εἴτε Ελλήνων, εἴτε ἁπλῶς p. 36) to Justin Martyr. He ap-vтIVоûv oνóμатi πpoσayopevopears from Tatian (Contra Gracos, μένων, ἢ ἁμαξοβίων, ἤ ἀοίκων ad calcem Just. Mart. Paris. 1636, καλουμένων, ἤ ἐν σκηναῖς κτηp. 157,) to have been put to death νοτρόφων οἰκούντων, ἐν οἷς μὴ by the machinations of Crescens, διὰ τοῦ ὀνόματος τοῦ σταυροa philosopher, whose enmity he θέντος Ἰησοῦ εὐχαὶ καὶ εὐχαhad incurred by an exposure of his ριστίαι τῷ Πατρὶ καὶ ποιητῇ hypocrisy. This martyrdom hap-Tŵv öλwv yivwvral.-S. JUST. pened in the year 166. "The MART. cum Tryphone Judæo Diaauthor of the Alexandrian Chro- logus. Ed. Thirlby. Lond. 1722, nicle sets the death of St. Justin p. 388. Ed. Paris. 1636, p. 345. down in this year, and we have not any certainer proof."- Du PIN'S Eccl. Writers. Engl. Transl. Lond. 1696, i. 51. Assigned by Cave (Hist. Lit. 40) to the year 167. He appears to have been born A.D. 97, and to have lived beyond the age of * Ουδὲ ἕν γὰρ ὅλως ἐστί τὸ ninety. |