in the present case. Henry VIII. entering into holy orders, and thus curhad left considerable property to the tailed the number of ministers, but renchurch of Windsor, for the purpose dered such as served the poorer paof obtaining annually for his soul a rishes of necessity friendly to doctrines certain number of masses and obits, from which they had derived their chief acting, in this case, as many a sinner support: while the stock of informa had done before him; he practically tion possessed by the clergy was genedenied, by the whole tenor of his con- rally insufficient to direct them to the duct, his belief in purgatory; yet, at truth, or point out the superstitious and his death, his last will testified that he injurious tendency of the religious opistill retained it; he destroyed the insti- nions which they professed. tutions which had been erected solely in consequence of this superstition, and so tried to persuade others that the idea of it was groundless; yet proved, by his bequest, that he still entertained a hope that it was true. The progress of the Reformation, however, was by no means so rapid as might have been expected. The people in the larger towns, indeed, began by degrees to open their eyes to the corruptions of the church of Rome; but when, at the dissolution of the monasteries, provision was made for each of the monks, payable till such time as they were furnished with benefices, the surest step was taken to continue the diffusion of the old opinions. By this enactment, it became the interest of the Court of Augmentations, and of those who had purchased monastic property subject to the payment of an income to the old members of the previous establishment, to take every means that these persons might be introduced into fresh preferments. Men, therefore, whose prejudices almost necessarily led them to dislike the Reformation, were thus scattered everywhere as instructors of the people, and every vacant benefice, to which a cure of souls was attached, and which therefore was not tenable by a layman,' was given to some ejected monk, and the guidance of the parish committed to one who was most likely to mislead them with regard to the Reformation. Add to which, that the poverty of the church not only prevented men of liberal education from 1 Burnet. ii. 7. says, that it was ordinary, at that time, for laymen to hold preferments without cure of souls. Protector Somerset had six good prebends promised to him, two of these being afterwards converted into a deanery and treasurership. Lord Cromwell had been dean of Wells. Sir Thomas Smith, who was in deacon's orders, though living as a layman, was dean of Carlisle. Strype's Life, p. 31. § 304. In this posture of affairs, it would have been impolitic to leave the cause of the Reformation to the tranquil effects of increasing light and knowledge; its adversaries were widely spread, and invested with much power to oppose the progress of any such principles of amendment; and Cranmer, therefore, wisely determined to use the authority and influence which he possessed, in order to advance the cause which he had so much at heart. (September 1st.) The act of parliament which had given the force of laws to the proclamations of Henry VIII. had continued the same prerogative to the counsellors of his son, while under age, and on this authority a royal visitation for ecclesiastical matters was appointed. In addition to the injunctions given to the late visitors, curates were directed, in those now published,3 to take down all images which had been abused by false devotion, and to avoid such customs as tended to superstition; but the people were forbidden to interfere in any such matter. A greater strictness in the observance of the Sabbath was enjoined, and the ministry were ordered to renew and increase their zeal and activity, in preaching within their own churches, in reading the portions of Scripture appointed for the service, and in performing their other sacred duties. § 305. In order to supply the deficiency of preachers, the first book of 2 A large portion of the income of a curate depends, in Roman Catholic countries, on the fees which are paid him for the performance of masses and other rites connected with the service of the church. 3 Sparrow's Collection of Articles, &c. 4 In 1542 it had been ordered that a chapter out of the New Testament should be read at morning and evening service, on Sundays and holydays, and that, when the New Testament was finished, they should go through the Old. (Strype's Mem. i. 580.) homilies was published in July, and began to fix the standard of the faith of the church of England as it is now .established. To assist the unlearned in the interpretation of Scripture, it was ordained that the Paraphrase of Erasmus should be set up in every parish church: at the same time the petition for the dead in the bidding prayer was altered to nearly its present form, and severe penalties imposed on simoniacal presentations. In the injunctions transmitted to the bishops, they were directed not only to preach themselves, but to take care that their chaplains also did so, and to admit none into orders who were not qualified for the office, and willing and able to perform their clerical duties, particularly that of preaching. other period of his history; his letter to Sir J. Godsave is very much what the remonstrance of a bishop should be on such an occasion. He professes himself ready to suffer rather than to admit any thing contrary to his conscience, and signifies his determination not to surrender the liberties of the subject, without petitioning against a proceeding sanctioned by the regal authority alone: his chief objection was directed against the third homily, on the Salvation of Mankind, because it excluded charity from the work of justification; nor was he satisfied with the Paraphrase of Erasmus, of which he said, that the English translation contained many additional errors beyond those exhibited in the Latin. A letter which he addressed to § 306. The success which attended the protector on his return from Scotthe arms of the protector in Scotland land breathed the same strain, and comgave his party, and the friends of the plained that he had now been detained Reformation, such a superiority as en- seven weeks in the Fleet prison without abled them to proceed with vigour in servants or attendants, and contrary to putting these injunctions in force. We law and justice. But this was as incan hardly now be aware of the political effectual as the last, and he remained a necessity which might then have ex- prisoner while the parliament sat, a isted for using severity towards those severity which must probably be attriwho did not assent to these alterations buted to Cranmer, and can hardly be and injunctions, though of the general justified. It appears indeed to have impropriety of such an attempt there produced some sort of remonstrance can be little doubt. The mass of the from the Lady Mary, who always exclergy had been admitted to their bene-pressed it as her opinion, that the affairs fices as members of the church of Rome, of religion should remain in the condiand their unwillingness, therefore, to change their creed, could never form a just ground for temporal punishment. Bonner and Gardiner were the chief objects of this persecution, the former of whom was committed to the Fleet prison for a short time, notwithstanding the submission which was forced upon him; but Gardiner remained there for a longer period; and his whole conduct on this occasion exhibits him in more favourable colours than at any 1 See § 412°. 2 The Paraphrase of Erasmus on the Gospels and Acts was translated into English chiefly by Nicholas Udal, under the patronage of the queendowager, and published in 1547; the translation of the rest was printed in 1549, and again in 1552. (Strype's Mem. II. i. 45.) The bidding prayer is that used before sermon, wherein the preacher directs his hearers to pray. The term comes from bede, a Saxon word, signi fying a prayer, which is retained in the English word, bid." Old forms of this prayer may be found in Strype's Eccl. Mem. i. Coll. No. 37; 64 Burnet, ii. No. 8, iii. No. 29; Collier, ii. No. 54. tion in which her father left them, till her brother was of age to judge for himself; a position generally advanced and maintained by the friends of that party. § 307. However tyrannical these proceedings of the council may appear, there seems no reason for accusing that body of any design of establishing an undue authority; for the first acts which were passed in the parliament assembled in the autumn revoked most of the severe laws enacted towards the end of the last reign. In this number were comprehended those concerning treason and Lollardies; that of the Six Articles, as well as the particular one under which they had been acting, and which gave the force of law to the royal proclamation. This was followed by another act on the Communion, in which severe censures were imposed on those who ridiculed the mass; but it was ordained that the laity should receive in both kinds, and that no private masses should be celebrated; a most important step in the cause of reformation; for it cut at the root of most of the superstitions, and made the people view religion as a concern of their own, and not as an opus operatum, which might be left to the priest without any co-operation on the part of the congregation. Some acts were also passed relating to the temporal affairs of the church. By one law which now passed, it was ordained that bishops should in future be appointed by letters patent, and not by a congé d'élire, and that all processes relating to matters not purely spiritual should be carried on in the name of the king; an enactment which took away all controlling power from the ecclesiastical courts themselves, and compelled them to punish any neglect of their orders by excommunication; so that this sacred and awful process is frequently degraded by being used without any adequate reason, and in cases where there may be no moral offence. The nomination of the bishops virtually made little difference, as to ecclesiastical appointments; but with respect to the other part of the bill, either too little or too much was done. No causes, not purely spiritual, should have been left to the cognisance of these courts, unless some temporal power had at the same time been conceded to them; and this mistake has created an odium against these tribunals, which the church cannot remedy, and which originates in the heterogeneous nature of their composition. The lands belonging to chantries were now given to the crown, much against the wishes of Cranmer, who hoped, by continuing them till the king became of age, to have preserved a large fund for the future benefit of the poorer clergy. In the first draught of this bill the words ran, "chantries, hospitals, fraternities, and colleges ;" and as these expressions might have been so interpreted as to take in the universities, much exertion was made by those who understood the value of establishments for education, and a clause inserted to prevent their being comprehended under these general terms. § 308. (A. D. 1548.) The new year commenced with several very important steps in the reformation of religious matters. Directions were issued for the removal of all images, as well as the suppression of many superstitious ceremonies; a proclamation was made against "the abuse of churches," which were exposed to many indignities, and made the scenes of riot and confusion; and severe threats held out against those who ventured to run before the civil authority in the abolition of such points as were still sanctioned by the law of the land. In order to prepare the way for the formation of the Book of Common Prayer, a committee was appointed to examine the services, who, on account of the pressing need of some alteration in the mass, commenced with the Communion Service, by proposing questions on the nature of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, to which the several members were required to send in their respective answers; and though many documents of this description were destroyed in the days of Queen Mary, yet this is preserved, and is curious, as marking the care and anxiety used in drawing up this necessary and invaluable work. It is printed in the Collection of Records of the History of the Reformation, No. 25. The points in which of England are, that most of them still retained a belief in transubstantiation, that they approved of masses satisfactory, and of praying for the dead, and that many of them objected to the use The difference of these two forms is as follows: | their sentiments differ from the church Bishoprics are in theory elective by the several chapters of the cathedral churches. The congé d'élire signifies the vacancy to the chapter, enjoins them to elect a bishop, and names a given person whose election would be agreeable to the king. If the chapter were to refuse the person so nominated, they would incur a præmunire, as trying to curtail the royal prerogative. Letters patent no- of the vulgar tongue for the whole of minated the bishop to the performance of all epis- the ceremony, though they consented copal offices, which he was to perform in the to the reading and explaining the gos king's name. In both these cases the spiritual ( dignity was conferred by the consecration which pel in English. took place subsequently; so that in neither does the sovereign interfere with the priestly offices, any more than the lay-patron of a living does with the ordination of a candidate whom he nominates to it. § 309. The Communion Service, 2 Strype's Life of Smith, 29. Cheke. 3 Strype's Cranmer, 251. which was published on March the | into an engine of papal authority. The 8th, does not essentially differ from indulgences offered in the "Hours after the one now in use, and in its compo- the Use of Sarum," the book of devo sition Cranmer appears to have made no unnecessary alterations, but to have retained whatever was innocent in the service of the mass: the work itself indeed appears to be an intermediate step between the old and the new offices; for such parts of it only were in English as more particularly related to the general communicant; while the rest, even the consecration of the elements, was not translated. tions then gradually adopted in England, would move at once our derision and pity for an age which could admit such absurdities, did not the proffered pardons now hanging in foreign Roman Catholic churches convince us, that the spiritual safety of the people can never be insured by any state of civilization, whenever the Holy Scriptures are practically not the standard by which men measure their duties, and the groundwork on which they found their reliance. In the church of England the confession of particular sins is recommended in the Exhortation to the Sacrament, and the Visitation of the Sick; but so little are we accustomed to this most scriptural duty, that these recommendations are frequently unknown and generally neglected, while scarcely a vestige remains of ecclesiastical law for the restraint of vice; and though the punishment of many offences has been wisely transferred to the courts of common law, yet the laxity which prevails with regard to numerous breaches of the law of God may be well esteemed a deficiency in our national duty. In the Exhortation, read the day before the celebration of the communion, the people are allowed to use or to abstain from auricular confession, and warned against entertaining uncharitable opinions with regard to those who differed from themselves in this particular. The evils and abuses arising from this custom had so alienated the minds of most men from it, that it was readily dispensed with; but it has proved a misfortune to our church, that the tide of opinion has carried us too far towards the opposite extreme. The Scriptures never speak of confession as obligatory in such a sense as the injunctions of the church of Rome had ordained. Confession to a priest is nowhere mentioned as absolutely neces- § 310. About the middle of this year sary; but reason, as well as the word Gardiner fell into fresh troubles. The of God, strongly points out, that to ac- point in which he probably offended the knowledge our faults, especially to one ruling powers was by denying, as far vested with spiritual authority over us, as he dared, the supremacy of the counmust be a most effectual means of re- cil. But the friends of the Reformation straining us from the commission of do not seem to have acted with that spisin; and wherever the congregation rit of forbearance which befitted so good has been scandalized by our transgres- a cause, and the want of which contrisions, surely a public avowal of our buted to excite the spirit of personal errors must prove an obvious method hostility with which the reign of Mary of making all the retribution which we was disgraced, and which fell with tencan, not to God, but to offended society; fold severity on the heads of the reformnor can we doubt that the Almighty ers. The protector appointed Gardiner will accept such an outward act of hu- to preach before the king, and wished miliation. This was in all probability to have compelled him to adopt in his the whole extent of the penance of the early church; but the power with which private confession invested the priest, together with the profit to the ecclesiastical body with which absolution was gradually accompanied, transformed that which was instituted for the glory of God, and the salvation of mankind, sermon certain notes written with the king's own hand; but with a proper spirit of independence, the bishop of Winchester declined taking notice of this interference, and upon this he was imprisoned. About the same time Cranmer put forth his Catechism. This work was translated from a German Catechism, used in Nuremburg, through the medium of a Latin version made by Justus Jonas, and is probably due to the tion Service of the foreign churches, labours of some of the chaplains of the formed no part of that used in England; archbishop. It is not improbable that and had it been so, chastity is probably the Latin version was brought into Eng- more safely guarded by marriage than land by Justus Jonas the younger, when by abstinence. At the same time, there he was driven from his own country is so great a semblance of self-devotion through the severity with which the in abstaining from the innocent pleaInterim was imposed, and hospitably sures of life, for the sake of religion, received, among other confessors, by that it is no wonder if the abolition of Cranmer. On this supposition we celibacy among the ministers of relimay attribute the Latin version to Jus-gion were frequently objected to the tus Jonas the father, a man of much reformers. But, on the other hand, its celebrity among the German reform- practical results, and the judgment of ers. The English translation is gene- such men as Ponet, Parker, Ridley, rally made with much closeness, but in and Redmayne, who argued in favour some instances new matter has been of the marriage of the clergy, though introduced into the text.1 some of them abstained from it them§ 311. (Nov. 24.) In the parliament selves, serve strongly to convince us of which was assembled during the au- the superior wisdom of Almighty God, tumn, a bill was brought in to enable who has so formed the laws by which the clergy to marry; it passed through the universe is directed, that we exerthe Commons without any great oppo-cise the soundest human policy when sition, but in the Lords met with such our institutions approach the nearest to delays, that it did not receive the royal the dictates of his revealed word. assent till the spring of the next year. The question at issue was really divisible into two heads: first, whether any law of God enjoin celibacy in the clergy; and, secondly, whether the clergy were themselves bound by any oath voluntarily taken, and which could not be dispensed with. With regard to the first of these, there is no difficulty; for I believe that the church of Rome pretends to no higher authority than that of ancient custom, sanctioned by the enactments of the church; and against this, the examples of the apostles and the primitive church are so strong, that the ecclesiastical advantages to be derived from the celibacy of the clergy must form its only tenable ground of support: and here the evils of forcing human beings in this particular have been so strongly experienced as to overbalance, in the opinions of moderate reasoners, all the benefits which may result from a single life among the priesthood when undertaken in a voluntary manner. With respect to the second particular, it appears that the secular clergy were under no vow of living single; for even the vow of chastity, which existed in the Ordina-published in 1549, and the remainder of them were 1 See Burton's preface to Cranmer's Catechism, which has been printed together with the Latin of Justus Jonas, Oxford, 1829. The date in the preface of Justus Jonas's dedication is Feb. 11 1539. § 312. (Jan. 15, 1549.) In the act which passed confirming the use of the Liturgy, a clause was inserted which allowed the use of psalms or hymns taken out of the Bible, and the singing of psalms became a marked characteristic of the favourers of the Reformation : many, therefore, were now translated and composed; and it is no small reflection on the poetical talent or piety of our church, that the collection of psalms made soon after this period has been allowed to continue the best which we possess in an authorized form.3 2 Strype's E. M. II. i. 136. 3 The authority possessed by the old version depends on a clause in an act of which the words 66 are, Provided always that it shall be lawful for all men, as well in churches, chapels, oratories, or other places, to use openly any psalm or prayer or omitting thereby the service or any part thereof taken out of the Bible at any due time, not letting mentioned in the said book:" (2, 3 Edward VI. c. i. vii.) expressions which equally apply to any other version. But it may still be doubted, whether even this is not repealed by the last clause of the act of uniformity of Elizabeth. The custom of introducing psalmody into the church service had been for some time established among Protestants abroad, and was early brought into England, and this act seems merely to have given Th. Sternhold a legal sanction to the custom. translated fifty-one psalms into metre, which were completed, during the reign of Mary, by John Hopkins and other exiles, whose initials are gene rally affixed to them. W. W., William Whit tingham, afterwards dean of Durham; W. K. William Kethe; N., Norton; M., Markant; R |