The queen's Injunctions were published during this spring," which correspond in most respects with those set forth in the beginning of the reign of Edward VI. The chief additions to them consist in regulations concerning the marriage of the clergy, their habits, &c., together with an open declaration of the supremacy, which the queen claimed to herself, and to which allusion is made in the thirty-second article of our church. It is here declared that the queen neither does nor will challenge any other authority than that which was used by her father and brother; viz., the sovereignty over all persons born within the realm, and the exclusion of all foreign jurisdiction. These Injunctions, as well as certain Articles of Visitation" with respect to parishes, were but preparatory steps to the establishment of the Court of High Commission, which was constituted towards the end of June, and by means of which a general visitation with regard to ecclesiastical matters took place throughout the whole kingdom. some applause which had been given | These exertions, however, produced no to the Protestant advocates on the former effect. occasion. Thus ended the disputation, of which the result was such as might naturally have been expected from this sort of exhibition, in which all the passions are excited by its publicity, and no room left for quiet discussion; and yet it was not without its use. The ill conduct of the Roman Catholic advocates turned the general opinion against them, and the Reformation made much progress in the sentiments of the numerous hearers, and through them in the country at large; for all men readily exclaimed, that the present issue was produced by those who knew that their opinions could not stand the test of sober reason; and who, therefore, preferred the dissolution of the conference, to exhibiting their own weakness; which observation was much favoured by what was said by the bishops of Lincoln and Worcester, who objected, in toto, to thus allowing the laity to become judges in ecclesiastical affairs, and concerning doctrines which had been before settled by the Catholic church, and were not now therefore to be called in question by any but an assembly of divines; a method of solving the difficulty which must appear reasonable to those who believe in an infallible church, but which is unfortunately equally conclusive against every species of amendment or reformation, wherein the interests of such a church are concerned. § 406. The convocation had been assembled at the same time as the parliament, and certain articles which were exhibited in the Lower House, and sent up to the bishops, showed the decided spirit of popery by which this body was actuated, as well as the favour which was shown to such opinions in the universities, where these articles had received many subscriptions. 1 There is a document in Burnet, II. iii. No. 5, signed by several of the privy council, attributing the whole blame to the bishops who refused to produce their opinions on paper. The bishops of Lincoln and Winchester were the next day committed to the Tower, and the rest of the Roman Catholic disputants obliged to find bail for their personal appearance before the council as often as it sat. A step which, though it may possibly be defended, on the plea of their disorderly conduct, cannot but appear severe and vexatious. See Strype's Ann. i. 139. 2 Strype's Ann. i. 80. § 407. The ninth section in the act of Parliament? had enjoined all spiritual persons holding preferments to take the oath of supremacy under pain of deprivation; and this was now tendered by these commissioners. All the bishops, with the exception of one only, Kitchin of Llandaff, refused so to do, and were ejected from their sees, to the number of fourteen. Whether they now acted from conscientious motives, 3 Sparrow's Coll. 65. 4 Great scandal seems to have arisen in the church, in consequence of the indiscreet marriage 7 Stat. Realm, 1 Eliz. c. 1. or hoped by their numbers to force the § 408. Another point into which the queen into compliance, must, in this commissioners inquired was the abuse world, at least, remain a secret; but as of images; and, during this summer, several of them had previously assented many appear to have been destroyed. to the doctrine of the pre-eminence of When Elizabeth first came to the the civil power, their combination looks throne, the zeal of the reformers had very much like a conspiracy to support induced them to outstep the limits of each other in their refusal. The treat- the law with regard to these objects of ment which they experienced after their national abomination; but the procladeprivation was generally moderate, mation of the queen had checked the and in several instances most kind and spirit of unauthorized destruction. Her considerate. Heath resided on his own own sentiments on this subject were, it property in Surrey, and was several it must be owned, not very equivocally times visited by the queen herself; and displayed; it was not in her a toleration even Bonner, notwithstanding all the of what might be deemed innocent by enormities of which he had been guilty, some, but the approval of such repredied a natural death; in prison, indeed, sentations as seem forbidden in Scripfor the resentment of the populace ren- ture. She allowed the rood to remain dered it dangerous for him to leave in her own chapel for some time; and what became a place of safety rather though there was something said about than of confinement. The rest of the images, in the Injunctions and Articles clergy generally complied with the of Visitation, yet the clergy were rather changes which were established by law, ordered not to extol them, than to cast as, indeed, they had frequently done them entirely out of places of Christian before; for of 9,400 beneficed men in worship, unless they had been superEngland, there were but 14 bishops, stitiously misused. In the next year,s 6 abbots, 12 deans, 12 archdeacons, 15 indeed, some of the new bishops, with heads of colleges, 50 prebendaries, and a laudable anxiety for God's service, 80 rectors, making a total of 189, who endeavoured to carry this point, by adrefused to take the oath of supremacy; dressing themselves to her majesty, a number which would appear very in- and stating at length the arguments considerable, amounting to little more against the continuance of this abuse; than one in fifty, did we not consider and their exertions seem to have been the conciliatory steps which the queen crowned with the success which they had taken to satisfy all parties, and the so well deserved. In this case, the modification of the meaning of the oath temporizing spirit of the queen strongly which the declaration in the Injunctions showed itself. She was perfectly right implied. in trying to conciliate all her subjects; but as the principles of real toleration were not then at all understood, she rather compromised the opinions of 1 Strype's Ann. i. 216. 2 Ibid. 211. 3 See note H. in Lingard's Hist. of Eng. vol. vii. where the same treatment is represented differently. As it is difficult to defend the justice of these ejectments, so it is impossible to deny the necessity of them. See a considerable account of them in Fuller, (ix. 58.) Nine sees were now vacant, and three bishops fled beyond sea. 4 The publication of a form of communion to be used at funerals, and the rubric and absolution in the service for the Visitation of the Sick, (Sparrow's Coll. 201.) may be adduced as instances of the general wish to conciliate exhibited by our church. The Roman Catholic population had been accustomed to connect the idea of a funeral with a mass for the dead, and when the superstitious part of the custom was abrogated, whatever was not unscriptural was retained; and at the moment after that in which the body of a relatiou has been committed to the earth, the surviving relatives are likely to remember Him through whom we all hope to rise again. So again the customs of the church of Rome had in the minds of the people rendered absolution by the priest, as it were, necessary to salvation; and if any dying brother humbly and heartily desired this office, if 5 Strype's Ann. i. 254. 7 This crucifix was offensive to many of the bishops; and in 1561 a disputation was held, in which Parker and Cox supported its remainingGrindal and Jewel argued against it. (Burn. Ref. vi. 381, No. 60, 8vo.) This seems to have had little effect; for in 1565 R. Tracy wrote to Secretary Cecil, urging him to use his influence for its removal. (Strype's Ann. ii. 198.) Between this time and 1570, it appears to have been put out of the chapel, and restored again, to the great dislike of the people, (Strype's Parker, ii. 35,) and to have been there when the Admonition to Parliament was published, 1572. (Strype's Ann. ii. 200.) 8 Strype's Ann. i. 330. Protestants than favoured the senti- ticular in recording every thing which ments of her other subjects; and, in was done on this occasion from the endeavouring to induce the Roman most authentic documents, in order to Catholics to become members of the refute the fable of the Nag's Head conchurch of England, she ran the risk of secration which was promulgated by driving from our communion the sound- the Roman Catholics about forty years est friends and ablest supporters of the after the event had taken place; when Reformation. it might have been supposed that all direct testimony would have been lost. The story is, that the bishops elect met at a tavern which bore that sign, and that when Oglethorp refused to consecrate them, Scory laid a Bible on each of their heads, and bade them rise up bishops. The tale has been refuted as often as brought forward, and bears on its face this difficulty: that, had this account been known to the enemies of the church of England, it is not likely that any delicacy on their part should have delayed its publication for so long § 409. The next step, which, from its importance to the church, greatly occupied the attention of the court, was the filling up of the vacant bishoprics. It so happened that, from deaths and deprivations, almost all the sees were at this moment unoccupied; nor could those bishops who retained their preferments for the present, be induced to assist in the consecration of men of whose opinions they did not approve. But against this evil a remedy had been provided by the providence of God; for there still existed several members a period. of the episcopal order, who, having fled S 410. The other sees were most of beyond sea, and escaped the persecu- them filled up during the next year, tions of Mary, became the instruments and the church began to employ itself of continuing to our church the apos- on those points in which amendment tolical succession of bishops. As much was chiefly required. The state of the evil had been produced during the reign ministry formed one of the most proof Edward VI. by the favour which minent cares towards which the attensome individuals holding high situations tion of the guardians of the establishin the church had shown the Roman ment were directed; for the ignorance Catholic religion, it was now determined to employ great caution in the selection of those who were to discharge this most important duty. The character of Matthew Parker, as well as the personal favour of Elizabeth, marked him out as the future metropolitan; but his own unwillingness to accept so responsible and arduous an office delayed his consecration for nearly a twelvemonth; the ceremony was at last performed, on the 17th of December, in the chapel at Lambeth, by Scory, who had formerly held the see of Chichester, and was now elected to that of Hereford; Barlow, formerly of Wells, now bishop elect of Chichester; Coverdale, bishop of Exeter, who was never reappointed to any see; and Hodgkin, suffragan of Bedford. Strype has been very par 1 The legality of the English consecrations was in 1568 very nearly tried before a common jury, in a court of law. Horne, bishop of Winchester, tendered the oath of supremacy to Bonner while a prisoner in the Marshalsea, and therefore within his diocese; and Bonner, among other pleas, put in one which denied that Horne was a which generally prevailed in the universities, together with the superstition which reigned there, made it very difficult to obtain men suited to the task, or capable of performing the duties to which they were called; so that the necessity of the case induced many bishops to ordain persons of whom they entertained a good opinion with regard to their religious sentiments, but who bishop at all. He had been consecrated according to the service established by Edward VI. and been distinctly authorized by act of parliament. abolished by Mary, and which had never since The point was argued, and would have been brought before a jury, had not an act been passed consecrated according to the form established, to which declared all bishops, priests and deacons, be bishops, priests, and deacons. (Fuller, ix. 80. Strype's Ann. I. ii. 2.) 3 See § 623. 2 Parker, i. 101. 4 Jewel, writing to Peter Martyr in 1559, says, "Academia utraque, et ea præsertim, quam tu non ita pridem doctissime atque optime coluisti, miserrime nunc disjecta jacet, sine pietate, sine religione, sine doctore, sine spe ulla literarum." (Burnet, p. iii. No. 58.) To Bullinger, "Academiæ nostræ ita afflicta sunt, ut Oxoniæ vix duo sunt, qui nobiscum sentiant; et illi ipsi ita abjecti et fracti ut nihil possint." (Strype's Ann. No. 20, vol. ii. 490.) were inadequate, in point of attain- concerns of their several dioceses, that ments, to so important a charge. The little progress was made in the public ill effects, however, of this system was soon discovered,' and in August Parker wrote to Grindal, desiring him not to ordain any more mechanics.3 and outward concerns of the church, though its leading members were in all probability secretly preparing what was required, and deliberating on those particulars in which reform was principally wanted. (A. D. 1562.) These points consisted in the publication of certain articles of faith, which might set forth, in an authoritative manner, the belief of the church of England; in a new translation or revisal of the Bible; and the establishment of a code of ecclesiastical laws. The difficulty of finding persons who might be willing to enter into the ministry, and able to fulfil the duties of it, had been greatly augmented by the extreme poverty to which the clergy were generally reduced. This evil arose chiefly from impropriations and alienations, which had been carried on to a dreadful extent, and which were now by no means effectually prevented; but the loss of those offerings customa- While these things were preparing, rily made at shrines, and of the fees Bishop Jewel put forth his Apology for paid for the performance of ecclesiasti- the Church of England, a work as recal duties in the parish, had in no small markable for the elegance of the Latin degree contributed to the same end. in which it is written, as for the soundThis latter cause was particularly inju-ness of the positions which it maintains. rious, since the benefices in large towns chiefly depended on this source of revenue; and those places, where the efficiency of the clergyman was of the most importance, had no means of supporting the incumbent. St. Mary Ax, for instance, had for some time been without any minister, as its revenues did not amount to five pounds, till it was united by Grindal to another parish. To all these causes must be added the simoniacal contracts of corrupt patrons, who sought not for those who could "preach learnedly, but pay largely."5 § 411. The bishops seem at first to have been so fully employed about the 1 Strype's Parker, i. 180. 2 Ibid. Grindal, 60. 3 Gibson (afterwards bishop of London) writes to Mr. Pepys, 1696, Diary, ii. 153: "The other day I met with a catalogue of the clergy of the archdeaconry of Middlesex, taken in 1563, with an account of each man's learning and abilities; in short, observing the strangeness of the characters, I ran over the whole. and, as I went along, branched them under different heads, whereby their several abilities in learning are there expressed. "Docti Latine et Græce Docti Mediocriter docti 3 12 2 He there states, in a brief and oratorical style, the grounds of the separation of our church from that of Rome; showing that, in what she had done, England had rather returned to the state of the primitive church, than occasioned a schism in the Christian family, and that the innovation with which we were charged, was merely the rejection of the errors introduced by the community from which we had separated.7 § 412. (January 12, A. D. 1563.) In January of the next year the parliament and convocation were assembled; by the former, a very severe laws was passed for enforcing the supremacy; and to refuse the oath, when tendered a second time, was declared to be treason; a step which, though it might in some measure seem to be defensible, in consequence of the treasonable conspiracy carried on by the Poles and others, with the design of bringing in Mary queen of Scots, appears to be as remarkable for the unsoundness of its political principles, as for the cruelty of its enactments.9 The words of the oath of supremacy even during this reign, were such, that a Roman Catholic, whatever his views in politics might be, could hardly take it; so that if the law were acted upon, it might bring some of the most faithful of her subjects into jeopardy of their lives; while it is evident that no laws can guard against the attacks of men who are urged by religious frenzy, and willing to make themselves martyrs in the cause of their own opinions; a truth which was fully verified throughout the whole of this reign. In the Lower House of Convocation many of those questions were now agitated which formed the groundwork of the subsequent objections of the puritans; but as the motions founded on them were never passed, the discussion of the points themselves may be reserved to the beginning of the next chapter. The acts of this convocation are much more important. The Articles of our church, then consisting of thirty-eight,1 were published, as containing the confession of the church of England, but they do in reality differ very little from the forty-two which were put forth by the authority of Cranmer, in the reign of Edward VI. (March 3.) The larger catechism, too, revised and enlarged by Alexander Noel, dean of St. Paul's, was approved by the Lower House of Convocation; a tribute of respect which confers on it a species of semi-authority, though not officially promulgated by the church of England. printed about this period, though it took some time to distribute it generally throughout the country. § 413. As these documents together form the standard and basis of our present church, we may deem the Reformation to have now received its accomplishment; the changes which have been since made are in their nature comparatively insignificant; so that before we proceed to the continuation of the history, it may be useful, for a moment, briefly to inquire what we have gained or lost by the Reformation in religion. We have learnt the fundamental truth on which the whole of Christianity rests, nay, which is itself Christianity; That "we are accounted righteous before God only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not of our own works or deservings." That good works, however pleasing to God, milies having been composed by different authors. The first book is probably the most valuable, and the expressions used in the thirty-fifth Article, editæ sunt tempore Edvardi Sexti," &c., seem Non minus quam prior tomus homiliarum quæ rather to indicate that the latter work was not composed by the same authors. The homilies on Salvation, Faith, and Good Works, are with reason attributed to Cranmer. (Todd, on the Thirtynine Art. pref. p. xi.) That on Adultery is by Becon, and printed in the second vol. of his works. The most important editions of the Homilies are as follows: First book, first edit. 1547, last of July. 1 Edw. VI. Second, divided as at present, 1549, August. Second book, 1st, 1563, that on Wilful Rebellion was added 1571. Last, by authority, 1623. "Fortunately, the variations in the different editions, numerous as they are, are almost uni The second book of Homilies was versally verbal or grammatical; and it is remark 1 See § 485. 2 It is printed in the Enchiridion Theologicum, and is chiefly taken from Ponet's Catechism, § 331, a. 3 Strype's Ann. i. 525 and 323. 4 See $305. The history of the composition of the Homilies is buried in so much obscurity, that a short note will convey to the reader all that is known concerning them. The first volume is generally attributed to Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, Hopkins, and Becon. Burnet (Pref. to the Thirtynine Articles, p. iii.) says that Jewel was particularly engaged in compiling the second. Archbishop Parker, however, in 1563, speaks of them as being "revised and finished, with a second part, by him and the other bishops," (Strype's Parker, i. 253,) an expression indicating, perhaps, that they were drawn up in the reign of Edward VI., though not published, but by no means deciding the question. The language of the two books is different, and there is much internal evidence of the several ho able, that a book which has passed through the hands of so many editors, and has been altered in almost every edition, should have received so few alterations of any importance as to doctrine. One use of such collations, is to prove that the Homilies have not been tampered with by any sect or party among us, for the purpose of making them express sentiments different from those of the original compilers." Dr. Elmsley's Preface to the Homilies, with various readings, Oxf. 1822. When Dr. Elmsley was engaged in preparing this edition, he kindly promised the use of his Collections for the present work, but added, that there was no real information on the subject. His death deprived the author of this advantage, and of the advice of a friend who, to a mass of real knowledge on almost every subject, joined a facility of communicating it, which endeared him to those who were acquainted with him, and which would not have disdained to render this sketch less unworthy of perusal, by correcting its errors and supplying its deficiencies. 5 Strype's Ann. ii. 104. |