:

has been proved from the consentient testimony of a body which could neither deceive nor be deceived, and from the express declarations of our Lord and Saviour. 2° The charge of idolatry we have scattered to the winds its general absurdity has been shewn at great length, and the specific charges, as well as the general one, we have further seen rejected with shame and indignation, by abler men by far than those are, who still urge their railing accusations. So far from images leading from God, they remind man of him, and force him as it were to remember God's mercy and power; and as for the invocation and veneration of the saints, whilst by the latter act we pay honor to that which is truly honorable, by the former we hurry, as it were, before the throne of the Deity, hosts of praising and supplicating angels, and thousands of "just made perfect." From what we have observed too, in relation to the holy Mystery, it will be clear to every honest mind, that in consequence of it, Christ is being for ever praised and adored. The holy Eucharist is emphatically the mystery of love, and less love than is exhibited by the Catholic, could not be consistently given by the believer in the real presence. The very foundations of the Reformation have been undermined; they have been removed: shall the building stand?

D

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Chapter the Third.

On the Origin and Authority of the Articles of Religion, of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Queen Elizabeth.

CONTENTS.

Importance of the examination of the History of the Articles.-Their authority in the Anglican Church.-Henry's innovations destructive of Episcopal and Clerical authority, generally.-The six Articles, and works in connexion with them.-These Articles, &c. forced on the people. The principle involved in the framing of the Articles, destructive of Anglicanism.--Fox and others write against the Articles.-The Articles and religion of Henry are changed by King Edward.-History of the origin, number, nature, and subscription of the Articles of Edward VI.-The Articles mainly formed by Cranmer.-His vacillating character. Reproached for his changes by Gardiner, &c.—Still, always dogmatical, imperious, and cruel.-Persecution of Mary.—Her firmness. -Articles of Elizabeth; their number and distinctive character.— Reported ignorance of the framers of the Thirty-nine Articles. Articles are enforced and subscribed.-Review of the changes in the national religion during the reigns of Henry, Edward, and Elizabeth.— These Changes wholly dependant on individuals.-Proved from the Zurich letters.-The Articles are worthless as an authority.-This admitted even by Anglicans.-Observations of Le Maistre on Protestant Articles.-Difference between the origin of the Articles, and the Profession of Faith of Pope Pius.-Justification of the latter.

The

In the previous chapter, we have had occasion often to allude to, and indeed to cite, the Articles and Homilies of the Reformers. It will be our task now to describe the

origin of the various sets of Articles which were rapidly drawn up by King Henry and two of his children, Edward and Elizabeth, and to see if these Articles have either intrinsic or extrinsic evidence in their favour. The investigation of this matter is of paramount importance. The Articles have been regularly subscribed by the Reformed Clergy of England, and by them, the ministerial teachings have been of course directed. They are the accredited standard of clerical orthodoxy; the doctrines they distinctly affirm, are looked upon as certainly sacred, whilst those which are denounced are consequently considered to be untenable. Guarded by pains and penalties, their orthodoxy was secured, as far as this was attainable by human enactments; and innovation, excepting such as emanated either from the head of the state, or from some popular outburst of feeling, which the state would be found too weak to quell, and to which indeed, for political purposes, the actual government would be forced, as at the time of the Commonwealth, to yield, was rendered impossible.

Hardly had Henry VIII obtained from the Clergy the title of "Ecclesiæ et Cleri Anglicani Protector et Supremum Caput," than the Bishops discovered that they had forfeited the power which they had formerly possessed in convocation, for the better regulation of the affairs of the Church. The Commons wishing that "the convocation should be brought down to the same level with the houses of Parliament, and that their acts and constitutions should not bind their subjects as before, .... until they were confirmed and ratified by the regal power," petitioned the

1 Parker tells us, that Cranmer and Cromwell were the secret advisers of this title, see Antiq. Brit. p. 325.

king to this effect. In vain did Gardiner answer this remonstrance,-in vain did the remonstrance meet with the disapprobation of both houses of convocation; the petition of the Commons was approved of by the Monarch; and the Clergy, who had abandoned their spiritual head, and conferred upon Henry the power which the Roman Pontiffs had formerly possessed, had now to reap the harvest of their own sowing. On the 10th of May, 1532, the king absolutely required of the clergy, through Fox of Hereford, that "no constitution or ordinance should be hereafter by the clergy enacted, unless the king's highness did approve the same, and his advice and favour be also interposed for the execution." Further, it was decreed that the sovereign was possessed of absolute power in settling questions connected with religion. "In consideration that your majesty is the only and undoubted supreme head, &c. to whom by Holy Scriptures all power and authority is wholly given, to hear and determine all manner of causes ecclesiastical, and to correct vice, &c. it therefore be enacted, &c. ;" and he was likewise made the source, the fountain of all kind of jurisdiction, as well civil as ecclesiastical. The subservient and cringing Parliament, not content with enacting "that no speaking, doing, or holding against any laws called spiritual laws, made by authority of the See of Rome, by the policy of man, which be repugnant to the laws and statutes of the

may

1 Heylin, i, p. 7.

2 See Act 37 Henry VIII, 17.

3 Rex tam in Episcopos, Clericos, &c., quàm in Laicos, plenissimam jurisdictionem tam civilem quàm Ecclesiasticam, exercere potest, cùm omnis jurisdictio et Ecclesiastica et Secularis ab eo, tamquam ex uno et eodem fonte derivantur."-See Reform. Leg. Eccles. Tit. de officio et Jurisd. omnium Judicum.

4

realm, or the king's prerogative, shall be deemed to be heresy,"-25 Henry VIII, 14 c., further declared, "that if any spiritual person or persons, shall preach or teach contrary to the determinations, which, since 1540, are or shall be set forth by his Majesty, as is afore-mentioned, that then every such offender, offending the third time, contrary to this act, shall be deemed and adjudged a heretic, and shall suffer pains of death by burning." The Parliament and the king, or rather the king alone through the Parliament, became the arbiter of religion. By his enactments all were bound; his decrees were as truthful in the eyes of the law, as the acts of councils, or the consentient testimony of the prelacy of the world. They were even more so: for in case the monarch opposed, alone and unsupported, a world, his opposition was to be reverenced, and his decisions were to be obeyed, under the severest penalties. To be sure, a clause was frequently inserted, relative to the necessity of the kingly being agreeable to the scriptural declaration; but such a clause was a clause of course-a clause, in truth, devoid, under circumstances, of meaning. For if the king was supreme judge, and a Parliament was sure to approve of his judgment, and even boldly assert that he was under the inspiration of heaven when he decreed any point, it would never be admitted that the royal declaration was irreconcileable with the Scriptural statement. The monarch's will was a revelation; to question that revelation was heresy, and heresy was deserving of death.

Acting, then, on these principles, the king, with the aid of his theologians, drew up some Articles of Religion,5 in 4 See 34, 35 Henry VIII, 1 c.

5 Wilkins, Con. iii, 804, 8, 17, 23. These Articles were published in