-
.3.
r •..;-,'
COLL: CHRISTI REGIS s.i.
BIB. wiAJGft JOBONIO
THE
TRIALS OF A MIND
IS
PROGRESS TO CATHOLICISM:
LETTER TO HIS OLD FRIENDS,
COLL, CHPJSTl PEG'S SJ ** Bi6. MAJOR
TORONTO L. SILLIMAN IVES, LL. D.,
LATE BISHOP OF THE PKOTESTAKT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN NORTH CABOLINA.
" Extra Ecclesiam Catbolicam totum potest prater salutem.1
St. Augustine.
« Ubi PETRUS, ibi Ecclesia." — St. Ambrose.
TWENTY-FIFTH THOUSAND.
BOSTON: PATRICK DONAHOE,
3 FRANKLIN STREET. 1854,
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by
PATRICK DONAHOE, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts
STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY,
TO
MY LATE BRETHREN
OP THE
PROTESTANT EPISCOPATE AND CLERGY,
TO THOSE AMONGST WHOM I SO LONG MINISTERED,
AND TO ALL "WHO PRAY TO BE " LED INTO THE WAY OF TRUTH,'
ARE HUMBLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, ITS THE EARNEST HOPE THAT THEY MAY ONE DAY FIND
BOTH TRUTH AND PEACE IN THE BOSOM OF THE
ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH.
(3)
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
1. Self-defence not the object of the letter.— 2. Motives which impelled to an examination of Catholic truth. — 3. The struggle with myself in coming to the examination. — 4. The feelings in which it was under taken.— 5. What is the essential prerequisite to an examination of the question between Catholics and Protestants .... 11
CHAPTER I.
CERTAINTY IN THE FAITH TO BE SOUGHT AND EXPECTED. 1. This argued from the fact of man's wants and of God's revelation, God's promise and God's provision.— 2. Argued from the confidence that, under the circumstances, is reasonably expected from man to wards God. —3. Ending with a friendly caution .... 29
CHAPTER II.
GOD'S REVELATION TO BE RECEIVED AND SUBMITTED
TO AVITIIOUT RESERVE.
1. The case stated.— 2. God's revelation to be received in all its parts, from the simple fact of its having been made by God. — 3. From the teaching of God Himself in various examples from His written Word 33
CHAPTER III.
IN WHAT WAY GOD HAS NOT SECURED TO US THE GUIDANCE OP THE HOLY GHOST IN LEARN ING HIS WILL.
1 All Christians concur in the belief, that God's Spirit must guide into all truth. — 2. In what way has God secured to us the guidance of His Holy Spirit? — 3. It must be a way of universal applicability. — 4. It must be a way suited especially to the condition of the poor. — 5. It must be a way calculated to promote " unity in the Faith." — 6. In all these respects the way of Protestants fails 37
1* « '
6 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IV.
GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM OP
HIS GUIDANCE IN ANT MODIFIED SENSE. 1. High-Churchmen admit the duty of all to " hear the Church." — 2. They admit this because instructed by the Fathers. — 3. But the unreasonableness of admitting it in any modified sense. —4. The ap plication of the precept " hear the Church," to myself, as a leader, and the effect of discovering my inability to teach ... 43
CHAPTER V.
THE AUTHORITY OP THE CHURCH TO TEACH PERPET UAL, AND WHY.
I. The necessity of the Church's guidance as great now as it ever has been. — 2. No proof from Scripture or reason that such guidance was ever to cease to be infallible. — 3. The infallibility of the Church rests riot upon the wisdom of man, but the power of God. — 4. The union of Christ with His body the Church, secures its infallibility.— 5. The testimony of the primitive Fathers in this particular . 60
CHAPTER VI.
THE STATE OF PROTESTANTISM NOT RECONCILABLE
WITH THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE
CHURCH'S LATTER DAYS.
1. The testimonies of the Fathers. — 2. Christ will not disappoint those who have trusted Him 69
CHAPTER VII.
UNITY OF THE CHURCH SECURITY AGAINST SUCH
DIVISION AS EXISTS AMONG PROTESTANTS. 1. This clear, from the Scriptural illustrations of unity. — 2. From our Lord's prayer for unity. — 3. From the uniform testimonies of the Fathers. — 4. In unity Catholicity necessarily embraced. — 5. This proved from the Fathers. — 6. Application of the argument to Prot estantism . 74
CHAPTER VIII.
FALLIBILITY IN TEACHING FATAL TO THE CLAIMS OF
ONE PROFESSING TO DECLARE GOD'S
INFALLIBLE WILL.
1. An examination, under this head, of the claims of the Church of Eng land and America. — 2. England virtually disclaims infallibility. — 3. The dreadful consequence 84
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER IX.
ANGLICAN AUTHORITY FURTHER CONSIDERED.
1. The authority of the English Church not Catholic. — 2. The conse quence, her teaching not Catholic. — 3. Her own admissions. — 4. An inquiry into Anglican inconsistency. — 5. The ultimate Catholic tri bunal or standard . 87
CHAPTER X.
AT WHAT PERIOD OF HER AUTHORITY IS ENGLAND TO BE TRUSTED ?
I. The reasonableness of this question. — 2. Is she to be trusted before Oi after the Reformation ? — 3. Is she to be trusted under Henry VIII., or under Edward VI., or under Mary, or under Elizabeth, or how? —
4. Is she to be trusted as she speaks in her Prayer book, or as she speaks in opposition to its plain sense by the Queen's Court? —
5. The necessary confusion and uncertainty under such a system 90
CHAPTER XI.
WHAT WAS THE LIVING, TEACHING AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND FOR EIGHT HUNDRED OR A THOU SAND YEARS BEFORE THE REF ORMATION ?
1. On the principle that we are to hear the Church, to whom are we to listen from the time of Augustine to the time of Henry VIII. ? — 2. We are to hear a speaking Church, not dumb books. — 3. Wycliffe a here tic according to the faitli of the Anglo-Saxon Church . 97
CHAPTER XII.
WAS THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND REALLY CON DUCTED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBMISSION TO THE PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH 1
1. A test of Mr. Palmer's principle of Reformation by " the authority of Catholic Tradition." — 2. The absurdity of his principle as applied to the facts of the English Reformation. — 3. What tradition is. — 4. Tra dition, to have authority, must be submitted to and trusted. — 5. Ori gin and source of Tradition. — 6. Its perpetuity, as viewed by the Fathers. — 7. Applied to England. — 8. Not derogatory to God's Word 102
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
TRADITION A NECESSARY KEY TO THE FACTS OP CHURCH HISTORY.
1. Why so little is isaid in the New Testament about Church order and Sacraments. — 2. Tradition necessary to establish infant baptism, the necessity of sanctifying the Lord's day,&c. — 3. Why so little is found in regard to certain points of Catholic faith and practice in the very early Church. — 4. Nothing added to the fundamental Faith by the Church .... 118
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND THE MERE CHILD OF THE STATE.
1. The Protestant alleged motive for the Reformation a mere fancy. — 2. The real motive personal to Henry VIII. — 3. The resistance of the Church in the outset. — 4. Her submission through fear. — 5. The transfer of the whole spiritual jurisdiction from the See of St. Peter to the king. — 6. Acts of parliament and Protestant testimonies con firm this. — 7. The king made the living standard of faith as well as the source of priestly authority ^ 125
CHAPTER XT.
THE SUBMISSION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND TO THE TEMPORAL POWER PERPETUATED.
1. Acts of parliament conclusive. — 2. The changes of Queen Mary justified on every principle, and effected without a struggle. — 3. The changes of Elizabeth on every ground unlawful, and forced upon the Church against the will of every bishop, the convocation, and the two universities. — 4. The new system of things passed through parlia ment, not only against the vote of every bishop, but also by means of imprisoning two bishops, and creating five new Peers . 143
CHAPTER XVI.
THE POSITION OF THE PRESENT CHURCH OF ENG LAND, AND OF HER DAUGHTER IN AMERICA, FIXED BY THE PARLIAMENT OF ELIZABETH.
J. Act of William IV. sufficient. —2. The case of the American Prot estant Episcopal Church shown to be the same as that of the Mother in England. — 3. The entire independence of the American laity. —
CONTENTS. 9
. The application of the facts of the case. — 5. Who sent Archbishop Parker ? Who gave him the faith, — the faith of the one Catholic Chuich. — G. The application of the facts to myself ... 152
CHAPTER XVII.
REASONS WHY SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST.
PETER MUST BE FATAL, TO THE ANGLICAN,
AND HENCE TO THE AMERICAN,
EPISCOPAL CLAIMS.
Reflections on the Act of Separation by parliament, — 9. Which claim of jurisdiction over the Church, that of the king or the Pope, most likely, by the rules of common sense, to be well founded ? — 3. The necessity of a head to the body considered. — 4. The fact of the Pope's present Supremacy considered. — 5. The testimony of heretics to the Supremacy, either directly or indirectly. — 6. A grad ual growth of the Papal power not tenable. — 7. The Scriptural ar gument for the Primacy of St. Peter. — 8. The Catholic interpretation of St. John i. 35, and St. Matt. xxi. 18, abundantly sustained by the Fathers. — 9. The authority of St. Peter touching the Faith set forth in St. John xxi. 15-17, as interpreted by the Fathers. — 10. The Scriptural argument applied to myself 158
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PRIMACY OF ST. PETER INTERWOVEN IN THE
FAITH AND DISCIPLINE OF THE PRIMITIVE
CATHOLIC CHURCH.
The primitive Church affords just such testimony to the claims of St. Peter as the circumstances call for. — 2. The Apostolic See, accord ing to the Fathers, the centre of Catholic unity, the keeper of the Catholic Faith, and the source of Catholic authority. — 3. Extraordi nary assertion of Dr. Wordsworth in his book " Theophilus Angli- canus." — 4. Shown to be utterly without foundation in every par ticular . 179
CHAPTER XIX.
THE APPLICATION OF THE FACTS IN THE TWO PRE CEDING CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE.
1 The extraordinary assertion of Blackstone in reference to the Anglo- Saxon Church shown to be false. — 2. The Anglo-Saxon Church Cath olic, and submissive to the Holy See of Rome. — 3. The case of St. Augustine considered. — 4. The document which puts a speech into the mouth of Dinoth against the Supremacy shown to be spurious. — 5. The application of the argument for the Supremacy. — 6. The sum of the whole matter. — 7. A confession and a warning con-cl-Hston 2K5
INTRODUCTION.
Dear Brethren and Friends,
IT is due both to you and myself, as it is more especially to the cause of God, that I yield, without loss of time, to the promptings of my heart and conscience, and lay before you, as best I can, the reasons which have constrained me to take so serious, and to many dear ones, as well as to my self, so trying a step as that of abandoning the position in which I had acted as a Minister of the Protestant Episcopal Church for more than thirty years, and as a Bishop of the same for more than twenty years, and of seeking, at my time of life, admission, as a mere layman, into " the Holy Cath olic Church," and with no prospect before me but simply peace of conscience, and the salvation of my soul.
That for many years I have been more or less doubtful of my position as a Protestant, and feel ing about me for some surer ground on which to stand in view of a judgment to come, is a matter too much interwoven in the history of the last few
INTRODUCTION.
years of my Episcopate to be, in any important respect, new to you. That, in this state of baffling uncertainty, and under the trying circumstances it brought with it, I always acted wisely, or with perfect consistency, is more than I dare either af firm or believe. Rather would I turn from the too generally worse than useless task of self-de fence, and humbly seek refuge in the compassion of Him " "Who hath borne our infirmities," and in the forbearance of those who have themselves felt the weight of these infirmities, in a doubtful, but earnest struggle to find and keep the narrow way of life. To the mariner, inured to the peculiar hardships of the sea, it will be no cause of wonder that one tossed upon the bosom of its treacherous waves, now toiling amid conflicting elements, and then distracted and deceived by shifting mists, should, in making his way to the shore, describe a somewhat devious track. Should any of my old friends and companions require of me still further explanation of seeming inconsistencies, they will find it in a too great effort on my part to remain a Protestant. Here, commending myself to Him who will one day " make the justice of the op pressed clear as the light," I take final leave of the subject of self-apology, and invite you at once to a consideration of the history of my mind in its progress to Catholicism.
And if, in giving it, I should seem to any to make too much reference to myself, my plea will be found in the nature of the undertaking ; viz., to
INTRODUCTION. 13
present the train of thoughts and reasonings through which my own mind has passed in its progress to a certain faith.
In the outset, let me recall the fact, that for years a mysterious influence,, which I could neither fully comprehend nor entirely throw off, visited my mind, unsettling its peace, and filling it with yearnings for something in religion more real than I had hitherto experienced.*
Under such impulses, my thoughts were natu rally led beyond the narrow limits of mere Protes tant theology to the teachings of early Catholic Fathers, and of such as seemed to he based upon them in later times. At this period Moehler's Sym bolism was put into my hand. I read it, examined its statements with care, and laid it down with an increased desire to know more fully the system of which it had given me, in a spirit of such fairness and love, so beautiful an outline.
Now it was, however, that the progress of my
* I have here thought it not right to omit a circumstance to which I can distinctly trace some of my earliest fears, that something might be wrong in respect to what I had received as the facts of Protestantism — or the real history of the Catholic Faith. Being invited by the University of North Caro lina, in the year 18-14, to deliver the introductory Lecture before the Histori cal Society of the Institution recently formed, I took for my subject the Principles which must govern us in arriving at the facts of History. This led me, by way of illustration, to apply these principles to some of the com monly-received theories of the English Reformation — particularly in regard to the real motive of the movement under Henry VIII., and to the real char acter of the events under the subsequent Catholic reign of Mary — and to rny surprise I found in the course of examination, that my own views became seriously changed, especially as regarded the latter ; and from the circum stance, felt bound at the time to warn my auditory against the common no tion ; and ever after, to guard my own mind in. the study of history against onesided party representations. O
14 INTRODUCTION.
inquiry received a sudden check. Prostrating sickness came, and with it a succession of distract ing and embarrassing oppositions to my discovered tendency towards Catholicism.
And here I must be allowed in all honesty, and, I trust, with no violation of charity, to say, that these oppositions, which were designed, and at first seemed likely to arrest this tendency, operated, in the end, greatly to increase it, by increasing my distrust in the system under which I was acting, as they tended to open my eyes more widely to what I felt to be its unreasonableness.
(1.) In the first place, I observed that every at tempt to understand and rightly appreciate Catholic truth was viewed by Protestants with jealousy, and treated with harshness. That, while they prided themselves upon the untrammelled exercise of rea son in matters of faith, the first effort on the part of any of their adherents to apply this reason in good earnest to an examination of Catholic doctrine, or Catholic institutions, was instantly met by a cry of alarm. " This practice is highly dangerous. Depend upon it, it will unsettle your faith, wean you from your own Church, and give you a lean ing towards Catholicism. There is something in this so insidious and captivating, that, if you once allow it to get the least hold of your mind and heart, it is sure to bring you under its dominion." And if the practice was not forthwith relinquished, they would seek to interpose an effectual bar by loading it with suspicion, and exciting against it
INTRODUCTION. 15
the popular indignation ; thus often forcing per sons who might not have the nerve, for the sake of truth and peace, to face desertion, ignominy, and perhaps starvation, to stifle their convictions, com promise their consciences, and consent, for a time at least, to stumble on amidst the obscurities and miseries of an uncertain faith. This struck me as being so inconsistent with the Protestant principle, that a free and thorough application of each mind to the great question, " What is truth ? " is essen tial to its solution, as to lead me to suspect more reasonableness and force in Catholic teaching than my education and position had hitherto permitted me to see. For I could not well conceive how, on such a vital question as that between Catholics and Protestants, any practice which might con tribute to the fullest investigation should be " dan gerous " to any thing but error. If the mind be capable of the investigation at all, it must be, I thought, to the fullest extent. At any rate, that it would be exceedingly unfair to oblige it to come to a conclusion, or to abide in one, without being allowed an opportunity to examine both sides of the question, the consideration of which might be necessary to render that conclusion safe. Hence I began seriously to fear that " the danger " appre hended from a thorough knowledge of Catholic teaching was not so much danger to the truth of God, as to the system of Protestantism.
(£.) But this fear was strengthened by my being called to face another kind of effort to turn me
IB INTRODUCTION.
from an investigation into Catholic principles. In stead of a direct answer to my difficulties, I was every where met with an indirect rebuke for deign ing to listen, for a moment even, to the claims of so corrupt a Church as that of Koine. Instances, real or imaginary, were advanced, in almost count less numbers, to illustrate its superstition in re ligion, or degradation in morals, with an intimation that no one, not weakened or debased in moral sense, could consent to such a fellowship. I looked at this attempt, narrowly scanned its justice and charity, and at once saw in it, or thought I saw, the working of the same leaven which, in the time of Christ, was infused into the opposition to the Christian faith by the grand adversary of man. cf John the Baptist came, neither eating bread, nor drinking wine, and they say he hath a devil." He is carried away by an unnatural and superstitious reverence for ascetic life. " The Son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publi cans and sinners." One who favors rioting, and is given to sensuality.
Here I asked myself what would have been the fate of the religion of Jesus Christ, when Christ was Himself upon earth, if this charge of laxity of discipline is to be considered an effectual bar to its claims ? I saw Judas still retained by our Lord among the twelve, though known to be a devil ; and I listened to the rebuke which He left for His over-rigorous followers in the parable of the ( e wheat
INTRODUCTION. 1 7
and tares/' where He referred the separation of the bad from the good to a day of final judg ment. And then, in the age that followed, I per ceived this very charge urged against the " One Catholic Church " by a body of condemned here tics* whose sanctity had no better claim than their faith.
It was manifest, too, that this charge of corrup tion, in most cases at least, emanated from persons, either jealous of the influence of the Catholic clergy, or biased against them, from having themselves in some way incurred the censures of the Church, and hence become, through self-love, the victims of self- delusion. An instance of this kind,f made too no torious by an interested press to have escaped the notice of any one, produced in my mind an impres sion of pity for the assailant, equalled only by that of wonder that any member of the Protestant Epis copal . Church in the United States, in his sober senses, should be found an abetter either of the man or of his argument — particularly as at the very time that Church was bleeding at every pore, from wounds inflicted upon her either by the faults of her friends, or the false accusations of her enemies.
God forbid that I should allude to this circum stance with any other than the most sorrowful feel ings. And I only do it to show, why I felt bound, on every principle of justice and charity, to turn
* The Donatists.
| I refer to the Rev. Pierce Connelly.
2*
18 INTRODUCTION.
a deaf ear to an argument from such a quarter, drawn from a rumored or supposed corruption among the Catholic clergy. Besides having ac quired some knowledge of the Penitential system of Catholics, I felt quite confident that too great laxity in any particular case, must be owing, not to defect in the Church, but to the want of fidelity on the part of individuals intrusted with her dis cipline.
On the whole, then, this attempt entirely failed, in respect to myself, of its intended effect — in stead of arresting inquiry, it tended rather to sup ply an additional stimulus to it ; as it tended to weaken my confidence in a system that could resort to arguments so illogical in themselves — so un christian in their spirit — and so unbecoming the persons in whose mouths they were found. It was really a matter of grief to me to be seen in apparent fellowship with so unmanly, so ungenerous an as sault. One betokening so little sympathy with that ff charity which suffereth long and is kind," and appearing so nearly akin to that spirit which saith, " Stand by thyself, I am holier than thou ! "
I was compelled to view this charge in connec tion with another : viz., that of dishonesty, or some thing as base, uniformly uttered against converts to Rome — men who had equally gained for them selves the reputation of unsullied sanctity while Protestants, and had "left all," for conscience* sake, in becoming Catholics. In a word, all this outcry about the corrupt tendency of Catholic
INTRODUCTION. 19
principles might seem very true and very terrible to some minds, but I confess I saw in it only another mark of the identity of the Catholic Church with the slandered and suffering Church of Christ ; and another proof of the want among Protestants of that divine charity, the absence of which. I had long bemoaned as the most fatal symptom in any communion, of separation from Christ, the celestial fountain of peace and love. Where, I asked my self, except in the weekly repetition of the Apostles9 Creed, is the manifestation among us of that blessed " communion of saints," which, under the resist less power of Christ's love, binds all hearts to Him — blending them together in one heavenly fellowship — filling them with one spirit — concen trating them upon one interest — and animating them with common joys, and pursuits, and hopes ; thus excluding "all bitterness, and wrath, and malice, and evil speaking" — and making all feel as " one body in Christ and every one members one of another, — that if one member suffers, all the members must suffer with it ? " This question brought conscious shame, and self-reproach, and a heavier weight of heartfelt distrust.
And here another burden was added to this weight. "The poor," saith our Lord, "ye have always with you." If you are my people you will show it in expressions of divine sympathy for the wretched of every sort. They will be taken to your hearts and fed from your hands, and led on gently by your side. Your churches and houses,
80 INTilODUCTION.
and sympathies and charities, will be thrown widely open to them. They will " be always with you." I cast my eyes around me, and saw indeed here and there an institution, the fruit of individual zeal, designed for the destitute. But when I looked into the system of Protestantism, I could see noth ing which marked it as the hope and the home of the wretched ; nothing which proclaimed its pe culiar fellowship with "the poor." Its places of worship, where, as was too generally the case, the pew system prevailed, were virtually closed against them. If nominal provision was made, it only ex pressed the more significantly the pride of wealth, and the utter want of communion with poverty. The very arrangement, said aloud to the rich, " Sit thou here in a good place ; " and to the poor, " Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool." In short, I could discover no general and essential and abiding characteristic that identified the com munion, to which I belonged with that divine broth erhood, whose glory it was that " the poor were always with them." Indeed, my own feeble, and perhaps misdirected, efforts, in this behalf, met with such signal discouragement and rebuke as to beget in me a strong suspicion of the utter incom patibility of the system in which I acted with Christ's mission to the poor.
But the circumstance which at this period shook my confidence most of all, was the absence, in my view, of any instituted method among Protestants for the, remission of post-baptismal sin. Sins be-
INTRODUCTION.
fore baptism were expressly forgiven in that sacra ment. But for the remission of those committed after, however deadly, I could see in Protestantism no provision. That Christ left power in His Church to remit these I had no doubt. And for a time, after my mind had become alive to the im portance of the exercise of this power, I believed that it existed and might be lawfully exercised in the communion of which I was a bishop. But upon stricter examination and more mature thought, I became convinced that if the existence of such power was not actually denied, its exercise, except in a very modified sense and within very restricted limits, was virtually prohibited. The discovery filled me with dread, which daily observation in creased, till finally it passed into absolute conster nation. No one, who has not been in my state, can fully appreciate my sensations, when I opened my eyes to the fact that multitudes around me in trusted to my care, were goaded by a conviction of mortal sin and demanding relief, and I was not al lowed by my Church to administer that relief in the only way which seemed to me to be directed by God's word as understood by His early Church. The question now forced itself upon me, Can that be an institution of God which thus locks up the gifts (supposing it to have received them) which He commands His priesthood to dispense to the needy and perishing souls for whom Christ died ? *
* One consideration more, deeply concerned in my submission to the Catholic Church, ought, perhaps, to be mentioned. I refer to Hie claim which
INTRODUCTION.
This state of doubt and fear awakened in my mind the inquiry, why I should not more thoroughly ex amine the ground on which I stood, and on which were based my hopes of eternal salvation ?
When I seriously approached this question, how ever, it was terrible to me. No man can well con ceive the horror with which I first contemplated the possibility of a conviction against my own claims as the result ! My claims as a bishop, a minister, a Christian in any safe sense ; and hence of my being compelled as an honest man to give up my position. A horror enhanced by the self- humiliation with which I saw such a step must
that church had to my faith, and love, and obedience, from the moment of my baptism.
It was determined from the first, and by the only power commissioned by Christ to determine, that all persons baptized into His mystical Body, by water, " in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," by whomsoever administered, became thereby true members of " the One Catholic and Apostolic Church ; " and hence they must remain subject to its authority, in opposition to every other claim, so long as they are subjects of Christ's Kingdom.
Convinced, therefore, that I was originally placed by baptism within the pale and under the authority of " the One Catholic and Apostolic Church," and that I should be guilty of an act of deadly schism in resisting this Catholic authority (the only authority under heaven entitled to my submission) by longer siding with a national and uncatholic communion, I felt bound on every principle of duty and safety to return with a broken and contrite heart to the arms of my true mother, from whom I had departed, the moment I consented, as an adult, to be considered a member of the protestant body. Instead, there fore, of unfaithfulness to the Anglican or American communion, which ia sometimes pleaded, I was convinced, that in my return, I did nothing more than throw off an unlawful allegiance imposed upon me without my con sent, and take steps for my restoration to that Catholic fellowship — that " Communion of Saints," of which I was made*a member at my baptism. I felt, as one may be supposed to feel who in his unconscious childhood had been borne off asleep from his native shore on some wreck to a desert Island, and then, in his manhood, after long subjection to want and hardship, be comes convinced of the disaster and returns to the father that begot him, and the mother who cherished his infancy.
INTRODUCTION. £3
cover me, the absolute deprivation of all mere tem poral support which it must occasion, not only to myself but to one whom I was bound " to love and cherish until death." The heartrending distress and mortification in which it must involve, without their consent, a large circle of the dearest relatives and friends, the utter annihilation of all that confi dence and hope which under common struggles and common sufferings, for what we deemed the truth, had been reposed in me as a sincere and trustworthy bishop. But I forbear. Enough that the prospect, heightened in its repulsiveness by the sad forebodings around me at the renewed symptoms of my wavering, was so confounding, as actually to make me debate, whether it were not better, and my duty, to stay and risk the salvation of my soul, — as to make me supplicate in agony to be spared so bitter a chalice, to make me seize, with the eager ness of a drowning man, upon every possible pre text for relinquishing the inquiry. Could I not be sincere where I was ? Work with a quiet con science where Providence had placed me ? Were not the fathers of the Reformation, in case of my being in error, to be held responsible ? Would it not be presumption in me, a single bishop, to re consider other points long considered settled by a national Church ? These and more like questions would force themselves daily upon my mind to de ter my advance ; and under their influence I actually went so far as to commit myself publicly to Protes tantism, to make such advance the more difficult.
24 INTRODUCTION.
But God was merciful, and all this did not satisfy me. I thought I saw in it clearly the temptation of Satan, an effort of my overburdened heart to escape self-sacrifice. I felt that if for such reasons I could be excused, so might Saul of Tarsus have been. His example of self-negation for Christ came frequently before me. His words, as the Apostle of Christ, sounded often in my ears. ( ' If any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, / more — circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benja min, an Hebrew of the Hebrews, according to the Law a Pharisee — concerning zeal persecuting the Church. Touching the justice which is in the law blameless. But what things were gain to me, the same I counted loss for Christ. Yea, further more, / count all things but loss for the excellent knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count
them but dung that I may win Christ We are
fools for Christ's sake. . . And if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him be come a fool that he may be wise We are
made a spectacle to the world — are weak and despised — are naked and buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place — labor, working with our hands — are reviled, and persecuted, and defamed ; yea, are made as the filth of the world unto this day." These words often sounded in my ears, with those encouraging ones too : " I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
INTRODUCTION. £5
to be compared with the glory that shall be re vealed. For if we suffer with Christ we shall also reign with Him. We suffer with Him, that we may be glorified together." And I felt warned and strengthened from above, to let nothing below turn me from a faithful search into the will of God. Other and still more solemn words, too, would come to deepen and fix this impression — words from the lips, the bosom, of Eternal Charity : " He that would be my disciple, must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. He that forsaketh not all that he hath CANNOT be my disciple. He that saveth his life shall lose it ; but he that loseth his life for my sake shall keep it unto life eternal." Yea, and those awful words, too, which, in the mouth of the holy Ignatius, changed the proud and self-indulgent thoughts of the youthful noblemen into the penitential sighs and angelic aspirations of the self-denying and wonder-working St. Francis : — " What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? "
Now it was that I cast myself, body and soul, powers, honors, and emoluments, all that 1 was, all that I had, before the cross of Christ, entreat ing Him to take all, and lead me to the truth, lead me to Himself, vowing, in the depth of my soul, that if He would in mercy show me the way, and uphold my footsteps, I would follow Him whither soever He would lead me !
I will not attempt to say what it cost me to make this surrender. But one thing I will say, 3
26 INTBODUCTION.
the sacrifice has been repaid ten thousandfold in the blessings of present peace, and in the certain hopes of eternal life. And another thing I will record, by way of caution to my dear friends, that if any of them have one doubt, or think they ought to have one doubt of their present safety, — (and who will not think this, after the solemn admoni tion to consider and reconsider, given in the de parture of so many of the best and wisest Angli cans to the Catholic Church ; for who would refuse, or think there was no cause to examine his title deeds, while grave doubts concerning them were abroad, and the wisest members of his family were bestirring themselves to make good the ten ure of their estates ?) — if any of my dear friends, then, have one doubt or suspicion of their safety as Protestants, let them at once commit themselves to the guidance of God's Spirit. Nothing else can save them. Nothing else give them courage to face the trials, to baffle self-delusion, and advance to the altar of self-sacrifice. Let them waive all investigation, then, till they have humbled them selves before the cross, and sought, in a spirit of childlike docility, for the guidance of the Holy Ghost — till they have cast themselves upon this guidance, and poured forth the fervent desires of their hearts in some such thoughts as these : " God of all goodness, Father of mercies, and Savior of mankind, I implore Thee, by Thy boundless wis dom and love, to enlighten my mind, and touch my heart, that by means of true ' faith, hope, and charity,' I may live and die in the true religion of
INTRODUCTION.
Jesus Christ. I confidently believe that, as there is but one God, there can be but one faith, one religion, one only path to salvation, and that every other path opposed thereto can lead but to destruc tion. This path, O my God, I anxiously seek after, that I may follow it, and be saved. There fore I protest before Thy Divine Majesty that I will follow the religion which Thou shalt reveal to me as the true one, and will abandon, at whatever cost, that wherein I shall have discovered errors and falsehoods. I confess that I do not deserve this favor for the greatness of my sins; for which I am truly penitent, seeing they offend a God who is so good, so holy, so worthy of love. But what I deserve not I hope to obtain from Thine infinite mercy.; and I beseech Thee to grant it unto me through the merits of that precious blood which was shed for us sinners by Thine only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord," &c.
You will perceive that this prayer presupposes two conditions as indispensable to a proper investi gation of religious truth. 1. That the salvation of the soul throughout eternity be regarded as infi nitely more desirable than any good in time; and heiue, as demanding our attention and pursuit at the sacrifice, if need be, of all else besides. £. That, to save the soul, God's will be taken as the only sure guide ; and as demanding our cheer ful submission at the sacrifice, if need be, of every other will, and in resistance of every other claim, or influence. It may be very difficult effectually to brace up the mind to these considerations, — so
28 INTRODUCTION.
to put aside the powers of " the world, the flesh, and the devil/' and so to humble our pride, as to make time yield in all things to eternity, and our wills to the will of God ; but it must be done, or we can never promise ourselves any sure advance in the pursuit of truth. Strive, then, first of all, my dear friends, (if you will allow me once more to exhort you in the truest love,) to realize the immense value of the soul, the utter worthlessness, comparatively, of all earthly things, the dreadful idea of its loss, and the unspeakable wisdom of ever holding one's self ready to sacrifice all other things for its salvation ! When you have done this, en deavor to fix before and within, and all around your minds, the awful, but certain truth, that the salvation of your souls can be attained only in sub mission to the will of God. And further, as you have always been taught, that " there is a way which seemeth right unto a man,, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
From a living, controlling sense of these things, it was (and I say it with humble thankfulness to God, for how little did I deserve the grace !) that I started forward anew, resolved, by the help of Divine light, to find a certain answer to the ques tion, " "What is God's will as the way of man's sal* vation ? "
And now I entreat my clear friends to pray for such light, and follow me in the search. The result may be matter for deep and joyful thanks giving to God throughout eternity.
TRIALS OF A MIND
IN ITS
PROGRESS TO CATHOLICISM. CHAPTER I.
CERTAINTY IN THE FAITH TO BE SOUGHT AND EXPECTED.
THE question with, me was, (and I am not ashamed, even at my time of life, and with my pe culiar advantages as a Protestant, to acknowledge it,) "What must I do to be saved?" or, What is God's will as the way of man's salvation 1
To this question I felt the answer must be posi tive and certain ; that no mere approximation to the truth, however flattering or well fortified, would bring relief; that any thing short of absolute certainty would 'fail to meet my case. Of doubt and confusion I had had enough. My mind reached forth for a distinct and infallible response ; and it did so confidently, and with a sense of right, for under God's invitation and promise, it reached forth to GOD, and to God alone. If it were true dhat HE had undertaken to instruct me, to reveal 3 * (29)
SO CERTAINITY IX THE FAITH
or make known His will to me, I felt assured that complete success must attend His work ; that when God taught, the lesson would be distinct ; that when His light shone upon truth, doubt would vanish ; when His lips uttered it, certainty would be seen in every line ; and that wrhen God spake, man was to keep silence, was simply to learn and obey. To me it seemed utterly absurd that God should condescend to instruct man, because of his ignorance, how to save his soul, and then leave him to make a single surmise, allow him even to point his own finger in the way, or put in a word of direction how to follow it — utterly absurd and impious that God should be supposed to depend, in any degree, upon the helpless being whom He designed to rescue from his state of absolute help lessness — to borrow light in any way or measure from the dark mind, which, in pity, He conde scended to illumine and to guide. I felt, there- fore, that I might justly demand exactness and infallibility in the answer to my inquiry for God's exact will, as it was to be an answer from God , that His word to me should require no additional clearness from the dictates of my own perplexed reason, — that His truth should be "rendered suspi cious by no human alloy ; the bright page of His revealed will be dimmed by no uncertainty of man's reason ; that man's reason be employed only as the active receiver of the pure mind of God.
Not only my own wants urged this claim, and the very nature as well as promise of God, who, in
TO BE SOUGHT AND EXPECTED. 31
mercy, undertook to meet them, justified it; but also the reverence due to His perfections, and thr gratitude due to His love would allow no other. 1 felt that He had invited me to come and learn of Him, promising rest to my soul ; and that, had I come thus at His own invitation, for an answer less than infallible, it would have been an insult to His infinite wisdom and power ; that had I ex pected less, when He condescended to supply, it would have been a return of base ingratitude and distrust for the marvellous provisions of His con descension and love.
I said to myself, God declares to me that He has contrived and revealed the way of my salva tion, and, desiring that I should come to a knowl edge of it, has, in fulfilment of His promise to "lead me into all truth," secured its exact and thorough inculcation by positive and fixed means, — can I be satisfied with any thing short of cer- tainty in this knowledge, and stand guiltless before Him ? be satisfied with any thing short of certainty and claim to be a Christian in truth ? How can I know that I am a Christian any further than I know that I am following Christ ? And can I con tent myself with an imperfect or doubtful knowl edge of so solemn and urgent a fact ? What would such a listless careless spirit tell of my earnestness to be saved, or of my estimation of God's way of salvation ? What of that loving spirit which ~knows the voice of the Good Shepherd, and that Good Shepherd Himself? What of that childlike
32 CERTAINTY IN THE FAITH, &C.
dependence on the Father of mercies, which bows to every intimation, and treasures every hint that can lead to the most exact obedience of His will ? that fills the soul with intense desires for perfect conformity to the spirit, the laws, and the fellow ship of -Him who could suffer and die, as Christ suffered and died for sinners ? What of faith, and hope, and charity in Him who said to " the weary, Take my yoke and learn of me, and ye shall find rest to your souls " — who said to those groping in doubt, " / am the light of the world ; he that fol lowed me shall not wall: in darkness but shall have the light of lifeT'
Knowing, therefore, that I "walked in dark ness," I sought with all my heart this " light of life," knowing, too, that Satan himself was some times transformed to imitate this light, I was the more wary, and the more importunate and deter mined in my demand, to know the truth, the tvhole truth, and nothing but the truth, — as it is in Jesus. Verily could I say with St. Paul, " I count all things but loss for the excellent Icnowl- edge of Christ Jesus my Lord" But I felt that it must be knowledge and not conjecture : that the perfections of the great Lawgiver justified the expectation of certainty; that the state of man required it — the yearnings of his heart demanded it — the love of Christ pledged it — the provision in Christ offered it — the promise of Christ insured it. My demand, therefore, was for that perfect knowledge of God's will upon which I could found a certain and abiding faith.
GOD'S REVELATION TO BE RECEIVED. 33
CHAPTER II.
OOD'S REVELATION TO BE EECEIVED AND SUBMITTED TO WITHOUT RESERVE.
UPON looking into the sources from which ail who call themselves Christians profess to draw their hope of salvation, I found them unanimous in claiming the revelation of God to be their sole de pendence. Here, then, was a pleasing and, at first sight, a somewhat hopeful agreement. The revela tion of God was universally admitted to be the only sure guide to God's will, and hence to man's salvation.
The great question, then, presented itself, — What is the revelation of God ? And no sooner was it presented, than serious disagreement began. And first, in regard to the written revelation. Here, I heard it asserted that it embraced a certain number of specified books ; and there, that certain other books must be added : 011 the one hand, that every dogma and precept in these books, when once admitted to be from God, must be submitted to, however mysterious in itself, or however ob scurely revealed ; and then, on the other, that human reason has a right to distinguish between things essential and things non-essential in revela tion, and to put upon all such an interpretation as may make all consistent with its own sense of the fitness of things.
34 " GOD'S REVELATION TO BE RECEIVED
My first concern, therefore, seemed to be with tins last-named opinion. And surely when I seri ously reflected upon it, I could hardly persuade myself that any intelligent Christian could be so lost to every just conception of a revelation from GOD to man as to be guilty of entertaining it. For, the moment I am certain that GOD speaks to me, as a man merely, my spirit shrinks in awe and submission before every word that He utters. But when I know that I stand guilty and condemned before Him — totally dependent upon His mercy, and totally ignorant of His gracious will, and that HE, through marvellous unmerited love, conde scends to reveal this will as the ground of my sal vation, I feel bound to know it all and infallibly, and to obey it all and perfectly. For to me it is enough to feel assured that whatever God has re vealed for us is required of us. Besides, I put it to my reason to say whether, if God has enjoined certain things, any one but God can dispense with them? "Whether, if God has conjoined certain particulars in a necessary whole, any one but God can pronounce whether any of these particulars can be safely omitted or safely left doubtful 1 Or again, whether, if God, in the unfathomable depths of His wisdom, has proposed to our belief certain incomprehensible verities, our faith may be safely withheld till our reason has penetrated their ob scurity, stripped them of mystery, and presented them in some familiar and acceptable guise ? And finally, the necessity of unqualified submission to
AND SUBMITTED TO WITHOUT RESERVE. 35
whatever God has revealed, however mysterious, or however apparently insignificant, — a necessity wrought out and set before my eyes, by God's providence, in His Written Word ; and in such repeated instances, scattered along the whole his tory of man's strange perverseness, as not only to proclaim in the clearest manner God's demands upon us, but also to exhibit in the most instructive light our own blind propensity to resist them.
I see our first parents shut out from the bless ings of Paradise, and groaning beneath the toil and misery of an earth cursed for their sakes ; and as the cause, I perceive that, misled by the pride of reason, they thought it mattered little whether they acted up to the strict sense of God's word, or followed the free and most agreeable interpretation of Satan. I see Cain, wandering forth from the presence of God, bearing God's curse upon his brow and an intolerable weight of misery in his soul; and as the first cause, I learn that he has been found guilty of judging it a small thing to vary from the mere outward institution of God, and offer the first fruits of the ground instead of the firstlings of the flock. I see Cora, Dathan, and Abiron, with all their company, sinking, under the judgments of Almighty God, from the sight of men into the bowels of the earth ; and I find the cause to consist in a low estimate of priestly authority, and an unlawful and arrogant assumption of its prerogatives. I see Hoses, the servant of God, though raised to the headship of his people, ex-
eluded from the land of Canaan and condemned to a solitary death in the mountains of the desert; and I perceive, as the cause, that he failed, before the complaining Israelites, to give the entire glory to his Sovereign, but wavered in his faith and " spake unadvisedly with his lips." I see Uzzah, smitten by the hand of God, sinking a corpse before His ark ; and I learn the cause to be simply a fear- fulness for that ark, and an unauthorized attempt to save it. I see the leprous Captain of the Syrian host turning in contemptuous pride from the simple remedy prescribed by God's prophet for his cure, and moving off in a rage with the prospect of pass ing the remnant of his days a miserable leper ; and that because he could not discern the reason why the waters of Jordan, though appointed by God, should have an efficacy superior to that of the rivers of his own country. I see many of the fol lowers of our Lord, who had actually witnessed His miracles, turning back and abandoning forever the hopes of eternal life through His blood ; and that, because He made that life depend upon verily eating His body, ("he that eateth me, even he shall live by me ; ") and then, because they mur mured at so hard a saying, He refused to do more than urge with increased solemnity the necessity of their implicit faith and obedience.
In these, therefore, as well as in a multitude of other instances, I could not fail to perceive, as God's hand had written the lesson with an awful plainness, that human reason runs the most terrible
AND SUBMITTED TO WITHOUT RESERVE.
risk, in attempting to treat as non-essential any truth, no matter how apparently insignificant, or to modify and abate the literal force, of any truth, no matter how deeply incomprehensible, provided only God has revealed it.
CHAPTER III.
IN WHAT WAY GOD HAS NOT SECURED TO US THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY GHOST IN LEARNING HIS WILL.
To my mind it was settled, therefore, that I had a right to demand not only a certain infallible answer to the question, generally, " What is God's will 1 " but also particularly ; that is, in respect to each truth, however small, however mysterious, which God has proposed to my faith or enjoined upon my practice.
Under this view, I entered upon the inauiry, how, or by what means are we to come to an exact knowledge of God's will as contained in Holy Scripture ? So that we may have an absolute cer tainty that it teaches this or that particular truth — teaches this much of truth, and no more ?
It was clear to me already that God alone could help me — that HE, who is the sole fountain of revelation, must also be its sole interpreter. In this idea, too, I was happy to believe all Christians more or less acquiesced ; that no denomination claims the ability of itself to understand the Scrip- 4
38 IN WHAT WAY GOD HAS NOT SECURED TO US
tures, but that the theory of all is, that man must go out of himself, must cast himself upon God as the only sure dependence ; that His Spirit must in some way " guide us into all truth," or we shall never know it. In what way, then, (this being the form which the question finally assumed) has God secured to us the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit as our interpreter of His will ?
Here I hardly need say that any way which God may appoint must be a perfect way. That it would be highly derogatory to His infinite wisdom and power to suppose it possible that He should essay to provide man with the means of guidance to His will, and that means be not, in every respect and in every sense, sufficient to secure unerring knowledge.
I first examined the means suggested by a large majority of Protestants : viz., that through prayer, God would enlighten each man's mind to under stand, after diligent study, the true sense of the Bible.
The result of my examination forced upon me the conviction that this could not be the means of God's appointment, for the following among other reasons.
1. First, any means of help coming from God to mankind, must, to commend itself to their reason able acceptance, be of universal application to them, and adapted to all their various states and capacities. But this means proposed by Protes tants, I perceived to be, to say the least of it, of very partial application — suited only to the cir
THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 39
cumstances of a very small portion of those for whose instruction in the way of life the Bible was intended.
For, observe, the mere possession of a certain amount of paper and ink, and binding, called the Bible, even were it in every man's hand, and he a man of prayer, could go but a very little way to wards a real knowledge of the will of God. For when this book comes to hand, the man must be able to read it — to read it critically — to know when he reads it, that it is verily the book in which the Holy Spirit deposited the mind of God — that in substance at least, it came from the inspired Apostles, and has been transmitted to himself with out serious change of any kind. But how many, I asked myself, of those who are commanded to know the Bible and are to be judged by the Bible, have even such ability to attain its real meaning? or can assume themselves beyond doubt, that the book they have in their hand contains God's will ? For no one, I presume, maintains that the Holy Ghost is to assist individuals to a knowledge of mere facts ; such, for example, as pertain to the inspiration and authenticity and genuineness of the Scriptures ; or that we are to look to His illumina tion for ability to translate them ourselves, or judge of the translations of others. Yet all these things, it will be perceived, must be attained before we can even enter upon the task, the fearful task, of Scrip ture interpretation. Surely, I said to myself, a method of arriving at God's will so very partial in
40 IN WHAT WAY GOD HAS NOT SECURED TO US
its applicability to the necessities of the helpless creatures whom it professes to aid, cannot have God for its author. The idea is too unreasonable for the acceptance of man, too unworthy of the perfections of God.
£. This appeared, too, from another considera tion. If there be one intention of our Lord more manifest in His life among men than another, it is that of providing especially for the spiritual wants of the poor ; of that class of persons who had hitherto been so shamefully neglected by their fel low-men. Among the multitude of things which He did and said in their behalf, and for their especial encouragement, He proclaimed, as a great funda mental provision secured by His coming, as one which by its realization in Himself, established His divine claims : " To the poor is the Gospel preached." The Gospel preached. Not a mere sound uttered in their hearing ; but a " certain sound," — a sound of " glad tidings " — a distinct proclamation of a way of eternal life opened to them as condemned by their sins to eternal death. " To the poor is the Gospel preached ; " — the Gospel preached — not communicated by means of a book, which they (each for himself) are to read and criticize, and understand — but preached by a clear, unerring, living voice. How reason able, how admirable, how full of love, of gracious consideration for the poor, I exclaimed within my self, is this, our Lord's instituted method of im parting to them a sure knowledge ol His salvation \
THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 41
But how unreasonable, because in every way un suitable, this method insisted on by Protestants. I say unsuitable. For, to send the poor and ignorant to learn the way to save their souls from the Bible merely, seemed to me as obviously preposterous, as it would be to send them to learn how to get their daily bread, to the Principia of Newton, or the Agricultural Chemistry of Liebig. Besides, I had seen with my own eyes, in a long ministry to the poor, the fearful working among them of this Protestant method of learning God's will. The stupid ignorance — the horrid misconceptions — the frightful perversions — the soul-sickening debase ments, which it wrought in my own field of labor, had been pain and grief to me for more than thirty years. How could I believe, with these sad lessons gathered from my own observation, that a God of wisdom could justify His own avowed designs of special mercy to the poor and helpless, by leaving them a prey to this merciless scheme of attaining a knowledge of His will through their individual minds and judgments ? An idea so revolting even to my reason, was at once dismissed as offensive to Almighty God.
3. Another manifest difficulty attended the Prot estant scheme. It failed to secure to mankind what God required them to maintain, — ' < unity in the faith."
Where there is " one Lord," reason, as well as revelation, demands " one faith " Where there is " one God and Father of us all," reason, as well 4*
£ IN WHAT WAY GOD HAS NOT SECURED TO US
as revelation, demands that we all, as " God's dear children," be of " one mind, and one heart, striv ing together for the faith of the gospel." I was not surprised, therefore, to find Christ, our great Prophet, declaring Himself to be " the light ; " and the plan of salvation instituted in Himself as " the way, the truth, and the life." And His people as those who hear " His voice," His one voice, "and follow HIM." Neither did I wonder, as I listened to the earnestness of the apostolic entreaties, that f( we all speak the same things, and be perfectly joined together, not only in the same heart, but also in the same judgment." Nor at the terrible threatenings against such " as cause divisions ; " nor at the pressing admonitions to the faithful to " avoid them," and to adhere to their own pastors, who are sent for "the edifying of the body of Christ," to the end " that we may all come in the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man — unto the fulness of the stature of Christ." But in looking at the prin ciple of private judgment in matters of Christian faith, common sense, as well as common observa tion, taught me that its result among self-willed men could be no other than endless discord. I say common observation. For the result was actually before me. And 1 was not surprised to find, un der this system, no error too absurd, not to have been broached. To find among the hundreds of sects produced by its operation, every fundamental doctrine of the blessed Gospel denied, and every
THE GUIDANCE OF THE HOLY GHOST. 43
form and shade of anathematized error maintained, and all cursed with the uncertainty of perpetual change. As well, thought I, might the harmony of society be preserved by intrusting the interpre tation of law to each individual litigant, as the " unity of faith," by committing the discovery and meaning of God's word to the search of each indi vidual mind. Here, therefore, I felt that I might leave the question as sufficiently settled, so far as re gards the instrumentality of mere private judgment.
CHAPTER IV.
GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM OF HIS GUIDANCE IN ANY MODIFIED SENSE.
HERE, however, I was met by a more plausible theory. "With the admission that, in a certain sense, and to a certain degree, the Church of Christ had authority to judge in matters of faith, had been made by God the interpreter of His will to men. This theory I well understood, as I had held it, and acted upon it, in common with the party in England and America called " High Churchmen," during the whole of my ministerial life. We main tained that in the commission of Christ to His Apostles, " Go teach all nations, baptizing them,'-5 &c., and in the communication of priestly prerog ative, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost : whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them ; and
44 GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained/' God had constituted His Church the authoritative teacher of His will to mankind, and the authorized dis penser among them of His holy discipline. That all were bound to " hear the Church,," and that, if any obstinately refused, they were to be treated as <( heathens and publicans." That the Church founded " upon a rock," was " the pillar and ground of the truth," full able to resist " the gates of hell." That " God had set in the Church some Apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, &c. That we be no more children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into Him in all things which is the Head." That a divine necessity was laid upon the faithful, to " obey those that have the rule over them and submit themselves, because they watch for their souls, and have to give account of them." " To remember those who have spoken to them the word of God — to follow their faith, considering the end of their conversation." Thai this necessity was enforced by the awful sayings, " He that heareth you, heareth me ; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me." And again, " We are of God — he that knoweth God, heareth us But he that is not of God, heareth not us."
OF HIS GUIDANCE IN ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 45
To give and maintain the true meaning of this Scripture, we appealed constantly and confidently to the early Fathers of the Church. The most strik ing passages from these fathers touching church authority, were like household words among us. Thus St. Clement of Rome * writes as follows :
" Do ye who laid the foundation of this sedition submit yourselves to the priests, -\ and be instructed unto repentance. Bending the knees of your hearts, learn to be subject, laying aside all proud and arrogant boasting of your tongues ; for it is better for you to be found in the sheepfold of Christ, little and approved, than, thinking your selves above others, to be cast out of hope." — Ep. i. ad Cor. n. 54, fyc. And St. Ignatius of An- tioch : £ "It becomes you to concur in the mind
of your Bishop For whomsoever the master
of the house sendeth to his own household, we ought so to receive as we would Him that sent him. It is plain that we ought to look to the Bishop as to the Lord himself. § Obeying the Bishop and presbytery with an entire mind" — Ep. ad Ephes. " Neither attempt ye any thing that seems good to your own judgment, || but let there be in the same place one prayer, one supplication, one mind, one
* The Bishop of that See, honored by the near friendship of St. Peter, and writing about fifty years after Christ.
| }X-ttOTCL-yr]T£ TOIS irpsvffvTSpois.
J The Bishop of that See and the disciple of St. John, writing about 105-107, and suffering martyrdom in 107.
§ Toy ovv iiriaxonov i>j\6v on w? O.VTOV rdv Kvpivv del irpoapXinBii'.
|| Or according to Cotelerius, " Ut aliquid vobis seorsim rationi consenta- neum videafur."
46 GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
hope, in love, in joy undefiled." — Ep. ad Magnes tf Guard against such men [heretics,] and guarded ye will be, if ye are not puffed up, nor separated from the Lord Jesus Christ, and from the Bishop, and from the regulations of the Apostles." — Ep. ad Trail. " My soul for the soul of those who are in subjection to the Bishop, and presbyters, and deacons, and my portion be with them in the Lord." — Ep. ad Polyc.
And St. Polycarp * declared, ' f Wherefore, it is necessary, that ye be subject to the presbyters and deacons as unto God and Christ," — Ep. ad Philip.
And St. Theophilus f was heard to say, " As in the sea there are inhabited and well-watered islands, with ports and harbors, that they who are tempest tossed may find shelter in them ; so to the world, agitated and tossed by sins, God hath given holy churches, in which are the doctrines of truth, $ and unto which they who wish to be saved fly." — Ad Autoly.
And St. Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, § as he af firmed : " There being such proofs to look to, we ought not still to seek among others for truth which it is easy to receive from the Church, seeing that the Apostles most fully committed unto this Church,
* Bishop of Smyrna, instructed by St. John, and lived on terms of intimacy with many who had seen our Lord ; he wrote this epistle about 107.
f Bishop of Antioch, highly commended by the Fathers, and wrote abou 180.
J eKK\r](ria.s &yia$ ... at 8ifiaaKCi\ia.i r>7? dXr/Osias sicri.
$ The disciple of St. Polycarp ; he wrote about 185, and was martyred m 202.
OF HIS GUIDANCE IN ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 47
as unto a rich repository, all whatever is of truth)* that every one that willeth may draw out of it the
drink of life Therefore we ought to cling
with the utmost care to whatever is of the Church,f
and to hold fast to the tradition of truth But
what if the Apostles had not left writings : would it not have been needful to follow the order of that tradition which they delivered to those to whom they committed the Churches ? An ordinance to which many of the barbarous nations who believe in Christ assent, having salvation written, without paper and ink, by the Spirit in their hearts, and sedulously guarding the old tradition." — Adv Hares. I. 3.
Again : " In the Church God hath placed Apos tles, prophets, doctors, and every other operation of the Spirit, of which those are not partakers who . do not hasten to the Church. J. . .For where the Church is there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is there is the Church and every grace ; but the Spirit is truth. § Wherefore, they who do not partake of it, are neither nourished unto life by the breast of a mother, nor see the most clear spring which flows from Christ's body, but dig unto themselves broken cisterns out of earthy trenches, and out of the filth drink foul
* Quum apostoli, quasi in depositorium dives, plenissime in earn contulerint omnia qua sunt veritatis.
| Q,uae autem sunt ecclesia!, cum summa diligentia diligere.
\ Cujus non aunt participes omnes qui non currunt ad ecclesiam.
§ Ubi enim ecclesia, ibi et Spiritus Dei, et ubi Spiritus Dei, illic ecclesia, et oranis gratia ; Spiritus autem veritas.
48 GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
water, fleeing from the faith of the Church,"-— Ibid. 1. 3.
And again : " The preaching of the Church, in which one and the same way of salvation is set forth throughout the whole world, is firm and true.* For to this Church has been intrusted the light of God, and on this account is the wisdom of God, through which He saves all men, proclaimed in the
gates ; in the streets she acts confidently For,
every where the Church preacheth the truth ; and this is the lamp with seven branches, which bears the light of Christ." — Ibid. 1. v.
Thus, too, Clement of Alexandria,f who says : " The Apostle, writing to the Ephesians, has very clearly manifested what we are seeking after, say ing thus, ( Until we all meet in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ,' &c. ; saying these things unto the building up of the body of Christ. . .the alone perfect in righteousness ; but are children, avoiding the winds of heresy, which puff up to swelling pride, and not believing those who teach otherwise than the Father Sj J are then perfected, when we are a Church, having received Christ the Head."
Thus also Tertullian, § where he declares : f ' It is not lawful to indulge any thing of our own choice,
* Ecclesiffi quidem pradicatio vera etfirma.
f A celebrated priest of the Church there, and master of the catechetical schools, writing about 200.
J M>; KaTairiffTtvovT£$ ro?y aAAwj ruitv vovBsrovfft Trarlpaf.
$ Contemporary with Irenaeus, living at Carthage, and writing about 190.
OF II1S GUIDANCE IN ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 49
as neither to choose that which any one may have introduced of his own choice.* We have for our authors the Apostles of the Lord, who did not even themselves choose any thing to he introduced of their own will,! but faithfully delivered over to the nations the religion which they received from
Christ Now what the Apostles preached, that
is, what Christ revealed unto them. . .must be proved in no other way than by the same Churches which the Apostles themselves founded. J Them selves preaching to them, as well viva voce, as men say, as afterwards by epistles. If these things 'be so, it becomes manifest that all doctrine wilich agrees with these apostolic Churches, the wombs and originals of the faith, must be accounted true, as without doubt containing that which Churches have received from the Apostles, the Apostles from Christ, Christ from God ; but that every doctrine must be judged at once to be false, which savoreth things contrary to the truth of the Churches. "§ — De Prccs. Hcer.
And Origen, || who says : " Let there be preserved the ecclesiastical teaching, which, transmitted by the order of succession from the Apostles, remains even
* Nobis vero niliil ex nostro arbitrio indulgere licet, sed noc eligera quod aliijuis de arbitrio suo intluxerit.
f Ex suo arbitrio.
\ Non aliter probari debere, nisi per easdem ecclesias quas ipac a^ostoli condiderunt.
$ Constat oinnem doctrinam qua; cum illis ecclesiis apostolicis, matricioua et originalibus fidei conspiret, veritati deputandam .... Oinnem vero <* octti- nam, de memlacio prajtidicandam, quae sapiat contra veritatem ecclesiarunx
|j Au Egyptian writer of great celebrity, about 020.
50 GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
to the present day in the Churches ; that alone is to be believed to be truth which in nothing differs from the ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition." * — De Prin. T. 1. " He, Christ, is the light of the world, who also with His light enlightens the Church. For as the moon is said to derive light from the sun, that by it even the night may be illumined, so also the Church, having received the light of Christ, gives light to all who live in the night of ignorance." — T. ii. Horn. i. in Gen. " They who teach the word according to the Church (qui ccdesiastice docent) are the prophets of God."— T. iii. Com. in Matt.
And St. Cyprian,t whose praise is in all the Churches : " ( He that heareth you heareth me,' &c. There being these numerous and weighty, and many other such examples as precedents, whereby God hath condescended to confirm the sacerdotal authority and power, what kind of men, thinkest thou, are they who, enemies of the Priest hood, and rebels against the Catholic Church, are neither scared by the Lord's forewarning threats, nor by the vengeance of a future judgment ? For neither have heresies sprung up, nor schisms been engendered, from other source than this, — that obedience is not paid to the priest of God. . .who for the time is judge in Christ's stead, whom, if the brotherhood would according to the divine com-
* Ilia sola credemla est veritas, qnce in nullo ab ecclesiastica et apostolica discordat traditione. •f Bishop of Carthage, wrote about 150-155, martyred 158.
OF HIS GUIDANCE IN ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 51
mantis obey* no one would stir in opposition to the college of Priests." — Ep. iv. ad Cornel.
And the Apostolic Constitutions : " Let the lay man honor the good shepherd. For he who hears him, hears Christ, and he who despises him despises Christ. . .For He has said, He that heareth you heareth Me ; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me ; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me." — lib. ii. c. xx.
And St. Pamphilius *(• declares : " That alone is to be received and believed as truth, which in nothing is opposed to the apostolic and ecclesiasti cal dogmas." — Published in the works of Gallan- dus. T. iv.
Lactantius, the famed rhetorician of Mcomedia, affirmed, about A.D. 300 : " The Catholic Church is the only one which retains the true worship. This is the source of truth ; this is the dwelling- place of faith : this the temple of God, which who soever enters not, or from which whosoever de parts, he is an alien from the hope of life and eternal salvation.9' £
Eusebius writes : " The Church of God, journey ing straight in the right and royal road, has con demned all the rest as by-paths (r«c pev ullag irao^x- $ &n£Soxi[.iacie.~) and she transmits to her votaries
* ... Ad tempus juclex vice Christ! cogitatur, cui si spcuiidum magisteria divina olttemperaret fraternitas.
f Priest and martyr of Palestine about 295.
J Sola Catholica ecclesia est, quae veruin culturn retinet. Hie est tons veritatis, hoc domicilium fide i, quod si quis rion intraverit, vel a quo si quis exiverit, a spe vitte ac salutis aeteniffi alienus est.
5£ GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
the knowledge of divine grace." — See Eccles. Theol 1. i. c. 8.
St. Hilary : * " He (our Lord) signifies that they who are placed without the Church cannot attain to any understanding of the divine words." - Com. in St. Matt. c. xiii.
And the great St. Athaiiasius : f " Let us see the tradition which is from the beginning, and the doctrine and faith of the Catholic Church, which the Lord indeed communicated, but the apostles proclaimed and the fathers guarded; for on this has the Church been founded, and he who falls away from this, would not be, nor would he even be called, a Christian." $'— Ep. i. ad. Scrap.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem § exhorts : " Take thou hold, as a learner and in profession, that faith only which is now delivered thee by the Church, and is fenced round out of all holy scripture." || Cat v. n. 12.
St. Gregory of Nyssa^I affirms: "Whoso look- eth unto the Church, looketh at once unto Christ."** — In Cant T. i.
And St. Basil the Great ft says: "We stand
* Bishop of Poictiers, about 355.
f Assistant of the Patriarch of Alexandria at the first Council of Nictea ; and afterwards occupant of that Patriarchal See.
J iv ravrri yap /; £KK\rj<Tia. r£0£/i«Xi<iJTai, KO.I b ravTijs £KTTiTTTUvt
ovr, av iirj, OVT av I'n \tyoiro XpiffTiavos
§ Bishop of Jerusalem, 345.
|| Hitrriv. . . rripijaov poviiv r>> i>vo rrjs £KK\r]crias vvvl aol TIIV SK Tratrr'/s j/p«^ijs laxvpunivriVt
V Bishop of that See 371.
** 'O r/;oj ri]v tKK\riaiav j3~Mitb)v, rrpos rov Xpioroj' avTiK
tt Bishop of Cajsarea, 3u9
OF HIS GUIDANCE IN ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 53
in special need of assistance from you (Western Bishops), to the end that they who profess the Apostolic Faith, having done away with the schisms which they have invented, may henceforward be subjected to the authority of the Church,* and see our own churches also recover their pristine glory of orthodoxy." — T. iii. p. i. Ep. xcii. ad Ital. fyc.
And St. Epiphanius f declares : < ' There is a king's highway, and that is the Church of God and the pathway of Truth, t But each of the
heresies have left the king's highway and is
dragged forward into error ; and the shamelessness of error knows no limits in every heresy. Come, then, ye servants of God and children of the Holy Church, ye who are acquainted with the safe rule, § and are walking in the way of truth, and are not dragged from side to side by words, the summons of each false sect, for slippery are their ways." — T. i. Adv. Hares.
Thus also the Council of Aries, || which asserted its right to condemn heretics, on the ground that the Church is God's Judge in matters of faith : " Whom (the heretics) both the present authority of God and the tradition and rule of Truth have
in such wise repudiated wherefore God, and
our mother the Church being judge, she who both
* 'Yi70Tayrjvat TOV \oinov rrj dvOcvria Trjs ixxXrivi
f Made Bishop of Salamis, 366.
| "Ecrrt yap bSog /3affi\iKti, "ins iariv r'j TOV Qeov
$ Ol TOV Kav6va da(f>a\n yivwaKo |j Held 314.
5*
54 GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
knows and approves her own,* they were either condemned or repulsed." — .Ep. Syri. Silvestro et al fyc.
And St. Ambrose,t when he says : " Thou art in the sight of the world ; let the Church point' out the way to thee." +
And St. Jerome, § when he exhorts : " Go ye not out ; believe not that the Son of Man is either in the desert of the Gentiles or in the secret cham bers of the heretics ; but that from the east even to the west. His faith' shines in the Catholic Churches." — T. vii. I 4, Com. in St. Matt.
St. Chrysostom || affirms: "He (Christ in the passage, Lo, I am with you, fyc.) addresses Himself to believers as one body. For tell me not, says he, of the difficulty of these things, for J am with you, making all things easy."
And St. Augustine : ^ " For my part, I would not believe the Gospel unless the authority of the Catholic Church moved me to it."** — T. viii contr. Manich.
And Vincentius of Lerins ff says : " Discern the truth of Catholic Faith from the falsenesss of heretical pravity in two ways, (1) by the
* duos et Dei nostri pnesens auctoritas, et traditiu ac regula veritatia .... judice Deo et inatre ecclesia, quae suos novit et cumprobat.
f Made Bishop against his will 374.
J Monstret tibi ecclesia viam.
$ Wrote about 300.
|| Made Bishop of Constantinople 398.
IT Made Coadjutor Bishop of Hippo 395.
** Ego vero evangelio non credercm, nisi me Catholics ecclesiae commo veret auctoritas.
If Wrote about 435. The great authority among Anglicans.
OF HIS GUIDANCE IX ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 55
authority of the Divine Law ; (2) by the tradition of the Catholic Church. Here some one perhaps may ask, Seeing that the canon of Scripture is per fect and self-sufficient, what need is there that the Church's interpretation be joined unto it? The reason is, because all men do not take the sacred Scripture on account of its profoundness in one and the same sense For this cause very neces sary it is that We be directed according to
the rule of the ecclesiastical and Catholic sense." — Commonitorium.
We were constrained by these and a host of like authorities, and hence the belief that the Church of Christ, in a certain sense and to a certain degree, had the right to decide in matters of faith.
But I now asked myself, in what sense and to what degree she could hold this right, if not in the most unlimited? Where would be my security, if her authority to me was not to be considered abso lute and final, and hence infallible 1 I saw at once that any authority which admitted of my own re vision or consent before it took effect, could, in a matter of revelation from God, be no authority, and hence no guide. And therefore, as I had already yielded assent to the judgment of the Catholic Church by virtue of her divine commission, I now felt myself under the necessity of yielding to her without reserve, without question, or doubt. In other words, of holding that her judgment in mat ters of faith and discipline, when officially given through her priesthood, must be distinct and deci-
56 GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
sive. That her power was dispensed to her from above, to qualify her to be a guide to the blind, and " a light to them that sit in darkness."
But I was a professed teacher and overseer in the Church ; and as such, on my own principles, must be invested with a portion of the Church's power to teach and to guide. This thought, when brought seriously to the test, filled me with alarm. I asked myself, with what kind of authority I could pro claim the truth of God ? Whether I really felt myself in a condition to speak positively, that is, without shadow of doubt, to the inquiring sinner. To declare to one demanding certainty (and who should not ?) on vital questions of faith and prac tice, this or that view of the matter is infallibly true ? Suppose, I said to myself, that such an in quirer, impelled by the words of Christ, " He that heareth you heareth me," had come to me, with an earnest spirit, to know certainly and exactly " what he must do to be saved ? " That, convinced by the New Testament that he must " believe on the Lord Jesus Christ," he had come to be informed " Who Jesus Christ is, that he might believe on Him ? " in what precise relation He stands, not only to God the Father by His Divine nature, but also to us sinners by His Incarnation, and sufferings, and death ? That, convinced by the New Testament that he must " be born of water and of the Spirit, be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ to wash away his sins," he had come to be informed the precise nature and benefits of the duty, — what it
OF HIS GUIDANCE IN ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 57
implied in itself? and what it implied in respect to the recipient ? What it required of one coming to it ? What it did for one submitting to it ? What it expected of one blessed by it ? That, con vinced by the New Testament of his having been made " the temple of the Holy Ghost " in baptism, and of his having incurred the awful pun ishment of those who " defile " that temple, by mortal sin after baptism, he had come to me, and now earnestly entreated to know what he must do to regain God's favor, and be restored to the bless ings he had forfeited by his grievous transgressions ? That he wras assured by the New Testament that our Lord, before His ascension, commissioned His apostles to teach " every creature " in " all nations," giving His promise to be with them to (e the end of the world," and sealing that promise by breath ing into them the Holy Ghost, and saying to them, " Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted un to them, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." And now as he felt himself to be one of the creatures to whom the apostles were thus sent, he desired and demanded to be explicitly in formed what precise benefit he, as a sinner, could claim under this commission, and what exact line of duty he must pursue to secure it ? That, con vinced by the New Testament of being under a solemn and weighty obligation " to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, to strive to gether for the faith of the Gospel, to obey those who are commissioned to watch for souls," he asked
58 GOD HAS NOT MADE THE CHURCH THE MEDIUM
to be instructed in this great duty, for a knowledge of its nature and extent, and how he was to decide and to act amid the conflicting claims and diverse teachings of this age of strife and apostasy from the Faith ? And furthermore, he read in the New Testament, that " when Christians were sick, they were commanded to send for the elders (or priests) of the Church, to pray over them, and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord," in virtue of which great blessings were to be expected. And now as he contemplated that last fearful scene of his life, when approaching death was to put an end to his obedience and the use of God's grace on earth, he demanded, from the depths of a trem bling soul, to know infallibly what he must do in respect to this command, which, if not settled now, must address itself to him with distracting force on his death bed ! Suppose, thought I, all this and much more of the like kind should be addressed to my awakened and oppressed mind, what, in the name, of God, could I answer 1 What could I dare claim, or what evince, of that authority implied in a com mission to stand before sinners in " Christ's stead" and speak to them with unerring certainty, the will of Christ in God 1 The thought was confounding ! And I turned from myself to those with whom I was in visible communion, and I asked, in respect to the above questions, if I have not this authority to answer in my own person, perhaps I may in conjunction with my fellow-bishops and churchmen. In our hands the Book of Common Prayer was
OF HIS GUIDANCE IX ANY MODIFIED SENSE. 59
professedly the symbol of our Faith, and the au thorized guide in our teaching. But a moment's thought convinced me, that on the solemn ques tions proposed to me as above, this Book, whatever might be its merits, could give no certainty. For a moment's thought only was needful to let in upon my mind the sorrowful fact of its utter inefficiency to produce agreement among the only persons as sociated with me and around me, who claimed au thority to teach ; — inefficiency, not only to pro duce agreement, but also to -restrain from mutual charges of teaching falsely — teaching "another Gospel." Under the torturing influence of a thought which thus came home to my conscience, I could hear myself appealed to from the first age of the Church : " Thou, who art seeking, why dost thou look to those who are themselves seeking ? If the doubtful are led by the doubtful, the unas sured by the unassured, the blind by the blind, they must needs be led together into the ditch. "j And strongly was I moved to obey at once the ap peal of another Father : f " There is here a contra diction of tongues, — divers heresies, divers schisms cry aloud : run to the tabernacle of God, and lay fast hold of the Catholic Church, and thou shalt be protected from the contradiction of tongues."^:
* Tertullian f St. Augustine.
J It was at this period, as I was performing my last ordination, that I came to the determination never, without entire relief of mind, to repeat it. And here let me say, that I had not as yet, had communication of any kind with Catholics on the subject of my doubts ; and, furthermore, that I com municated the above fact to a member of my Standing Committee before leaving my diocese, as he, if called upon, will testify
60 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH
CHAPTER V.
THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH TO TEACH, PERPETUAL, AND WHY?
IT was now said to me, by way of kind and anxious expostulation, and by a very dear friend, that at this time of peculiar trial to the Church, we must be willing to take part in the suffering, must try to be thankful for the blessings which are still granted us, be satisfied with a near approxi mation to the truth. That the certainty of the first age of the Church is not our inheritance. •But my yearning, desolate heart demanded " WHY ? " demanded the proof that Christ's command to " hear the Church " was not meant for our day ; and that the . Church is not now, as well as at any former time, commissioned and expected to give to the in quirer, a distinct and certain answer ; to be ready to return to those asking " a reason of the hope that is in her," an answer that can neither be mis taken nor gainsaid. Yes, out of the abundance of my own pressing needs I demanded the proof \ that the necessity is not now as great as it was in the days of the apostles, for certainty in the faith. That the wants of mankind are not as urgent in their demands now as they were then for the bless ing of an infallible guide. That the moral facul ties are less blinded, — the natural reason less un certain, — the causes of bewilderment less perplex-
TO TEACH, PERPETUAL, AND WHY? 61
ing, — - the wiles of Satan less artful and ensnaring — demanded some proof or intimation from God's "Word, that the promise of Christ's presence with His Church, which by its very terms extends itself to the end of the world, could, by any human skill or safety, be limited to the age of the apostles. That "the gates of hell, which were never to prevail against her," could rightly be supposed so to crip ple and ^muzzle her, that she could not hold herself erect, and speak as a guide to the erring. That her "divine powers were to be worn out by time ; were to grow feeble and insufficient after the prim itive days. That " the pillar and ground of the truth," so glorious and trustworthy at first, was in the end to become so worn and shattered as not to be a sure foundation and defence ; a foundation upon which to stand without wavering, a defence that could be trusted in every assault. My heart, yea, my whole soul, now alive to the value of truth, demanded from God's Word) and not from mere protestant tradition, some convincing proof,, that " the church of the living God " was thus to fail in her living, abiding, infallible power to teach. For I had been led to a thorough investigation into the nature of that power itself, into the ques tion, how far it is human and how far divine ; and I had perceived the unreasonableness of the protestant objection to the infallibility of the Church, grounded on the universal fallibility of human judgment ; inasmuch as that infallibility- was not made to " stand in the wisdom of men, but 6
03 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH
in the power of God" Inasmuch, as the divine word did not call upon men to " hear the church," because of the superior talent or learning or worldly wisdom of her priesthood, (< ' the wisdom of this world " being actually accounted " foolish ness with God/') but because Christ is in the Church by His wisdom, and power, and authority, — because, as saith St. Ignatius, "Where Christ is, there is the Catholic Church," * or because, as Origen saith, i f she hath received the light of Christ as the moon receives light from the sun," — or because, as Christ saith, the Holy Ghost was sent to abide with the Church, and to lead her into all truth, — or as St. Irenaeus interprets, "where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God." f Because, that no matter how exalted in point of natural or acquired ability might be her chief bishop, or any of her bishops or priests, they never rest in the discharge of their functions upon their personal qualities or attainments, but solely and explicitly upon the gifts of the Holy Ghost dispensed to them for their office and work, re spectively, in the Church of God. And that, too, because they were instructed by God to expect these gifts, and place their sole dependence upon them. Hence it seemed to me not less unreason able to object to the Church's infallibility because of the human element in her, than it would be to assail the infallibility of our blessed Lord on the
* EK£? /j xaOoXiKr/ iKK\riaia..
f Ubi eniin ecclesia, ibi el Spiritus Dei.
TO TEACH, PERPETUAL, AND WHY ? 63
ground of his being "very man." Indeed, I asked myself what there was in mere human nature at the time of the Apostles, which gave the Church then a better security in her unaided or aided judg ment, than she possesses now 1 For I well knew that the Apostles as men, were not exempt from the common infirmities, in both body and mind, of human nature ; and that, if it were not for the fact, that these infirmities were under the absolute control (in their authoritative teaching) of a higher power with which they were linked, 110 reasonable confidence could be placed in their decisions or instructions in the faith. The truth is, I perceived that the infallibility of the Church stood then where it stands now, IN THE DIVINITY OF HER INCARNATE HEAD — in the wisdom and power of Him who took her nature — became her life, and united Himself to her in indissoluble and eternal bonds in the womb of the ever-blessed Virgin. Hence the Church is declared by St. Paul, to be His body. "The Church, which is His body." The body of which God made flesh is the Head. Here, then, thought I, is the Church's security against error. Here is the source of her unerring knowledge, the ground of her unerring judgment. She consults and speaks by her Divine Head. His wisdom presides in her councils. His voice is heard in her decisions. Her union with Him constitutes her vitality. The very nature of this union insures her indefectibility no less than per petuity. As "the spouse of Christ," I use the
64 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH
words of the holy Cyprian, ' ' cannot become adul terate " (Adulterari non potest sponsa Christ!) neither can she cease to exercise her powers. For in Him " she lives, and moves, and has her being." Her very life is "hid with Christ in God" — is placed beyond the reach of harm from Satan or the world > and must abide in safety so long as Christ her ever-living Head abides true to His own- nature,, and faithful to His promise, " Lo I ani with you all days," and must ever continue to speak infallible truth, so long as the everlasting God shall continue to make good His imperishable words, ' ' My Spirit that is upon • thee and my words which I have put into thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed henceforth and forever." "When the Spirit of truth is come HE shall guide you into all truth. For He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you."
That my views here were not hasty, and my confidence not misplaced, I felt certain, if that can be considered mature., which was the settled belief of the Fathers ; and well founded, which had been their reliance amid the distractions of heresy, and the horrors of persecution.
" For this cause," says St. Ignatius on his way to martyrdom, "did our Lord take ointment on His head, that He might breathe incorruption upon
the Church." "Iva nv&rj TTJ ixxlrjaia &<p6aQOlav.
"The public teaching of the Church," says St,
TO TEACH, PERPETUAL, AND WH £ ? 65
IrenaeuSj "is every where uniform and equally enduring." And he gives the reason, viz., that " our faith is ever kept by the Spirit of God in youthful freshness . . . making the vase (or Church) wherein it is, seem newly formed."*
" The Church is impregnable," says Clement of Alexandria, because "it is the divine will on earth, as it is in heaven." — (Strom, lib. iv.) " Our doctrine perishes not like human doctrine, nor fades away like a feeble gift, for " this reason, " no gift of God is powerless, but endures, incapable of being put down, though prophesied of that it should be per secuted unto the end." — Ib.
"ISTo one can be with Christ," exclaims St. Cyprian, " who is not with Christ's spouse," and for the reason, that " Christ and His Church are united with indissoluble bonds." — (Ep. xlix. ad Corn.} " The Church is one," says he, " which having obtained the grace of eternal life, lives for ever, and gives life to the people of God," (Ep. ad Quin.) because, ' ' nothing can separate the Church from Christ." — (Ep. CceciL) " She it is that alone holds and possesses the whole powrer of her spouse and Lord." — (Ep. Ixxiii. ad Jubaien.) Thus " the spouse of Christ is undefiled and chaste, and can not become an adulteress." — (De Unit ate.) " The . Church which is Catholic and one, is not rent nor divided, but is indeed connected together and knit
* . . Quam perceptam ab ecclesia cnstodimus, et quae semper a Spiritu Dei, qua^i in vase bonoeximium quoddam depo.situm juvenescens, et juvenesceie laciens ipsum vas in quo est. — Adv. Hares. Lib. lib. iii. c. 24.
6*
66 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH
by the cement of priests, cleaving to each other."* And as the reason, — "Consider," says he, "the majesty of God who ordains priests . . . and have respect to Christ, who, by His will and fiat, and His OWN PRESENCE, governs both the prelates them selves and the Church with the prelates." (Ep.
Ixix. ad Pupian.)
"Which great and everlasting temple (the Church)," declares Lactantius, " because Christ is the builder, must have therein an everlasting priest hood." — (Divin. List. lib. iv.)
"Christ foretold," says Eusebius, "that the Church, which, during the years of His sojourning among men, was not seen nor established, should be invincible, incapable of overthrow, '^TTIJTOV *«* ctxaTupuzqTov eueodta. For the reason, that "the God-word dwells in the midst of His Church," &c.
lEv ^eico yag rr^g exxlqcrias tov Qeov loyov xocTaaxiji'ovi',
&c. (Dem. Evang. lib. v.)
" The Church of Christ," says St. Athanasius, " shall be refulgent, and enlighten all under heaven, and be as abiding as the sun and the moon. For this passage says so — < and His throne as the sun before me, and as the moon perfect forever, and a faithful witness in heaven.' " For "the throne, here," he continues, " is Christ's throne, the Church, for in it He rests." — (Expos, in Ps. Ixxxviii.)
" Thou hast built a Church on earth," says St.
* Quando ecclesia, quae Catholica ct nna est, scissa non sit neque divisa, sed situtique connexaet coluerentium sibi in vicem sacerdotiun glutino copulata
TO TEACH PERPETUAL, AKD WHY ? 67
Ephraem,* " which resembles the Church in heaven ; its foundations love impelled Thee to lay, while grace presided at its completion. Thou hast also taken it as Thy spouse and made it Thine by the price of Thy blood. Therefore, O Lord, Thou wilt guard it under Thy protection that the gates of hell prevail not against it." — (T. iii. *Syr.)
" She " (the Church), says St. Ambrose, " may be overcast with clouds, but fail she cannot. (Obumbrari potest, defaere non potest.) ..... The moon, in her monthly .changes, seems to quench her light, that she may borrow from the sun. While others are shipwrecked, she looks on, her self free and exempt from danger (ipsa immunis et exors periculi). Always prepared to have Christ's light shine upon her, and to derive gladness from it." — (T. i. De Abr. lib. ii.)
" We may understand," says St. Jerome, " that even to the end of the world the Church may indeed be shaken by persecutions, but never can be overthrown. Because the Lord God Almighty is the Lord God of the Church, who hath promised to do this ; and His promise is nature's law." (Cujus promissio lex naturae est.)
" Nothing," reiterates St. Chrysostom, time after time, " nothing is equal to the Church. Tell me not of walls and arms ; for walls grow old, but the Church never grows old, ft texlqala di ovdenoie j^a, walls barbarians destroy, the Church not even
* A Greek, ordained as is said, by St. Basil, and praised for his excellency Dy St. Jerome, wrote about 350.
68 THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH, &C.
demons can overcome. No thing is stronger than the
Church. Ov8iv yuQ exxhjalug lcr%vQOT£Qov. If tl'lOU
war against the Church, it is impossible for thee to conquer, TVtx/yerat as tiufyuvov. WHY? for GOD is stronger than all men. GOD hath rooted her, who will attempt to shake her ? For this cause, the Scripture showing her firmness and immovable- ness, calls her a mountain — her incorruptibility calls her a virgin, To acp-Ooyov, «i5r*?y xtdcd xaoOevov, her mag nificence calls her a queen — that connection which she has with God calls her a daughter," &c. (T. iii. p. 391.) "Do I confide in my own strength ? I have His (Christ's) pledge — I hold His written Word. That is my staff — that my security. What are these words ? ( I am with you all days even to the consummation of the world.' . . There man is the pilot, but here (in the Church) it is Christ. Therefore the vessel, though tossed by the tempest, is not overwhelmed." — (T. vi. in Is. c. ii.)
With such ground upon which to stand, I felt that my confidence was neither unreasonable nor likely to fail. Was not unreasonable, because, in yielding to the Church as infallible, I was not called upon to bow to man but to GOD. Nor likely to fail, for the same reason — viz., that I was cast for guidance, not upon any human wisdom in the Church, but solely upon the wisdom of her divine Head. Upon the GOD-MAX, who had so loved the Church as to purchase her with His blood — take her to Himself as His spouse — and promise her His presence and protection to t] e end of the
PROTESTANTISM NOT RECONCILABLE, &C. G9
world. Notwithstanding, therefore, the confusion and darkness that were around me, I did not de spair of being yet led by a clear light and harmo nious voice into the way of life and peace.
CHAPTER VI.
THE STATE OF PROTESTANTISM NOT RECONCILABLE WITH THE PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE CHURCH'S LATTER DAYS.
ANOTHER feature, however, in the same plea, was here presented, and by the same friend. He urged that the darkness and confusion among Prot estants, of which I complained, must be regarded as consistent with the promise of Christ's presence with His Church ; inasmuch as this state of things had been foretold in the 'New Testament, .as the characteristic and trial of the Church's latter days. In directing my thoughts to this plea, it became at once obvious, that while the finger of prophecy pointed to a kind of confusion in the bosom of the Church, it was not such as I realized in the com munion of which I was a bishop. It was not such disorder as would confound the Church itself — stifle within her the heart of charity and the voice of truth — but such as would throw off from her body some of her unruly sons, leaving them ran kling with the gall of bitterness, and bewildered by a confusion of tongues. That the prediction was hence designed, not to foreshadow to the eyes
70 PROTESTANTISM NOT RECONCILABLE
of tlie faithful a disheartening picture of a divided Church — but to hold up, as a beacon to the self- willed and the turbulent, the awful curse which must follow a separation from the ".one body of Christ." Certainly, St. Cyprian viewed the matter in this light : " It ought not to move any faithful person," says he, "who remembers the injunctions of the Apostle, how he forewarns us that in the last times certain proud persons, both contumacious and enemies to the priests of God, either withdraw from the Church or act against the Church, when both the Lord and His Apostles have foretold that such should now be. . . They, therefore, who have departed or may depart from the Church perish by their own fault, but the Church herself who believes in Christ, never departs from Him at all ; and they are the Church who persevere: in. the house .of God — (Nunquam ab eo omnino discedere, et eos esse ecclesiam, qui in domo Dei permanent.) But they are not the plant planted by God the Father, who we see are not rooted with the firmness of wheat, but are blown about like chaff . . . of whom also St. John says, '-They went out from us, but they were not of us. ..or they would have remained with us.' Also St. Paul admonishes us not to be moved when the wicked perish from the Church, and that faith is not lessened by the with drawal of the faithless. ( For what,' says he, ' if some of them have fallen from the faith? Has their unbelief made the faith of God without effect ? God forbid. For God is true, but every man a
WITH THE PROPHECIES. 71
liar.'" (Ep. iv. ad Cornel) And again, — "The Holy Spirit forewarns us by the Apostle and says, ' There must be heresies, that they who are ap proved may be manifest amongst us.' Thus are the faithful approved, thus the faithless detected ; and thus even here, before the day of judgment, the souls of the righteous are separated from the unrighteous — the wheat from the chaff." — (jDe Unitate.)
And, St. Jerome viewed the matter in the same light : " We may understand," says he, " that even to the end of the world the Church may be indeed shaken by persecution, but never can be overthrown." — ( T. vi. lib. iii.) " The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I consider the gates of hell to be vices and sin, or certainly the doctrines of heretics, by which men are enticed and led to hell." — (T. vii. lib. iii.)
And St. Ambrose : " As pure gold, so also the Church," says he, " when tried in the fire suffers no loss, but its brightness is rather increased, until the time when Christ shall come unto His kingdom, and recline His head on the faith of His Church." (T. i. in Ps. xi.)
St. Chrysostom, after dwelling upon the promise of Christ to His Church, < The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,' which he looks upon as a sure prophecy, says, "Come, let us take in hand still another prophecy which shines brighter than the sun, and is clearer than its rays, which lies under the observation of all men, and which
PROTESTANTISM NOT RECONCILABLE
stretches out itself unto all future generations, as does trie preceding prophecy also... Yea, for from the day that it was spoken, even to the consumma tion of the world, has it remained firm and un shaken — gaming power day by day — acquiring fresh force, enabling all those who have lived from that day, even unto those who shall be until the coming of Christ, to reap the greatest advantages from it, and to derive thence unspeakable aid. For our predecessors and theirs and theirs again, will know its power, as they behold the contests excited against it, the dangers and troubles, the tumults, and waves and storms ; but beholding it, still not overwhelmed, nor vanquished, not over come, not extinguished, but flourishing, increasing, raised to a mightier elevation." — (T. i. Cont. Jud. et Gent.)
And St. Augustine : " There are some," says he, "who say, she that was the Church of all nations is already no more ; she has perished. This they say who are not in her. The impudent assertion ! Is she no more because thou art not in her ? Look to it lest thou, for that cause, be no more. For she will be though thou be not. (0 impudeiitem vocem ! Ilia 11011 est, quia tu in ilia non cs ? Ilia erit, etsi tu non sis.) This assertion — full of pre sumption and falsehood, upheld by 110 truth, with out one spark of wisdom the Spirit of God
foresaw, and as it were, struck at such when He announced UNITY .... Therefore, even to the end of the world is the Church in all nations," Sec. — (T. iv. in Ps. c. i.)
WITH THE PROPHECIES. 73
And Theodorct exclaims, " Why contend ye lofty mountains, against the mountain on which the Lord desired to sit ? " (Ps. Ixiii.) The prophetic word is directed against the Jews, and the unlawful con venticles of heretics who call themselves Churches ; and it says, " Why do ye lift up yourselves to con tend and equal yourselves with the mountain, which God hath made His dwelling-place ? For there the Lord shall dwell unto the end: for not as He dwelt with you, O Jews, for a certain fixed time, so shall He abide therein ; but He shall have in this an everlasting habitation. For this is de clared by that word unto the end." — (T. i. in Ps. Ixii.)
Certainly these Fathers, with the whole blessed company of martyrs and confessors, understood the prophecies relating to the "latter days," as I had understood them. Is it possible, then, I thought, that such glowing and confident anticipations, based upon the abiding love and promise of God, could fail? That faith, and hope, and charity thus inspired to pray, and suffer, and toil, and endure unto the end, could in the Qnd be rewarded with disappointment? That He who said, "and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me," would find that, ere all men could be reached, the cross must yield — the gates of 'hell must be trium phant ! That " He who so loved the Church as to give Himself for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it, and make it to Himself a glorious Church," would finally be driven to the confession,
74 UNITY OF THE CHtJIlCH.
that the work He had imdertaken, was an over match for His mighty power ! That He, who said to His people in the beginning : " Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world/' would before the end, be compelled to retract His words ; though " to give strong consolation, He had confirmed them with an oath — swearing by Himself, because He could swear by none greater ! " To me the thought was impiously absurd ; all the divine attributes were against it ; as all seemed pledged to secure the hopes of the faithful !
CHAPTER VII.
UNITY OF THE CHURCH - SECURITY AGAINST SUCH DIVISION AS EXISTS AMONG PROTESTANTS.
THE plea that a divided and distracted Church is contemplated and foreshadowed by Christian prophecy, " The Holy Spirit," says St. Augustine, "foresaw and struck at, when He announced UNITY." And so it had seemed to me. For how is it possible, I thought, to conceive unity to exist amid the turmoil and dissension of the so-called "Christian world1]" I mean such unity as God's word requires — such unity as is set forth in the New Testament under the striking figures, of " branches " engrafted in Christ ff the Vine," — " a body," of which Christ is < ' the head," — "a virgin " espoused to " Christ as the husband," — " a house,"
UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 75
of which Christ is the Master, — "a temple/' of which Christ is "the Priest," — "a kingdom,," of which Christ is "Ruler," — "a light," of which Christ is " the fountain," — " a well of living water," of which Christ is " the spring." For how, I thought, can branches of the same vine be so separated as to have no mutual visible connection, and still live together in the vine ? How can members of the same body be so disunited as to lose all exter nal communion, and still have a vital union with " the head ? " How can a virgin espoused to " one Lord," be seen wandering after " divers lusts and pleasures," and still be regarded as a true and faithful spouse ? How can a "house divided against itself" continue to stand ? How can " a temple," with no priest nor sacrifice, be one with " the temple " of Christ's body, which has both priest and sacrifice ? How can a kingdom with its different parts at war fail to " be brought to desolation ? " How can rays from the same sun possibly be at variance in their natures ? Water from the same fountain be both sweet and bitter ? "A House divided against itself" not fail? How then can the truth that " we are one body in Christ and every one mem bers one of another," consist with opposing creeds, and altars, and mutual charges of damnable heresy ? Do such things agree with that unity for which our Lord so earnestly prayed ? A unity where the same fellowship should bind together the several members of His body, as made Himself and His Eternal Father One 1 Or are we driven to the
76 UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
fearful alternative that that prayer failed ? And that that suppliant is not to " see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied ? " If so, thought I, how blinded must have been St. Clement of Rome! " Have we not one God, and one Christ, and one Spirit of grace poured out upon us, and one calling in Christ ? Do we raise a sedition against our own body ? Come to such a height of folly as to forget that we are members one of another 1 Remember the words of our own Lord Jesus how He said, " Woe to that man, — it were better that he had never been born; better that a millstone had been placed around his neck and he cast into the sea, than that he should scandalize any of my elect — one of my little ones ! " (Ep. 1 ad Cor.)
How blinded must have been St. Ignatius ! "Where division is. . .God dwelleth not. Be not deceived, whosoever followeth one that createth schism, he inheriteth not the kingdom of God." (Ep. ad Philad.)
How blinded St. Justin ! " The word of God is addressed to believers, as being one Church, one synagogue, ONE SOUL." (Dial cum Tryph.)
And St. Cyprian ! " The Church cannot be separated or divided against itself, but preserves the unity of an inseparable and undivided house. .... The very sacrifices of our Lord show forth Christian unanimity, knit together by a firm and inseparable charity. For when the Lord calls bread, formed from the union of many grains, His body, He indicates one people united together
UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 77
And when He calls wine, which is made out of many clusters of grapes, and is incorporated into one, His blood, He signifies one flock joined to gether by the admixture of a united multitude. Besides, because Christ's people cannot be rent, His tunic, woven and conjoined throughout, was not divided by those to whom it fell. Individual, conjoined, co-entwined, it shows the coherent con cord of the people who have put on Christ. In the sacrament and sign of His garment He has declared the unity of His Church . . . The Lord says, ' I and the Father are one ; ' and again, of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, it is written, these three are one. And does any one believe that this unity, thus proceeding from the divine immutability, (Hanc unitatem de divina firmitate venientem,) and cohering in heavenly Sacraments, can be rent asunder in the Church, and be split by the force of antagonist wills ? HE WHO HOLDS NOT
THIS UNITY, HOLDS NOT THE LAW OF GoD, HOLDS NOT THE FAITH OF THE FATHER AND THE SON, HOLDS
NOT LIFE AND SALVATION ! (Hanc unitatem qui non tenet, Dei legem non tenet, 11011 tenet Patris et Filii fidem, vitam et salutem non tenet.) There is one God and one Christ, and His Church is one, and the faith one, and the people one, joined into the unity of one body by the cement of concord. (Plebs una in solidam corporis unitatem concordire glutino copulata.) Unity cannot be sundered, nor the one body be separated by the dislocation of its points, (Scindi unitas non potest, nee corpus uiium
78 UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
discidio compaginis separari,) nor torn in pieces by the rending apart of its vitals, (Divulsis lacera- tione visceribus in frusta discerpi ;) whatever is parted from the womb cannot live and breathe in a state of separation ; it loses the principle of its subsistence. (Substantial!! salutis amittit.)"
How blinded must have been the blessed Leo ! " In unity of faith and baptism is our fellowship undivided. Unless faith, be one it is no faith. For St. Paul says, 'One Lord, one faith, one bap tism.' " (Ser. xxiv. in Nat. Dom.)
If blinded in respect to the nature of Church unity, equally so must they have been as regards its universality. If that unity be consistent with national divisions and national " independence " in regard to the faith ; what means St. Irenseus when he declares, "that the Church, though spread over the whole world, (xado)^g IT{- outoutrys) hav ing received the faith. . .guards it sedulously, as though dwelling in one house ? (c'/2c %»a ehov olxov- o-tt.) And these truths she uniformly holds as having but one soul, and one and the same heart, and these she proclaims, and teaches, and hands down uniformly, as though she had but one mouth For though, throughout the world the languages are various, still the force of the tradition is one and the same. (JI di'va^tg iv(; nagctd&aews fiia xu.l ^ avir^ As God's handiwork the sun is one and the same throughout the universe, so the preaching of the truth shines every where, and enlightens all men that wish to come to a knowledge of the truth
UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 79
. . .The whole Church has one arid the same faith throughout the whole world." (Adv. Hares, lib. i.
C.Z.)
What means Tertullian ? " The Apostles. . .went forth into the whole world and promulgated the same doctrine of the same faith to the nations. . . Thenceforward other Churches borrowed the tra dition of the faith and the seeds of doctrine. . .The whole kind must needs be classed under their original. Whence these Churches, so many and so great, are but that one primitive Church from the Apostles. . .Thus all are the primitive, and all apostolic, while all being one prove unity." • — (De Prcescr. n. 20.) What means, too, the Alexan drian Clement ? " The excellence of the Church like the principle of every thing concrete, is in unity. . .having nothing similar or equal to itself." (xal pi] Sty ^/ovcra Ofioiov r^ laov £wvr?f.) (StrOttl. lib. vi.)
What the learned Origen ? " Christians are not one nation, but out of all nations, one people ; and, therefore, did Moses, as the highest honor, desig nate them as not a nation, but — if the expression be allowable — a nation of all nations.'1 (T. iv. lib. viii.)
What, too, St. Cyprian, by declaring and so often reiterating the necessary universality of unity in the Church ? " For we are many shepherds, yet do we feed but one floclc." (Etsi pastores muld gumus, unuin tameii gregem pascimus.)
"The episcopate is one, a part of which, in con-
80 UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
sistency with its entire oneness, is held by each bishop. (Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur.) * The Church, too, is one, though extended far and wide. . .As the sun has many rays, yet one light. And the tree many branches, though one strength, resting upon its firmly clinging root. And as when many streams flow down from one fountain-head. . .yet is unity preserved in the common source. Part a ray of the sun from its orb, this division the unity allows not ; break a branch from the tree, and it can bud no more : cut a stream from its source, and the remnant dries up." — (De Unitate.)
"What means St. Gregory of Nyssa ? et The whole Church is the one body of Christ. 'Ev a(5tua iov X^ugou ^ Exxlrtaia Tcnua. . ."Whoso has learnt that Christ is the head of the Church, let him, before all things, bear this in mind, that the head is ever of the same nature and substance as the body be neath it. And that there is a certain coherence of each of the limbs with the whole." (T. iii. De Perf. Chris.)
What St. Chrysostoni ? « He (St. Paul) calls it the Church of GOD, showing the necessity of its unity. For if it be of God, it is united, and is one, not in Corinth only, but in the whole world. . . .The Church that is among you is a part of the Church spread every where, arid of the body t- at
* I have ventured, though with a good deal of self-distrust, to differ in my translation of this passage, both from the Rev. Mr. Wiiterworth, whom 1 have generally followed, and the Oxford translation, which seems to me less fail in this instance than in most others.
UNITY OF THE CHURCIi. 81
is constituted by means of all the Churches ; so that not only with each other, but also with all the Church throughout the world must you have peace, if at least ye be members of the wThole body. 1H ixxkijaia i] itaQ ii^iv /neQog i$i rr^g TIUVTOC^OV x£i/itet>i]g ey,xlrt(nag . ... fit ^e TCUVI&Z icrid fashy tov a^uaiog. (T. x. Horn, xxxii.)
What means the great St. Augustine ? " The Apostle says, (1 Cor. xiii.) ( If I have faith so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity* &c. We have, therefore, to inquire, who have charity ? You will find that it is they alone who love unity. And as we are inquiring where the Church of Christ is, let us hear Him who redeemed it with His own blood, declaring : ( Ye shall be witnesses unto me. . .to the uttermost part of the earth.' With this Church, which is diffused through out the whole earth, whoso communicates not, with ivhom he communicates not, thou seest, if thou dost but understand whose words these are. (Huic ec- clesia?, qua? per totam terrain diffunditur, quisquis non communicat, cui noil communicet vides. . .) That Church assuredly is ONE, which our ancestors called the Catholic, that they might show by the name itself that it is throughout the whole world, For throughout the whole is expressed in Greek by %u66).o>'. But this Church is the body of Christ, as the Apostle says, His body which is the Church. Whence assuredly it is manifest that he who is not among the members of Christ cannot have Chris tian salvation. Now the members of Christ are
82 UNITY OF THE CHURCH.
united to each other by the charity of unity, and by the same cohere to their own head, which is Jesus Christ." (De Unitate, fyc.)
Here, thought I, there can be 110 mistake, — no misconception. Such wisdom cannot be blind. Such cautious piety cannot mistake. Such weight of authority cannot be questioned ! The necessity of strict, visible unity, — such unity as, both from its nature and universality, does not and cannot exist among protestants, — must be preserved, or death be the consequence to the separating party ! And what a consequence ! The holy Irenseus real ized it when he said : " No Reformation of theirs can be so advantageous, as the evil of schism is
pernicious I " [ Ovdetuia de TijlixaviT] dvvarai, &VTOV xcnoydaxng ysviaOai, fyixy TOU a%icr[*aTO$ fiafa] — Adv. H<zr. 1. iv. Those two great lights of the Church, St. Cyprian and St. Augustine, felt it when they said, by way of warning, " He who holds not this unity, holds not life and salva tion /. . .He who is not thus in the members of Christ, cannot have Christian salvation ! " And again : " Who is the criminal, the traitor, who so inflamed with the madness of discord, as to think aught can rend, or as to venture on rending, God's unity, the Church of Christ ?. . .Thinkest thou any can stand and live that withdraws from the Church, and forms for himself other resting-places and homes 1 " (Stare tu et vivere putas posse de eccle- sia recedentem, sedes sibi alias, et diyersa domicilia condentem.) — (De Unitate.)
UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 83
When I meditated, therefore, upon these warn ings, coming up from the very centre, as it were, of God's power in the Church, urging to unity, and crying aloud against schism as the sure token of God's desertion and our coming destruction, — en treating us not to rend the body of Christ, lest we open the earth under our feet, I entreated still more fervently that God would lead me without delay to a place of safety ; for I began to realize, with aw ful clearness, that I had little safety where I stood. For, when I asked for certain knowledge of God's will, I heard around me only " confusion of tongues." When I asked for authority, I found only individual opinion ; — for infallibility, a con fession of doubt ; - — for unity in fundamental faith, division and mutual crimination ; — no claim to universality, and no agreement even in the narrow est sectarianism ! But when I turned my ear, and listened to the voice of the Fathers, echoing the voice of God, I heard clearness and positiveness of speech, — heard the assertion in the Church of divine authority, Catholicity, infallibility, and ne cessary, abiding unity ! "What should I do ? Of one thing I felt certain, — that " Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God ; " and that the word of God was not to be learned from teachers, the truth of whose teaching depended upon the judgment of man ! I had made an ad vance, — had come to the conviction that no reality, no certainty was to be attained in my present posi tion ! But with this conviction, thanks be to God.
84 FALLIBILITY IN TEACHING FATAL.
I had arrived at another, viz., that such reality and certainty were yet within my reach. I determined, by God's help, to go forward, if perchance I might secure them 1
CHAPTER VIII.
FALLIBILITY IN TEACHING FATAL TO THE CLAIMS OF ONE PROFESSING TO DECLARE GOD'S INFALLIBLE WILL.
THUS far, I assure my friends, I had had no in tercourse with any living Catholic. My study had been the Fathers, with Protestant interpretations. Indeed, the editions of both Greek and Latin Fa thers which I consulted, were such as had been rec ommended to me by Protestants, and had been in my library for at least fifteen years. While my companions and prompters were, as far as I con sulted them, a]l of the Protestant Episcopal Church, it is a matter of thankfulness, which I ought here to record, that I have been, able, through the kind ness of various friends, to obtain all the books as matters of reference in writing now, to which God's providence directed me in originally examining the questions. And, as argument after argument seemed to fade before my mind, some of them be set me with entreaties ; begged me to review the Anglican claims, to contrast them in the light of history and charity with all others, and especially with those of Catholics ; and to see if something could not be done to silence discord and settle truth,
FALLIBILITY IN TEACHING FATAL. 85
through the instrumentality of a " Provincial Coun cil," connected with the revival of the Anglican " Convocation." I consented, even at this point, to reconsider the capability of the Anglican Church to give me relief; to search anew, among Anglican pretensions, for some possible ground upon which helpless man, commanded by Almighty God to " hear the Church," and destined to give an ac count to Him for failing in obedience, might stand in safety. But I felt bound to penetrate, if pos sible, to the very root of this question ; — to in quire, first of all, into the right, which, upon prin ciples long since settled, the Anglican communion, and hence all communions growing out of it, could reasonably have, to claim even my attention; what possible authority, based as it must be upon mere national prerogative, they could have to present themselves as a court of the last appeal in religion ? To attempt even to decide for me, or any other man, the questions that pressed themselves upon my conscience, — questions involving the very es sence of Christian faith and practice — demanded, from their very nature, an infallible power. I turned to England, the source of all ecclesiastical or priestly authority to which I could lay claim. And what was the confession of the first voice that I heard on this subject ? Alas ! that the Anglican Church distinctly disclaimed all authority in reli gion as an infallible judge ; distinctly disclaimed any such connection with God as would enable it to 8
86 FALLIBILITY IN TEACHING FATAL.
act as an infallible propounder or interpreter of God's infallible will!*
Here I found myself arrested as by some magic influence ! A voice from above thundered in my ear : " Cursed is the man that trusteth in man I " (Jer. xvii. 5.) What but trusting in man, thought I, is it, to lean upon any judgment in matters of faith, short of the infallible judgment of Almighty God ! What but trusting in man, to give heed to the counsels of a Church, which proclaims itself controlled, in any degree in its decisions, by the imperfections of man !
Here I stand, I thought, an utterly dependent creature, commanded by Almighty God to believe and do certain things to save myself from His righteous judgments. He assures me that He has commissioned a messenger to act in His stead, and tell me what these things ARE. A messenger pre sents himself. But his first word is, I am not sure that I can give you exactly and infallibly (indeed I am sure I cannot) the requirements of your Sov ereign. Ought I to trust him ? Ought I to listen for a moment to his word ? Ought I not at once, and out of due respect to the love, and wisdom, and veracity of that Sovereign, to turn from such a one as a deceiver ? as guilty of the strange pre-
* I here mean, that tho whole Reformation was not only conducted on the principle that the Church is fallible, and that one of the thirty-nine articles declares this of her highest court of appeal, a General Council, — but also, that in reference to all the solemn questions which I have supposed above ad dressed to myself, there would be an unhesitating acknowledgment on th« part of all her great living teachers of fallible judgment.
ANGLICAN AUTHORITY FURTHER CONSIDERED. 87
sumption of asserting, at one moment, his commis sion from GOD to " teach " God's infallible will, and then at the very next, of confessing his ina bility to do it : or, what is the same thing, to do it with inevitable truth and certainty ? to do it, not only, as some plead, with a reasonable precision in essential points, but, as I have already shown to be necessary, with a precision excluding all doubt in every point of faith and practice on which God has condescended to speak to man.
CHAPTER IX.
ANGLICAN AUTHORITY FURTHER CONSIDERED.
BUT, had not Anglican authority been vitiated in my view by its acknowledged fallibility, another admitted fact seemed an effectual bar to its legiti mate exercise. According to God's Word inter preted by primitive antiquity, I had already seen that God's Church is essentially Catholic ; not re stricted either in her privileges or prerogatives to any one nation, but made up of believers gathered out of all nations. " OUT OF ALL NATIONS," as saith Origen, " ONE PEOPLE." That her commis sion was to " teach all nations." The promised presence of her Divine Head was, " Lo, I am with you [in her teaching all nations,] all days to the end of the world." That her constitution was, ft One body in Christ, and every one members one
88 ANGLICAN AUTHORITY FURTHER CONSIDERED,
of another." That her binding, her divinely en joined rule was, " Be of one mind, — speak the same things. Mark them that make divisions con trary to the doctrine you have received, and avoid them." That her motto was,-— that is to be taught and held " which hath been believed every ivhere, always and by all men." [Id teneamus, quod ubi- que, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est] Vincentius. And that her symbol was, " One Catholic and Apostolic Church ! " Now with this truth before me, and with the admission of the Anglican communion itself, that it constituted but a part, and comparatively a small part, of this Catholic Church, I saw that communion confidently taking the seat of supreme dictator, and against the settled faith of all other Christian nations, pre suming, in the awful name of God, to proclaim to mankind ' < what they must do to be saved " !
This marvellous assumption of authority, (though it strongly reminded me of something quite like it in an early century,) forced from me the involun tary exclamation, " Whence could it possibly have arisen ? " What plausible pretext even, on any principle hitherto received by the body of Christ, could be pleaded in its justification ? In casting my eye over the field of conjecture, I asked myself, "Has England at any time been favoreM with special revelations from God, exempting her from the obligations which had hitherto rested upon her sons and daughters to < hear the Church, — the One, Holy, Catholic Church ; to observe the injunction,
ANGLICAN AUTHORITY FURTHER CONSIDERED. 89
< Obey them that have the rule over you, and sub mit yourselves ? ' Did England receive the depo- situm of the Faith directly from God, with some special commission, independent of the authority of the Christians of other nations, to publish it to the rest of the world, and instruct them how it was to be understood? In other language, < Did the word of God go out from them, or came it unto them,' with directions how to put it in practice ? " It was asserted, I know, that that word was brought to England by the hand of an Apostle, and hence by a distinct and independent power of the Apostolate ! Suppose the fact of history admitted, how, I inquired, does the inference follow ? How does that inference, — the idea of distinct and in dependent apostolic powers touching the faith, — agree with what we have seen to be the teaching of the Apostles, " One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism," &c ? How does it agree with the practice of the Apostles, as indicated in the first Council of Jeru salem ? It was pleaded, that soon after the Apos tles, a different custom seems to have prevailed. That each Diocese or Patriarchate was allowed to hold councils of its own, to settle its own religious disputes. This, I saw, was to a certain extent true. But I saw that it was true also, that when such dis putes involved questions of general interest, or threatened, by the violence and pertinacity of the disputants, the general peace, resort was had to the judgment and decision of the universal Church (as in the cases of Arius and others,) and that when
90 AT WHAT PERIOD OF HER AUTHORITY
this decision was once had,, the matter of dispute was regarded by all true Catholics as infallibly and hence finally determined. And further, that no decision by a nation or body less than the whole Catholic Church, was felt to be inevitably binding, except as such decision had in some way been con curred in by the whole Catholic Church ; and in case it was made against the already declared judgment of the whole Church, it was at once either appealed from or rejected as an act of schism. As, therefore, the decisions of the English parlia ment at the Reformation, which determined the po sition of the Anglican communion, were to my mind, as I shall show hereafter, of this latter char acter, I did not see how I could reasonably claim to be a Catholic, and still consent to act under them.
CHAPTER X.
AT WHAT PERIOD OF HER AUTHORITY IS ENGLAND TO BE
TRUSTED ?
WAVING, for the time, the question of England's independent authority in matters of faith, I was here constrained to ask, at what period in the his tory of that authority are we to trust it as a suffi cient guide to eternal life ? * At a period before or after the Reformation ? — The question is rea-
* See Bramhall, " Answer to Bishop ct Chalcedon." Dr. Hook's Sermon " Hear the Church." Palmer's " Treatise on the Church," &c.
IS ENGLAND TO BE TRUSTED? 91
sonable. For she maintains in the person of her most eminent divines,, that she is identically the same Church now that she was prior to that memo rable event. And, if she was commissioned by Christ and sustained in the work of her commis sion by Christ's presence, promised to His Church for all days, she must have had, at least, as good a claim to our confidence before the Reformation — while she was yet in communion with the Catholic Church, — as she had after that event, when she was in a state of separation from all other parts of Christ's body.* The question, therefore, was still pressed. At which of these periods are we to ad mit her divine authority to " teach " and direct us ? To dictate our faith and exact our submission ?
* Let me call attention to a few words more on this point, even at the risk of being thought importunate. For upon it depends the whole force of the argument. Why, then, does England claim to be heard as the Ckurch 1 Upon what does she rely as the source of her authority 1 What does she plead with the Puritan or Methodist as a reason why she should be listened to rather than other Christian bodies, as the teaching authority in that country ? Is it her pre eminent purity of doctrine, or superior holiness of life, or priority in point of age, or any thing' which had its origin in Hit gland 1 Certainly not. On the contrary it is, according to her own principles, that she was made by Christ in Judea, the pillar and ground of the truth, received authority from Him, as Head of the One, Catholic Church, as Head, not of the Church of England, but the Church of the whole ID or id ; authority to declare what is pure doctrine; an authority secured to her by the promise of Christ's perpetual presence, ac cording to the principle of Dr. Hook, from the moment she received it to the end of the world, and hence an authority which could never change, never vary, but from its very nature must have been one and the same every day, and hour, and moment since it was bestowed. An authority, then, I repeat, which was certainly as good when held before the Reformation in conjunction with the whole Catholic Church of Christ, on which it was at first conferred, as after the Reformation, when in a state of separation from that body ; and hence an authority which had as good a right before the Reformation to pro nounce its doctrines pure as after that event. So that its judgment before declaring it pure is as trustworthy at least as its judgment after declaring it impure.
92 AT \VHAT PERIOD OF HER AUTHORITY
Are we to admit that authority when she taught that the Pope is supreme head of the Church ? or when she taught that the king is ? When she taught seven sacraments in the Church ? or when she taught that there are only tu-o 1 When she held Transubstajitiation, or when she pronounced it " repugnant to the plain icords of Scripture ? " * "When she held " the Sacrifice of the Mass for the living and the dead " as a blessed privilege ; or when she cast it away as " a blasphemous fable ? " But my heart almost dies within me at the recol lection of this dreadful change, and I forbear ; re stricting my inquiries to the three centuries and more since it was brought about. And I ask, as I did, when this point was under examination, at what period in these centuries may we rely for spiritual guidance upon the judgment of the An glican Communion ?
Are we to rely upon that judgment, when in 1534, by the voice of Parliament, she declared that the Bishop of Rome had no jurisdiction ovei the Church of England, and that the king wa? rightfully her supreme head? or when, in 1536^ by the voice of her Convocation at York, she de clared : — " We think the King's Highness, ne any temporal man, may not be the head of the Church by the laws of God, to have or exercise any juris diction or power spiritual in the same, and we think
* The pfcin word.- of Scripture are. " T5« if .W Bocy. _ TTiis ig .Vy Blood .' " The plain words of Scripture are, ;' Except ye eat the ftak of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye bare no life in you, .' "
IS ENGLAND TO BE TRUSTED ? 93
by the law of the Church, general councils, inter pretations of approved doctors, and consent of Christian people, the Pope of Rome hath been taken for the head of the Church and Vicar of Christ, and so OUGHT TO BE TAKEN ? " — (Strype's Mem.} Shall we rely upon her judgment as ex pressed in the Articles of Doctrine of 1537,* de bated in Convocation, and approved and set forth by the king? Or as expressed in the forty -two "Articles which were agreed to in the Synod of London in 1552, by the bishops and other godly and learned men, to root out discord of opinions, and establish the agreement of true religion ; " f differing essentially from the former? Or as ex pressed in the declaration unanimously adopted by both houses of Convocation, and signed by both the universities in the first year of Elizabeth, setting forth, in fine, distinct propositions " the Pope's Su premacy and the Sacrifice of the Mass ? { Or as expressed in the Acts of Parliament, (at the sitting of which not a single bishop was present,) which condemned the said declaration, suppressing the MASS and making the QUEEN the supreme head of the Church ? Or, again, as expressed in the Thirty-nine Articles, passed by Parliament, and set forth by the authority of the Queen in 1632, § de signed to correct and abrogate her forty -two arti cles of 1552, denouncing many of the doctrines
* Palmer's « Treatise on the Church," vol. i., p. 4C9.
t Burnet, on that period. } See Heylin, p. 115.
$ Ileylin, Exam. Hist. 121.
94 AT WHAT PERIOD OF HER AUTHORITY
therein contained as contrary to God's Word and dangerous to souls ?
Or, to return once more to the sad history of her perpetual change, shall we rely on her judg ment as authoritatively given through her convoca tion,, reviewed and sanctioned by the king, (1537-8) in a book entitled the " Godly and Pious Discipline of a Christian Man," enjoining upon her sons and daughters, and instructing them how they are to understand and hold, the doctrines of the seven sacraments * — purgatory — invocation of Saints, prayers for the dead, &c. ? Or shall we rely upon that judgment as given in her first edition of the Book of Common Prayer, a book compiled by Cranmer and his associates, sanctioned by the King, Lords and Commons, and, to use their modest language, "concluded and set forth with the aid of the Holy Ghost ; " f but a book enjoining the sacrament of Extreme Unction and prayers for ihe dead, urging auricular confession, and pro viding public offices ,for the first two, and a form of absolution for the third ? Or shall we rely upon that judgment as given in the next edition of the same book of Common Prayer, in which, by the same authority under the manifest influence of two finned foreigners, J the offices for the dead and for administering Extreme Unction are discarded, the latter being pronounced " The corrupt following of
* Matrimony, Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, The Mass, Orders and Extreme Unction, f See 2 and 3 Ed. VI., c. i. . J Bucer and Peter Martyr.
IS ENGLAND TO BE TRUSTED? 95
the Apostles."* Or finally, shall we rely upon that judgment, as exhibited in the American edition 9f the same Book of Common Prayer, set forth by " the General Convention of the Protestant Episco pal Church in the United States," and sanctioned by the Archbishops and Bishops of England, in which every trace of auricular confession is oblit erated ; one article of the Apostles' Creed declared unimportant,^ and the whole of the Athanasian Creed absolutely discarded 1
Or, to conclude with an illustration from her living teachers, shall we rely upon her judgment, for example, on the great question of Baptismal regeneration, as expressed in her Office for the administration of Baptism and in the Nicene Creed, interpreted by her ablest Divines in a true Catholic sense ; or, as interpreted by authority of the Queen, as having no sense, or what is tantamount, any sense, which a majority of her judges see fit to put upon it ? Or to pursue the point a step fur ther, shall we rely on her judgment as expressed by the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, seconded by three thousand two hundred and sixty -two of the English clergy, in the words, — ( < We humbly state our conviction that it was a wise and just sentence, (referring to that of the Queen's judges in the case of Gorham, &c.,) in accordance with the principles of the Church of England ? " Or as expressed in a strong and decided remonstrance against that judg-
* See Tliirty-nine Articles, art. xxv.
f Tlie " Descent into Hell," the use of which is by the rubric left optional
96 AT WHAT PERIOD OF HER AUTHORITY, &C.
ment, signed by one thousand laymen and clergy men together ? *
Now it is to be remembered that 1 put these questions to myself under the influence of such convictions as come necessarily from the principles of the famed sermon of Dr. Hook, " Hear the Church ! " A principle, which, if it be worth any thing, is worth every thing to the anxious inquirer ; inasmuch as it secures to him, in the ever-living Church, an ever-living teacher and guide, being based on the promise, " Lo ! I am with you all days ! " A teacher and guide, which, being under the constant enlightening and purifying presence of Christ, will not have need (to borrow the popu lar simile of Dr. H.,) to " wash her face " in the broken cisterns of man's device, in order to see the truth; nor to continue washing it from year to year, and from generation to generation, with no certainty that she even yet sees or ever can see clearly and with " a single eye," that doctrine which she verily continues to utter with a " double tongue." f
* I may be allowed to make a quotation here.
In the TIMES of March 20th, 1850, appeared the following "Resolutions" on the Gorham case, signed by the leaders of the Tractarian party : —
" 1. That whatever at the present time be the force of the sentence de livered in the case of Gorham v. the Bishop of Exeter, the Church of Eng land will eventually be bound by the said sentence, unless it shall openly and expressly reject the erroneous doctrine sanctioned thereby.
" 7. That by such conscious, wilful, and deliberate act, such portion of the Church becomes formally separated from the Catholic body, and can no longer assure to its members the grace of the Sacraments, or the remission of sins."
The above is signed by Messrs. Pusey, Mill, R. J. Wilberforce, Thorp, Keble, Bennet, Talbot, and Cavendish. AIT the other subscribers, both lay and clerical, have acted on their words, and abjured Anglicanism.
f See the Book of Common Prayer, and the Archbishop of Canterbury in the case above
TEACHING AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND. 97
It was, therefore, with feelings of no ordinary disappointment, that under the command, " Hear the Church," I applied to the oracle of " the Church of England," and received only this con fused and contradictory response. Under the cir cumstances, who can wonder that I turned elsewhere that I might hear, if possible, the certain and well- defined voice of the < ' Good Shepherd of the One Fold."
CHAPTER XL
WHAT WAS THE LIVING, TEACHING AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND FOR EIGHT HUNDRED OR ONE THOUSAND YEARS BEFORfc THE REFORMATION?
HERE, however, the strange plea was urged, viz. that from the introduction of Christianity into Eng land, a spirit of resistance to the prevailing Catho lie faith, and the maintenance of a purer faith was manifest. That this pure faith struggled at first against the domination of Augustine ; and then broke out, like some subterranean fire, at different periods up to the era of the Eeformation. The language of a popular writer in the American Church* is as follows : — " The British Church produced a noble array of divines from Dinoth of Bangor to Cranmer of Canterbury, who, from time to time, did all they could to resist the uncanonical
The Rev. Dr. Odenheimar, " Origin, &c., of Common Prayer."
9
98 TEACHING AUTHORITY IX ENG1AISD
and anti-Catholic usurpation of her rights." ' And then, in attempting to give names to establish his position, he repeats the name of Dinoth, and adds those of Dagamis and Wyciiffe ! Now, this writer adopts the principle, "Hear the Church1' asserted, with a good deal of ability, in what he calls " the admirable sermon of Dr. Hook ; " pronouncing, at the same time, that Church, which is "the pillar and ground of truth," to be Catholic, citing, in confirmation of his view, the following language from Tertullian : " So many and so great Churches are nothing else but that primitive one, from which all the rest proceed. Thus they are all primitive and all apostolical, while they all agree in the same truth, whilst there is among them a communion of peace, and an appellation of brotherhood, and a league of hospitality."
The principle, therefore, by which I felt obliged to be governed — according to this admirable teach ing — in judging of the above plea, is that " the Church," which is " the pillar and ground of the truth," and which we are by Christ commanded to "hear," is "the One Catholic and Apostolic Church," teaching " the same truth," and cemented together by " a communion of peace." Now to make out any reasonable claim for Dinoth, Daga- nus, and Wyciiffe, against the other teaching au thority in England, I conceived it would be neces sary to show that these divines taught the same
* To this last point, it will be perceived, I recur in the sequel.
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 99 "
truth, and stood in the same "communion of peace," as the "One Catholic and Apostolic Church" and that the other teaching authority in England did not. But will any one, having the smallest regard to his reputation for knowledge, even pretend to this ? For is it not a notorious and indisputable fact, that when Augustine came into England^ he was sent by an authority, (whatever may be said about its universal jurisdiction, which we shall con sider presently,) which was in communion with ^« " the One Catholic Church," and that he brought ^ with him the Faith, which was then professed and acted upon, (if some half dozen men in that island must be excepted) throughout, at least, all the rest of that " One Catholic Church ! " And that it con tinued to be the Faith professed and acted upon throughout Christendom, (England included,) up to the period of the Reformation ? Now to me, as a Protestant, it was a very awkward question — how Dinoth, and Daganus, and Wycliffe, and any body else who may be supposed to have acted with them — could be regarded by any good Anglican, as the true, living, " teaching " authority in Eng land, to which, on pain of being treated as " hea thens and publicans," all her sons and daughters were compelled to listen, in opposition to the Cath olic authority, which alone taught, or could, by any possibility, be " heard " for eight hundred years and more. I say for eight hundred years and more, because, during that period, the Protestant authority of England declares it to be the fact.
100 TEACHING AUTHORITY IN ENGLAND
The words are : " Laity and clergy, learned and unlearned, all ages, sects, and degrees of men, women, and children of the WHOLE OF CHRISTEN DOM, had been at once drowned in abominable idol atry ; and that for the space of eight hundred years and more." — (Homily against the Peril of I'doit.- try.) Now, I entreat my old friends, and especially my friend who wrote the book upon which I have felt bound to animadvert, seriously to consider — where, for that long period, the poor sinner was to go to " hear the Church ? " And more than all, what became of the promise of Jesus Christ to be with His Church, " teaching all things whatsoever HE commanded her always (all days) to the end of the world 1 " For, remember, a dead Church does not speak. And " Faith cometh by hearing,"" and sinners are to "hear the Church,"" — not to get their faitli from themselves, by reading books, nor to dive into the broad deep sea of centuries long passed, and fish up from mouldy records their faith piecemeal — but to listen to the "pastors and teachers, given for the edification of the Church, till we all come to unity in the Faith ; " to " sub mit to those who are commissioned to watch for our souls, and to follow their Faith." Besides, Christ's presence is promised to living, spealcing pastors, and not to old dumb books, however full of wisdom they may be. My old friends must ex cuse me, therefore, for repeating my request that they will meditate seriously upon this truth, as J was constrained to do at the time of my great trial
BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 101
Besides, the question then impressed itself upon me, suppose that the voice of Dinoth and Daganus could he heard, at least, in some faint echoes through those eight long centuries, till it reached the voice of Wy cliff e ; are Protestant episcopalians prepared to bow to its teaching ? * to submit to the doctrine of the Mass and other Catholic doctrines, then and there, by the admission of Protestants, distinctly taught ?f And, finally, suppose Dinoth and Wyc- liffe could have lived in the same period, what kind of union would have subsisted between them ? Admit, for a moment, that Dinoth, on two or three points of discipline, dissented at fast from Augus tine, is there one single point of faith that now separates Catholics from Protestants, on which it can be shown, he would have agreed with Wy cliff e 1
Who can doubt, then, that tte Catholic Church was the only living, teaching authority in England, for eight hundred years, at least, prior to the .Reformation ? — the only authority to which the inquiring sinner could go to learn the way of eter nal life ?
* Betle's Eccl. Hi:-t. ubique.
| Soame^s Bampton Lee. Jlppcn. Besides, is it not perfectly clear, from the fact that no matter in dispute between Augustine and the Britons had respect to doctrine, that in this there was a perfect agreement, and hence that they held when Augustine arrived in England all the Catholic dogmas ? The only three points, as stated by the Venerable Bede, (See Bede's HUt., 1. ii. c. 2, 3, 4, where the interview between Augustine and the ecclesiastics of Britain is fully described,) upon which they could not agree were the following: — 1. Upon the time of keeping Easter ; 2. Upon the ceremony of baptism; 3. Upon union in preaching to the Saxons. And although during the life of Augustine these differences were not adjusted, yet in the following century personal animosity having died out, harmony seems to have been restored.
9*
108 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XII.
WAS THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND REALLY CONDUCTED ON THE PRINCIPLE OF SUBMISSION TO THE PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH ?
MR. PALMER, in his " Treatise on the Church," pledges himself to "prove that the Catholic and primitive doctrine and authority of the Church of Christ, as opposed to modern abuses, and the license of an unbridled private judgment, were the principles of the English reformation." — Vol. i. p. 493. The first important testimony which he adduces in support of his position, is from " the necessary doctrine and erudition of a Christian man ; " " agreed upon " (I use his own language) "by the whole Church of England, in 1543," and is as follows : — " All things which were taught by the Apostles, and have been by a whole uni versal consent of the Church of Christ, ever since that time taught continually, and taken always for true, ought to be received, accepted, and kept as a perfect doctrine Apostolic" To show that the Reformation in 1571 was still conducted 011 the same principle, or, to use his own words, that " the authority of Catholic tradition was still solemnly recognized," he cites the canon of that time : — " Let preachers, above all things, be careful that they never teach aught in a sermon, except that which is agreeable to the doctrine of the Old and New Testament, and which the Catholic fathers
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 103
and ancient bishops have collected from that very doctrine," adding, " Thus the authority of Catholic tradition was recognized by the Church of Eng land, and by all our learned theologians." — Vol. i. p. 498. In respect to the authority of the Church as opposed to private judgment, he adduces Arti cle XX., of 1562, as follows: — "The Church hath power to decree rites and ceremonies, and au thority in controversies of Faith." At the same time enforcing the principle by a passage from Article XXXIV. "Whosoever, through private ;udgment, willingly and purposely doth openly oreak the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked, &c.," adding the words, " The Church herself, of course, being the judge of this repugnance." — Ib. p. 500.
In carefully weighing this language, which, un der Protestant training, I had hitherto considered as tenable, I perceived that it committed me and all who held it, to four distinct propositions, viz. : — 1. That there is in the Church of Christ " an au thority of tradition," that is, an authority inde pendent of the written word of God, and given to interpret that word to mankind, which has always existed in the Church in virtue of Christ's promise, and is to be known by the uniform testimony of the Church herself, speaking in the person of her successive teachers. 2. That this authority is the authority of the universal Church, taken as final
104 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.
arbiter in all matters of faith and discipline, in con tradistiiictioii to any part of her, however respect able in point either of wisdom or national impor tance. 3. That while this universal Church has "authority in controversies of faith/' that is, to determine at any time what is the unchangeable Faith, she has also authority, in order to meet the peculiar exigencies of an era, or to increase her means of devotion, "to decree rites and ceremo nies." And that when these are once decreed, neither individual nor nations have a right to " break " them, in defiance of the authority by which they were imposed. 4. That the whole Church of England, in the year 1543, (about the tenth year of the Reformation) regarded and ac tually set forth by her highest authority, the doc trine contained in the book entitled " A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition of a Christian man," as that which, ought to be received, accepted, and kept as a perfect doctrine Apostolic ; because it had been " taught by the Apostles, and continually, ever since that time, by a whole universal consent of the Church of Christ."
My mind was led first to examine this last prop osition ; to ascertain what " the whole Church of England," * after ten years' growth, felt herself
* Here there is an effectual answer to the plea, that what the Church oi England said at this date, was said under the pressure of the state, and hence was not her real judgment. But, in the first place, if this were so, what secu rity have we that she has not always spoken under the same pressure, and does not speak under that pressure now 1 She i> now bound by the act.-* of Elizabeth, and who does not know that they are even more .it7-iii<<-u:it than the acts of Henry ? But unfortunately for thus pJeu, Mr. Palmer insists that thia
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 105
bound to believe and to do, on the principle of re forming herself after the pattern of " Catholic and primitive doctrine." And here the task was com paratively easy. The table of contents of the " Necessary Doctrine, &c.," at once placed under my eye the results of her examination and judg ment. Among other things I found, she then gathered from the ever-abiding treasures of the "One Catholic and Apostolic Church," " Se^en holy Sacraments, as now enumerated by Catholics, viz., Matrimony, Baptism, Confirmation, Penance, Holy Eucharist, (or the Mass,) Orders, and Extreme Unction. Also, the Salutation of the Angels, called Ave Maria, and prayers for souls departed." Here, then, I saw that the mature judgment of "the whole Church of England," (with the king and Cramner at the head,) professedly governed by Catholic antiquity, gave her first verdict in favor of a large part of the dogmatic truth held in Eng land before the reformation. Hence it became to my mind a serious question, what influence subse quently operated upon the judgment of England, still expressed by the same men and the same au thority, to set that judgment against " the sacrifice of the Mass as a blasphemous fable ? " against five
judgment in 1543, in favor of the seven sacraments, «$'c., as contained in " the Necessary Doctrine," <$•<;., was given by " the whole Church of England." This •emphatic language, if it means any thing, must mean, that, after free and mature thought, the Church of England adopted the principle of reformation fy " the authority of Catiiolic tradition," and hence set forth, as the results of her calm and honest judgment under this principle, the doctrine of the seven sacraments, invocation o/ rainfe, .&c., in " ^e Nec-essary Doctrine and Eru dition of a Christian man ! T)
106 THE REFORMATION IX ENGLAND.
of the seven sacraments as " a corrupt following of the Apostles ? " and against invocation of saints as anti-scriptural ? If, in 1543, these things seemed to her true, according to that " authority of tradition " by which she professed to be guided, by what mysterious process are they so soon made to appear to her false ? Be this as it may, the re sult showed clearly to my mind two things. 1. That she had both changed her ground of judg ment, and also, 2, proved herself an incompetent judge. The latter had already appeared to me too manifest, as stated above. While the plea that is sometimes urged, that new light, as she advanced, gradually broke upon her path, revealing a higher and better way, not only furnished a new proof of her sad instability, and hence total insufficiency as a guide ; but also left some ground to hope that in this her random pursuit of truth, she might yet be so happy as to find her way back to a certain and unchanging faith.
In regard to the first, that she had actually changed her ground of judgment, or abandoned what Mr. Palmer calls " the authority of Catholic tradition," was to my mind clear from the following consider ations. In the first place, where an " authority " is, in any real practical sense, admitted, it is submitted to. And submitted to, not because it is to us reasonable in its demands, but because it has an absolute and independent right to govern us. So that when we say we admit " the authority of tra dition," we mean (as it seemed to me) if we mean
THE REFORMATION IX ENGLAND. 107
any thing, that it has, independent of our own sense of its reasonableness, an absolute right to define our faith, and fashion our obedience. Otherwise, we may as well claim to admit the authority of the traditions of the mosque, as those of the Christian Church. For if at liberty to select, we may derive confirmation of some truth from, every system.
Again, " the authority of Catholic tradition," that is submitted to, must, from the nature of the case, be accepted, because it affords a security be yond any thing which we could derive from our own minds, or the minds of other men, beyond any thing, indeed, which the human powers, under the most favorable circumstances, could possibly furnish. Otherwise, there would be no reason why we should give more weight to " tradition " — to something handed down to us from a remote age — than to something furnished by the present age. To justify us, therefore, in giving to " tradition " any real " authority " in settling questions of faith or disci pline, two things seem to be necessary. 1. That such tradition should have its origin in the revela tion of God, and be to us the vehicle of Divine communications. And 2. That the channel of its transmission should be liable to no failure either from human fraud or infirmity, and hence must have the security of a Divine guardianship. Be cause Christ's religion' is not the result of a mental process — not a thing wrought out or perfected in the laboratory of human reason — but a mysteri ous, superhuman fact, a thing brought down as a
108 THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.
gift from heaven to earth, and handed on through the successive generations of earth by the power of heaven. Hence, I say " tradition " springs from God, and has ever the protection of God, it being God's first communication to man after His redemp tion, and designed by its perpetual light to make all other communications distinct and certain.
Soon after His resurrection our blessed Lord re tired with His disciples, and " for forty days in structed them in the things pertaining to His king dom." Here is the foundation of that tradition, which was intrusted to the Church for her guidance in the faith. But it is not completed, though thus imparted by the great Prophet Himself. The disci ples were commanded to wait in Jerusalem till they were endued with the power of that Divine Spirit which was to "lead the Church into all truth." On the glorious day of Pentecost He descended in all His fulness upon her, and Christ, her faithful Head, began the fulfilment of His gracious promise to be "with her to the end of the world." Thus, when He ascended up on high, " He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. And He gave some Apostles, and some prophets, and some pastars and teachers, for the perfecting of the Saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all meet in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ." Here we have an ac count, by God's own hand, of the beginning of
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 109
that dispensation of mercy and' love to mankind, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, which, Pie assures us, is to be carried on to its final con summation, under the same operation, by means of His divinely ordered, and divinely sustained, priest hood. This priesthood, in the persons of the Apos tles and those whom they associate with them, goes forth into all the world, to do the bidding of their Lord. In the light of His abiding presence, and under the power of the Holy Ghost, the Gospel is preached — the Church established — • fundamental faith imbodied in " a form of sound words " — * converts orally trained in it, and the sacraments gradually brought to their view as occasion required. Thus the mystical body of Christ, well ordered and well furnished with all her divine functions and all her divine " treasures of wisdom and knowl edge," presents herself to the nations as an all- sufficient guide to eternal life, long before the New Testament had its being. Will any one pretend to say that the Christians who lived and died under this simple and oral teaching of the priesthood, were not as well furnished for their entrance into the Paradise of God, as they who trust solely to the Bible at the present day ? But those Christians lived and died under the (t authority of Catholic tradition." And that same tradition, with that same authority, has ever remained in the Church, an infallible teacher and interpreter to the present hour. So that St. Irenseus could ask, " What if the Apostles had not left us writings ; would it 10
110 THE REFORM ATION IN ENGLAND.
not have been needful to follow the order of that TRADITION which they delivered to those to whom they committed the Churches ? " And to illustrate the benefits of this tradition by an example, he adds : " An ordinance to which many of the bar barous nations who believe in Christ assent, having salvation written without pen and ink by the Spirit in their hearts, sedulously guarding the old tradi tion." — Adv. Hares. 1. iii.
And that champion of the truth, St. Athanasius, could say, referring to the Arians : " It is enough to give this only answer to such things, and to say, these things are not of the Catholic Church. Neither did the Fathers think thus." — (Ovx oai ruvra ir^ xadohx^g ixzleo-tag, ovde ravra 01 mxTsgeg iygovyaav.) Ep. ad. Epict.
This tradition, it was, to which the blessed Paul refers, when exhorting his son in the faith, " Keep that which is committed to thy trust." — " Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." To which he refers also, when, guarding the Thessalonians against false teachers, he exhorts, " Let no man deceive you by any means. Stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have learned, whether by word, or by our Epistle."
It was this tradition to which the Fathers bowed with such uniform and profound reverence. It was this to which the holy bishop of Hieropolis,*
* Papias.
THE REFORMATION IX ENGLAND. Ill
" the hearer of St. John and the friend of St. Poly- carp," refers, when he says, " If any one came to me who had accompanied the elders, I questioned him concerning their words, what Andrew and Peter said. For I did not think that what is in the books would aid me as much as what came fi-Dm the living and abiding voice." — Ap. Euscb. 1. iii. c. 39.
It was this to which St. Irenscus refers, when he says of the heretics : " We challenge them to that tradition which is from the Apostles, which is pre served in the Churches through the succession of presbyters." (Quum autem ad earn iterum tra- ditionem, quse est ab apostolis, quse per successiones presbyterorum in ecclesiis custoditur, provocamus eos.) — Adv. Hares. 1. iii. c. £.
And St. Clement, when he says : ' ' Wherefore the Lord has not forbidden us to rest from good, bat has permitted us to impart the divine mysteries and that secret light, to those who are able to re ceive them. But He did not immediately reveal to many those things which were not for many, but to a few, to whom He knew them to be suited, who were capable both of receiving them, and of being conformed to them. Secret things, like God, are intrusted, not to writing, but to oral teaching." (^°/'&> Tnaieveiai, 8 yq&puoni.} — Strom.
Li.
And Tertullian, who says : " If no Scripture has determined this (observance) assuredly custom has confirmed it, which doubtless has been derived from
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND*
tradition ; for how can a tiling be used, unless it be first handed down to us ? Let us inquire, then, whether even tradition, even though not committed to writing, ought not to be received." (Quaeramus an et traditio nisi scripta non debeat recipi.) — De Corona.
And Origen : " We are not to credit these men, nor go out from the first and the ecclesiastical tra dition j nor to believe otherwise than as the Churches of God have by succession transmitted to us."— T. iii. Com. in St. Matt.
And St. Athanasius, speaking of the Arians : <( This has been their device and cunning, and they had even this deadly purpose to seek to drive from their chairs those who hold to that teaching of the
O
Catholic Church which has been handed down to them from the Fathers." — Apol. con. Arian. U. 3,
And St. Ephrsem : f( Be firmly persuaded of this, not as an opinion, but as a truth, that what soever has been transmitted, whether in writing only, or by word of mouth, is directed to this end, that we may have life, and may have it more abun dantly."— T. iii. Ser. lix.
And St. Gregory of Nyssa : " It sumceth for a demonstration of our words that we have a tradi tion that comes down to us from the fathers, like an inheritance transmitted by succession from the apostles through the holy men that have come after them." (olvov nra K^^OV dl frxolovdiag £x TWV
I. iv. Con. Eunom.
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND 113
St. Gregory of Xazianzum says : " "May we to the last of life, confess with great confidence, that excellent deposit (r^ xu).t}v naga^arndrjx^v-^ of the holy Fathers who were nearest to Christ and the primitive faith." — T. i. Orat. 6.
And St. Basil : " Tell me, this pious tradition of the Fathers, and as you yourself have termed it, this rule and safe criterion, is it now on the con trary proclaimed to be an instrument of deceit ? " — Adv. Eunom. 1. i. Again : " Let tradition shame thee from separating the Holy Ghost from Father and Son. Thus did the Lord teach, Apostles preach, fathers preserve, and martyrs confirm. Let it suffice thee to speak as thou hast been taught, and let me not hear these sophisms." — T. ii. Horn, con. Sab. And once more : " Of the dogmas and teachings preserved in the Church, we have some from the doctrine committed to writing, and some we have received transmitted to us in a secret man ner (L>> //t'<7TJ/o*o>) from the traditions of the Apos tles ; both these have the same force in forming sound doctrine, .(uTie.Q «//qr>orc£« T^V avir^ iv/\)V e%et nQog TIT/' efaeSetui*) and no one will gainsay either of these ; no one, that is, that has the least experience of the ecclesiastical laws. For should we attempt to reject, as not having any great au thority, (/tuvuuiv) those customs that are unwrit ten, (Vu ayqacf.a iwv i-dwv,) we should be betrayed into injuring the Gospel even in primary matters, or rather, in circumscribing the Gospel into a mere name." — T. iii. De S. Sane. c. xxvii. 10*
114: THE REFORMATION IX ENGLAND.
And St. Siricius, who says : " In the Council of Nicaea, the Holy Ghost favoring, at the same time that the possession of faith was juridically confirmed, it was the desire of the bishops there assembled, that the apostolic traditions (apostolicas traditiones) should come to the knowledge of all men." — Ep. v. ad Episcop. Divers.
St. Epiphanius says : " It is also necessary to use tradition ; for all things cannot be derived from the divine Scripture ; because the holy Apostles trans mitted some things indeed in writings and some in
EV
tradition." (^/<o TO. fdv ev yoacpal* TU ds doaei Ttags8h)y.av ol ayioi aTrocrioloi.} T. Hares.
St. Jerome says distinctly : " Even though the authority of Scripture were not at hand,, the agree ment of the whole world in this matter would pre vail as a command. For many other things also, that by tradition are observed in the Churches, have gained for themselves the authority of a writ ten law." — (Nam et multa alia quse per traditionem in ecclcsiis observantur, auctoritatem sibi scripta? legis usurpaverunt.) — T. ii. adv. Lucifer.
And St. Chrysostom when he says, commenting on 1 Cor. xi. 2, (That in all things ye are mindful of me, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you,) " Whence it follows that lie (St. Paul) de livered them many things also without writing, as he shows elsewhere in many places ; but now also he lays down the cause. . / If any men seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor the
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 115
Churches of God.' ' And again, commenting oil 2 Thess. ii. 14, (Therefore brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions ivhich ye have learned, whether by word or by our epistle :) " Hence it is plain that they did not deliver all things by epistle, hut many things also without writing, and in like manner both those and these things are worthy of credit. Wherefore let us reckon the tradition of the Church worthy of credit. It is a tradition; scelc nothing further '." (nuq&Soais tart, prjd&v nleov giJTct.) T. xi. Horn. 4.
And finally St. Augustine, when he says : " But those things which we observe, not because written, but transmitted, (quse non scripta, sed tradita custodimus), things which are indeed observed throughout the whole world, it is to be understood, that they are to be retained as commanded and decreed, either by the Apostles themselves, or by general councils, the authority of which is most
wholesome in the Church The custom of our
mother Church in baptizing infants is by no means to be despised, nor to be deemed in any way super fluous, nor to be believed at all, were it not an Apostolic tradition, (ncc omniiio credeiida nisi
Apostolica esset traditio) It is not to be
doubted that the dead are aided by the prayers of the holy Church, and by the salutary sacrifice, and by the alms which are offered for their spirits ; that the»Lord may deal Avith them more mercifully than their sins have deserved. For this, which has been handed down by the Fathers, the universal Church
116 THE REFORMATION IX ENGLAND.
observes." (Hoc enim a patribus traditum, uni- versa observat ecclesia,) T. v. serm. clxxii.
It is this tradition which made the faith plain to the unlettered,, and fenced it round, and protected it against the inroads of private judgment and royal dictation ; which supplied saving knowledge in the absence of the Holy Scriptures and of the qualifica tions to read them, and vindicated the providence of Almighty God for delaying what seemed to be an essential means* for their general distribution till fourteen long centuries had passed away. Now it is this tradition to which, I could not doubt, the Anglicans referred, when they first spoke of being governed in their reformation by " the authority of Catholic tradition." But (as it was equally clear to me) finding that "the authority" of such tradi tion would not only rebuke them for what they had already done, but, forcing them to return upon their knees to the chair of St. Peter, would compel them to sacrifice all private or national aims on the altar of Catholic unity, and offer a life of penitence in satisfaction for their attempted schism, they at once broke away from that " authority," and in total dis regard of the past, resolved to allow nothing to con trol their own will or action for the future. And this they did, in face of their own authoritative declaration, that "whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly and purposely doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the word of God (the
* The art of Printing.
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 117
Church of course being judge of this repugnance), and which be ordained and approved by common authority, ought openly to be rebuked," &c. I say in the face of vhis declaration. For it seemed to me, with the views I had always entertained as a churchman, that it could not, with any show of rea son, be pretended that " the traditions and ceremo nies " found in the Catholic Church of England before or at the Reformation,, were not established there by that Church (it being the only Church in existence), which had " power to decree rites and ceremonies and authority in controversies of faith," and could not be pretended that such rites and cer emonies were not " ordained and approved by com mon authority ," consistent, in the judgment of the Church, with the word of God. And therefore it could not be pleaded, that the persons " breaking " them, however many or high in political station, "ought not to be publicly rebuked."
I was told, it is true, that this view of tradition made little account of God's Word. But the an swer which satisfied my own mind was, that " tra dition," in the Catholic sense, is a part of God's Word, the unwritten part, given before the written part, as the lex uon scripta, or common law, ante dates the lex scripta, or statute law, — neither dero gating from its authority nor weakening its obliga tion.* Besides, what seemed to me to be the great
* Referring to the value of tradition, Perrone draws the following illustra tion from Cicero : " Patet ex eo quod oinnis bene instituta republica, ut ait Tullms, non tain lege scripts, quam non scripta, traditione nempe et consue
118 THE ABOVE VIEW OF TRADITION A NECESSAllY
concern of the Christian, was, to honor God, by due submission to all that He has revealed. And finally, the thought struck me, that there might perhaps be more danger in believing too little than too much. At any rate, that persons, who call parts of the Bible "non-essential," and treat other parts as "a dead letter," (for example, St. James v. 14, 15.) should not be forward in charging the holders of tradition with want of reverence for holy Scripture.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ABOVE VIEW OF TRADITION A NECESSARY KEY TO THE FACTS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
IT had often been asked, by way of objection to Catholicism, — " Why, if certain matters of faith and order are as important as Catholics consider them, is so little said of them in the Bible ? " But to my mind, the question was sufficiently answered in the fact already brought to view, that the Church was established, and the revelation of God made to it, many years before the New Testament was writ ten, and that that prior revelation was not made void by the appearance of the latter. And here I shall be excused for introducing a passage from a
tudine gubernetur : eo magis quod lex utut porspicue exposta fuerit, in varios sensus facile trahitur, nee nioi consuetuiline traditioneque, tamquani viva ac loquente voce, recta ac legitima muts per se ac veluti mortua; Scriptural interprctatio in republica constat ac conservatur."
KEY TO THE FACTS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 119
manuscript sermon, prepared for an ordination, and, as will be recollected by some of my old friends, preached by myself, at the period to which I al lude. " Take the question, What do the Scriptures teach in respect to carrying out the fundamental faith? Or what precise instrumentality do they institute to apply this faith to the souls and bodies of men ? You will say, < The Church, with her ministry, and sacraments, and ordinances.' So far well. For t the Church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the truth.' And 'by the Church is the manifold wisdom of God to be made known.' While we are to ( continue in the Apos tles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and of prayers.' ' But what is the precise constitution of the Church ? What the orders of her priesthood ? The number and force of her sac raments and ordinances ? Now there is good rea son why the New Testament should be less definite and full on these points than their importance in this age would seem to demand. The Church, at the time when the New Testament was written, stood already (as she had long stood) before the world, with her ministry and sacraments, and the like, and stood there in perfect external unity, as fashioned and arranged by the hand of God Him self. When, therefore, the New Testament was given her by the same hand, is it at all wonderful that little should be found in it in regard to the peculiar fashion and arrangements of that Church, which actually stood before the world., bearing the
THE ABOVE VIEW OF TRADITION A NECESSARY
divine impress and under the divine inspiration, to speak for herself?
A father dies and is found to have willed to his children and children's children, his house and fur niture, and servants,* on condition that they hand them down (the servants of course in their descend ants,) from generation to generation without essen tial alteration. Should we expect to find in that will (on the principle of any known law or prac tice) how the house was built? How the furni ture and servants were arranged? And how, in minute detail, they had been governed? Should we, in truth, expect to find in it more than such general descriptions as would sufficiently identify
the whole ? Our Blessed Lord dies and leaves
to His people, by will (for that, eo nomine, is the written Gospel,) the blessings of His Church, in her ministry, and sacraments, and ordinances ; on condition that they use them faithfully and trans mit them unimpaired and unchanged to all future generations. Ought we to expect, on any reason able ground, this will to tell minutely how the church was constructed ? What was the particular order of the ministry, and the number of the sacra ments ? And how they and all things else in the Church were arranged ; when all, made after the divine pattern, and animated by the divine spirit, was before the faithful to answer promptly to their own eyes and ears every inquiry prompted by their obe dient hearts ?
* Written for a slave State.
KEY TO THE FACTS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
Here, then, we see why many things, the begin ning of which is not noticed, and mere glimpses of which appear, in the New Testament, hold a prom inent place in the early history of the Apostolic Church. They had their origin in this oral reve lation, and were inculcated upon Christians in their very existence, when afterwards the written revela tion, containing the mere outlines of faith and prac tice, made its appearance. Hence the observance of the first day of the week, called Sunday, in place of the seventh day, called the Sabbath, found in tra dition sufficient authority, although the New Tes tament gave no direction for the change. Hence the baptism of infants, as St. Augustine says, could " not be believed at all were it not an Apostolic tradition ; " yet because it was an Apostolic tradi tion, it was received with as much readiness of faith as if it had been explicitly commanded in the New Testament, although in that blessed book it is not so much as named. The same, as St. Augustine further remarks, must be said in regard to " prayers, and sacrifices, and alms for the deitd," with invoca tion of Saints, and many other doctrines flowing directly from that deep well of Christian truth — the divine mystery of the Incarnation.
Another fact was urged against the present Cath olic teaching, viz., that immediately subsequent to the Apostles' day, no traces, or at least very faint ones, of certain points in this teaching are discover able in the doctrines and practices of the Church. This fact I could not but admit ; but found in the 11
THE ABOVE VIEW OF TRADITION A NECESSARY
doctrine of tradition its perfect solution. The " depositum " of truth intrusted to the Church, in the person of the eleven disciples, by Him whose sayings and doings swelled so far beyond the writ ten Gospels,* was not, as the Fathers testify,f at first fully unfolded to the gaze of the unregenerate world, nor even to the babes in Christ, except as they were gradually made able to comprehend and appreciate it. The reason may be found in the injunction of our Lord " not to cast pearls before swine," and in that of St. Paul, that " babes in Christ must be fed with milk, and not with meat, till they are able to bear it." Hence I saw why many things, although fully revealed to the Church, and of the highest importance in themselves, seem now to have held a very subordinate place in the public teaching of the first fathers, particularly as their secret instructions, from the very circum stances which often led to their secrecy, never transpired. Hence says St. Ambrose to the cate chumens : " You are summoned to the mysteries, though ignorant what they are, you learn when you come." — T. i. De Elia, fyc.
Besides, I recollected that for three full centu ries after the birth of Christianity, it was driven by the sword of persecution, for the most part, from the face of society into the dens and caves of the earth. That its records were destroyed, its creeds preserved only in the memory, its liturgies trans-
* St. John xxi. 25.
t See Faith of Catholics^ Discip. of the Secret., vol. ii. p. 15&-178.
KEY TO THE FACTS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
mitted from mouth to mouth, and that the chief monuments which remained to it were the blood and the ashes of its martyrs. Hence I could only see the •wonder-working power of God in the pres ervation of the faith at all, and of such certain proofs of its safe transmission as actually exist. But these proofs 1 found to be of a character so unpretending in themselves, and so concealed from the eye of the world, and indeed from every eye but that of faith alone, as to beget in me no won der that they should be so little known or under stood even at this late period. I could not but think, however, that if men generally would duly reflect upon the necessary connection between the age of persecution and that which immediately fol lowed, and would open their eyes to the sudden development into full life and vigor of every part of the Catholic svstem so soon as the almost stifling
•> o
weight of adverse power was removed, they would hardly be disposed to complain of any lack of evi dence in favor of the primitive and Apostolic char acter of every portion of Catholic truth.
Another circumstance, too, connected with "tra dition," helped to divest my mind of prejudice. One of the favorite objections to Catholicism pleaded in excuse for the introduction of Protestantism, had been with me, that which charged the Catholic Church with having, from time to time, ingrafted new errors upon old truths. But on getting a clear insight into the nature of Apostolic tradition ; on finding that it consisted in a " depositum " of truth
KEY TO THE FACTS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
with the Church, to be brought out, and applied as exigence or need might demand, I could no longer rest upon an objection so imaginary. Indeed, I saw clearly that, on this principle of tradition alone could the Church of England defend many points of her fundamental faith, as embraced in " the Faith once {for all) delivered to the Saints." That on this principle alone could she, for example, maintain "the descent into hell," and "the com munion of saints," in the "Apostles' Creed," and the "Consubstantialem Patri," and the "filioque" of the Nicene, with all the kindred articles in the Athanasian ; as having been transmitted from the Apostles inasmuch as they are not found among the enjoined Articles of Faith till the fourth and fifth centuries. In truth I discovered, what upon reflection seemed so reasonable, that a large portion of the fundamental faith of the Church was not dis tinctly enjoined in her written formularies till it was denied, nor its necessary adjuncts and de fences marshalled around it till it was assailed ! *
* Hence St. Augustine says : " The dogma of the Trinity was not perfectly brought out till the Arians declaimed against it; nor was penance, until attacked by the Novatians ; nor the efficacy of baptism, till questioned, by re- baptizers. Nay, what regarded the unity of the body of Jesus Christ was not discussed with minute exactness until the weak, being exposed to danger. . . compelled the teachers of truth to examine these truths to the bottom . . .Thug the errors of heresy, instead of injuring the Catholic Church, have really for tified it : and those who thought wrong were an occasion of ascertaining those who thought right. What had been but piously believed, became after wards fully understood. ' '
This reminds me of an error which, in the course of my examination, showed :tself continually in Protestant statements, viz., to date t'he com mencement of a doctrine or practice at the time, when from some denial or neglect such doctrine or practice was made binding by an explicit written de cree, although it had alwai/s existed in the Church.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &C.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND THE MERE CHILD OF THE STATE.
BUT to return to the Church of England at the Reformation. I perceived that while it had de parted so widely from " the authority of Catholic tradition/' in consenting to the change, it, as a Church, had really little to do in bringing that change about.
It is true, as I was well aware, that among Prot estants the notion prevails that for some time prior to the Reformation, the power of the Roman Pon tiff and the corruptions of the Catholic religion had become so intolerable, that the Church, stimulated by conscience, was driven for relief to a separation from Rome. But, after what I considered strict examination into the facts of the case, I could find nothing to justify such a notion, — no recorded thought, word, or deed, emanating from the Church during the first thirty years of the sixteenth century, or up to the very date of the first Par liament which moved in the Reformation, to show, or to indicate even remotely, any symptom of dis satisfaction, on her part, with the existing
* It will bo perceived that I here speak (and I do it purposely} of the evi dence of dissatisfaction of the Church in England. For the whole weight of the plea depends upon this distinction. And I cannot suppose that it will be pretended by any respectable Anglican, that the dissatisfaction of restless, fanatical individuals (although there was a peculiar absence of these men at the period alluded to) indicates any reasonable or essential dissatisfaction of 11*
126 THE CHURCH OF. ENGLAND
If she thought it corrupt, she gave no outward signs ; if she felt it to be oppressive, she uttered no complaint. Indeed, all the signs and complaints seemed the other way. The master spirit of the nation sent forth, in the person of the king, an in dignant rebuke against Luther and the German princes for their attempt to throw off the Papal authority ; while the English nation evinced no symptom of displeasure at the royal interference ! The cause, and, so far as I could discover, the sole cause which led to the rupture between England and Rome was a personal one — was no other than the righteous refusal of Pope Clement VII. to di vorce Henry VIII. from his lawful wife, and to countenance his adulterous connection with his mistress ; and that the ecclesiastics were as a body forced to take part with Henry by threats and per secutions. And then, by way of self-justification for their fatal submission, and entirely as an after thought, were induced to echo the German cry of
the Church itself. For example, it will hardly be thought fair to cite the fanaticism of Wuitefield and the Weslcys as an evidence that the Church ol England in their day was groaning under the oppressions of parliament o» the supremacy of King George ! Or the language of Abiron to Moses (Num. xvi. 3.), "Thou takest too much upon thec, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them ; wherefore, then, lift- est thou up thyxelf abuve the congregation of the Lord ? " as a good proof that all Israel were groaning under the oppressions of their supreme lawgiver, and anxious to throw off his righteous authority 1 Indeed, the fact that " Henry VIII. attempted to constitute," as Macaulay says, "an Anglican Church, differing from the Roman Catholic Church on the paint of supremacy, and on that point alone; and that his success in this attempt was extraordinary," showed to my mind clearly, that no dL^uti.-sfactiori was felt with the Catho lie system generally ; and that the personal motive here will be sufficient to account for his extraordinary and wicked course.
THE MEIIE CHILD OF THE STATE.
corruption in religion, and enormity in the exer cise of Papal power.
This, I know, will be regarded as a very serious, and, perhaps, presumptuous conclusion. But that I did not come to it on slight grounds, let the fol lowing undeniahle facts bear witness.
At a period in England of great religious quiet ness and devotion to the Catholic Faith, King Henry VIII. became enamoured of his mistress, Anna Boleyn, and sought, through the Pope, a divorce from his lawful wife. This, after repeated applications, was peremptorily refused. The art ful mistress at once resolved upon a plan that should remove every obstacle between herself and the object of her ambition j and hence proceeded to instil into the mind of her royal paramour the notion that the Papal authority in England had no legal foundation. The temptation with Henry was too strong. He saw at a glance his advantage, — saw, from the accidental position of things, that the clergy could be brought to his feet. The statutes of " Praemunire," under the royal license, had long been disregarded, but still had legal force. .Henry had granted to Cardinal Wolsey permission to act as the legate of Rome, which those statutes pro hibit. The Cardinal had entered upon his office, and with the concurrence, too, of the bishops and clergy of the realm. Henry at once perceived the snare that lay around them ; and with a perfidy and cruelty of which few but himself were capable, proceeded to spring it upon his unsuspecting, and
128 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
really, in this matter, unoffending favorite. The horrible character of the act, and his knowledge of the man with whom he had to deal, led Wolsey at once to the determination to submit quietly to a fate which he saw was already decreed. The case of Wolsey, although it sent a thrill of something more than astonishment through the nation, failed to wake up the rest of the clergy to a sense of their own danger. Henry observing this, and feeling that their submission was essential to the accom plishment of his nefarious purpose, proceeded to subject the whole body of them, as the " fautors, aiders, and abetters " of Wolsey, to the penalties of prsemunire. They felt themselves in an evil case, and with a cowardice which nothing but their astounding position could palliate, sought to relax the royal grasp, and make their escape, by tender ing to Henry more, it is said, than £1,500,000 of the present currency of England. The drama which followed shows, at least, how little the clergy of that nation were prepared to sympathize with the so called Reformation, and how reluctantly they were brought, after long resistance, and a succes sion of royal aggressions, to submit to its final, and, to themselves, fatal bondage.
To their utter surprise Henry refused the pres ent, unless they consented to add to it the declara tion, which was to pass into a law, that "he, and he only, was the protector and supreme head of the Church of England ; " and that " the cure of souls, which they exercised under him, had been commit-
THE MERE CHILD OF THE STATE. 129
ted to his charge." This demand, instead of being hailed, as protestants represent, with joy at the prospect which it opened, of freedom from Rome, was actually viewed with consternation, and resisted as being opposed to the .institution of Christ. But there was a savage cruelty about Henry which made them quail. And hence, instead of magnify ing their office, and raising before the insulting monarch the cross as their shield and banner, they rushed to the foot of his throne, and in a tone of agonizing entreaty, besought him to retract his un lawful exaction. But he remained inexorable ; and it was not till after many months, and about as many conferences, that he consented to substitute for his first demand the words, "The head of the Church, as far as the law of Christ would allow." But this (the clergy having interpreted it in a sense admitting the supremacy of the Pope) did not sat isfy him, nor come up to the meaning he intended. Indeed, he looked with jealousy upon the facts, that the name of the Pope still preceded his own in the public prayers, and also that the bishops con tinued to receive institution from Rome.* During the year following, therefore, which was 1532, he made, by the advice of his new favorite Cromwell, a further aggression. . To insure to this step the more weight, the Commons were induced to peti tion him against the right which the clergy had hitherto exercised, of making their own canons,
* See Lingard's ilistory of the tints.
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representing that they had done it against the lawa of the realm. Under color of due regard to this petition, Henry called upon the clergy to submit " the whole body of their ecclesiastical code to the revision of a committee of thirty-two persons, half clergymen and half laymen, and the whole to be nominated by himself." *
At such a monstrous demand, we cannot wonder that the clergy, cowrd as they were, should once more arouse themselves into an attitude of resist ance. But all was in vain. Neither remonstrance nor entreaty for nearly two years could arrest the progress of the royal will. To all and each Henry returned the stern and startling answer : " No con stitution or ordinance shall be hereafter by the clergy enacted, promulged, and put in execution, unless the king's highness approve the same, by his authority and royal assent, and his advice and favor be also interposed, for the execution of every such constitution among his highness's sub jects."
This in substance, but in a still more offensive form, issued from parliament, that true mother of the present Anglican Church, during the month of March, 1534, in that famous act (25 Henry VIII., c. 19) entitled on the rolls, "An Act for the Sub mission of the Clergie to the King's Majesty."
If the above history be true, as to me every documentary proof seemed to declare, we see the
* See Cooper " On the History of the Act of Submission," p. 27, " The Anglican Church,*' &c. Lee. ii.
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utter falsity, in any fair sense, of the following lan guage found in the preamble -of the bill, and so often cited to show that the clergy in this submis sion only carried out the already admitted principle of the convocation. " The King's Majesty justly and rightfully is, and ought to be, supreme head of the Church of England, and so had been recog nized [when? and where?] bij the clergy in their convocation."
How, indeed, does this language contrast with the convictions of every candid Protestant writer who has examined the point ?
Concerning this whole proceeding, says Strype, (the Church of England annalist,) « The king made them [the clergy] buckle to at last. It was another high block and difficulty for the clergy to get over, to reject the Pope's power in England, and to ac knowledge the king supreme head and governor m all causes, ecclesiastical as well as civil ; but that at length they unwillingly yielded unto."' "The king," says Dr. Cardwell, "was determined to bind his fetters in such a manner that no strength or artifice on the part of his prisoner should enable him to escape from them ; and we know from the subsequent history of the Church, and the many fruitless attempts which have been made to obtain a relaxation of them, that the king's design has been eminently successful. " f
" By this act of submission, 25 Henry VIII.,"
* Strype's Mem. ii. 224 t Cardwell's " Synodalia."
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
says Archbishop Wake, " the king's prerogative in this particular was somewhat enlarged, and the Metropolitan's authority not a little abridged ; for from henceforth the archbishop was restrained from assembling his provincial synod, without the king's writ to license and authorize him. So were they afterwards obliged to take his directions as to the management of their assemblies when convened, and not to deprive the prince the opportunity of making whatever use of them he had either been accustomed, or should otherwise think fit legally to do." This to me looked, and still looks, very little as if, previous to the above act, the clergy " had recognized the king as supreme head of the Church of England."
To the above act, however, others in the same year were added, obliterating every trace of the Papal jurisdiction, and transferring that jurisdic tion, in so many words, to the king.* But all this was manifestly effected by the power of the king and his lay subjects. f I could find no evidence
* See 26 Henry VIII., c. i. " By which statute," say both Coke and Black- stone, " all that power which the Pope ever exercised within the realm in spirituals is now annexed to the Crown." Vide also, Lewis's "Notes on the Royal Supremacy " (Toovey, London) ; and Pretyman's " Church of England subjected to the State," (Masters, New Bond Street).
f I know it is sometimes asked, as if the question was a difficult one to answer, how can the above be a true statement of the case, when it is a no torious fact, that about the time to which we refer, a large majority of the bishops, headed by Cranmer, with the majority of the two universities, gave a decided negative to the following question : " Has any greater authority in this realm been giver by God in the Scripture to the Bishop of Rome than to any foreign bishop ? " The following reply gave entire satisfaction to my own mind. " The reader will observe the artful structure of this question. Avowedly, there is no direct mention of the Bishop of Rome in the Scripture}
THE MERE CHILD OF THE STATE. 133
that the convocation was either consulted, or did more than maintain a cowardly silence. Certain it is? that the Church gave no consent by the votes of her Bishops. For during the whole session, as may be seen by the journal, only seven out of twenty-one made their appearance in the House of Lords ; and of that seven only four gave their votes for the self-humiliating measures, at the head of whom stood Cranmer, who manifestly cared less for the preservation of his authority and dignity as Christ's representative, than he did for the favor of his sovereign, — an assertion not wanting either in truth or charity, when the following language addressed to that sovereign on his becoming arch bishop, is duly considered. " Ordination," he says, " is used only for good order and seemly fashion." And again : " In the New Testament, he that is appointed to be a bishop or priest need' eth no consecration by Scripture." And again: " A bishop may make a priest, and so may princes and governors also, and that by the authority of
no specification of the spiritual authority given to the successor of St. Peter in particular ; no, nor even of the authority given to the successors of the Apostles in general. On these subjects the Scripture is silent. Not one of the sacred writers has thought of describing in detail the plan of church govern ment which the apostles established, to be observed after their death. For that we must have recourse, as the Oxford teachers admit, to tradition. Hence it was natural to expect that to confine the question to the doctrine expressly taught in Scripture, would serve the same purpose as the introduction of the qualifying clause, 'as far as allowed by the law of C/trwt,' had served in the recognition of the king's supremacy. Many a man of timid mind, though he might in reality admit the authority of the Pope, might reconcile the denial of it with his conscience, by contending that he had only denied that it was directly taught in Scripture." For the reason why the New Testament did not mention in detail the plan of Church government, see the above Chapter XIII., On Tradition.
134 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
God."' Hence Burnet declares,, that " Cranmer had at this time some particular opinions concern ing ecclesiastical offices ; that they were delivered from the king, as other civil offices were, and that ordination was not indispensably necessary, and was only a ceremony, that might be used or laid aside ; but that the authority was delivered to churchmen only by the king's commission"^
In pursuance of his principles, and pledges to the king, he led the way, in that suicidal act, by which all the bishops, except that noble martyr Fisher, resigned their jurisdiction, and consented to become the sole servants of the king, by receiv ing from his polluted hands the only jurisdiction which they thenceforward either possessed, or pro fessed to possess, in the exercise of their office. That I did not mistake in this matter, the following language, addressed at the time to their royal mas ter, will sufficiently show. They say, " that all jurisdiction, civil and ecclesiastical, flowed from the king, and that they exercised it only at the king's courtesy ; and as they had it of his bounty, so they would be ready to deliver it up when he should be pleased to call for it." Upon this the king pro ceeded to give them authority to act in his stead, and subject to his will, in fulfilling their episcopal
* Cranmer's Works, ii. 101.
f Burnet's Abridg., 1. i., p. 250. " Cranmer had declared in emphatic terms, that 'God had immediately committed to Christian princes the whole care of all their subjects, as well concerning the administration of Ood'sword for the cure of souls, as concerning the ministration of things political.' " Thus speaks Macaulay, adding, " These are Cranmer's own words j " refer ring to the Appendix of Burnet's History, &c., Part I. B. iii. No. 21. dues. 9.
TPIE MERE CHILD OF THE STATE. 135
functions. So that they were every where consid ered the king's bishops*
Another act of parliament, however, attracted my attention ; particularly as it immediately fol lowed the one, doing away with the Pope's suprem acy, and giving the king supreme power in all causes spiritual, as well as temporal ; and designed doubtless to sweep away every qualifying clause of previous declarations and acts, and make the mon arch the supreme and absolute head of the Church. It was a declaratory act, and ran in the following terms : " The king, his heirs, and successors, kings of this realm shall be taken, accepted, and reputed the ONLY SUPREME HEAD on earth of the Church of England, called Anglicana Ecclesia ; and shall have and enjoy, annexed and united to the imperial crown of this realm, as well the title and style thereof, as all honors, dignities, preeminences, jurisdictions, privileges, authorities, immunities, profits, and com modities to the said dignity of supreme head of the same Church, belonging and appertaining ; and that he, his heirs and successors, kings of this realm, shall have full power and authority from time to time to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such ERRORS, HERESIES, abuses, offences, contempts, and enormities, WHATSO EVER they be, which by any MANNER of SPIRITUAL authority or jurisdiction, ought or may lawfully
* Burnet, Abridg., 228. Also Lingard and Bishop Kenrick on " Validity of Anglican Ord."
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be reformed, repressed, ordered, redressed, cor rected, "restrained, or amended.55*
If, indeed, the act of " Submission of the clergy," left any thing to be done by way of mak ing the power of the king over the Church absolute and unconditional, it seemed to me to be effectu ally supplied in this declaratory act. For it will be observed that the little phrase, " as far as is al lowable by the law of Christ," upon which the clergy had risked so tremendous a stake, has van ished forever, and the naked, unrestricted, unen cumbered spiritual headship of the nation stands before them in the person of the king, raising aloft with sacrilegious hand, the keys wrested from the chair of St. Peter, and, with " great swelling words of vanity," commanding every subject, from the archbishop to the beggar, not to seek, under the sorest penalties, supreme spiritual direction from any other source on earth !
That here is no over- statement -—no picture of the imagination — will be seen after a moment's reflection upon the stubborn facts just adduced, and a moment's attention to the comment upon them im mediately given by the king himself. And here I must be allowed to use the language of another, which seemed to exhibit to my mind a just and forcible view of the real intent of this new and extraordinary prerogative.
" 1st. It was impossible that the king should
* Statutes of Realm. See Cardinal Wiseman's Sermon on « The Twx» Supremacies,"
THE MERE CHILD OF THE STATE. 137
attend in person to all the duties which, his new dignity brought with it, and he was glad to impose the heaviest part of the burden upon one of his officers. The reader will of course infer that this office would be no other than the Archbishop. Not so ; a layman himself, he chose for his spiritu- coadju tor another layman, the originator of the whole scheme, Thomas Cromwell, his first secretary and master of the Rolls. Him the king appointed his vicegerent, vicar general, and principal officer, ( with full powers to exercise and execute all and every that authority and jurisdiction appertaining to himself as head of the Church, and to appoint others his delegates and commissaries to execute the same under him ; authorizing them to resist all dioceses and Churches, to summon before them all ecclesiastical persons, even bishops and archbishops, to inquire into their manners and lives, to punish with spiritual censures, to issue injunctions, and to exercise all the functions of the ecclesiastical courts,' *
" 2d. A royal inhibition was then issued to the archbishops and bishops, ordering them to abstain from all exercise of spiritual jurisdiction, till the king had made the visitation of their dioceses ; which visitation was commenced in different parts of the kingdom by the vicar general and his dele gates. The object of this measure was to probe the sincerity of the bishops in their submission to
* Wilk. Cov. iii. 784. 10 *
J-rv
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the king's supremacy. If they laid claim to any authority as inherent in their office, they would now, it was argued, advance that claim and seek to prove it, or own by their silence that it was inde fensible j and by suing out the restoration of their powers from the king, would furnish a practical acknowledgment that he was the fountain from which they derived their spiritual authority. ( If they claim it as a right, let them show their evi dence. If they take it as a benefit of the king's highness, let them sue for it again by supplication, that they and all others may understand him to be the head power within this realm under God, and that no jurisdiction proceecleth within the same but from him.' — (L. and A. Rice to Cromwell. Strype Mem. App. 145.) It happened as was fore seen. The bishops submitted in silence ; and one after another petitioned for the restoration of their ordinary jurisdiction ; which was doled out to them by piecemeal to be held only at the king's pleasure, with an admonition, that ' they would have to answer for their exercise of it before the supreme Judge hereafter, and before the king's person in the present world.' — Wilk. Con. iii. 787. fyc.
" 3d. But the humiliation of the bishops was not yet completed. In June, 1536, the Convoca tion met. On the 16th Dr. Petre came and al leged, that of right the first place in that assembly talongecl to the king as head of the Church, and in the absence of the king to the vicar general, the
THE MERE CHILD OF THE STATE. 139
honorable Thomas Cromwell, the king's vicegerent for causes ecclesiastical; that he himself stood there as proctor for the said vicar general, as would appear by the commission which he held in his hand ; and, therefore, he demanded that the place aforesaid should be assigned to him in virtue of that commission. It was read accordingly, the claim was allowed, and Petre took the first seat. At the next session Cromwell himself made his ap pearance and presided, as he did afterwards on several important occasions, always occupying the same place, and subscribing the resolutions before the archbishop." — Willc. iii. Strype's Mem. i. 245.
" Thus it was in convocation ; and the same honor was paid to him in parliament. By the Act 'for placing the Lords,' it was ordered that the Lord Cromwell, ' the king's vicegerent for good ministration of justice in causes ecclesiastical, and for the godly reformation and redress of all errors, heresies, and abuses in the Church, and that every person having the said office of grant from his majesty or his heirs, should have place on the same form with, but above, the Archbishop of Canter bury, and should have voice to assent or dissent as others the Lords in Parliament.' — Stat. of Realm, iii. Thus the vicar general took the precedence of every peer, both spiritual and temporal, whatever might be his office in Church or state."
What language, I asked myself, could tell as plainly as do these proceedings under shield of the Acts of Parliament, what these acts were under-
140
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
stood on all hands to mean ? But should any one prefer further comment in language, let them med itate upon the following, addressed to the king in an Act of Parliament, not long before his death : " Your most royal majesty hath full power and au thority to correct, punish, and redress all manner of heresies, errors, vices, sins, abuses, idolatry, hypocrisies, and superstition sprung in and growing within this Church of England. . .Your majesty is the only and undoubted head of the Church of Eng land, and also of Ireland, TO WHOM, BY HOLY
SCRIPTURE, ALL AUTHORITY AND POWER IS WHOLLY
GIVEN TO HEAR AND DETERMINE all manner of causes ecclesiastical, to correct vice and sin whatso ever, and to all such persons as your majesty shall appoint."*
Here it is manifest, as in other Acts of Parlia ment, that the king's authority extended to doctrine as well as discipline. I know it is sometimes said that the clergy never gave their assent to such pre rogative in a layman. And in truth it is difficult to conceive how even fear should have prevailed upon them thus to betray their awful trust. But so it was. In petitioning the king for power and license to set forth " The Godly and Pious Insti tution of a Christian Man," they say to him, " with out the which power and license of your majesty, we know and confess that we have none authority eyther to assemble ourselves together for any pre tence or purpose, or to publishe any thing that
* Stat. Realm, iii. 109.
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141
might be by us agreed on and compyled. And al beit, most dredlie and benign soveraigne Lorde, we do affirm by our lernyngs with one assent, that the said treatise is in all poynts concordant and agree able to holy Scripture, yet we do most humbly submit it to the most excellent wisdom and exact judgment of your majestic to be recognized, over- sene and corrected; if your Grace shall find any word or sentence in it mete to be changed, quali fied or further expounded, whereunto we shall in that case conforme ourselves, as to our most bounden duties to GOD and to your highness appertained!."' Here to me it was manifest that the clergy had not only submitted their judgments in matters of doctrine to the king's direction ; but also held that their duty to God required this submission ; and surely on no other ground than that the king's direction was God's established mode of communi cation to them. Indeed, they had already yielded to a succession of demands on the part of the king, which absolutely required this idea for any thing like self-justification. They had submitted to an act of parliament which declares that " all declara-
* Wilk. Con. iii. 831. " What Henry and his favorite councillors meant," says Macaulay, " was certainly nothing less than the full power of the keys. The king w.iJ to be the Pope of his kingdom, the Vicar of God, the expositor of Catholic verity, the channel of sacramental graces. He arrogated to him self the right of deciding dogmatically what was orthodox doctrine and what was heresy, of drawing up and imposing confessions of faith, and of giving religious instruction to his people. He proclaimed that all jurisdiction, spir- •itual as well as temporal, was derived from him alone ; and that it was in his power to confer episcopal authority, and to take it away. He actually ordered Aw seal to be put to commissions by which bishops were appointed, who were to exercise their functions as his deputies and during his pleasure."
THE CliriUII OF ENGLAND, &C.
tions, definitions, and ordinances which, should be set forth by them, with his majesty's advice, and confirmed by his letters patent, should be in all and every point, limitation, and circumstance, by all his grace's subjects, and all persons resident in his dominions, fully believed, obeyed, and observed under the penalties therein to be comprised."* Well, I thought, might it be said " By this enact ment the religious belief of every Englishman was laid at the king's feet. He named the commis sioners ; he regulated their proceedings by his ad vice ; he reviewed their decisions ; and if he con firmed them by letters patent under the great seal, they became from that moment the doctrines of the English Church, which every man was bound to < believe ' (that is the word) under such penalties as might be assigned." An art soon followed defin ing these penalties. And what more fearful ever proceeded, even in rumor, from the Spanish Inqui sition ? " Alas ! " I said to myself, " is this the boasted change from the tyranny of Rome to the freedom of Protestant England, so eagerly sought and so gloriously achieved?" That precious " liberty wherewith Christ has made us free," trumpeted far and wide as the golden fruit of the Reformation under Henry and Cranmer ! I could not repress within me feelings of indignation as I read for the first time the following : " If any man shall teach or maintain any matter contrary to the Godly instructions and determinations which have
* Stat. of Realm, iii. 783.
SUBMISSION OF THE CIIUllCH OF ENGLAND, &C. 143
been or shall be thus set forth by his majesty, he shall, in case he be a layman, for the first offence, recant and be imprisoned twenty days ; for the second, adjure the realm ; and for the third, suffer the forfeiture of his goods, and imprisonment for life ; but if he be a clergyman, he shall for the first offence be permitted to recant ; on his refusal or second offence, shall abjure, and bear a fagot : and on his refusal again, or third offence, shall be adjudged a heretic, and suffer the pains of death by burning, with the forfeiture to the Icing of al1 his goods and chattels." — Stat. of Realm, iii. 896.
CHAPTER XV.
HAS THE SUBMISSION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND TO THE TEMPORAL POWER BEEN PERPETUATED?
AT the death of Henry, 1547, Edward, his son, a boy in his tenth year, succeeded to the throne. Cranmer was still archbishop, and at the height of his influence. If, therefore, he had not fully yielded his mind to the system of abject submission in which the clergy had been drilled by Henry, here was an opportunity to help them to throw off the yoke, and return to their spiritual independence. But Cranmer made no effort in that direction. In deed, he lost no time in adopting measures to per petuate their slavery to the crown. His first step was to throw up his commission (as if to show that
144 HAS SUBMISSION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
he felt that his spiritual authority died with his sovereign) and petition his new master for another. The petition was granted, and the system of the for mer reign was thus handed over to this. Cranmer's example was followed, as was expected, by his brother bishops. They all laid their commissions at the feet of the boy-king, acknowledging that he was " the only source of all manner of temporal and spiritual jurisdiction within the realm ; " * and humbly entreating his favor in a renewal of their powers. The same tests were applied, and the same was acted over as in the former reign. The bishops were all again suspended from the exercise of their functions, till the king, in the person of lay commissioners mainly, could restore their sev eral dioceses, and assure himself of their strict and honest subordination. In addition, an inquisition was established by him, to try heretical pravity ; and it is not the least remarkable instance of retrib utive justice at the time, that the three leading in quisitors,! who, as instruments of the king, had adjudged heretics to the flames, J should finally in their turn suffer the same kind of death, on the same grounds.
The reign of the Catholic Mary succeeded the short reign of Edward ; and hence with it the old religion to the new one of Henry. The changes which took place, with the reasons, seemed to me to be pretty accurately given in the following,
* Wilk. Cov. iii. 821.
j Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley } Ann Bocher and Von Parris.
TO THE TEMPORAL POWER BEEN PERPETUATED ? 145
based upon Collier, Rymer, and Macaulay. 1. The five bishops, so unjustly deprived to make room for reformers under Edward, recovered their sees. On tr.o attainder of Cranmer for treason in the attempt t; phce Lady Jane Grey on the throne, the arch- Ihhopric was considered vacant, and the adminis tration assumed by the Chapter of the Cathedral. Holegate, of York, and Bird, of Chester, were de prived, because, having taken the monastic vows, they had nevertheless contracted marriage de facto, though they had not de jure ; Taylor, Hooper, Harley, and Ferrar, calling themselves bishops of Lincoln, Worcester, Hereford, and St. David's, were removed on account of the nullity of their consecration, the defect of their title (a patent from the king, with a clause, limiting their office to the time of their good behavior,) and for divers other causes ; and Barlowe, of Bath and Wells, with Bush, of Bristol, hardly escaped the same fate by timely resignation. (Collier ii. 364-5, Rym. xv. 370, &c.) In this manner all the men of the new learning were drawn from the episcopal bench, and their places were speedily filled by others attached to the ancient worship. 2. Immediately after the accession of Mary, an act was passed annulling whatever had been enacted on religious matters during the nonage of her late brother ; and a little after, another act, repealing in like manner all acts passed in the reign of her father, Henry VIII., touching religion, thus restoring the Pope's suprem acy, and replacing religion on precisely the same 13
146 HAS SUBMISSION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
footing it occupied before the quarrel of Henry with the Apostolic See. The same religious gov ernment,, the same religious worship, the same re ligious doctrine prevailed. What, then, are we to say of the Church of England under Mary ? "Was it the same Church with the Church under Edward — or the same with the Church at the accession of Henry ? If the apostolicity of the Church under Mary be admitted, there appeared clearly to my mind an end to the present claim of the Churcri of England. The chain is broken. She cannot have her descent from that Church. She cannot connect herself with it. " Hence the high-churchmen tell us that under Mary every rule of ecclesiastical polity was violated ; that unjustifiable changes were made by the influence of the queen and of Gard ner, and that the Church of England was oppressed by a schismatical prelacy and clergy." *
In regard to this objection, the following con siderations were to me a sufficient answer. First. What Henry VIII. did under his claim of suprem acy was, religiously, either lawful, or not lawful. If not lawful, then to undo what he had done, was the indispensable duty of Mary and her parliament. But if lawful, then surely she and her parliament had the same right, which he had exercised, to make changes ; and hence, if she saw fit, to restore religion to its ancient foundation. Particularly in the changes which Mary made in the episcopal
* See Palmer, vol. i., 479.
TO THE TEMPORAL POWER BEEN PERPETUATED ? 147
bench, she would have been fully justified on the principle adopted by Henry and accorded to him by the bishops, that the king, as supreme head of the Church, had the sole power of giving jurisdic tion. This principle is distinctly set forth in the words of the king's patent under Edward for mak ing bishops. " We name, make, create, constitute, and declare 1ST. Bishop of N., to have and to hold to himself the said bishopric during the term of his natural life, if for so long a time he behave himself well therein ; and we empower him to confer orders, to institute to livings, to exercise all manner of ju risdiction, and to do all that appertains to the epis copal or pastoral office, over and above the things known to have been committed to him by God in the Scriptures, in place of us, in our name, and by our royal authority." The whole episcopal juris diction was not only thus made to proceed original ly from the king, but the term of exercising it was placed at his will, and might, any moment, be ter minated at his pleasure, and even that of the royal visitors, as was seen to be the fact under both Henry and Edward. Hence that language already cited, as addressed to Henry by the suspended bishops, confessing that not only " all jurisdiction flowed from him," but also, that " they would be ready to deliver their jurisdiction up, ivhen he should be pleased to call for it." Now surely on this principle, thus admitted and thus acted upon in the two previous reigns, Mary was amply justified in restoring and regulating, as she did, the bench
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of bishops. But let it be recollected that she acted on higher grounds, viz., that what had been un- scripturally and vmcanonically done, to the hin- derance of true religion, by her father and brother, she was bound by the law of God and His Church to abolish. Besides, if, as Protestants assert, the feelings of the Church in England were ripe, un der Henry, for the Reformation, and rushed, as it was opened, into its arms for protection, what meant the sudden reaction under Mary towards the old religion ? How came it to pass that the Church and parliament were so soon sustained in their vig orous measures for its restoration ? This circum stance, after every explanation and gloss that Prot estantism could put upon it, seemed to me to ex pose, in a manner too clear and stern for sophistry to evade, the usual pleas put forth in justification of England's schism ! If Protestant represent a- tions of the state of England's mind and heart be true, — if, as is said, there had been in her bosom such hatred of Catholic error and such yearning for Protestant truth, I could not understand how, when she had once been set free, once had a taste of the glorious liberty for which she had so long sighed, any power on earth should so soon have brought her back to what is call the despotism of Rome.*
* To use the language of a Protestant writer on this point, " all was over in nine days. London — the stronghold of Protestantism — declared enthusias tically for Mary. The fleet went over ; the troops which Northumberland attempted to gather in the eastern counties dese.Kted in a body. The con spiracy was crushed without a blow."
TO THE TEMPORAL POWER BEEN PERPETUATED .? 149
And then, when Elizabeth, the stern and inex orable Protestant, at least by policy, succeeded to the throne, what a struggle to bow the neck of the Church again to the yoke which she had with com parative ease just thrown off ! And how manifest is it, that that neck would never have been made thus to bow, but for the power of the Lords of the land on the one hand, and the lowest of the people on the other. The one being too manifestly led 011 by the lust of gain$ the other by the lust of licen tious freedom.
The following appeared to me to be the facts of the case, as furnished by the Acts of Parliament, and the most reliable historians :
Elizabeth, by the circumstances of her birth, and the adverse claims of Mary Stuart, found it neces sary, as she thought, to the preservation of her throne, to place herself at the head of the Prot estant cause in England. Measures were imme diately and secretly taken, to secure to her policy a majority in her first Parliament.* In this she was
* Strype, in his " Annals," (1 Rec. No. iv.) gives a remarkable document relating to this matter, of which the following is an abstract of the plan recommended by Elizabeth's advisers to secure her throne. " L To prohibit strictly all innovations except by the Court. 2. To sow dissension, particu larly religious dissension, among the subjects of France and Scotland. 3. To persecute the bishops and clergy under penal laws, and particularly by prtemu- nire. 4. To labor to degrade all who had been in authority under the late dueen in the estimation of the people, by inquiries into their conduct, and legal prosecutions as far as possible. 5. To displace the existing magistrates, and substitute others, meaner in substance and younger in years. 6. To officer the militia with devoted partisans of the Court. 7. In like manner the uni versities to be looked after, and the discontented weeded out. 8. Her Majesty to hear Mass and go to Communion 'on High Feasts.' 9. A committee of divines to draw up a plot, or book, <fcc."
13*
150 HAS SUBMISSION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
successful. Tlie statutes of Henry, her father, and Edward her brother, levelled at Papal authority, and concentrating all ecclesiastical and spiritual power in the crown, were, by the repeal of the enactments of the last reign, recalled into full force.
It was enacted, too, that the Book of Common Prayer with certain alterations and additions should, to the exclusion of every thing else, be used by the ministers in all churches, under pain of for feiture, of privation, and of death ; that the spir itual authority of every foreign prelate within the realm should be utterly abolished ; that the juris diction necessary for the correction of errors, her esies, schisms, and abuses, should be annexed to the crown, with the power of delegating such juris diction to any person or persons whatever at the pleasure of the Sovereign ; that the penalty of as serting the Papal authority should ascend on the repetition of the offence from the forfeiture of real and personal property to perpetual imprisonment, and from perpetual imprisonment to death. And that all clergymen, &c., should, under pain of deprivation, take an oath, declaring the Queen to be supreme governor in all ecclesiastical and spirit ual things or causes . . . renouncing all foreign, ecclesiastical, and spiritual jurisdiction or authority whatsoever within the realm."*
I observed in respect to these enactments that
* See Statutes of Realm. Lord Paget declares that " the new Prayer Book was distasteful to eleventh tioelftlis of the population."
TO THE TEMPORAL POWER BEEN PERPETUATED ? 151
the parliament of Elizabeth pursued a totally dif ferent course from that of the Parliament under Mary. While the latter did nothing, in respect to religion, but restore it to its original Catholic state and privileges, the former established new forms of worship, and unusual prerogatives of spiritual juris diction. Besides, while Mary acted in communion with the Church and under its approbation, I found that Elizabeth proceeded in defiance of it. Every bishop in the house, I saw by the journal, voted against these bills ; that the Convocation presented a document, amongst other things, protesting against the competency of any lay assembly to pro nounce on matters of " doctrine, worship, and dis cipline ; " and that the two Universities came to the aid of the Convocation, and subscribed the doc ument ; that even the lay opposition in the House of Lords was unusually large ; and that, if the Act relating to the Book of Common Prayer really passed at all, it was only by a majority of two or three. And this was obtained by the imprisonment of two bishops, and by raising five Commoners of the new faith to the peerage. Now, as these Acts are the real basis of the present Church of Eng land, I asked myself, how is it possible that this Church can be linked by uninterrupted succession with the Church of the Apostles ?
POSITION OF PRESENT CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
CHAPTER XVI.
WHAT IS THE POSITION OF THE PRESENT CHURCH OF ENGLAND, AND OF HER DAUGHTER IN AMERICA, AS FIXED BY THE PAR LIAMENT OF ELIZABETH?
THAT the present Church of England, and con sequently the daughter in America, stands upon the same foundation as- that of the Church of Elizabeth, is a fact too notorious to require more than to be stated.
That foundation is to my mind faithfully ex hibited in the following act of William IV. : " Wil liam IV., by the grace of God, of the united king dom of Great Britain and Ireland, King, defender of the Faith, to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting : WE, having confidence in the learning, morals, and probity of our well-beloved and venerable W. G. B., do name and appoint him to be bishop and ordinary pastor of the See of
A , so that he shall be, and shall be taken
to be, bishop of the Bishop's See, and may, by virtue of this our nomination and appointment, enter into and possess the said Bishop's See, as the bishop thereof, without any let or impediment of us ; and we do hereby declare that if we, our heirs and successors, shall think fit to recall or revoke the
appointment of the said bishop of A , or his
successors, that every such bishop shall, to all in tents and purposes, cease to be bishop of A
AND- OF HER DAUGHTER IN AMERICA. 153
And we do hereby give and grant to the said
bishop of A — , and his successors, bishops of
A , full power and authority to confirm
those that are baptized, &c., and to perform all other functions, peculiar and appropriate to a bishop,
within the limits of the said See of A . And
we do by these presents give and grant to the said
bishop and his successors, bishops of A , full
power and authority to admit into the holy orders of deacon and priest respectively, any person whom he shall deem duly qualified, and to punish and correct chaplains, ministers, priests, and deacons, according to their deserts."*
Upon this examination and due reflection, I be came convinced, that, in regard to this source of mission or jurisdiction, the " Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States " stands on precisely the same foundation as does her mother the Angli can, and hence must share in any defects which the parliamentary system of Elizabeth may have en tailed upon that mother.
* I was aware that it had been pleaded that the power of election is still in the hands of the Church. But the conge d'elire, as lately so always, has proved to be an unmeaning form. The words of the statute most clearly make it so. They are as follows : " In virtue of which license [meaning the conge d'elirc], the said dean and chapter shall with all speed and celerity (that is, within twelve days'), in due form, elect and choose the said person named [in the king's letters missive, sent with the license] to this dignity and office, and ?io other." Then the law provides that in case the dean and chapter fail to do this within the prescribed time, the duty of election devolves upon the Crown, and the dean and chapter incur the penalty of pramunire. Of this Bishop Gibson says, " The only choice the electors have under this restraint is, whether they will obey the king or incur a pramunire." Or, as Dr. John- soironce playfully remarked, " The Church has about the same choice in the election of her chief ministers, as a man flung out of a window has to choose a soft seat for himself when he gets to the bottom.'" Vide Pretyman's "Ch. of England Sui^ugaieti," &c. (Masters,)
154 POSITION OF PRESENT CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
1. The very application made to the Church of England to consecrate and send bishops to the United States, and the very objects of the mission of such bishops, — what they were to "do and teach" under it, — as set forth in the application, were framed and settled, not by the successors of Apostles, but by a convention, made up of some half dozen presbyters, and a few more laymen, the latter of whom, if we may believe the Memoirs of the American Church, by the Right Rev. and most venerable Dr. Colute, exercised a controlling influ ence. £. This application, and the objects of the mission applied for, being duly considered by the government of England, an act of parliament " gave and granted," under certain specified condi tions and restrictions, to certain persons belonging to the United States, the power of episcopal juris diction. It is true this power was placed beyond the reach of the authority who gave it, and hence could not be revoked by that authority. Still the transfer by the very conditions of the grant, while it gave release from one lay power, subjected it virtually to another. Hence, by the constitutions and canons of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, an absolutely controlling power is given to the laity in all questions, as well of faith as of mission. So that no point of doctrine can be settled — no new diocese be formed — no new bishop be sent — no presbyter receive mission — and so on, to the end of the chapter, without the express consent of the laity. And when we add to
AKt) OF HER DAUGHTER IX AMERICA. 155
tins their fixed, canonical authority, the moral in fluence they must necessarily exercise over the clergy, in a system where the daily bread of the clergy is dependent upon their will,* we see that, in their release from the domination of the Anglican King and parliament, the American bishops have gained little in 'the way of an independent exercise of their mission. Here as there, instead of a real descent of authority, as the theory is, from the divine fountain, the stream is made to flow back ward and upward. Besides, in England and the United States there is a remarkable resemblance in the condition respectively of the lay powers.^ In both, these powers are irresponsible. Of the inde pendence of the king and English Parliament I will not speak ; but of the independence of the laity in the Protestant Episcopal Church where I was a bishop, I will say, that while the clergy are sub jected to strict and salutary discipline, not a canon nor a rubric exists which can make laymen — even while exercising their functions in settling the faith and controlling the mission of the Church — an swerable to any tribunal for the foulest heresy or the most rampant schism !
But, if this were not so, if no lay power what ever existed to control or modify the episcopal au thority and mission of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, the real character of that au thority and mission must depend upon the character
* The support of the clergy in the U. S. depends upon voluntary contribu tions of the laity. ,
156 POSITION OF PRESENT CHURCH OF ENGLAND,
of the source from which, they are derived. So that any defect, I repeat, which the mother Church of England may have inherited from the system of Elizabeth, seemed to me clearly entailed upon the daughter in the United States !
Now then, I entreat my old friends to allow me to call their minds to that view of 'the mission and jurisdiction of the English Church, as established by Elizabeth, which destroyed my confidence in her claim to my submission. I asked myself — not as a Catholic, not as a controversialist — but as one deeply anxious to know the will of God, and to know, if possible, that that will would sustain me in my Protestant position — I asked myself, who SENT Archbishop Parker ? * Who put the Gospel into his hand ? told - him what it contained ? what was the depositum of faith and sacraments and wor ship of the "One, Holy, Catholic Church" com mitted to him? and commissioned him to teach that faith, dispense those sacraments, and conduct that worship, and, when death should come to ter minate his apostolic work, to hand on that " de- positum " to the successors of the apostles yet to arise ? I made this appeal to my conscience again and again, « Who thus sent the first archbishop of Elizabeth ? gave him mission to act in this or that way for God ? "
When Elizabeth ascended the throne, I saw two powers only, who even claimed the right of spirit-
* " For how can one preach except he be sent? " — St. Paul.
AND OF HER DAUGHTER IX AMERICA. 157
ual jurisdiction in England, and hence the right of giving mission to exercise " the office of a bishop in the Church of God ! " — the Pope and the Queen ! The Pope, sustained in his authority by the whole Church* in England ; the Queen sustained by her parliament only. The Church, therefore, in Eng land could not have commissioned and sent this arch bishop. She was utterly against him. Against him, in her faith, her sacraments, her worship, her judg ment, her authority! She stood forth, with the successor of St. Peter at her hand, professing the Catholic faith, dispensing the Catholic sacraments, enforcing the Catholic ritual, and requiring all who went out under her authority to defend this faith, guard these sacraments, and observe this ritual ! The archbishop of Elizabeth appears, in defiance of the successor of St. Peter, professedly bearing another faith, other sacraments, and ordered and commissioned under another ritual ! Who sent him ? Whence derived he the authority to execute the office of a bishop in the mystical body of Christ, — "the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Ctu.rch?" Really, I could discern no authority earlier than the queen and parliament of England ! And, therefore, that my own commission to act for Christ had its origin in man ! f
* It has been shown in the last chapter, that every Bishop, the convocation, and both universities, sided with the authority of the Roman Pontiffs. f Vide Allies' "See of St. Peter," Burns and Lambert, London.
14
158 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
CHAPTER XVII.
REASONS WHY SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER MUST BE FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN, AND HENCE TO THE AMERICAN, EPISCOPAL CLAIMS.
IN 1534 the English, parliament, by formal act, severed the tie, which had hitherto bound the Church of England to the Catholic Church, by throwing off all allegiance to the See of St. Peter ; and on the plea that " in the realm of England no greater authority has been given by God in the Scripture to the Bishop of Rome, than to any other foreign bishop."
When I approached this question I felt a degree of awe which I cannot well express, particularly as it presented a claim not only of the most fearful magnitude in itself, but also one, which, from its very nature, must determine irrevocably the duty of every Protestant who would be saved ; and hence my duty for time and for eternity !
I first looked narrowly at the words of the act itself; and was not a little surprised that any one not anxious to mislead, should have employed terms so equivocal. Not only were the special powers of the " Bishop of Rome " to be subjected to the test of Holy Scripture (a thing as we have seen, in its strict sense, most unreasonable in itself), but also tried in this mere diocesan title, in their claim to universal jurisdiction. Now the title " Bishop
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 159
of Rome " may, with a Catholic, imply " the suc cession of St. Peter." But, in the mouth of a Protestant, I felt that it might more likely be de signed to express mere diocesan authority. In which case an extension of such authority to the island of England might, I saw clearly, be branded, and, without the aid of Scripture, as a usurpation. For the Pope, as the bishop of the diocese of Rome merely, I had been led to believe, had no more claim to jurisdiction beyond that diocese, than any other bishop had to jurisdiction beyond his partic ular see. But a little examination convinced me that no such claim had ever been set up — that no such jurisdiction had ever been exercised. That, on the contrary, the claim to jurisdiction in the island of England, rested upon a claim to jurisdic tion over the whole Catholic Church, and that this devolved upon the Bishop of Rome as the successor of St. Peter — Rome being, in the Providence of God, the Apostolic See ; so that the language of the act failed to place before the mind a fair detini- tion of the case ; as it tended in my view to con found that diocesan authority which the bishop of Rome, as bishop, held in common with all other bishops, with that supreme jurisdiction, which, as the successor of St. Peter, he had above and be yond all others. Hence the question submitted to the Church of England by Henry, ought, in my humble judgment, to have been — not whether "the bishop of Rome" has authority in England — but whether England was not bound as a mem
160 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETEH
ber of the ' ' One, Holy Catholic,, Apostolic Church/' to submit to the See of St. Peter at Rome, as, by the providence of God, the centre of unity and the source of jurisdiction in that Church !
Under this form of the question, I approached with trembling steps and a supplicating heart the great and all-absorbing point, as it seemed to me, between Protestantism and the Catholic Church,
Having derived my authority from the Church of Henry through Elizabeth, I was compelled, more or less, to view this point as exhibited in the claim of spiritual supremacy, on the part of the king, contrasted with the claim of the spiritual suprem acy of the See of ST. PETER in the person of the Bishop of Home.
I first asked myself, what is the common-sense view of the case ? Which claim seems most likely to be well founded ?
By the declarations of holy Scripture the Church was presented to me as "One Body in Christ." By the uniform teaching of the Fathers I found this idea : " The Church, one, undivided, indivisi ble," fastened upon the minds and hearts of all the faithful in the age next to the Apostles. The Church " one ; " not separated by national distinc tions, but one " holy nation," gathered out of all the unholy nations, and bound together by the bonds of strictest unity, and animated by a spirit which at once raised it above all earthly associa tions, and gave it a power to control and fashion them to its will. Which claim, under this view
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 161
of the Church, — a view generally admitted among Protestants in theory, — seems most likely to be well founded ? most commends itself to my under standing ? A claim founded in universal jurisdic tion) or a claim based upon mere national preroga tive ? A claim upheld by spiritual sanctions, or a claim enforced by temporal power ? A claim hav ing its source in an apostle, linked, by its very nature, to that old foundation upon which Christ promised to build His Church ; or a claim traceable to no higher date, and connected with no purer source, than a corrupt son of the race of Tudors ?
Pressed by such an alternative, who can wonder that my mind became predisposed to yield to the claim of the Holy Roman See ?
2. To this was added a further consideration. I cast my eye over the history of mankind, and found that every association, from the most widely- spread kingdoms to the narrowest circle of friend ship, was blessed with a head ; that the very instincts of our nature seemed to lead to this every where as necessary to secure unity of purpose and action. I contemplated the Church of God ; a society, not only made up of persons brought together out of all societies, but under the solemn necessity of be ing and remaining so perfectly joined together, as to " speak the same things, and to be of the same mind and same judgment ; " thus " keeping the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace." And I asked myself, " If it be reasonable, that a society, whose unity is to be the closest in the world, should It*
SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
be composed of creatures of the world, and called to act in the world, and upon the world, and still be the only body in the world without a distinct, governing head ? " The thing appeared to me in consistent with the uniform wisdom and love of God, expressed in the order of His providence, and hence not to be admitted as a reality!
True, it was urged upon me that the Church is emphatically a spiritual body, and by its very con stitution, has Christ for its head. To so manifest and vital a fact, of course, I could not object ; but to my mind it did not meet the difficulty. For I perceived the Church to be, not only a spiritual, but a visible, body. Knit together by visible ties — governed by visible laws — exercising visible functions — contending with visible enemies — maintaining a visible fellowship ; and hence, so far as I could see, requiring a visible, ruling authority. Now, while our Lord was upon earth, it seemed reasonable, that He should, in His own person, exercise that authority — be, in the fullest sense, our head — be both spiritually and visibly " our prophet, priest, and king." But after His ascen sion, I could see no way of perpetuating the visible part of that authority, but by a visible representa tive. This was admitted, by most Protestants, to have been done in the case of both His prophetical and priestly authority. And I could not perceive why it should not have been done also in respect to His kingly authority. If to express and insure His abiding invisible presence a visible representa
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 163
tive in the one case was needed, why not in the other? To preserve the Church in her original form, and enable her to fulfil her true destiny as " the body of Christ/' the visible kingly authority must, it struck me, be, at least, as essential as any other. But this kingly authority, by .the very nature of it, could be represented by a single per son only at a time. That while the prophetical and priestly functions might, in the same kingdom, be shared by many, the kingly power was obliged to be centred in one. I felt, therefore, that be fore entering upon the proof of the fact, there was a strong antecedent probability of its truth, in a Church having one Lord, one faith, one baptism ; and hence a strong probability, that in casting from her the jurisdiction of St. Peter, the English Church had cast from her the institution of God.
3. This was not all. As a fact, I saw the pri macy of St. Peter standing before me. A Bishop of Home was actually exercising jurisdiction over the whole Catholic Church, as a successor in the see of that Prince of the Apostles, and as a matter of history had been exercising it since the infancy of the Christian Faith. Every description of ad verse power had been leagued against it, and every sort of •stratagem been employed for its overthrow ; still this centre of jurisdiction stood. Surrounding Patriarchates had been consumed by heresy or broken in pieces by time,* but this stood. King-
* See an able discussion of this point by Robert Belaney, M. A., late Vicar of Arlington, &,c., in a letter to the Anglican Bishop of Chichester.
16i SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
dom after kingdom had been swept into oblivion from its side, yea, from its very embrace, yet this stood in all the vigor of its maturity, fulfilling its original functions, and wielding a power, greater, perhaps, in its moral character, than at any former period. Now, how could I account for this fact 1 The question was deeply solemn, and demanded of me a solemn answer. To say that, by impercepti ble gradations it arose to this giant height, would be, to my mind, asserting, from the very nature of the thing, an impossibility. For I could see no gradations between the power allowed and the power claimed, — no steps across that wide chasm which separates patriarchal from universal jurisdic tion ! To say that, at some unguarded moment, the Church had allowed this power to spring into existence, would not satisfy a mind already wearied , with assertion and demanding unquestionable his torical proof. Bat no such proof had been offered. And as to mere presumption, it was utterly against the idea. To suppose such an enormous power to have been unlawfully assumed (when the assump tion must have touched the very quick of human pride and ambition throughout the world), and without leaving a single trace of the fact in history, would, to say the least, hardly be expected to meet the demands of a disturbed and wakeful mind ; particularly as such assumption had never been charged by any of all the turbulent spirits, who, for heresy, or other cause, were, in early times, tin-own off from the Catholic Church by means of
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 165
this very prerogative of the See of St. Peter.* Be it recollected, however, that I here speak of the origin, by assumption, of this universal jurisdiction. That in its exercise, at various periods, it came into collision with kings and other temporal pow ers, my mind fully admitted ; but I perceived that the fact only gave additional strength to my posi tion, by showing that if this power of the Roman See so often, in its steady spiritual progress through the world, stirred up against • itself the wrath of princes, how much more was it likely to have done so in the outset of an attempt to " lord it over God's heritage " (on the principle that it was origi nally an assumption), and hence how much more may we expect to find a record of the strife for which we look in vain.
In case, therefore, that I continued to resist the
* I am indebted to the invaluable labors of Cardinal Maius, to which I have alluded in a note at p. 172, for a remarkable testimony of an adversary to the Supremacy of the Holy See. Ben. Assali, a monophysite heretic, writing on the famous Arabic Nicenc Canons, gives the one relating to that See as teaching the true doctrine concerning it. The words are as follows : "Sicut patriarcha imperio et auctoritate erga sibi subjectos praditus e.-t, ita Roma Dominiis auctoritate erga omnea patriarchas pallet ; quoniani ipse primus est, tainquam Petrtis ; quatenus hie videlicet auctoritate super omnes Christiani- tatis prasules fruebatur et erga multitiidinem ex qua ilia conflatur: utpote Christi Domini Nostri successor, populo ejus ecclesiisque praepositus," " As the Patriarch is invested with supreme rule and authority over his subjects, so the Bishop of Rome has a supremacy of jurisdiction over all the patriarchs, since he has the primacy of St. Peter, so far as this, viz., that he is to enjoy the chief government of all the bishops of the Christian Church, and of the members which compose it ; so that, as the successor of our Lord, he is placed over His Church and people." — Tom. vi. p. 548.
It will be perceived that I have used this simply as testimony forced from an honest heretic who is suffering under the sentence of a power, the just authority of which he feels bound to admit. And that I do it without giving any opinion as to the genuineness of the Canon which he cite.3.
166 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
jurisdiction of the Apostolic See, I felt bound to account to myself for the fact of its existence on other grounds than those claimed for it by its sup porters ; and that the burden of proof, under the circumstances, rested entirely upon myself. The Sovereign, in the full exercise of his kingly prerog atives, is not called upon surely to justify himself before every subject who may choose to question his authority or place himself in an attitude of rebellion.
From this view of the case I went to the written Word of God as understood and acted upon by the primitive Church.
The first thing that struck me, as connected with this subject, was the language of our blessed Lord to Simon, upon His introduction to him. " Thou art Simon, the son of Jonas, but thou shalt be called Cephas, (or Peter, or Rock.) " -St. John i. 35—42. The purpose of this change of name (a name which the Divine Head of the Church had hitherto appropriated to Himself *) became manifest
* Isaiah xxviii. 16 j Ps. cxvii. 22 ; Dan. ii. 35 ; Zach. iii. 9 ; Ep. ii. 20. This change of Simon's name is significantly mentioned by the first three Evange lists. St. Matthew says : " The first, Simon, who is called Peter, (or rock.) " St. Mark says: "To Simon he gave the name of Peter, or ror.L" St. Luke says : " Simon, whom he also named Peter, or rock.''' Concerning this change, Tertullian says : " Why did He (our Lord) call him Peter 1 If for the strength of his faith, many solid substances would lend him a name from themselves. Or was it because Christ is both the rock and the stone ? Since we read He is set for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence. And so it was His pleas ure to communicate to the dearest of His disciples, in a peculiar manner, a name drawn from the figures of Himself, as being nearer, I imagine, than ono drawn from figures not of Himself." St. Ambrose says : " Great is the grace of Christ, who bestowed almost all His names on His disciples. . . .Christ is the Rock, bat yet He did not deny the grace of this name to His disciple. That he. should bo Peter, ' Rock,' because he has from the Rock firm constancy,
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 167
when in process of time Jesus said to him, on occa sion of his solemn profession of faith : " Thou art Peter, (or Cephas}, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what soever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." — Matt. xvi. 18. These passages viewed in conjunction, and with the circumstances under which they were spoken, conveyed to my mind clearly and almost necessarily these truths. 1. That the change of St. Peter's name from Simon to Cephas (Rock), was designed as a preparation for the promise afterwards made to him, that the Church should be built upon him as the house of the wise man is " built upon a rock." 2. That with such a foundation the Church would never be overcome by its adversaries. 3. That in order to enable St. Peter thus to sustain the Church by the invisible power of Christ, he was made Christ's visible representative, being invested with a pri macy or supremacy of jurisdiction, denoted by " the keys of the kingdom of heaven " given him by our Lord, which, viewed in connection with
Immovable faith." So says Origen : " He said he should be called Peter, by allusion to the ' Rock,' which is Christ ; that as a man from wisdom id termed wise, and from holiness holy, so, too, Peter from the Rock." So St. Leo represents Christ as saying to Peter, " While I am the inviolable Rock, the corner stone, who make both one, the foundation, beside which no one can lay another : yet thou also art the rock, because, by My virtue, thou art established so as to enjoy, by participation, the properties which are peculiar to Me." The above I have taken as translated by Allies.
168 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
Isaiah xxii. 22, and Rev. iii. 7, significantly point to the possession of supreme and kingly authority.
But this natural sense of the passages of Scrip ture, I found confirmed by the uniform and decisive voice of the earliest Fathers. I say decisive, as all true Anglicans profess to concur with St. Vincent of Lerins, that " they approve the faith in two ways ; first, by the authority of divine Scripture, and then by tradition of the Catholic Church. It is necessary (he says) that the interpretation of heavenly Scripture be guided according to the one rule of the ecclesiastical sense."*
I turned to Tertullian, and he said : " "Was any thing hidden from Peter, who was called the rock, and whereon the Church was built — and who ob tained ' the keys of the kingdom of heaven,' and the power of loosing and of binding in heaven and on earth ? " f To Origen, who said : " Observe what is said by the Lord to that great foundation of the Church, and to the most' solid rock, upon which Christ founded the Church, ( O thou of -little faith, why didst thou doubt ? ' " J Who said again " That Peter should have something peculiar above those (meaning the other disciples) ; this was pre-
* Ut fidem veram duobus his modis approbent. Pnmum divini canonis auctoritate, deinde ecclesiae Catholics traditione. . . . Utad imam ecclesiastic! sensus regulam Scriptune coelestis intelligentia dirigatur. Adv. Hares, n. xxix.
f Latuit aliquid Petrum, sedificandie ecclesia; petram dictum, claves regm coelorum consecutum, et solvendi et alligandi in coelis, et in terris potestatem De Prescript. H&rct n. 22.
J Ecclesite fundaments et petra solidissiina;, super quatn Christus funda vit ecclesiam*&c. T. ii. Horn. v. in Exod. n. 4.
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 169
viously ordained separately respecting Peter ; thus I will give to THEE the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and truly, if we sedulously attend to the Gospel writings, even in them we may discover, even in regard to those things which seem to be common to Peter, and to those (the other disciples), much difference and preeminence in the words spoken to Peter beyond those spoken to in the second place." * To St. Cyprian, who said : " Her self (the Church) was founded first and alone by the voice of our Lord upon Peter." f " First to Peter, upon whom He built the Church, and from whom He instituted and showed that unity should spring ; } the Lord gave this power that that should be loosed in heaven which he should have loosed
on earth." Who said again : " Whither shall
he come that thirsteth ? To heretics, where the fountain and river of water is noway lifegiving — or to the Church, which is one, and was by the voice of the Lord founded upon one, who also re ceived the keys thereof ?"§ To St. James of Nisibis, || who said : " Simon, the head of the Apostles Our Lord received him, and made
* Kul EV TOVTOIS £vpoin£t> &v KOI Kara TOLVTO. ra doKOWTO. tlvai xoiva irpog rov KCTpnv Kal TOVS rpls vovOcrfiaavras TOVS dfc\<j)ovs, xoX\r]i> Sia^opav, Kai iiirepoxnv IK TWV Trpdg rov Herpov eiprjucvuv napa TOVS fcvTtpov;. T. iii. in Matt. Tom. xiii. n. 31.
f Ipsa prima et una super Petrum Domini voce fundata.
| Nam Petro priinum Dominus, super quern sdificavit ecclesiam, et uncle
tinitatis originem instituit et ostendit potestatem istara dedit Ep.
Ixxiii. ad Jabaian.
$ Qute una est, et super unum, qui et claves ejus accepit, Domini voce fun- data est, &c. — Ibid.
j| Who sat in the great Council of Nicsa.
15
170 SEPAHATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
Mm the foundation, ami called him ' the rock ' of the edifice of the Church." — Or at. vii. De Pcenit. n. 6. To St. Hilary, who said : " The Son of God took up Peter, to whom He had just before given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and upon whom He was ahout to build the Church,* against which the gates of hell should never prevail, who, whatsoever he should bind or loose on earth, should be bound and loosed in heaven." To St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who said : " In the power of the same Holy Spirit, Peter also, the foremost of the Apos tles, and the keybearer of the kingdom of heaven,f healed ^Eneas, the paralytic, in the name of Christ." To St. Gregory of Nyssa, who said: " The memory of St. Peter, the head of the Apos tles, is celebrated For he is, agreeably to the
gift conferred on him by our Lord, that unbroken and most firm ' rock,' upon which the Lord built His Church." J To St. Gregory of Nazianzum, who writes, " Seest thou that, of the disciples of Christ, all of whom were great and deserving of His choice ; one is called a rock, and is intrusted with the foundations of the Church ? " and again, " Peter became the unbroken 'rock,' and had tho keys delivered to him." § To St. Basil, who said
* Super quern ecclesiam cedificaturus erat. — Tract, in Ps. cxxxi. n. 4.
f FIpwrotrrdTJ?? ru>v d-xoaroXuv KOL rr/s flaviXctas TOJV ovpavaiv K\£tSovx^ Trpwroo-T arris .- — The word translated foremost, is used three times by St. Cyril, and implies, says a learned writer and critic, " the chief and Prince." Cat. xvii. n. 27.
J Mvrif.iov£v£rai TTETJOOS J? KC(f>a\r] rutv airoar6\u>v. . .nvrog yap iari Kara rrrv 3o9slo.iv avTM xapa TOV icvpiov tupwv rj appaxnSKal oxvpwrar?? niTpa,i<f>' fi, rriv £KK\rjaiav b Samyo a)KoJoju>?0£.
$ 'O piv ~£.rpa Ka^tirat, xal rouj 6sn£i\iovs rris £KK\r](jia.s iriartvErai T. i. or. xxvi.
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 171
" One of these mountains was Peter, upon which rock Christ promised to build His Church."* And again ; " That blessed Peter, who was pre ferred (TTQoxyldtl;) before all the disciples ; who alone received a greater testimony and blessing than the rest ; he to whom were intrusted the keys of the kingdom of heaven." — T. ii. p. i. Proam. de Judic. Dei, n. 7. To St. Epiphanius, who said, ff The blessed Peter was the chiefest of the Apos tles, who became unto us truly a 'firm rock,' upon which is based the Lord's faith, upon which ' rock ' the Church is every way built," f &c. To St. Am brose, who said, " < Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and to thee will I give the keys,' &c. How, could He not confirm His faith, unto whom, of His own authority, He gave the kingdom, and whom, when He styled a < rock,' He pointed out the foundation of the Church ? " J To St. Jerome, who said, " In accordance with the metaphor of a < rock ' is justly said to him (Peter), I will build my Church on thee." — T. vii. 1. iii. in St. Matt. To St. Chrysostom, who said, " When I name Peter, I name that unbroken < rock,' that firm foundation, that great apostle, that first of the disciples. . ." — T. ii. 1. i. in Ep. ad Galat. To St. Asterius : " The only begotten as is said in the
* 'E0' ?7f Kal n£Tpos IrrriyyeiXaTO b Kvptos oiKo&op.riaiiv avrov TIJV CKxXri- ciav. T. i. p. ii. Conini. in Isai., c. ii. n. 66.
f Konvtiatorarns rwi> dffoortfAwi', 05 ysyovev 'ifjisv aAr/9o>f artpta irirpa 6eii£\iova-a rr,v -iziv rnv Kvpiov, ifi' f] c5ffOc5<f/*J7TO )/ £KK\t]cria Kara reavTO. rpo- nov. — Ada. Hares. (59).
J Quern cum Petram (licit, firmamentum ecclesito indicavit. T. ii. 1. iv. d» Fide, c. v.
172 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
Gospels denominates Peter the Church's founda tion. Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church." *
Here, therefore, I found a consensus of Fathers up to Augustine, all interpreting the texts above cited, in their natural obvious sense ; making St. Peter the " rock," upon which Christ built the Church, and ascribing to him, through his posses sion of the keys of " the kingdom of heaven," uni versal jurisdiction.
Upon going to St. Augustine himself, I found, as we shall see hereafter, the strongest claims of preeminence for the See of St. Peter. And, in one place, an interpretation of Matt. xvi. 18, which makes St. Peter the " rock ; " f although subse-
* QefiS^iov TOV nsrpov dvondgei T?JS £KK\rjuias, Ilomil. in Apost. Prin. Petr. ct Paul. t. i.
f T. ii. Ep. liii. Gene?oes. Col. 180. "If the order of Bishops succeeding to each other is to be considered, how much more securely and beneficially do we reckon from Peter himself, to whom, bearing a figure of the Church, the Lord says, Upon this rock Twill build my Church.'" See the case of St. Augus tine ably discussed by Father Passaglia. Here, however, I would further observe, that while St. Augustine changed the interpretation of the passage in Matthew, he did not change his doctrine. While his wish to use the passage against the Arians, and his want of knowledge of the Syrian language, led him to an interpretation which favored this wish, ho still looked upon St Peter as the foundation of the Church, and his See at Rome as the necessui centre of unity and authority in the Catholic Church.
Since writing the above, a kind friend has put into my hand the splendid edition of the before unpublished works of St. Augustine and other Fathers, by that eminent scholar, Cardinal Mains; froin which I cite the following new authority from that Saint : " Most dear brethren, he is guilty of both errc.r and crime, who shall ascribe to the jlpostle Peter, that is, to the foundation of the Chtirch, any thing- of unfaittifalness." Fratres carisMmi, aut erroris (reus) est aut delicti, qui Petro Apostolo, hoc rst, ecclesice fundamento, aliquid infidelitatia ndtfcribit. Angst. Patrum JW/u-'i Bib. Romas. Tijp. Sac. Concl. Propagand. ch. Nov. 1852-3. Serm. lii. c. 1. in Nutale Sane. Pctri. This work embraces six large quarto volumes of Fathers never before given to the world.
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 173
quently, I found him applying the term to our Lord ; which seemed to me very natural, in a con troversy with the Arians, where his object was to show that the true doctrine of the divinity and incarnation of Christ lay at the foundation of his Church. And when,, too, I observed that the Fathers generally made St. Peter the " rock/' sim ply because he became, as Christ's visible represen tative, identified with Him as the chief corner stone, and drew all his power of endurance, and all his ability to sustain the Church from Christ's pres ence with. him. Hence the beautiful and striking words of St. Leo : " That which the Truth ordered remains ; and blessed Peter persisting in that strength of the rock which he received, has not deserted the guidance, once undertaken, of the Church. For thus was he set before the rest, that while he is called the Rock, while he is declared the foundation, while he is appointed the door keeper of the kingdom of heaven, while he is ad vanced to be judge of what shall be bound and what loosed, with the condition that his sentence shall be ratified even in heaven, we might learn through the very mysteries of the names given to him, how he was associated with Christ."* Thus — to cite, even at the risk of apparent repetition of an able writer — St. Peter is termed, by St. Hilary, "the rock of the Church," — by Tertullian, "the rock of the Church that was to be built," — by St.
* St. Leo, Serm. 3, " On his anniversary.'
15*
174 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER
Basil, " underlying the building of the Church/'
— by St. Basil again, " receiving on himself the building of the Church," — by St. Epiphanius, "the immovable rock," — by St. Augustine, "the rock which the proud gates of hell prevail not against," — by Theodoret, " the most solid rock,"
— by Maximus of Turin, " he to whom the Lord granted the participation of His own title the rock,"
— by St. Gregory of Nazianzen, " tlie foundation second from Christ," — by Origen, " the great foundation of the Church," — by the Gallican Sacramentary, "the foundation and basis," — by Peter Chrysologus, " founding the Church by his firmness," — by St. Ambrose, "the support of the Church," — by him again, " the Apostle in whom is the Church's support," — by St. Chrysostom, "the support of the faith," -by St. Philip, "the pillar of the Church," — and by an authority suf ficient to terminate all controversy, the great Coun cil of Chalcedon, "the rock and foundation of the Catholic Church, and the basis of the Orthodox Faith."*
Now, when I discovered so unanimous and de cided a voice among the Fathers of five centuries after Christ, in favor of making the " rock " (Matt. xvi. 18.) St. Peter, and ascribing to him the powers couched under the metaphors of that passage ; and when I recollected the reverence which I had al ways been taught to accord to these Fathers, it
* For the above references, see Passaglia, p. 400.
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 175
seemed to me something worse than presumption to withhold my concurrence.
There is another passage, however, which, in the course of my examination, I found great stress laid upon, by these same Fathers. It is that in which St. Peter seems to be made our Lord's representa tive, as chief pastor or shepherd of His flock. When our Lord, on one occasion had been speak ing of Himself "as the Good Shepherd, giving His life for the sheep," he made reference to the time, after His ascension, when the Gentiles should be brought into His Church, and concluded His speech with these remarkable words, and " there shall be one fold and one shepherd." The " fold " was cer tainly to be visible. But a visible fold would re quire, in my view, a visible shepherd. Christ, however, had ascended ; who, then, as chief shep herd, was to be His visible representative over His "one" visible "fold?"
The following instructions* of our Lord ap peared to me to answer this question :
" When, therefore, they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me more than these 1 He saith to Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him, feed my lambs. He saith to him again, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ? He saith to Him, Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him, feed my lambs. He saith to him the third
* St. John sxi. 15-17.
176 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. PETES,
time, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, lovest thou me ? And he said to Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things ; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith to him, Feed my SHEEP." Here, to my mind, our Lord conferred upon St. Peter the chief pastorship. For he was not only to feed the "lambs," — young Christians — but also the " sheep," all the flock — ministers and people. Or as St. Ambrose expresses it, " that the one more perfect might govern the more perfect." — (Pcr- fectores ut perfectior gubernaret.) Or, as our Lord expresses it : " Thou being converted confirm thy brethren." And as the office of chief pastor seemed to me more than any other to need a double por tion of that ''charity which suffereth long and is kind ; " which could take the lambs in its arms and " gently lead those that are with young ; " I saw a peculiar significance and force in the thrice re peated question of our Lord, " Simon, lovest thou me ? " Lovest thou me, too, more than these, the other disciples ? " Peter was grieved," exclaims the holy Ambrose, " because he is asked the third time, Lovest thou me ? For he is questioned, who is doubted. The Lord does not doubt ; and He inquires, not to learn, but to teach, (now that He is about to be raised to heaven) whom He was leaving unto us, as it were, the vicar of His own love. (Amoris sui nobis, vclut vicarium relinque- bat.) For thus you have it, Simon, son of John, lovest thou me ? Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that
FATAL TO THE ANGLICAN CLAIMS. 177
I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep. . .Who else could readily make this profes sion for himself ? And, therefore, because he alone amongst all makes this profession, he is preferred before all (Omnibus antefertur). For love is greater than all. . .And he is not ordered, as at first, to feed His lambs ; nor His younger sheep, as in the second, but His sheep, that the one more perfect may rule the more perfect." — T. i. Expos, in Luc. 1. x. n. 175.
On looking further into the Fathers, therefore, I was not surprised to find Tertullian affirming, that "when the chief direction, as regards the feeding of the sheep, was delivered to Peter, on whom, as on the earth, the Church is founded.* Of no other virtue was the confession required than that of love." — T. iv. lib. 5, in Ep. ad Rom. n. 10.
Also St. Cyprian, saying, « Peter also to whom the Lord commends His sheep to be fed and guarded, on whom He laid and founded the Church,f says that gold and silver he has none, but declares that he is rich in Christ's grace." Also St. Epiphanius, saying, "He (Peter) heard from that same God, Feed my lambs ; to him was intrusted the flock, he leads the way admirably in the power of his own Master." J — T. ii. In Anchor.
* Petro cum summa renim de pascendis ovibus traderetur, et super ipsum velut super terrain, fundaretur ecclesia.
t Patrus etiam cui oves suas Doniinus pascendas tuendas, que commendat, uper quern posuit et fundavit ecclesiam. J O irsvifftvuivos TTJV nui^vTjv 6 KoAwf SJ/j/wv iv rq dvvapei TOV iSio*
178 SEPARATION FROM THE CHAIR OF ST. FETER, &C.
n. 9. Also St. Ambrose, saying, " In fine, Peter, after having been tempted by the devil, is set over the Church* The Lord, therefore, foreshadowed what that was (Luke xxii. 31, 3£,) that He after wards chose him pastor of His flock. For to him He said, 'Thou, when converted, confirm thy brethren.' . . . Therefore did Christ also commit to Peter to feed His flock, because He knew his fouc."t — T. i. in Ps. cxviii. n. 3.
Nothing more, therefore, was needed to make it certain in my mind, that the Fathers understood Holy Scripture, as teaching that our blessed Lord invested St. Peter with a primacy or supremacy of jurisdiction in His Church, and made him chief pastor thereof, and in such a sense as that he is the source of all visible authority and of all visible unity in the Church, and when acting or teaching as the Church's visible head and representative, is to Christ's people an infallible guide to the truth. Otherwise, he could not be made the " foundation of His Church," so as that " the gates of hell should not prevail against it," — could not be " set over it," so as to loose it from sin, could not "feed " it, so as that it shall be led into all truth, and nour ished up unto everlasting life !
In truth I could not see how it should be possi ble for an honest Anglican, who, as all Anglicans profess, took the word of God as interpreted by
* Petrus ecclesis pneponitur.
f Ante significat Dominus quid sit illud, qund poptea eum Pastorem elegit Dominici gregis. T. i. in Ps. xi. n, 30.
PKIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH, &C. 179
"the authority of Catholic tradition," to come to any other conclusion !
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE PRIMACY OF ST. PETER INTERWOVEN IN THE FAITH AXD DISCIPLINE OF THE PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. A CON TINUANCE OF THE POSITION OF THE FORMER CHAPTER.
THAT 110 regular treatise on the Primacy of St. Peter, no labored defence of his prerogatives, should be found in the records of the early Church, was to me no matter of surprise. A thing that stands before the world as a fact, and is acknowledged in the every-day acts of the Christian, is not likely, I thought, to be drawn into dispute, and hence to require explanation or defence. In a Christian nation, a treatise or sermon on the Being of a God is generally considered out of place. Indeed, the more notorious a truth, the less, in most cases, is said about it. To find, therefore, at this day, a labored attempt professedly on the part of some Fathers of the first centuries to prove or justify the papal supremacy, would, to my mind, be rather a suspicious circumstance. The want, therefore, of very abundant documentary proof, sometimes pleaded against the claim, I could only regard as favorable to it ; just as I had, all my life, in regard to the claims of episcopacy, or of any thing else in the Church which stood before it as a fact, or
180 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
entered into its order and discipline. I felt, too., that tliis position is strengthened by the fact, that for three centuries at least after Christ, almost un ceasing persecution would necessarily have the effect, as I have mentioned above, to make records of all Christian facts and truths exceedingly rare.
Notwithstanding this, however, I found that the Church is in possession of just such proof of the primacy of St. Peter as the circumstances of the time might be expected to furnish — proof so woven into her very being, as to be given out, here and there, as she moves along in the fulfilment of her holy office, through the generations of men. We trace her progress through the days of dark ness and blood, and always find the distinct foot prints of her spiritual guide — the successor of St. Peter.
A few of these only, in comparison with the multitude that were opened to my view when ex amining the question, can I now submit to my old friends, at the same time referring them to the mas terly work of Father Passaglia, the substance of which has recently been presented in an English dress, with some strong additional points, by Mr. Allies, in his book entitled ST. PETER, His NAME AND OFFICES.
Already have I exhibited to you a sufficient ab stract of the scriptural basis as understood by the Fathers, on which I perceived the claims of the See of St. Peter to rest with all reasonable security. The final question is, are these claims good in all
DISCIPLINE OI< PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 181
ages, and was the English Church committed to them in the beginning, and did it continue to be up to the Reformation ?
1. In the first place, the grounds on which the Fathers urge these claims made them necessary, in my view, for all Christians during all time. I shall select the one which was irresistible with my self, —The preservation of Unity in the Church, and the perpetuation of its blessings. This unity I found to be tivofold, or, like all sacraments, to consist of two parts, " an outward visible sign and an inward spiritual grace," the first part being in strumental to the second. Now the " inward spir itual grace" of unity is made to depend solely upon Christ the Head of the Church, " which is His body." Through His Incarnation, I was taught, by His Word and by His Church, that He linked Himself to our nature. So that when we arc baptized into Him, we become new creatures in Him, are " ingrafted into Him as the branch is ingrafted into the vine," are all " made partakers of His One Spirit." * Now, as our Spiritual Head, — the Divine Source of Unity, — Christ is to main tain His relation to us '. o the end of the world. For this He has promised, " Lo, / am with you all days." But to fulfil this promise of invisible com munion with us, He appointed a visible instru mentality to act in His " stead." " A single Priest hood," as said a holy Father f fifteen hundred and
* See Passaglia and Allies on this point. f Symniachus, Bishop of Rome.
10
182 PRIMACY OF ST, PETER IX FAITH AND
fifty years ago, "whose power is one and indivisi ble." For although "He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and doc tors," yet it was by perfect oneness of action to effect one great purpose, viz., " the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all meet into the unity of
faith unto a perfect man, unto the measure
of the age of the fulness of Christ. That hence forth we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine. But doing the truth in charity, we may in all things grow up in Him who is the head, even Christ."
I saw at a glance, therefore, how vital to each individual soul was the unity of the Church — and hence how deeply each soul, even to the end of time, must be concerned in the preservation of this unity. For I saw it consisted, not merely in an absence of outward commotion — in a quiet state of things, 011 the principle of " agreeing to differ ; " but that it consisted in being of "one heart and one mind," not merely in speaking the same things, but in being perfectly joined together in the same judgment, thus constituting a fellowship, called by the Church "the Communion of Saints." Now to insure this, I perceived that it was all made to spring from one fountain head — CHRIST JESUS. But this, being invisible, was not enough for a vis ible Church. Hence, after Christ's ascension, the continuance of a visible centre of unity, not only seemed necessary to bind us to " the one Lord, one Faith, one baptism," but also actually appeared, as
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 183
1 found, by the institution of Christ and testimony of His Church, in the person first, and then the See of St. Peter. 1st. He was identified with The One Lord. " We learn," says St. Leo, " through the very mysteries of the names given him, how he was associated with Christ."
"The blessed Peter ceases not to preside over his own See, and he enjoys a never-ceasing fellow ship with the everlasting priest (Christ)."
"He," says St. Augustine, "who would have part with Christ, must be in communion with Pe ter." (Communicet Petro qui vult par tern habere cum Christo.) — Tom. vi.p. 546, Card. Mains. Ed. These are the last words of the sermon, according to the Vatican Manuscript. ,
Hence St. Cyprian, as we have seen, says, that the first reason why our Lord built the Church on Peter, was to show whence He had " appointed unity to spring." Or, as he says again, " For an original and principle of unity, "f Or, as St. Op- tatus says a little after, " It is well known that St. Peter established the chair at Rome, and the chair is one, that so all might preserve unity by union with it, that whosoever should establish another should be considered a schismatic and a transgress or." J If St. Peter, therefore, be so identified
* Reference already given.
| " Una ecclesia a Christo Domino super Petrum origine unitatis et ratione fundata."
J Igitur negare non potes, scire te in urbe Roma Petro primo cathedram Episcopalam esse collatam in quasederit omnium apustolorum cap ut Pctnis, unde et Cephas appellatus eat; in qua una cathedra unitas ab omnibus ser
184 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
with the presence of our Lord on earth as to be the spring or necessary centre of our union with Him, in the time of St. Cyprian and St. Optatus, upon what ground, I asked myself, can we safely sup pose that he will not continue to be this spring or centre to "the consummation of the world ? " 2. Again, St. Peter I found identified with " the one Faith" So that all who would have evidence of holding that " one Faith/' must be in communion with him. "Hence/' declares the Council of Chalcedon, " he (St. Peter) is the BASIS of the Or thodox Faith." And Tertullian: "The chief au thority as regards the feeding of the flock was de livered to Peter." And St. Cyprian: "To him (Peter) He (Christ) assigns His sheep to be fed" And St. Epiphanius : " He (Peter) was aided by the Father, so as to be the foundation of the secu rity of the Faith* To him was intrusted the
flock" " For in every way/' continues he, " was the Faith confirmed in him who received the keys of heaven." And again : " He became unto us truly a firm rock, upon which is based the Faith of the Lord." And St. Ambrose : " He (Peter) was chosen as tf/zeTastor of the Lord's flock. For to him He said, 'When thou art converted, con firm thy brethren.' ' And again : " Peter was, by the judgment of the Lord Himself, chosen to feed
varetur ; nee ceteri apostoli singulas sibi quisque defenderent ; et jam schis- maticus et peccator esset, qui contra singularem cathedram alteram colloca- ret. — De Schism. Donat. 1. ii. n. 2.
* O Si -rrapa rdv Trarpos ttyeXeiro, rriv dvipaXciav rfjs Tiore T. ii. in auct. n. 9.
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CUTJECII. 185
the flock, who merited to hear a third time, ' Feed my lambs, feed my lambs, feed my sheep.' ': And St. Chrysostom : " Peter, the mouth of the disci ples, the pillar of the Church, the buttress of the Faith."— T. iii. Horn, de Dec. Mill Talent, n. 3. I was not surprised, therefore, to hear St. Irreneus declare : " To this Church (the Roman) on account of a more powerful principality (or spiritual juris diction), it is necessary that every Church, that is, those who are, on every side, faithful, resort, (be cause) in that Church has been preserved
that tradition which is from the Apostles."* Not surprised to hear St. Cyprian exclaim, after he had declared, that our Lord, "in. order to manifest unity, has by His own authority so placed the ori gin of that same unity, as that it begins from ONE (St. Peter)." — "He who holds not this unity of the Church, does he think that he holds the Faith ? He who strives against, and resists the Church, he wrho abandons the chair of St. Peter, upon whom the Church was founded, does he feel confident that he is in the Church ? " — De Unitate. Bened. Edition.
Thus it appeared to me that the Fathers regarded the transmission of the authority of the See of St. Peter as identical with the preservation of the true Faith. So that, to ascertain who is in possession
* Ad hanc enim ecclesiam propter potentiorcm principalitatem necesse est omnem convcnire ecclesiam, hoc est, eos qui s-.nit untlique fideles, in qua semper ab his, qui stint undique, conservata est qua; est ab apostolis traditio. -AtLv. Ilarcs. 1. iii., c. 3. n. 2.
16*
186 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
of that Faith, it was only needful to inquire who is in fellowship with the Apostolic See.
As a new testimony to this view, I here give a passage from St. Augustine, found in Sermon cxx. c. 13, published for the first time by Cardinal Maius, in 1852: "Do not suppose that you hold to the true Catholic Faith, unless you hold that Faith which is preserved at Rome." Non crederis veram fidem tenere Catholics, qui fidem non doces esse Servandam Romanam.
In this striking testimony of the great Augustine as to the necessity of adhering to the Faith of Rome, in order to be distinguished from heretics and schismatics, he has only handed down the mark of a Catholic, given by his spiritual father, St. Ambrose, who, lib. i. 47, speaking of the true test of the orthodoxy of a person, inquires, " "whether it is not he who is in communion with the Catholic bishops, that is, with the Church of Rome" Utrumnam cum Episcopis Catholicis, hoc est, eum Romana ecclesia convcmret." — See Card. Mains. Note to the above citation from St. Au gustine.
Again, 3. St. Peter I found identified with "the one baptism," or with the forgiveness of sins in the Church in whatever Sacrament. Thus in Tertullian, " Thinkest thou heaven is still closed ? Remember the Lord left here the keys thereof to Peter, and through him to the Church."* Thus
* Memento claves ejsis hie Dominum Petro,et per eum, ecclesia; reliquisse. Scorpiocc, n. x. It was manifest to my mind that both this Father and the
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 187
in St. Cyprian : " Whither shall he come that thirsteth ? To heretics ? or to the Church ? which is one, and was by the voice of the Lord founded on one, who also received the keys thereof. She it is that alone holds and possesses the whole power of her Spouse and Lord." — Ep. Ixiii. ad Jubaian. ..." There is one baptism, and one Holy Ghost, and one Church, founded by Christ our Lord upon Peter, for an original and principle of unity." — Ep. Ixx. ad Januar. ..." First, to Peter the Lord gave this power, that that should be loosed in heaven which he should have loosed on earth." — Ep. Ixxiii. ad Jub. Thus in Firmilian : " But how great his error, how exceeding his blindness, who says re mission of sins can be given in. the synagogues of heretics, not abiding on the foundation of the one Church which was once established by Christ on a rock, — may hence be understood, that to Peter alone Christ said, f Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven ; whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' ' — Inter Ep. S. Cyp. Ep. Ixxv. Thus, too, in St. Hilary, speaking of St. Peter : ft A blessed keeper of the gate of heaven, to whose disposal are deliv ered the keys of the entrance into eternity ; whose judgment on earth is an authority prejudged in heaven, so that the things that are either loosed or Dound on earth, acquire in heaven too a like state
Fathers generally, held, that from St. Peter, as the visible fountain, the power of" binding and loosing" was dispensed to one other disciple, and is now to all the Priesthood in communion with him.
188 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
of settlement ! " * Tims, in St Ephroem : " We hail thee, Peter, the tongue of the Apostles, the voice of the heralds, the eye of the Apostles, the keeper of heaven, the first born of those ivho bear the keys" T. iii. Gr. in SS. Apost. Thus find ing St. Peter the visible source of those gifts in the Church which are necessary to all men to the end of the world, necessary to make them par takers in " the communion of Saints," I could not doubt the indispensable importance to myself and to all Christians, of union with the Holy See !
2. But I discovered further, that the fact of the transmission of the power of that See from St. Peter to his successors is insisted on by the early Fathers. Though convinced of its necessary per petuity from its very character and declared pur pose, I found my convictions strengthened by the value put upon it by the primitive Church.
After having asserted the necessity in his day of all churches being in communion with the Church of Home, and having traced the Roman succession of bishops, St. Irenceus declares : " By this order and by this succession, both that tradition which is in the Church from the Apostles, and the preach ing of the truth, have come, doivn to us"
But as I was thus pursuing my search into the testimony of the Fathers, a book was put into my hand, entitled Theophilus Amcricanus , which I
* O beatus cceli janitor cnjns, arbitvio drives rnterni aditus traduntur, r-ijus terrestve jiidiciuiu pntvjudicata anctoritas sit in cculo ; ut qua? in terris aut ligata sint aut soluta, statute ejusdem conditionem obtineaut et in ccelo. — Coin, in St. Matt. c. xvi. n. 7.
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found to be a republication by an able American Jurist of a work entitled Theophilus Anglicanus, by "CnR. WORDSWORTH, D. D., CANON OF WEST MINSTER, &c., designed for the Instruction of tlie Young Student concerning the Church." I at once turned to the chapter " The Bishop of Rome no Supremacy, spiritual or temporal, in the Realms," and I was not a little surprised to read on page 295 the following statement : " And to de scend to St. Peter's successors, it is certain also that St. Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, Jcnew no-thing of such supremacy in Pope Aiiicetas ; that Polycrates, Bishop of Ephesus, and the Synod of Asiatic bish ops, and St. Irenseus, Bishop of Lyons, and the Council assembled in that city, knew nothing of such supremacy in Pope Victor ; that St. Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, and the African Bishops, knew nothing of it in -Pope Stephanus ; that St. Augus tine and the bishops of Africa knew nothing of it in Popes Zosimus and Boniface ; and that the
BlSHOPS OF EOME THEMSELVES, for SIX HUNDRED
YEARS, were so far from knowing any thing of such supremacy as residing in themselves or in any one else, that Pope Gregory the First denounced the title universal Bishop as arrogant, wicked, schis- matical, blasphemous, and anti-Christian." I say I was not a little surprised at this statement, as my impressions, from a general view of the Fathers, were totally different. Still the source, both in England and America, from which the statement proceeded, was too respectable not to claim my
190 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
serious attention. Humbly, and with, prayerful desires to know the truth, I applied to it such at tention j I now submit the results to the candid judgment of my old friends, Before I proceed, however, I must say that I felt bound at the time to settle in my mind a distinction insisted on by the learned author, between Supremacy and Prima cy. And here the task was not difficult, inas much as it seemed to me to matter little by what name you characterize a power or dignity, which gives, by divine institution, to its possessor univer sal jurisdiction, as in the case of St. Peter and his successors, and makes individual submission to it necessary to the enjoyment of the blessings of Christ's kingdom. You may call that Apostle Pri mus inter pares, or Summits supra inferior cs, or any thing else, if you only make him what Christ made him and the Fathers ascribed to him, the founda tion of the Church, and the ever-living visible head to which all must be united, who would live unto Christ, and be found in Him when He comes to judge the world.
And now for the statement of Dr. Wordsworth : What first struck me was the positiveness which characterized this statement, " It is certain," says he, and that, too, in regard to a negative thing " It is certain " that St. Polycarp and the others named " 'knew nothing" of the supremacy. Now, I had been led to suppose that, taking the small number of documents of that early age, Church historians did not regard the absence of proof in
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any particular case, on a particular point, as mak ing it " certain " that that point was not true, pro vided it had in its favor the general current of testimony ! Hence I could see no reason why, if the cases of St. Polycarp, Irenseus, and some others stood alone, there should be " uncertainty " in re gard to them. But when I found them linked with other cases, yea, the principle that seemed to govern them, prominent and uniform in its operation throughout the Catholic Church of that early time, I felt that there was a very high degree of probability, if not certainty, that Dr. Wordsworth is in error. 1. The case of St. Polycarp and St. Irenaeus. And here, I hope, I may be allowed the remark, that the question with me was not, whether St. Polycarp, St. Irenseus, and the others believed in the infallibility, under all circumstances, of the Bishop of Rome, (for this I felt confident that no Catholic holds,) but it was whether they acknowl edged the supremacy of his jurisdiction ! * I
* "Here let us observe," says Cardinal Wiseman, " what is meant by obeying whatever he (the Pope) shall teach or appoint. It is not to be under stood that we believe, by any means, that he has it in his power to create any new doctrine for the Church, or appoint any thing to be believed which was not believed before ; not even that, according to the universally received doc trine of the Church, he has the power of pronouncing infallibly upon what is believed in the Church; but simply that it is his duty, the moment an error arises, to investigate and examine what is the belief of the Church upon the point, to give an answer regarding it, and, according to the dogma of tlw Church, if the whole of the Church — the bishops constituting it — should accede to that decision, the decision is considered necessarily as the voice of the Church, and consequently the infallible teaching of God. But, as I ob- serv?d before, it can only be as to a matter, whether such doctrine hath always been taught, and whether it is actually taught through the universal Church, that this inquiry is directed ; the power is never exercised for the creation of a single new opinion, for imposing upon the faith of the Catholic one single new doctritta
192 PRIMACY OF ST. PETEIl IN FAITH AND
hardly need say that the question which disturbed the peace of the Church at the time was simply one of usage, which related to the time of keeping Easter. In regard to this question, Pope Anicetus had made some demands upon the Churches of the East, and enforced them by a threat of excommu nication, and also Pope Victor. Now, to me, it ap peared reasonable that if these Churches denied the jurisdiction of the See of Rome, that, instead of endeavors to change the judgment of that See, they would have questioned its authority to judge — would have charged it with usurpation. When, therefore, I discovered that both St. Polycarp and St. Irenaeus repaired to the Eoman See * as to the
which has not, till then, teen universally received." — Wiseman's Lectures on Doc trines, Sfc., p. 168.
In reference to the question of the source of infallibility in the Catholic Church, about which some difference of opinion, I believe, has existed, I found advantage was taken of it to meet the charge of disagreements among Protes tants, — as if the character or effect of the differences was in each case alike ! Now the differences among Protestants pertain to the most vital articles of faith, and produce the most radical disagreements in religious practice ; while the differences among Catholics, particularly the one about the exact source of infallibility in the Church, are matters of mere opinion, which are looked upon as indifferent in their character, and as having no effect upon religious practice. For example, take the difference of opinion about the exact source of infallibility; and what evil proceeds from it? For what possible effect upon the doctrine of infallibility can be produced by a difference of opinion merely about its source ? Test it by an example. A law of the United States, to be binding, must proceed from the House of Representatives, the Senate and the President of the Union acting respectively in their proper capacity. Now there have been discussions among the people as to the real source of the law-making power, showing a difference of opinion. But did any one ever suppose that such difference took from the value of the law, either by obscuring its meaning or weakening its sanctions? It struck me, therefore, as wholly illogical to cite unimportant differences as an offset to the most vital ones !
* E'uscbius, Id. E. V. C. xxiv. Also Ircnaus, t. i. In regard to the journey of St. Irenoms, see St. Jerome.
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rightful authority, and while they expostulated with the Pope, on the ground of expediency, they never so much as intimated a doubt of his jurisdic tion ; and when, further, I observed that the Churches who felt themselves aggrieved actually assembled in council at the bidding of the Pope, and that, in the case of Pope Victor, St. Irenaeus entreated him to withhold from the Churches the evil of excommunication, not on the ground that he had no right to proceed to this extremity . — which in their exasperated state was the ground which would certainly have been urged, if tenable — but simply on the ground of condescending charity. Seeing they persisted in their practice, not out of self-will, but of attachment to ancient usage,* I could not help the conviction, that instead of its being "certain" that they knew nothing of the supremacy of the See of Rome, they furnished the best circumstantial proof that they acknowledged it. When, in addition, I reflected upon the strong passage cited above, in which St. Irenaeus urges upon all Churches the necessity of resorting to Rome because of its superior jurisdiction, I felt how different are the facts of history from the assertions of prejudiced and self-confident minds! £. But I was invited on to the case of St Cyprian. And here I felt myself at home. This Father had been my favorite study for years, and had already
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17
194: PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
imparted to my mind new, and at the time dis quieting, ideas of the powers of the Holy See. And whoever will turn back and contemplate, in a spirit of candor, the passages cited in a former chapter, on this point, must, I have the presump tion to think, be convinced that these ideas were not altogether baseless. Still I was willing and anxious for the sake of truth to reconsider the tes timony of this Father. A particular instance had been adduced by Dr. Wordsworth ; and I was led to examine whether it could, by any possibility, be so tortured even as to bear witness against those prerogatives which certainly, on all other occasions, the saint had so boldly asserted. , But before pro ceeding, I felt bound to record my protest against the logic which would make a doubtful action in a man's life reverse the plain intention of all other actions of it ; while common sense all the while was requiring the application of the exactly oppo site rule.
Dr. Wordsworth says St. Cyprian " knew noth ing of supremacy in Pope Stephanus." Let us see what in all honesty are the facts of the case. To arrive at these facts, I thought it right first to consider what he said in other cases.
In a letter to Antonianus concerning Pope Corne lius, he employs at the beginning such language as this : " You wrote that I should transmit a copy of the same letter to our colleague Cornelius, that, having been relieved of anxiety, he might at length know that you communicate with him, that is, with
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the Catholic Church," * An expression which will be readily understood by those who have attended to the repeated declarations of this saint, making the chair of St. Peter not only the source of au thority in the Catholic Church, but also her repre sentative. For example, in his letter to Cornelius himself he says, "Peter, on whom the Church had been built by the Lord Himself, f one speaking for all, and replying with the voice of the Church, exclaims, < Lord, to whom shall we go ? ' " Again, in the same letter to Antonianus, he makes the following reference to Pope Fabian, the predeces sor of Cornelius. Speaking of the election of the latter to the See of Koine, he says it occurred " when the place of Fabian, that is, when the place of Peter, and the rank of the sacerdotal chair, was vacant." J And again, in his letter to Pope Cornelius, he says, "Moreover, after all this, a pseudo-bishop having been set up for themselves by heretics, they dare to sail and carry letters from schismatics and profane persons to the chair of Peter, and to the chief Church, where the unity of the Priesthood has begun." § It seemed to me clear from these incidental (and on that account more forcible) allusions to the chair of St. Peter,
* Ad Cornelium collegiam nostrum transmitterem ut deposita omni solici- tudine jam sciret te secum, hoc est, cum catholica ecclesia communicare. Ep. L. ii. p. 147.
t Petrus super quern, &c. Ep. LV. as before cited.
t Cum Fabiani locus, id est, cum locus Petri et gradus Cathedrae sacerdo- talis vacaret. Ep. LII. ad Antoni. p. 150.
$ Ad Petri Cathedram, atque ad ecclesiam principalem,imde unitas sacer dotalis exorta est. — Ep. LV. p. 182-3.
196 PKIMACY OF ST. PETER IK FAITH AND
as in Cyprian's day, holding a peculiar sacerdotal rank, and being the fountain of " the unity of the priesthood," that this sainted martyr regarded the Popes of Rome as having by divine right a certain jurisdiction over all other bishops, which all other bishops were bound to concede. But the case of Pope Stephen was urged by Dr. Wordsworth with a view manifestly to cast discredit upon St. Cyp rian's testimony in other cases, or in reference to the question generally. The case, as represented, was one of disagreement between this saint and that Pope on the subject of the baptism of here tics. That such disagreement existed between Pope Stephen and some of the African bishops I knew to be certain ; but how far St. Cyprian was involved in it I found to be exceedingly doubtful. The fol lowing is a description of it by St. Vincent Lirens, whose authority is unquestionable with the Church of England. He was speaking of the zeal of the Apostolic See in resisting novelties, and continues thus : " Not to be tedious, we shall select one in stance, and this especially from the Apostolic See, that all may see more clearly than in meridian light with what energy, with what zeal, with what perseverance the blessed successors (beata successio) of the holy Apostles have always defended the integrity of religion as it was originally delivered. Formerly, then, Agriphinus, bishop of Carthage, a man whose memory is venerable, was the first to maintain that baptism should be repeated, in op position to the divine canon, to the rule of the
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Universal Church, to the judgment of all his fellow- priests, to the custom and decrees of his predeces sors ; which presumption was the cause of much evil, that it not only gave all heretics a form of sacrilege, but even gave occasion of error to some Catholics. When, therefore, all cried out from all quarters against the novelty, and all priests in every place struggled against it, each according to his zeal, Pope Stephen, of blessed memory, who at that time was prelate of the Apostolic See, in con junction, indeed, with his colleagues, but yet more than his colleagues, resisted, thinking it fit, as 1 suppose, that he should surpass all others in the devotedness of his faith as much as he excelled them by the authority of his station. Finally, in the epistle which was then sent to Africa, he de creed in these words : that NO INNOVATION SHOULD
BE ADMITTED, BUT WHAT WAS HANDED DOWN SHOULD
BE RETAINED. What power had the African Coun cil or decree ? NONE, through the mercy of God." — Commonit. c. viii.
In this account of the great Vincentius I ob served two things : 1, that he bears a noble testi mony to the superior i( authority " of the See of Rome ; and 2, says nothing of any collision of St. Cyprian with Pope Stephen. And probably for the reason which I found given in a letter by St. Augustine to him, " that there were not wanting persons who maintained that St. Cyprian did not yield to the opinion of Agrippiiius ; but that, to give it the sanction of his name, the letter and •17*
198 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
documents were composed under it by presump tuous and deceitful men." * Here I could not help contrasting the positiveiicss of Dr. Wordsworth with the doubtfulness of St. Augustine, and feeling some little wonder how the former, at this distant period, should be so much better informed on the point than the latter, who lived so near the time But St. Augustine continues, in reply to the Dona- tists : " Cyprian either did not think at all, as you represent, or he afterwards corrected his error by the rule of truth ; or he covered this blemish, as it were, of his own fair breast, with the abundance of charity, while he defended most eloquently the, unity of the Church, spread over the whole world, and held most steadfastly the bond of peace." f And referring to his martyrdom, St. Augustine remarks {( 1 think that the bishop Cyprian may, without any insult to himself, be compared with the Apostle Peter, as far as regards the crown of martyrdom But I ought rather to be afraid of being contume lious towards Peter. For who knows not that the primacy (princedom^) of the Apostlcship is to be preferred before any episcopate whatever ? But although the grace of the chairs is widely different, yet one is the glory of martyrs." J From this 1
* " Quamquam non dcsiret qui hoc Cyprianum prorsus non sensisse con- tendant, sed sub ejns nomine a presumptoribus atque mendacibus firisse con- fectum." — Ed. xciii. ad Vincent. Rog. S. 38, p. 240, Tom. ii. Ed. Ven.
f Porro autem Cyprianus, aut non sensit oinnino quod eum senisse recita- tis ; aut hoc postea correxit in rogula veritatis, aut hunc quasi naeviim sui candidissimi pectoris cooperuit ubere caritatis dum unitatem ecclesiqs toto orbe crcscentis, et copiosissime defendit, et perseverantissiine tenuit vincu- lum pads. — p. 247, ad Vinct.
J Ciuia eniin neacit ilium apostolatus principqtum cuilibet episcopatui praa
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became convinced that, even if the disagreement between St. Cyprian and Pope Stephen were such as had been represented, it was either maintained on the part of that martyr in perfect consistency with his known reverence for the controlling au thority of the See of Rome, or was so repented of as that he died in communion with that See, as did also the other contending bishops of Africa, if we may trust St. Jerome. " St. Cyprian," says that father, " endeavored to shun pits that were bro ken, and not to drink of the waters of others ; and on that account, reprobating the baptism of heretics, forwarded the African Synod, on this subject, to Stephen, then bishop of the Roman city, the twenty- sixth from blessed Peter ; but this effort proved fruit less. Finally, those very bishops who with him had determined that the heretics should be rebap- tized, turning back to the ancient custom, issued a new decree." — Dial. Contr. Lucif.
In short, I discovered that in the whole of this con troversy, even admitting that all proceeded from the pen of St. Cyprian which is ascribed to it, nothing was said even by himself or associates which implied an assumption or overestimate of jurisdiction on the part of Pope Stephen, but only an indiscreet use of lawful prerogatives.* Instead of any resistance of the claim of jurisdiction made by the Roman See, I found every litigated question
ferendum ? Sed et si distal cathedrarum gratia mia est truncn gloria marty- rum. — T. ix. 1. ii. De Baptism, contra Donat. n. I. col. 182. Or, propter pri- matum quern in discipulis habuit. — T. iv. Enar. in Ps. cviii. ru 1. * Ep. Finniliani inter Cyprian. — Tom. iiL p. 265, Ed. Wircclmrg.
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referred to its judgment as by divine arrangement. St. Cyprian himself, in respect to Martianus, en treats this very Pope Stephen to interfere for the preservation of discipline : ( ' Let letters be addressed from THEE — (but why from Stephen, the blamed Stephen, if his (Cyprian's) own authority was equal ?) — be addressed from THEE to the province and the people of Aries, WHEREBY Martianus, BEING EXCOMMUNICATED,* another may be substituted in his room " — a request which, in my view, implied some knowledge, on the part of St. Cyprian, of supremacy in Pope Stephen, as the act requested, to be lawful in the dioceses of other bishops, must have been an act of supremacy.
Here the further case of St. Augustine was pre sented. ft He and the bishops of Africa knew nothing," says Dr. Wordsworth, " of supremacy in Popes Zosimus and Boniface."
It must be admitted, I thought, that this asser tion falls to the ground, if it should appear that St. Augustine, in his writings, maintains, generally, a supremacy of jurisdiction in the See of St. Peter. I turned to these writings : I read the following :
" In the Catholic Church the succession of
priests from the very chair of St. Peter, to whom the Lord, after His resurrection, committed his sheep to be fed, down even to the present bishop, keeps me." — T. iii. Contr. Ep. Fund. Manich. Col. 269. Again : " That city (Carthage) had a bishop
* Qiiihus litteris absterrito Martiano, alias in locum cjus substitutur. — Ept Ixvii. p. 249, Ed. Ven.
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. £01
of no slight authority, who was able not to heed the multitude of enemies conspiring against him, when he saw himself united by letters of com munion both with the Roman Church, in which the primacy of the Apostolic chair has always been in force,* and with other lands." — T. ii. Ep. xliii. Gloria et aliis Dvnat. n. 7, Col 136. I recalled, too, his strong words in respect to St. Cyprian : <( Who knows not that the princedom of the Apos- tleship (at Rome) is to be preferred before any epis copate whatsoever." Besides, he seemed to me to recognize in one of the Popes (Zosimus) alluded to something more than ordinary authority. " Where as," he writes, " Pelagius and Coelestius, the authors of this heresy, were, by the vigilance of the coun cils of bishops in aid of the Savior, who protects His own Church, also by two venerable prelates of the Apostolic See, Pope Innocent and Pope Zosi mus, condemned, &c," — T. ii. Ep. CXC. But why single out the popes of Rome in this case of discipline, if they had no more jurisdiction than other bishops ? To me, therefore, it became quite manifest that St. Augustine did recognize in the Roman See a preeminent right of jurisdiction ?
And now I was brought to that most extraordi nary assertion of Dr. Wordsworth, that the Popes themselves for six hundred years recognized in themselves no such right. I say extraordinary ; as a few hours search enabled me to verify the fol-
* Romance ecclesicc, in qua semper apostolkce cathedra viguit principatus.
PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN ¥AITH AND
lowing passage, which, to my mind, presented an almost continuous series of the most irresistible tes timony to the contrary: 1. I began with Pope Julius, who lived early in the fourth century. He wrote on the subject of the Arian disturbances at Alexandria, and expostulated thus : " Why were we not written to concerning the Church, especially of Alexandria ? Or are you ignorant that this hath been the custom, first to write to us, and thus what is just be decreed from this place 1 * If, therefore, any such suspicion fell upon your bishop there, it was befitting to write to this Church. . .Bear with me cheerfully, I beseech you, for what I write is for the common weal. For what we have received from the blessed Apostle Peter, the same do I make known to you. . ." — Ep. ad Eusebian, n. 21. The true force of the above passage appeared in the fact that this Pope had summoned these Arians to Eome for trial. "It behooved you, beloved, to come hither, and not to refuse,f in order that this business may be terminated. ' — Ib. n. 6. They give their pleas for not appearing before him, ur ging want of sufficient notice, (n. 6,) — the state of affairs in the East (n. 7) ; and lastly, that the let ter of citation was addressed only to Eusebius and his associates (n. 8) ; but, however vain may have been their pleas for not coming to Kome, they never questioned the authority that summoned
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them; while Athanasius actually obeyed and re mained in the holy city for years. Here I asked myself, Did Pope Julius know nothing in himself of supreme jurisdiction ?
£. I turned to POPE DAMASTJS, who, writing to the East at the time of the Council of Arimiiium, says, " No advantage could arise from the number of those who assembled at Ariminum, seeing that it is certain that neither the Roman bishop, whose opinion ought to have been sought for before all others* nor Vincentius," &c. Again, to the same Churches : " Most honored children, in that your friendliness bestows on an apostolic chair the rev erence due, you confer the greatest honor on your selves. For although, especially in this holy Church, wherein the holy Apostle, sitting, taught in what way it beseems us to manage the helm which has been put into our hands, yet do we confess ourselves unequal to the dignity; but, therefore, do we strive in every way, if it may be, that we may be able to attain unto the glory of that blessedness. Know, therefore, that long since we deposed (or cut off) the profane Timotheus. . .with his impious doctrine." f Here, too, I asked my self, Did Pope Damasus really know nothing of supremacy in himself?
3. I turned next to the epistles of POPE ANAS-
* Cujus ante omnes fuit expetenda sententia. — Ep. i., Synd. OricntaWms. Galland. J. vi. p. 321.
f On the above epistle Theodoret remarks, " When the entirely praisewor thy Damasus learned that this heresy had sprung up, he deposed and excom municated, not only Apollinarius, but also Timotheus, his disciple
£04 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
TAsrcrs I., and read as follows. Speaking of some imputed neglect, lie says, " Far be this from the Catholic discipline of the Roman Church As suredly care shall not be wanted on my part to guard the faith of the Gospel in my people ; and • to visit by letter, as far as I am able, the members of my body, throughout the divers regions of the earth, (Partesque corporis mei per spatia diversa terrarum,) to prevent any beginning of a profane interpretation from creeping in, which may have for its object to confound devout minds by spread ing its darkness." Here, too, I put it to my con science, Did Pope Anastasius know nothing of supremacy in himself?
4. I proceeded to POPE SIRICIUS, and found the following among other testimonies : " Taking into account my office, it is not for me to choose on whom it is incumbent that there be a zeal for the Christian religion greater than that of all other persons, to dissemble, and remain silent. I bear the burdens of all who are heavily laden. Yea, rather in me that burden is borne by the blessed Apostle Peter, who, we trust, in all things protects and has regard to us who are the heirs of his gov ernment." * Again : " Let it suffice that faults have hitherto been committed in this matter ; and now let the above-named rule be observed by all priests who do not wish to be rent from that solid apostolic
* Haec portat in nobis beatus apostolus Petrus, qui nos in omnibus, ut con- fidimus, administrations sure protegit et tuetur ha;redes. — Ep. i. ad Himer Tairac. Ep. n. 1, p. 533. Gal land. T. vii.
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 205
rock upon which CHRIST constructed THE UNIVER SAL CHURCH."* Here, too, I asked myself, Did POPE SIRICIUS really know nothing of supremacy in himself?
5. Satisfied with the manifest claim of this POPE, I next opened the epistles of Pope Innocent L, and read, " Let us, therefore, begin with the help of the holy Apostle Peter, through whom both the Apostleship and the Episcopate took their rise in CiiRiST.f These, then, are the things which it behooves every Catholic bishop, having before his eyes the judgment of God, henceforward to observe
that if any causes or contentions arise the
dispute be settled, agreeably to the Synod of Nicsea, by an assembly of the same province, and that it be not lawful for any one [not to the prejudice, how ever, of the Roman Church, to which, in all causes, reverence ought to be preserved +] to leave the priests, who, by the will of God, govern the Church of God, and to have recourse to other provinces. But if greater causes be brought forward, let them, after the judgment of the bishop, be referred to the Apostolic See, as the Synod resolved and blessed custom requires."" § — Ep. ii. Galland. t. viii. Again ; ' ' After having caused your letter to be read several
* Omnes teneant sacerdotes, qui nolunt ah apostolicte Petras, super quam Christus universalem construxit ecclesiam, solidate, divelli. — Ib. n. 3, p. 534.
t Perquem et Apostolatus et Episcopatus in Christus coepit exordium.
J The words in brackets are not found in some of the ancient manuscripts, but are preserved in the best editions.
§ Ad sedem Apostolicam, sicut synodus (see Ep. Synod. Concil. Sardic. ad Julium.) statiut, et beata consuetude exigit, post judicium Episcopate referan tur.
18
£06 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
times to me, I noticed that a kind of injury was done to the Apostolic See, as unto the head of the churches [quasi ad caput ecclesiarium] that state ment was sent, the sentence of that See being still treated as doubtful. The renewed questioning contained in your report compels me, therefore, to repeat in plainer terms the subject," &c. — Ep. xvii. n. 1. Again : " Keeping to the precedents of ancient tradition. . .you have. . .established the firm ness of your religion, no less now by consulting me than when you formerly passed your sentence ; ap proving, as you have done, of a reference to our judgment, knowing what is due to the Apostolic See, knowing that all of us who have been placed in this position desire to follow that Apostle from whom the Episcopate itself and the whole authority of this title has been derived. "With him for our model, we know both how to condemn what is evil and approve what is commendable." — Ep. clxxxi. ad Council. Carthag. Ed. Bened. S. Aug. t. ii.
Again : " Carefully, therefore, and as was befit ting, do you consult what is the secret wish of this Apostolic dignity * (a dignity, I repeat, upon which falls, besides those things that are without, the solicitude or care of all the churches^) as to what opinion is to be held in matters of such moment ; having herein followed the pattern of the ancient rule, which you, equally with myself, know has always been observed by the whole world.-f Yea, why have you confirmed this by your* own act, but
* Congrue Apostolici consulitis honoris arcana.
f (Juaia toco semper ab orbs niecuui uosiis t-sse servatam.
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. 207
that you know that, throughout all provinces, Answers to questions always emanate from the Apostolic spring, especially as often as questions of faith are agitated 1 I am of opinion that all our brethren and fellow-bishops ought not to refer but to Peter, that is, to the author of their name and honor, even as your friendliness has now referred (to know) what may be the common weal of all the Church throughout the whole world* Where fore we do, by the authority of the Apostolic power, [ Apostolic! vigoris auctoritate,] declare Pelagiusand Ccelestius. . .deprived of the communion of the Church." — Galland. Ep. xx. ad cone. Meliv. n. 1, £, 6, p. 60&.f Once more : " We cannot wonder that your friendliness follows the institutes of those who have gone before you, and refers unto us, as unto the head and chief of the Episcopate, [ad nos quasi ad caput atque adapicem episcopatus referre,] whatsoever can cause doubt ; that, by consulting the Apostolic See, to wit, it may, even on doubtful matters, decide on something that is certain and ought to be done." — Galland. t. viii. Ep. xxxvii. Felici, n. 1 . J Here, indeed, I asked myself, —
* Quod per omnes provincias de Apostolica fonte pctentibus responsa sem- >er emanent. Prcesertim quoties fidei ratio ventilatur, arbitror omnes fratres 8t coepiscopos nostros nonnisi ad Petrum, id est, sui nominis et honoris auc- •orern referre debere, velut nunc retulit vestra dilectio, quod per totuiu mun- lum possit ecclesiis omnibus in commune prodesse.
f Observe the well-known words of St. Augustine on the above decree : " Duo concilia missa sunt ad sedem Apostolicam inde etiam rescripta vene- nint. Causa finita est; utinam aliquando finiatur error." — Serm. cxxxi.
J The Council of Carthage, represented as assisting the Popes, here makes application to Rome as follows: "We have considered that what hus been done by us was to be made known to your holy charity, that to the decrees made by our lowliness there might also be added the authority of the Apostolic Sec;, (etiam Apcstolicse &edis adhibiatur auctoritas.") — Galland. t. viii. ep. xxvi.
PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
Did Pope Innocent I. know nothing of supremacy in himself?
6. I next considered the epistles of Popes Zosi- mus and Boniface in the time of Augustine.
1. The Epistles of Pope Zosimus, the successor of St. Innocent, 417. " Although/' says he, " the tradition of the Fathers has assigned so great an authority to the Apostolic See that no one should dare dispute about a judgment given ly it, and that See, by regulations and canons, has kept to this ; and the discipline of the Church, in the laws which it yet follows, still pays to the name of Peter, from whom that See descends, the reverence due ; for canonical antiquity, by universal consent, willed that so great a power should belong to that Apos tle, a power also derived from the actual promise of Christ our God, that it should be his to loose what was bound and to bind what was loosed ; an equal state of power being bestowed on those who, by his will, should be found worthy to inherit his See. For he has both charge of all the churches, and especially of this wherein he sat ; nor does he allow any storm to shake one particle of the privi lege, or any part of the sentence, of that See, to
which he has given his name as a foundation
which no one can rashly attack but at MA own peril. Seeing, then, that Peter is the head of so great authority, and that he has confirmed the sub sequent decrees of the Fathers, that by all laws, human and divine, the Roman. Church is strength ened, and you are not ignorant, dearest brethren,
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH. £09
that we rule over his place, and are in possession of the authority of his name. . . .nevertheless, al though so great be our authority that none may refute our sentence, yet we have done nothing which we have not of our own will made known by letter to you, conceding this to the brother hood." — Ep. xiv., p. 18, 19, t. ix., Galland. 2. Next the Epistles of St. Boniface, the successor of St. Zosimus, 418. Writing to a bishop of the East, he says, ' ' On you, dearest brother, devolves the entire care of those Churches, which you will rec ognize as having been, by us, intrusted to you as the vicegerent of the Apostolic See."* — Ep. V. Rufo. Ep. Thessal
Again : ' ' The institution of the universal Church took its beginning from the honor bestowed upon the blessed Peter, in whom its government and headship reside. f For from him, as its source, did ecclesiastical discipline flow over all the Churches, when the culture of religion began to make prog ress. The precepts of the Synod of Nicasa bear no other testimony ; insomuch that that Synod did not attempt to make any regulations in his regard, as it saw nothing could be conferred that was supe rior to his own dignity ; it knew, in fine, that every thing had been bestowed on him by the word of the Lord. It is, therefore, certain that this
* Qiias tibi vice sedis apostolicte a nobis crcditas recognosces.
f Instittitio universalis ecclesire de beati Petri honore sumpsit principiiim,m ffao regimen ejus et suinina consistit. " A sentence," says Mr. Watenvorth, 'obviously capable of various rendering.'"
18*
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Church, is to the Churches spread over the whole world as the head is to its own members ; from which Church whoso has cut himself off becomes an alien from the Christian religion, whereas he has begun to be not in the same bonds of fellow ship."*
Passing by many striking testimonies, I pro ceeded to Pope Leo, 440, who says, " The blessed Peter ceases not to preside over his own See, and he enjoys a never-ceasing fellowship with the ever lasting priest — Christ. For that solidity which Peter himself also made, a ' rock ' received from the rock Christ, has passed onwards to his heirs also."f — T. i. Serm. V. in Natel Ord. c. iv. Again : " Whereas our case is extended through out all the Churches — this being required of us by the LORD, who committed the primacy of the Apostolic dignity to the most blessed Apostle Peter in reward of his faith, establishing the universal
Church on the solidity of him, the foundation
Wherefore, following the example of those whose memory is venerable unto us, we have committed to one brother, a fellow-bishop, Anastasius, to act in our stead (at Thessalonica). We have enjoined him to be watchful. . . .To whom, that your friendli ness, in all things pertaining to ecclesiastical disci-
* Cum videret, nihil supra merituni suum certum posse conferri, omnia de- nique huic novcrat Domini sermone concessa. Hanc ergo ecclesiis toto orbe diffusis velut caput suorum certum est esse membrorurn, aqua se quisquis ab- ecidit, fit Christians religionis extorris, cum in eadem non coeperit esse corn- page.
f Soliditas enim ilia, quam de Petrae Christo etiam ipse Petra factus accepit IQ sues quoque se transiudit hx redes.
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pline, be obedient, we admonish you." — Addressed to the Metropolitans throughout Iliricum. — Ep. V.
r 9 ^ L. 6, o.
From St. Leo I proceeded to Pope Gelasius, 492. The following is from an encyclical letter to the bishops of Syria, never before cited : " Come, you, most honorable, to that which you yourselves proclaim the holy chair (See), run to the immovable rock of Peter, number yourselves with the Apos tolic choir,, make sure the crown of your victory." ' — Tom. II. p. 655, Ed. Card. Mains. Again: " "With what reason and what consistency can other sees be defended, if the ancient and long-existing reverence be not paid to the See of the most blessed Peter, the first See, by which the dignity of all priests has always been strengthened and con- firmed,f and to which, by the invincible and special judgment of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers, the highest honor was adjudged, as being men who bore in mind the Lord's sentence, ' Thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I will build my Church.' And again to the same Peter, ( Lo, I have prayed for THEE, that THY faith FAIL NOT.' And that sentence, ' If thou lovest me, feed my sheep.' "Wherefore, then, is the Lord's discourse so frequently directed to Peter ? Was it that the rest of the holy and blessed Apostles were not
* Venite et vos, O honorandissimi, ad earn quam vos ipsi sanctam pradicas- tis Cathedram : accurrite ad immoliilem Petri petrain ; connumcrate vos choro Apostolico; confirmate victoria) vestra coronas.
f Si prima> — Petri sedi antiqua et vetusta reverentia non defertur, per quam omnium saccrclotum dignitas semper est roborata atque firmata.
2 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH AND
clothed with like virtue ? Who dare assert this ? No ; but that, by a head being constituted, the oc casion of schism might be removed ; and that the compact bond of the body of Christ, thus uniformly tending, by the fellowship of a most glorious love, to one head, might be shown to be one, and that there might be ONE CHURCH faithfully believed in.*
For which cause I have said our Fathers, —
the merits of whose virtues raised them to the con fessor's most glorious palm and to tha martyr's resplendent crown, — these men, filled with love for Christ, referred to that See wherein Peter, the prince of the Apostles, the (thence) derived origin of their priesthood, seeking thence the weightiest Duttresses to give firmness to their solid structures ; f that by this spectacle it may be manifest to all men that the Church of Christ is truly one through out and indivisible, a Church which, knit together by the bond of concord and the marvellous Woof of charity, might be seen to be the one coat of Christ, seamless throughout. There were assuredly twelve Apostles, endowed with equal merits and equal dignity ; and whereas all shone equally with spiritual light, yet was it Christ's will that one among them should be the ruler ; and him, by an admirable dispensation, did he guide to Rome
* Et una monstraretur compago corporis Christ!, quae ad unum caput glo- riosissima dilectionis societate concurreret j et una esset ecclesia cui fidcliter crederetur.
t Ad illam sedem qnam prineeps Apostolorum Petrus; sui sacerdotii stimpta principia repleti Christ! charitate mittebant, SUE inde soliditatis gravissima firmitatis roboraincnta poscentes.
DISCIPLINE OF PRIMITIVE CATHOLIC CHURCH.
and there he shone conspicuous for power .of doc trine ; also, made glorious by the shedding of his blood, does he repose in a place of everlasting rest, granting to the see, which he himself blessed, that it be, according to the Lord's promise, never over come by the gates of hell, and that it be the safest harbor for the tempest-tossed. In that harbor who soever shall have reposed shall enjoy a blessed and eternal place of safety.* Whereas, he that shall have despised it, it is for him to see to it what kind of excuses he will plead at the day of judg ment."— T. X. Galland. p. 672. See also next letter, Id. p. 679. Again : " The holy Koman Catholic and Apostolic Church has been raised above the other Churches, not by any synodal decrees, but from the evangelical voice of our Lord and Savior has it obtained the primacy, the saying, ' Thou art Peter ; and upon this rock I will build my Church.' " — Decret. Concl. Rom. Sub. Gel. Col 1261, Labb. In ibid. Col 1275. Pope Ge- lasius is called by the second Council of Home, "The Vicar of Christ."
Here I am forced to forbear. The records to the same point are abundant down to the period of Gregory the Great. But my time and space are limited — and enough, it seemed to me, was con tained in what I have already submitted to make it certain that the bishops of Home, as occupiers of
* Prastans sedi quam ipse benedixit, ut aportis infer! nunquam pro Domini promissione vincatur omniumque sit fluctuantium tutissimus portus. In quo qui requievcrit, beata et eterria statione gaudebit.
£14 PRIMACY OF ST. PETER IN FAITH, &C.
the See of St. Peter, supposed themselves possessed of a supremacy of jurisdiction, and that their claim was never disputed in the early Church ; and that Pope Gregory I. is not an exception. He may have used strong words in reference to the attempt at Constantinople to interfere with the prerogatives of the Apostolic See ; but the following was conclu sive in my mind that he held to these prerogatives. ff The care," says he in his expostulation with the Patriarch John, who had used the title " universal bishop," — " the care of the whole Church was committed to Peter, and yet he is not called the universal Apostle." — Ep. IV. £0. And further in respect to Constantinople : " Who doubts it is subject to the Apostolic See ? " And again : " When bishops commit a fault, I know not what bishop is not subject to it " — the See of Eome. And finally, in his instructions to St. Augustine : " WE give you no jurisdiction over the Bishops of
Gaul But we commit to your care all the
bishops of Britain, that the ignorant among them may be instructed, the weak strengthened, and the perverse corrected by your authority." *
* His. Bede, 1. i., c. 27, Resp. 9, Spelm. Concil. p. 98.
APPLICATION OF FACTS, &C. £15
CHAPTER XIX.
THE APPLICATION OF THE FACTS IN THE TWO PRECEDING CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE.
NEAR the conclusion of the last chapter was a citation from Pope Boniface I., in the following words : " It is, therefore, certain, that this church " (meaning the Roman) " is, to the churches spread over the whole world, as the head is to its own members ; from which Church whoso has cut him self off becomes an alien from the Christian Re-
In making an application of these words, which had seemed to me to be in keeping with holy Scripture as understood by the Fathers of the Church generally, I asked myself how they com ported with the tone of sentiment and action in the early Anglican branch ? whether there was any thing to justify the assertion of Mr. Blackstone (Comm. b. 4, c. 8), that " the ancient British Church, by whomsoever planted, was a stranger to the Bishop of Rome and his pretended au thority 1 "
Before the middle of the first century, it ap peared that the Romans had acquired, by force of arms, considerable territory in Britain. From the usual policy of the early Christians, and from the fact that the faith of the Christians at Rome was so soon " spoken of throughout the whole world,"
216 APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
(Horn. i. 8,) we might, I thought, reasonably sup pose the cross to have entered that country through the breach made by the sword. Be this as it may, I found that a king of England, if we may trust the venerable Bede, by the Latin name of Lucius , became, about the year 167, a convert to Christi anity, and was admitted into the Church by appli cation to the See of Rome. The words of Bede are : " In the year of the Incarnation of our Lord 167, Lucius, the King of Britain, sending letters to Eleutherius, who had been Bishop of Rome for fifteen years with very great credit, humbly peti tioned and obtained the request to be made a Christian."* — Epit. V. Bede. Hence it seemed to me certain that the Bishop of Rome, in 167, was known in Britain, and his authority recognized.
The next evidence which I discovered of inter course between England and Rome was in the his tory of the Council of Aries. " On the first day of August, A. D. 314," says Fleury, "thirty-three bishops assembled at Aries, in Gaul, for the pur pose of condemning the Donatist schism. Great Britain was represented by the bishops of York and London, (he should have added Lincoln.) f Pope Sylvester sent two legates, priests, and two deacons."
After condemning the Donatists, &c., they sent
* Anno ab incarnatione Domini 167 Eleutherius Roniae pnesul factus quin- decim annos ecclesiam gloriosissime rexit cui litteras Rex Britannia; Lucius mittens ut Christianus efficeretur petit et imploravit.
f See Labbe Conuc. i., 1430, corrected by Bede. ii., c. 16-18. — Oak Anton. Iter 96, 145.
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE. 217
the decision to Pope Sylvester, together with a synodal letter, in which they say, " Would to God, our dear brother, you could have assisted at this grand spectacle ; the condemnation of the Dona- tists would have been still more severe, and our joy greater ; but you could not leave those places where the Apostles preside [mais vous ne pouvez quitter ces lieux ou les apostres president], and where their blood continually renders glory to God. And we have judged according to the an cient usage [selon Fancien usage], it belongs prin cipally to you to notify to the others, since you have the greatest part in the government of the Church [ la plus grande part dans le gouvernement de Feglise].— Ecct. Hist. 13, X. Ch. 14. This synodal letter is signed by all the bishops, includ ing the bishops of York, London, and Lincoln, and hence shows that, instead of ignorance of the Bishop of Rome on the part of the British Church, she must have known, through the document signed by three of her bishops at least, that that bishop had the chief part of the government of the Church ; and this by no modern concession, but according to ancient usage ; not by any civil or ecclesiastical arrangement, but by that right which springs from the possession of the See " where the Ap ost !c s preside."
rihe next discoverable intercourse between Eng land and Rome I found was in the great Council of Nice, 325. Among the three hundred and eighteen bishops assembled in this Council, St. 19
£18 APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
Athanasius places, it is thought, the bishops of Brit ain. — In Hist. Asia, ad Monach. n. £8, p. 360, T. i. Ed. 1698. Be this so or not, it is certain that in the second Council of Alexandria, 363, Britain is named among the countries who had- re ceived the decrees of Nice. — Labbe, T. ii. col. 825. Now it is well known, not only that in the Council of Nice itself did the legates of Rome assert the supremacy of that See, but also that in the decrees of the Council such supremacy was distinctly ad mitted. If there can be any question of the mean ing of the sixth Canon from the obscurity of its wording, that question is settled by the under standing of those who lived nearest the time. Pope Gelasius, in the following century, seemed to me trustworthy authority, where he says, as al ready cited, " For with what reason and what con sistency can other sees be defended, if the ancient and long-existing reverence be not paid to the See of the most blessed Peter, the first See, by which the dignity of all priests has always been strength ened and confirmed, and to which, by the invinci ble and special judgment of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers, the highest honor was adjudged, as based on the declaration of our Lord, Matt. xvi. 18."*
But if any thing were wanting to this authority, it appeared to be supplied by the great Council of Sardica, A. D. 347, which has ever been considered,
* See also citation from Pope Boniftce.
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE. £19
I believe, by the learned as supplementary to that of Nice. In this Council of Sardica, Britain, I found, from Athanasius,* was represented; while its acts emphatically recognized the primacy or supreme prerogatives of the See of Rome. The following may be seen in Canon iv. as proposed by Ha^sius : " If any bishop be condemned in any cause, and thinks the cause is good, and that a new trial ought to take place, . . .let us honor the memory of the holy Apostle Peter, and let those who investigated the cause write to the Roman bishop ; and if he judge that a new trial ought to be had, let it be granted, and let him appoint judges. But, if he judge that the cause is such that the proceedings should not be called in question, they shall be confirmed. Is this the will of all ? the Synod answered, It is our will.9' f This, with other Canons regulating appeals, was forwarded to Pope Julius, in a Synodal letter, in which the Fathers say, " This will seem to be excellent and most suitable, if the priests of the Lord report to the headf that is, to the See of the Apostle Peter, from the several provinces." +
Here, then, the proof seemed to me incontrover tible, that, in the year 347, the Church in Britain must both have known and acknowledged the au thority of the See of St. Peter.
* In Apologia Cent. Arian. n. 1, Tom. i. part. I. ed. 1698.
f Cone. Sard. can. iv. Torn. i. Sard. Cone. col. 640.
} Floe enim optimum et valde congruentissimurn esse videbitur,si ad caput, id e*\, ad Petri Apostoli sedein, de shigulis quibusque proviuciis Domini refe- rant sacerdotes. — Ep. Synd. Sard. Hard. col. cone. Tom. i.
APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
Daring the first quarter of the fifth century, 1 found Pelagianism made such fearful progress in Britain as to require the interference of the chief watchman of the Church; and hence that Pope Celestine, in about 423, was induced, by the rep resentations of the deacon Palladius, to despatch Germanus, a bishop of Gaul, in his name to the British Church,* to arrest, if possible, the growing evil. Lupus, the Bishop of Troyes, was appointed to accompany him. Their mission was eminently successful. Yea, to use the language of another, "The triumph of orthodoxy was complete; and Germanus, before he quitted the scene of victory, visited the tomb of St. Alban, where he deposited a small box of relics that he brought with him from Gaul, taking in exchange a handful of dust from the grave, that he might place it in a new Church at Auxerre, which he afterwards dedicated in honor of the British martyr, "f
I learned from Constantius, however, in his Life of Germanus, that this bishop was sent in conse quence of a new outbreak of the heresy a second time, but found very little difficulty in suppress ing it.J
Here, again, early in the fifth century, we find
* At! actinnem Palladii diaconi Papa Celestinns Germamira Antisiodo- rensern Episcopum vice aua mitt.it, ut dettirbatis hi'reticis, Britannos ad Catho- licam fidern dirig it. — S. Prosper in chron. anno 429. In writing against Caspian he repeats the same ; and as he was a contemporary with Germanus, living in Gaul, and being afterwards secretary to St. Celestine, no better authority could be wished.
f The fact taken from V. Bede, i. c. 18.
J See also Erric and Bede^ith Usher, Brit. Ant. EccL c. xii.
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE.
the Bishop of the Holy See exercising his authority in Britain, through a vicar, who is received there with open arms, and listened to with all the respect suitable to his high commission. No one, there fore, it seemed to me, could justly affirm that, in the fifth century, the Church in Britain was " a stranger either to the Bishop of Rome or his au thority."
About the middle of this century, it is well known that the Romans were compelled to with draw their arms ; and the Christians were driven back into bordering islands or mountain fastnesses before the invading Saxons. Thus cut off from communication with the other portions of the Catholic Church, it struck me as reasonable that they would become lax in their discipline, and fall a prey, perhaps, to the prevailing heresies — partic ularly as the heresies seem, after the mission of Germanus, to have extended themselves in the mountains of Wales. Hence I was not surprised to find that the British historian, Gildas, writing about 550, represented the Christians as having become, in his time, sadly deteriorated both in faith and morals. Still he gave them credit generally, as I perceived, for orthodoxy in respect to the doctrine of the Trinity, the Incarnation of our Lord, and future rewards and punishments ; and also stated that, among other Catholic truths and usages, they looked upon St. Peter as the Prince of the Apostles, and the source of all priestly au thority in the Church. 19*
APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
Thus far, therefore, the accumulative force of the testimony is utterly against the assertion of Mr. Blackstone. But there is one more item.
On looking further into the Epitome of the V. Bede, I discovered the following record : " In the year 430, the Scots having believed in Christ, Pal- ladius was sent to them by Pope Ccclestine, as their first bishop."*
Here again was an act, which, to my mind, implied at least that, in the year of our Lord 430, the Christians in Britain were under the supervision of the Holy See, and hence must have known and recognized its authority.
These facts served with me a double purpose : 1st, to show with what caution we should receive the statements of the best Protestant authority in England, when they relate to the jurisdiction or Primacy of the See of St. Peter ; and, 2dly, to enable me to see the little value which should be put upon the opposition that Augustine met with from the Welsh bishops and monks, in his efforts to plant Christianity among our Saxon forefathers. For if these bishops and monks, as it is pretended, knew nothing of the prerogatives of the Holy See,
* Anno 430, Palladium ad Scotas in Christum, credentes a Ccelestin. Papa primus mittitur Episcopus. — V. Bcde, epitome.
Though the documents are few, and the proofs somewhat inferential, which show that the Church in Britain acknowledged the supremacy of the Holy See, still both seemed to me sufficient, when taken with the unquestionable fact that Britain was in full communion with the Catholic Church, and that this Church, at the period to which we allude, held it necessary for every Church to be in submission to the See of St. Peter as the centre of Divine unity and the source of Apostolic power.
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE.
it was clear to my mind that their want of knowl edge must have been owing to their general igno rance ; to their having so long been cut off, by the wars of the Saxons, from all communication with other Christians, as to have lost sight of their real privileges and duty as members of the one body of Christ. But it struck me that perhaps the more natural solution of the difficulty might be found in a mistake on our part as to the real nature of their opposition to Augustine — an opposition growing, not so much out of prejudice to his religious views, as out of dislike to his apparent friendship with their Saxon oppressors.* Be this as it may, I
* A certain document, found in Wiikin's and Spelman's Councils, purport ing to have been the answer of Dinoth to Augustine, is pleaded, as indicating, on the part of the Church of the Britons, an ignorance of the jurisdiction of Rome. In answer let it be observed, that this document (1) bears intrinsic marks of spuriousness. It professes to have been written soon after the Saxon invasion, and by a people who detested the Saxon race, and yet it contains two Sazon words, helpio and cleimio, which, under the circumstances, is hardly con sistent with its genuineness. (2) It speaks of the Arch-episcopal See as then ' being at Kacrlin on Uske, when by reference to the Antiquities of the Church of Britain, by Archbishop Usher, chap. v. p. 64-65, I found that this See had ac_ tually been transferred, fifty years before the time of Augustine, to Meneviam, or the present St. David's.
Besides, the document I found was not only not mentioned by the V. Bede, but seemed to me not reconcilable with the account which he gives, Book ii., ch, 2, of the interview between St. Augustine and the Welsh Bishops. And finally, the matter of the document could not, except on the ground of great ignorance or culpable blindness, be reconciled with what I knew, from the above testimonies, to be both tile knowledge and submission of the early British Church to the See of Rome.
I cannot dismiss this point without remarking upon the strange inconsisten cy of Protestant writers, as it seemed to me, in respect to what they call the introduction of Popery into England. When they are seeking testimony against the Supremacy of the Holy See, they cite Gregory the Great as rejecting that supremacy, on the ground of its being anti-Christian, &c. But when they are endeavoring to account for its introduction into England, they ascribe it, 1 found, to the assumption of jurisdiction over England by this very Pope Greg ory, through his missionary, Augustine.
224 APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
could not shut from my mind the truth, made so clear by the documents above cited, that the Church in England did not, during that early period of the faith, form an exception to the uni versal recognition of the primacy of St. Peter. And, besides, after an attentive examination of the various outbreaks in England, under the domina tion of the Catholic rule, before the Reformation, I could see no evidence that, at any time, the Church was dissatisfied with the existing religion ; but only that the secular power, becoming jealous of the in fluence of the Church, acting in her Catholic, rather than in a national, capacity, endeavored, by statutes of pramunire, and at times by violent per-
In my remarks above on the spurious document, I submitted what I said in regard to the two words, kelpio and cleimio, to an eminent Welsh scholar, who at first concurred, but subsequently sent me the following correction : —
" In the supposed document of Dinoth, it was a mistake to call ' claimio,' or ' cleimio,' (as it is written,) a Saxon word, as it is obviously from the Latin ' clamo.'
" But this fact renders the document still more suspicious, as far as Philol ogy is concerned.
" ' Claimio ' could not be derived from the early intercourse of the Britons with their Roman conquerors.
" (1) Because the tense of the word is not its classical sense, but a significa tion which it obtained in later jurisprudence, and is current in the Norman law language.
" Because it is a form contrary to the genius of the Welsh language ; and, in fact, there exists in Welsh the identical word clamarc, with its proper .signifi cation, and in the form which the Britons gave to similar derivatives: they changed the initial d into their //, or aspirated I.
*********
" It seems, therefore, to me clear that the word ' cluimio,' in the sense and in the form in which it appears in the supposed answer of Dinoth, was de rived from our English language after the Normans had, especially in the Courts of Law, given us so many Gallicanizcd Latin \vun!s. The document, therefore, i.-s later than the time in which such Norman words had (1) beconia current hi England, and (2) communicated to our Welsh neighbors."
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE.
secution, to separate her from the centre of Catho lic unity. But never till the reign of Henry VIII. did it seem to me to have succeeded in effectually sundering the tie which bound her to that source of divine authority and to that standard of infal lible truth,
By the above incontrovertible evidence, there fore, I was brought to this conviction, that that divine, visible, and ever-living headship of the " One, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church,*' mili tant, which, from the very nature, constitution, and office of that Church seemed to me so necessary, was actually provided by our Lord in the appoint ment of St. Peter to that headship, — St. Matt. xvi. 18-; St. John xxi. 15—17, — as understood and acted upon in her submission to' the See of St. Peter at Rome, by "the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic Church," to the present day; and that, to have vital evangelical union with Christ, cer tainly in the faithfulness of charity and good hope of salvation, it is by God's institution made essen tial that each and every member of Christ's body be in visible and real fellowship with that See. And hence that no one, not maintaining such fel lowship, can have authority to exercise the office, either of bishop, priest, or deacon, in the Church of God. And, therefore, the inevitable conclusion that the act of Henry VIII., perpetuated by Eliza beth and her Parliament, and shared in by the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, was an act of fatal schism — annulling all authority
226 APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
to exercise the priestly functions in God's Church, arid endangering the salvation of the souls em braced within its scope.*
To this point, then, dear brethren and friends, after long and painful examination, after laboring and suffering under the misgivings of conscience for years, after various and humiliating endeavors to reconcile that conscience to my distrusted Protes tant position, have I come at length through the marvellous grace of God. In the progress of my mind to its present happy state, it has passed
* The object of my work did not lead me necessarily to speak of the posi tion of the present Greek Church.
It will be perceived, however, that a large part of the Fathers which I have cited to bear witness to the Supremacy of the See of St. Peter belonged to the early Greek Church, and hence go to convict the modern Greek Church of schism in her present melancholy separation from Rome. But the recent pub lication of the work of Cardinal Mains, already alluded to, has enabled me to adduce another later, and, if possible, more important, Greek authority. It ig that of St. Niceptiurus, Patriarch of Constantinople. He is writing on the Sec ond Council uf JWce, and gives the following testimony: " Indeed, this synod is of the very highest authority, and capable of giving the faith in all its ful ness; because it is (ecumenical, and wholly unfettered in its action, and above the reach of calumny arid reproach, and tinged with no spurious doctrine, and in all respects perfect. For it was not only conducted equitably, but in the highest sense and degree according to law. For, as required by the divine de crees anciently set forth, the chief part of the authority which swayed and pre sided over its councils, proceeded from that Western Headship (of the Church), ancient Rome. Without which no dogma, that had been discussed in the Church or had the sanction of hierarchical usage, can ever be considered proved or binding in practice ; because this sacerdotal jurisdiction stands pre eminent, both by original constitution and by the elevation or dignity it haa acquired from two chief Apostles." *— S. JVicep/i. Patriarch. Conntpl. Tom. V. p. 174. Ed. Card. Jllaio.
* Etenim celebrata fuit feqnissime et in primis legitime: nam secundnm edita antiquitus Divina decreta praeminebat in ea praaidebat que ez occidentals fa*ti<rit>, id est, ti vetere Roma, pars tion modica: sine qiiibiin( Romania) iiHiun dogma, quod in ecclesia ventilatum decretis canonicis et sacerdotali consuetu- dine fuit antea ratum ; nunqnam tamen probatum habebitur, neque in praxim deducetur; qnia ill! sacerdotii principaturn sortiti sunt. eamque dignitatem a duttras ctfiyphKis Apssttflis traditam habent.
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE. £27
through the following stages of manifest truth : 1. I have seen, with a clearness which I cannot well express, that " the friendship of the world is at enmity with God." That fi wre cannot serve two masters" — cannot secure the favor of two utterly and mutually opposed worlds. £. That every dic tate of reason echoes the voice of God — " what can it profit a man to gain the wrhole world and lose his own soul ? " 3. That, to save the soul, self-will must be renounced, and God's will be submissively followed. 4. That the facts that God has re vealed His will — that he commands us to know His will — that he promises to " lead us to all truth " in respect to it — all concur with the yearn ings of our hearts to justify the expectation of certainty in faith. 5. That, to secure such cer tainty, Christ leads us out of ourselves and a\vay from every mere human aid, and invites us to 6 ' take His yoke and learn of Him ; " to look, through His commissioned priesthood, to Himself, as our ever-living, ever-present, ever-unfailing teacher and guide. 6'. That, while professedly having a part in that priesthood, and so appearing as Christ's representative in teaching His infallible will, I felt in my conscience wholly unable to tell with cer tainty, and in many vital particulars, what that will is. 7. That, when I turned for relief to my brethren associated with me in the Episcopate, (and here let me affectionately and earnestly appeal to them for the truth of my convictions,) I found that the uncertainty had increased almost in a
APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
direct ratio with the increase of numbers, till con fusion, and discord, and mutual strife were the only answers that met the anxious sinner as he came to inquire, " What must I do to be saved ? " 8. That such a state of things so unfriendly to truth — so utterly repugnant to the declared pur poses of Christ's priesthood — so absolutely submis sive of the unity and Catholicity of His Church — so derogatory to His honor, and so fatal to His promise, could not possibly proceed from His own institution. And hence, 9. That the cause of this doubt and misery, attendant upon the working of the Anglican Communion and' her American daugh ter, must be sought in that fatal act which separated her from a divinely constituted spiritual head, the representative of Christ, and placed her professedly under the supreme guidance of a temporal sover eign, but, in reality, under the direction of each individual judgment. 10. And finally, that that Church, which is the body of Christ, and which, as such, we are all commanded by him to " hear," is manifestly that "one Catholic and apostolic Church" which, at first founded by Him on the "rock," St. Peter, has ever since enjoyed His own presence, as the centre of unity and source of apostolic power in the See of that prince of the apostles. And that this Church, made manifest by her divine foundation and her no less divine preservation, yea, by her obvious principle of divine life and cohesion and assimilation,* rewards every sincere
* Assimilation, I mean, not of doctrine, but of minds, and labws, and holy •ympfefhib'f.
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE.
effort to investigate her claims by new proofs of her divinity — by making it more clear, the more closely her history is examined, that she has always, every where, and by all her sons, held and taught the < ' one faith, once for all delivered to the saints." That what has been charged upon her as an addition to that faith is resolvable either into necessary and lawful changes in her discipline and ceremonial, into the unauthorized extravagances of overwrought individual minds, or the miscon ceptions, exaggerations, and misstatements of in terested opponents. That, in short, the Fathers of the first five centuries taught as distinctly, though not as formally as did the Fathers of the Council of Trent, the various dogmas set forth by that Council as necessary to the faith and prac tice of the Christian man. And hence, that the Gospel standard of faith, and the Gospel rule of obedience, are to be found only within her pale ; particularly as she alone professes to have, through the presence of Christ, that infallibility which is essential to such a standard, and in her members that childlike submission without which such a rule would be useless — " Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Furthermore, dear brethren and friends, I came to these convictions, as I have written this letter, under the operations of my own mind.* The cir-
* Here I feel it to be my duty, from the circumstances in which I am placed, to declare distinctly and positively that each and every part of this letter was
230 APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
cnmstances in which I had just been placed by the difficulties in my diocese forced me to keep my troubles of mind much tor myself. Often my op pressed spirit yearned for some confidential ear into which to pour out its griefs ; but, warned by sad experience, I hesitated to trust a distinct knowl edge of these griefs beyond my own breast.
The last year and a half of my episcopate was, I can truly say, the most trying, the most pain ful, period of my life ; although one of apparent quietness, official success, and restored confidence. After the immediate effects of my convention in the spring of 1851 (which, as you will remem ber, resulted in a reconciliation between myself and the disaffected part of my diocese) had passed off, and my mind, long pressed down by a weight of sore trial, had time to react, it came up at once, and to my own surprise, to its former level of Catholic belief: indeed, it was like waking from a pleasant dream to a frightful reality. I had actually flattered myself into the belief that my doubts had left me, and that I could henceforward act with a quiet conscience on Protestant ground. But, on recovering from the stupefaction of over much sorrow, I found myself fearfully deceived ; found that what I had taken for permanent relief of mind was only the momentary insensibility of
written, except where I have given credit, without the dictation, suggestion, or help of any one but God ; and that the books I consulted in writing it were the books I had read while a Protestant, except in the instances of Passaglia's Commentary, Oow'n Rituale Gracorum, <$•<;., Perrone's Pralcctiones, 4'c., and Card, Maius's Book of hitherto unpublished Fathers,
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE.
opiates or exhaustion. When I came again to my self, however, I was visited with reflections which no man need envy. i"he concessions I had made, in good faith at the time, for the peace of the Church, and, as I had falsely supposed, for my own peace, rose up before me as so many concessions, and cowardly ones too, to the god of this world. So that I can say with the deepest truth that the friendliness which greeted me 011 my subsequent visitation through my diocese was most unwelcome to my heart. Every kind word of those who had spoken against the truth seemed a rebuke to me, every warm shake of the hand to fall like ice upon my soul. I felt that I had shrunk publicly from the consequences of that truth which God had taught me — felt that I had denied that blessed Master who had graciously revealed Himself to me. But blessed be His name for that grace which moved me to " weep bitterly." Persecution for Christ's sake would then have been balm to my wounded conscience. And nothing, I think, but the precarious state of one whom I had vowed to " keep in sickness as well as health " prevented an earlier avowal of my disquietude and an earlier abandonment of my diocese.
For all this suffering, however, God forbid that I should blame any one but myself. Others may have acted according to their conscientious convic tions ; I resisted mine, and on grounds that would not bear the test of calm reflection, and how much
APPLICATION OF FACTS IN TWO PRECEDING
less the searching light of Eternity ! I ought to have known myself better ; ought to have known the way of God's grace and truth better. Per haps, however, — and here I try to comfort myself, • — there may be in all this a token of Divine mercy >• for it may have prepared me to bear the more patiently the heavy cross which was to be laid upon me, to drink the more readily of that bitter chalice which was put into my hand. For I can now say, with a depth of truth which no one but a Catholic can understand, " The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom, then, shall I fear ? The LORD is the strength of life ; of whom, then, shall I be afraid ? " And further, I can now suffer, as a Catholic alone can comprehend, and count it all joy, if it only be for Christ and heaven.
And now, dear brethren, I have only to add, take warning by my sufferings ; take courage by my blessings ; take example from Him " who en dured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of God." The scenes of earth will soon be past, and we shall then feel the true force of our Lord's words, " He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be rny disciple."
I have loved you well ; I have labored for vou earnestly ; and now I feel it to be a privilege, too great for human tongue to express, to be able each day to plead in your behalf the sacrifice of a pres ent God and Savior ; yea, to plead that He may ere long, through the riches of His own mercy and
CHAPTERS TO MY OWN CASE. 233
the power of His condescending love, make you partakers of the new and unutterable joy which I now feel, when I declare before God that " I BE LIEVE ONE CATHOLIC AND APOSTOLIC CHURCH." Faithfully and affectionately,
Your Friend and Servant,
L. SILLIMAN IVES.
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