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CHURCH, OF THE ROMISH.

379

A. D. 1413, aliens were prohibited from holding benefices in England, except in case of Priors, and they were required. to obtain sureties for their obedience to the laws of the realm.* HENRY VI., 1422-1452. EDWARD IV., 1452-1483. RICHARD III., 1483-1485. HENRY VII., 1485-1509. The laws that had been enacted under former sovereigns were sufficient, had they been put in force, but the civil discords and the wars abroad, which distracted the kingdom during the reigns of these princes, left them little time to look after the Church. Consequently, all the old abuses were revived, and perhaps the Pope had never greater influence in England, than at the accession of Henry VIII.

HENRY VIII., 1509-1547. Upon Henry's accession to the throne of England, he manifested no disposition to interfere with the claims of the Pope, and it was not until the twenty-first year of his reign that he made war upon the papal usurpations. This year, a statute was enacted,† regulating the fees in the ecclesiastical courts, and abolishing pluralities. The carrying of property to Rome was prohibited by severer penalties. The statutes against foreign jurisdiction passed in the reigns of Edward I. and III., and of Richard II. and Henry IV., were re-enacted, enlarged, and enforced, by severer penalties. The election of Bishops, the publication of new canons, and other similar matters, were also regulated,|| until the power of the Pope in England was completely overturned and annihilated.

This brief view of the legislation of the Anglo-Norman Church and nation, proves most unanswerably, that there never was a time, even under the reign of the Norman princes,

* 1 H. V., c. 7, and 2 H. V., St. 1. + Stat. 21 H. VIII., cc. 5, 6, 13. Stat. 23 H. VIII., cc. 6, 20. 32 H. VIII., c. 45.

§ Stat. 24 H. VIII., c. 12. 25 H. VIII., c. 19, etc.

Stat. 25 H. VIII., c. 19, etc.

when the Pope could legally and canonically exercise the
powers he claimed in England, and hence, though his exac-
tions and usurpations were from time to time submitted to,
and his alliance frequently courted, the nation was at liberty
to throw off his allegiance at any moment it saw fit It would
also be easy to show, that during this whole period, there
were leading men in the English Church who made bold stand
not only against the usurpations, but also against the corrup-
tions of that Church. Even Archbishop Dunstan, in many
things subservient to the Pope, did not hesitate to set at de-
fiance the papal mandate, when he deemed it unjust or im-
proper, A. D. 961.* And Alfric Puttock, Archbishop of York,
from 1023 to 1050, openly impugned the doctrine of transub-
stantiation. In his "Sermon to be spoken to the people at
Easter, before they receive the holy housel," (communion,)
he teaches doctrines that would now be considered orthodox by
sound theologians.† In the next century, Gilbert Foliath, con-
secrated Bishop of Hereford, 1148, translated to London, 1163,
died, 1187, set at defiance the papal authority, and though twice
excommunicated by the Pope, paid no regard to the thunders
of the Vatican. Contemporary with Foliath, was Ormin, the
poet, whose works present us with the purest English, and
the purest doctrines of that age. The next century was ren-
dered famous by Robert Grostete, or Greathead, Bishop of
Lincoln, from 1234 to 1258. In 1247, a demand was made
by the Pope for six thousand marks, (about £50,000,) and he
had the courage to refuse to levy it until he had the sense of
the nation upon it. He visited Rome, and protested against
its corruptions, before the Pope and Cardinals. After his re-

*Ling. H. A. Sax. Ch. 240.

+Elfric's Sermon, in Petheram's Hist. Sk. A. S. Lit. p. 33.
Ecc. Const. about 1050, Wilk. LL. A. S. p. 159.

Mat. Par. 99-145.

See also,

§ Ear. Eng. Poets, N. Y. R. IX., 392.

THE ENGLISH REFORMATION CANONICAL.

381

turn, the Pope again tried his courage by collating an Italian youth to a vacant Canonry in the Cathedral of Lincoln. But Grostete was inflexible. He set at naught the Pope's commands, for which he was excommunicated. But the thunderbolt fell harmless at his feet, and he died in peaceful possession of his See.* Other examples of a similar nature occur, but these are amply sufficient to show that many of the clergy asserted that, in their writings, to which they assented in their legislative capacities. It remains now simply to show, that the clergy consented to the Reformation individually, as well as collectively, which will be done in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XXIX.

THE ENGLISH REFORMATION CANONICAL.

We have already seen, that every Church is, in fact, inde pendent of every other Church, and that the Bishops of any province, are independent of those in every other province. Consequently, the Bishops and clergy of any one province, with the consent of the laity, have the right to make any regulations for the government of their own branch of the Church, not inconsistent with Apostolical organization and order. That this was done by the English Reformers, will be evident from a brief survey of the manner in which they conducted the Reformation.

In the reign of Henry VIII. very little opposition was made by any of the clergy, to an assertion of the Church's independence, which was all that was then proposed, and very few deprivations were made. Even under the reign of Edward

*Le Bas Life Wick. pp. 79-84. Mat. Par. pp. 400-918.

VI., very few of the clergy made any objection to the reformation of doctrine and discipline, which was then brought about. A few Bishops, however, were deprived in the reign of Edward; as, Bonner, of London ;* Gardiner, of Winchester ;† Heath, of Worcester; and Day, of Chichester;‡ for nonconformity to the laws of the land; and Tunstall, of Durham, on the alteration of his Diocese. These were all restored upon the accession of Mary. Those deprived by Mary, were, Cranmer and Holgate, Archbishops of Canterbury and York; and Bishops, Taylor, of Lincoln; Hooper, of Worcester; Harley, of Hereford; Ferrar, of St. David's; Bush, of Bristol; Bird, of Chester;|| Scorey, of Chichester; Coverdale, of Exeter; and Ridley, of London. That is, five were restored and eleven deprived, making sixteen, or a majority of the twenty-six Dioceses. All this was done by Mary, before she attempted to restore the Popish religion. Nor even then did she attempt to restore the Romish practices by authority of the Church, but merely by vote of Parliament. The Reformation in the time of Edward, was brought about by THE CLERGY, convened in Synod, and approved by the laity in Parliament. In the reign of Mary, it was arrested by an interference of the State, without convening a Synod or consulting the clergy. Consequently, when, in the reign of Elizabeth, this unlawful interference was withdrawn, the Church became at once, legally and canonically, what it was in the reign of Edward.

At the accession of Elizabeth, or immediately after,** nine

* Burnet, vol. II. Par. 1, p. 166. + Ib. p. 216. § Burnet, Hist. Ref. ii. Ann. 1553, vol. III., p. 314.

+ Ib. p. 266.

|| Lingard, Hist. of Eng., vol. VII., 143. Rym. Fœd. xv. 370, 371. The successors of all these but Cranmer, were consecrated while the Protestant Bishops were in possession of their Sees, and hence, upon primitive principles, were uncanonical and schismatical. Ling. VII., 143.

Lingard, VII., 293.

** Strype, Eliz. p. 154. Linds. Vind. p. xxvi.

BISHOPS DEPRIVED BY ELIZABETH.

383

Dioceses, viz., Canterbury, Norwich, Chichester, Hereford, Salisbury, Rochester, Gloucester, Oxford, and Bangor, were vacant, by the death of the incumbents. After the enactment of the act of Uniformity, in the first year of Elizabeth, Kitchen, Bishop of Llandaff, took the oath of supremacy and conformed. About the same time, the oath of supremacy was tendered to fifteen other Bishops, who refused to take it, and were therefore deprived of their Sees. Of these, six, Tunstall, of Durham; Morgan, of St. David's; Ogilthorp, of Carlisle; White, of Winchester; Baines, of Lichfield and Coventry; and Holyman, of Bristol, died before their places were filled; and three, Scot, of Chester; Goldwell, of St. Asaphs; and Pate, of Worcester, abandoned their Sees and left the kingdom. The remaining seven, Heath, of York; Bonner, of London; Thirlby, of Ely; Bourne, of Bath and Wells; Turberville, of Exeter; Watson, of Lincoln; and Pool, of Peterborough; lived and died in England, but never attempted to exercise any Episcopal functions. Of these seven, four held places from which Protestant Bishops had been illegally and uncanonically ejected by Mary; viz., Bonner, of London, from which Ridley had been deprived; Turberville, of Exeter, from which Coverdale had been deprived; Bourne, of Bath and Wells, from which Barlow had been deprived; and Heath, of York, from which Holgate had been deprived.*

We have, therefore, in the foregoing list, twenty-six Dioceses, fifteen of which, at the time of the Consecration of Protestant Bishops under Elizabeth, had become vacant by death. The incumbents of three had abandoned their Sees; the incumbents of four held places from which Protestant Bishops had been unlawfully and uncanonically deprived by Mary, either because "they were married," or "had been consecrated according to the Ordinal of Edward VI. ;" and

* Lind. Vind. pp. xx-xxviii.

† Lingard, VII., 143.

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