awakener of thought and the scatterer of instruction. Stagnant water corrupts; but in motion, whether ebbing or flowing, diffuses sweetness, life, and fertility. Why did all the Catholic countries sink after the Reformation into literary insignificance? Because their precautions against innovation, by crushing inquiry and discussion, enfeebled the general mind. Those mental games were prohibited in which intellect wrestles itself into vigour. On the contrary, the Protestant countries rose into literary preeminence. They admired and rewarded their polemic authors; they opened a career to talent, and honoured its achievements. But enough has been urged on the favourable; let us turn to the adverse. The triumphs of the New Generation of the sixteenth century have not passed unquestioned. Drawbacks have been enumerated which it is fair to recapitulate.

First, poetical sentiment was hurt; old associations were disturbed; the venerable oak planted by our ancestors, under whose shade they emerged from Paganism to Christianity from ruthless barbarism to comparative civilisation was scornfully treated, and despoiled of its noblest branches. But the tree itself, it may be replied, was no longer the same. It was not that pure and youthful plant, with promising germs and verdant foliage, which St. Augustine displayed to the wondering eyes of Bertha and Ethelbert; but a fruitless and decayed trunk, rotten to the core, and fit only to be uprooted and cast into the fire to make room for a fresher and more wholesome vegetation.

Other and more serious objections have been urged, moral and theological. It has been contended * that pur

* Taylor's Historic Survey of German Poetry, p. 158.

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gatory is not so appalling as eternal punishment, which may be conceded; but then purgatory originated the sale of indulgences. Auricular confession has been held to check secret vices. But surely a parental confessor is more natural and safer than priest or holy friar! The use of statues and pictures encouraged the arts; but not equally with the successful pursuits of industry and commerce, to which Popery was adverse. That Catholicism was favourable to a uniform calendar, weights, and measures may be granted; but international peace might afford equal, and certainly desirable, facilities, now that steam and the electric fluid has created such unceasing intercourse.

CHAPTER VII.

ESTABLISHMENT OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Its illustrious Founders. - The Liturgy, Homilies, Book of Common Prayer, and Thirty-nine Articles.-The Canon Law. - Edward VI. and Queen Mary. - Queen Elizabeth as an Ecclesiastical Reformer. - Origin of Nonconformists and Puritans; their Objections. -Hampton Court Conference. — Disputations with King James.— Parallelism between past and present Theological Differences. Popular Delusions of the Elizabethan Age.

In the preceding chapter has been described the vicissitudes of Christianity from the period of its introduction to the Reformation. It is manifest, from this retrospect, that the Christian mission, in its first aspects, appealed to the faith and moral sympathies of mankind unconnected with the institutions of sect or priesthood, temporal ascendancy or possessions. In this humble pre

sentment, divested of pretensions that could alarm the jealous apprehensions of established authority, and aided by inherent claims, it rapidly acquired an unrivalled dominion over the hearts of men, and became the predominant power of the earth. But incorporated with secular interests, the foundation was laid for endless corruptions of the primitive dispensation, and perversion to objects of human selfishness and ambition. These deviations from the original standard of belief and practice produced centuries of theological agitation, consummated by the mighty religious movement of the sixteenth century, which dissolved the unity of the Romish Church, and severed from papal supremacy some of the most powerful states of Europe.

Amidst this convulsion the Church of England originated. It is the eldest of the free churches that revolted from the Catholicism of Rome, commencing in the denial of the papal supremacy by Henry VIII.; but it was not till the next reign that the theology of Protestantism really began to be introduced. Under King Henry innovations had been limited to the sovereignty of the Church and its temporalities, but under Edward VI. a new doctrinal worship was sought to be raised on the basis of the ancient religion. This was the vital commencement of the existing liturgy and ecclesiastical establishment, of which the chief founder was Archbishop Cranmer, assisted by the zealous reformers, Bishops Hooper, Ridley, and Coverdale. The serial changes rapidly and energetically introduced by these eminent prelates require to be briefly noticed before either the foundation or superstructure of the Anglican Church can be correctly understood.

The first stone of the new episcopal fabric consisted of

THE HOMILIES, AND BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER. 137

the publication, or at least a new version, of the "Book of Homilies" or sermons, under the direction of Cranmer, to be read to their congregations by such incumbents of parishes as might not be qualified to compose discourses of their own. These were not very favourably received, a written homily being felt to be a drowsy exhibition compared with the show and animation of the former worship. The reading of some of the priests was indifferent, and, according to Latimer, "they did so hawk it and chop it that it were as good for the people to be without it for any words that could be understood." It gave rise, however, to the general use of written sermons in place of the former practice of extemporary declamation.

The next great undertaking was the preparation, in place of the Latin Mass Book, of the "Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments." The new book contained little that was not in the Mass Book, but was distinguished from it by the addition of the Litany and the omission of many forms held to be superstitious, and by its being throughout in the English language. The Prayer Book was sanctioned by parliament, and ordered to be used by all ministers in the celebration of divine worship.

Nearly contemporary with these changes were other innovations. The statute against the marriage of priests was repealed; the laity in common with the clergy were admitted to the sacramental cup, and the doctrine of auricular confession given up, confession to God or the Church being held sufficient.

The most arduous achievement remained, namely, the exposition and settlement of the doctrines of the new Church. In the opinion of some these ought to have

been the first consideration; but Cranmer thought otherwise, and adopted a more politic proceeding. He first got rid of Gardiner, Bonner, Heath, and Day, stanch adherents of the old learning, and replaced them on the episcopal bench by reform prelates, to whom he submitted the new articles of religion. They were proceeded with in 1551, and finished by the beginning of the next year, when they were published by the royal authority. These articles were forty-two in number, and did not differ in any material point of doctrine from the present Thirtynine Articles.

A digest and revision of the Canon Law, applicable to spiritual courts and offences, completed the cycle of ecclesiastical meliorations. It is to the learning, sagacity, and energy of Cranmer that the accomplishment of this arduous labour may be attributed. It was translated into Latin, and forms an entire body of ecclesiastical law, drawn up under fifty-one titles or heads. But this celebrated code never became the law of the land, it never having received the sanction of the royal authority. For this failure of legal validity various reasons have been assigned; among others that the nation, especially the great men of it, could not endure ecclesiastical discipline. Some of its enactments indeed were severe. Denial of the truth of Christianity was punishable with death. Seduction was punishable by excommunication and forfeiture, adultery by imprisonment or banishment for life.

These great ecclesiastical reforms were all effected during the five years of a regency government. Edward VI. died a minor, and it was under his nominal sway that the Protestant fabric of the Anglican Church was founded and reared. It was a noble work, and did honour to the zeal and abilities of the distinguished churchmen by whom it was chiefly accomplished. In the tragical