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 SIX LECTURES 
 
 BY 
 
 W. F. TAYLOR, D.D. 
 
 Archdeacon of Live^-pool and Vicar of St. Andrews’, Aigburth Road, 
 
 Toxteth Park 
 
 LIVERPOOL 
 
 EDWARD HOWELL CHURCH STREET 
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 PREFACE. 
 
 The importance of accurate knowledge as to the nature and extent 
 of the Refonna’tion of the Church of England in the Sixteenth 
 Century, cannot be exaggerated at the present time. Many Church 
 people, both lay and clerical, deny that there was any doctrinal 
 change effected at all at that time ; or if any, only of a trifling 
 character : and maintain that the doctrines of the Church are in 
 substantial agreement with the Church of Rome, and the Council of 
 Trent. The late Dr. Pusey held this view, and so, I believe, does 
 Lord Halifax. In the following lectures I have shown that this is 
 not the case, and my object has been to put before the reader, in 
 a brief and accurate manner, the several steps or stages in which 
 the Reformation was effected in this country; z.e . — as far as the 
 Church of England is concerned. Those stages were four, and took 
 place under the successive reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI. , Mary, 
 and Elizabeth. I have confined myself strictly, in each lecture, to 
 what was actually accomplished undereach sovereign, and nothing 
 beyond; 
 
 The result of the long struggle was that after many vicissitudes, 
 the Reformation was firmly established by Elizabeth in 1559, on 
 the Edwardine Settlement, and so continues unto this day. It 
 must, however, be distinctly borne in mind that it was not the First, 
 partially reformed. Prayer Book of Edward which she adopted ; 
 but the Second Book, from which every trace of the Mass and 
 the sacrificing priesthood had been carefully expunged. This is 
 expressly stated in the Act of Uniformity, which is found in the 
 large Prayer Book which lies on every reading desk. 
 
 The particulars I have mentioned in reference to the successive 
 changes, may be relied upon as strictly accurate ; and they prove 
 that, whether right or wrong, the Church of England is thoroughly 
 Protestant in the rejection of all distinctively Roman doctrine and 
 ritual. 
 
 W. F. T. 
 
 270634 
 
-CONTENTS 
 
 I 
 
 I. The; Reformation: Its Necessity-, i 
 
 I 
 
 II. The Reformation : Henry VIII. - lo 
 I HI. The Reformation: Edward VI. - 21 
 
 i 
 
 IV. The Reformation : Mary - - 32 
 
 t 
 
 V. The: Reformation : Elizabeth - 46 
 
 VI. The Reformation: What we Owe 
 
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 Lecture I. 
 
 THE REFORMATION: ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 % 
 
 “Ask for the old paths.’’ — Lev. vi. i6, 
 
 I HAVE been led to deliver these lectures because of 
 the aggressive attitude recently taken by the Pope and 
 the Roman Catholic Church in England, combined 
 with the Romeward movement in the Church of 
 England itself. In the recent Church Congress, 
 some of the Bishops said that there was no reason 
 to suppose that the Church of Rome was making 
 very great progress in England. This may be, 
 but it is very doubtful; and even if it be so, there 
 is something far more serious than any outward 
 aggression on the part of the Church of Rome, and 
 that is the Romeward movement in the Church 
 itself, which has now reached gigantic proportions. 
 Dean Farrar has publicly stated that 7,000 of the 
 clergy are avowed supporters of the Romeward 
 movement. My own deliberate belief is, that he 
 has not over-stated the number. Yet of this fact 
 no notice, or very little, is taken by the speakers, 
 who minimise the progress of Rome in England. 
 One authority, indeed, did refer to some of the 
 doctrines taught by the Romanising section in the 
 Church with pain and censure, but it was accom- 
 
 A 
 

 
 mm 
 
 2 THE l^EFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 “pahie'd wth^ O.tlierJ observations which would go far 
 oto deprive them <! of much value. It appears that 
 ptactip^i|y\it'is'igr.eed on the part of many in high 
 places fo .ignore this Romeward movement, and 
 fthat'the'eWrgy^^re to be allowed to teach as much 
 
 of Roman doctrine and observances as they please, 
 and as the people will tolerate, provided always 
 that they are not called “Roman.” Let them be 
 called Anglican or Catholic, primitive, or reverent, 
 and it is supposed that the ordinary Englishman 
 will not be alarmed. I am sorry to say there is too 
 much truth in this. I repeat, the real danger is not 
 Rome, but the Romeward movement from within. 
 Seven thousand clergy in our national pulpit, 
 teaching openly and constantly nearly all Roman 
 doctrines, and practising Roman ceremonial in our 
 Churches, while protesting against what they call 
 the “Italian Mission,” and yet not exciting alarm 
 because the word Roman is disingenuously avoided . 
 and the term Catholic used instead — this is the 
 alarming feature of the situation. And yet these 
 clergy are, preparing thousands of the children of 
 the Church for Confirmation, when they are care- 
 fully indoctrinated in that which is substantial 
 Romanism, viz., the Seven Sacraments, Auricular 
 Confession, and the “ Real Presence.” It seems 
 almost impossible to awaken the ordinary Church- 
 man to any sense of the danger. Their indifference 
 or credulity is simply amazing and almost incredi-- 
 ble.; meanwhile our rulers in Church and State cry 
 “Peace and progress,” and quietly discuss ques- 
 tions of reform, whilst the great principles of the 
 
The EEFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 3 
 
 Reformation are rapidly being expelled from the 
 National Church. 
 
 In the ensuing lectures, be it remembered, I am 
 dealing mainly “with the Church of England,” for 
 it was the Church of England before the Reforma- 
 tion as well as, since. I do not believe in the 
 creation of a new Church at the Reformation. 
 There has been but one Church in these lands 
 from the beginning, even long before the sixth 
 century. This Church has passed through various 
 vicissitudes. Eirst, free and independent, it was 
 gradually, as other Churches, brought under the 
 dominion of the Papacy, but at the Reformation 
 the yoke of bondage was removed through God’s 
 mercy, and it regained its freedom, and what was 
 better, the pure doctrine of the Gospel. For cen- 
 turies before the Reformation it was essentially 
 one with the Church of Rome because of the 
 Papal Supremacy, and though the nation often 
 fretted against the yoke and tried to cast it off by 
 statutory enactments, e. g., the Constitutions of 
 Clarendon and the Statute of Provisors, etc., all 
 efforts were in vain until the time of the Reforma- 
 tion. Alas! many seem to be going back to the 
 house of bondage again. The Reformation was 
 merely a crisis to which things had been tending 
 for at least two hundred years previously. Had 
 Luther or Henry VHI. never lived, the Reformation 
 would have taken place under other instruments, 
 and been brought about by other occasions. But it 
 was a necessity. The inexorable laws which govern 
 the course of human history must be fulfilled- 
 
4 
 
 THE REFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 I desire now to point out briefly the need that 
 existed, the urgent necessity which demanded such 
 a movement as the Reformation. 
 
 I quote the following from Rev. J. Waterworth’s 
 “History of the Council of Trent: its Canons and 
 Decrees.” This is a work of acknowledged au- 
 thority. Its author is a member of the order of 
 Jesus, i.e., a Jesuit, and the volume is a standard 
 work in this Roman Catholic diocese. Water- 
 worth admits that “the evils complained of must 
 be encountered, and a searching remedy applied to 
 the abuses that had crept into ecclesiastical govern- 
 ment, to the rank vices that had been engendered 
 by ages of civil wars, and to that licence and con- 
 fusion which a convulsed state of society created in 
 the discipline of the outward character of the Church.” 
 He admitted the evil of the sale of indulgences by 
 the Popes Julius and Leo X., the cupidity and mis- 
 management of the agents employed, and he tells 
 us that Adrian VI. said that his first endeavour 
 should be to bring about “a Reformation in the 
 court and tribunals of Rome, and that the present 
 troubles are a just punishment from God upon the 
 sins of the clergy and the people., that it was no 
 wonder the evil had spread from the head to the 
 members ; but that he would do his best to apply 
 remedies suitable to the occasion.” (Chap. i. viii.) 
 
 But the evils were of no recent growth. Dr. 
 Milner, a Roman Catholic dignitary (i8i8), not 
 only admits the several vacancies and interregnums 
 in the Papacy, but the unhappy schisms and rival 
 Popes ; one great one at the end of the 14th and 
 
THE REFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 5 
 
 beginning of the 15th century, and he also admits 
 that “a few of the Popes, say a tenth of the number” 
 (about thirty), “have by their personal vices, dis- 
 graced their holy station.” (p. 307.) 
 
 The evils were mainly two. i .' ' The Papal claims, 
 encroachments and usurpations on national rights. 
 In Henry III.’s time, the Pope claimed the revenues 
 of all vacant benefices, the twentieth of all Ecclesias- 
 tical revenues, a third of all above 100 marks — and a 
 half from all non-residents and the right to appoint 
 to all Bishoprics and Abbeys and large benefices. 
 
 The Italian clergy in England had 60,000 marks 
 a year — more than the entire revenues of the Crown. 
 Mansel, the King’s chaplain, held 700 livings. The 
 Pope, Alexander III., annulled the Constitutions 
 of Clarendon in 1164, and Innocent III. annulled 
 Magna Charta in 1215. The former were intended 
 to restrain the immunities of the clergy, who refused 
 to be tried before the Civil Courts — the latter, 
 “Magna Charta,” secured great liberties and advan- 
 tages to the Church of England, the Barons, and 
 the people. Pope Innocent III., from the plenitude 
 of his apostolic power, annulled and abrogated 
 the whole Charter, prohibited the Barons from 
 enacting it, and the King from observing it, and 
 absolved him and his subjects from any oaths they 
 had taken in reference to it, and cited the Primate 
 Langhton, to Rome to give an account of himself 
 for having anything to do with it. So we are not 
 indebted to the Pope for Magd»a Charta. 2. The 
 parochial clergy seem to a large extent, to have 
 been indolent, ignorant, and immoral. In Henry 
 
6 
 
 THE REFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY.. 
 
 Ii; ’s reign, Hume says that loo murders were com- 
 mitted by Ecclesiastics in a few years, and none of 
 them brought to justice, as they refused to be tried 
 in the Civil courts, and were protected in their 
 refusal by Thomas a Beckett and the Pope. 
 
 Let us glance at the state of things in the 15th 
 century, that which immediately preceded the 
 Reformation, In 1509-14, there were three Popes, 
 Gregory XII., Benedict XIII., and John XXIII., 
 each excommunicating the other. John was com- 
 pelled by the Emperor Sigismund to summon a 
 grand General Council at Constance in 1414. The 
 object was threefold : i, to heal the schism, and 
 compel all to submit to one Head^ 2, to effect a 
 reformation both in the Head and members ; and 
 3, to suppress heresy. 
 
 The Council at once declared itself above Popes, 
 and deposed all three. John was an awfully bad 
 character, guilty of every conceivable enormity and 
 crime. This was acknowledged by all historians. 
 Martin V. was elected by the Council, and so the 
 schism was healed for a short time. The Council, 
 however, did not forget that it was called tpgether 
 to SLipress heresy, and accordingly severe perse- 
 cution of so-called heretics followed. John Huss 
 and Jerome of Prague were the first victims. The 
 former was a very distinguished scholar. Rector of 
 the University of Prague. He and Jerome were 
 disciples of John Wickliffe, or at least in part 
 followers of his viewg as a Reformer. In doctrine 
 they had not gone so far, but they were strong 
 opponents of ecclesiastical domination, and de- 
 
THE REFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 nounced the covetousness and licentiousness of the 
 clergy. Both were condemned to be burnt, the 
 former notwithstanding he had a. safe conduct from 
 the Emperor Sigismund. He met his death with 
 great intrepidity. A poor woman, in her pious but 
 mistaken zeal, showed great activity in bringing 
 faggots to the stake ; observing which, Huss only 
 said, “ O sancta simplicitas.” He recognised that 
 she thought she was doing God service. “ Lord 
 Jesus, receive my spirit,” were his last words. 
 When Jerome was fastened to the stake, the execu- 
 tioner offered to light the fire behind his back. 
 “Light it before my face,” was the reply, “if I had 
 feared death I should not be here now.”- Both were 
 burned at Constance in 1416. 
 
 But persecution was not confined to Bohemia. 
 In England, in the year 1400, the Act “ heretico 
 combitrendo" was passed in the reign of Henry IV. 
 In the same year, William Sawtree, priest of St. 
 Oswith’s, was burned in London for heresy. He 
 was the first martyr that was burnt in England. A 
 poor tailor, named Badby, was the next, at Smith- 
 field, in 1409, and Lord Cobham, a gallant old 
 English Knight, was hung in chains and burned 
 over a slow fire in 1417. 
 
 The century closed with the burning of Savona- 
 rola in Florence, in 1498. He was rather a social 
 and moral than a doctrinal Reformer. But it. was 
 quite sufficient to denounce the sins of the clergy to 
 excite the anger of the hierarchy. He died a martyr 
 to liberty. Alexander VI. was then on the papal 
 throne, a monster of iniquity. He died in 1503 by 
 
8 
 
 THE REFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 poison, which he and his son, Caesar Borgia, had 
 prepared for another. 
 
 The sale of Indtdgences . — The sale of indulgences, 
 both before and after this period, had also a great 
 hand in bringing on the Reformation. An indul- 
 gence purports to be a remission of a certain portion 
 of the temporal punishment due to sin, after the guilt 
 or eternal punishment has been remitted by the 
 sacrament of penance, f.e., confession and absolu- 
 tion. John XXIII. had raised money to carry on 
 his war with the King of Naples in this way, so 
 did Leo X. to complete the building of St. Peter’s. 
 The agents sold these indulgences in a shameless 
 manner, offering them at various prices, and promis- 
 ing the purchasers, on the authority of the Pope, 
 the remission of so many days or years from Purga- 
 torial torment — in some cases a plenary remission 
 was promised, which could be applied to the soul 
 of another, if not required by the buyer. This 
 disgraceful traffic awakened the righteous indigna- 
 tion of all respectable and intelligent people, and 
 no enlightened Roman Catholic will do otherwise 
 than condemn the abuses and scandals which thus 
 were perpetrated in the name of religion — the 
 demand for a Reformation therefore became more 
 urgent. 
 
 Other causes conspired to bring about the crisis. 
 The revival of learning by the dispersion of the 
 Greek litterati, consequent on the fall of Constan- 
 tinople in 1452, and the invention of printing 
 enlightened and awakened the public conscience. 
 Scholars began to study the Greek Testament, and 
 
THE REFORMATION : ITS NECESSITY. 
 
 9 
 
 the common people the English and German trans- 
 lations, and thus it was discovered that the abuses 
 complained of — papal and clerical — as well as the 
 low moral tone of the people generally, arose from 
 “doctrinal ” corruption. This was the reason why 
 former efforts at reformation had failed. The real 
 source of them lay hid, but when the intelligence 
 of the people was enlightened by the perusal of the 
 New Testament, the need of a thorough doctrinal 
 reform could alone meet the case. As long as the 
 Papal claims and sacerdotal pretensions were 
 admitted, ecclesiastical tyranny and spiritual bond- 
 age were the necessary consequences. A large part 
 of Christendom was now ready for the explosion — 
 or needed but a match to ignite the train. In the 
 next lecture, we shall see the commencement of the 
 Reformation in the Church of England under 
 Henry VIII. 
 
■10 
 
 
 Lecture II. 
 
 THE REFORMATION : HENRY VIII. 
 
 “ N iw will I break his yqke from off thee, and will burst 
 thy bonds in sunder.” — Nahum i. 13. 
 
 It has been said, and truly so, that the Reforam- 
 tion was the greatest event in history since the 
 establishment of Christianity. It was not an event 
 which took the world by surprise. Events had 
 been long preparing for it, and it broke out simul- 
 taneously, or nearly so, in all the countries of 
 Europe. It did not always advance gradually and 
 steadily, but rather wave-like, now onward, now 
 receding ; but, on the whole, it made progress, and 
 at last became an established fact. In the previous 
 lecture, I mentioned some of the causes which led 
 to it, and which finally brought it about. The need 
 of a reformation in morals and discipline had been 
 long /elt, and several ineffectual 'efforts had been 
 made in that direction, but it was not until it was 
 realised that doctrinal corruption was at the root 
 of the evil, that the desired reformation was possible. 
 Even then, such a conviction was realised but 
 by few, and had to encounter enormous difficulties. 
 The Papacy was the buttress of the whole system ; 
 and it had slowly grown up and gathered strength 
 as the centuries rolled by. But the time had come ^ 
 
THE REFORMATION: HENRY VIII . 
 
 11 
 
 the social and moral evils had become intolerable. 
 The exactions of the Papacy and the clergy had 
 pressed heavily gn the people and the nations. The 
 scandals of the Popes, their exorbitant claims, 
 their lives, together with the revival of learning 
 and the invention of printing, which multiplied 
 books, had kindled a thirst for knowledge, and 
 thrown light on the problem which had to be dealt 
 with, and also increased the demand for it. 
 
 As far as England was concerned, the first step 
 was to be taken by . Henry VIII. He was no 
 Reformer; on the contrary, he was a devoted 
 Romanist, and for many years a steadfast adherent 
 of the Papacy. He was born in 1491, and was 
 getting on to thirty years of age when he entered 
 the lists against Martin Luther — writing a treatise 
 on the seven sacraments, in which he displayed a 
 very fair amount of theological knowledge and 
 dialectical skill. The Pope, Leo X. was delighted 
 with the Royal performance, and is said to have 
 attributed it to the special help of the Holy Ghost, 
 and he conferred upon Henry the title of Defender 
 of the Faith (A.Z).), a title still borne by our 
 Sovereigns. I may mention here that the Reforma- 
 tion in Germany had begun a few years before this, 
 when Martin Luther, an Augustinian Monk, scanda- 
 lised by the infamous traffic of Tetzel acting for 
 the Pope in the sale of Indulgences, and promising 
 spiritual blessings for monetary payment; in 1517 
 affixed to the church of Wittemberg, 95 theses or 
 propositions against the whole theory of Indul- 
 gences. This brought down the anger of the Pope. 
 
■THE REFORMATION: HENRY VIII. 
 
 ]2 
 
 Luther was summoned to Rome, and, as he did 
 not obey the summons to appear before and submit 
 himself to the Pope, a Papal Bull was launched 
 against him, known as the Bull Exurge DomineE 
 
 Luther took the Bull by the horns, assembled his 
 friends, kindled a fire, and threw the Bull and the 
 Papal decretals into it. It is among the happiest 
 of my reminiscences that I have stood on the spot 
 where this was done. A tablet, still publicly dis- 
 played, bears the inscription — “Here Dr. Martin 
 Luther burnt the Pope’s Bull.” 
 
 But in 1526 o^ so, Henry begun to entertain doubts 
 of the validity of his marriage with Catherine. She 
 was the widow of his brother Arthur. They had 
 been married as an affair of state, to cement the 
 crowns of England and Spain, in 1501, when 
 Arthur was only 16. But he died shortly after the 
 marriage. 
 
 A dispensation was now sought from the Pope 
 by Henry VH. to enable his son to marry his 
 brother’s wife. The Pope was not unwilling, and 
 the contract of marriage was entered into. But in 
 1505, Henry protested against the marriage, and 
 said he could not consent to its fulfilment. On his 
 father’s death, however, in 1509, arguments of state 
 were so pressed on him that he consented, and they 
 were married. Two infant sons were born, but 
 they died. His daughter Mary alone lived. As 
 years rolled on, Henry was disappointed that he had 
 no male issue; his old scruples revived, especially 
 when the legitimacy of Mary was called in question 
 by the French ambassador. Henry said it was the 
 
7' HE REFORMATION: HENRY VIII. 
 
 13 
 
 
 curse of God upon the marriage that he should be 
 childless, and he applied to the Pope for a divorce. 
 But this put the Pope in a great difficulty, for 
 Catherine was aunt to the Emperor Charles V.; to 
 refuse it was to vex the powerful King of England, 
 to grant it would vex the Emperor of Germany. 
 What were the real motives of Henry, I know not. 
 Whether it was conscience, or passion for another, 
 or reasons of state, or all of them combined, others 
 must settle. I hold no brief for Henry VIIL, and 
 do not feel called upon to justify either his conduct 
 or his character. A policy of delay was that pur- 
 sued by the Pope, I suppose in the hope that time 
 or the chapter of accidents might bring about a 
 solution. That he could have granted the dispen- 
 , sation had he thought fit, is evident; it is one of the 
 
 claims of the Roman Church that they have power 
 to dispense with some of the impediments to mar- 
 riage mentioned in Leviticus xviii., and to impose 
 I others additional to those that are mentioned. The 
 
 weary proceedings continued for nearly seven years. 
 
 , -At length accident, or what men call such, brought 
 
 I Cranmer under the King’s notice. He was staying 
 
 I at the house of Mr. Cressy, at Waltham Cross, 
 
 ; where Henry stopped for the night on his progress 
 
 southwards. The divorce was the subject of con- 
 versation between Bishop Gardiner and Cranmer, 
 |. and the latter said the best plan would be to get the 
 
 opinion of the Universities of Europe on the sub- 
 ject— that if they pronounced that the marriage with 
 j; , Arthur’s widow was contrary to the Word of God, 
 
 i ;,. v ,V no dispensation from the Pope could make it valid, 
 
I 
 
 14 THE REFORMATION: HENRY VIII. 
 
 and Henry was free — if they decided that the 
 marriage was valid, the King might rest easy in 
 his mind. This was to subject the Pope’s decision 
 to the Word of God, and involved a principle of 
 great importance. 
 
 The King heard this, and at once exclaimed that 
 “ he had got the sow by the right ear.” He sent 
 for Cranmer, and took the course he advised. It 
 took some years before all the answers could be 
 obtained, but at length not only Cambridge and 
 Oxford, but Paris, Louvain, Padua, Bologne, Fer- 
 rara, the Sorbonne, etc., all replied by majorities, 
 more or less, that the marriage of Henry with 
 Catherine was not lawful according to God’s law, 
 and that no dispensation could make it so. 
 
 Henry acted on this, and a private marriage took 
 place between him and Anne Boleyn in the end of 
 1533. Elizabeth was born the following year, 1534. 
 A vacancy occurring in the See of Canterbury by the 
 death of Warham, Henry appointed Cranmer to the 
 Archbishopric, first having obained from the Pope 
 the necessary Bulls. I suppose he was not aware 
 of the private marriage. But the great event of the 
 year was the rejection of the Papal supremacy by 
 Act of Parliament, a . d . 1534. Thus the yoke which 
 had for so many centuries pressed so heavily on the 
 neck of England was broken, and the burden of 
 papal exactions removed. This act restored the 
 national independence to the Church, and indeed to 
 the State as well, for no State can be free or inde- 
 pendent when a foreign potentate has the final 
 authority in all matters which affect the spiritual 
 
THE REFORMATION : HENRY VI IT 
 
 15 
 
 welfare of the nation. At first sight it may be 
 thought that the two domains of the spiritual and 
 temporal are so different that the Pope might safely 
 rule the one without interfering with the other. 
 But this is found to be impracticable. So far from 
 being separated, the two domains are found to inter- 
 penetrate each other. The most ordinary action in 
 life may be found to have its spiritual side — eating, 
 drinking, marrying, voting, ruling, all bear on 
 spiritual things, or are influenced by them. So it 
 was found out in practice, and the Reformation, as 
 far as it .was possible, put the Papacy out of the 
 domain of politics. Even as it is, the influence of 
 the Pipacy, i.e., of the politico-religious system 
 which it represents, exerts through the constituences 
 a disturbing and injurious influence on the politics 
 of any free country, of every country where its 
 votaries reside. 
 
 The King was proclaimed the supreme Head of 
 the Church of England. No doubt he intended to 
 exercise the same personal authority as the Pope 
 had done before, for the Tudors were a sturdy race, 
 and could brook no opposition, but all it really 
 meant was this, that the King was the supreme 
 governor of all lestates in his realm, whether civil 
 or ecclesiastical. The principle was that the 
 national church, like the army and navy, should 
 be subject to national control, and in all caSes of 
 appeal, whether doctrinal or ecclesiastical, the final 
 award must come from the national courts and 
 jurisdiction. This is a principle which I think no 
 one can reasonably object to. Those who do so 
 
16 
 
 THE REFORMATION : HENRY VI II. 
 
 should withdraw from the national church. They 
 are, happily, not obliged to remain in it. 
 
 The Pope immediately prepared a Bull of depo- 
 sition against Henry, but did not publish it till 
 1538. It set forth that Henry had fallen from the 
 faith and forfeited his right to the crown ; it absolved 
 his subjects from their allegiance, and put the nation 
 under interdict ; and further, Henry was denounced 
 as a heretic, schismatic, murderer, adulterer, and 
 rebel, who was guilty of treason against his rightful 
 lord the Pope. He w^as therefore declared to be 
 deposed, and his crown offered to the, King of 
 France or Scotland, if they would take it. Happily 
 the Bull had no effect — the Bull had lost its thunder 
 and its terror, for the time at least, in England, and 
 things went on as before. The dissolution of the 
 abbeys and monasteries followed in 1536. A visi- 
 tation was ordered by Parliament, and it was found 
 that in many instances they were little better than 
 houses of superstition, idleness, and in some cases 
 worse. Indeed, several had been suppressed in 
 1529, by Cardinal Wolsey, acting under the autho- 
 rity of the Pope. But in 1536 there was a final 
 clearance made of them ; nearly four hundred 
 “religious” houses, as they were called, were 
 suppressed, and their revenues devoted to other 
 purposes. I have no doubt that the charges were 
 in many instances true. It is impossible to have 
 houses of this sort, which are free from all public 
 inspection, without evils arising in them. It is to 
 be regretted that such institutions are again being 
 rapidly extended in England, not only under 
 
THE REFORMATION :■ HENRY VIII. 
 
 17 
 
 Roman, but Anglican influence. They are certain 
 to produce the same bad fruits as before. In this 
 year, also, the Ten Articles of religion were pub- 
 lished. These were essentially Romish as to the 
 Rule of faith. Baptism, Sacrament of Penance or 
 Auricular Confession, the Real Presence ” justi- 
 fication by Sacraments, the use of images, prayer to 
 saints, Roman ceremonial, such as holy water, 
 ashes, palms, candles, holy bread, creeping to the 
 Cross on Good Friday and kissing it ; Purgatory. 
 In 1536, however, the King ordered the Bible to 
 be printed, and it was publicly set up in every 
 church in 1538, for every person to read it. The 
 Bible was, however, chained; it was not yet quite 
 free. All the clergy were ordered to procure a 
 copy and peruse it. 
 
 The “Six Bloody Articles” were set out in 1539. 
 They were reactionary and sanguinary. They are 
 as follows: — -“The Real Presence,” “Communion 
 in one kind,” “Clerical Celibacy,” “Vows of 
 Chastity,” “Private Masses,” and “Auricular 
 Confession.” Burning was the penalty attached 
 to a denial of the first; hanging of the other five. 
 Severe persecutions followed, and for eight years, 
 until Henry’s death, this heavy yoke was fastened 
 on the people of England. In 1544 the Litany was 
 set forth in English. It was drawn up by Cranmer, 
 partly compiled out of the meagre offices of - the 
 kind already existing, but largely composed by 
 himself. It was substantially what we have at 
 present, saving that it contained a clause for the 
 invocation of saints, expunged in Edward’s reign. 
 
18 
 
 THE REFORMATION: HENRY VIIL 
 
 It also contained a strong deprecation against the 
 Pope. “From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, 
 and all his detestable enormities, Good Lord deliver 
 us.” This was expunged in Elizabeth’s reign. 
 
 But the end was now approaching. In January, 
 1547, the King was taken seriously ill, and Cranmer 
 was sent for. The King was speechless. Cranmer 
 asked the King to give him a sign that he died in 
 the faith oftChrist. The King pressed his hand 
 and expired. 
 
 The King made a will, by which he left ^600 a 
 year for ever for the two priests of Windsor, to say 
 Mass at his tomb daily, and to meet some charitable 
 objects which he specified. I presume he feared he 
 might be in Purgatory a long time, and therefore 
 he made provision for all the remedial influences 
 of which such a place admits. If he were released 
 sooner, the benefit of the Masses would, he supposed, 
 do good to some other sufferer. 
 
 We can now form an estimate of the work Henry 
 did in reference to the Reformation. He broke the 
 yoke of the spiritual oppressor from the neck of the 
 nation, and so made reformation possible ; he 
 abolished the monasteries, those great supporters 
 of existing abuses ; he put the open Bible in the 
 Church. For these three things, we owe to him, 
 under God, a debt of gratitude. His work was 
 preparatory, for the most part destructive of 
 obstacles ; the constructive was to come. Henry 
 died a firm Romanist. I am not aware that he 
 renounced any one of the distinctive doctrines of 
 Romanism, save the Papal supremacy. He would 
 
7'HE REFORMATION : HENRY VIII. 
 
 19 
 
 have no Popery ; but he retained all the Romanism 
 he ever possessed. 
 
 A few words on the persecutions of his reign. 
 They were many — beginning with Frith, and 
 ending with Lady Jane Askew. He spared 
 neither Protestant nor Papist. The sincere and 
 pious Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More, 
 though sincere Roman Catholics, were beheaded 
 because they would not admit the Royal suprem- 
 acy. In- 1540, six men were sent to Smith- 
 ficld three Protestants to be burnt, three Papists 
 to be hanged. They were carried on three hurdles — 
 one of each faith on each hurdle ! William 
 Tyndale, the famous translator of the Greek 
 Testament (1526), was martyred in 1536, by Henry’s 
 efforts, at Villeforde, near Brussels. His last words 
 were : “ O Lord, open the King of England’s 
 
 eyes ! In 153S) John Lambert, an eminent divine 
 and Reformer, was tried by Henry in person, and 
 as he denied the so-called “ Real Presence,” he 
 was ordered to be burnt at Smithfield — the scene of 
 so many noble testimonies to Protestant truth by 
 brave men. His last words were : “ None but 
 Christ ! none but Christ ! ” Fie suffered severely, 
 his poor legs being burnt to the stumps before he 
 died, the fire being insufficient, and so his agonies 
 were prolonged. 
 
 Such was the preparation for the Reformation. 
 We are sometimes asked : Were was your religion 
 before Henry VHL? We answer: Where it is 
 now, in the New Testament. Where were its 
 professors before Henry ? Here, and in every 
 
20 
 
 THE REFORMATION: HENRY VIII. 
 
 Christian country — persecuted, and some of them 
 slain — Wickliffe, Cobham, Huss, Jerome. Where 
 was your Church of England ? Here, as then — 
 but then defiled with superstition ; now, as far as 
 our prayer books and articles are concerned, pure 
 and scriptural. Alas ! that so many of her sons and 
 daughters seem ready to go back to Egypt — some 
 have arrived there already. 
 
 Brethren, let us do our utmost, by personal 
 fidelity to the principles and the practices of the 
 Reformation, to resist the Romeward movement, 
 which is now threatening the very existence of the 
 Established Church and the cause of true religion 
 in our country. 
 
1 
 
 21 
 
 Lecture III. 
 
 THE REFORMATION: EDWARD VI. 
 
 “ In the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, Josiah began 
 to seek after the God of David his father, and in the twelfth year 
 he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places and 
 the groves and the carved images, and the molten images ; And 
 they brake down the altars of Balaam in his presence, and the images 
 that were on high above them he cut down.” — 2 Chron. xxxiv. 3. 
 
 I HAVE chosen this passage of the Old Testament 
 history, because it presents a remarkable analogy 
 to the conduct of our English Josiah, Edward VI. 
 in carrying on the work of the Reformation. 
 
 Edward was the son of Henry VIII. by Jane 
 Seymour, his favourite wife. She was a warm 
 friend of the Reformation which was then setting in. 
 Edward was born in 1537. He succeeded to the 
 throne on the death of his father in January, 1547, 
 and died on the 6th July, 1553, in the seventh year 
 of his reign, and the seventeenth year of his age. 
 By his will, Henry had appointed sixteen executors, 
 and twelve Privy Councillors, to have the charge 
 of the King. The Council appointed Edward 
 Seymour, afterward Duke of Somerset, his maternal 
 uncle, to be Protector of the King’s person. 
 Somerset was a thorough Reformer, and personally 
 a pious. God-fearing man. 
 
 Edward’s early preceptors were well qualified for 
 
22 
 
 THE REFORMATION: EDWARD VI. 
 
 their office. They were Sir Anthony Cook, Dr. 
 Cox, afterwards Chancellor of Oxford, and subse- 
 quently Bishop of Ely ; and Sir John Cheke, 
 Professor of Greek in the University of Cambridge. 
 
 • Archbishop Cranmer was his godfather. He was 
 thus early surrounded by good influences. He was 
 a youth of considerable talents, and became a well- 
 informed and accurate scholar. His knowledge of 
 the languages, both foreign and classical, was ex- 
 tensive, and he took the deepest interest, from his 
 earliest years, in the theological questions which 
 were so hotly debated around him. He was of a 
 truly pious and religious disposition, of an earnest, 
 devout mind, and sincerely anxious to do that 
 which was pleasing to God. The Bible was his con- 
 stant study and delight. We may well imagine that, 
 under such tuition and training, he was intelligently 
 and decidedly in favour of the Reformation. 
 
 At his coronation, Cranmer delivered an address 
 appropriate to the high office to which he had been 
 called, setting forth the duties which devolved on 
 him, and. urging him to go forward in the reform- 
 ation of the Church of England. In the procession 
 to Westminster there were carried three swords 
 before him, emblematic of the three kingdoms over 
 which he was called to rule. Perceiving this, he said^ 
 to those by him, “There is yet one sword wanted.” 
 On enquiry being made what it was, he replied : 
 “The sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.” 
 
 Very little was done during the first year of his 
 ^reign towards the progress of the Reformation, 
 but the events in 1547 may be briefly enumerated. 
 
^HE REFORMATION : EDWARD VI. 
 
 23 
 
 First, a set of. Injunctions issued early in the 
 year, with a view to the suppression of gross 
 superstitions, such as the adoration or excessive 
 veneration of images, processions, the use of 
 candles, etc. Shortly after this, it was ordered 
 that the Epistle and Gospel should be read in 
 English during the Mass — for the Latin Mass was 
 still the public service of the Church. Two lessons 
 from the Old and New Testament were to be read 
 in English; one in the morning and the other in 
 the evening. The Eirst Book of Homilies, con- 
 taining twelve familiar sermons on various points, 
 was published this year, and the clergy were 
 ordered to read them in the churches. There was 
 need for this, for the ordinary parish priests were 
 no preachers, nor could they be trusted, as most of 
 them were opposed to the Reformation. The Mass 
 was regularly performed every Sunday several 
 times; but no sermons, save in large cities and in 
 the principal churches. They, therefore, were very 
 ignorant. A preaching clergy in a free land means 
 more or less an educated clergy. The above were 
 the principal matters effected in the direction of 
 actual reformation; but a more important matter 
 still was accomplished in December, 1547? viz., the 
 repeal of the Act of the “Six Bloody Articles.” As 
 long as this Act was law, further Reformation was 
 impossible, for it burned those who denied the Real 
 Presence, and it hung those who denied clerical 
 celibacy, auricular confession, or private masses 
 for the living and the dead. At Cranmer’s instance, 
 and by his influence, this Act was repealed ; and 
 
24 
 
 THE REFORMATION : EDWARD VI. 
 
 thus the muzzle was removed from the lips of the 
 Reformers, and conscience was set free to speak and 
 act. Still the same calm deliberation marked events 
 in the next year, 1548, as before. One change only 
 of any importance waa effected, viz., the putting 
 forth of the “Order of Communion.” This was a 
 short service to be added to the Mass, consisti ng of 
 one of the two exhortations in our present Book, 
 the confession, the prayer of humble access, and 
 the communication of the cup to the laity. 
 
 The next year, 1549, was an eventful one in the 
 history of the Church of England. The Latin 
 Mass, which had been used for many centuries in 
 this land, was abolished, and the First Book of 
 Common Prayer in English was substituted for it. 
 It came into use on Whit-Sunday, 9th June. 
 
 This Book virtually abolished the Mass and the 
 doctrine of the Mass. It was drawn up chiefly 
 by Cranmer. In seventeen particulars it struck 
 out phrases and expressions which distinctly taught 
 or implied the sacrifice of the Mass. A form 
 was drawn up for morning and evening prayer, 
 and also forms for the other offices of the Church, 
 Baptism, etc., etc. But though all these were a 
 great departure from and improvement upon the old 
 forms, still the Book was but partially reformed, 
 and contained many things which were decidedly 
 objectionable. 
 
 For example it contained : — 
 
 The sign of the Cross in the Communion office. 
 
 The mixed Chalice. 
 
 The Altar, and altarwise position of the Priest. 
 
THE REFORMATION: EDWARD VI. 
 
 25 
 
 The sacerdotal vestments. 
 
 The word Mass as an alternative name for the 
 Communion. 
 
 Auricular Confession, though left optional. 
 
 Prayers for the dead in the Communion office, 
 and in the office for the burial of the dead. 
 
 The invocation of the Holy Ghost on the bread 
 and wine that they might become to us the Body 
 and Blood of Christ. 
 
 The commemoration of the B.V.M., the Patri- 
 archs and Prophets. 
 
 Exorcism in baptism ; Trine immersion ; anoint- 
 ing the child with oil. A form of absolution 
 appointed for private confessions. Extreme unction, 
 reservation of the elements, etc., etc. Such was 
 the first Book of Common Prayer. Much Roman 
 error had been rejected, but too much remained. 
 
 This Prayer Book was followed by a new set of 
 Injunctions, enjoining its use and forbidding certain 
 practices, such as ‘ ^ setting any candl&s on the Lord’s 
 Board at any time,” and forbidding “any counter- 
 feiting of the Popish Mass.” Alas ! what counter- 
 feiting of the Mass in our English Churches at the 
 present time ! But we must proceed. 
 
 The year 1550 was a momentous one, and was 
 signalised by two important events. First, the new 
 Ordinal containing the Forms of Ordination was 
 drawn up by order of an Act of Parliament, in which 
 Cranmer and Ridley had the chief hand, as they had 
 in drawing up the Book of Common Prayer. The 
 Ordinal was to take the place of the Forms in the 
 “Pontifical” which had been used for three or four 
 
26 
 
 THE REFORMATION : EDWARD VI. 
 
 hundred years before. The Ordaining Formula in 
 the “Pontifical,” and by which all the early Re- 
 formers had been ordained, was as follows (in 
 Latin) : — 
 
 “Take thou authority to offer sacrifice to God, 
 and to celebrate Masses for the living and for the 
 dead, in the Name, etc.” 
 
 These words were accompanied by the delivery 
 of the sacred vessels into the hands of the candidates 
 for the priesthood, and immediately on their utterance 
 the candidates were made priests. Up to this time, 
 they were called “Ordinandi,” i.e., “about to be 
 ordained ” ; now they are described as “ Ordinati,” 
 “ Ordained.” This ordinal came into force on the 
 ist May, 1550, and since that date the Church of 
 England has had no sacrificing priests, whatever 
 vain pretensions some clergy may put forth. The 
 Church of Rome has her sacrificing priests, or such 
 as she regards such ; she knows also perfectly well 
 that Anglican sacrificing priests, so called, are mere 
 pretenders, for, on what are called “ Catholic ” prin- 
 ciples, Anglican orders are invalid. 
 
 The next change followed logically and theologi- 
 cally from the previous one — the abolition of the 
 altars. Sacrificing priests must have altars, but as 
 the Church had done away with the one, she had 
 no need of the other, and so, in November, 1550, 
 as we learn from King Edward’s Journal, “orders 
 were sent out to all the Bishops to pluck down the 
 altars,” and to substitute for them decent com- 
 munion tables made of wood. How clergymen 
 can, in the face of these two historical facts, go 
 
THE REFORMATION : EDWARD VI. 
 
 27 
 
 about professing to be sacrificing priests, and offer- 
 ing up the sacrifice of Christ, is a mystery to me. 
 Surely it must be in ignorance of the facts I have 
 mentioned. 
 
 We now pass over 1551, and come to the year 
 
 1552- 
 
 There was a growing demand for further reforma- 
 tion — a revision of the Prayer Book. Gardiner, 
 Bishop of Winchester, unintentionally hastened 
 this forward. He was a violent opponent of the 
 Reformation, and when he came out of the Tower, 
 where he had been imprisoned, he at once attacked 
 the Book of Common Prayer for having rejected 
 the doctrine of the sacrifice of the Mass in no less 
 than seventeen important particulars ; but he also 
 pointed out its inconsistency, in that in some ten 
 places it still contained statements which more or 
 less involved the sacrificial idea. He was quite 
 right in this, for such was the case. Cranmer at 
 once struck that weapon out of his hand by resolv- 
 ing on a revision, and carried it into effect ; so that 
 everyone of those ten survivals of sacrificial doc- 
 trine, which either contained explicitly, or were 
 capable of a ‘Catholic’ interpretation, was utterly 
 expunged. Thus in twenty-seven instances the 
 erroneous doctrine was rejected, and not a trace of 
 the sacrificial idea left in the book. 
 
 But not content with this, all the erroneous- par- 
 ticulars, which I mentioned as left in the first book, 
 were also expunged, until we find the book exactly 
 as we have it now, only with the addition of some 
 beautiful prayers added in 1662 at the last revision. 
 
•28 • 
 
 THE REFORMATION: EDWARD VI. 
 
 I refer to the prayer for “All conditions of men,” 
 the “ General Thanksgiving,” etc. The word 
 “altar” was also removed from the Communion 
 office. 
 
 But besides this expurgation, other changes were 
 made. The table was no longer to stand altarwise, 
 as before, and, unhappily, as it always stands even 
 now, ever since Archbishop Laud’s Ritualistic 
 innovations, but lengthwise, as was the general 
 custom for some sixty years after the Reformation : 
 and the minister was ordered to stand, “ not afore 
 the midst of the altar,” but at “ the north side of the 
 table,” so that the people might see him take the 
 bread into his hands and break it before the people, 
 and also take the cup in like manner. 
 
 The so-called Black Rubric was also added to 
 the Communion office, which declares that the 
 “ Body of Christ is in heaven and not here.” 
 
 The general confession and public declaration of 
 absolution at morning and evening prayer took the 
 place of private confession and absolution, and the 
 permission to use the latter ivas withdrawn. 
 
 There is no sufficient proof that either the first or 
 second Book of Common Prayer was submitted to 
 Convocation ; in fact, it is pretty certain they were 
 not, for the majority of the bishops were opposed 
 to the Reformation ; and so they were enacted by 
 Parliament without convocation, and very properly. 
 The next year, 1533, was the last of Edward’s 
 reign, but it was an important one. King 
 Edward’s Catechism was published, and all school- 
 masters were ordered to teach it. It was the 
 
THE REFORMATION : EDWARD VI. 
 
 29 
 
 last work of the Reformers, and contains an 
 admirable body of divinity, by way of question and 
 answer, which would furnish our younger clergy 
 with clear views on all doctrinal subjects, especially 
 those wherein we differ from Rome. Alas ! they 
 know nothing about it. 
 
 To this was added 42 Articles of Religion, re- 
 duced to 39 in 1562. These articles contained all 
 our present ones, save the 5th, 12th, 29th, and 30th. 
 They were published in May, 1553. 
 
 Shortly after this, the King became dangerously 
 ill and fell into a decline. He died on the 6th of 
 July, and a few hours before his death he was 
 overheard uttering the following prayer : — 
 
 “ Lord God deliver me out of this miserable and 
 wretched life, and take me among Thy chosen. 
 However, not my will, but Thy will be done. Lord. 
 I commend my spirit to Thee ; O Lord, Thou 
 knowest how happy it would be for me to be with 
 Thee, yet for Thy chosen’s sake send me life and 
 health that I may truly serve Thee. O my Lord 
 God, bless Thy people and save Thine inheritance. 
 O Lord God, save Thy chosen people of England ; 
 O my Lord God, defend this realm from Papistry, 
 and maintain Thy true religion, that I and Thy 
 people may praise Thy holy name for Thy Son 
 Jesus Christ’s sake. I am faint. Lord have mercy 
 on me and receive my spirit.” 
 
 Thus the pious youthful Sovereign passed away. 
 
 A few observations in conclusion will suffice. 
 
 I. Let us praise and give hearty thanks to 
 
30 
 
 THE REFORMATION: EE WARE VI 
 
 Almighty God for His goodness to this nation in 
 giving , us at such a time such a sovereign, and such 
 wise councillors to advise and guide him in the 
 great work of the Reformation. Other nations were 
 not so fortunate, so blessed as we. We deserved 
 no better than they : and yet God has dealt with 
 us more graciously than with them. “ Not unto us, 
 O Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name be the 
 praise.” Let us remember that to whom much has 
 been given, from them will much be required. 
 
 2. How much, under God, do we owe to the 
 Reformation? Cranmer and Ridley, and Cox, and 
 Coverdale ; these and others, gave us the Book of 
 Common Prayer, the 39 Articles of Religion, the 
 First Book of Homilies, the open Bible, in a word, 
 purity of doctrine and purity of worship, that is, 
 wherever their teachings and rules are adhered to. 
 Let us never forget that the very men who, with 
 their own hands and pen, drew up the Prayer Book 
 
 .and the Articles, sealed them with their blood at 
 the martyrs’ fire in Oxford a few years later. We 
 inherit blood-bought principles ; not only salvation 
 purchased' for us by the precious blood of Christ, 
 but the Reformation, sealed by the blood of the 
 Reformers. Ever may we hold their memories in 
 honour, and with thankfulness to God who raised 
 up and gave to England such men. 
 
 3. Let us train up our children in the knowledge 
 of the facts and doctrines of the Reformation. This 
 is our bounden duty, and it is the only safety of the 
 nation. Let them read Eoxe’s Book of Martyrs, 
 and teach them the Articles of our Church, especially 
 
THE REFORMATION : EE WARE VI. 
 
 31 
 
 those that bear on the prevailing errors of our days. 
 Teach them the pure way of salvation as set forth 
 in all its simplicity in the New Testament. 
 
 4. Resist all efforts on the part of many of our 
 clergy and laity, aye, and our political leaders also, 
 to relax, weaken, or undo the work of the Reforma- 
 tion. I have not much fear of Rome without. We 
 need not send our children to be taught religion by 
 them. The real danger is the Romanising clergy 
 within the Church who have the preparation of our 
 children for Confirmation. My dear brethren, do 
 not send your children to any such, whatever the 
 inconvenience may be. Do not expose their tender 
 minds to be corrupted by false doctrines. 
 
 5. Daily pray to God to influence the minds of 
 our political rulers in the State to appoint to the 
 Episcopal Bench only such men as are faithful to 
 the principles of the Reformation. No man in his 
 senses can say that this is done now. We look in 
 vain for the appointment of such men as Cranmer 
 and Ridley, or Latimer and Jewel. If this is not 
 done only one result can follow. Let us, however, 
 do all that in us lies to hand down to our children, 
 and those that come after them, pure and scriptural 
 Christianity, restored to us in the reign of Edward 
 VI., that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ 
 may continue to shine on our highly favoured 
 country, and by it, be diffused to the ends of the 
 earth. 
 
Lecture IV. 
 
 THE REFORMATION: MARY. 
 
 “ The time will come when he that killeth you will think that he 
 doeth God service.” — ^John xvi. 2. 
 
 Mary, daughter of Henry VHI. and Catherine of 
 Arragon, was born in the year 1516, succeeded to 
 the throne on the 6th July, 1553, on the death of 
 Edward VI., and died on the 17th of November, 
 1588, aged 43. 
 
 On the death of Edward, an abortive attempt was 
 made by the Duke of Northumberland and the 
 Duke of Suffolk to place Lady Jane Grey on the 
 throne. She was the daughter of the latter, and the 
 daughter-in-law of the former. Both were ambitious 
 men, and as Lady Jane was of Royal blood through 
 her mother, Frances Brandon, who was the eldest 
 daughter of Mary, sister of Henry VIIL, they per- 
 suaded Edward to appoint her as his successor ; his 
 sisters Mary and Elizabeth having been declared 
 illegitimate by the servile parliaments of Henry. 
 
 Edward was in declining health ; weakened in 
 body and mind ; Jane was known to be deeply at- 
 tached to the principles of the Reformation ; hence 
 he was easily persuaded to comply with the wishes 
 of these unscrupulous men. Their triumph, how- 
 ever, was but of short duration. A few days sufficed 
 
THE REFORMATION: MARY. 
 
 33 
 
 to indicate the national feeling that Mary had the 
 best right to the throne, as the eldest daughter of 
 Henry. The Lady Jane gladly laid down a crown 
 which, with difficulty, she had been persuaded to 
 assume. Mary took her place, and Jane, with her 
 husband, was committed to the Tower. The Duke 
 of Northumberland was executed, as was the Duke 
 of Suffolk some time after. 
 
 Mary at once showed her opposition to the Refor- 
 mation by suppressing all preaching. This has ever 
 been the characteristic of the Church of Rome — to 
 suppress all public discussion. In previous centuries 
 there had been the preaching Friars, but their 
 preaching was in accordance with the prevailing 
 teaching of the times, and therefore there was no 
 objection to it ; but it was far otherwise with Wick- 
 liffe and his “ poor priests.” They met with every 
 opposition and persecution. The Reformation was 
 won largely by the pulpit, and it can only be 
 effectually maintained in the same way. If the 
 pulpit is silenced, or if the faithful ministers of 
 Christ do not teach and expound the pure word of 
 God, with an appeal to it only as the infallible rule 
 of faith, and the free and enlightened use of reason 
 as the judge of its meaning, the light of the 
 Reformation will be quenched in darkness as 
 before. The noble leaders of the Reformation — 
 Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, and others were now 
 sent to the Tower. Towards the end of the year, 
 viz., October, i553> Act of Parliament was 
 passed repealing all the laws of Edward about 
 
 religion, thus restoring the Mass, abolishing the 
 c 
 
34 
 
 THE REFORMATION: MARY. 
 
 Book of Common Prayer, and bringing England 
 back to the condition in which it was left at the 
 death of Henry ; in a word — Romanism without 
 the Pope. 
 
 In the following year, 1554, on the 12th February, 
 poor Lady Jane was executed. She saw the head- 
 less body of her unfortunate husband. Lord Dudley, 
 carried across the Tower square from the block. 
 She sent her Greek Testament to her sister, declared 
 that she died a true Christian, hoped to be saved 
 only by the blood of Christ, kneeled down and 
 repeated the fifty-first Psalm ; undressed, and laid 
 her young head on the same block. Her last 
 words were, “ Lord, into thy hands I commend my 
 spirit.” 
 
 The retrograde movement was now in full opera- 
 tion. The Queen had sent out injunctions for the 
 restoration of the Mass in all the Churches ; and the 
 Reforming prelates were everywhere deposed — one 
 Archbishop and twelve Bishops. Hundreds now 
 fled the kingdom. Arrangements were made for a 
 disputation at Oxford between the Romanist divines 
 and the Reformers. This took place in the month 
 of April. Cranmer and Ridley, who were con- 
 sidered the most learned, were released from the 
 Tower in order to go and dispute. The disputation 
 lasted several days, and was conducted before 
 Weston, Prolocutor of the Convocation. The three 
 principal questions disputed were on the Eucharist. 
 
 ist. Whether the natural body of Christ was 
 really in the Sacrament? 
 
 This was the doctrine of The Real Presence. 
 
THE REFORMATION : MARY. 
 
 35 
 
 2nd. Whether any other substance did remain 
 but the- body and blood of Christ? 
 
 This was the doctrine of Transubstantiation. 
 
 31 d. Wfhether in the Mass there was a propitia- 
 tory sacrifice for the sins of the dead and the 
 living ? 
 
 This was the Sacrifice of the Mass. 
 
 To all these the Reformers answered in the nega- 
 tive, and argued accordingly. The discussion was 
 at times very disorderly, and characterised by rude 
 interruptions on the part of the Romish disputants, 
 and unseemly attempts to brow-beat and jeer at the 
 baited Reformers. At the close of the disputation, 
 Cranmer “appealed to the judgment of God, trust- 
 ing to be with Him in heaven, for whose so-called 
 presence on the altar he was condemned.” 
 
 Ridley said . Although I be not of your com- 
 pany, yet I doubt not my name is written in 
 another place, whither your sentence will send me 
 sooner than I shall by the course of nature come.” 
 
 Whilst noble old Latimer said; “I thank God 
 most heartily that he hath prolonged my life to 
 this end, that I may glorify God with this kind of 
 death.” 
 
 They were then judged obstinate heretics, and 
 declared to be no more members of the Church. 
 They were at once sent back to the Tower. In 
 November this year. Cardinal Pole, acting as legate 
 from the Apostolic See, invited the Parliament, in a 
 long speech, to seek a reconciliation with the Pope. 
 This they agreed to do, and having drawn up a 
 supplication to that effect, they presented it on their 
 
36 
 
 THE REFORMATION: MARY. 
 
 knees to the King (Philip) and Queen, who made 
 their intercession with the Cardinal, and on the 
 30th November their petition was granted. He 
 enjoined them for penance to repeal the laws they 
 had made against the Pope, and in the Pope’s name 
 he granted them a full absolution, which they re- 
 ceived on their knees, and he also absolved the 
 whole realm from all censures. 
 
 Thus England, as represented by its Parliament, 
 was reconciled to the Pope. The Reformation was 
 abandoned, and, to all appearance, hopelessly lost, 
 the struggles of years frustrated, and the degra- 
 dation of the nation was complete. 
 
 The Act for burning Heretics was now revived 
 and re-enacted on the loth December, and the 
 fierce and terrible reign of fire and fagot, perse- 
 cution, and death commenced. 1555 dawned heavily 
 for the Reformers. I shall mention only a few of 
 the Marian Martyrs. 
 
 On 4th February, 1555, John Rogers (Camb.) 
 prelate of St. Paul’s, who had a wife and ten children, 
 was sentenced to be burnt at Smithfield for denying 
 the Real Presence of the natural body and blood 
 of Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar. The night 
 before he suffered he drank to Hooper, who was in 
 the same prison, and with whom he expected to be 
 burnt. At the place of execution, the Sheriff, 
 Woodroof, asked him if he would revoke his abomi- 
 nable doctrine and his evil opinion of the Sacra- 
 ment of the Altar, to which he answered : “ That 
 which I have preached, I will seal with my blood.’ 
 “Thou art a heretic.” “That shall be known at 
 
THE REFORMATION : MARY. 
 
 37 
 
 the day of Judgment.” “Well, I will never pray 
 for thee.” “But I will pray for you.” Then he 
 repeated the fifty-first Psalm — the people rejoicing 
 at his constancy. He was burnt to ashes, washing 
 his hands in the flames. 
 
 Dr. Rowland Taylor, Vicar of Hadley, in Suffolk, 
 was examined by Gardiner and others. Coming 
 away from them, he said: “God be praised, good 
 people; I am come away from them undefiled, and 
 will confirm the truth with my blood.” He was 
 sent to Hadley to be burnt. His wife and family 
 were watching for him. An orphan girl, whom he 
 had brought up, said, “Mother, mother, here is my 
 father led away.” “Rowland,” said his wife,* 
 “where art thou.” “ Dear wife, I am here.” They 
 kneeled down and prayed together. The night 
 before he suffered, the sheriff strongly advised him 
 to recant, whereupon he confessed that he had been 
 deceived, and was likely to disappoint many at 
 Hadley, viz., the worms in the churchyard, as he 
 would be burnt and not buried. When he was 
 brought to the stake, he said he had taught nothing 
 but God’s Holy Word, and was now to seal it with 
 his blood. He was put into a pitch barrel, which 
 was set on fire, and one of the people flung a fagot 
 at his head. “O friend,” he said, “I have harm 
 enough, what needeth this?” He then repeated 
 the fifty-first Psalm in English. And then prayed, 
 “Merciful Father of heaven, for Christ, my Saviour’s 
 sake, receive my soul into Thy hands.” The execu- 
 tioner then struck him with a halberd on the head 
 and killed him. 
 
38 
 
 THE REFOR&'IATION : MARY. 
 
 Bishop Hooper was burnt on the 9th February, 
 1555. He had been sent to the Fleet Prison by 
 Mary, and had been confined there 18 months. He 
 had denied the Real Presence of the body of Christ 
 on the altar, and said that the Mass was an idol. 
 He was sent to Gloucester to be burnt. Sir A. 
 Kingston urged him to recant — “that life was 
 sweet, and death was bitter.” He replied that 
 “the life to come is more sweet, and the death to 
 come more bitter.” His pardon was placed on a 
 box before him if he would recant. “If ye love my 
 soul,” he said, “take it away.” He was then 
 bound to the stake, and the fire kindled, but as the 
 wood was green, he cried out, “For God’s sake, 
 good people, let me have more fire.” He was 
 burning three-quarters of an hour. One of his 
 hands dropped off, and he continued knocking on 
 his breast with the other, and crying, “O Jesus, 
 Son of David, have mercy on me, and receive my 
 spirit,” and bowing forward he died. 
 
 On the ist of May, 1558, John Bradford was 
 burned at Smithfield. When offered the Queen’s 
 mercy, he said, “Mercy, with God’s mercy, would 
 be welcome; but otherwise it would be none.” The 
 gaoler’s wife said to him, “O, Mr. Bradford, I 
 bring you heavy news.” “What is that?” he 
 asked. “To-morrow you must be burned.” He 
 replied, “Thank God for it, I have looked for it a 
 long time, and now it cometh, and not suddenly. 
 The Lord make me worthy of it.” When at the 
 stake, he said, “O England, repent thee of thy 
 sins ; beware of idolatry, beware of false Anti- 
 
THE REFORMATION : MARY. 
 
 39 
 
 christs, lest they deceive thee.” To his fellow- 
 sufferer, John Leaf, a youth of 19, who sprinkled 
 his own blood on his confession, and sent it to the 
 Pope, he said, “Be of good cheer, for though our 
 breakfast be sharp, we shall have a merry supper 
 with the Lord this night.” He then embraced the 
 reeds heaped around him, and said, “Strait is the 
 gate and narrow the way that leadeth unto life, 
 and few there be that find it ! ” Fuller says, “He 
 endured the flame as a fresh gale of wind on a hot 
 Summer day.” 
 
 On the i6th October, 1555, Ridley and Latimer 
 endured the flames of martyrdom just in front of 
 Baliol College, Oxford, where now the Martyrs’ 
 Memorial stands. They embraced each other with 
 great affection, and Ridley said to Latimer, “Be of 
 good heart, brother, for God will either assuage the 
 fury of the flame or give us strength to abide it.” 
 To which Latimer replied, “Be of good comfort, for 
 we shall this day light such a candle in England 
 as I trust, by God’s grace, will never be put out.” 
 Latimer soon died, but Ridley’s sufferings were 
 severe. He had a lingering death. There was too 
 much wood, and his poor legs were consumed before 
 the flame could break through. At length, one 
 opened a passage to the flames, and it put an end to 
 his sufferings. His last prayer was : “O, heavenly 
 Father, I give Thee most hearty thanks that Thou 
 hast called me to be a professor of Thee even unto 
 death. I beseech Thee, Lord, have mercy on this 
 realm of England, and deliver her from all her 
 enemies. Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my 
 
40 
 
 THE REFORMATION : MARY. 
 
 spirit; Lord, receive my spirit; L,ord, have mercy 
 upon me.”. 
 
 On the 2ist March, 1556, the good Archbishop 
 Cranmer suffered at Oxford. And now in St. 
 Mary’s Church he is standing, whilst Cole, Provost 
 of Eton, preached before he was burnt. Cole urged 
 him to confess and recant. And he began — “And 
 now I come to the great thing that troubleth my 
 conscience more than anything I ever did or said 
 in my life — the setting abroad or writing contrary 
 to the truth. And forasmuch as my hand offended, 
 writing contrary to my heart, my hand shall first be 
 punished ; for when I come to the stake it shall be 
 first burnt. As for the Pope, I refuse him as 
 Christ’s enemy and Antichrist, with all his false 
 doctrines. And as for the Sacrament, I believe as 
 I taught in my book against the Bishop of Win- 
 chester, which teaches so true a doctrine of the 
 Sacrament, that it shall stand at the last day before 
 the Judgment seat of God, when the papistical 
 doctrine contrary thereto shall be ashamed to show 
 its face.” 
 
 “Stop the heretic’s mouth, and take him down,” 
 cried Cole. He was pulled down and dragged out 
 to the stake, chained thereto, and the fire kindled. 
 He thrust his right hand into the flames and there 
 kept it, except when wiping his face with it, that all 
 might see it consumed before his body. At length 
 the fire surrounded him, but he continued unmoved 
 as the stake to which he was bound, directing his 
 eye toward heaven, often exclaiming, “This un- 
 worthy right hand,” and repeating the dying words 
 
THE REFORMATION : MARY. 
 
 41 
 
 of Stephen, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” till he 
 expired. Thus died as noble a martyr, as gentle 
 and yet as brave a soul, as ever lived on earth. He 
 had his weaknesses, who has not? but they arose 
 from the gentleness of his nature ; his heart never 
 wavered, and his memory will be cherished with 
 those of Ridley, Latimer, Hooper and Farrar as 
 five of the noblest Bishops that ever lived, and 
 finally died, for Christ. 
 
 On the 27th June, 1556, Bonner, who was notori- 
 ous for his cruelty, had thirteen persons — eleven 
 men and two women — burnt in one fire, at Stratford- 
 le-Bow. On the i6th of the preceding month (May) 
 three women were burnt at once in Smithfield. In 
 1557, the bodies of Bucer and Fagius, two well 
 known foreign Reformers, were dug up and burned 
 at Cambridge — poor spite ! In June, six men and 
 four women were burnt at Lewes, in Sussex ; and 
 in September seventeen were burned in the diocese 
 of Chichester. But I may not dwell further on 
 these horrible cruelties. Suffice it to say that, in 
 the four years — 1555-1558 — there were burnt no 
 less than 284 persons, of whom four were Bishops, 
 one Archbishop, twenty-one clergymen, and the 
 rest were of all ranks, ages, sexes, and conditions. 
 
 A noble army, men and boys, 
 
 The matron and the maid. 
 
 Around the Saviour’s throne rejoice, 
 
 In robes of light arrayed ; 
 
 They climbed the steep ascent to heaven 
 Through peril, toil and pain, 
 
 O God, to us may strength be given 
 To follow in their train. 
 
42 
 
 THE REFORMATION : MARY. 
 
 But the end was nigh at hand. For three years 
 the horrible darkness of superstition and persecu- 
 tion overshadowed the land, save when lighted with 
 the lurid fires of martyrdom, at Smithfield, Oxford, 
 Gloucester, St. David’s, Hadley, and Stratford-le- 
 Bow ; but the day of deliverance was at hand by 
 the removal of the unfortunate Oueen. Her health 
 began to fail. She was disappointed in her hopes 
 of a family, or a successor. Fler husband’s neglect, 
 and the loss of Calais, preyed on her mind ; she had 
 no comfort in her religion, dropsy set in, and she 
 died on the 17th November, 1558, aged only 43, a 
 poor and heaitbroken woman. 
 
 Let us take an estimate of her character. Do 
 not suppose she was only and naturally cruel. No. 
 She was a sincere and devout Roman Catholic, 
 strict and moral in her life and conduct, most con- 
 scientious ; hence her unrelenting persecution ! She 
 did so because she believed it was her duty. This 
 did not make it right — ^far from it. She was narrow 
 minded and bigoted, and she acted according to the 
 light that she had. I do not say what she might 
 have had, had she sought it aright, by prayer to 
 God for the teaching of His Holy Spirit, and by 
 the diligent study of the Word of God. She was 
 full of zeal, but not according to knowledge, and 
 the principles in which she had been brought up 
 led her to act as she did. She acted conscientiously 
 as did Paul when, before his conversion to Christ, 
 he thought within himself that he ought to do many 
 things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 
 Ignorance may extenuate, it can never justify, wrong 
 
■ THE REFORMATION: MARK 
 
 43 
 
 doing. I have often told you that conscience in 
 itself is not a sufficient guide. It is infallible in 
 judging according to the rule which it recognises, 
 but, if the rule be wrong, its decisions are wrong 
 also. We ordinarily regulate our time by our 
 clocks and watches, but these sometimes go 
 grievously astray, and they require to be regulated 
 by a chronometer that never fails, the sun. So 
 conscience, if not regulated by reason, and, when 
 that is not sufficient, by revelation, by the Word 
 and Spirit of God, is bound to err. As our text 
 says: “The time will come when they who kill 
 you will think that they do God service.” Mary 
 was an instance of this, an instance of the awful 
 consequences of acting according to the dictates of 
 an ignorant, unenlightened, and misdirected con- 
 science. Her conduct was the legitimate outcome 
 of the principles of intolerance, in which she had 
 been brought up. The Church of Rome holds and 
 teaches these principles still. This, if necessary, I 
 could easily prove by quoting from the Decrees of 
 the Council of Trent, the Bulls of Popes, the Oath 
 taken by the Roman Bishops, and by the syllabus 
 published by Pope Pius IX., so recently as 1864, 
 which teaches intolerance, denies the liberty of 
 conscience, the free dissemination and perusal of the 
 Bible, and asserts that the Church of Rome alone 
 should be tolerated in Catholic countries, and main- 
 tains the right of the Church to employ force. 
 
 Other Churches have persecuted and employed 
 severities towards those who would not obey, the 
 Church of England, alas ! not the least, in the cruel 
 
44 
 
 THE REFORMATION: MARY. 
 
 persecutions of the Covenanters of Scotland and 
 the Puritans of England. But who justifies such 
 actions now? We deplore them and condemn 
 them, and are ashamed of them, and nowhere does 
 the Church of England set forth their lawfulness. 
 Not so the Church of Rome. She alone of all 
 Christian communities, as far as I know, maintains 
 the principles of intolerance. Nowhere does she 
 go in for universal liberty of conscience, as we do, 
 nowhere does she permit it where she can prevent 
 it. I deeply regret this. Would that it were 
 otherwise ; but she is bound by her claims and the 
 doctrine of Infallibility. 
 
 But I must conclude. What effect had the reign 
 of Mary on the Reformation? In one point of 
 view, it put it back, suppressed it, undid it. In 
 another, it set it forward. 
 
 The Reformation was burnt into the convictions 
 of the nation, but it was not extinguished. It was 
 driven in, not driven out. The holy flame of truth 
 was not quenched by the fires of martyrdom, it was 
 simply made to burn more intensely than ever, and 
 when the hand of the oppressor was removed it 
 shone forth with increased brightness. The nation 
 had learned the lesson it could not have learned in 
 any other way — the essential intolerance of that 
 sacerdotal system against which it was struggling 
 to be free ; and the martyrs’ sufferings and the 
 burning stake did more than a thousand sermons to 
 make this nation a Protestant kingdom. 
 
 My brethren, teach your children the History of 
 the Reformation, the sufferings of the Reformers, 
 
THE EEFORMATION : MARY. 
 
 45 
 
 the price they paid for our privileges, and bring 
 them up in an intelligent acquaintance with its dis- 
 tinctive principles, and, above all, the right, duty 
 and responsibility of every one, our young men 
 and maidens, boys and girls, to read, learn, live and 
 be guided by the W^ord of God. And see that, 
 under no pretence whatever, should any man or 
 body of men come between you and its open page. 
 The liberty we demand for ourselves we freely grant 
 to others ; equal liberty for all to serve God as his 
 conscience directs, but without molesting or inter- 
 fering with the equal rights of others. 
 
 Learn once for all the awful results which follow 
 
 from the operations of an ignorant, unenlightened 
 conscience, and that the only infallible guide of 
 conscience .is, not the Church, nor the Clergy, nor 
 poor erring human reason alone ; but the pure and 
 uncorrupted Word of God speaking for itself. Keep 
 it as the Lamp to your feet and the light to your 
 path, the one Divine Rule of Faith and practice, 
 able to make wise unto Salvation through faith 
 which is in Christ Jesus. Conscience must be 
 free, and no weapons be permitted but those of 
 reason and persuasion. And ever let us cherish 
 in deepest gratitude the noble memories of the 
 illustrious martyrs of the Reformation who faced 
 the fagot and the flame that we might be free; 
 whilst for those who persecute in the name of 
 religion let our prayer ever be — “Father, forgive 
 them, for they know not what they do.” 
 
46 
 
 I 
 
 Lecture V. 
 
 THE 
 
 REFORMATION: OUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 ‘ ‘ Kings shall he thy nursing fathers, and Queens thy nursing 
 mothers.” — Isaiah xlix. 23. 
 
 The dark clouds which had hung over England 
 during the five years of Mary’s reign, began to lift 
 on the accession of her sister Elizabeth. The fierce 
 fires of Smithfield and elsewhere, from which many 
 a noble spirit ascended in his fiery chariot, like 
 Elijah of old, to join the “ noble army of martyrs,” 
 were at length extinguished, but not until they had 
 taught England, by an object lesson, the essentially 
 persecuting spirit which necessarily animates the 
 Papal system. I say necessarily, because the 
 logical result of the principles which it holds. The 
 nation was wearied and sickened with the awful 
 severities of the Marian regime, and now at last 
 breathed freely, as soon as the unhappy woman 
 breathed no more. 
 
 Elizabeth was the younger daughter of Henry 
 VIIL, by his wife Anne Boleyn. She was born in 
 1533? had been brought up in the principles of 
 the Reformation. On her accession, on the 17th of 
 November, 1558, the air was rent with acclamations: 
 
THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 47 
 
 “God save Queen Elizabeth; long and happily may 
 she reign.” 
 
 She was at Hatfield when her sister died, and at 
 once set out for London. Coming to the Tower, 
 where once she had been a prisoner by Mary’s 
 order, she fell down on her knees, and thanked God 
 who had so graciously preserved her in her time of 
 trouble, and, in His merciful and bountiful Pro- 
 vidence, placed her on the throne of her ancestors. 
 
 She sent a notification, through her minister at 
 Rome, to the Pope, informing him of her accession ; 
 but Paul IV. sent back a haughty message, that he 
 wondered at her audacity in presuming to ascend 
 the throne without his permission ; that she was 
 illegitimate ; that England was a fief of the Holy 
 See, etc., but that still, notwithstanding her con- 
 duct, such was the benevolent spirit of the Holy 
 Eather, that, if she humbled herself, and submitted 
 to the judgment and will of the Pope, he would see 
 what he could do for her. Elizabeth at once with- 
 drew her ambassador. Sir Philip Came. 
 
 One of her first acts was to release all prisoners 
 for religion. A person named Rainford humbly 
 presented a petition for the release of four prisoners 
 who had long lain bound, whose names were 
 Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Queen re- 
 plied that she would first enquire from the prisoners 
 themselves whether they desired their freedom. It 
 is needless to ask what their reply was. The gospels 
 were set free. 
 
 In her procession through the city, a boy repre- 
 senting Truth was let down from one of the trium- 
 
48 
 
 THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 phal arches, with a beautifully bound Bible in his 
 hands, which he presented to her Majesty. The 
 Queen took it with much pleasure ; clasped it to her 
 breast, and said sheprized it above all other treasures. 
 
 On the 15th of January, 1559 (new style), Eliza- 
 beth was crowned at Westminster by Oglethorpe, 
 Bishop of Carlisle, according to the form in the 
 Roman Pontilicial. None of the other Bishops 
 would take part in the ceremony. She had already 
 given some intimations of her intention to restore 
 the Reformation, although she wisely refrained from 
 anything very pronounced until the Parliament met. 
 But she had ordered, by proclamation, that the ^ 
 Litany, the Epistles and Gospels of the day, and 
 the Ten commandments should be read in English, 
 but that no changes of ceremony were permitted 
 until Parliament had been consulted. 
 
 The earliest Act in the New Parliament was for 
 the restoration of the tenths and first fruits of all 
 Benefices to the Crown, thus taking them from the 
 Pope, to whom Mary had given them on her 
 accession. 
 
 This Act was opposed by all the Bishops, but it 
 passed notwithstanding. A few words here on the 
 condition of the Episcopal Bench at this time. It 
 was much reduced in numbers, not only by death 
 from natural causes, but by the martyrdom of five 
 others ; and from various causes, partly her illness 
 and troubles, Mary had not filled up their places. 
 There were thus only sixteen Prelates, including the 
 one Archbishop, Heath of Y ork. Pole’s death, about 
 the same time as Mary’s, left Canterbury vacant. 
 
THE EEFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 49 
 
 All these Bishops, without exception, were 
 OPPOSED TO THE REFORMATION, and not only re- 
 solved, but did their very best to prevent it ; they 
 Stood shoulder to shoulder on their resolve ; they 
 spoke bravely against it in the House of Lords; 
 they voted against it to a man ; and every act in 
 its favour was carried in the teeth of their open 
 opposition. There was only one trimmer among 
 them. Kitchen, Bishop of Llandaff, and he kept 
 out of the way. Ten Bishops out of the sixteen 
 were generally present at all debates, and opposed. 
 The remainder were either unable from illness or 
 distance to attend; or, perhaps, in one or two cases 
 thought it better not. But they were all of one 
 mind in opposition. They thought, if they kept 
 together, they would defeat the designs of Elizabeth. 
 Happily, they were unsuccessful, though they gave 
 trouble. The first opposition was, as we have seen, 
 in resisting the restoration of the tenths and first 
 fruits to the Crown. \ 
 
 The year 1559 was an eventful year for the 
 Reformation in this country, and it is well to note 
 carefully the successive steps as they occurred. We 
 have seen the first. 
 
 The Act for restoring the Royal supremacy to the 
 Crown, and abrogating that of the Pope, was next 
 under discussion. It was introduced into the 
 House of Lords, and vehemently opposed by all 
 the Bishops present, the majority of those on the 
 Bench. There were two or three divisions in con- 
 sequence of amendments by the Commons, and on 
 every division they voted solid against the Royal 
 
50 
 
 THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 supremacy and in favour of the Pope’s. The Act 
 passed finally on the i8th March, and the Pope 
 was ejected once more. 
 
 The Act states that it was passed by “the Queen, 
 the Lords Temporal, and Commons in Parliament 
 assembled,” thus significantly omitting all mention 
 of the Lords Spiritual, for it was passed, not with 
 their concurrence, but in the teeth of their oppo- 
 sition. So little are we indebted to the Bishops of 
 1559 for the Reformation. 
 
 Shortly after this, towards the end of March, 
 there was a public disputation held in Westminster 
 between the Reformers and the Romanists on three 
 points, viz., the language in which the public 
 worship should be conducted, Latin or English; the 
 independence of National churches, and ;he sacrifice 
 of the Mass. 
 
 This was preliminary to a still further step. 
 
 The Act of Uniformity was now brought into 
 Parliament and hotly discussed. It proposed to 
 restore the second book of Edward VL, and to 
 abolish therefore the Romish Missal. A few changes 
 had been made in it, very few, but suggested by 
 policy. I. The omission from the Litany of the 
 petition against the Pope. “Prom the tyranny of 
 the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enorm- 
 ities, Good Lord deliver us.” This had been put 
 in by Cranmer in Henry’s time, and retained by 
 Edward VL But the Queen thought it calculated 
 to give offence, and so it was struck out. 
 
 2. The declaration against the Real Presence 
 which stands at the end of the Communion service. 
 
THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 51 
 
 commonly, but improperly called, the Black Rubric, 
 was left out. This was done on two grounds, ist, 
 it was thought unnecessary, as the doctrine was 
 virtually condemned in the 28th Article ; and 2nd, 
 it had only been appended to Edward’s Book by 
 Order in Council, not by Act of Parliament. In 
 this case, the Queen did not want to give offence. 
 Her desire was to win the Romanists over to the 
 Reformation. The motive was good, but, as usual 
 with all weak compromises, it failed. Let me here, 
 however, say that this so-called Black Rubric was, 
 restored by Act of Parliament in 1662, after it had 
 been laid aside for more than one hundred years, 
 a verbal alteration only being made, which did not 
 alter the sense. 
 
 The third alteration was the combination into one 
 form of the two clauses in the present formula of 
 administration to the communicants. “The body of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, which was given for thee, 
 etc.” This had been in Edward’s first book. “Take 
 and eat this in remembrance, etc.” This had 
 been substituted in the second book. Elizabeth 
 combined them both. She hoped to please both 
 parties. 
 
 Observe, then, that with the exception of these 
 two omissions, and this one combination or altera- 
 tion, the book to be restored was Edward VI.’s 
 second book pure and simple, none other, so 'that 
 Elizabeth’s book is Edward’s book. I emphasize 
 this, as some ignorant or designing people say that 
 we have nothing to do with Edward’s book, but 
 Elizabeth’s. The truth is, the books are the same. 
 
52 THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 It is the identical book we now have, with some 
 additional prayers added in 1662. 
 
 The discussion on the restoration of Edward’s 
 book was hot and stormy. The Bishops again, true 
 to their colours, spoke and argued bravely against 
 it, and voted solid in opposition. But again it 
 passed the Lords and Commons, and was enacted 
 on the 28th April by the Queen, the Lords temporal, 
 and Commons in Parliament assembled. The Lords 
 Spiritual again significantly omitted, as they had 
 neither hand nor part in its enactment. You can 
 see this for yourselves by looking at the Act of 
 Uniformity, which is printed in the large Prayer 
 Book, which lies on yonder desk. There is thus 
 the standing evidence in every Church in England 
 that we are not indebted to the Bishops of 1559 for 
 the English Prayer Book, and that, if they had their 
 way, we should have the Latin Missal instead. 
 
 But some will say, they thought it was the 
 Bishops who brought about the Reformation. 
 There were bishops and bishops in the i6th century, 
 as there are in the 19th. A minority of the Bishops 
 in Edward’s reign advocated the Reformation, and 
 drew up our Prayer Book and Articles. To them 
 we are indebted, and to Edward and his wise 
 advisers, for the Reformation ; but not to the 
 majority of the bishops or the clergy. The noble 
 men who procured for us the Reformation got 
 burned for their pains in Mary’s reign, with the 
 concurrence of the Roman prelates ; and these were 
 the men whom Elizabeth found on the bench when 
 she came to the throne, and we have seen how they 
 
THE REFORMATION: QUEEN ELIZABETH. 53 
 
 acted. Nor were the, bulk of the clergy any better. 
 The Lower House of Convocation met early in* 
 1559, and passed five propositions in favour of the 
 Mass, the Real Presence, Papal Supremacy, etc. 
 Elizabeth* closed the Convocation, and sent the 
 worthy clerics about their business. The Act of 
 Uniformity, however, passed, as I have stated, 
 and was to come into effect on the 24th of June, 
 1559 - 
 
 Warren’s “Blackstone” says that these two Acts — 
 the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity — 
 are “the two links which bind Church and State 
 together.” It is a pity they are not made more of 
 a reality than they are. They are little better, 
 at the present moment, than a dead letter. 
 
 A set of Injunctions were now sent out by the 
 Queen enforcing the carrying out of the Reforma- 
 tion through the land. The clergy were ordered 
 to preach four times a year against the Papal 
 Supremacy; not to extol images or relics; to preach 
 against candles, beads, pilgrimages, and processions 
 about the church or churchyard; to take away all 
 shrines, candlesticks, pictures, paintings, all monu- 
 ments of superstition and idolatry, so that no 
 memory of them remain on walls, glass windows, 
 or elsewhere. Wooden tables were to be made and 
 set in the place where the altar stood, and so to 
 stand, “saving when the communion is fo be 
 distributed, at which time it shall be so placed in 
 good sort within the chancel or the church ” (as 
 ordered later by the 82nd canon) “as that the 
 minister may be more conveniently heard; and 
 
54 
 
 THE REFORMATION: ' QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 _ after the communion to be put back where it stood 
 before.” 
 
 But we must pass on. As a consequence of the 
 Act of Supremacy it was necessary that the oath of 
 allegiance embodying that Act should be put to and 
 taken by the Bishops individually. The Bishops 
 resolved to refuse, and to stand together ; for if they 
 did the Queen would be obliged, they thought, to 
 give in, as she could not carry on the episcopal 
 succession without them. The testing process now 
 began. The oath was offered to three or four of 
 the Bishops. They refused — and were at once 
 deposed. A month later it was proposed to four 
 or five more. They also refused and were deposed. 
 Another breathing space. It was offered to half a 
 dozen more ; they stood firm and were deposed. At 
 last, one bishop alone remained on the bench, the 
 well known old trimmer, a genuine Vicar of Bray, 
 Kitchen, Bishop of Llandaff. He alone of the 
 fifteen or sixteen prelates took the oath and retained 
 his see. Thus Elizabeth made a clean riddance of 
 all the recusant Bishops, and poor Kitchen sat 
 alone. What will the Queen do now ? She was 
 not without her resources. 
 
 There were five Bishops in England who had 
 been deposed by Mary — Barlow, Scory, Coverdale, 
 Hodgkins, and Salisbury. Kitchen, too, was to be 
 had, and behind all these stood the unbroken ranks 
 of the Irish Bishops, for these worthy men, no 
 doubt from excellent motives, had all, with only two 
 exceptions, the Bishops of Meath and Kildare, 
 twenty-two out of twenty-four, conformed to the 
 
THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 55 
 
 Reformation, so that Elizabeth had abundance of 
 materials by the aid of which she could reconstitute 
 the desolated English Episcopal Bench. 
 
 She issued a commission to the first five named, 
 together with Kitchen, and the Bishop of Ossory 
 (Bale), directing that they or any four of them 
 should consecrate Dr. Matthew Parker, of Corpus 
 Christ! College, Cambridge, to the Episcopal office. 
 This, though not without some delay, was accord- 
 ingly done on the 17th December, 1559, in Lambeth 
 Chapel, by the four Bishops, Barlow, Scory, 
 Coverdale, and Hodgkins. Kitchen, if he did not 
 actually refuse, managed to evade the unpleasant 
 office. 
 
 Parker was duly consecrated according to our 
 English form. The Roman Catholic historian. Dr. 
 Lingard, says that two of the four, Barlow and 
 Hodgkins, had been consecrated according to the 
 Roman Pontifical, and the other two by the Edwar- 
 dine Ordinal, and that of this consecration there 
 can be no doubt. Some doubts have of late been 
 thrown on Barlow’s consecration. But even if so, 
 it would not invalidate Parker’s. All the four 
 placed their hands on his head, and all repeated 
 the words of ordination. At the same time, we, 
 must never forget that the New Testament pre- 
 scribes no form of words whatever for any ordina- 
 tion, and only mentions, as a fact, two things — 
 prayer and the laying on of hands, as used by the 
 Apostles ; but what the prayers were is not re- 
 corded. Of the validity of Parker’s ordination or 
 consecration, I entertain no doubt. That it was 
 
56 THE REFORMATION: QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Strictly canonical, z.e., according to the ancient 
 canons, I do not maintain, for the consecrating 
 Bishops had no sees at the time, and this was, 
 'therefore, uncanonical. But canons have only 
 human authority, and can be abolished, altered, or 
 dispensed with, by the same authority that enjoined 
 them, viz., the Church or Christian society. 
 
 The work of re-construction now set in apace. 
 The Bishops who had consecrated Parker, at least 
 three of them, were appointed to sees. The others 
 were filled up by sound Protestant Divines selected 
 by the Queen, and consecrated by Parker and his 
 assistants, and thus the old ship of the National 
 Church was manned once more, and better manned 
 than it had ever been before, or since. 
 
 We now pass on to 1562, about two years later 
 than the events of 1559. 
 
 A Convocation was summoned to meet in London 
 to deal with the Articles of the Church. The 42 
 which Edward had left, and which Mary rejected, 
 were subjected to a careful review and revision. 
 They were reduced in number to 39. Some seven 
 were laid aside, and four new ones, viz., 5th, 12th, 
 29th, and 30th of our present Articles were agreed 
 to, thus making the number which we now have. 
 Some important additions were made to the 25th, 
 condemnatory of the five additional sacraments of 
 Rome, also a clause in the 28th ; teaching that the 
 presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper is only a 
 presence to faith, not an objective presence inde- 
 pendent of faith. 
 
 These Articles were ratified again in 1571, and so 
 
♦ 
 
 THE REFORMATION: QUEEN ELIZABETH. 57 
 
 they have stood without one letter of alteration for 
 the last 325 years, a splendid body of divinity, 39 
 pillars on which the Protestantism of the Church of 
 England firmly rests. All we need is a living body 
 of faithful clergy, who will take, and believe, and 
 teach the 39 Articles in their literal and grammatical 
 sense ; and in all the greatness and depth of their 
 spiritual signification. The Second Book of 
 Homilies and Jewel’s Apology were approved by the 
 same Convocation. 
 
 Please observe that these Articles were not sub- 
 mitted to the Convocation until the Episcopal 
 Bench had been cleared of its Romanizing prelates, 
 and their places supplied by sound Protestant 
 Bishops. And this is a lesson, an object lesson of 
 what ought to be the policy of our rulers in the 
 state at the present day. Queen Elizabeth could 
 act with a high hand, and she did. Queen Victoria 
 cannot; the responsibility rests with her constitu- 
 tional advisers. Let them appoint only Protestant 
 Bishops, i.e., men faithful to the principles of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 I must now rapidly touch the principal events of 
 Elizabeth’s long and eventful reign as bearing on 
 the Reformation. 
 
 In 1569, Pious V. issued a Bull against Elizabeth, 
 deposing her from the throne, and exciting her 
 subjects to rebel. It was affixed to the door of 
 Lambeth Palace by one Felton, a Romish semi- 
 narist. He was taken in the fact, and executed for 
 treason. 
 
 In 1572, the awful Massacre of St. Bartholomew 
 
58 
 
 THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ^ ELIZABETH. 
 
 in Paris, when some 70,000 Protestants were 
 murdered, among whom was Admiral Coligny the 
 Huguenot. The Queen refused to reeeive the 
 French Ambassador. Pope Gregory XIII. struck 
 a medal commemorative of the event, and sang a 
 Te Deum ioT ]oj. He also, in 1575, and 1578, issued 
 two Bulls against Elizabeth, addressed to the Irish 
 rebels, and stirring them up against her. 
 
 In 1588, the abortive Spanish Armada was sent 
 against this country under the blessing of Pope 
 Sixtus V. Happily the design was defeated by the 
 bravery of English sailors, and the manifest inter- 
 position of Almighty God by his winds and waves. 
 
 In 1591, the famous University, of which it is the 
 proudest honour of my life to be a graduate. Trinity 
 College, Dublin, was founded by Elizabeth to raise 
 up a faithful and learned ministry, and to diffuse 
 the principles of the Reformation in Ireland. This 
 duty it has well fulfilled, and one need only mention 
 the names of Usher and Berkeley, Swift and 
 Bramhall, the Magees — grandfather and grandson — 
 McNeile, Elrington, Lee, and others, not to mention 
 the present learned, and modest as well as learned, 
 Provost Dr. Salmon, equally celebrated as a theo- 
 logian and a mathematician. It is the one institution 
 of which all Irishmen are proud, and had- not its 
 influence being thwarted by well-meant, but unwise, 
 political action on the part of our rulers, Ireland 
 would have long since ceased to be a thorn in the 
 side, or source of trouble to England. 
 
 In 1601, Clement VHI. issued a Bull against 
 Elizabeth. Thus for forty years the Papal author!- 
 
THE REFORMATION: QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 59 
 
 ties never ceased to harass that great Queen, and 
 compel her in self-defence to adopt measures of 
 severity against the emissaries of rebellion and 
 treason. She had been deposed, as far as Papal 
 Bulls could do it, by four Popes, and the con- 
 sequence was several attempts on her life, and her 
 dominions offered to any potentate who could take 
 them. Motley says, “She was no advocate for 
 religious liberty, nor had she the faintest idea of it^ 
 It would, however, be unjust in the extreme to 
 overlook the enormous difference in the amount of 
 persecution exercised by the Protestant and Roman 
 Church. It is probable that not more than 200 
 Catholics were executed as such in Elizabeth’s reign, 
 and this was ten score too many. 
 
 “But what was this against 800 heretics burned, 
 hanged, and drowned in the Easter week by Alva, 
 against the 18,200 sent to the stake and scaffold, as 
 he boasted, during his administration, against the 
 hundreds of thousands who perished by the edicts 
 of Charles V. in the Netherlands, or in the single 
 St. Bartholomew massacre in Erance? Moreover, 
 it should never be forgotten that most of the Catho- 
 lics who were executed in England suffered rather 
 as conspirators than heretics. She had been 
 denounced by the Pope as a bastard and usurper, 
 her subjects had been released from the bonds of 
 allegiance, and a crown of glory promised to thos^ 
 who should succeed in depriving her of life. Yet 
 this was the position of Elizabeth. It was war to 
 the knife between her and Rome, declared by Rome 
 herself, and the seminary priests who came to 
 
60 THE REFORMATION : QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 England were a perpetually organised band of con- 
 spirators and assassins.” (Vol. ii., pp. 276-277.) 
 
 Elizabeth died on the 24th March, 1603, in her 
 70th year, having reigned 45 years. She was a 
 great woman ; she had a masculine intellect, and a 
 woman’s vanity, without her amiability. She was 
 a great stateswoman ; an able ruler. She could 
 hold her own with the kneenest statesman of her 
 age. She was great ; was she also good? I cannot 
 tell. She was, as I have said, vain, and I do not 
 think she had much of the. softness of her sex. But 
 she loved England, and died a virgin Queen, having 
 defied and defeated all the efforts of Spain and the 
 Pope ; sitting on her island rock, enshrined in the 
 loyalty of her subjects — the Mistress of the Sea. 
 Her reign was glorious — an outburst of national 
 greatness which has never been surpassed. She 
 was served by able men — admirals, generals, states- 
 men, and philosophers. Whatever may have been 
 the faults of her personal character, she did a work 
 for England which we can never sufficiently appre- 
 ciate. She rescued the nation from the grasp of the 
 Papacy, and restored and consolidated the Refor- 
 mation. Her end was a sad one ; she fell into a 
 state of melancholy, chiefly because of the execution 
 of the Earl of Essex, to which she had consented, 
 and to whom she was attached. She fell into a 
 lethargic condition, and passed away in the 70th 
 year of her age, and the 45th year of her reign. 
 “ So dark a cloud overcast the evening of that day,” 
 says Hume, “which had shone out with a mighty 
 lustre in the eyes of all Europe.” 
 
THE REFORMATION: QUEEN ELIZABETH. 61 
 
 Let US thank God for our own gracious Sovereign, 
 Queen Victoria, who has reigned for a much longer 
 period, and who has all the wise statesmanship and 
 intellectual qualities of Elizabeth ; and, in addition, 
 all a woman’s heart, full of sympathy and com- 
 passion for every phase and case of sorrow and 
 suffering. Her own heavy trials and sorrows have 
 endeared her to all her subjects, and she truly lives 
 enshrined in their love and esteem. She loves the 
 Bible, and has declared that to it England owes its 
 greatness. May she be long spared to us, and when 
 the earthly crown is worn no more, may she inherit, 
 through the merits of our Redeemer, the crown of 
 glory that fadeth not away. 
 

 62 
 
 Lecture VI. 
 
 WHAT WE OWE TO THE 
 REFORMATION. 
 
 “ Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers : 
 the snare is broken, and we are escaped.” — Psalm cxxiv. 7, 
 
 We have now completed our sketch of the English 
 Reformation in the i6th century from an historical 
 point of view, and we have seen how it was worked 
 out during four successive reigns, those of Henry 
 VIIL, Edward VL, Mary, and Elizabeth. The 
 need of such a Reformation was dealt with in the 
 first lecture; the successive stages in the four which 
 followed. Its progress was not uniformly onward, 
 at least in outward manifestations. 
 
 Henry VHI. simply made a Reformation possible, 
 and did little more. He made it possible by the 
 overthrow of the Papal supremacy in this country. 
 As long as that was acknowledged. Reformation 
 was an absolute impossibility. The interests of the 
 Papacy and its adherents were against it. The 
 abuses and doctrinal errors were essential to its 
 existence. The translation of the Bible and its 
 perusal by Henry’s permission helped the Refor- 
 mation, and furnished men with a definite Rule of 
 Faith. The dissolution of the Abbeys and Monas- 
 teries still further promoted the changes that were 
 
WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 63 
 
 impending’, but nothing more was done. No 
 changes of either doctrine or worship were attemp- 
 ted, and the Latin Mass, Masses for the dead, 
 auricular confession, and absolution, were in full 
 force till Henry’s death. He died as he lived, a 
 Romanist. 
 
 The Reformation was effected in the following 
 reign, that of Edward VI., not, indeed, all at once, 
 but with marvellous despatch. At first, partially by 
 the Book of Common Prayer, 1549 — completely by 
 the Second Book in 1552. The Latin Mass was 
 abolished; the English Liturgy and the Articles of 
 Religion were adopted. 
 
 Mary’s reign was reactionary, a step backward. 
 The Reformation was rejected ; Romanism and the 
 Papal Supremacy were restored. But, though this 
 was done, as far as the action of the governing 
 authorities were concerned, yet the Reformation 
 itself, the principles of the Reformation, were burnt 
 into the mind, heart, and conscience of the people 
 by the fires of Smithfield and Oxford, and thus 
 Mary’s sad and cruel reign was really helpful rather 
 than otherwise. The nation learnt more in those 
 five years of persecution what Romanism really is 
 than could possibly have been learned in any other 
 way. 
 
 On Mary’s death, the nation, under Elizabeth, 
 gladly welcomed the Reformation once again. . She 
 restored the English Liturgy and rejected the Papal 
 supremacy in despite of the most strenuous 
 opposition of every Bishop on the Bench, and 
 having deposed them and filled their places with 
 
64 WHAT WE OWE TO THE REEORMATION. 
 
 truly Protestant Bishops, the work of reconstruction 
 and consolidation was successfully accomplished. 
 Many people imagine that the Bishops, in 1559, 
 approved of the restoration of the Reformation, and 
 even helped to restore it. This is a complete 
 mistake. The Reformation was restored in despite 
 of all the Bishops, and the opposition of Convoca. 
 tion. 
 
 This evening, I shall try and gather up as briefly 
 as I can, the net results of that wondrous religious 
 revolution, and enquire : — 
 
 What do we owe to the Reformation ? What 
 its outcome, what its blessed consequences ? 
 
 First, the Open English Bible. 
 
 That is, the Bible in the vulgar tongue, with free 
 permission to read it. Not only the permission, 
 but the duty and responsibility of doing so; and 
 being guided by it in our faith and practice. 
 
 This the Church of Rome does not permit. By 
 the fourth Rule of the Index — the standing law of 
 that Church, the indiscriminate reading of the 
 Bible is condemned, and no Roman Catholic is 
 allowed to read it without a written permission from 
 the Ecclesiastical authority. I do not say this rule 
 is always acted on in this country ; very probably it 
 is not. For this relaxation, there are, no doubt, 
 excellent reasons — one is the difficulty of its en- 
 forcement in a free country ; but I have nothing to 
 do with that, I am merely stating the actual law of 
 that Church. Besides, the Church of Rome does 
 not hold that the Bible only is the rule of Faith; 
 
WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 65 
 
 she adds thereto, tradition, and superadds the 
 Church as the final and infallible interpreter of the 
 Bible. The Reformed Church of England, on the 
 other hand, declares in the Sixth Article that “Holy 
 Scripture containeth all things necessary to sal- 
 vation ; so that whatsoever is not read therein, is 
 not to be required of any man that it should be 
 believed as an Article of the Faith, or be thought 
 requisite or necessary to salvation.” And, in the 
 first Homily, the diligent reading of the Word of 
 God is urged on all. The Bible is the infallible 
 rule of Faith and practice, and the Holy Ghost is 
 promised to every one who asks, and He is the 
 Infallible Guide and teacher of the faithful, leading 
 them into all necessary truth — necessary to salvation. 
 
 Second, The Pure Gospel. 
 
 The Reformation restored the Gospel in all its 
 purity, unmixed with superstition or human error 
 of any kind — God’s method of salvation as stated in 
 His written word. First, the Divine Remedy ; the 
 only merit of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ ; 
 His spotless Righteousness, His precious blood. 
 His finished work on the Cross. One offering, once 
 offered ; once for all. This is in opposition to the 
 Roman Mass, which maintains that the offering of 
 Christ is “daily renewed” by the Priest at the 
 altar. Secondly, the one and only means whereby 
 the merit of Christ is applied to our individual 
 souls, viz., by Faith and Faith only. This is in 
 plain opposition to the teaching of the Church of 
 Rome, which is, that Faith alone is not sufficient 
 
1 
 
 66 WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 to justify without the Sacraments ’ and good 
 works. 
 
 Third, Direct Access to the Throne of Grace, 
 without the necessity of priestly intervention. 
 
 This is the privilege of every believer in Christ. 
 “ Having, therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into 
 the Holiest by the blood of Jesus ; . . and having 
 a High Priest over the House of God, let us draw- 
 near with true heart, in full assurance of faith.” 
 And again, “Let us draw nigh with boldness to 
 the Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy 
 and find grace to help in every time of need.” The 
 Church of Rome, on the contrary, teaches the 
 ordinary necessity of the Sacrament of Penance, 
 i.e., auricular Confession, and sacerdotal absolution, 
 in order to reconcile sinners to God. The Reforma- 
 tion proclaims the non-necessity of any confessional 
 whatever, save that which the penitent sinner can 
 at all times enter, by personal application to Christ, 
 and receive at once from His own gracious lips the 
 blessing of a frank, free, and full absolution, with 
 grace and help to sin no more. 
 
 What a contrast is this Gospel plan of salvation 
 to the whole system of sacramentalism which is 
 taught alike by Romanist and Ritualist. Both 
 alike maintain “that Christianity is a religion of 
 sacraments — its beginning is sacramental ; its middle 
 is sacramental ; and its end is sacramental. Every 
 intervening step is sacramental, and not a single 
 step can be taken in the divine life without the 
 co-operation of sacraments.” That is, without the 
 
 'll 
 
 
 J 
 
IV HAT WH OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 67 
 
 co-operation of priests ; because there are, they say, 
 seven sacraments, of which Order is one ; and the 
 sacerdotal order is necessary to the validity of all 
 the sacraments, Baptism only excepted in excep- 
 tional circumstances. This sevenfold chain of 
 sacramental bondage is snapped asunder by the 
 doctrine of the Reformation. 
 
 Fourth, Paradise Instead of Purgatory. 
 
 This we owe to the Reformation. The Council 
 of Trent teaches that there is a Purgatory for the 
 expiation and purification of the souls of the faith- 
 ful from those stains which have not been wholly 
 removed on earth ; and that the souls therein 
 detained are relieved whilst there, and their suf- 
 ferings shortened by the suffrages of the faithful, 
 and principally by the Holy Sacrifice of the 
 Mass. 
 
 The Reformation denies, on the authority of Holy 
 Scripture, that there is any Purgatory whatever, 
 and declares, on the testimony of Christ, that the 
 believing soul, on its separation from the body, 
 immediately enters Paradise, and, on the authority 
 of St. Paul, that “to depart is to be with Christ, 
 which is far better.” That, whilst to live is, to the 
 believer, Christ ; to die, is not pain in Purgatory, 
 but gain. Hence, all prayers for the dead were 
 expunged from the Prayer Book in 1552, • and 
 instead thereof, thanksgiving and praise were in- 
 serted in 1552 and 1662. We may now say, 
 “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” “O 
 Death, where is thy sting?” “ O Grave, where is 
 
68 WHAT WE OWE TO THE REEORMATION . 
 
 thy victory?” — Thanks be to God who gives us the 
 victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 Fifth, The Real Presence of Christ in the 
 Heart of the Believer at all times. 
 
 This, instead of the real presence of His body 
 and blood on the altar, we ow’e to the Reformation. 
 
 Before that glorious emancipation, the Church of 
 England, in common with the Church of Rome, 
 held that the real body of Christ was objectively 
 present on the altar, after the consecration of the 
 wafer, independent of faith. The Reformation 
 taught us otherwise. To it we owe the scriptural 
 truth, that “the Body of Christ is in heaven, and 
 not here.” That the bread and wine on the Table 
 are simply the emblems of His blessed body and 
 blood; the pledges of His love, and a precious 
 means of grace to “all who rightly, worthily, and 
 with faith receive the same.” We do not deny the 
 real presence of Christ in the true and Scripture 
 sense — that is, that Christ is really present in grace 
 and blessing, where two or three are gathered 
 together in His name; yea, that He is present in 
 the hearts of His faithful people, and will never 
 leave them nor forsake them, but will be with them 
 to the very end of the world. But we utterly re- 
 pudiate, with the Reformers, the presence of His 
 body and blood on the Lord’s table. They are at 
 the right hand of God, and will there remain until 
 He comes to judge the world. 
 
WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 69 
 
 Sixth, The Christian Ministry. 
 
 To the Reformation we owe the restoration of the 
 Christian Ministry, instead of a sacrificing priest- 
 hood. For several hundred years before the Refor- 
 mation, the Church of England, under Roman 
 influence, held that the clergy were sacrificing priests 
 — they were ordained as such — and, in their ordin- 
 ation, received a commission “to offer sacrifice to 
 God, and to celebrate Masses for the living and the 
 dead” — in a word, to offer the sacrifice of the Mass, 
 which the Church of Rome teaches is “truly pro- 
 pitiatory,” and one with the sacrifice of Christ. 
 
 This doctrine was utterly repudiated by the Re- 
 formers in 1550. Every trace ofia sacrificial element 
 was carefully expunged from the Communion office, 
 and the Ordinal, or form of ordination; and the 
 clergy were declared to be simply “watchmen, 
 stewards, and messengers” of the Lord. They were 
 no longer to be sacrificing priests; but preachers 
 and pastors, conducting the public worship of the 
 Church ; ministering the two Scriptural sacraments 
 which had been retained out of the pre-Reformation 
 seven; but, above all things, they were to be 
 ambassadors for Christ, preaching the everlasting 
 Gospel, the true key of the Kingdom of Heaven ; 
 and, as a teaching ministry, by the exposition of 
 the Word of God^ to edify the body of Christ. ■ 
 
 The word “priest” in the Prayer Book simply 
 means, as is known to every scholar, an elder — it is 
 the contraction of the word presbyter. The word 
 which means a sacrificing priest, and which is 
 
70 WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 applied to the Jewish priests and the Pagan priests 
 in the New Testament, is never once applied to the 
 Christian minister, though some ten other titles of 
 office are given to them. The Christian ministry 
 is no longer a celibate priesthood, but a married 
 clergy, as were the divinely appointed priests of the 
 Old Testament, and are thus united to their people 
 by all the common ties of citizenship and family 
 relationship : for, as the late Prince Consort once 
 said, “The people felt that their newly-acquired 
 civil and religious liberties would not be safe in the 
 hands of any other than a married clergy, who 
 move in and out among their people, the sharers 
 and sympathisers of their joys and their sorrows.” 
 
 Seventh, The True Idea of the Church. 
 
 This, also, we owe to the Reformation — we no 
 longer confound the Church visible and the Church 
 invisible as in all respects one. We distinguish 
 between the Church mystical and the mere outward 
 body. The former is the “blessed company of all 
 faithful people.” They constitute the mystical 
 Body of Christ ; they are united to Him the Head 
 by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. They are 
 regenerated, renewed and sanctified; “they are 
 conformed to the image of Christ ; they walk 
 religiously in good works ; and, finally, by God’s 
 mercy, they attain to everlasting felicity.” 
 
 We do not confound this spiritual body of Christ, 
 consisting of all true Christians in all Christian com- 
 munities, with the aggregate of visible churches, 
 still less with any one of them. All visible churches 
 
WHA7' WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 71 
 
 are mixed bodies, consisting of good and bad. To 
 the former alone belong the promises, as they alone 
 are partakers of the Life of Christ. The Church of 
 Rome claims to be exclusively the Church of Christ, 
 whereas, she is only a part, and, as we believe, a 
 very corrupt part of the visible Church. Her doctrine 
 is that Christ’s true Church is always visible as 
 such ; united, not only by a common faith, but also 
 under one special form of Government, and one 
 visible head — the Pope, who is, they say, the 
 successor of St. Peter, and the Vicar of Christ; 
 that this Church is infallible, as is its visible head; 
 to it, and to it alone, belong the promises; all 
 others who profess the Christian religion are 
 heretics or schismatics, or both ; they are, at least, 
 non-Catholics. 
 
 The Reformation wholly rejected that view, and 
 teaches that all who are renewed by God’s spirit, 
 who love Christ and follow the blessed steps of His 
 most holy life, are true Christians, and alone con- 
 stitute the Holy Catholic Church. This we maintain 
 is the true scriptural idea of the Church of Christ. 
 In the present dispensation, the true and the mere 
 professors are mixed together in one outward body, 
 the tares and the wheat, the wise and the foolish, 
 the good and the wicked ; sometimes the bad and 
 the worldly are in a majority, and therefore the 
 whole visible Church may err, and has erred in 
 parts, more or less, as did the seven Churches of 
 Asia, etc. But in the darkest seasons, God has a 
 faithful remnant, as the seven thousand in the time 
 of Elijah. These, and these alone, are properly His 
 
72 WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Church. At the end of the dispensation, a separation 
 will take place ; Christ will send forth his angels to 
 gather together his elect, to take out of his king- 
 dom all that offend. Then shall the righteous be 
 manifested and the blessed company “shall shine 
 forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.^’ 
 
 Eighth, Purity of Worship. 
 
 This also we owe to the Reformation. Before that 
 event the public worship of the Church was as is 
 that of the Church of Rome now. It was an 
 elaborate and minute ceremonial ; histrionic in its 
 character — f.p., an appeal rather to the eye than 
 to the ear — a religious performance, in fact. The 
 sacred office of the Mass was the chief service of 
 •the day, consisting largely in action, bowing, genu- 
 flection, elevation, prostration, censing, lighted 
 candles, etc. The service itself purported to be a 
 representation of the sufferings of our Lord. The 
 words were uttered in Latin, most of them with 
 the face turned from the people, and the more 
 sacred and solemn parts in a very low tone, so as 
 to be wholly inaudible. I am willing to believe 
 that they were perfectly sincere in this service, and 
 believed it to be what God approved of, but inten- 
 tions cannot alter facts, or make them to be other 
 than. they are. The Reformation abolished all that, 
 rejected the Mass and the doctrines whereon it 
 rested, and completely altered the character of the 
 public worship, substituting for it the plain scrip- 
 tural, simple, and, as we believe, spiritual services, 
 which are prescribed by our Church, in which the 
 
WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 73 
 
 ear is appealed to, rather than the eye ; the reason 
 and the understanding, rather than the emotion and 
 the imagination. The pulpit is prominent, not the 
 altar ; the common and united worship of the 
 people in the vulgar tongue, rather than the cele- 
 bration of sacred rites before them by a sacerdotal 
 order in a language not understanded of the people. 
 
 Ninth, Liberty, Civil and Religious. 
 
 The great result of all the foregoing, procured for 
 us by the Reformation, was liberty — spiritual, in- 
 tellectual and political — freedom in its widest extent; 
 liberty, not license ; the sacred rights of the 
 individual conscience; the frank and full recognition 
 of the right of every man to think for himself, and 
 to worship God as he believed right, but without 
 interfering with the equal rights of others. This is 
 not admitted by the Church of Rome. 
 
 This glorious freedom was not indeed fully rea- 
 lised or exercised all at once. It took well nigh a 
 hundred years before the victory was won ; and, in 
 fighting that battle, we must never forget what we 
 owe to the Covenanters of Scotland, and the Puri- 
 tans of England. But though the struggle was 
 long, the victory was involved in the very first 
 principle of the Reformation — the open Bible, and 
 the right of every man to read it for himself. 
 
 To this great principle I attribute the greatness 
 of Great Britain, the mother of free peoples; and 
 that principle has placed her at the very top of 
 imperial sovereignty. Sacerdotalism enslaves and 
 cramps the human mind. The open Bible and the 
 
t 
 
 WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 sacred rights of conscience emancipate and ennoble 
 it. The superstition of the middle ages dwarfed 
 and degraded; the Reformation restored manhood 
 to the Protestant nations of Europe. 
 
 Thus have I put before you some of the chief 
 blessings which we owe to the Reformation : — 
 
 1. The open Bible. 
 
 2. The pure Gospel. 
 
 3. Direct access to God. 
 
 4. Paradise instead of Purgatory. 
 
 5. The real presence in the heart, not on 
 
 the altar. 
 
 6. The Christian Ministry, not a sacrificing 
 
 Priesthood. 
 
 7. The true idea of the Church. 
 
 8. Purity of public worship. 
 
 9. Liberty — civil and religious. 
 
 Thus was accomplished what Burnet says was 
 the design of the Reformation — “To restore Chris- 
 tianity to what it was at the first, and to purify it 
 from the errors which had sprung up in the dark 
 ages.” This it did, and more; for the Gospel has 
 the promise of the life that now is, as well as of that 
 which is to come. It gave national prosperity, 
 freedom, civilisation, empire. 
 
 A few words in conclusion. It is a sad reflection 
 that these blessings of the Reformation are now 
 seriously jeopardised in this glorious country of 
 ours. In thousands of our national Churches they 
 have actually ceased to exist; and the work of the 
 Reformation is undone. There has been an extra- 
 ordinary and alarming recrudescence of Romanism 
 
WHAT WE OWE TO THE REEORMATION. 75 
 
 in the Church of England, among her clergy and 
 her people, during the last fifty years; and 
 thousands of her churches have been captured for 
 Rome, and the “counterfeit of the Mass,” has been 
 again set up, and many of our rulers in Church and 
 State are its advocates and sympathizers. The 
 mass of the people of England seem indifferent or 
 aquiescent. They do not realise the danger. If 
 anything could open their eyes to the Romeward 
 movement within and without the Church, one 
 would think the recently published life of Cardinal 
 Manning, by a sincere Roman Catholic, would do 
 so; when we find that for five years, at least, before 
 he left the Church of England, he spoke (to quote 
 the words of his biographer), 
 
 “with a double voice.” 
 
 In public and to his penitents, he professed his 
 undying confidence in the Church of England; and 
 maintained an anti-Roman attitude; and yet in his 
 diary, and to his intimate friends, he declared that 
 he had ceased to believe in that Church, as she had 
 gone astray from the Catholic Church, both organi- 
 cally and functionally. What an awful revelation 
 of the inconsistency of human nature; and yet he 
 thought he was doing right all the time I 
 
 In conclusion. . What is our duty in reference to 
 the present crisis ? 
 
 I. Parents: see that your children are carefully 
 and intelligently taught the historical facts, and the 
 distinctive principles of the Reformation as I have 
 endeavoured to place them before you in these 
 lectures. 
 
76 WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 
 
 2. Do not send your children to be prepared for 
 Confirmation by any clergyman whom you do not 
 know to be loyal to the Reformation ; lest you may 
 find them taught in the necessity of Auricular 
 Confession and Priestly Absolution. 
 
 3. Young men and women, make yourselves 
 acquainted with the facts and principles I have set 
 forth. Do not take them merely on my representa- 
 tion, or that of any other clergyman. Consult 
 original authorities yourselves. Read the Articles 
 and Homilies of the Church of England. Read the 
 works of the British Reformers — Cranmer, Ridley, 
 Latimer, Jewel, Edward VI., or Foxe’s Book of 
 Martyrs, published by the Religious Tract Society. 
 You can get them for two shillings a volume. 
 Do not grudge the time. It is well worth the 
 trouble. 
 
 4. Do not countenance by your presence, merely 
 because of convenience, churches where the Rome- 
 ward movement is in any degree promoted ; better 
 worship God at home in your closets, though better 
 still to get others to join with you and plead the 
 promise of Matt, xviii. 20. 
 
 5. Help both financially and by personal effort 
 every wise movement for the defence and diffusion 
 of Reformation principles. Don’t be ashamed to 
 take your open stand on that side in these testing 
 days. 
 
 6. Above all ; be constant in daily prayer that 
 God may open the eyes of the rulers and people of 
 England before it be too late; and to overrule the 
 designs, deliberations and decisions of mere worldly 
 
WHAT WE OWE TO THE REFORMATION. 77 
 
 politicians to the extension of true religion and the 
 overthrow of ignorance and superstition. 
 
 Let our motto‘ be — 
 
 The Bible only. 
 
 Jesus only. 
 
 Faith only. 
 
 The Bible the only Rule of Faith; Jesus the only 
 object of Faith, the only priest, the only offering, 
 once offered on the Cross, finished there. 
 
 Faith the only hand that puts on Christ, the link 
 that binds us to Him, that works by love, purifies 
 the heart, and overcomes the world. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 The Book of Bertram ; de Corpore et Sanguine 
 
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 Reasons for Faith. 1 /- 
 
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