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CHAP. IV.

THE REFORMATION.

He that would do right to religion cannot take a more effectual course than by reconciling it with the happiness of TILLOTSON. mankind.

THE Reformation in England was by no means similar in its history to the great revolution of men's minds which took place in Switzerland, Scotland, and Germany. It was begun by the King, in consequence of his desire to put away his wife and marry another; and this quarrel was not only unconnected with the doctrine of Luther, but that doctrine was at the same time condemned, and its supporters capitally punished. Had the Pope been as complying as he had often been before, Henry VIII. would have

been, if not one of the most pure and holy saints, one of the most faithful and zealous servants that the church of Rome could boast of possessing. Even after the breach seemed irreparable, propositions were made from Rome, and were accepted by Henry*, but as his messenger did not arrive on the day fixed, the Emperor's party in the Consistory took advantage of the failure of punctuality to obtain a vote closing the door upon reconciliation for ever. The messenger of the King of England arrived only two days too late to reconcile his master with the Pope, and arrest the progress of religious light in this country.

The breach with the Church of Rome would still not have led immediately to the Reformation, had not Cranmer, holding the high station of Archbishop of Canterbury, with Cromwel, many of the peers, and a large number of the educated class, endeavoured to conduct the nation, step by step, to abjure the errors and superstitions of the Roman Catholic worship. At the same time, they were obliged,

* Burnet's Hist. of Ref. v. i. p. 136.

even for the sake of the cause they favoured, to retain many ceremonies to which the people were attached, and which the English reformers copied from the Roman church, as the Roman church had copied some of their ceremonies from the heathen worship.

The first step which Henry took, of his own accord, against the church of Rome after the divorce, was the dissolution of the monasteries. The motive which induced him to adopt this measure, was probably a spirit of rapacity; for with all his power he found it a very difficult matter to squeeze money from his subjects. With the sum to be derived from the sale of the monasteries, he proposed to make harbours all round the coast of England. Those of the nobility who had adopted the opinions of the reformers, gave willingly into the measure, and no doubt their zeal was quickened by the share they got of the spoil. The abuses which prevailed in the monasteries were not, however, a groundless pretext. The relations of the visitors who were appointed by the King to reform the monasteries, and report their state, display

grounds for believing that they were any thing rather than seminaries of piety and morality.*

The next steps taken in the road of reformation were some directions respecting the worship of images and praying to saints, and, what was much more important, a permission to the people to read a translation of the Bible, in St. Paul's Church. The people flocked to the place, and one person was generally chosen to read aloud to the rest, till the bishop, alarmed at the concourse, forbade the practice, as a disturbance to the service of the church. The destruction of some of the images exposed to the public several scandalous cheats. +

The outset of the Reformation in England was marked by a more cruel and insupportable religious tyranny than had ever subsisted under the Papal dominion. In the times of popery,

* Burnet, Hist. of Ref. b. i. p. 198. Mr. Lingard, however, refuses credit to these charges: he observes with truth that they were ex parte statements to which the accused had no opportunity of replying. It would be difficult, on the other hand, to suppose all the facts alleged to be fabrications. Monks and nuns are

not infallible or impeccable beings.

+ Note B. at the end of the volume.

the articles of faith were placed in the custody of the priest, and the people received from him some knowledge of the doctrines of Christianity, somewhat more of the duties of morality, and an unbounded reverence for the authority and magnificence of the Church. But Henry VIII., after partly removing the veil of ignorance from the eyes of his people, required them not to go a single step farther than he himself did, and the nation was commanded by act of parliament to believe six articles of faith therein laid down, and whatever else the King might choose to ordain.

To punish men for their opinions in speculative articles of belief, is one of the luxuries which tyranny has invented in modern times. Dionysius and Domitian knew nothing of it. It was enjoyed by Henry to its full extent. He was not, like Philip II. or Charles IX., merely the minister of bigotry, of which he was himself the disciple. He taught from his own mouth the opinions which were to regulate his subjects; he contained in his own breast the rule of orthodoxy; and he had the triumph of con

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