venture to put in further demurrer. "Let us blacken him, let us blacken him what we can," said that miscreant Harrison of our martyred king, upon the wording and drawing up his charge against his approaching trial". It was much the same on the occasion referred to. The value of cathedral property, together with that of collegiate churches, was investigated at the same time, and all was found to be infinitely below the exaggerated statements which were put forward as tested and proved. Something will be said in subsequent pages as to the appropriation of much of these revenues hereafter, and time must prove whether the project be wise or the reverse. Great necessities call for unwonted measures, but, after all, "honesty," perhaps, will be found to be "the best policy ;" and to sell, and to exchange, and to alienate, may be thought, in less disturbed and excited times, no very long-sighted or wise proceeding. The intention is doubtless good, and the sacrifice was most likely made to prevent what is called a further reformation-a term which has been much used of late years, and which, it is remarkable enough, was a favourite term of the levellers amongst Presbyterians and Independents. South pithily explains its meaning: "A further reformation signifies no more, with reference to the Church, than as if one man should come to another and say, 'Sir, I have already taken away your cloak, and do fully intend, if I can, to take away your coat also.' This is the true meaning of this word further reformation; and so long as you understand it in this sense, you cannot be imposed upon by it '." 66 But, whatever may be the method of distribution hereafter, there is this satisfaction at least, that the spoils of collegiate and cathedral institutions revert to the Church, either to the increase of poor livings, additional clergy in populous places, or to the education of the people, and we need not be pained when we read such remarks as these respecting Church revenues alienated before the Reformation. They are from the great divine before quoted, Thomas Jackson. "Our fore-elders did well in judging the clergy for abusing revenues sacred, to the maintenance of idleness, superstition, and idolatry. But would to God they had not 1 Vol. i. p. 203. 10 Quoted by South, vol. ii. p. 137. condemned themselves by judging them, or that they had not done the same things wherein they judged them. Happy had it been for them and for their posterity, if those large revenues, which they took from such as abused them, had been employed to pious uses; as either to the maintenance of true religion, or to the support of the needy, or to prevent oppressing by extraordinary taxes, or the like. This had been an undoubted effect of pure religion and undefiled before God. But it was not the different estate or condition of the parties on whom Church revenues were bestowed, that could give warrant unto their alienation, or which might bring a blessing upon their intended reformation, but the uses unto which they were consecrated, or the manner how they were employed.-Now the manner of their employment, no man, whose ancestors have been parties in the business, will take upon him to justify, nor have the posterity of such as were at that time most enriched with the spoils of the superstitious Church any great cause to rejoice at their ancestors' easy purchase." And again, by and by. "Our fore-elders (especially the nobility and the gentry of those times) did abhor idols no less than the Jews did, and yet did commit more gross and palpable sacrileges than the Jews, to my observation, at any time had done. And what could it boot them to deface images or pull down idols in the material churches, so long as by their very spoils they nourished that Great Idol, Covetousness, in their own hearts? Thus to seek to enrich themselves or fill their private coffers with the spoils of abbeys or churches, or by tithes and offerings, was but to continue the practice of the prelacy or clergy, in destroying parishes to erect monasteries; or demolishing leper religious houses to build up others more sumptuous and luxurious 2." It was against such things as these that honest-hearted Latimer lifted up his voice, as did others of the day. But, once for all, it was well that the full meaning of a thorough reformation should be exemplified. And never was a declaration so clear, as that covetousness was bound up in the heart of man,-yea, even in the heart of those, whose desire, perhaps, might have been to see a better state of things, had not the auri sacra fames over. 2 See vol. iii. pp. 686, 687. powered it. The secret sins of men's hearts were never laid more bare than in the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI., and during the time of the Great Rebellion. The watchword was reform; but the end was gain. Never did that politic historian speak more advisedly true, than when he said, Caeterum, libertas, et speciosa nomina prætexuntur; nec quisquam alienum servitium, et dominationem sibi concupivit, ut non eadem ista vocabula usurparit. It will ever be found that workers of iniquity turn "religion into rebellion, and faith into faction." There is no blotting out from our annals what led to the martyrdom of Charles I., and of the religious-hearted, but hasty-tempered, Laud! In disturbed towns the clergy can never be too cautious. Wary also they should be as regards a sort of people, who, when occasion serves, will make overtures of peace, whilst war and every dishonest motive is rankling in their hearts. There is an old saying, too, worthy to be borne in mind, that the devil is none the less the knave, when he seems to play the fool. Some such overtures of peace, and some such folly was attempted during the recent years of disturbance. Who remembers not how it was attempted, by a mock sort of pity, to raise what were called the working clergy, and working curates, into notice, by the depreciation of their ecclesiastical superiors? Who remembers not the whining, canting, tone with which the bitterest enemies of the Establishment, and of holy men, the bishops of the land, endeavoured to detract from their efficiency, as ministers of Christ, by showing, as they thought, the mean estate to which they consigned their inferior clergy? None can fail to remember this; and some, it may be, might have turned their school-boy lesson to account: "Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes!" The words of sorrow and pity came from a wrong source. The tears were over-miserably expressed, and were too globular, like 3 Tacit. Histor. lib. iv. c. 73. 4 Clarendon mentions his "hasty sharp way of expressing himself," adding in a subsequent page, "which, upon a short recollection, he was always sorry for, and most readily and heartily would make acknowledgment." Vol. i. pp. 159 and 176. Hist. of the Rebellion. See what South says, vol. iv. p. 95. crocodiles'! But, in sober and serious strain, many no doubt were deluded; and the different letters written at that time in various periodicals and newspapers attest the fact. Youth was more readily led astray; and there were those again, whose poverty, it may be, rather than their will, consented. But the fact is none the less notorious; and ecclesiastical superiors, who were doing all they could, whether to turn or to moderate and guide the stream of democratic violence which had set in, were hardly supported as they ought to have been. Happily, well educated and thoughtful men saw through the flimsy veil of hypocrisy which was extended for the ruin of the thoughtless, and the evil hoped for by subtlety and deceit was in a great measure averted. Harm nevertheless was done; and there was rashness of speech, and a sort of concession made, which an adversary knew but too well how to make use of. But for the present this evil is overpast; and the simple truth, stripped of words, is acknowledged readily,—καὶ οὗτοι δὲ δοκιμαζέσθωσαν πρῶτον 5. Proof of worth and ability should first be given, or ever higher advancement be looked for. When this is the case, the working clergy will seldom find themselves past by; or, should they be reproached, as was Socrates of old, for having no preferment in Athens, they may make answer with him,—It was enough for him to have fitted himself for preferment: it was other men's business to bestow it on him. But on this head, and on all others so closely connected with unity in our Church, the business of all is to follow their great Exemplar : "And through obedience travel to perfection, 6.99 When such was the state of things, it was not to be wondered at that a low sectarian spirit, combined with mean utilitarian notions, should have increased. It is, in fact, natural; and we may discern it to be the case, more or less, in all times of political excitement. Self-interest, and a Pharisaic spirit, personal 51 Tim. iii. 10. 6 Lord Brooke. Of Humane Learning. advancement and schism, are quite compatible. Let the earliest instances of separation and dissent from the Holy Catholic Church be fairly looked to; let even what took place previous to the Council of Nice (A.D. 325) be impartially canvassed, and the same conclusion cannot fail to be arrived at, namely, that "Pope Self" has been a character more influential in the world, and has made greater conquests, than a Sesostris or an Alexander. But one of the great peculiarities of later times is this, that individuals contrive to dissent from the Articles and the Liturgy of the Church to which they belong, and yet, by a dispensation from themselves, to remain members of the same, and to enjoy its emoluments 7. It was curious to observe this some few years ago with what is called the Low Church. It is none the less curious to observe it now in the case of those who designate themselves the High Church, discarding the very name of Protestant. There is no better proof of the trite observation that extremes meet. Of this, however, it will be necessary to speak again, and at greater length. Meanwhile let me point out what was aimed at by separatists, who were really such, but who, as before observed, had a sufficient regard to personal aggrandizement. And rightly, as some said, for the wicked, by which the members of the Establishment were very commonly intended : "The wicked have no right To th' creature, though usurp'd by might, From whom they injuriously detain't"." From what has since transpired, there can be little doubt, I think, but that very many amongst what might be called the wildest dissenters were encouraged in the hope that the time was come when the Church of England was to be counted but as one sect, amongst many, and no longer denominated a branch of 7 South says of the conforming Puritan that " He is one who lives by the altar, and turns his back upon it; one who catches at the preferments of the Church, but hates the discipline and orders of it; one who practises conformity, as papists take oaths and tests, that is, with an inward abhorrence of what he does for the present, and a resolution to act quite contrary when occasion serves."-Sermons, vol. iv. p. 192. 8 Hudibras, Part I. ii. 1010. |