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terest he was indebted for his future advancement in life. Bishop Hinchcliffe merited his promotion more from his assiduity in the discharge of his various duties, his obliging manners, and religious and political principles, than for his scholastic attainments, which were not of a high order.

SPENCER MADAN (1794-1813), whose mild, dignified benignity of manners, inflexible integrity, and purity of principle, eminently fitted him for the elevated situation which he filled for so many years.

JOHN PARSONS (1813-1819). The Rev. Edward Patterson, in a letter from Oxford to Lord Stowell, has given an in teresting character of the above prelate, from which the following sentence is quoted: "In him his college has lost a second founder: the university a reformer of its abuses, a strict enforcer of its discipline, an able champion for its privileges, and a main pillar of its reputation; the public charities a liberal contributor, and a powerful advocate; the Church of England, a conscientious professor of its doctrines, and a temperate, but firm defender of its rights; the house of peers a discerning, upright, and active senator; and the nation at large a true, loyal, and sober patriot.

HERBERT MARSH (1819-1839), was, it has been said, advanced to this see as a compliment and reward for his zealous literary exertions in the cause of England against France, and of Protestantism against Romanism. His works, which are voluminous, are chiefly of a controversial character. Bishop Marsh was, however, highly distinguished for his steady attachment to the sacred duties of his position, and was esteemed for his classical attainments, elegant taste, and cultivated manners.

On the death of Dr. Van Mildert, the late Bishop of Durham, the deanery of RIPON was erected into an episco

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pal see, in compliance with the recommendation of the commissioners for inquiring into the revenues and patronof the established church in England and Wales. The most considerable portion of the territory annexed to this newly-erected bishopric, was taken from the diocese of York. Dr. Longley, of whom a memoir will be given in a subsequent part of this work, was appointed its first bishop.

CHAPTER VI.

OUR GREAT THEOLOGIANS.

ARCHBISHOP CRANMER.-BISHOP RIDLEY.-BISHOP JEWELL.-RICHARD HOOKER.ARCHBISHOP ABBOT-BISHOP ANDREWS.-ARCHBISHOP LAUD.-WILLIAM

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LINGWORTH.-BISHOP TAYLOR-ISAAC BARROW.-BISHOP PEARSON.-ARCH. BISHOP TILLOTSON. BISHOP STILLINGFLEET-ROBERT SOUTH.-BISHOP HOOPER. -SAMUEL CLARKE.-BISHOP BUTLER-BISHOP HOADLEY-BISHOP SHERLOCK.ARCHBISHOP SECKER-BISHOP LOWTH.-WILLIAM PALEY.-BISHOP HORSLEY.

BISHOP WATSON.-BISHOP HEBER.-HUGH JAMES ROSE.

AMONGST the various sects into which Christianity is divided, none can boast of such an array of names, illustrious for learning and piety, as adorn the annals of the Church of England. From her sprung those Christian philosophers, Hooker, Barrow, South, and Butler, whose code of morality,-drawn from the only true fountain, the Biblewill ever remain the strongest bulwark against the attacks of infidelity. Of these and the other able defenders of Christianity, belonging to our Church, we have endeavoured to give some slight account, and we hope that the love of truth which guided our attempt, has enabled us to avoid the rocks and shoals that surround the subject.

THOMAS CRANMER, the first Protestant archbishop of England, was born on the 2d of July, 1489, at Aslacton in Nottinghamshire, where his family had been settled for many centuries. He received the rudiments of his education from the parish clerk of his native town, and at the * Q

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of fourteen was admitted of Jesus College, Cambridge, of which he subsequently became Fellow. In 1523, he proceeded to the degree of D. D., soon after which the plague broke out at Cambridge, when he retired to Waltham Abbey, the residence of his friend Mr. Cressy. There he met with Dr. Edward Fox, the king's almoner, and Dr. Stephen Gardiner, the secretary, to whom, in a conversation on the subject of the king's divorce, he recommended the expedient suggested by Cardinal Wolsey, of taking the opinions of the universities in England; which, he said, "would bring the matter to a short issue, and be the safest and surest method of giving the king's troubled conscience a well grounded rest." He was soon afterwards sent for by the king, who appointed him his chaplain, and gave him the archdeaconry of Taunton. Cranmer being subsequently commanded to write a treatise upon the subject of the divorce, successfully maintained that neither general councils nor the Pope could dispense with the word of God. In 1530, he was sent with some others into France, Italy, and Germany, to discuss the affair of the king's marriage. When at Rome, he offered publicly to defend the opinions contained in his treatise, against any who would impugn them-but the challenge was not accepted; and in Germany he prevailed on the famous Osiander, whose niece he afterwards married, to declare the king's marriage unlawful, and to draw up a form of direction for the management of the divorce. On the death of Archbishop Warham, in 1532, Cranmer was appointed to succeed him in the see of Canterbury; on which occasion he surrendered to the king all the bulls which the Pope had sent him confirmatory of his promotion, thereby refusing to acknowledge the Pope's right to interfere in any manner with the disposal of ecclesiastical dignities in this kingdom.

On the 23d of May, 1533, at Dunstable, Cranmer pronounced the sentence of divorce, and on the 28th of the same month confirmed the king's marriage with Anne Boleyn. When threatened by the Pope with excommunication on account of these bold steps, he appealed to a general council, and was greatly instrumental in the ensuing parliament in procuring an act which abolished the Pope's supremacy and declared the King supreme head of the Church. The next great step which Cranmer took towards advancing the reformed faith was to prevail on the Convocation to petition the King that the Bible might be translated into English, to which undertaking he gave every encouragement, and assisted greatly in its dispersion. He next forwarded the dissolution of the monasteries, which establishments he thought presented almost insuperable obstacles to the Reformation. In 1539, Cranmer and some other of the bishops fell under the King's displeasure on account of their strong opposition in parliament to the King's sole appropriation of the revenues derived from the suppressed monasteries. The act of the Six Articles which impeded the further progress of the reformed faith in England during Henry's reign, met likewise with his most strenuous resistance; its severity was, however, somewhat moderated by the act which he got passed "for the advancement of true religion" in 1542. At the instigation of Gardiner an accusation was preferred in parliament by Sir John Gostwicke against the archbishop for being an enemy to popery; but the protection which the King afforded him defeated the designs of his enemies. On the death of Henry, who had appointed him one of his executors, and a member of the Regency, he found the Duke of Somerset and the majority of the council most favourable towards the great work of the Reformation, and he proceeded accordingly, with their firm support, to take

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