We pass now over the reign of five kings, occupying the space of more than a century; a century of darkness, superstition, commotions, and blood: but days of fatness and rejoicing for the bishops and the Pope. We come to the times of Henry VIII., and to the occurrences of his eventful reign:-we come to the time when the morning star of the Reformation was rising in Germany, in the beginning of the 16th century. The art of printing had now been invented; and letters were reviving. A new world had just been discovered; and the old began to awake from its long and leaden slumbers. Men began to think, to inquire, and to enter upon fields of new and startling enterprise: sad omens for the reign of popish superstition and intolerance. It needed only that the Gospel should once more spring to light; and the contest must commence in which Rome could no longer prove victorious. The causes of that long night of ignorance and superstition were sure to be investigated. The sources of spiritual despotism were to be explored. Lordly prelates, whose dominion stood in usurpation and superstition, would be sure to ⚫ resist the progress of popular liberty; till, in the course of that struggle, their own claims should be canvassed, their authority questioned and thrown aside.

Such was the progress of light and freedom. The Reformers cast off the doctrinal errors of Popery. Another struggle between prelatical oppressions and usurpations on the one hand and the rights of conscience on the other, raised up the Puritans. The progress of their principles gave to England whatever of freedom it possesses that is worthy of the name; and crossing the Atlantic, originated the institutions of our own happy Republic.

III.

REIGN OF KING HENRY VIII.

The King and Martin Luther. He assumes the Supremacy of the Church. The King's Bible. Articles. " Institution of a Christian man." “Erudition of a Christian man." Only two orders of the ministry recognized as of Divine right, in the days of Henry, or in the succeeding age. Evidence collected by Stillingfleet. The Bloody Statute. Bible forbidden. Estimate of the Reformation under Henry.

THERE was still subsisting in England, much of the leaven of the Reformation infused by Wickliffe, when news came of similar truths breaking forth and spreading under the labors of the Reformers in Germany.

To the spread of the new heresy, or rather to the revival of the old doctrine of Wickliffe, King Henry VIII. opposed the whole weight of his absolute power. But why should not the king,who had been bred a scholar, and who had already been flattered into the conceit of unequalled abilities and learning;-why should not the king reap also some glory in the field of literature and theology? He descended into the arena to break a lance with the great Reformer of Wittemberg; whose onset no learning of the doctors, nor even the thunders of the Vatican, had been able to withstand.

The drama of the Reformation in England opened by a book from King Henry VIII. in defence of the Seven Sacraments of the Church, against the heresies of Martin Luther. What was to be expected? The book was lauded as the perfection of wisdom, and the end of disputation. "Nor was it a performance," says Hume, "which, if allowance be made for the age, does discredit to his capacity." The king sent a copy to the Pope, "who received so magnificent a present with great testimony of regard," and conferred on the king the title of "Defender of the faith;" a title which even down to the present century, the Protestant sovereigns of England continued to wear.

But what cared Luther for kingly arguments? The might of monarchs lies in their power to command,-in their armies and fleets. When a sovereign descends into the arena of intellectual strife, he comes single-handed, in the simple strength of

an individual man. No long time was required to bring from Luther an answer burning with the fire of hot controversy, and in no manner regardful of the majesty of his opponent; and when did an advocate of Popery come off from a contest with Martin Luther unscathed?

The result of this royal controversy was, to add immense notoriety to the Reformation; and immensely to accelerate its progress. The king, now so thoroughly committed to the cause of Popery by having written a book, and so roughly handled and chagrined in his contest with the Reformer, was for ever fixed in his hatred of the Reformation. Accordingly we find, that the change effected in ecclesiastical affairs under Henry was less a Reformation than a revolution. Henry wrested the supremacy from the Pope; but the doctrines, the superstitions, the intolerance, the cruelties of Popery were still retained in all their vigorsave as some changeable hue of coloring appeared and vanished with some new and uncertain caprice of the king. England was cut loose from the Pope; but the papal supremacy and infallibility were transferred to the head of Henry and his successors. In the rites of the church, says Bishop Burnet, "The alterations made were inconsiderable, and so slight, that there was no need of reprinting either the missals, breviaries, or other offices."

Let us briefly review the leading particulars which enter into the account; and mark the heads of the causes and events which detached England from the See of Rome.

For twenty years after his accession, Henry had continued a dutiful son of the Roman Church. He had even suffered the laws to slumber, which had been enacted by his predecessors, against procuring provisions and bulls, and exercising authority from Rome. With his favor and connivance, Cardinal Wolsey had received from Rome, and had long exercised, a sovereign power over the whole clergy and church of England, contrary to the statutes of the realm. The king had added to these powers by giving him "full authority to dispose of all ecclesiastical benefices in the gift of the crown, with a visitorial power over monasteries and colleges, and all his clergy, exempt or not exempt." With these powers a new court of justice had been erected, called the Legatine Court, which had committed numberless rapines and extortions; all which doings the king had connived at, out of favoritism to Wolsey and zeal for the Church.

But now the king had become wearied of his queen Catharine; and perhaps he sincerely questioned the lawfulness of his marriage; as had already been done by many, and among others, by some of the sovereigns of Europe. Both Wolsey and the

Pope had trifled with him, and delayed him for six years; and, out of purely selfish ends, had thwarted his desires. By other means, which it is not to the purpose here to relate, Henry accomplished his ends, was divorced from Catharine, and married to Anne Boleyn, the mother of Queen Elizabeth.

And now for vengeance. Wolsey is entrapped; having exercised the office of papal legate, contrary to the statute of Richard II. Henry orders his attorney general to put in an information against him in the king's bench; and Wolsey forfeits goods and chattels to the king; is put from under the king's protection, and becomes an outlaw. Under these reverses, the haughty cardinal sickens and 'dies. And now for the Pope: Henry will snatch away his supremacy, make himself head of the English Church, and stop the rivers of silver and gold that are flowing from England to Rome.

How can this be done? How will the clergy, so devoted to the papal See, by interest and superstition,-how will they bear to see the Pope rejected as head of the Church, and a profane layman installed in his place? In this way: the clergy, out of reverence to the Pope, encouraged by the king, and compelled by Wolsey, have yielded to Wolsey's legatine authority,-contrary to the statute :-and have incurred the pains and forfeitures of a premunire. They must submit to the king's terms, or their vast domains, if not their liberty or life, must pay the forfeit.

The king assumes the supremacy over the Church. By proclamation, he forbids all persons to purchase anything at Rome, under the severest penalties. As he expected, the clergy begin to rouse themselves up for resistance. The king causes an indictment to be preferred against them at Westminster Hall, and obtains judgment under the statute of premunire; whereby the whole body of the clergy have forfeited all their goods and chattels, and are out of the king's protection. They must yield either to the king or to ruin. They buy his pardon on condition of paying into his treasury an immense sum of money, and of acknowledging the king as sole and supreme head of the Church of England; yet with the saving clause, " so far as is agreeable to the laws of Christ." But what was this saving clause when the king was sole judge of what was agreeable to the laws of Christ? The clause itself was soon thrown aside, and the king's supremacy confirmed by parliament and convocation.

And what was this supremacy? First, it was to have and enjoy all the dignities, immunities and commodities which had formerly gone to the Pope. Secondly, the king was invested with the sole power of establishing, ordering or reforming all things connected with doctrine, worship, heresy or error. Whatever power had been usurped by synods, councils and popes;

lordship over doctrine, ceremonies, worship; lordship over the interpretation of Scripture, and over the consciences and private judgment of all men in the realm;-all was given into the hands of the king. Such was the tenor of the Act of Supremacy passed by the Parliament.

The Bishops" took out new commissions from the crown, in which all their episcopal authority was expressly affirmed to be derived from the civil magistrate, and to be entirely dependent on his good pleasure."

A new oath of allegiance was imposed, in which all the people were made to swear that the bishop of Rome had no more power than any other bishop in his diocese; and that they would submit to all the king's laws, notwithstanding any censures from the Pope.

The parochial clergy thus submitting to the king were taken into favor. But England was full of monks, friars and monasteries, possessed of vast revenues and domains. These had been in great measure independent both of the bishops and the civil power. Their sympathies were wholly with Rome. The monks and friars began to complain. In some places they excited the people to insurrections, and endeavored to embroil the affairs of the kingdom with foreign princes.

The king knew well how to take vengeance on these. As head of the Church he appoints a general visitation of the monasteries, and commits the work to the Lord Cromwell as VisitorGeneral. Several abbots and priors surrender their houses into the king's hands. Others are examined; and the grossest frauds, impostures, and debaucheries, are brought to light. Their pretended relics are exposed and destroyed. These were innumerable; among others, "The Virgin Mary's milk, showed in eight places; the coals that roasted St. Lawrence; one wing of the angel that brought over the head of the spear that pierced the Saviour's side; the rood of grace, so contrived by springs and pulleys that the lips might move upon occasion." The images of a great many pretended saints were taken down and burnt; and all the rich offerings made at their shrines, seized for the crown. The lesser monasteries, to the number of two hundred, were suppressed. The greater monasteries soon shared their fate.

While Henry was busied in transferring to himself the supremacy and emoluments of the Pope, the doctrines of the Reformation were taking root in England. The dungeon and the faggot were the arguments on which the king and prelates relied for putting down the rising heresy. Some were cited into the bishops' courts for teaching their children the Lord's prayer in English; some for reading forbidden books; some for not