The Results of the Reformation¶
We are free now to learn more about the Reformation, and its effects upon the Church and religion of this land. The word reformation signifies ‘the shaping again,’ i.e., the putting something into shape which was out of shape. Reformation is not the destruction of an old thing, and the making of a new thing to take its place; but the improving of the old, so that it still lives on under restored conditions. Thus reformation is much the same as restoration. It is most important to notice that the Reformation did not change the ancient Church of England for a new Church, neither did it change the old religion for a new religion. But what it did was this,—it freed the old Church from certain grave abuses, and purified the old religion from many harmful superstitions, which, in the middle ages, had attached themselves to the Church. To some of these we have already referred in the last chapter. But there was no point where it could be said, ‘here the old ends, and the new begins.’
It is only fair to admit that things went much too far in more than one direction; as for example,-the rejection of erroneous teaching.as to the state of the dead, led to an imperfect belief in the value of prayers for the departed; or where exaggerated teaching concerning the Eucharistic sacrifice resulted in an imperfect recognition of this great truth; or again, where the usurpation of the pope was succeeded by the tyranny of the king. These were, in some degree, the natural results of a great reaction. And it is only right to say, that whilst the great essentials of Christian faith and practice were by God’s good providence preserved, there were grievous losses in less important matters, which it is our duty to strive to repair as being part of our Catholic heritage.
The changes made in the reign of Henry VIII. have been described as nothing more or less than a revolution under the form of law. The first steps were taken in a constitutional manner. In 1530, an Act of Parliament was passed which forbade application to Rome for relief from certain English laws. These dispensations, as they were called, had caused great vexation to the Church, and the popes had no right to grant them. In 1531, all payments claimed by the Roman see were forbidden to be made any longer. These taxes amounted on an average to about £ 3,500 a year, a sum representing some £ 14,000 in our money of to-day. In 1533, a third act was passed forbidding any appeal to Rome from the English courts. In the next year, Convocation, the parliament of the Church, unduly influenced by dread of the king, decided that the popes had no more right given them by God over the kingdom than any other foreign bishop.[1] Whilst regretting the manner in which it was brought about, it will be seen nevertheless that these acts were simply a reclaiming of the ancient independence of the English State, and the English Church.
Six years later, in 1539, the Holy Bible in English was circulated, and a few years after the services of the Church were read in our own language. The chalice in the Holy Communion was restored to the laity, who were now allowed to seek absolution after confession as their consciences directed, and not of compulsion as hitherto. Much superstition concerning the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Communion of Saints was removed. The appeal all through the Reformation time was to the Holy Scriptures, as interpreted by the teaching of the primitive Church and the fathers, and to the decisions of the General Councils of the Church. This appeal is ours to-day.
The reader must be careful to notice that no official steps were taken to sever the connection of the English Church with that of Rome, although the nation willed to have it so, and the action of Convocation favoured it. When the actual separation with Rome came, as it did in Elizabeth’s time, the Roman court struck the final blow and caused the schism, the Pope excommunicating the Queen, and absolving her subjects from their allegiance.
The primacy in honour and precedence allowed to the bishops of Rome in the early Councils, was in no way denied at the Reformation; and it is not denied by the English Church now, for she acknowledges General Councils which owned it. But this primacy must be distinguished from that lordship and vexatious interference which, in the middle ages, the popes claimed and exercised in England. No steps of any kind were taken to sever the English Church from those foreign Churches in communion with the pope. Members of these Churches are allowed to hold benefices in the English Church without re-ordination.
The apostolic succession was continued without break, bishops being consecrated all through Reformation times by bishops of the old apostolic line. The sacraments, deriving their security and value from the apostolic succession, were continued. The appeal to antiquity, as the test of truth, was clearer than before. Thus the English Church, by God’s mercy, issued from the Reformation a true and living branch of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church of Christ. In the words of Mr. Aubrey Moore,— “The continuity of the English Church was the first principle of the English Reformation, and the apostolical succession, so carefully preserved through all changes, was the answer to the charge of schism, as the retention of the three Creeds and the recognition of the four Councils was the answer to the charge of heresy.”[2] These are matters of such great importance, that we will proceed to treat them more fully in the following chapters.
“I make not the least doubt in the world, but that the Church of England before the Reformation and the Church of England after the Reformation are as much the same Church, as a garden, before it is weeded and after it is weeded, is the same garden ; or as a vine, before it be pruned and after it is pruned and freed from luxuriant branches, is one and the same vine.” — Archbishop Bramhall’s Works, i. 2.
“The Church of England hath not changed one thing of what she held before (the Reformation), any way pertaining either to the being or well-being of a Church. She still retains the same common rule of faith. She still teacheth the necessity of a holy life, and presseth good works as much as before. She still observes all the fundamental ordinances and institutions of Christianity. She baptizeth, she feeds with the Holy Eucharist, she confirmeth. She retaineth the same apostolical government of bishops, priests, and deacons.”—Bishop Bull’s Vindication of the Church of England, xxvi.
The Consecreation of Archbishop Parker¶
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The illustration represents Bishop Barlow “laying the charge” to Dr. Parker, and not the actual laying on of hands, in which the four Bishops present took part.