B. History From the Reformation

1. Henry VIII

The same general principle of protest against ecclesiastical corruption was involved in the Reformation movement in England that inspired the Reformation on the Continent. Nevertheless, the movement in England had its own salient and distin guishing features, preserving in unbroken conti nuity the ecclesiastical orders and succession of the catholic Church. Ciretunstances had been pre paring the way for the Reformation in England. The signs of the times in the early part of the six teenth century indicated a mighty movement of men's minds in England as well as on the Continent, as shown by the revival of classical learning with such names as Erasmus, Colet, and Thomas More, the bold satires upon clerical abuses, the independence of thought as shown in Erasmus' appeal to the Greek New Testament in the preface of his edition (Basel, 1518), and Mores dreams of improvement in Church and State in his Utopia.

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Open revolt was declared in the translation of the New Testament by Tyndale (1526) and its circulation, in spite of ecclesiastical disapproval. Luther's words from across the sea, declaring papal domination to be the Babylonian captivity of the Church (1520) found an eager audience in England, nor could the public burning of his tracts by Wolsey (1521) check the growing movement against Roman Catholic rule. Henry VIII., the " defender of the faith," was then a loyal son of Rome and set himself against reform in doctrine or in ritual. The aid which his attitude came to give to the Reformation was brought about with no deliberate intention on his part. The open rupture between Rome and England, which might not inconceivably have come to pass in any case, was actually forced, not as the protest of religious principles against ecclesiastical abuses, but as a political expedient to which Henry VIII. resorted to socomplish and to justify his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and his marriage with Anne Boleyn. In 1531 Henry charged the clergy with a violation of the statute of praemunire for being accomplices with Cardinal Wolsey, who had exercised the functions of a legate without the royal consent. The two convocations compounded by the payment of 2118,000; but the king, not satisfied with this evidence of a submissive temper, demanded that he should be recognized as " chief protector, the only supreme lord and head of the Church and clergy in England." The Convocation of Canterbury accepted the title, but added the limiting clause: "so far as the law of Christ will allow." In 1533 a parliamentary statute forbade all ecclesiastical appeals beyond the kingdom. The year following, impelled by the pope's command to take back Catherine, Henry secured the passage of the Act of Supremacy, which made all papal appointments within the realm illegal, and vested unlimited authority in the crown to reform and redress ecclesiastical abuses. The English Church was thus severed from the papal communion and became an independent body. It was not long before the king, in 1536-39, made a bold use of his new authority by abolishing the monastic establishments and confiscating their wealth, amounting to £38,000,000. Thomas Cranmer (q.v.), who had helped, him in his efforts to divorce Catherine, Henry found an able primate. He was a strong friend of the new views, married to a Lutheran wife, and in his earlier life was strongly Lutheran in doctrine. The king, however, had little or no sympathy with the Continental Reformation. He attacked Luther in a tract on the seven sacraments, and Luther's rude reply confirmed Henry's mind against the Reformation. The articles adopted by Convocation in 1536 retained the doctrine of the Real Presence, the use of images, prayers to saints, purgatory, and auricular confession, and only divested these practises of some gross superstitions. The king seemed to take higher ground when he gave his sanction to the translation of the Scriptures known as the Great Bible (1539). But all hopes of a thorough doctrinal reformation were doomed to disappointment. The six so-called "Bloody Articles" of 1539 denounced all denial of

transubstantiation as heresy, and declared strongly in favor of auricular confession, the celibacy of the clergy, and the sacrif ce of private masses. The punishment for denying transubstantiation was burning.

Under Edward VI. (1548-53), the doctrinal reformation was accomplished. The six articles were

repealed, and sympathy with the Cona. Edward tinental Reformers was shown in the VI. and call of Butzer and Fagius to Cam)gary. bridge, and of Peter Martyr and

Oehino to Oxford. A Prayer-Book was issued in 1549, the Forty-Two Articles were drawn up in 1552. They declared that "the Church of Rome bath erred not only in its living and manner of ceremonies, but also in matters of faith" (xix.); expressly denied transubstantiation; permitted the marriage of the clergy; discontinued auricular confession; and approved of the communion in both kinds. With their adoption the formative period of the Church of England closes. The reign of Mary (1553-58), a firm adherent of the Roman Catholic faith, checked the Reformation for the moment, but did not crush it, though a determined effort was made to restore papal control over the English Church, the intolerance of the age being freely employed. Hooper, Latimer, Ridley, and Cranmer were brought to the stake, and many refugees fled to Basel and Geneva; but these persecutions, which were attributed largely to Spanish influence, Mary being married to Philip II., only awakened dogged resistance. The number of certified executions for religious reasons during her reign was 286, of which forty-six were of women.

The accession of Elizabeth restored the independence of the Church of England, which, in spite

of occasional resistance from within and 3. Elizabeth. papal opposition from without (1570),

became the permanent religious home of the large majority in the land, and was firmly established by the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. Two periods stand out in the history of the Church under Elizabeth. In the early part of her reign the separation of the National Church from the Roman Catholic see was completed, and in the latter part the conflict between Anglicanism and Puritanism deepened and resulted in the victory of the Anglican school. The queen was no zealous reformer, but directed the affairs of the Church with the keen sagacity of a statesmanship which placed national unity and the peace of the realm above every other consideration. In the first year of her reign the Act of Supremacy was renewed and the Act of Uniformity (q.v.) was passed. By the former all allegiance to foreign princes or. prelates was forbidden; by the latter the use of the liturgy was enforced. The royal title of " Defender of the Faith and Supreme Head of the Church " was retained, with the slight alteration of " Head " to " Governor "; but the deprecation was struck out of the Litany which read, "From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities, good Lord, deliver us." The queen retained, against the protest of bishops, an altar, crucifix, and lighted candles in her own chapel, disapproved of the marriage of the clergy,

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interrupted the preacher who spoke disparagingly of the sign of the cross, and imperiously forced her wishes upon unwilling prelates. But in spite of seeming to approximate the Church of Rome in points of ritual, Elizabeth did not interfere by any public measures with the results of the Reformation of Edward VI. The reduction of the I'ortytwo Articles to thirty-nine (1563), the form which they have ever since retained, did not impair their Protestant character.