.. I 
 
 : . .,.
 
 16 - 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 AN EXPLANATION 
 
 THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES.
 
 AN 
 
 EXPLANATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE THIRTY-NINE AETICLBS: 
 
 WITH 
 
 AN EPISTLE DEDICATORY 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. 
 
 BY 
 
 A. P. FORBES, D.C.L. 
 
 >r^ 
 
 BISHOP OF BRECHIN. 
 
 Second Edition. 
 
 if art snti 3Lontion: 
 
 JAMES PARKER AND CO. 
 
 1871.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY 
 
 TO THE 
 
 REV. E B. PUSEY, D.D, 
 
 MY DEAREST FRIEND, 
 
 seems a moral fitness, in the permission 
 - which you have so kindly accorded to me, that 
 a work, undertaken at your suggestion, and assisted 
 by your learning and counsel in each step of its pro- 
 gress to maturity, should be, with every assurance of 
 the most devoted affection, dedicated to you. This 
 enables me to express, in however inadequate terms, 
 the veneration in which I hold you ; and to acknow- 
 ledge the deep debt of gratitude which I owe you, 
 for the many benefits which you have bestowed upon 
 me, during a friendship which has lasted for more 
 than twenty years, and which has been one of my 
 greatest earthly blessings. To have been trained in 
 your school of thought has been the best discipline 
 for the discharge of the onerous duties of the Epis- 
 copate : to have been admitted to your intimacy has 
 been the greatest social and spiritual privilege I could 
 have desired. It is the prerogative of noble and af- 
 fectionate characters, that they who know them best 
 love them most; and you have the mighty gift of 
 
 a2
 
 11 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 a tender sympathy for those devoted friends from whom 
 you draw forth the sentiments of the most loyal and 
 sincere attachment. Among those friends, there is 
 none that you have distinguished with a more affec- 
 tionate regard than myself. I can only say that I 
 am deeply grateful. Moreover, to no one else can 
 a book, which seeks to place the Anglican position 
 on a philosophic and ecclesiastical basis, be more ap- 
 propriately dedicated. You have devoted your time 
 and your talents, and the varied gifts which God has 
 bestowed upon you, to adorn the Church of England ; 
 by bringing forward in her service your varied stores 
 of patristic learning ; by the evolution of a more accu- 
 rate theology ; by the publication of heart-stirring and 
 thoughtful sermons; by placing within the reach of 
 her members adapted editions of the devout works 
 of spiritual authors in other communions ; by supply- 
 ing to the student of Holy Scripture the beginning 
 of a deep, affective, and exhaustive commentary on the 
 Word of God ; by the development of the dogmatic 
 element in the Church's teaching as the strongest 
 bulwark against rationalism and infidelity ; by de- 
 fending the authenticity and inspiration of that Pro- 
 phet whose work has been the battle-ground of modern 
 criticism ; by giving comfort to many perplexed, weary, 
 doubting, and sin-laden hearts, both in the more special 
 ministrations of your holy office and in less formal in- 
 tercourse with those who have needed consolation ; by 
 the guiding of individual souls into the higher life; 
 and by the foundation of religious communities, in 
 which devout persons may serve God in the double 
 way of contemplation and action. By all this and 
 more you have earned the gratitude of all true mem-
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. Ill 
 
 bers of the Church of England. Trained and disci- 
 plined within her sheltering care, you have acted upon 
 the advice of the oracle in the thoughtful heathen story, 
 and have adorned that Sparta in which the Providence 
 of God has placed you. 
 
 The Thirty-nine Articles have suffered from having 
 been always treated controversially. It is natural that 
 they should be so treated, considering the circumstances 
 under which they were put forth. They were to secure 
 uniformity ; in other words, " for the avoiding of diver- 
 sities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent 
 touching true religion," but uniformity on the basis of 
 a protest against certain errors. The consequence is, 
 that their first aspect is polemical, and this has led to 
 their having been treated polemically. In the expo- 
 sitions of their contents which have been put forth, an 
 undue proportion has been given to the negative side 
 of theology, and this is to be regretted. The soul 
 cannot live on negations. " I do not believe," is poor 
 food for intellect or heart. No doubt error must be 
 protested against, and there is a proper place for the 
 negative as for the positive side in theology, just as we 
 see the anathematisms at the end of the first draft of 
 the Nicene Creed, and just as Councils often accom- 
 panied their positive enactments with the condemna- 
 tion of errors, (the bare negative of such condemnation 
 being all that comes rigorously to be believed as cle 
 fide} ; but still an undue proportion may be given to 
 this, and it is right not to lose sight of the fact that 
 the true way to confute falsehood is to build up and 
 illustrate the opposite truth. 
 
 My aim, therefore, in the ensuing pages, is not so 
 much to dwell on the condemnations of errors, as to
 
 IV EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 elucidate and evolve the positive doctrines, the excesses 
 and perversions of which doctrines are the subjects of 
 the censure of the Articles. Almost all the errors 
 touched on in the Articles are perversions or exagge- 
 rations of Gospel truths, and it is to illustrate these 
 Gospel truths without these exaggerations that this 
 attempt is made. For example, the Romish doctrine 
 of pardons, alluded to in Article XXII., was a per- 
 version of the belief and practice of the penitential 
 discipline of the Church. It shall be my duty to 
 touch upon that penitential discipline, and so of the 
 rest. In short, this exposition shall be constructive, 
 not destructive. 
 
 Viewed from this point, it will be seen what a vast 
 amount of Christian truth the Articles of Religion 
 cover; how they may be turned from the transitory 
 controversies of the sixteenth century to those immu- 
 table truths which have been taught in the Church, 
 and by the Church, in all ages ; how they may be made 
 the means of supplying that great want from which 
 our divines at present suffer, the want of an accurate 
 theology; for it cannot be denied that much of the 
 vague, incorrect, and imperfect statement of the truth 
 in the present day, is the result not of unbelief, or mis- 
 belief, or any conscious perversity of will in the matter 
 of divine faith, but simply of want of clear-headedness 
 and precision. 
 
 Ten years ago a I made the following remarks upon 
 the position of the Articles of Religion, in their rela- 
 tion to the convictions of members of the Anglican 
 Communion : 
 
 " The outward expression of this [reaction] was 
 Primary Charge, delivered in 1857.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 exhibited in the Thirty-nine Articles, but it is to be 
 observed that their loose and unsystematic structure 
 precludes the idea of their ever having been intended 
 to be the sole rule of faith. They are rather state- 
 ments about truths, than the truths themselves. They 
 assume an implicit substructure of the old catholicity, 
 and therefore they do not define terms which, without 
 a knowledge of the scholastic theology of the day, 
 must have been unintelligible, and which actually, 
 from the lack of such knowledge, have given rise to 
 the most absurd mistakes, as may be seen by much 
 which has been said about grace of condignity and 
 eongmity. The great doubts that have been enter- 
 tained with regard to the true meaning of the Articles, 
 are in themselves sufficient to prove that they could 
 never have been intended to be the sole rule of faith 
 in the Church. The possibility of Arian subscription 
 was much discussed at the beginning of this century 
 and at the end of the last. The great German theo- 
 logian, Mohler, assumes that they are Calvinistic, 
 though he bears testimony to the moderation of their 
 expressions. Archbishop Laurence labours, in the 
 Bampton Lectures of 1804, to shew that they are 
 purely Lutheran. Sancta Clara asserts that, by the 
 exercise of allowable casuistry, they are compatible 
 with Tridentine doctrine; whereas Paley maintains 
 that the legislature of the 13th Elizabeth being the 
 imposer, its animus was ' to exclude abettors of Popery, 
 Anabaptists, and Puritans/ and by saying that ' who- 
 ever finds himself comprehended within these descrip- 
 tions ought not to subscribe,' seems almost to imply by 
 the limitation that any one else may do so V 
 
 b Works, vol. iii. p. 144, ed. 1830.
 
 VI EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 "With such a diversity of opinion as this, it is 
 absurd to hold that a set of propositions, drawn up 
 with a certain object, to meet a peculiar state of cir- 
 cumstances, and swayed by very different influences, 
 (for we find the Queen, two parties of the clergy, and 
 the Parliament, severally leaving their impress upon 
 these documents,) is the only rule of faith in the 
 Church. Unless we are prepared to allow that the 
 legislature of the day is the ultimate reference in 
 matters of faith, we must assign to the Articles but 
 a subordinate place in their claim upon our submission. 
 They cannot be looked upon as a Creed : they are 
 Articles of Religion, that is, of obligation, binding 
 under certain circumstances of holding office in the 
 Church ; not Articles of Faith in any strict sense, that 
 is, of submission to God and His Church c ." 
 
 On serious re-consideration I have no wish to modify 
 or to alter the substance of what I then said on this 
 subject ; but since these words were written, it is to be 
 observed, that an influential school in the Church of 
 England has made an attempt, and to a degree suc- 
 ceeded, in modifying in some instances the stringency 
 of subscription. With some this is, almost confessedly, 
 an attempt to introduce the thin end of the wedge to 
 abolish subscription altogether. I confess that, in the 
 present circumstances of our Church, I am not pre- 
 pared to advocate so sweeping a measure, though I am 
 fully alive to the fact that the Articles are not only 
 trying to the consciences of many individuals, who feel 
 a natural difficulty in acquiescing in so many propo- 
 sitions imposed by a human authority, but that they 
 have also a lowering effect upon men's apprehension 
 
 c Charge, pp. 3, 4, ed. 2.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 of divine truth, from the way in which some of them 
 are worded. I can sign them myself " in the literal 
 and grammatical sense," that is, taking sentence by 
 sentence as a lawyer would do, and where " the plain 
 and full meaning" alluded to in the Declaration is 
 doubtful, I supplement any deficiency by the inter- 
 pretation of the other subscriptions which I have made, 
 and the documents I am bound to : so that, not having 
 the necessity to call in to my aid more than the most 
 moderate help of such laws of explanation as all men 
 practically need in the interpretation of every oath, 
 obligation, pledge, or subscription, I feel that I am 
 in the position of being able to come to a pretty im- 
 partial opinion on the subject of relaxation, and that 
 opinion is, that in the present circumstances of the 
 English Church, subscription to the Articles should 
 be maintained ; for some test, having a quasi dogmatic 
 character, seems necessary to our position ; and the 
 difficulties of any substitution seem, at this moment, 
 insuperable. 
 
 I admit the hardship of demanding men's assent 
 to a document which, being uninspired, can claim no 
 heaven-directed guarantee for its truth. I acknow- 
 ledge the halting in the argument which would im- 
 pose, as a condition of ministering in the everlasting 
 Church of Christ, subscription to a formula which has 
 received modifications and alterations. I mislike the 
 tone of some individual Articles, and the inaccurate 
 wording and ambiguity of others ; but I should have 
 more sympathy with those who are now clamouring 
 for a change, if I did not think that in attacking the 
 Articles, they were attacking the general dogmatic 
 character of Christian confessions.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 But while I bear all this in mind, I think that in 
 remembering their history, we get a practical solution 
 of some of our difficulties ; and for the illogical Eng- 
 lish mind, this is enough. Confessedly a compromise in 
 the forms of their expressions, the Articles do not affect 
 to declare absolute truth. There is no one Christian 
 confession that they absolutely make for. They cannot 
 satisfy the pure Calvinist, (however often they are igno- 
 rantly claimed for them, even by so great a writer as 
 Mohler,) for not one of the five points pf Calvinism 
 is expressly stated in them, and some, such as Perse- 
 verance and the Indefectibility of Grace (Art. XVI. ), 
 are actually contradicted. They cannot be said to sym- 
 bolize with the Confession of Augsburg, inasmuch as 
 they give no countenance to the crucial doctrine of 
 Luther, justification by mere imputation, or by that 
 faith which believes itself justified. The High Church 
 party have never concealed their depreciation of them 
 in comparison with the lex supplicandi lex credendi of the 
 Book of Common Prayer, while they are silent on, if not 
 contradictory to, many of the Shibboleths of modern 
 Evangelicalism. The name or idea of sensible con- 
 version does not occur from beginning to end, neither 
 is there mention of the renouncing of our own merits 
 as the formal cause of our justification, or of assurance, 
 as the end to be sought for in the spiritual life. The 
 Articles give no countenance to the idea, that if a man 
 dies happy, (as the saying is,) he is safe. 
 
 It is very difficult now to throw oneself into the 
 mind of the framers of the Articles at their last re- 
 vision. We know that there were many contrariant 
 opinions to conciliate. The political and religious 
 state of England, in 1562 and 1571, was made up of
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. IX 
 
 many factors, and all these told profoundly on the 
 composition of the Articles. 
 
 The problem was to construct a Confession for the 
 National Church of England. England had cast off 
 the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, and had thrown 
 herself on the right that every individual and nation 
 has, of reforming his ways, if he have erred, as France 
 had, in a less degree, actually done one hundred years 
 before, when, at the Council of Bourges, the Pragmatic 
 Sanction gathered up the results of those of Constance 
 and Basle. What was to be the common basis of belief 
 on which the National Church was henceforth to stand ? 
 The factors, as I said, were many and various. There 
 was the old pre-Reformation dislike of foreign, and 
 especially of Italian interference there was the stench 
 of the fires of Smithfield still fresh in the nostrils of 
 the people there was the fear of the predominant in- 
 fluence of Spain there was the germ of the democratic 
 spirit which afterwards expressed itself in English 
 Puritanism there was the marked religious influence 
 of the Marian Exiles, and of their friends the foreign 
 Reformers. Luther and Melanchthon told strongly in 
 one direction; Calvin had his representatives in both 
 the Universities; and the nation had already been 
 committed to a certain tone of thought in the earlier 
 Articles, some Acts of Parliament, and the two Prayer- 
 books of Edward YI. On the other hand, one half 
 of England was still, practically speaking, in a state 
 of traditionary Catholicism : a school of theologians, 
 represented by Cheyney, Bishop of Gloucester d , to 
 whom we may add, Alley, of Exeter, and Gheast, of 
 Rochester, with others, such as Baron and Barrett at 
 d Vide Collier's H'st., vi. 488.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 Cambridge, had sustained itself in a more or less con- 
 stant appeal to Antiquity and Church authority from 
 the time of Ridley, the germ in fact of the afterwards 
 distinguished school of Andrewes and the Caroline di- 
 vines : the Court, as represented by Cecil and Bacon, 
 really inclined to the via media; and Elizabeth's own 
 proclivities, never indulged indeed at the expense of 
 her interest, were probably in the direction of the old 
 religion e . 
 
 But the foundation of the school may be traced 
 further back than Cheyney. It is the outcome of that 
 school of thought which all through the Middle Ages 
 existed, representing the national as against the papal 
 tone of thought among the clergy. We gather from 
 Pecock's work f a fact which is exceedingly important 
 to be borne in mind, that " what may be called the dis- 
 contented portion of the Church of the fifteenth cen- 
 tury in England embraced persons of very various 
 views. The more moderate portion of that party may 
 fairly be considered the precursors of the reformed 
 Church in the age of Elizabeth, while the more ex- 
 treme party (to whom the name of Lollards is perhaps 
 now more usually limited) was developed into the 
 Puritanical party of the same period. But in the fif- 
 teenth century everything was in a transition state. 
 Distinct communions had not yet been formed, and the 
 various parties within the bosom of the Church were 
 
 Vide Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 234; Strype's Parker, p. 227; 
 also Froude, vol. viii. p. 139. In Mary's lime she actually conformed. 
 (Vlachyn's Diary, Sept. 3, 1553.) "The Queen's Grace and the Lady 
 Elizabeth and all the court did fast from flesh, and took the Pope's 
 jubilee and pardon granted to all men." 
 
 f Introduction to Pecock's Represser, by Churchill Babington, M.A., 
 p. xxv.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XI 
 
 connected with each other by various approximations, 
 overlappings, and interchanges of sentiment." The his- 
 tory of the passing of the Act of Supremacy shews that 
 there were no Protestant elements at work in that act. 
 Under the influence of the strong will of Henry VIII., 
 it was the act of men who most of them ended their 
 lives in communion with the see of Rome. These men, 
 represented chiefly by Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 
 were driven into the fiercest reaction by the acts of 
 Edward VI. What the political foresight of More, and 
 the spiritual instinct of Fisher had revealed to them, 
 they found out too late, that to separate from the rest 
 of the Latin Church, even on justifiable grounds, in- 
 volved consequences of the most momentous character. 
 Though they might have continued in the Church of 
 England as left by Henry VIIL, there was no room for 
 them in that of his successor; and accordingly we see 
 the course they adopted during the brief restoration of 
 the old religion in Queen Mary's time. The blinded 
 cruelties of that unhappy reign are written in letters 
 of fire and blood in the annals of England. Among 
 other miseries, it prevented any reconciliation of parties 
 among those actually implicated in them, when Queen 
 Elizabeth succeeded. 
 
 But still, in the case of the rank and file of the 
 Church, the old spirit remained g . Suppressed and 
 crushed, it formed the vivifying influence when the 
 Catholic opinions began to re-assert themselves. The 
 Lower House of Convocation, we know, at the begin- 
 ning of her reign, spoke out in the ancient voice h ; and 
 though much was done to destroy that spirit, yet there 
 
 e Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. lf>6. b Hallam's Const. Hist., 
 
 vol. i. p. 250, note.
 
 Xll EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 is no doubt that it continued to exist, gradually, during 
 Elizabeth's reign, overcome by the growing Puritanism, 
 but destined to rise from its ashes in the time of her 
 successor, when, after giving birth to the belief of such 
 men as Andrewes, Montague, and Donne, it developed 
 into the great school of the Caroline divines. 
 
 Meanwhile the Council of Trent had just concluded 
 its sittings, and the last sessions, having been strongly 
 affected by the influence of Laynez and the Jesuits, 
 had ceased to exhibit that wise moderation and dread 
 of giving unnecessary scandal which had distinguished 
 those canons which had been drawn up at the earlier 
 period of its history, before Charles V. was dead, and 
 all hope of curing the schism had died away. There 
 was, therefore, no great inclination on the part of the 
 English to modify any strong expressions that might 
 have been used on the points controverted between the 
 Churches, though we do find 'some instances of a milder 
 phraseology ; nay, as the breach seemed now incurable, 
 the same process that affected the Fathers at Trent 
 would naturally affect the English in an opposite di- 
 rection, and while the llomanist occupied his time and 
 thought in securing (as he believed) the Church doc- 
 trine against the insidious and plausible sophistries of 
 the Reformers, the Church of England was naturally 
 tempted to retain strong language with regard to those 
 popular superstitions and corruptions of the old faith, 
 the abuses and scandals, in short, which formed her 
 only justification for infringing existing theories of 
 the unity of the Body of Christ. On this point all 
 who were concerned in making the Articles would be 
 agreed, for the English Roman Catholic prelates ne- 
 cessarily took no part iu their construction ; and though
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 xiii 
 
 Elizabeth never intended to shut the door so as to pre- 
 vent a possible reconciliation with the see of Rome k , 
 vet just at this time the irritation was increasing, and 
 the temporary friendship of Philip II. turning into the 
 deadliest hate. 
 
 The times were not favourable for symbolizing the 
 results of religious thought. The reign of Elizabeth, 
 of all the periods of English history, has suffered most 
 from historical investigation. For a long time the 
 assumed advocacy of certain popular and successful 
 ideas invested Elizabeth with a factitious glory, and 
 the contrast of her reign with that of her successor's 
 added to her fame. But truth in the long run vindi- 
 cates herself. "Non semper pendebit inter latrones 
 crucifixa veritas." The revelations of the State Paper 
 Office, and still more the confidential papers of the 
 Spanish ambassador laid up at Simancas, have made 
 a sad alteration in the estimate of that epoch. They 
 exhibit a condition of things very sad : hand to mouth 
 legislation, political pyrrhonism, unbounded profligacy 
 characterize the upper classes of England. The Queen, 
 loving Dudley much, but power more, is found to be 
 jealous and self-willed as her father, avaricious and 
 selfish as Henry VII. The nobility, uncertain as to 
 the future succession, from the Queen's reluctance to 
 marry, are involved in constant intrigue, and desirous 
 of opening the way for reunion with Rome 1 , while the 
 Church settlement is too recent to inspire any well- 
 founded confidence. With some noble exceptions 
 Matthew Parker was of blameless life and great learn- 
 ing, and in later days m Carleton, though a Puritan, 
 
 k Vide Fronde's History, vol. ix. p. 325. ' Ibid., vol. ix. p. 414. 
 
 m Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i. pp. 154, 163.
 
 XIV EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 was an excellent man the Elizabethan bishops were 
 far from being perfect types of the episcopal character 11 . 
 The Universities were in a condition of decay ; " The 
 estate of Cambridge was miserable ." Of the inferior 
 clergy Fuller says, " Alas ! tolerability was eminency 
 in that age p ." The remains of Church property, left by 
 the sacrilege of Edward the Sixth's time, were jobbed 
 in a disgraceful way q . A persecuting spirit prevailed, 
 although the severities greatly increased as Elizabeth 
 grew older r . The parish churches were shamefully 
 neglected ; even the cathedral closes lay in squalor and 
 decay 8 . The morals of the nation may be tested by 
 the fact borne witness to by "William Clowes, one 
 of her Majestie's chirurgeons," who, speaking of the 
 scourge whereby God chastises the grosser forms of 
 carnal sin, in the year 1596, when "Gospel-light had 
 beamed" upon an entire generation, says, " If I be not 
 deceived in mine opinion, I suppose the disease itself 
 was never more rife in Naples, Italic, France, or Spain, 
 than it is in this day in the realm of England 1 /' 
 There is almost a relief in the thought of the rise 
 of a certain earnest Puritanism, which, though con- 
 taining within itself the seeds of heresy and political 
 danger, at least redeemed England from religious stag- 
 
 n Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 274. 
 
 Parker's Letter to Bacon, Burnet, vol. v. p. 541. 
 P Cburch Hist., bk. ix. 35. 
 
 1 Fuller, vol. ii. p. 498 ; Cal., vol. Ixxi. 58, p. 388. 
 r Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 204. 
 
 8 Calendar of State Papers, 15871589, vol. Ixxiii. 68 ; Sept. 12, 
 1570, vol. Ixxi. 58, p. 385; March 12, 1562, p. 196, vol. xvii. 32, 
 p. 177. 
 
 * " A Brieffe and Necessary Treatise on Lues Venerea," cit. Sir James 
 Simpson on Svphilis, p. 18.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XV 
 
 nation 11 . Dull and narrow was the thought, still it 
 was religious thought, and its earnestness in due 
 time touched the heart of England. 
 
 I say advisedly in due time, for during the most of 
 Elizabeth's reign its influence was confined to London 
 and the wealthy country towns. The great mass of 
 England was implicitly Catholic x , even in the case 
 of those who had submitted to the new-made changes. 
 Most of the peers of old creation were either avowed 
 Roman Catholics or had sympathies in that direction >". 
 The country squires, the tenants of land, and the 
 labourers, were less influenced by the change in Lon- 
 don than we can imagine z . It was seriously proposed 
 to modify the Liturgy in a Catholic direction to make 
 it palatable to Anjou a . The great mass of the clergy 
 did not pretend to approve the changes, but hoped for 
 better times, when the Liturgy might receive the sanc- 
 tion of the Pope b . Putting out of the question the 
 feeling of the people, as illustrated by the different re- 
 bellions, the great mass went on very much as they 
 had done before. " Oxford for many years abounded 
 
 n Froude, vol. vii. p. 466. 
 
 1 Calendar of State Papers, 15471589, vol. Ixxiii. 36, p. 390. 
 
 r Froude, vol. x. p. 110. z Ibid., vol. ix. p. 506. 
 
 a Ibid., vol. ix. p. 157. Knox, in a letter to Anna Lock (A.D. 1559, 
 Apr. 6, Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, 1558, 1559), alludes to the 
 dregs of papistry in the book. He will not counsel any one to use one 
 jot : " One iota, I say, of these diabolical inventions, viz. crossing in 
 baptism, kneeling at the Lord's Table, mummulling and singing of the 
 Litany, a fulgure et tempestate a subitanea et improvisa morte. The 
 whole order of the book appeareth rather to be devised for the up- 
 holding of massing priests than for any good instruction which the 
 simple people can thereof receive." 
 
 b Ibid., vol. x. p. 110.
 
 XVI EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 with adherents of the old religion e ." " Our Univer- 
 sities are in such an afflicted and ruined condition, 
 that at Oxford there are scarce two persons who think 
 as we do, and even they are so depressed and broken 
 down that they have no weight, so effectually the 
 friar Soto and another Spaniard plucked up from the 
 roots all that Martyr had planted so prosperously, and 
 the vineyard of the Lord is reduced to a wilderness d ." 
 " The struggle between the old and new theology was 
 long, and the event sometimes seemed doubtful. There 
 were two extreme parties prepared to act with cruelty, 
 or to suffer with resolution. Between them lay, during 
 a considerable time, a middle party, which blended very 
 illogically, but by no means unnaturally, lessons learned 
 in the nursery with the sermons of the modern evan- 
 gelists, and while clinging with fondness to old ob- 
 servances, yet detested abuses with which these obser- 
 vances were closely connected e ." They had never liked 
 the foreign influences, therefore they did not miss the 
 prayers for the Pope and " hys trewe cardinally s :" 
 they had seen their churches emptied of images, and 
 a number of symbolical rites, which to them had ceased 
 to be symbols, given up ; they had gained somewhat in 
 having the services and homilies, such as they were, 
 in the vernacular, and therefore in a language which 
 they could understand ; the clergy were living in half- 
 respected marriage rather than in tolerated concubinage, 
 though the legality of such marriages was still doubt- 
 ful, Parker having to obtain letters of legitimation for 
 
 c Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 250. 
 
 d Jewel to Bullinger, May 22, 1589; Cal. State Papers, p. 269. 
 
 ' Macauluy, Hist., vol. i. p. 49,
 
 EPISTLE DEDTCATOTIY. XVII 
 
 his own offspring f . The poor looked back with fond 
 regrets to the days when the ever-ready dole was given 
 at each convent door, and they retained most of the 
 practices of devotion to which they were used in child- 
 hood. They still made reverence to the altar, though 
 the blessed Sacrament was no longer habitually there ; 
 they still invoked the four Evangelists in a form that 
 has come down to the nineteenth century among the 
 poor. 
 
 Even in the classes of the more intelligent except 
 of course where the Puritan element was generated 
 the same traditional religion long maintained itself. 
 This is very evident from Shakspeare's plays. The 
 religion of that great man has long been the subject of 
 discussion. Some have maintained that he was a Roman 
 Catholic ; a great scholar has written a book to prove 
 that he was an Anglican of the modern type ; while 
 an eminent review would have it that his great mind 
 soared above all distinctive forms of religious belief. 
 I believe that none of these views are entirely true. 
 I believe that Shakspeare making some allowance, of 
 course, for the costume of the characters he portrayed 
 exhibited what was the current religion among the mass 
 of the people in Elizabeth's time, a faith in which the 
 great features of the old religion remained, modified 
 and stripped of excesses and superstitions, but still in 
 tone and temper Catholic in the main. 
 
 If, however, it be said that the evidence from Shak- 
 speare is inconclusive, we have a much more distinct 
 proof of our position in the diary of Henry Machyn, 
 Citizen and Merchant Taylor in London, which he kept 
 between the years A.D. 1550 and A.D. 1563. This in- 
 
 1 Hallam's Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 236. 
 
 b
 
 XV111 EPTSTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 dividual conducted the funerals of many of the great 
 personages of that epoch, and the journal begins with 
 a mere chronicle of these. Gradually, however, he 
 takes to recording the public events as they occur, and 
 although we find no profound or farsighted speculations 
 on those stormy times, yet we have an accurate account 
 of the extraordinary occurrences, the deprivations, con- 
 secrations, imprisonments, trials, and executions which 
 distinguished them. " On religious matters his infor- 
 mation is valuable, so far as it represents the sentiments 
 and behaviour of the common people at this vacillating 
 period of our ecclesiastical history. It is evident from 
 numerous passages that his own sympathies were in- 
 clined to the old form of worship. ... It is instructive, 
 however, to observe, that in common with the popu- 
 lation at large, he afterwards took great interest in the 
 public sermons which were so zealously multiplied by 
 the new preachers g ." 
 
 s Preface, pp. ix., x. 
 
 Machyn's diary records the complete public restoration of the rites 
 of the Koman Catholic religion during Queen Mary's time. Every pro- 
 cession, festival, funeral, and even sermon is carefully recorded. Nothing 
 could be more complete than the re-establishment of the old religion in 
 all its pomp. At last comes the notice of the Queen's death : " The 
 xvii of November, betwyn v and vi in the morning, ded quen Mare, the 
 vj yere of here grace's rayne, the wych Jhesu have mercy on her solle ! 
 Amen." Then he goes on to detail the events in Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign, and here we get evidence how few and how gradual were the 
 changes. On the 22nd of November, 1558, there is "morow-raasse" at 
 the funeral of Robert Jonaun : so at that of Lady Chamley, on the 7th 
 of December, "and she had iiij baners of santtt s (saints)." Cardinal Pole's 
 body is carried in procession to Canterbury " with iiij baners of saints 
 in oil." On the 28th of December, at Bishop Christopherson's funeral, 
 "vbisshopts dyd offer (at) the masse, and iij songe masse that day." 
 On the 23rd was " durge and morow-masse " to Charles V. On the xv 
 January there is mass at Q. Elizabeth's coronation. The Lent of 1558-i> 
 is strictly kept. Ou the vii of April, 1559, he records 'the fiist use of
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XIX 
 
 Very distinct evidences as to the state of religious 
 feeling in England during the reign of Elizabeth may 
 
 the English Burial service ;' yet on the xii of April, at the funeral of Sir 
 Richard Monsfeld, there are "24 prests clarks, prayers all latin and 
 durge." At the burial of Lady Barnes " there was a xx clarkes singing 
 afor her to the Church, with blake and arms : and after Master Home 
 mad a sermon, and after the Clarks song Te Deum Laudamus in Eng- 
 lish, and after bered with a songe, and a-for songe the Englys precessyon." 
 On the xi June, 1559, "the postulle masse mad an end that day, and 
 mass a Powlles was non that day, and the new Dene took possession. 
 . . . and the same night they had no evensong at Powlles." It records 
 the deprivations and substitutions of the bishops, and the departure 
 of the religious in June and July, 1559. Machyu styles the bishops of 
 the new succession exactly as their predecessors are styled. " The xiii day 
 of August dyd pryche at Powlles Crose the bysshop of Harford Skore." 
 On the xxiv of August, 1559, two "gret bonfires of roods and Mares, 
 and John and oder images, these they were burnyd with great wonder." 
 On the vii September " Dirge is sung for the French King." On the 
 iv of November " was a prest mared with a prest's widow ;" and " one 
 West, a new doctr, raylyd of the rod-loft." He records the election and 
 consecration of the new bishops. On the 25th January, " were mayd 
 at Powlles by the new Bp. of London Ix prestes, ministers, and decons, 
 and more." On the 30th January, " dyd prech Master Juell, the new 
 Bp. of Salesby, and there he said playnley that there was no pergatore." 
 In March the bishops are mentioned as preaching "in Rochett and Chy- 
 mere ;" and Dr. Byll, preacher in the Queen's chapel, where " the Cross 
 and two candylls horning, and the tabulle were standing auterwyse." On 
 Palm Sunday, 1562, Parker preached " a nobull sermon." In the Rogation 
 week, 1560, " they whent a processyon in dy vers places." On the other 
 hand, Jan. 17, 1560, Master Flammocke was " carred to church without 
 synging or clarks, and at the church a Psalm-song after Genevay, and 
 a sermon and bered contenneiite." In the beginning of Lent, Master 
 Adams, "dwellyng in Lyttel Est chepe, is fined for killing iii oxen." 
 On the xvi April all the altars in Henry VII. chapel are taken down, 
 and the stones carried " where Queen Mare was bered." On the 23rd 
 of April, St. George's Day, " the quen's court chaplains in copes, to the 
 number of xxx, sang the Litany in procession." On the 18th of May, 
 they do so again, in grey amices. Machyn notes that the destruction 
 of St. Paul's takes pkce on the eve of Corpus Christi. He mentions 
 Elizabeth's banishment of the prebendaries' wives from out the colleges
 
 XX EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 be gathered from the letters which passed between the 
 returned Marian exiles and their Protestant friends on 
 the Continent, letters which, it is but justice to say, 
 exhibit both parties in a favourable light. 
 
 The exiles in Queen Mary's time were, of course, the 
 most eminent of those who had promoted the extreme 
 measures of reform in King Edward's time. In their 
 misfortune they had been most hospitably received by 
 reformers in Frankfort, Strasburg, and Zurich, with 
 whom they symbolized on every point of doctrine. 
 
 The Queen died and was succeeded by her sister, 
 whereupon not only were they free to return to Eng- 
 land, but, in consequence of the numbers of deaths of 
 the bishops, and of the deprivation of others, they were 
 at once called to power and place. Sees and deaneries 
 were bestowed at once on the friends of Bullinger, Simler, 
 and Rodolph Gualter. But though promoted to the high- 
 est dignities, they soon found the utmost difficulty in 
 squaring their previous convictions with what the Queen 
 expected of them. They had to encounter all the elements 
 which we have before indicated as going to make up 
 the English mind of the period. Elizabeth was by no 
 means prepared to give in to Calvinism, pure and 
 simple. Parker had the difficult task of mediating be- 
 tween the court and the divines. The mass of the people 
 had no sympathy for the bald ceremonial of the nascent 
 Puritanism. Thus the Marian exiles now promoted 
 found themselves in a most trying position. On the one 
 hand, they were urged on both by their foreign friends 
 
 and the restoration of daily service at St. Paul's, " was begon the serves 
 at Powlles to synge, and there was a great communion there begun." 
 On Nov. 1, there is a torchlight service there. At the burial of John 
 Bruii's wife, " 20 clarks carry their sorplices on their arms."
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXI 
 
 and by the more honest of their own party at home to 
 make the reformation more complete, and more in ac- 
 cordance with the Hitachan model; on the other hand, 
 they were expected by the Queen to carry out her via 
 media, even to the enforcement of the hated vestments. 
 The position was a difficult one, and it is probably to 
 this that we must impute the absence of anything like 
 high tone among them. As time passed matters grew 
 worse, and ended, as all know, in the generation of 
 nonconformity. We, who read these things by the 
 light of subsequent events, see in them the struggle of 
 the Catholic element, never entirely crushed even in 
 those worst times, and destined to burst forth in greater 
 vigour in the succeeding reigns. Elizabeth, perhaps, 
 believed that in enforcing the surplice and square cap 
 she was supporting her own authority against lawless- 
 ness : we see in the maintenance of the habits the asser- 
 tion of the sacerdotal continuity of the Church before 
 and after the Reformation, and the denial of identity 
 with the ministry of the purely Protestant bodies to 
 which some wished to assimilate the discipline of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 So early as December 17, 1558, exactly a year before 
 Parker's consecration, Sampson, writing from Stras- 
 burg, complains of the " unseemliness of the super- 
 stitious dresses of the Bishops 11 ." During 1559 it is 
 repeatedly stated that religion is placed again on the 
 same footing as it stood in King Edward's time 1 . On 
 November 2 Jewel writes to Seculer, that his hopes 
 that the Bishops are to be consecrated without chrism, 
 oil, or tonsure, are to be fulfilled k . Before consecra- 
 tion, Parker was styled Archbishop of Canterbury, but 
 
 h Zurich Letters, 1. Ibid., p. 53. k Ibid., p. 50.
 
 XX11 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 we only hear about the empty title of Bishops l . On 
 the 16th of November Jewel, writing to Martyr, says : 
 " The Bishops are as yet only marked out, and their 
 estates are the meanwhile gloriously swelling the ex- 
 chequer. Both our Universities, and that especially 
 which you heretofore cultivated with so much learning 
 and success, are now lying in a disgraceful state of dis- 
 order, without piety, without religion, without a teacher, 
 without any hope of revival." Sampson, writing to 
 Martyr in January, 1560, after mentioning the fact 
 of the consecration of Parker and the approaching 
 consecrations of Jewel and others, says : " Oh my 
 father, what can I hope for when the minister of the 
 Word is banished from Court, while the crucifix is 
 allowed with lights burning before it? The altars, 
 indeed, are removed and images all throughout the 
 kingdom ; the crucifix and candles are retained at Court 
 alone. And the wretched multitude are not only re- 
 joicing at this, but will imitate it of their own accord. 
 What can I hope when three of our newly-appointed 
 Bishops are to officiate at the Table of the Lord, one 
 as Priest, another as Deacon, and a third as Sub-deacon, 
 before the image of the Crucifix, or at least not far 
 from it, with candles, and habited with the golden 
 vestments of the Papacy ra ." 
 
 Lever, writing to Bullinger July 10, 1560, says : 
 " The true and sincere doctrine is freely preached in 
 England. . . . No discipline is yet established by any 
 public authority. . . . There are prescribed to the clergy 
 some ornaments, such as the Mass Priests formerly had 
 and still retain. A great number of the clergy, who 
 had hitherto laid them aside, are now resuming similar 
 1 Zurich Letters, p. 53. m Ibid., p. 63.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXlll 
 
 habits. Prebendaries in the cathedrals, and the Parish 
 Priests in the other churches, retaining the outward 
 habits and inward feelings of Popery y so fascinate the 
 ears and eyes of the multitude, that they are unable 
 to believe but that either the Popish doctrine is still 
 retained, or, at least, that it will be shortly restored n ." 
 Parkhurst of Norwich, writing on April 28, 1562, an- 
 ticipates good from the announced Convocation, but 
 the Zurich Letters give no account of that important 
 assembly . 
 
 Jewel, under date February 8, 1566, says: "The 
 matter of the surplice still somewhat disturbs weak 
 minds, and I wish that all, even the slightest vestiges 
 of Popery, might be removed from our churches, and 
 above all from our minds. But the Queen at this time 
 is unable to endure the least alteration in matters of 
 religion p ." 
 
 On the 27th of August, 1566, Grindal writes to 
 Bullinger an interesting letter, shewing how by the 
 authority of the latter the more moderate of their 
 friends were beginning to hear reason on the subject 
 of the habits, although Humphrey, Sampson, and others 
 still continue in their former opinion. He thus de- 
 scribes the episcopal position : " We who are no\v 
 Bishops on our first return, and before we entered 
 on our ministry, contended long and earnestly for 
 the removal of those things which have occasioned 
 the present dispute ; but as we were unable to pre- 
 vail either with the Queen or the Parliament, we 
 judged it best, after consultation on the subject, not 
 to desert our churches for the sake of a few ceremonies, 
 arid these not unlawful in themselves, especially since 
 
 n Zurich Letters, p. 85. > Ibid., p. 108. v Ibid., p. 149.
 
 XXIV EPTSTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 the pure doctrine of the Gospel remained in all its in- 
 tegrity and freedom, in which even to this day, not- 
 withstanding the attempts of many to the contrary, we 
 most fully agree with your Churches, and with the 
 Confession you have lately set forth. And we do 
 not regret our resolution, for in the meantime the 
 Lord giveth the increase, our churches are enlarged 
 and established, while under other circumstances they 
 would have become the prey to the Ecebolian Lutherans 
 and Semi- Papists V 
 
 In February, 1567, Grindal and Horn again defend 
 their line of action : " If we were to acquiesce in the 
 inconsiderate advice of our brethren, verily we should 
 have a papistical, or at least a Lutheran-papistical, 
 ministry, or none at all r ." 
 
 Percival Wiburn, in a letter to Bullinger, says, 
 " The ancient superstitions and rites of Popery are 
 too agreeable to many parties, and there are also found 
 among ourselves patrons of these things, who distort 
 the writings of learned men, and your own especially, 
 into that direction 8 ." Grindal, appointed to York in 
 August, 1570, gives an account of some of these : 
 " They keep holidays and feasts abrogated ; they offer 
 money, eggs, &c., at the burial of their dead ; they 
 pray beads, &c., so as this seems to be another church, 
 rather than a member of the rest. Other Popish cus- 
 toms, then prevalent in the north, were the frequenta- 
 tion and veneration of crosses, months, minds, obits, 
 and anniversaries, the chief intent whereof was pray- 
 ing for the dead ; the superstitions used in going the 
 bounds of the parishes; morris dancers and minstrels 
 coming into the church in service time, to the dis- 
 
 i Zurich Letters, p. 169. * Ibid., p. 177. Ibid., p. 189.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXV 
 
 turbance of God's worship; putting the consecrated 
 bread into the receiver's mouth, as amongst the Papists 
 the Priest did the wafer ; crossing and breathing upon 
 the elements in the celebration of the Lord's Supper, 
 and elevation ; oil, tapers, and spittle in the other 
 Sacrament of Baptism; pauses and intermissions in 
 reading the services of the Church; praying Ave 
 Marias and Paternosters upon beads ; setting up can- 
 dles in the churches to the Virgin Mary on Candle- 
 mas Day, and the like V 
 
 ' Strype's Grindal, 243251. 
 
 IV. The State of the Church of England, as described by Perceval 
 Wiburn *. 
 
 1. The English clergy consist, partly of the Popish priests, who still 
 retain their former office, and partly of ministers lately ordered and ad- 
 mitted by some bishop there at his pleasure; but a certain form o^ 
 ordering ministers by the bishop is drawn up by public authority. 
 
 2. The different orders of the clergy are still retained as formerly, 
 in the Papacy, namely, two archbishops, one of whom is primate ; after 
 them are the bishops, the deans, and archdeacons, and last of all rectors, 
 vicars, curates, &c. 
 
 3. Whoever desires to serve a church there must previously obtain 
 licence in writing from the lord bishop or his deputy. 
 
 4. No pastor is at liberty to expound the Scriptures to his people 
 without an express appointment to that office by the bishop. 
 
 5. Few persons there are called to the ministry of the word by reason 
 of any talents bestowed upon them ; great numbers offer themselves, 
 whence it comes to pass that not many are qualified for this function. 
 
 6. No one is admitted to any ecclesiastical function, unless he ac- 
 knowledge the Queen to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England 
 upon earth. There is no great difficulty raised about any other poiuts 
 of doctrine, provided the purty is willing to obey the laws and statutes 
 of the realm. 
 
 7. Ministers now protest and promise that th^y will observe and 
 maintain the laws of their country, as being good (as they are called) 
 and wholesome, as well in matters external aud political, as in the rites 
 
 * From tbe Archives of Zurich.
 
 XXVI EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 But a better witness than that of Shakspeare and of 
 Machyn to the current belief of England is to be found 
 
 and ceremonies of the Church, and all things which are there cus- 
 tomary and in use, and this, too, they must atttst by their manual 
 subscription. 
 
 8. It is provided by the laws that no one shall impugn the English 
 liturgy either by word or writing, and that no minister, by whatever 
 name be may be called, may use in public any other form or mode 
 either in the prayers or administration of the sacraments than what 
 is there prescribed. 
 
 9. This book of prayers is filled with many absurdities (to say no 
 worse of them) and silly superfluities, and seems entirely to be compos d 
 after the model and in the manner of the Papists, the grosser super- 
 ttitions, however, being taken away. 
 
 10. The greater part of the canon law is still in force there, and all 
 ecclesiastical censures are principally taken from it. 
 
 11. Excommunication there depends on the decision of a single 
 individual, to wit, the bishop, his chancellor, the archdeacon, com- 
 missary, official, or any judge of the ecclesiastical court ; and is, for 
 the most part, inflicted for mere trifles, such as pecuniary matters, and 
 other suits of that nature. 
 
 12. The sentence of excommunication pronounced by the judge is 
 forwarded to some pastor, who is required to read and pronounce it 
 publicly in his church before a full congregation. 
 
 13. The party excommunicated, when the judge is so inclined, and 
 often, too, against his will, is absolved in private and without any 
 trouble for a sum of money. 
 
 14. The marriage of priests was counted unlawful in the times of 
 Queen Mary, and was also forbidden by a public statute of the realm, 
 which is also in force at this day, although by permission of Queen 
 Elizabeth clergymen may have their wives, provided only they marry 
 by the advice and assent of the bishop and two justices of peace, as 
 they call them. 
 
 15. The lords bishops are forbidden to have their wives with them 
 in their palaces ; as also are the deans, canons, presbyters, and other 
 ministers of the Church, within colleges or the precincts of cathedral 
 churches. 
 
 16. Many difficulties have to be counteracted in respect to marriage 
 and divorce, because the Popish laws are retained there as heretofore.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXV11 
 
 in the Homilies themselves. These works, written in 
 the interest of the "new learning," and not without 
 
 17. In case of adultery, even clergymen are not very severely 
 punished, and it is compounded for by other parties with a sum of 
 money, with the assent of the ecclesiastical judges, by whom the 
 penalty is imposed. Some parties, clothed in a linen garment, ac- 
 knowledge and deprecate their crime in the public congregation ; and, 
 indeed, the whole matter is altogether determined at the pleasure of 
 the ecclesiastical judge. 
 
 18. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of all England, 
 besides his episcopal court, has also his principal courts of arches and 
 audience, as they call them, where ecclesiastical causes are determined. 
 He has also the Court of Faculties, where, on the payment beforehand 
 of a pretty large sum of money, licences are obtained for non-residence, 
 plurality of benefices, dispensations for forbidden meats on the third, 
 fifth, and sixth holiday, the vigils of the saints, Lent, and the Ember 
 days at the four seasons, for almost all these are seasons of abstinence 
 from flesh ; from hence, too, are obtained dispensations for solemnizing 
 at prohibited seasons; and that even boys, and others, not in holy 
 orders, may be capable of holding ecclesiastical preferment, with many 
 other things of this kind. 
 
 19. Every bishop has his court for matters ecclesiastical, as has also 
 every archdeacon, in which, as things are at present, there preside for 
 the most part Papists or despisers of all religion ; and the other officers 
 employed in these courts are of the same character ; the consequence 
 of which is, that religion itself is exposed to ridicule, the ministers of 
 Christ are everywhere desp'sed with impunity, loaded with abuse, and 
 even sometimes beaten. 
 
 20. Besides the impropriations of benefices, tlure are also advowsons, 
 by which, while the place is yet occupied, the next vacancies of the 
 livings are gratuitously presented to others by the patrons, or else sold 
 by them at a price agreed upon, for this, too, is permitted by the laws 
 of the country. And the power of patronage still remains there, and 
 institution, as it is called, and induction, as in the time of Popery. 
 
 21. Many festivals are retained there, consecrated in the name of 
 saints, with their vigils, as formerly ; perambulations on Rogation- 
 days ; singing in parts in the churches, and with organs ; the tolling 
 of bells at funerals ar.d on the vigils of saints, and especially on that 
 of the least of All Saints, when it continues during the wliole night.
 
 XX Vlll EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 some of the Shibboleths of the Reformation authorized 
 by Cranmer and Jewel are yet full of testimonies to 
 the continued prevalence of many of the ancient doc- 
 
 22. By the Queen's command all persons, both men and women, 
 must reverently bow themselves in the churches at the name of Jesus. 
 
 23. That space which we call the chancel, by which in churches the 
 laity are separated by the presbyter from the clergy, still remains in 
 England ; and prayers are said in the place accustomed in time of 
 Popery, unless the bishop should order it otherwise. 
 
 24. Baptism is administered in time of necessity, as they call it, as 
 is also the Lord's Supper, to the sick in private houses ; and the ad- 
 ministration of private baptism is allowed even to women. 
 
 25. In the administration of baptism the infants are addressed re- 
 specting their renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, as also 
 respecting their confession of faith, answer to all which things is made 
 by the sponsors in their name. 
 
 26. The party baptized is signed with the sign of the cross, in token 
 that hereafter he should not be ashamed of the cross of Christ. 
 
 27. The confirmation, too, of boys and girls is there in use, and 
 the purification of women after child-birth, which they call the 
 thanksgiving. 
 
 28. In the administration of the [Lord's] Supper, for the greater 
 reverence of the Sacrament, little round unleavened cakes are reintro- 
 duced by the Queen, which had heretofore been removed by the public 
 laws of the realm, for the taking away superstition. Every one, too, 
 is obliged to communicate at the Lord's Supper on his bended knees. 
 
 29. In every church throughout England, during prayers, the minister 
 must wear a linen garment, which we call a surplice. And in the 
 larger churches, at the administration of the Lord's Supper, the chief 
 minister must wear a silk garment, which they call a cope. And two 
 other ministers, formerly called the deacon and sub-deacon, must assist 
 him to read the Epistle and Gospel. 
 
 30. The Queen's Majesty, with the advice of the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury, may order, change, and remove anything in that Church 
 at her pleasure. 
 
 31. In their external dress the ministers of the word are at this 
 time obliged to conform themselves to that of the Popish priests ; the 
 square cap is imposed upon all, together with a gown as long and loose 
 as conveniently may be, and to some also is added a silk hood.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXIX 
 
 trines u . The inspiration of the Apocrypha, the autho- 
 rity of Councils and of the primitive Church, as well as 
 of the ancient Church doctors and Catholic Saints and 
 Fathers, the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the 
 recognition of Orders and Matrimony as Sacraments, 
 the reign of the Saints in heaven with God, the purify- 
 ing and cleansing effect of alms-deeds, the power of the 
 keys, are all assumed as principles. How could it have 
 been otherwise ? The Marian clergy were not exter- 
 minated; they conformed, partly in hope of better 
 times, partly from fear of the Government, partly 
 moved by a sincere desire for reformation ; but still 
 the traditions of a whole lifetime cannot be destroyed 
 in a moment, and any great shock to their feelings 
 would have led them to act as the eighty rectors, fifty 
 prebendaries, fifteen masters of colleges, twelve arch- 
 deacons, twelve deans, and six abbots and abbesses, 
 actually did, that is, abandon their preferments x . We 
 are left to the dilemma that either the great mass of 
 the lower clergy were a set of unprincipled self-seekers, 
 or that the changes, interpreted by custom and pre- 
 vious usage, were so small, that no real violence was 
 done to their consciences. 
 
 To approach, therefore, the subject of the inter- 
 pretation of the Articles, it is necessary to place our- 
 selves in the position of those who first accepted them. 
 They must be read with the gloss of antecedent faith 
 and preconceived notion. Just as in our own time men 
 have read them, with the preconceived notion of the 
 Low Church School, and so have imported into them 
 meanings which their letter will not bear : so at the 
 
 u Vide Apologia pro Vita sud, p. 164. 
 * Fuller's Church History, vol. ii. p. 451.
 
 XXX EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 time of their enforcement they must have been read 
 with the deep consciousness of the old traditional Chris- 
 tianity, which had obtained in England since the days 
 of St. Augustine of Canterbury, which had animated 
 the faith of Lan franc and of St. Anselm, had warmed 
 the affection of St. Thomas Cantilupe and of St. Ste- 
 phen Harding, but which, chilled and overshadowed 
 by the corruption of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
 turies, now cried out for a fresh outpouring of the 
 Holy Spirit of God. 
 
 In no other way can we account for the rise of the 
 Caroline school. This line of thought never ceased to 
 be represented in the Universities, and protected by 
 some of the bishops. When the Puritan element be- 
 gan in the next reign to disturb the State, here was 
 found the material for reaction. There is nothing in 
 Bishop Andrewes' works to shew that his views were 
 those of a counter-Reformation, as we find later in the 
 time of Laud. Educated in such a religion as I have 
 attempted to describe, he applied his learning to de- 
 velope his position, and the reverence in which he was 
 held in the next generation, as well as during his life- 
 time, shews that his views had the strength and con- 
 sistency of a hereditary position. 
 
 So much for the elements that went to make up the 
 mind of the English Church in the days of Elizabeth. 
 It would be unfair not to say somewhat as to the form 
 of its expression. That form was suggested by the 
 numerous Confessions which were put forth by the Pro- 
 testants. Such Confessions are the fruits of the Re- 
 formation, the necessary results of a system which, in 
 attacking what was then considered the ancient belief, 
 needed to consolidate its existence on the basis of
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXI 
 
 human conscience. When as a Church it could no 
 longer impose its distinctive teachings as the voice of 
 the Holy Ghost, when it gave to its determinations only 
 a collateral authority, that it was in accordance with 
 the Word of God, it was necessary to call in the ele- 
 ment of individual good faith to maintain the position. 
 A man no longer submitted his reason to the teaching 
 of the body to which he belonged, he now belonged to 
 the body because he believed in its teaching. This was 
 the only reasonable attitude which the right of private 
 judgment permitted, and therefore all the Protestant 
 bodies of necessity put forth their Confessions. 
 
 England, while retaining her organic and sacra- 
 mental connexion with the old Church, through the 
 episcopal consecrations and perpetuation of the orders 
 of the Church Catholic, was from her position obliged 
 in a degree to follow in this course, and, as was natural, 
 not only adopted the same form as the Continental 
 Reformers, but actually borrowed much from them. 
 An interesting parallelism might be drawn between 
 the Articles, and many of the Lutheran and Calvinistic 
 formulas, especially the Confession of Augsburg ; and 
 the result would be, that while the likeness is in many 
 respects confessed, the Protestant Shibboleths are in 
 the main left out, and a form of words of exceeding: 
 
 * O 
 
 moderation, and to which succeeding ages have rightly 
 or wrongly assigned an ambidextrous character, is left 
 to us, purposely made to include the greatest number 
 of adherents, a process which has resulted in the ac- 
 knowledged fact of the co-existence of a Catholic and 
 Protestant element within the pale of the Anglican 
 Church, which has continued to this very day. 
 
 On the other hand, it will be observed, that many
 
 XXXU EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 of the sentences are almost in the very words of ap- 
 proved Church doctors and schoolmen. Not to men- 
 tion the reference to St. Jerome in the Sixth, and to 
 the Pseudo- Augustine in the Twenty-ninth Articles, 
 we shall find that many of the Articles enunciate truth 
 in authoritative language. The Seventeenth Article is 
 a concise summary of St. Augustine's teaching, the end 
 of that on free-will is in his own words, and the corro- 
 boration of the opinion of grave divines may be ad- 
 duced for some of the most startling of the proposi- 
 tions. Before the Council of Trent, the line was not 
 drawn so sharply as afterwards. Individual doctors 
 allowed themselves considerable latitude in matters not 
 authoritatively ruled by the Church ; and it is no re- 
 proach to the English Church that she availed her- 
 self of a latitude of belief claimed by or conceded to 
 Peter Lombard or Cajetan. Denying the authority of 
 the Council of Trent that shut up this liberty, she felt 
 herself free to use it. The Councils of the thirteenth 
 century, which England by Provincial Councils had 
 already accepted, had not defined anything which 
 clashes with the English Articles. A writer, much 
 approved by the English bishops, says : " In the first 
 Lateran Council, there was no decree on faith ;" in 
 the second, " nothing except what was laudable was 
 done in matter of faith ;" in the third, " there was no 
 decree on faith, except that the heretics, called Cathari, 
 &c., were for very good reasons excommunicated." 
 " No decisions on faith seem to have been made in the 
 first Synod of Lyons." " The only decree on faith 
 made by Gregory in the second synod of Lyons was 
 a definition that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the 
 Father and the Son as from one principle." "The
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXI 11 
 
 Synod of Vienne made decrees, which seem to have 
 been generally laudable ?." At Constance, the recep- 
 tion in one kind was not laid down as a law. It was 
 only decreed that the custom of receiving was not to 
 be rejected by man's private judgment without the au- 
 thority of the Church. The Council of Basle had been re- 
 jected wholly by the Italians. The Council of Florence, 
 according to the last eminent editor of the Councils, 
 laid down nothing new on the authority of the Pope, 
 but only declared whence it may be ascertained what 
 the power of the Pope is z . The Cardinal of Lorraine, 
 Launoi, (in the name of the Grallican Church,) and 
 others following them, denied that it was (Ecumenical. 
 But, in fact, with the exception of doctrines on Tran- 
 substantiation and Purgatory, (of which more here- 
 after,) there was no controverted doctrine then ruled 
 as de fide which the Anglican Articles had to do with. 
 
 Another point to be observed is, that the Articles 
 are not systematic. They do not evolve one theory 
 of God's dealings with mankind. Lutheranism is 
 a system rolling round its cardinal doctrine of fiducia, 
 that justifying faith is the faith that believes itself to 
 be justified. It is a whole in which other doctrines 
 exist only in the bearing upon this. So Calvinism is 
 a system in which all turns on election and reproba- 
 tion, all other doctrines being subordinated to and 
 influenced by this ; but the English position in the 
 Articles is the reformation of certain abuses. The old 
 Creed is everywhere assumed, as well as the abuse in 
 reference to it, and then a statement is made in cor- 
 rection or modification : " Yitium vel abusus corrigi 
 
 ' Palmer on the Church, p. iv. c. ii. t. ii. p. 216, f=qq. 
 1 Mansi, Animad. in Alex. Nafal., Diss, x. Art. vii. 4. cit. Ffoulkes. 
 
 C
 
 XXXIV EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 debet et non status destrui, vel suis debitis juribus de- 
 fraudari : sicut boni medici est ab infirmo morbum 
 toilers et non infirm urn corpus destruere a ." 
 
 For the right understanding of the Articles, it is of 
 paramount importance to remember the organic iden- 
 tity of the Church of England before and after the 
 Reformation. " The Church of England is older than 
 the State of England. It was a unity when England 
 was a Heptarchy. There was a chief bishop of Can- 
 terbury before there was a king of England. The 
 spiritualty and temporalty of the nation was a com- 
 plete whole, organized and regulated, while the poli- 
 tical necessities of the country, the talent and ambition 
 of individual rulers, were gradually forming the State. 
 The nexus of the Church was found, in the hierarchy, 
 in the succession of Church officers V They were the 
 persona of the Church of England. The personality 
 was further maintained both by ecclesiastical laws and 
 by civil laws recognising the Church. So far as the 
 organic character of the Church is concerned, the Re- 
 formation was nothing but the alteration of some of 
 the ecclesiastical and civil laws affecting it. As there 
 was a persona of the Church of England in each living 
 before the Reformation, so there was a persona of the 
 same Church of England in each living after the Re- 
 formation, and the alteration in doctrine and discipline 
 within certain limits did not affect this. I say ad- 
 visedly within certain limits, for changes might be 
 caused which would destroy the identity of the two 
 bodies, utterly divide the pre-Reformation from the 
 post- Reformation Churches, as actually for a time 
 
 Peter D'Ailly, de Eef. Eccl. c. de ref. cap. 
 b See "Saturday Review."
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXV 
 
 took place in Scotland. When the old religion was 
 abolished in 1560 in Scotland, its hierarchy came to an 
 end. The bishops of the old succession consecrated no 
 successors. The Reformers, claiming to be the true 
 Church of Christ, started their General Assembly, which 
 excommunicated those who differed from it. Only the 
 most earthly accidents of Church property, such as 
 tiends, manses, &c. were assumed as identical c . 
 
 In England it was very different. The organic 
 identity was carefully preserved, as may be seen from 
 the efforts made by Elizabeth towards securing the 
 continuation of the old succession. Parker threw him- 
 self back upon the forms and processes used in Cran- 
 mer's Pontificale, which were the old canonical forms 
 (excluding, of course, what referred to the Pope) used 
 in the election of Bishops before the institution of 
 papal provisions in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen- 
 turies. These forms had been always in use for the 
 election of Abbots, and in the reign of Henry V., 
 during the vacancy of the Popedom in 1416, had been 
 used in the case of Bishops. They were still and al- 
 ways canonical, but superseded in each vacancy by 
 a distinct act of the Pope. What had been lawful, or 
 eventually allowed then, must be lawful or eventually 
 allowable now. The essence of the old forms was re- 
 tained ; what was given up was held to be superfluous. 
 Organically, then, the Church before and after the 
 Reformation was one. 
 
 But the other element had to be considered also. 
 It is of the essence of the Church that it teach the Ca- 
 tholic faith. As the Church had been Catholic before 
 
 c Yet when the hierarchy was restored hy the Engl'sh consecrations, 
 the old diocesan arrangements were strictly adhered to.
 
 XXXVI EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 the Reformation, (though in the eyes of the Reformers 
 corrupted,) so it was Catholic after the Reformation, 
 (in the eyes of the Reformers purified). This is founded 
 in truth. Had such a change taken place at the Refor- 
 mation as would have altered the integrity of the faith, 
 e.g. had the Church taught Arianism, it would have 
 ceased to be the same Church as before, it would have 
 become a new Church. Organic identity depends upon 
 dogmatic identity. If the Church of England in any 
 true sense is the Church before the Reformation, there 
 must be a certain dogmatic identity. Roman Catholics 
 deny this maintain that the changes made were in 
 essentials, and so destructive of all identity. The only 
 logical basis of Anglicanism is the maintenance of 
 the identity, the Protestant notion of a new primitive 
 Church, teaching the Shibboleths of modern religion- 
 ism, for the moment extemporized, being historically 
 and philosophically false : hence, in proportion as the 
 foundation of a theoretical Anglicanism is deeply laid, 
 so in that measure must the organic identity be max- 
 imized, and by consequence the theological differences 
 of the same Church in its two phases be minimized. 
 " Turpis fit pars quae suo non congruit universe." 
 
 Such minimization would be the natural effect of the 
 working, or existence, of the Marian clergy who con- 
 formed in Elizabeth's time. We know that they effec- 
 tually prevented the other party going into extremes. 
 The Queen had also the convocation of York, still 
 addicted to the old learning, to consider. It would be 
 her wish that as little violence as possible should be 
 done to their consciences, though the Bishops acted in 
 a high-handed way in dealing with some of the me- 
 dieval practices.
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXV11 
 
 After all, even theologically, there was much to be 
 said for the position. Mediaeval corruptions were as- 
 sumed, perhaps exaggerated, if we may judge by some 
 passages in the Homilies, but then mediaeval corrup- 
 tions had been assumed by all the Reformers within the 
 Church from the time of the Council of Basle. The 
 great work of Erasmus had been simply destructive of 
 these. Colet followed in his steps ; and even the great 
 and holy More, in his earlier days, had been deeply 
 convinced of the necessity of some reformation, and 
 only rushed into reaction when he saw what way the 
 Reformation was likely to go. 
 
 Given, then, the existence of mediaeval corruptions, 
 there was a fair issue between the two learnings. The 
 theory of development had not yet been used as the 
 master-key to explain all existing phenomena. It had 
 been propounded in Lerins in the fifth century, and in 
 a very modified manner taught by St. Thomas Aquinas : 
 but neither had Catholics used it to account for the 
 dissidences between primitive practice and the actual 
 state of things; nor did the Protestants use it to justify 
 their novelties. Both parties appealed to antiquity. 
 The Roman Church to Scripture and co-ordinate tradi- 
 tion, as expounded by the living Church, especially by 
 the successor of St. Peter ; the Anglican to Scripture, 
 witnessed to and expounded by the tradition of the 
 Church. 
 
 Staking, therefore, the question on this issue, the 
 Reforming Bishops had a good deal to say for them- 
 selves. It is doubtful whether all the statements in 
 Jewel's Apology are theologically defensible, still there 
 are some blots which he distinctly hits, and at any rate
 
 XXXV111 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 he indicates a line of thought which may successfully 
 be carried to its conclusion. 
 
 The founder of the existing Church of England, at 
 the Reformation as now, is Pope St. Gregory the Great, 
 a writer of great sagacity, earnestness, and orthodoxy, 
 from whose writings we may easily cull what were the 
 doctrines which St. Augustine of Canterbury preached to 
 the men of Kent, and what is of more importance, what 
 he imposed upon them as conditions of communion as 
 things to be held as de fide. If we find him asserting 
 his prerogative of successor of St. Peter, Patriarch of 
 the West, Primate of the suburbicarian Churches, we 
 find him in his dispute with John Nesteutes, of Con- 
 stantinople, laying down such canons of ecclesiastical 
 hierarchy as contradict both mediaeval Papalism and 
 modern Ultramontanism. If we find him strongly 
 asserting the efiicacy of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we 
 find no countenance for the popular view of transub- 
 stantiation ; his very public Liturgy recognising the 
 existence of the munus temporale in the Sacrament as 
 well as the cceleste remedium. If we find him ordaining 
 litanies and invocations to the saints, we discover very 
 little mention of the prerogatives of the mother of 
 God, and the strongest assertions of Christ being the 
 only sinless One. If we find him (assuming the au- 
 thenticity of the Dialogues) living in a very atmos- 
 phere of miracle, we find the strictest prohibitions of 
 anything like picture-worship. If he stoutly asserts 
 a power of ruling and administration in his own see, 
 we find that he bases the faith upon Scripture, and 
 upon the four Councils recognised by the Church of 
 England. There is in all his works not a word in
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXIX 
 
 favour of indulgences, or of communion under one 
 kind, or of the thesaurus meritorum; while positively 
 in his dealings with the Emperor Phocas he accepts 
 somewhat of the Anglican position with regard to the 
 civil power, and in his answers to St. Augustine, ad- 
 mits the position in reference to the separate rites 
 and customs of " the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, 
 and Germany/' described in the Canons of 1604. 
 
 It may be said, of course, that while the details of 
 the teaching of St. Gregory support the Anglican sys- 
 tem, the spirit is Roman ; that the hands are the hands 
 of Esau, the voice the voice of Jacob ; in other words, 
 that while the formal outline of St. Gregory's faith co- 
 incides with that of the Anglican Church, the teach- 
 ing is practically Roman, only not in a developed state. 
 To this the satisfactory answer is, that we must dis- 
 tinguish between St. Gregory's private opinions and 
 his official and public belief. St. Gregory, as an in- 
 dividual doctor, is one person ; St. Gregory, as the 
 official representative of the Church, is another. 
 
 To sum up, then, and to conclude, I venture in the 
 following work to assume, that the position of the 
 Anglican Church requires that the Articles shall be 
 interpreted in the Catholic Sense ; that this sense 
 exposes us to fewer difficulties than any other canon 
 of explanation ; and, that historically there is support 
 for this theory. 
 
 Lastly, convinced that a divided Christendom will 
 not be able to stand the assaults of infidelity, as 
 a house divided against itself cannot stand, I there- 
 lore, in all that I have written, have had in view the 
 future reunion of the Church. Recognising the pro- 
 vidential position of the Anglican Church, as stretch-
 
 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 
 
 ing forth one hand to the Protestant bodies, and the 
 other to the Latin and Greek Churches, I have tried 
 to do justice to that position, by acknowledging on 
 the one hand the great necessity for a reform in morals 
 and discipline at the time of the separation, and on the 
 other by minimizing the points of dissidence between 
 ourselves and those venerable institutions. It is no 
 longer a question of opinions on either side. The basis 
 of reunion must be on that which is ruled as de fide, 
 and of this nothing is to be assumed as such, but the 
 contrary of what is published under anathema. This 
 reduces the difficulty, and leaves a wide margin for 
 negociation and explanation. May God in His good 
 time incline men's hearts to this, and let the heavens 
 rejoice, and the earth be glad, for that the wall of par- 
 tition is broken down. 
 
 Believe me, 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 DUNDEE, 
 May 8, 1867. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 THE Catholic interpretation of the Articles has 
 been assailed by some Evangelicals and by some High 
 Churchmen as evasive and disingenuous. I should 
 like to ask both some questions. I would ask the ad- 
 herent of the Calvinistic school in the Church very 
 earnestly, and in no spirit of railing accusation, how 
 he justifies his subscription with statements contained
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 in the Articles, e.g. how he reconciles his opinions as 
 to particular redemption with the Second Article, which 
 describes our Lord as " a sacrifice, not only for origi- 
 nal guilt, but also for all actual sins of men :" as to 
 the indefectibility of grace with the Sixteenth, which 
 states that " we may depart from grace given and fall 
 into sin :" as to the non-efficacy of baptism in every 
 case with Article XV., when the word " baptized " is 
 rendered by the equivalent Latin renati, and where 
 "have received the Holy Ghost," is made identical 
 with baptism : as to a particular election with the 
 Seventeenth, which asserts that " we must receive God's 
 promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth 
 in Holy Scripture :" as to the right of private judg- 
 ment with the assertion of the authority of the Church 
 in controversies of faith as asserted in Article XX. : as 
 to the merely obsignatory character of the Sacraments 
 with the avowal of Article XXV., that they are "cer- 
 tain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace :" as 
 to the nullity of the grace of Orders with that of 
 Article XXVI., which states that bad clergy may ad- 
 minister good Sacraments : as to the notion that the 
 clergy are mere ministers in a Presbyterian sense with 
 the fact that in Article XXXI., and in the title of 
 Article XXXII., the clergy are termed Sacerdotes : as 
 to the assurance of salvation conferring it with the 
 statement of Article XXXIII., that the excommuni- 
 cate person must "be openly reconciled by penance." 
 Again, if any adherent of what is termed the High 
 Church school, demurs at this interpretation, I would 
 say to him, You cannot deny that the primitive Church 
 regarded the blessed Eucharist as a sacrifice for the
 
 xlii POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 quick and dead, what possible interpretation save mine 
 will reconcile Article XXXI. with the acknowledged 
 facts of history, with the teaching of the Catholic 
 Church ? You admit the authority of the Church, you 
 are therefore bound to accept all that I have taught, in 
 so far as it is in accordance with the utterances of the 
 undivided Church. You hold and teach truly a doctrine 
 of baptismal regeneration, is that a safe doctrine to 
 inculcate, unless attended by the complementary truth 
 of the forgiveness of post- baptismal sin by penance ? 
 You cry out against every attempt to qualify the lan- 
 guage of hope in the service which you have to read 
 over the more profligate of your deceased parishioners, 
 can any view but that laid down in my treatise save 
 you from the charge of reading words which you do 
 not believe on the one hand, or of advocating a laxity 
 which saps the root of Christian morality on the other ? 
 You quote the Fathers when by their limitations of the 
 power of the Pope they make for our insulated position, 
 why do you spurn the same Fathers when they testify 
 to the intercession of the saints? You confess that 
 the English Reformation was most unmistakeably based 
 upon the principle of Holy Scripture interpreted by 
 Catholic antiquity, are you prepared to censure the 
 only line of interpretation which harmonizes the Ar- 
 ticles with the entire deposit? For be it recollected 
 that submission to Christian truth does not consist in 
 the adoption of individual separate doctrines, any more 
 than of individual separate texts of Scripture. It is an 
 adhesion to a living system, founded on the facts of 
 history, perpetuated by unbroken tradition, and bring- 
 ing back man to God through the faculty of kuow-
 
 POSTSCRIPT. xliii 
 
 ledge in Christ by the operation of the Holy Ghost 
 who led the Apostles "into all the truth d ," and who, 
 as He spake by the prophets under the earlier dis- 
 pensation, is now the informing, vivifying principle 
 of the Catholic Church of Christ. 
 
 d St. John xvi. 13.
 
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 DATES OF THE DIFFERENT EVENTS 
 
 BEABING ON THE 
 
 CONSTITUTION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE 
 THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 
 
 Those specially relating to the English Church are 
 printed in italics. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1500. Birth of Charles Y. 
 1521. Diet of Worms. 
 
 1529. Conference at Marburg between Lutherans and Zwing- 
 
 lians (Oct. 3). 
 
 Schwabach Articles, in number XVII. (Oct. 15). 
 
 1530. Torgau Articles. 
 
 Augsburg Confession presented to Charles V. (June 
 
 25). 
 
 Confutation thereof by Eck, Wimpere, Faber, and 
 
 Cochlaeus (Aug. 3). 
 
 . Final breach with Lutherans brought about by Cam- 
 
 peggius (Aug. 16). 
 
 1531. Gardiner made Bishop of Winchester. 
 
 1532-3. Statute of 24 Henry VIII., harbinger of Reforma- 
 tion. 
 
 1533. Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 1534. Deliberations in the two Provincial Synods of Canter- 
 
 bury and York on the jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
 Rome, and its rejection. 
 
 League of Schmalkald (Dec. 24) : Fox and Heath pre- 
 
 sent. 
 1536. Calvin's Institutes published.
 
 DATES OF THE DIFFERENT EVENTS 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1536. Conferences at Wittenburg (Jan. 15). 
 
 - "Articles devyzed by the Kinges Highnes Majestie to 
 
 stably she Christen quietnes and unitie among us" and 
 consequent Rebellion in Lincolnshire. 
 
 1537. Institution of a Christian Man, 
 
 1538. Lutheran Embassy to England (May 12), and conse- 
 
 quent XIII Articles. 
 
 - Royal Commission contra Anabaptistas (Oct. 1). 
 
 - Select Committee de Emendend& Ecclesia, appointed 
 
 by Paul III. 
 
 1539. Statute of the Six Articles. 
 
 1540. Foundation of the Company of Jesus. 
 
 1541. Colloquy of Ratisbon under Contarini. 
 1543. Necessary Doctrine for any Christian Man. 
 
 - Repressive Act, 34 and 35 Henry VIII., for the advance- 
 
 ment of true religion. 
 
 1547. First Session of Council of Trent. 
 - Death of Henry VIII. 
 
 - First Boole of Homilies. 
 
 1548. Cranmer puts forth a Lutheran Catechism. 
 
 1549. FIKST DBAFT OF SOME ARTICLES (Feb. 27). 
 
 - First Service-look of King Edward VI., ("Whitsun- 
 
 day). 
 
 - Consensus Tigurinus reconciles Calvin and the Ger- 
 
 mans on the Eucharist. 
 
 1550. Royal Commission against Anabaptists (Jan. 18). 
 
 - Contest between Hooper and Ridley about vestments. 
 
 1551. English Prayer-book first used in Ireland. 
 
 - New Session of Council of Trent. 
 
 1552. The Confession of Wurtemberg. 
 
 Hooper's Articles, in number fifty (July 6). 
 
 - Commission against the Family of Love (Sept.) 
 
 1553. PUBLICATION of XLII ARTICLES (May 20) with a 
 
 Catechism. 
 
 - Subscription publicly enjoined (June 15).
 
 BEARING ON THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. xlvi'i 
 
 A.D. 
 
 1553. Death of Edward VI. (July 6). 
 
 1555. Gardiner's XV Articles (April 1). 
 
 1558. Southern Convocation emit five definitions. 
 Queen Elizabeth proclaimed (Nov. 17). 
 
 1559. The Eleven Articles of Religion. 
 
 Royal Commission visits all the Dioceses. 
 
 1560. The Pope's jurisdiction renounced in Scotland. 
 1562. Fresh Session of Council of Trent (Jan. 18). 
 
 THE SYNOD PASSES THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 
 
 1564. Bull confirming the Council of Trent (Jan. 6). 
 
 1566. The Eleven Articles enjoined in Ireland (Jan. 6). 
 1566-7. Elizabeth resists enforcing the Articles by Act of 
 
 Parliament (Jan. 2). 
 
 1567. The First Conventicle organized. 
 
 1568. Conference of Altenberg between Flacconists and 
 
 Electorals. 
 
 1571. The XXXIX Articles enjoined on all the English 
 
 Clergy. 
 
 Elizabeth yields to Parliament. 
 
 1572. Puritan "Admonition to the Parliament. 1 ' 1 
 1595-6. The Lambeth Articles. 
 
 1604. Rise of Arminianism in the Low Countries. Quin- 
 
 quarticular Controversy. 
 
 Fruitless effort to engraft the Lambeth Articles on the 
 
 XXXIX. 
 
 Hampton Court Conference. 
 
 1605. The Northern Convocation of York formally accept the 
 
 XXXIX Articles. 
 
 1610. The Dutch Remonstrance of Episcopius. 
 1615. Irish Articles. 
 1618. The Synod of Dort. 
 
 1625. Charles I. comes to the Throne. 
 
 1626. Proclamation about Calvinism. 
 
 1628. His Majesty's Declaration prefixed to the XXXIX 
 Articles.
 
 xlviil DATES OF THE DIFFERENT EVENTS, &C. 
 A.D. 
 
 1635. XXXIX Articles accepted by the Church of Ireland. 
 1689. Certain of the Articles signed by Nonconformists 
 (1 Gul. et Mar., c. 18, 18). 
 
 1771. Blackburn's Movement. 
 
 1772. Feathers Tavern Petition (Feb. 6). 
 
 1801. American Church, with modifications, adopts the 
 
 Articles. 
 1804. Synod of Scottish Church at Laurencekirk adopts the 
 
 Articles. 
 
 1818. Wix of St. Bartholomew's interpretation. 
 1841. Tract XC. published. 
 
 1863. Alteration of terms of Subscription. 
 
 1864. Dr. Pusey's Eirenicon.
 
 HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION. 
 
 "BEING by God's ordinance, according to Our just 
 title, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Governor of 
 the Church, within these our Dominions, We hold it 
 most agreeable to this Our Kingly Office, and Our own 
 religious Zeal, to conserve and maintain the Church 
 committed to Our Charge, in unity of true Religion, 
 and in the Bond of Peace ; and not to suffer unneces- 
 sary Disputations, Altercations, or Questions to be raised, 
 which may nourish Faction both in the Church and 
 Commonwealth. We have, therefore, upon mature De- 
 liberation, and with the Advice of so many of Our Bi- 
 shops as might conveniently be called together, thought 
 fit to make this Declaration following : 
 
 " That the Articles of the Church of England which 
 have been allowed and authorized heretofore, and which 
 Our Clergy generally have subscribed unto do contain 
 the true Doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable 
 to God's Word : which We do therefore ratify and con- 
 firm, requiring all Our loving Subjects to continue in 
 the uniform Profession thereof, and prohibiting the 
 least difference from the said Articles; which to that 
 end We command to be new printed, and this Our De- 
 claration to be published therewith. 
 
 " That We are Supreme Governor of the Church, of 
 England : and that if any Difference arise about the 
 external Policy, concerning the Injunctions, Canons, 
 and other Constitutions whatsoever thereto belonging, 
 the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle 
 
 d
 
 1 IITS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION. 
 
 them, having first obtained leave under Our Broad Seal 
 so to do ; and We approving their said Ordinances and 
 Constitutions; providing that none be made contrary 
 to the Laws and Customs of the Land. 
 
 " That out of Our Princely care that the Churchmen 
 may do the work which is proper unto them, the Bi- 
 shops and Clergy, from time to time in Convocation, 
 upon their humble Desire, shall have Licence under 
 Our Broad Seal, to deliberate of, and to do all such 
 things, as being made plain by them, and assented 
 unto by Us, shall concern the settled Continuance of 
 the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England 
 now established ; from which We will not endure any 
 varying or departing in the least Degree. 
 
 " That for the present, though some differences have 
 been ill raised, yet We take comfort in this, that all 
 Clergymen within Our Realm have always most wil- 
 lingly subscribed to the Articles established; which 
 is an argument to Us, that they all agree in the true, 
 usual, literal meaning of the said Articles ; and that 
 even in those curious points, in which the present dif- 
 ferences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles of the 
 Church of England to be for them ; which is an argu- 
 ment again, that none of them intend any desertion of 
 the Articles established. 
 
 " That, therefore, in these both curious and unhappy 
 differences, which have for so many hundred years, in 
 different times and places, exercised the Church of 
 Christ, We will, that all further curious search be laid 
 aside, and these disputes shut up in God's promises, as 
 they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scrip- 
 tures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the 
 Church of England according to them. And that no
 
 HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION. li 
 
 man hereafter shall either print or preach, to draw the 
 Article aside any way, but shall submit to it in the 
 plain and full meaning thereof; and shall not put his 
 own sense or comment to be the meaning of the Arti- 
 cle, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical 
 sense. 
 
 " That if any public Reader in either of Our Univer- 
 sities, or any Head or Master of a College, or any other 
 person respectively in either of them, shall affix any 
 new sense to any Article, or shall publicly read, de- 
 termine, or hold any public Disputation, or suffer any 
 such to be held either way, in either the Universities 
 or Colleges respectively ; or if any Divine in the Uni- 
 versities shall preach or print anything either way, 
 other than is already established in Convocation with 
 Our Royal assent ; he or they, the offenders, shall be 
 liable to Our displeasure, and the Church's censure in 
 Our Commission Ecclesiastical, as well as any other: 
 and We will see there shall be due execution upon 
 them." 
 
 The ill-advised step of King James I. of sending 
 deputies to the Synod of Dort, (a course very incon- 
 sistent in the friend of Montague and Andrewes, but 
 caused partly by dislike of Vorstius, partly by political 
 friendship for the Prince of Orange,) issued in the 
 fiercest theological disturbance in England. Though 
 the English delegates did what they could to mediate, 
 their efforts were unavailing, and no sooner did they 
 return home than the controversy began to rage. An 
 active school, in all the energy of youth, maintained 
 the tenets of Arminius, which drove the opposite party
 
 Hi HIS MAJESTY'S DECLARATION. 
 
 into the wildest Calvinism. In vain did the King 
 charge Archbishop Abbot to issue directions concern- 
 ing preachers. They were deliberately ignored. On 
 the accession of Charles I., in concert with the Bishops, 
 he issued the memorable proclamation of 1626, against 
 " the sharp and indiscreet handling of some of either 
 party." This did good in the Universities, but in the 
 country the evil continued, wherefore it was deemed 
 fit to issue a reprint of the Thirty-Nine Articles, with 
 the Declaration which has ever since attached to them. 
 It was resisted by the Calvinistic clergy, who saw in it 
 a special condemnation of their teaching, and in the 
 House of Commons, a debate on the Royal Declaration 
 avowed the sense of the Articles, " which, by the public 
 act of the Church of England, and by the general and 
 current expositions of the writers of our Church, have 
 been delivered to us. And we reject the sense of 
 Jesuits and Arminians, and all others, wherein they 
 differ from us a ." 
 
 The Caroline Bishops knew very well what they 
 were doing, so did the Puritans. No wonder that 
 these latter sought to stigmatize the sense as Jesuiti- 
 cal 1 ' and Arminian. The instinct of Puritanism was 
 naturally aroused, the Declaration was the enunciation 
 of the Catholic sense 'of the Articles; Tract XC. and 
 the Eirenicon are legitimate outcomes of the King's 
 Declaration. 
 
 * Hardwick's History of Articles of Religion, cd. 1859, p. 206. See, 
 also, Sir John Elliot's Speech, at p. 204, and Rushworth, i. 652. 
 
 b This could not allude to Santa Clara's Book, which was not pub- 
 lished till 1634
 
 ON THE 
 
 THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 I. DE FIDE IN SACRO-SANCTAM TRINITATEM a . 
 
 UN us est vivus et verm Dens, aternus, incorporens, im- 
 partibilis, impassibilis, immensas potentiae, sapientice, ac 
 bonitatis, creator et conservator omnium, turn visibi- 
 lium, turn invisibilium. Et in imitate hums divina 
 natures, ires sunt persona, ejusdem essentiae, potcnti<e > 
 ac (Bternitatis, Pater, Filius, el Spiritus Sanctus. 
 
 Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. 
 
 " There is but one living and true God, everlasting, 
 without body, parts, or passions ; of infinite power, 
 wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of 
 all things both visible and invisible. And in unity 
 of this Godhead there be three persons, of one sub- 
 stance, power, and eternity ; the Father, the Son, and 
 the Holy Ghost." 
 
 1. SINCE God is incomprehensible and ineifable, we 
 cannot define Him by any expression which perfectly 
 
 a The author having at some length gone into the subjects of Arti- 
 cles I., II., III., IV., V., XL, XVII., XIX., XX., XXVII., in his " Short 
 Explanation of the Nicene Creed," would wish it to be understood that 
 what is now put forth is in some sense, but not entirely, supplementary 
 to what he has written in that volume. In some cases it has been neces- 
 sary to go over the same ground, but generally the matter is treated 
 from a different point of view. 
 
 B
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 describes His nature. Yet, since man can in an im- 
 perfect way know Him, such descriptions as, The most 
 Perfect Being, the Supreme and Independent Being, 
 the Infinite Being, the Being than whom nothing 
 greater can be imagined, the Being by Himself, or 
 from Himself, are given of Him. Thus in Exod. iii. 
 14, " I am that I am. Thus shalt thou say unto the 
 children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." 
 
 To be of Himself, to exist by the power of His own 
 Being, therefore, is a constituent idea of God, seeing 
 that to be of Himself belongs only to God, and is the 
 first conception we form of Him. 
 
 That God is, is proved by many places in Holy 
 Scripture, and by natural reason itself. The existence 
 of God cannot be proved by d priori arguments 15 , be- 
 cause in that way of proof the effect is proved by its 
 cause, but God has no cause of His existence. But, 
 d posteriori, God's existence may be proved by the ex- 
 istence of His creatures. "The invisible things from 
 the creation of the world are known by those things 
 which are made; even His eternal power and God- 
 head c :" or, to follow out the thought more clearly, 
 it is certain to every man that he exists ; but he does 
 not exist of himself, but of some other being, there- 
 fore of God ; or by some other being, who again exists 
 of some other, and so by advance we come to a first 
 being, who is from Himself. There can be no infinity 
 
 b We do not here use a priori in the Kantian, but in the Scholastic 
 sense. Kant held that God's existence is proved a priori from the 
 practical reason. c Rom. i. 20.
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 
 
 in such a process ; for it implies all posterior or middle 
 causes, and a posterior cause cannot be granted unless 
 a prior and then a first be granted also. 
 
 Another argument may be adduced from the move- 
 ment of creatures. Whatever moves is moved by an- 
 other; therefore, it is moved by an unmoving motor, 
 who is God; or by a moving motor, which again is 
 moved by another ; and so, as the process cannot be 
 infinite, we come to the first Motor, who moves and is 
 not moved. 
 
 Next, the existence of God is proved by the consent 
 of all nations, the fulfilment of prophecies, miracles, 
 the hankering after the infinite good, the remorse of 
 conscience in case of sin, the wondrous formation and 
 preservation of all things, which distinctly imply the 
 existence of a supremely intelligent Being. 
 
 2. Holy Scripture asserts the unity of God : " See, 
 I am alone, there is none other God beside Me d ." 
 This also is proved by reason. If there were more 
 Gods than one, either one would be subject to another 
 or not; if subject, then the one so subject would not 
 be God, the most perfect Being ; if he was not sub- 
 ject, then neither would be God, neither would be 
 perfect, the perfection belonging to the one being by 
 so much taken away from the other. 
 
 Having proved His Being, we now come to His 
 attributes. An attribute is that which is determined 
 by, and flows from essence ; or, in other words, a divine 
 attribute is a perfection which, in our way of conceiving 
 
 d Deui-. xxxii. 39.
 
 4 ARTICLE I. 
 
 it, follows as a property the divine essence. Attributes 
 are divided into absolute and relative. Absolute at- 
 tributes are they which have no relation to any one 
 else, as simplicity, eternity. Relative attributes are 
 divided again into attributes ad infra, such as pater- 
 nity, filiation, spiration ; and attributes ad extra, such 
 as creation, preservation, and the like. Attributes, 
 again, are either positive or negative. Positive attri- 
 butes are they which impute to God, wisdom, good- 
 ness, &c. ; negative, are they which deny Him imper- 
 fection, as to be uncreate, incorporeal, infinite, incom- 
 prehensible, immutable, immense, invincible, ineffable. 
 All the attributes of God are in reality one with the 
 divine essence, and one with each other, except the 
 relative attributes ad intra, between which there is 
 the opposition of relation, as between paternity and 
 filiation. Thus the justice of God is His mercy, His 
 will is His intellect ; and yet, as we may not say that 
 God punishes men in His mercy, so we must admit 
 a sort of distinction in regard to the fact that our 
 minds, on account of their imperfection and limitation, 
 cannot in one conception grasp the whole perfection 
 of the divine essence, and so we form diverse, imper- 
 fect conceptions of God from the analogies of creation, 
 which we correct by faith and reflection, conceptions 
 which are not erroneous, but imperfect. 
 
 3. The first attribute predicated in the Article of 
 the one living and true God, is His eternity. That 
 eternity is defined as the entire, simultaneous, and per- 
 fect possession of an interminable life. In that it is
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 
 
 defined as entire and simultaneous, the idea of division 
 and succession is excluded : for in eternity there is 
 one instant, ever-present and existent. In that it 
 is perfect, it excludes the thought of the imperfection 
 and transitoriness of an instant of time, though that 
 instant be without divisibility. By the thought of 
 possession, we understand stability and unfailingness. 
 Such eternity as this belongs only to God. " I live 
 for ever e ." " Thou art the same, and Thy years shall 
 not fail f ." It differs from time in that eternity hath 
 no beginning, no change, either substantial or ac- 
 cidental. 
 
 When Holy Scripture attributes a past and future 
 to God, it does not mean that the works of God in 
 creation are so described in the way of the action 
 of God, but in the way of results and terms which 
 begin to be and cease. So when in Scripture such 
 a passage occurs as "Before the morning watch I 
 begat Thee %" it does not signify that the generation 
 of the Son has just passed, for that never has, and 
 never will have an end, being always present, but 
 there is a certain accommodation to the imperfection 
 of man, who has to measure all things by time. 
 
 4. Next, God is "without body, parts, or passions." 
 The uncompounded nature of God is of faith. It is 
 proved, first, by the thought that there is no physical 
 composition of matter or form, for God is a Spirit, 
 therefore immaterial and indivisible. Neither is there 
 
 e Deut. xxxiii. 40. f Ps. cii. 27. e Ps. ex. 3, Vulg.
 
 6 ARTICLE I. 
 
 in God metaphysical composition of action and power, 
 for God is the purest act, and therefore in God there- 
 can not be power, to which anything is added by which 
 it may be made perfect ; neither is there composition 
 of essence and existence ; for otherwise essence would 
 be in the power to exist, which may not be said, since 
 essence includes in itself necessary existence, nay is- 
 constituted by itself in its own being ; neither is there 
 composition of nature and personality, for in God per- 
 sonality is not distinguished from nature. 
 
 Neither in Him is there logical composition, because 
 genus is something perfectible and limitable by differ- 
 ence, also genus implies some one thing existing in 
 many, whereas whatsoever is in God, is so His, that it 
 cannot in the same sense be held to be shared with 
 any other being. 
 
 5. The power of God is the productive principle of 
 all things. In God there can only be admitted one 
 active power, which is the very essence of God in 
 action, or in the divine act itself. In our way of 
 speaking, the power of God is distinguished from His 
 knowledge, providence, or will ; in that by His know- 
 ledge He is apprehended as intelligent, by His pro- 
 vidence as directing, by His will as governing, by 
 His power as executing. In God the power and the 
 act are not distinguishable. His power is infinite, as 
 illustrated by creation, for the distance between being 
 and not being is infinite. 
 
 God is called Omnipotent, for He can do all things 
 that do not involve imperfection ; therefore God can-
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 
 
 not sin, because to be able to sin is to be able to be 
 imperfect in action. 
 
 His wisdom and knowledge are perfect : " The Lord 
 is the Lord of knowledge h ;" and this again is not ac- 
 cident or habit, but pure act and the essence of God 
 Himself. 
 
 All philosophers of the highest order have demon- 
 strated in the same manner the existence of God. All 
 have recognised the existence of a moral obstacle which 
 conceals the light from the spirit, and must be re- 
 moved. All have recognised an inner and divine sense, 
 the allurement and charm of the desirable and the 
 intelligible, which, when the obstacle is removed, be- 
 comes the resort of the reason. All have found the 
 point of rest, the TTOV orco of that first start of the 
 reason in the spectacle of things created, either world 
 or soul. All have understood that this point of de- 
 parture is in no sense a principle whence the reason 
 can deduce the existence of God ; but simply a point 
 of departure whence the reason raises itself to the 
 principle of all things which contains no point of de- 
 parture. All have recognised that the process is not 
 syllogistical, and that it is one of the two essential 
 processes of the reason ; that which seeks the major, 
 not that which draws the consequences ; all have de- 
 scribed this process as an operation of the reason, 
 which regarding finite being, either world or soul, 
 sees, by the mournful contrast, in this finite the neces- 
 sary existence of the Infinite, and knows the Infinite 
 
 11 1 Sam. ii. 3.
 
 8 ARTICLE I. 
 
 by negation, in denying the limits of every finite being 
 and every limited perfection. 
 
 It is clear that this being granted, the process gives 
 a demonstration of the existence of God and a know- 
 ledge of His attributes. For God can be demonstrated 
 only so far as He is demonstrated as endowed with His 
 essential attributes, without which there would be the 
 demonstration of the existence of something else, not 
 God. The demonstration of the existence of God gives 
 His attributes at the same time, and furthermore reason 
 can enlighten and develope the idea of God in two 
 ways, as well as know His attributes. It can either 
 obtain them at starting, from the consideration of cre- 
 ation, on the principle that the perfections of God are 
 those of His creatures, only without limit ; or, grant- 
 ing but one of the attributes of God, it can deduce the 
 rest by way of identity. The Schoolmen held that 
 what they termed the metaphysical essence of God was 
 the attribute which implied all the rest, but we saw 
 just now that there is no real distinction between God 
 and His attributes, therefore reason may take any one, 
 and argue to the absolute identity of all that is in God, 
 a principle which belongs to Him alone, and not to 
 Him with His creatures. 
 
 Granted one attribute of God, one can take it as 
 a principle, and by way of syllogistic consequence and 
 algebraic identity, deduce the others. Thus to start 
 from the attribute of God implied in the words " I am 
 that I am." From the idea of ' Being,' as from the 
 proposition ' Being is,' we can deduce the metaphysical
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 
 
 attributes of God. We suppose that it is purely, simply, 
 and absolutely true that Being is, and it is equally clear 
 that when we thus speak of Being we mean the ab- 
 solute Being, not relative beings. 
 
 i. This granted, if the Being is simply and abso- 
 lutely, it is not a finite Being, because a finite being is 
 only to a certain point and not further. It has its 
 limits and conditions : it is not simply and absolutely. 
 Therefore, if the Being be not finite, it is infinite. 
 
 ii. Again, if the Being be infinite, it must be infinite 
 in all senses, because if it ceased to be infinite in one 
 sense, in that sense it would be finite, and therefore not 
 infinite. In the sense it was limited, in that sense it 
 would cease to be the Being. 
 
 iii. If Being is, it is all that is possible, otherwise it 
 would not be absolute. It is all that is possible, and 
 that infinitely so, for if it were not so, there would be, 
 in that manner of being and in that sense, a limit in 
 which it would not be so. If it is, it is infinitely all- 
 possible. 
 
 iv. The same reasoning applies to immensity and 
 eternity. If it was not eternal, there would have been 
 a time when it was not : if it was not immense, there 
 would be a place where it was not. It therefore would 
 not be purely, simply, absolutely. 
 
 v. Furthermore, if Being is, it must be necessary. If 
 it is, it cannot not be. There never has been a choice 
 between Being and not being, for Being is eternal. 
 An absolute being must always have been. To con- 
 ceive a doubt as to the non-existence of the Being is
 
 10 ARTICLE I. 
 
 not to have the idea of it : it is not to know the value 
 of the word. Hence it follows that all that is not the 
 Being, might not have been. All that has not been 
 from eternity might not have been, and is contingent. 
 
 vi. If the Being is, it is by itself, otherwise it would 
 be a relative, not an absolute Being. To be necessary, 
 and to be by itself, is the same idea under two differ- 
 ent forms. 
 
 vii. It is rigorously true, though truly inconceivable, 
 as are many algebraic deductions in their application to 
 geometry, that the Being, because It is eternal and im- 
 mense, is really present in all points of time and space. 
 We can conceive to a certain point His immensity in 
 space, but we cannot conceive His omnipresence in all 
 time. And yet this is the case. For God there is no 
 past or future : He sees and contains all things in an 
 eternal present. The past, present, and future co- 
 exist in the infinite, as in a single point unextended 
 and simple, the two extreme points in the centre of 
 an infinitesimal element. 
 
 viii. If God is absolutely, He is simple and uncom- 
 pounded. "Were He not simple, He would be composite. 
 If He was composite, He would have parts. These parts 
 might be physical or spiritual. If He had physical 
 parts, He could not be wholly in one point. He could 
 not be so absolutely. If He had spiritual parts, they 
 would be separate attributes, of which the one would 
 not be the other, nor would they be in Him entire, but 
 limited by each other. If, then, God is not composite, 
 He is absolutely simple, and therefore His attributes
 
 OF FAITH IN THE .HOLY TRINITY. 11 
 
 are identical with each other and with His essence. 
 God is His own essence. In God, Being and Essence 
 are one. His will is His Essence. God is His Life. 
 God is His own Beatitude. 
 
 ix. God, then, being absolutely simple is one nay, 
 unity itself. All created things have their unity in 
 Him, an approximative unity, an image of unity, but 
 the Infinite is alone One, He is the only concrete unity. 
 
 x. Nay, He is so simple and one in Himself, that in 
 a sense there is but one absolute Being. There cannot 
 be two absolute beings, for there cannot be two in- 
 finites. Infinity + infinity has no sense in algebra, or 
 means exactly infinity also. Infinity + infinity 
 infinity. 
 
 xi. He who is, is unchangeable. To change is to be 
 what one was not, or to cease to be what one was. Ta 
 cease to be implies some loss, therefore Being is not 
 absolute. If God is, He is unchangeable. There is no- 
 increase in Him. He is not like us, partly in act, 
 partly in power. He is all act, actus purissimm. If 
 so, He is all His possible unfolded. He is all actually 
 present. He is living. 
 
 xii. Lastly, if we only grant that there are outside of 
 the Absolute Being finite and relative beings, it is true 
 that they could not become such of themselves alone, 
 nor commence if nothing was yet, nor be but by the 
 Being that was already. Therefore the Being had 
 the power to produce all that is produced : and as the 
 beings which are were not, it follows that He made 
 them out of nothing, or created them : which implies
 
 12 ARTICLE I. 
 
 infinite power. No finite power could create things 
 out of nothing. Therefore God is almighty. 
 
 6. So far we have deduced from the idea of Being 
 what are termed the metaphysical attributes of God ; 
 but there are beside these, moral attributes and intel- 
 lectual attributes, and here we come to the question 
 between atheists and ourselves. Atheism will allow 
 a physical, geometrical, mechanical God, who is to the 
 Infinite all that one meets with in nature and its laws ; 
 but between such a God and an Infinite Intelligence 
 there is a gulph fixed. Intelligence is another face, 
 another dimension of Being. 
 
 But this is not the only gulph which reason en- 
 counters. Given an absolute Being, eternal, immense, 
 immutable; given intelligence, given infinite power, 
 there still lack liberty, will, goodness. Is this in- 
 finitely powerful and intelligent Being free ? wills He ? 
 loves He? If we look into ourselves, we find these 
 powers, and we justly carry them on to God, and attri- 
 bute them to Him in an infinite degree ; or, if we reason 
 from what we know of Him, we say He is infinite 5 
 whence it follows that all perfections everywhere found 
 in created things must be superabundantly and ori- 
 ginally found in Him. If all perfections of every sort 
 pre-exist in Him, needs must be that He is intelligent, 
 free, with the power of will and love. Thus the intel- 
 lectual attributes are revealed to the understanding by 
 the understanding, and the moral attributes by the heart 
 and by the conscience; and our conception of these 
 first is only limited by the imperfections of these last.
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 13 
 
 For to continue the development of the idea of 
 Being, we come to find it identical with power, intel- 
 ligence, will, liberty, love. Take away one of these 
 and you destroy Being. You take the heart out of 
 that which is. You say in so many words, There is no 
 Being above us. We are better ourselves than such 
 a ruined God. He is no longer the Absolute. There- 
 fore 
 
 God is free, good, and He loves : and this with refer- 
 ence to the world implies Providence, the paternal 
 government of the world. 
 
 7. He must have a distorted vision who in the visible 
 creation sees not the hand of God. Such, alas ! there 
 have been, and will be to the end, but they have not 
 been the highest intelligences. One must lose one's 
 reason, and abdicate one's senses, not to acknowledge 
 that the eye was given to see with, the members to 
 move with : not to comprehend that a profound know- 
 ledge and goodness, sustained by infinite power, has 
 made our bodies and the world, and left its mark and 
 signature, not only on the whole, but on each detail. 
 Who can study the infinite strength, delicacy, and 
 beauty of the structure of any of these parts of our own 
 constitution and not say, This is the work of God ? or 
 take the world and think how out of nebula it has 
 gradually, through countless ages, been prepared for 
 the habitation of man, ages passing and yet a constant 
 advance to perfection, without confessing, not merely 
 the cold abstraction of an overruling Providence, but 
 the work of a tender Father, who made me, loves me,
 
 ARTICLE I. 
 
 guards me, who reads my secret thoughts, rules the 
 beatings of my heart, trains me for heaven, even in 
 the smallest details of my life? Thus it is with all men. 
 Such is the providential work of God in the history of 
 humanity. He awaits the harvest. Even death, in 
 His hands, is the light that transfigures all here be- 
 low, and gives it an eternal sense, for it is the pre- 
 lude of eternal life in the presence and enjoyment 
 of God. 
 
 8. Having said thus much on the triple distinction 
 of God's attributes into metaphysical, intellectual, and 
 moral, one must remark that they seem to correspond 
 with the Divine Persons in the adorable Trinity, if it 
 be true, as we believe, that the Holy Trinity is dis- 
 tinguished, according to a procession of the Word from 
 Him who uttered it, and of Love from both. Pantheists 
 may have perverted this into a support of their system, 
 but still there is a true philosophical side to the doc- 
 trine, and it has applications which bear upon the 
 science of humanity and of the world. As Christian 
 philosophy developes itself, men will come to know 
 that power, intelligence, and love, being three radical 
 distinctions, are to the absolute Being what the three 
 dimensions, breadth, height, and length, are to the 
 body, and that they constitute an unity, as the product 
 of the three unities of dimension constitute the unity 
 of solidity : that they no more destroy simplicity, than 
 the simplicity of the infinitesimal element of solidity is 
 destroyed, because one ought there to distinguish the 
 elements of the three dimensions : and that, finally, if
 
 OF FAITH IX THE HOLY TRINITY. 15 
 
 it be true that in living organisms, the highest per- 
 fection consists in the maximum of individuality, or 
 in unity, joined to the maximum of distinction of 
 organs, in the absolute life, perfection consists in ab- 
 solute unity united to absolute distinction. But abso- 
 lute unity is simplicity, and absolute distinction is the 
 distinction of person from person, so that one under- 
 stands what theologians mean when they say that the 
 distinction of the Persons, in God, is the condition, not 
 the negation, of simplicity. In God, transcendental 
 unity and transcendental plurality are identical. Our 
 God is not solitary, though He be One, is the teach- 
 ing of S. Hilary of Poitiers. And in thus seeking by 
 study and contemplation to sound the unfathomable 
 depths of the mystery, let us above all dwell on the 
 adoration and worship which it calls forth. Here 
 is the source of all knowledge, all virtue, even life 
 and immortality. Here is the heart of Christianity, 
 the last prayer of our Lord, "that they may be one, 
 as we are." Here is the perfection of each soul, the 
 organization of the world to come, and of the ideal 
 society of heaven, which will be, according to that 
 prayer, a plurality of persons in one *. 
 
 The Holy Trinity is the Substance of three divine 
 Persons in one and the same nature. The Holy 
 Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, God the 
 Holy Ghost, three Persons, one God. In dwelling 
 upon It, we have to consider : 
 
 The question of Procession, which is nothing else 
 
 1 Cf. Gratry, de la Connaissance de Di.eu, torn. ii. p. 135.
 
 16 ARTICLE I. 
 
 than the production or emanation of one Person from 
 another, as the river flows from the source. It is either 
 ad extra, or ad infra. Procession ad extra is transient, 
 as when that which is produced is placed outside its 
 principle ; thus, the child proceeds from its father. In 
 this sense, all creatures proceed from God. The other 
 procession is immanent, where the term produced abides 
 within its principle, as an act of understanding re- 
 mains in the faculty of the understanding. Of this 
 kind is the Procession in God, which may be theo- 
 logically defined as the emanation of one Person from 
 another, as from a productive principle, not a produc- 
 tive cause, which would imply that it had a being dis- 
 tinct from that whence it proceeds, that it depended 
 on it, and that it was posterior to it ; thus, " Thou art 
 My Son ; this day have I begotten Thee k ;" " I came 
 forth from God 1 ." The divine essence, whereby God 
 is of Himself (a se), is numerically the same in the 
 three Persons, and therefore each Person by reason of 
 its being, though not by reason of its Person, is a se 
 and God. 
 
 In God there are only two processions ad infra, the 
 one by the understanding, whereby the Son proceedeth 
 from the Father, the other by the will, whereby the 
 Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son, 
 according to the two immanent actions in God, which 
 are to know and to will. 
 
 There is a double principle of action, the principium 
 quod, which is the operating Person, and the princi- 
 
 k Ps. ii. 7. l St. John viii. 42.
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 17 
 
 piiim quo, whereby the Person worketh. This, again, is 
 divided into the principium quo remotum, whereby He 
 worketh mediately, and the principium quo proximum, 
 by which He worketh immediately. Thus when a man 
 understandeth, the principium quod is man ; the prin- 
 cipium quo remotum is his intellectual nature, and the 
 principium quo proximum is the intellect itself; in God 
 the principium quod of the processions are the pro- 
 ducing Persons; that is, the Person of the Father in 
 respect of the Son, and the Persons of the Father and 
 Son in respect of the Holy Ghost. The principium quo 
 remotum is the divine Nature understanding and will- 
 ing. The principium quo proximum are the intellect 
 and will, as the relations of paternity and active spira- 
 tion indicate them as necessary conditions. 
 
 The Son does not produce another Son, because 
 intellect in the Son is no longer fertile, because it 
 is expended in the production of the Son by the pro- 
 duction of an infinite term, for one action can produce 
 but one adequate term. Therefore the Holy Ghost 
 cannot generate ; and so the Holy Ghost, though hav- 
 ing the same will with the Father and the Son, does 
 not produce another Spirit, for to will in Him has not 
 the character of spiration or fertility, seeing that in the 
 Father and the Son, it has produced its adequate and 
 complete term, i. e. the Holy Ghost Himself. 
 
 While we call the Procession of the Son from the 
 Father, Generation, we do not give that name to the 
 Procession of the Holy Ghost, because production by 
 will differs from production by intellect inasmuch as 
 
 c
 
 18 ARTICLE I. 
 
 it is not formally assimilative, which is the essence of 
 the other. 
 
 Theologians in treating of the three Divine Persons 
 of the ever-blessed Trinity, are accustomed to speak of 
 the Father as the first, the Son as the second, and the 
 Holy Ghost as the third Person of the Holy Trinity, 
 and this not because one Person "is afore or after 
 other," either in time or duration, but because there is 
 in the nature of the Godhead a certain order of source 
 or origin ; an order, as St. Augustine says, " not by 
 which one may be before the other, but by which 
 one is from the other m ." Hence it is not allowable 
 to speak of any of the divine Persons having a prin- 
 ciple or beginning as to time, though we may speak of 
 the second and third as having a principle of produc- 
 tion, i. e. they do not exist from nothing, but have 
 from all eternity had their being communicated to 
 them. Hence, too, we may not call the Father " be- 
 fore " the Son in nature, but " before " Him in source 
 or origin. All three Persons are equally wise, power- 
 ful, and eternal, for the whole perfection of the divine 
 nature is in each. 
 
 Some persons stumble at the words of our Lord, 
 "My Father is greater than I n ;" but St. Thomas , 
 with many other theologians, maintains that the pre- 
 vious words of the text, " I go unto the Father," make 
 it sufficiently clear that our Lord was speaking simply 
 of His sacred humanity. Neither do our Lord's words, 
 
 m St. Aug., cont. Max., c. 4. n St. John xiv. 28. 
 
 St. Thomas, Part I. 9, xlii. qu. &c.
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 19 
 
 "The Son can do nothing of Himself P," oppose this 
 doctrine, for they merely signify that the Son having, 
 by His generation, the same power and essence with 
 the Father, can do nothing to the exclusion of the 
 Father ; every power which the Father has, the Son 
 has likewise with Him, though sometimes with a dif- 
 ferent relation ; e. g. the power by which the Father 
 generates, is in the Son, the Father having it as giving, 
 the Son as receiving. 
 
 The mutual inexistence of the divine Persons, one in 
 the other, of which our Blessed Lord speaks q , is called 
 by theologians, Circuminsession and Co-inherence. 
 
 In speaking of "mission" with reference to the 
 Persons of the Blessed Trinity, theologians are to be 
 understood to mean, the "procession" of one Person 
 from another, having relation to some temporal effect. 
 Two things are required in " mission" thus understood ; 
 
 1. That the Person sent proceed from Him who sends ; 
 
 2. That the Person sent stands in a new relation to 
 the object to which (terminus ad quern] He is sent. 
 Hence we gather; 
 
 That the Father can be sent of none, for He proceeds 
 from none. 
 
 That the Son is sent of the Father only r . 
 
 That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father and by 
 the Son 8 . 
 
 That the Holy Ghost, as neither of the Persons pro- 
 ceeds from Him, so neither of them are sent by Him. 
 
 P St. John v. 19. i Ibid. xiv. 11 ; xvii. 21. 
 
 * St. John vi. 57. 8 Compare St. John xiv. 26, with xv. 26.
 
 20 ARTICLE I. 
 
 Although we cannot speak of the Father as sent, 
 yet it is lawful to speak both of Him and of the whole 
 Trinity as "given" to men, to dwell in them by 
 grace*. When we speak of "mission" putting one of 
 the Divine Persons in a new relation, we must remem- 
 ber that the change is in the relation of the creature to 
 whom the Person is sent, and not in the Person ; " mis- 
 sion," be it also remembered, is the term specially used 
 to denote not the eternal generation or spiration, but 
 the "sending forth" of one of the Persons to work 
 certain effects in time. 
 
 Mission is 1. Invisible, when the effect to work 
 which the Person is sent is invisible and not seen out- 
 wardly ; thus, as by grace our souls are conformed to 
 the image of the Son, the Son may be said to be in- 
 visibly " sent" to us. St. Augustine u says, "the Son is 
 then invisibly sent to any one, when He is known and 
 apprehended by him ;" so also the Holy Ghost is in- 
 visibly sent, when by hallowing grace He comes to 
 dwell in the hearts of the just v . 
 
 2. Visible, when it is accompanied by some effect 
 sensibly appearing, and representing the Person sent ; 
 thus the Son was visibly sent in the Incarnation x ; we 
 frequently read of the Holy Ghost being visibly sent, 
 as a Dove r ; as a bright Cloud z ; as a Breath a ; as 
 Tongues like as of fire b ; nor should the missions to the 
 
 * Vide St. John xiv. 23. n lib. iv. de Trin., c. 20. v Gal. 
 
 iv. 6. * St. John iii. 17; St. Luke iv. 18; Eom. viii. 3. 
 
 y St. Matt. iii. 16. * St. Matt. xvii. 5. a St. John xx. 22. 
 
 b Acts ii. 3.
 
 OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 21 
 
 first Christians be forgotten as recorded in Acts viii. 
 18 ; x. 44 ; xix. 6, and in other places. 
 
 It is not strictly correct to speak of men " sending," 
 or "giving" the Holy Ghost by administering the 
 Sacraments ; it is safer to say that they give the Holy 
 Ghost ministerially, i.e. that God uses their ministry to 
 give the Holy Ghost c . 
 
 Such is the great God as He is revealed to us in our 
 most holy faith, ineffable, incomprehensible, known to 
 us for certain only so far as He is revealed to us, above 
 time and beyond space, His own law, His own suffi- 
 ciency, His own centre, His own end. " Canst thou by 
 searching find out God ?" Yet so soon as He is made 
 known to us in His beauty, goodness, and power, our 
 souls, made originally to contemplate and enjoy Him, 
 rise to the conception of His eternal attributes, and in 
 the image of Him thus formed in the still waters of 
 the human heart we cannot fail to own Him, as the 
 true Lord of heaven and earth, as the blessed and only 
 Potentate, the eternal Father, Whom to know is to 
 live, "Whom to serve is to reign. 
 
 c Vide St. Thomas, pt. I. qu. xliii. Compare with this the words 
 of the Ordinal at the Consecration of Archbishop Parker : " Take the 
 Holy Ghost."
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 DE VERBO, SIVE FILIO DEI, QUI YEKUS 
 HOMO FACTUS EST. 
 
 FILIUS, qui est verbum Patris, ab ceferno a Patt-e genitus, 
 verus et ceternus Deus, ac Patri consubstantialis, in utcro 
 beat Virginia, ex illius substantia, naturam humanam 
 assumpsit : ita ut duce naturce, divina et humana, inte- 
 gre atque perfecte in imitate persons fuerint insepara- 
 biliter conjunct, ex quibus est unus Christus, vcrus 
 Deus et verus homo, qui vere passus est, crucifixus, 
 mortuus, et sepultus, ut Patrem nobis reconciliaret, es- 
 setque hostia, non tantum pro culpa, originis, verum 
 etiampro omnibus actualibits hominum peccatis. 
 
 Of the Word, or Son of God, ichich teas made very Man. 
 
 " THE Son, which is the Word of the Father, begotten 
 from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal 
 God, of one substance with the Father, took man's 
 nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her sub- 
 stance : so that two whole and perfect natures, that is 
 to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined to- 
 gether in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is 
 one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suf- 
 fered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His 
 Father to us ; and to be a sacrifice, not only for original 
 guilt, but also for all actual sins of men." 
 
 1. ALTHOUGH some of the ancients, such as Lactantius 
 and Tertullian, from want of precision called God the
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 23 
 
 Word or the Person of the Son, the Holy Spirit, and 
 though some of the early heretics distinguished God 
 the Word from the Son of God by nature, yet the 
 Church hath ever held that the Son and the Word are 
 two terms describing that divine Person Who, eternally 
 begotten by the Father by way of thought, is the ulti- 
 mate term of the intellect of God. 
 
 There are many names in Holy Scripture which 
 apply to the Son, some of which refer to His divine 
 substance, others to the nature He assumed, and some 
 to the Person, which embraces both. Thus St. Ambrose 
 says, "There are some names which evidently shew 
 forth the properties of deity ; others which express the 
 similitude of the Father and the Son ; others the unity 
 of the divine Majesty. Those which express proper- 
 ties are generation, God, Son, Word. Those which 
 express similitude, are splendour, character, mirror, 
 image. Those which signify the eternal unity are 
 wisdom, power, breath, life, twelve names correspond- 
 ing to the twelve gems which glittered on the breast- 
 plate of the High-Priest a ." The name Word was 
 happily chosen as expressing the two characters of the 
 eternal Son, being at once ev Gem and CK Geov. 
 
 2. "Begotten from everlasting of the Father." If 
 there be one part of religion which demands from us 
 a simple faith on authority rather than a comprehen- 
 sion from reason, it is this truth, which is so recondite 
 and abstract, that all we know from the Holy Scripture 
 is, that there is a Father who begets, and a Son who is 
 a De Fide, lib. ii. 3, vol. ii. p. 471.
 
 24 
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 begotten. God is not the object of investigation, but 
 He is the object of knowledge. Perfect knowledge is 
 so to know Him as to say that none can declare Him, 
 yet all must know Him. He is to be believed, He is 
 to be known, He is to be adored. St. Athanasius says, 
 '" It is unmeet to ask how the Word exists from God ; 
 or how He is the brightness of God ; or how God 
 begets ; or what is the mode of that generation. He 
 were mad, who so dared to declare in speech that 
 which is unexplorable, a property of the divine nature, 
 known only to God and to His Son V And St. Basil, 
 " Dost thou believe that He is begotten, ask not how. 
 If it be right to ask how the unbegotten is the un- 
 begotten, then you may ask how the begotten is be- 
 gotten. But if the first is not subject of question, so 
 neither is the second c ." All that we dare to say is, 
 that it is 1. Incomprehensible, being beyond our 
 ken ; 2. Perfect, because no sterility can be predicated 
 of God ; 3. Substantial, as proceeding from a cause or 
 principle ; 4. Producing similarity, in that that which 
 is begotten is like the begotten ; 5. That there be com- 
 munication of the substance of the Begotten. On this 
 very profound subject we can do no better than quote 
 the lines in which Prudentius d sums up all that is 
 known or revealed on the subject : 
 
 "Hoc solum scimus, quod traditur esse Deum quern 
 Non genitus Genitor generaverit, unus et unum, 
 Integer integrum, non coeptum, sed tamen ortum, 
 
 b Orat. Cont. Arian, ii. 36. c Bas., Horn. 29. 
 
 d Apotheosis, 268.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 25 
 
 Et comperpetuum retro Patris, et Patre natum. 
 Sed nee decisus Pater est, ut pars Patris esset 
 Filius : extendens nee se substantia tractim 
 Produxit, minuitve aliquid do numine pleno ; 
 Dum mutata novum procudit portio Natura. 
 ~Non convertibilis, nee dcmutabilis unquam 
 Est Dens, aut gignendo aliquid sibi detrahit : atqui 
 Totus et ex toto Deus est, de lumine lumen. 
 . Quando autem lumen sine lumine ? quando refulgens 
 Lux fulgore caret ? quando est ut proditus ignis 
 Ignem deminuat ? Quando Pater et Deus et lux 
 Non lucis Deus et Pater est ? qui, si Pater olim 
 Non fuit, et serum genuit post tempore Natum 
 Fit novus, inque novum jus proficit. Absit ut unquam 
 Plenus proficiat, qui non eget incremento. 
 Et Deus et genitor, lumenque et gloria semper 
 Ille fuit : nee post sibi contulit, ut Pater esset. 
 Sic fit ut sternum credamus cum Patre Christum 
 Illo auctore satum, cui nullus praefuit auctor." 
 
 3. " The very and eternal God." This is an assertion 
 that in theological language the Son is avroQeos. In 
 St. Athanasius e we find avrocroffria, avro\6jos, avro- 
 Svva/Ais, ai>To<f)a)?, and such like, just as the Holy Ghost, 
 in Gregory Nazianzen, is termed avroKtvrjrov and avro- 
 SvvafAov ; and yet in another sense Athanasius denies 
 that He is avrocro^la or avroXoyos. These contra- 
 dictions are easily reconciled if we consider the force 
 of avTO in composition. If it mean that He proceedeth 
 from no principle, but is an unbegotten substance, then 
 He is not avroa-o(f>ia, for that were Sabellianism, which 
 e Contra Gentes, 46.
 
 26 ARTICLE II. 
 
 is to admit neither difference nor origin of Persons; 
 but if the avro be taken to mean that He hath not the 
 divinity or the wisdom by participation or relatively, 
 in this sense the expression is correct. He is wisdom 
 itself, inasmuch as He possesseth all these things not 
 by participation, nor by external gift, as those who are 
 partakers of it, and become wise and powerful and rea- 
 sonable by Him ; but He is the very Wisdom, the very 
 Keason or Word, the very power of the Father, the 
 very truth, the very light, the very righteousness, the 
 very virtue : "As the Father hath life in Himself, so 
 hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself f ." 
 
 4. The term ' consubstantial' was objected to by the 
 Arians as unscriptural, and was accused both of mate- 
 rialism and Sabellianism. The word ova-La, in the lan- 
 guage of Aristotle, stood for an individual substance 
 numerically one, which is producible of nothing but 
 itself. Improperly it stood for a species or genus. 
 Based on this, Christianity took it in a sense of its 
 own, such as we have no example of in things created, 
 viz., that of a Being numerically one existing in three 
 Persons ; so that the word is producible, or in one sense 
 universal t without ceasing to be individual. Heretics 
 objected to the term in the philosophical sense, and 
 then, as applied to Father and Son, it either implied 
 parts of a material subject, or involved no real distinc- 
 tion of persons. Hence the Homoousion. It was denied 
 by Arians before the Nicene Synod, and was rejected at 
 the Council of Antioch, when it was taken in a wrong 
 
 f St. John v. 26; cf. 1 St. Johu v. 11.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 27 
 
 sense by Paul of Samosata. " They who deposed Samo- 
 satene took ' one in substance' in a bodily sense, because 
 Paul had attempted sophistry, and said, * unless Christ 
 has of man become God it follows that He is in one 
 substance with the Father ; and if so, of necessity there 
 are three substances, one the previous substance, and 
 the other two from it/ and therefore guarding against 
 this, they said with good reason that Christ was not 
 one in substance. For the Son is not related to the 
 Father as he imagined. But the bishops who anathe- 
 matized the Arian heresy, understanding Paul's craft, 
 and reflecting that the word ' one in substance' has 
 not this meaning when used of things immaterial, and 
 especially of God, and acknowledging that the Word 
 is not a creature, but an offspring from the substance, 
 and that the Father's substance was the origin, and 
 root, and fountain of the Son, and that He was of very 
 truth the Father's likeness, and not of another nature, 
 as we are, and separate from the Father, but that as 
 being from Him, He exists as Son indivisible, as radi- 
 ance is with respect to light, and knowing too the 
 illustrations used in Dionysius' case, (the fountain) 
 and the defence of ' one in substance/ and before that 
 the Saviour's saying, symbolical of oneness, ' I and My 
 Father are one, and he that hath seen Me hath seen 
 the Father/ on these grounds, reasonably asserted on 
 their part, that the Son was one in substance B ." Yet 
 though the word thus admirably describes the truth, 
 though it was all-important that the word should be 
 * Athan., Cone. Arim, et Sel., Oxf. Tr. p. 144.
 
 28 ARTICLE IT. 
 
 used in the Council, yet the Church was very tender 
 in enforcing it. The next generation of bishops were 
 more sparing in using it : even St. Athanasius himself 
 did not insist upon it unreasonably : " It should be 
 observed how careful the Fathers of the day were not 
 to mix up the question of doctrine which rested on 
 Catholic tradition with that of the adoption of a term 
 which rested on a Catholic injunction. Not that the 
 term was not in duty to be received, but it was to be 
 received on account of its Catholic sense, and where 
 the Catholic sense was held, the word might even by 
 a sort of dispensation be waived \" 
 
 5. The astonishing truth that the Word had as- 
 sumed human nature was stoutly denied by many of 
 the early heretics. Hence we find how necessary it 
 was for the Evangelists to lay such store by the 
 human actions of our Lord. The Docetse denied that 
 our Lord was man, and maintained that He was but 
 a phantasm. In appearance only was He born and 
 crucified. So also held the disciples of Simon Magus, 
 adding that Simon the Cyrenian had suffered in His 
 stead. Valentinus divided Christ from Jesus, holding 
 that the first was born of Unigena, the latter of all 
 the ^Eons at once. He called Him Christ and Sa- 
 viour, said that He passed through Mary, but had 
 received nothing of her. The Ophites said that Christ 
 was the serpent that had deceived Eve, and worshipped 
 it. They hated Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary, 
 into whom they said that Christ descended : so taught 
 h Athan., ib., p. 157, n.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 29 
 
 some of the Manichees, and that to delude men's senses, 
 He appeared and simulated a death and resurrection. 
 The Priscillianists denied that Christ had a pure exist- 
 ence, and asserted that He had not the true nature 
 of man. Neither Arius nor Apollinaris admitted that 
 our Lord was true man. Eutyches did not believe 
 that our Lord was true and perfect man after His 
 Ascension, and his followers believed that the human 
 nature was absorbed into the divine, some before, some 
 after the Resurrection ; others, again, held a composite 
 nature. 
 
 Against these manifold errors, the Church of God, 
 resting on the sure word of Holy Scripture, which as- 
 serts that " the Word was made flesh * ;" that Christ 
 "was made according to the flesh of the seed of 
 DavidJ;" that "Every spirit that confesseth that 
 Christ is come in the flesh, is of God k ;" and that, 
 " Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of 
 flesh and blood, He also took part in the same 1 ;" 
 has ever maintained that our Lord Christ was a true 
 and perfect man, composed of a reasonable soul and 
 human body. That human body was assumed as the 
 instrument whereby the actions through which the 
 world is saved have been wrought. The Word is said 
 to have donned human nature, never more to doff it, 
 to shew that without any change in itself, there is 
 made the accession of another nature to itself, and in 
 being so assumed, human nature has been deified, and 
 
 1 St. John i. 14. i Rom. i. 3. k 1 St. John iv. 3. 
 
 1 Heb. ii. 14.
 
 30 ARTICLE II. 
 
 has become life-giving, because it belongs to the Word. 
 Nor is this deification merely relative; nor on the 
 other hand is the humanity turned into divinity, but 
 it is as subsisting in the Word. 
 
 Yet we must not hold with the Lutherans that the 
 humanity of our Lord is ubiquitous, for the humanity 
 of our Lord is in heaven, in a certain local circum- 
 scribed place. 
 
 6. " In the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her sub- 
 stance." As the unenlightened and carnal nature of 
 man shrank from recognising in the meek and lowly 
 Jesus of Nazareth the Word made flesh, and so twisted 
 and contorted itself on every side if so be that it might 
 rid itself of this astounding conception, so it was a sore 
 trial to it to believe that any daughter of man, however 
 holy, should be brought into that awful proximity with 
 the nature of God, which the true doctrine of the In- 
 carnation implies. Yet no earthly son was ever so 
 completely the son of his mother, as God the Son is 
 the Son of His. For in earthly generations there are 
 two human parents who jointly give life and being to 
 their offspring : whereas in Christ, the entire pure man- 
 hood came from the substance of His mother only. 
 
 The exaggerated and daily intensifying language of 
 Roman divines on the subject of the present office of 
 the Blessed Virgin, (language peculiarly significant 
 when we are assured on very high authority that 
 we may be sure that " whatsoever is prevalent in the 
 Church under the eye of its public authority, prac- 
 tised by the people, and not censured by its pastors,
 
 OF THE WORT), OR SON OF GOD, &C. 31 
 
 is at least conformable to faith, and innocent as to 
 morals 1 "/') such as that all graces come through her 
 as the neck which unites Christ the Head with the 
 Church the Body, or that she is our ' Co-redemptrix,' 
 the ' Authoress of our everlasting salvation,' have pre- 
 vented Anglicans doing justice to the position of the 
 Holy Virgin in the order of grace. They have shrunk 
 from looking the doctrine concerning her fairly in the 
 face. They have not allowed their minds to dwell on 
 the incomparable singularity, on the incommunicable 
 prerogative of Divine Maternity. While they freely 
 dwell on the gifts of God in other saints, in the patri- 
 archs under the old law for instance, they shrink from 
 resting on the sweet and holy images which surround 
 the name of Mary. This is in every way wrong. A the- 
 ology that is afraid of possible consequences is sure to 
 err. We must state the absolute truth, and leave con- 
 sequences to God. To eliminate from our moral the- 
 ology the idea of the Blessed Virgin, is to strip it of 
 some of its most delicate bloom. What does not civili- 
 zation, what does not woman owe to the sublime and 
 tender conception of Mary, which has done more to 
 tame the rude social life of Europe in the middle ages 
 than any other one idea ! And what more constraining 
 motive to purity of soul, next of course to the thought 
 of Him Who is the great Exemplar of all virtues, 
 can there exist than the idea of such perfect spotless 
 womanhood as a grateful Christendom recognises in 
 our Lady ! But there is a still more serious thought. 
 
 m Pastoral, on Reunion of Christendom, by Manning, p. 65.
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 After making every allowance for the re-action against 
 the distressing language of certain popular Roman 
 devotions, there is a danger lest the shrinking from 
 a due appreciation of the dignity of the Mother, may 
 not generate an imperfect belief in the divine per- 
 sonality of the Son, and no error is so deadly as that 
 which seeks to touch the person of Jesus. For just 
 consider how much is bound up in the thought ex- 
 pressed in our Article, that "the Word took man's 
 nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her sub- 
 stance." It implies all those tremendous consequences 
 that are involved in the term deoToicos, "Mother of 
 God," a term asserted to be of apostolical tradition, 
 certainly employed at a very early period in the Church, 
 and endorsed by the sanction of a General Council. 
 That term, (the underlying truth of which was denied 
 by the Ebionites, by Leporius and the Pelagians, and 
 by the followers of Nestorius, and shared also by Euty- 
 ches from a different point of view, by Felix and Eli- 
 pandus, the Adoptionists, and, lastly, by some ill- 
 instructed Protestants,) implies that Mary, not by the 
 power of nature, but by the overshadowing of the Holy 
 Ghost, brought forth in the flesh Christ, the true God, 
 the Son of God by nature, so that she is just as truly 
 and as properly OCOTOKOS, as Christ is truly and pro- 
 perly OS. 
 
 No wonder that the pious sentiment of Christendom 
 in the contemplation of this stupendous dignity should 
 have burst forth in finding paraphrases for this won- 
 drous term, that it should awake to the conception of an
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 33 
 
 ideal of female holiness, such as no mere human reason 
 could attain unto. No wonder that poetry has strained 
 her utmost to find words to describe the celestial glories 
 of her whom all generations call blessed, or that the 
 art of the limner and sculptor should have been taxed 
 to the full to embody in external expression those 
 marvellous combinations of lowliness and glory, of 
 gentleness and power, of grace and strength, which 
 attend on the idea of the creature- mother of the 
 Creator-Son. 
 
 " Thou maidc and mother, daughter of thy Son, 
 Thou well of mercy, sinful soules cure, 
 In whom that God of bounty chees to won ; 
 Thou humble and high over every creature, 
 Thou nobledst so far forth our nature, 
 That no disdaine the Maker had of kinde, 
 His Son in blood and flesh to clothe and wiude. 
 
 Within the cloister blisful of thy sides, 
 Toke mannes shape the eternal love and pees 
 That of the trine compas Lord and gide is, 
 Whom erthe, and see, and heven, out of relees 
 Ay herien ; and thou virgine wemmiles, 
 Bare of thy body (and dwellest maides pure,) 
 The creatore of evry creature"." Chaucer. 
 
 11 " It hath been said of me, Latimer, Xay, as for him, I will 
 never believe him while I live, nor never trust him, for he likened our 
 Blessed Lady to a saffron-bag; when indeed I never used that simili- 
 tude. But in ease I had used this similitude, it had not been to be re- 
 proved, but might have been without reproach. For I might have said 
 thus : As the saffron-bag that hath been full of saffron, or hath had 
 saffron in it, doth ever after savour and smell of the sweet saffron that it 
 contained, so our Blessed Lady which conceived and bare Christ in her 
 
 D
 
 34 ARTICLE II. 
 
 7. The mystery of the Incarnation is the vastest and 
 most profound of all the ways of God. It reaches to 
 the heavens above ; it descends to the depths beneath. 
 It solves a multitude of problems, which but for it 
 were insoluble; it gives a master key to all history, 
 and enters into the individual life of every human 
 soul brought within reach of it. Yet how past finding 
 out are God's judgments ! God made man, the Eternal 
 Word made flesh, the Creator and Governor of the 
 universe born of a lowly woman, in a little town, in 
 a little country of our little planet ; the Infinite re- 
 duced within the proportions of the finite, the Un- 
 circumscript held in space. " How can these things 
 be ?" If the mystery explains all things, it is at the 
 price of being inexplicable itself: it is no rest to the 
 human mind that this last problem, like Moses' rod, 
 should swallow all the rest that vex and perplex the 
 spirit of man. 
 
 The mind of the great poet-philosopher of Italy, in 
 speaking of the mystery of the Trinity, says that he is 
 mad who wishes to know how three Persons can be in 
 one substance, and then he adds, " human race, stay 
 contented at the quia the fact. If we knew that, there 
 were no need that Mary should have given birth to 
 a Son." In the same spirit, Theodotus speaking of 
 the mystery of which we are treating, says, " If thou 
 
 womb, did ever after resemble the manners and virtues of that precious 
 babe that she bare. And what had our Blessed Lady been the worse for 
 this ? or what dishonour was this to our Blessed Lady ?" Latimer's 
 " Sermon of the Plough."
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 35 
 
 wouldest. know, learn the quia, the fact that He was 
 made ; the alone worker of miracles, God, knoweth. 
 the hoii-y quomodo ." 
 
 This runs through all God's dealings with us. We 
 may know His purpose ; we cannot know His method 
 of operation. These are the two sides of the cloud 
 which led the children of Israel through the desert. 
 It is a property, even in mathematics, that things 
 which explain other things are themselves inexplica- 
 ble; nay, they explain in the measure that they 
 cannot be explained ; therefore that which explains 
 all things, God, must, of all things, be the most in- 
 explicable. Things cannot be explained but after the 
 things which are anterior to them, and consequently 
 That which is anterior to all, cannot be explained after 
 anything. Moreover the Infinite is the archetype of 
 the finite, which therein receives the rationale of its 
 existence, as its actual existence. Thus we can ex- 
 plain the world and creation only by God, the Creator, 
 but we cannot explain Him ; and we can explain the 
 moral and social world, man and humanity, only by 
 the solution afforded it by the Incarnation, but no 
 one can explain that Incarnation. However, though 
 nothing can explain the Infinite and His operation, all 
 things bear witness to Him. God explains the world, 
 and the world proves God : in biblical language, " The 
 heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
 sheweth His handywork." Much more is this the case 
 with reference to the Incarnation, where the Infinite is 
 
 Sec a grand passage on the quomodo, in St. Cyril, in Joan., 359, 3GO.
 
 ARTICLE II. 
 
 not only in operation, but in person ; both object and 
 subject ; both cause and effect : " Abyssus inscrutabilis, 
 Sacramentum Divinse Incarnationis P." 
 
 But a person may say, I admit to the full the idea 
 of mystery in religion, and the mystery of the Incar- 
 nation charms me by its beauty, and the rich morality 
 of its economy, but it seems to me to involve contra- 
 diction ; How can the Infinite be at the same time 
 finite ? how can the Omnipresent God quit one place 
 for another ? how can the uncircumscript God become 
 measured by space ? how can the Eternal God be 
 born, the Impassible God die ? how can Greatness and 
 Majesty become man ? Let us take these difficulties 
 in their order. 
 
 I. How can the Infinite be at the same time finite ; 
 Creator and Creature, God and Man in Jesus Christ ? 
 In Jesus Christ are two natures, the infinite and the 
 finite, but one single Person, the person of God the 
 Son. If these two natures made one nature, there 
 would be a contradiction, as one could not conceive 
 the finite and the infinite as one thing ; but the two 
 natures remain two natures, as distinct after as before 
 the union. There is no contradiction here. Neither is 
 there any from the thought that one person cannot 
 be composed of two natures so as to complete it, for the 
 Personality of Jesus Christ is what it is, that of God 
 the Son, without the help of the human nature. Con- 
 taining all perfection it can receive no increase ; it is 
 
 P St. Bernard, In Annunc. B. M. De Septiformi Spiritu in Chrlsto. 
 Serin. II. 6.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 37 
 
 joined to human nature not to perfect itself, but to 
 perfect that human nature. It holds the place of all ; 
 gives all, receives nothing. The divinity does not 
 enter into composition with the manhood in Jesus 
 Christ. This is emphatically union ; an imperfect 
 analogy may be derived from ourselves. Had such 
 a thing never been formed, had there never been but 
 pure spirits and animal bodies, it would have been 
 difficult to have conceived a being which united the 
 qualities of both, which could be at once flesh and 
 spirit, which could live in the highest metaphysical 
 abstraction, and yet be under the influence of the 
 lowest and basest earthly sensations. Yet this is what 
 man is, and so the Son of God is the object of a still 
 more transcendent union : " "What is man ? a rational 
 soul joined to a body; what is Christ? the Word of 
 God joined to man." Here is mystery, profound mys- 
 tery, but no contradiction. 
 
 II. But it may be said, How can one conceive that 
 God, who is universal, should have quitted a place to 
 come to another : have been " sent/' come upon earth, 
 come down and re-ascended ? But the Son of God has 
 never quitted any place. This is but a way of speaking 
 in accommodation to our frailty. The Son of Man 
 was in heaven when He sat with Nicodemusi. The 
 Incarnation is not a migration, it is an exhibition of 
 the Godhead. As the Eternal Son proceeds eternally 
 from the Father without leaving His bosom, so His 
 appearance in the midst of us is a visible extension 
 i St. John iii. 2, and 13.
 
 38 ARTICLE II. 
 
 of that invisible extension which hath made the Son 
 the Sent of the Father, as the ray is sent forth from 
 the sun. 
 
 III. Or it may be asked, How can God, who is 
 uncircum script and invisible, localize Himself in His 
 entirety in Jesus Christ, in the ineffable union of 
 the holy Incarnation ? To this we answer, that in 
 Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 
 and yet that Divinity filleth all things, and by its 
 immensity passes beyond the whole universe of crea- 
 tures. It is all entire in one, without separation from 
 any other. Just as in the case of a person speaking, 
 he utters a word which goes in its entirety to one 
 auditor, and also in its entirety to all the auditory. 
 One possesses it in its generality and it overflows among 
 the multitude, who all possess it complete : so it is not 
 surprising that God, all complete in heaven and in the 
 universe, should at the same time be all complete in 
 the Humanity of the Word. 
 
 IV. Next, one may ask how can one say God is 
 born, or God died ? How can the Son, born from all 
 eternity of the Father, be born a second time of 
 Mary ? How can the Impassible One die ? All this 
 is of faith, not a jot or tittle of its sharpness can be 
 taken from it, but it is incomprehensible: Yes, but 
 not irrational. 
 
 When one speaks of any one, He is born, he is dead, 
 it is the individual, the person, of whom one speaks, as 
 indicated by the personal pronoun he. The body and 
 soul have reference to a personal subject, who is the
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 39 
 
 Ego. But in Jesus Christ there is but one Person, one 
 Ego, and that Ego is the Word, God of G od. It is, then, 
 God who is born, and who has died in Jesus Christ. 
 
 But in the Word, the Son of God, there is the divine 
 nature and the Person. The Person and the Nature 
 are distinct. The divine nature is common to the 
 Divine Persons in the Holy Trinity, and the Person 
 is the means of being of that nature which differs in 
 the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Ghost. When 
 we say person, we do not mean Nature. The Person 
 is God, the nature is Deity. 
 
 When speaking of the Word we say God is born 
 we do not say the Deity is born, for then it would be 
 the Divine Nature which was subject to birth and 
 death, and both the Father and the Holy Ghost would 
 be predicated of in the same way, which were heresy. 
 But, it may be asked, what has this to do in helping 
 the difficulty, since if the Person be God, it is the 
 Deity personified ? It is the Divinity which is born 
 and dies. This is not the case, for by the birth from 
 Mary, that which is already God takes human nature, 
 appropriates a humanity, and this appropriation of hu- 
 manity one calls birth, so that it is equally true, that He 
 who is born is God, and yet He is not born as God. 
 The divine existence hath not to do with that birth 
 and death, being entirely distinct from the human na- 
 ture, only joined to it by personal communication. 
 
 Such is the mystery of the Incarnation; mystery, 
 indeed, if ever there were mystery, but such as ought 
 and must be, when God is its subject.
 
 40 ARTICLE II. 
 
 V. There remains the fifth difficulty. How could 
 God, without derogating from the dignity of His 
 nature, come to assume ours in the womb of one of 
 His creatures? How can we conceive that He for 
 whom the heavens are not great enough, should be- 
 come man, should be made flesh ? While the heart 
 accepts the thought of this divine charity in abase 
 ment, the reason revolts against it, even as the greatest 
 manifestation of love, and sees in it contradiction, and 
 a sort of rational impossibility. 
 
 " Do not be ever quoting the members of a virgin as 
 a dishonour to the Divinity. For by their nature they 
 have nothing unworthy. Had they been unworthy, 
 or a dishonour to God, He would not have made them 
 with His divine hands ; for God maketh nothing but 
 good, and there is no disgrace in God indwelling in 
 His own handiwork. 
 
 " But you add that to you it seemeth inappropriate, 
 that He who inhabiteth the heavens should take up 
 His abode in man. Yet here thou judgest rather by 
 passion and by prejudice, than by right reason. Tell 
 me, except heaven, what is greater than man. Stop 
 not to consider the splendour of the material world, 
 let not the grace of colour and form which thou seest 
 in nature seduce thee, be not dazzled by the magni- 
 ficence of the rays of the sun ; confuse not thyself at 
 the thought that God is clothed in flesh and skin, as 
 Job beareth witness. But consider the excellence of 
 the reasonable soul, the moral constitution of man, 
 and thou canst not fail to admire this divine being.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 41 
 
 He hath received as gifts hands, the ministers of his 
 thought, whereby he can, do wonders. Alone, of all 
 the animals, he has been constituted free, alone he 
 hath been created in the power of will. The sun 
 obeys its laws, and circulates in its orbit ; it is with- 
 out freedom or will ; but man doth what he willeth. 
 The sun is a slave, thou art free. Is it, then, sur- 
 prising that God should come to dwell in man, whom 
 He hath so graciously made in His own image, de- 
 claring thereby from the beginning His delight to be 
 with him ? 
 
 " It is true He took dust to form thy body, while He 
 made thy soul the image of His divinity. Wherefore 
 willed He to form of so base a stuff that which He 
 vouchsafed so to adorn ? Why took He not the glory 
 of the sun when He willed to make man, and not the 
 very dust of the earth ? He did it to keep man hum- 
 ble, that the baseness of his origin should be a counter- 
 poise to the might of his destination ; that he might 
 recognise that it was from no merit of his own, but 
 from the munificence of his Maker, that thus he came 
 to be. 
 
 "So noble a creature is man, however fallen into 
 ignominy by sin. Judge him not as fallen, but in his 
 original righteousness, and thou wilt see no dishonour 
 in the good God, for the good of such a creature, con- 
 descending to communicate with it, as He hath done r ." 
 
 Thus are resolved all the difficulties of apparent con- 
 
 1 Serm. Theod. Anc. ap. Concil. Eph., torn. iii. 1016, 1017, ed. Labbe 
 et Cossart.
 
 42 ARTICLE II. 
 
 tradiction in the mystery of the Incarnation, those 
 only which one may venture to try to solve, and this 
 by rigorous comparisons and reasons, rather than by 
 explanations, shewing us that there are mysteries in 
 the natural order, and analogies that can clear our 
 thoughts. 
 
 But this is all. The mystery is not less a mystery. 
 The depth is still as unfathomed, in which all vain 
 conceptions come to be cast into the Omnipotence of 
 the Infinite, of which the incomprehensibility itself 
 becomes the evidence. One may say, in this sense, 
 that, freed from all false notions concerning it, and 
 vindicated from the impossibilities of reason, which 
 men fancy they see in it, the mystery of the Incar- 
 nation proves itself, by its depth, by its height, by 
 its infinity s . 
 
 One end of the Incarnation is in this Article stated 
 to be the reversal of the penalty of the Fall, and the 
 annulling of the handwriting that was against man. 
 The expression, "to reconcile the Father to us/' which 
 is not a Scriptural one, must be taken inctonymice, 
 just as we find human emotions, e.g. repentance and 
 change of purpose, frequently in the Old Testament 
 attributed to God. The Scriptural expression is al- 
 ways the other way. The change is on the part of 
 man. " Who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus 
 Christ * ; " " We pray you in Christ's stead be ye 
 
 8 Cf. the thoughtful Appendix on the Incarnation in M. Nicolas' 
 work on the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 * 2 Cor. v. 18.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 43 
 
 reconciled to God u ;" " By Him to reconcile all things 
 unto Himself v ;" "God was in Christ reconciling the 
 world unto Himself w ." Yet we may not blame the 
 expression because God who is great without quantity, 
 good without quality, allows us to employ words with 
 regard to Him which though not absolutely true, re- 
 present the truth concerning Him, and His dealings 
 with us, in the most real way that we are capable 
 of receiving it. And this is one aspect of the fruits 
 of the Incarnation, that in some mysterious way, for 
 the merits of Jesus Christ, God is pleased to look upon 
 us in mercy. 
 
 The extreme intellectual difficulties which attend on 
 a belief in the vicarious satisfaction of Christ, whereby 
 the just has died for the unjust, have been aggravated 
 by the coarse and disproportionate manner in which 
 that doctrine has been taught. The analogy of the 
 faith has been violated by the suppression of other 
 balancing truths. The truth itself has not been carried 
 out into its logical consequences, and notions of d priori 
 fitness have been imported into it in a way totally un- 
 necessary. Thus a sort of discordance of will between 
 the First and Second Persons in the adorable Trinity 
 has been assumed ; the Father fierce and longing to 
 punish, the Son all mercy and indulgence, whereas 
 they may not be separated in will, even in thought; 
 and while the Father never ceases to be our Father, 
 yearning over the wayward creation of His own hands, 
 the Son is still the revelation of the righteousness of 
 
 2 Cor. v. 20. T Col. i. 21. 2 Cor. v. 19.
 
 44 ARTICLE II. 
 
 God, and we believe that He shall come to be our 
 judge. 
 
 Yet both Holy Scripture and the ancient doctors 
 unanimously attribute to the life, and especially to the 
 death, of our Lord, the character of an expiatory sacri- 
 fice. As one with the Holy Eucharist, our Lord says, 
 "This is My Blood of the New Testament, which is 
 shed for many for the remission of sins x ." Predicting 
 the same holy mystery, he elsewhere says, " The Bread 
 that I will give is My Flesh, which. I will give for the 
 life of the world r." So St. Paul : " Christ our Passover 
 is sacrificed for us z ;" " Christ hath given Himself for 
 us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smell- 
 ing savour a ." The main part of the argument of the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews turns on the idea, and the 
 notion of \vrpov and tXacrfios runs through all the 
 Gospel expositions of this mysterious but most blessed 
 work. 
 
 "Non. potea 1'uomo ne' termini suoi 
 Mai soddisfar, per non potere ir giuso 
 Con umiltate, obedicndo poi, 
 
 Quanto disubbidendo intese ir suso 
 E questa e la ragion perch e Tuom fue 
 Da poter soddisfar per se dischiuso. 
 
 Dunque a Dio convenia con le vie sue 
 Eiparar 1'uomo a sua intera vita, 
 Dico con 1'una o ver con ambedue. 
 
 ' St. Matt. xxvi. 28. ^ St. John vi. 51. z 1 Cor. v. 7. Eph. v. 2.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 45 
 
 Ma perche 1'opra tanto e piu gradita 
 Dell' operante quanto piu appresenta 
 Delia bonta del cuor' onde e uscita, 
 
 La divina bonta che '1 mondo imprenta 
 Di proceder per tutte le sue vie 
 A rilevarvi suso fu contenta : 
 
 Ne tra 1'ultima uotte e'l primo die 
 Si alto e si magnifico processo 
 per 1'una o per 1'altro fue o fie ; 
 
 Che piu largo fu Dio a dar se stesso 
 In far 1'uom sufficientc a rilevarsi 
 Che s'egli avesse sol da se dimesso, 
 
 E tutti gli altri modi erano scarsi 
 Alia giustizia, si'l Figliuol di Dio 
 ISfon fosse umiliato ad inearnarsi b ." 
 
 Dante, Par. vii. 97, 
 
 b " Man in himself had ever lacked the means 
 Of satisfaction, for he could not stoop 
 Obeying, in humility so low, 
 As high, he, disobeying thought to soar : 
 And for this reason he had vainly tried, 
 Out of his own sufficiency, to pay 
 The rigid satisfaction. Then behoved 
 That God should by His own ways lead him back 
 Unto the life from whence he fell, restored : 
 By both His ways, I mean, or one alone. 
 But here the deed is ever prized the more, 
 The more the Doer's good intent appears; 
 Goodness celestial, whose broad signature 
 Is on the universe, of all its ways 
 To raise ye up, was fain to leave out none, 
 Nor aught so vast, or so magnificent,
 
 46 ARTICLE II. 
 
 The idea of Sacrifice is a necessary result of the rela- 
 tion between the Creator and His creature. The crea- 
 ture owes everything to his Maker, and therefore the 
 self-devotion of his whole being is that Maker's due. 
 This is the primary idea of Sacrifice. It is the incom- 
 municable privilege of God alone, and therefore is the 
 highest form of worship. Yet this sacrifice is imperfect, 
 if only because the creature hath nothing purely his 
 own wherewith to propitiate his God. But beyond this 
 there is a new idea introduced when we come to deal 
 with sin. The relations of the Creator with the crea- 
 ture are not only those of the disproportion that must 
 always exist between the Infinite and the finite ; they 
 are now complicated by the absence of these qualities 
 which, stated positively, are explained by the term 
 " sin." A debt has been incurred which must be paid 
 to the Honour of God; a stain has been imprinted 
 which must be cleansed ; an offence has been given 
 that must be removed; a guilt incurred which must 
 be atoned. Therefore into man's creaturely relations 
 with his Maker there comes in the element of repa- 
 ration. 
 
 " Either for Him who gave or who received, 
 Between the last night and the primal day, 
 Was or can be. For God more bounty shewed, 
 Giving Himself to make man capable 
 Of his return to life, than had the terms 
 Been mere and unconditional release. 
 And for His justice, every method else 
 Were all too scant, had not the Son of God 
 Humbled Himself to put on mortal flesh." 
 
 Gary's Dante.
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 47 
 
 Man's sacrifice is, therefore, now doubly imperfect, 
 and therefore a full and perfect sacrifice, oblation, and 
 satisfaction can only be found in one who is more than 
 mere man. The life and death of one not only in- 
 nocent, but the fountain and source of innocency, is 
 required to the realization of this idea. Such a condi- 
 tion is only to be found in the God-man, and therefore, 
 from the beginning, He was the Lamb slain, in purpose, 
 from the foundation of the world, and all the patri- 
 archal and Jewish rites received what grace they had 
 from Him whom they foreshewed. And still more is 
 this the case now that the Word has actually taken 
 flesh, now that the human nature has been assumed 
 into the unity of the Person of the divine Word, and 
 consequently the actions of our Lord are the actions of 
 His divine Person. The elements, therefore, of eternity 
 and omnipotence now accrue to the acts of Christ; 
 His very human acts, because done by a divine Person, 
 savour of the attributes of Divinity, and thus there is 
 no limit to the efficacy of His eternal Sacrifice, which, 
 being thus superabundant and fulfilling all the ends 
 of such sacrifice , is in itself: 1. the highest possible 
 worship, praise, and adoration to God the Holy Trinity; 
 2. the only, the fullest, and most complete Propitia- 
 tion for sin; 3. the most grateful and acceptable 
 Eucharistia or thank-offering which humanity in its 
 head and members can render to its God ; and 4, lastly, 
 
 c " Et in quel clie, forato da la lancia 
 Et poscia et prlma tanto soddisfece 
 Che d'ogni culpa vince ta bilancia." Par. xiii. 40.
 
 48 ARTICLE II. 
 
 the most efficacious impetration of all blessings, mercies, 
 and graces which humanity can require. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that our Lord's Sacrifice reaches 
 to every sin. It was discussed in the Middle Ages, 
 whether the Passion was chiefly for the destruction of 
 original or of actual sin, and the conclusion was, that 
 
 " Although Christ came into this world to destroy all 
 sins, yet He came more especially to take away original 
 than actual sin ; for that sin by which the whole 
 human race is infected, is greater than that which is 
 peculiar to individual man." And this conclusion was 
 mainly based upon the consideration that 
 
 " It is certain that Christ came into this world not 
 only to destroy that sin which originally passed upon 
 Adam's posterity, but also to destroy all sins which in 
 a manner are superadded to it; not that all are de- 
 stroyed, (which arises from defect in men who are not 
 in Christ, according to the words of St. John iii. 19, 
 ' Light is come into the world, and men loved darkness 
 rather than light/) but because He shewed that He 
 was able to destroy all sins. Wherefore it is said in 
 Rom. v. 15, 'Not as the offence, so also is the free 
 gift : for the judgment was by one to condemnation, 
 but the free gift is of many offences unto justification.' 
 But the greater any sin is, the more especially did 
 Christ come into the world for the destruction of that 
 sin. Now a thing may be said to be 'greater' in two 
 ways; in one way, intensively, as where we say greater, 
 that is, more intense, whiteness. And in this way 
 actual is greater than original sin, because it has more
 
 OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 49 
 
 of the nature of voluntary agency. In another way 
 a thing is said to be greater extensively ; as where we 
 say greater whiteness, meaning a lai'ger superficies. 
 And in this way original sin, by which the whole 
 race of man is infected, is greater than any actual sin 
 which is peculiar to individuals." 
 
 Another question in the Middle Ages was, whether 
 the Incarnation would have taken place irrespective of 
 sin and of the fall, but the Article does not enter upon 
 this tempting field of speculation. It views the matter 
 from the practical light of accomplished facts. It as- 
 sumes the sad truths of sin having entered into the 
 world and death by sin, and here announces the all- 
 powerful Remedy.
 
 AETICLE III. 
 DE DESCEASU CHRISTI AD INFEROS. 
 
 QUEMADMODUM Christus pro nobis mortuus est, et sepul- 
 lus, ita est etiam credendm ad Inferos descendisse. 
 
 Of the going down of Christ into Hell. 
 
 "As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also it is to 
 be believed that He went down into hell." 
 
 THE minds of men both before and at the time of the 
 Reformation turned much upon this mysterious sub- 
 ject 3 . "There have been in my diocese," says Bishop 
 Alley, of Exeter, " great invectives between the preach- 
 ers, one against another, and also partakers with them ; 
 some holding that the going down of Christ His soul 
 to hell was nothing else but the virtue and strength of 
 Christ His own death, to be made manifest and known 
 to them that were dead before. Others say that dcscen- 
 dit in in/era is nothing else but that Christ did suffer 
 upon the cross the infernal pains of hell. . . . Finally, 
 others preach that the Article is not contained in other 
 symbols, neither in the symbol of Cyprian or rather 
 B-ufmus. The contrary side bring for them the uni- 
 versal consent of all the Fathers of both Churches, 
 both of the Greeks and of the Latins V 
 
 It was one of the subjects of the trial of Bishop Reginald Pecock 
 in the fifteenth century. 
 
 b Alley, cit. Hardwick, Articles, 137. Perkins expounded the descent 
 into hell of our Lord's mental sufferings in the place of the damned. 
 (Hardwick, 171.)
 
 OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 51 
 
 Moreover from a very early period, in an uncritical 
 age, the influence of the false gospel of Nicodemus had 
 been profoundly felt in the Church. In that there 
 was a most graphic description of the descent of our 
 Lord into the lower parts of the earth, given with 
 circumstances particular enough to excite the imagina- 
 tion and to impress the soul : 
 
 "Cap. xxi. And while Satan and Hades thus com- 
 muned together, there came a great voice, like thunder, 
 saying, 'Life up your gates, ye princes ! and be ye lift 
 up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall 
 come in ! ' And Hades, hearing it, said to Satan, ' Go 
 forth now, if thou art able, and make stand against 
 Him.' And Satan went forth. Then Hades saith to 
 his demons, ' Make fast the gates of brass and the bolts 
 of iron, and secure me the locks, and watch, all of you, 
 standing on tiptoe, for if this man enter, woe be- 
 tides us/ 
 
 " And hearing these things, the forefathers began to 
 upbraid him, saying, 'All- devouring and insatiate! 
 open, that the King of Glory may come in ! ' And 
 David, the prophet, saith, 'Knowest thou not, blind 
 one ! that, while still in life, I prophesied these self- 
 same words, ' ' Lift up your gates, ye princes ? " ' And 
 Isaiah said, ' I too foresaw this, and wrote by the Spirit, 
 "The dead shall stand up, and those who are in the 
 tombs shall be awakened." And, " Where is thy sting, 
 O death ? Where, O grave ! thy victory ?" 
 
 " Then came again the voice, saying, ' Lift up your 
 gates, ye princes ! and be ye lift up, ye everlasting 
 doors, and the King of Glory shall come in !'
 
 52 ARTICLE III. 
 
 "And Hades, hearing the voice the second time, 
 answered, as one forsooth unwilling, ' Who is this King 
 of Glory?' And the angels of the Lord answered, 
 'The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in 
 battle.' 
 
 " And straightway, with that word, the brazen gates 
 were broken, and the bolts of iron torn asunder, and 
 the bound in death were loosed from their chains, and 
 we with them. And the King of Glory entered, in 
 form even as a man, and all the dark places of Hades 
 were lighted up. 
 
 " Cap. xxii. And straightway Hades cried out, ' We 
 are conquered. Woe unto us ! But who art Thou, that 
 hast such power and privilege ? And what art Thou 
 that comest hither without sin, small in seeming but 
 excellent in power, the humble and the great, slave at 
 once and master, soldier and king, wielding power over 
 the dead and the living ; nailed to the cross, and yet 
 the destroyer of our power ? Truly Thou art the Jesus, 
 of whom the Archsatrap Satan spake to us, that by Thy 
 cross and death Thou shouldest purchase the universe ! ' 
 Then the King of Glory, holding Satan by the head, 
 delivered him to the angels, and said, ' Bind his hands 
 and feet, and neck and mouth, with irons/ And, giving 
 him over to Hades, He said, 'Receive, and keep him 
 surely until My Second Advent.'. . . . 
 
 " Cap. xxiv. Then the King of Glory stretched out 
 His right hand, and took the forefather, Adam, and 
 raised him up, and turning to the rest also, He said, 
 * Come with Me, all of you, as many as have died by 
 the wood which this man eat of ; for lo ! I upraise ye
 
 OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 53 
 
 all by the wood of the cross ! ' After these things He 
 brought them all forth. And the forefather, Adam, 
 filled with exceeding joy, said, 'I render Thee thanks, 
 O Lord, that Thou hast brought me up from the depths 
 of Hades.' Thus, too, said all the prophets and saints : 
 * We thank Thee, Christ, Saviour of the world, that 
 Thou hast redeemed our life from corruption/ And 
 while they were saying these things, the Saviour 
 blessed Adam in the forehead with the sign of the 
 cross, and did the like to the patriarchs and the pro- 
 phets, and the martyrs and forefathers, and taking 
 them with Him, He rose up out of Hades. And as He 
 journeyed, the holy fathers, accompanying Him, sang, 
 ' Praised be He Who hath come in the name of the 
 Lord. Hallelujah c .' " 
 
 When scenes like this passed for the very fact, as we 
 find it all assumed as such even so late as the time of 
 the great preacher, Luiz of Grenada, it is not to be 
 wondered that it should occupy men's thoughts. " The 
 harrowing of hell," as it was technically called in Eng- 
 lish, became a favourite subject of the religious art of 
 the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as may be seen 
 in the works of Taddeo Gaddi and Simone Memmi, in 
 the chapter-house of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. 
 But this was not all. Calvin pushed his theory of the 
 satisfaction of Christ to such a pass, that he maintained 
 that our Lord not only descended into hell, but actually 
 suffered the tortures of the damned. 
 
 Although this truth is not expressed either in the 
 c Lord Lindsay's " Christian Art," vol. i. p. Ivii.
 
 54 ARTICLE ITT. 
 
 Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creeds, we find it in many 
 of the most ancient, such as the Roman and Apostles' 
 Creeds, and before all in the Creed of Aquileia, as 
 Rufinus testifies: " Rufinus mentions that it was not 
 found in the contemporary creed of the Church of 
 Rome. It occurs in the Athanasian (A.D. 430), but we 
 do not meet it again till we find it in the Creed of 
 Venantius Fortunatus (A.D. 570). Thenceforward it is 
 of very frequent occurrence. It is found in an Arian 
 Creed, which appeared in three forms in the years 359 
 and 360, and is known as the third Sirraian Creed. It 
 was adopted at Nice in Thrace [not Nicsea], and next 
 year in a council held at Constantinople. King sup- 
 poses that the Article relating to our Lord's descent 
 into hell was introduced into it by the Arians, the more 
 effectually to blind the eyes of the orthodox, that by 
 proposing a doctrine which by implication overthrew 
 a doctrine which many of their sect held, viz. that 
 Christ was without a human soul, the ^46705- supplying 
 the place of soul, they might get the whole creed to pass 
 without suspicion. These are the only creeds in which 
 the clause is found previously to Rufinus's time. But 
 the fact of our Lord's descent seems to have been ordi- 
 narily delivered, in connection with the other great 
 facts of the Gospel history, in the elementary instruc- 
 tion communicated to the new converts. In the sum- 
 mary of faith which Eusebius says he translated from 
 the Syriac, and which he states to have been rehearsed 
 by Thaddoeus to Agbarus of Edessa, we have the follow- 
 ing: 'He was crucified and went down into hell, and
 
 OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 55 
 
 broke down the partition which had never been 
 broken.' Whatever opinion may be formed as to the 
 authenticity of the narrative, at any rate the summary 
 of faith in which these words occur is a witness to 
 the elementary teaching of very early times d ." It is 
 founded on two remarkable passages in Scripture, the 
 16th Psalm, as expounded by St. Peter in Acts ii., 
 "Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, neither shalt 
 Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption ;" and 
 secondly, 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, where our Lord is said to 
 have come in the Spirit, and to have preached to the 
 souls in prison ; to which may be added the 81st 
 Psalm, as a prophecy of this mystery, Christ alone 
 being He who is free among the dead. 
 
 The chief questions which have been raised on this 
 matter are, Did our Lord descend into hell ? For what 
 end in the order of redemption did He so descend ? 
 Whom did He rescue therefrom? Besides, there is the 
 great question whether, on the dissolution of the vital 
 union in Christ, the hypostatic union was still main- 
 tained ? 
 
 Now that our Lord descended, was taught from the 
 very beginning of Christianity by the holy Fathers^ 
 Justin Martyr e applies to this truth that text of Jere- 
 miah which is not found in our version, but is quoted 
 also by S. Irenseus : " The Lord God remembered His 
 dead from Israel that slept in the earth of the sepulchre, 
 and He came down to them to preach His salvation." 
 
 d Heurtley's Harmonia Symlolica, pp. 135, sqq. Oxf. 1858. 
 e Dial. TrypJi. 72, p. 164, Oxf. Tr.
 
 56 ARTICLE III. 
 
 Justin accused the Jews of suppressing this passage. 
 Irenoeus says, " He went down to see with His eyes id 
 quod erat inoperatum conditions f ; " also to announce 
 His coming, and extending the remission of punishment 
 to those that believed in Him g ; and that for three 
 days He passed the time where the dead were, and de- 
 scended to them to bring them out and save them h . 
 
 Clemens Alexandrinus asserts "that our Lord de- 
 scended for no other reason than to preach the Gos- 
 pel '," and his disciple Origen says, " the soul of Christ 
 disembodied conversed with disembodied spirits k ;" 
 " that for the salvation of the world He went down and 
 brought back Adam : ." Eusebius, commenting on the 
 16th Psalm : " He was present for the sake of the souls 
 who were retained in hell; who for many ages had 
 expected His coming. He descended to break the 
 brazen gates, and burst the iron bonds, that He might 
 set those free who had been hitherto bound beneath m ." 
 St. Athanasius uses the docrine as an argument against 
 Apollinaris, who denied that our Lord had assumed a 
 human soul. St. Cyril of Jerusalem elucidates the doc- 
 trine in the practical teaching of his Catechism n , and 
 St. Epiphanius in his refutation of the heresies of the 
 Herodians and Arians. To this truth also, in magnifi- 
 cent diction, St. Chrysostom, in the beginning of his 
 homilies on St. Matthew, alludes, where he savs : " Thou 
 
 f Iren. iv. 39. * Ibid. iv. 48. h Ibid. v. 31. 
 
 1 Strom, vi. 6, p. 762, ed. Potter. k Cont. Gel. ii. 43, p. 419. 
 
 1 Horn. xv. Gen. ' Bus. Dem. Ev. x. 8, p. 501, ed. Col. 1688 
 
 " Cyr. M. C., iv. 11.
 
 OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 57 
 
 shalt likewise see the tyrant here bound, and the mul- 
 titude of the captives following, and the citadel from 
 which that unholy demon overran all things in time 
 past. Thou wilt see the hiding-places and the dens of 
 the robber, for even there also was our King present ." 
 The Latin fathers are equally unanimous in their testi- 
 mony, and no one goes into the question more thoroughly 
 than St. Augustine, who, in his 99th Epistle, treats of 
 the interpretation of the obscure passage of St. Peter. 
 St. Jerome p also developes the doctrine. He makes 
 St. John Baptist, in sending his disciples to our Lord, 
 reason, " I know that Thou art He who hath come to 
 take away the sins of the world, but because I am going 
 to descend into hell, I also ask, whether Thou also art 
 to descend thither ; or is it impious to think this of 
 the Son of God, and so wilt Thou send another ? I de- 
 sire to know whether, as I have announced Thee on 
 earth, I am also to announce Thee beneath." So, in 
 his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians q ," 
 he says, " The Son of God therefore descended into the 
 lower parts of the earth, and ascended up also ; not only 
 that He might fulfil the law and the prophets, but also 
 obtain other occult dispensations, known only to the 
 Father and Himself. For we cannot know how the 
 Blood of Christ profiteth the angels, and those that 
 were in hell, and yet we cannot be ignorant that It did 
 profit them. He descended therefore into hell, and 
 ascended into heaven, that he might fill those who 
 were in those regions, according as they could receive." 
 Horn. ii. 18, Oxf. Tr. P Ep. cli. ad Algasiam. 1 iv. 10.
 
 58 ARTICLE III. 
 
 S. Fulgentius r : "It remained therefore for the full 
 effect of our redemption, that thither sinless man 
 assumed by God might descend, whither sinful man 
 separated from God deservedly had fallen; that is, 
 into hell, where the soul of the wicked was used to be 
 tormented; and to the tomb, where the flesh of the 
 wicked was used to be corrupted ; yet in such wise 
 that neither the flesh of Christ was corrupted in the 
 tomb, nor the soul of Christ tortured by the pains of 
 hell ; because that Soul free from sin was not liable to 
 punishment, and corruption dared not touch the sin- 
 less flesh/' 
 
 He meets the question of the dissolution of the vital 
 union " : "In the sepulchre the same God made man 
 lay; and the same God made man rose from hell on 
 the third day ; but in the sepulchre the same God lay 
 only according to the flesh, and descended into hell 
 solely according to the soul." 
 
 His disciple Ferrandus * developes this thought : 
 "Whole (totws) Christ is everywhere, in that He is 
 the Word ; but the whole which He is (totum] is not 
 everywhere : for the rational soul and flesh are not 
 everywhere; with which He is one. He was in hell 
 according to His rational soul, but not the whole of 
 Him, for His flesh was not there, which went to 
 constitute the whole. Whole Christ was in the grave 
 according to the flesh; but not the whole of Him, 
 
 r Ad Trasimundum, lib. iii. 30, init. JBibl. Patr. ix. 65. s Lib. de 
 Fid. ad Petr., cap. in., 7?. Patr. ix. 74 B. * Ad Severum Scaolast. 
 -B. Patr. ix. 512 E.
 
 OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 59 
 
 because the rational soul, which goes to constitute the 
 whole, was not there. But the "Word of God was 
 both with the soul in hell, and with the body in 
 the grave, because naturally it is everywhere dif- 
 fused, and was never wanting either to His soul or 
 His flesh." 
 
 Some of the Fathers, from the expression " nether- 
 most hell," in the Psalms, imagine that there are two 
 mansions, one in which the souls of the saints were 
 detained, and one in which the wicked are tormented. 
 Whether our Lord went to both is a question on which 
 the consent is not perfect. St. Gregory, in his Morals, 
 would have that our Lord went to the first only; St. 
 Augustine u and, as we have seen already, his disciple 
 Fulgentius, to the second. 
 
 As regards the question what souls our Lord freed, 
 the author of the treatise De Paschate, attributed to St. 
 Ambrose, asserts that all sinners were freed by Christ ; 
 and to this St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his Paschal Ser- 
 mon (xlii.), alludes, where he says: "If He descended 
 into hell, descend with Him. Learn the mysteries of 
 Christ that are enacted even there ; what is the secret 
 of that double descent, what was its reason ? Did He 
 save all Avithout exception by His advent, or those only 
 who believed in Him?" The large-hearted Alexandrian 
 school, with its intense love of heathen learning, and 
 with its theory of the providential development of the 
 Greek philosophy, rather inclined to the opinion that 
 our Lord freed all ; but the common belief of the 
 
 u De Gen. ad lit. xii.
 
 60 ARTICLE III. 
 
 Church has been that our Lord, descending into hell, 
 imparted salvation to those only who, while they lived, 
 by faith and righteousness had rendered themselves 
 worthy of that favour. This would seem to be the 
 interpretation of the extremely obscure passage in the 
 Epistle of St. Peter, viz. that our Lord in the Spirit, 
 descending into hell, mercifully bestowed His grace 
 upon the dead, and called to the knowledge and vene- 
 ration of Himself, not all, but those who from the 
 beginning of the world had died in the grace and 
 friendship of God, not only under the law, but from 
 the most ancient times, even before the Flood. There- 
 fore he specially dwells on their case, that he might 
 exhibit the fact that the beneficent power of the Re- 
 deemer told backward, and that he might have a fitting 
 opportunity of making mention of baptism, which the 
 Flood prefigured x . 
 
 The descent into hell, viewed as the triumph over 
 Satan, assumes an important place in that scheme of 
 redemption which is found in many of the fathers be- 
 tween St. Irenseus and St. Anselm. The atonement, 
 according to this view, consists in our Lord's Life being 
 paid as a ransom to Satan, who had, by man's sin, 
 acquired rights over man. The devil, by being unable 
 to retain the Soul of Christ in hell, lost his empire also 
 over those whom he had hitherto detained y. 
 
 x Vide Petavius, de Incarnations ad locum. ? Irenaeus, v. 1 j 
 
 Origen, Horn, in Matfh., xiii. 581 ; see Oxenham on the Atonement, 
 pp. 4752.
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 DE RESURRECTIONE CHRISTI. 
 
 CHRISTUS vere a mortuis resurrexit, suumque corpus cum 
 came, ossibus, oninibusque ad intcgritatem humana na- 
 turas pertinentibus, recepit : cum quibus in ccelum as- 
 ccndit, ibiqite residet quoad extremo die ad judicandos 
 homines reuersuriis sit. 
 
 Of the Resurrection of Christ. 
 
 " CHRIST did truly rise again from death, and took 
 again His body, with flesh, bones, and all things ap- 
 pertaining to the perfection of man's nature; where- 
 with He ascended into heaven, and there sitteth, until 
 He return to judge all men at the last day." 
 
 " THE same stone which the builders rejected is be- 
 come the Head of the Corner." The same argument 
 which the Apostles used when, inspired by the Holy 
 Ghost on the day of Pentecost, they went forth to con- 
 quer the world to the obedience of faith, is the turn- 
 ing-point in the great contest between Faith and In- 
 fidelity, which is being waged in the midst of the 
 civilization of the nineteenth century. Grant the Re- 
 surrection, and the whole Catholic Creed follows ; 
 reject the Resurrection, and there remains no basis for 
 Christianity, however long a pietistic sentiment may 
 seek to feed the dead embers of a defunct and ex- 
 tinguished faith.
 
 62 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 Observe the course of persuasion used by the first 
 propagators of the faith. They distinctly assert that 
 Jesus of Nazareth, who had been seen and known by 
 many to whom they spake, whose public Crucifixion 
 was recorded in the Criminal Procedure of the State, ac- 
 tually had risen from the dead, in accordance with such 
 a distinct promise that He was to do so, as that on the 
 fulfilment of such promise He had all along staked His 
 pretensions as a Divine Teacher. The apostolic college 
 is filled up specially with a view to a " witness with us 
 of His resurrection* 1 ." St. Peter's sermon on the day of 
 Pentecost turns on this fact : " This Jesus hath God 
 raised up, whereof we all are witnesses 1 *." So at the 
 Beautiful Gate of the Temple, " the Prince of Life 
 whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are 
 witnesses c ;" so before the Sanhedrin, " Whom God 
 raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand 
 before you whole d ;" so in the preaching after that, 
 " With great power gave the Apostles witness of the 
 Resurrection of the Lord Jesus e ;" so in the presence 
 of Gamaliel, " Him hath God exalted with His right 
 hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give re- 
 pentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins f ;" so 
 St. Stephen saw the Son of Man in heaven, whereon 
 the people " cried with a loud voice and stopped their 
 ears g j" so at the baptism of Cornelius, to the Gentiles 
 the astounding fact is declared, " Him God raised up 
 the third day, and shewed Him openly h ;" so in St. 
 
 * Acts i. 22. b Ibid. ii. 32. c Ibid. iii. 15. d Ibid. iv. 10. 
 Ibid. iv. 33. f Ibid. v. 31. e Ibid. vii. 57. h Ibid. x. 40.
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 63 
 
 Paul's first sermon at Antioch ' l , and at Thessalonica k , 
 and specially at Athens, the Resurrection is the subject 
 of his teaching l . When charged before the Sanhedrin, 
 he claims the sympathy of the Pharisees, and at the 
 same time states the very centre of his teaching, when 
 he says, " Of the hope and of the resurrection of the 
 dead, I am called in question 01 ." And the practical 
 and unsupernatural Festus states the matter from his 
 point of view, when he speaks of the complaints against 
 Paul, being " of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul 
 affirmed to be alive n ;" as indeed the blessed Apostle 
 himself makes plain in his solemn address to Agrippa . 
 In short, the whole of the Acts testify to the truth 
 that the early disciples made this the very kernel of 
 their teaching. 
 
 As might be expected, the early Christian apologists 
 urge this argument. St. Justin p says : " After His 
 crucifixion, then, even they that were acquainted with 
 Him all denied and forsook Him ; but afterwards, when 
 He rose from the dead, and was seen by them, and 
 taught them to read the prophecies in which all these 
 things were foretold to happen, and when they had 
 seen Him go up into heaven, and had believed and 
 received power from thence, which was sent them from 
 Him, they went forth to the whole race of men and 
 taught these things, and received the name of Apo- 
 stles." And Tertullian shews how the belief in our 
 Lord's Resurrection is bound up with the hope of our 
 
 1 Acts xiii. 30. k Ibid. xvii. 3. l Ibid. xvii. 19. 
 
 m Ibid, xxiii. 6. n Ibid. xxv. 19. Ibid. xxvi. 23. P Apol., 50.
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 own : " Believing the Resurrection of Christ, we believe 
 also in our own, for whom He died and rose again. 
 When, therefore, we are sure of the resurrection of the 
 dead, the sorrow of death is voided, as well as the im- 
 patience of pain i;" and, conversely, "weaken the faith 
 in the Resurrection of our Lord, and that of ourselves 
 is injured also r ." St. Chrysostorn s shews how all the 
 different mysteries hang upon each other : " For if He 
 (Christ) truly took not upon Him our flesh, He neither 
 was crucified, dead, nor buried, neither did He rise 
 again. If He did not rise again, the whole reason of 
 the Dispensation is overthrown. Thou seest into what 
 inconsequence they fall who will not follow the canon 
 of the Holy Scripture, but who twist everything in 
 their individual reasonings/' 
 
 Now in the modern controversies, this truth, as has 
 been said, is the Crucial one. We must begin by 
 assuming God, therefore an omnipotent God, therefore 
 a God who ruleth and governeth all things in heaven 
 and earth. This granted, there can be no limit to His 
 power, and however contrary to our experience, there 
 is no antecedent improbability that He may not act by 
 what we term ' miraculous intervention.' We have 
 a right, therefore, on the ground that all natural phe- 
 nomena are the result of the operation of a perfect 
 will, to assume the propriety of a general fixity, but 
 also the power of an occasional disturbance of the order 
 of being. Brute matter can have no law within itself, 
 
 i De Patientia, p. 165, ed. Rigalt. Paris, 1641. ' Ibid., p. 484. 
 
 In Gen. Horn. 58, n. 3.
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 65 
 
 else it would cease to be brute matter. Matter, there- 
 fore, is either the Pantheistic God, or it has no inherent 
 laws of its own constitution outside the will of its 
 maker. But that brute matter is the Pantheistic God 
 is a supposition surrounded by great difficulties. We 
 therefore may safely choose the only other alternative. 
 
 Assuming, then, the possibility of miracle, we have 
 in the Resurrection of our Lord to face the fact of the 
 greatest objective miracle which has ever been preached 
 to the world. If mankind have been deceived in giving 
 credence to this, Christianity must fall ; for both its 
 apologetic and its ethical position is bound up in the 
 truth of the fact. On the other hand, accept the Re- 
 surrection of our Lord, and all other mysteries follow 
 in its train. When the soul has bowed itself before 
 the truth of the Resurrection, it is only inconsistency 
 which keeps men back from accepting all the mysteries 
 of the faith. It is only a little more or a little less. 
 In principle the point has been yielded. 
 
 This being the case, the historical truth of what is 
 asserted of our Lord's rising again must be submitted 
 to the severest historical criticism. There is no true 
 kindness in blinking any fact with regard to it. It 
 is too serious a matter not to be probed to the quick. 
 And here such works as the Trial of the Witnesses 
 come in good stead. The acutest minds have devoted 
 themselves to pick holes in the Gospel narrative of this 
 sacred event, and the result is that, given the authen- 
 ticity of the documents, there is not only no contradic- 
 tion, such as can destroy their historic worth, but ac- 
 
 F
 
 66 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 tually there is no escape for an unprejudiced mind in 
 accepting the truth on the historic testimony. 
 
 The chief modern attempt at evasion is that of 
 Dr. Strauss, whose theory of a mythic accretion around 
 a really historic personage is a very subtle device of 
 the evil one. The main points on which he rests are 
 i. an exaggeration of the difficulty of systematizing 
 the records of the different appearances of our Lord 
 during the forty great days, and thereby the infusion 
 of a doubt as to the trustworthiness of the testimony ; 
 or, ii. the philosophical difficulty as to the nature of 
 the Resurrection of Body. 
 
 i. Following in the main the authority of Mr. Gres- 
 welP, we seem to find that the following chronology 
 harmonizes the different accounts of our Lord's Resur- 
 rection, and of such of His apparitions as it has pleased 
 the Holy Ghost to reveal to us in the Gospels and 
 Epistles. 
 
 1. On Sunday morning the sixteenth of Nisan, cor- 
 responding with the sixth of April, the two Maries and 
 Salome, who had bought spices, went very early to the 
 tomb. An earthquake takes place. An angel of the 
 Lord comes down and rolls back the stone, and sits 
 upon it ; as the women approach, they ask who is to 
 roll back the stone, and on arriving they find that this 
 has actually taken place. An angel announces the 
 Resurrection, and invites them to enter the tomb; 
 there they see a young man sitting on the right in 
 a shining garment, who encourages them, and again 
 
 ' Harmonia Evangelica, p. 393.
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION* OF CHRIST. 67 
 
 announces the Resurrection ; sends them to Peter and 
 the Apostles, and invites them to meet our Lord in 
 Galilee, as He had said unto them ; the women fly 
 from the tomb in fear, but with great joy they ran 
 to announce it to the Disciples, but they said nothing 
 to any one, for they were afraid u . 
 
 2. The watch go into the city, announce all that 
 has taken place, leave the sepulchre empty, and are 
 bribed by the Chief Priests x . 
 
 3. Meanwhile a new company of women, of whom 
 the chief is Joanna, the wife of Chusa, bearing spices, 
 come to the tomb, see two men in bright clothing, who 
 reproached them for seeking the living among the 
 dead, and remind them of our Lord's prophecy in 
 Galilee, that the Son of Man should be betrayed into 
 the hands of sinners ; returning from the tomb, they 
 announce this to the Eleven and the rest, to whom 
 their words seem as idle tales y . 
 
 4. The news of the Resurrection, however, is affirmed 
 to the Apostle Simon Peter and the other disciple, on 
 the evidence of both companies of women z . 
 
 5. Peter and John run to the empty tomb and inspect 
 it, and go away, wondering at what has taken place a . 
 
 6. Our Lord's first appearance to Mary Magdalen 
 as the gardener b . 
 
 7. He appears to the women, saying, "All hail c I" 
 
 11 St. Matt, xxviii. 18 ; St. Mark xvi. 18. * St. Matt, xxviii. 
 
 1115. y St. Luke xxiv. 19. z Ibid. xxiv. 10 j St. John 
 
 xx. 1, 2. St. Luke xxiv. 12 St. John xx. 3, 10. b St. Mark 
 
 xvi. 911 j St. John xx. 11 18. c St. Matt, xxviii. 9 ; Ellicott's 
 
 Life of our Lord, 391.
 
 68 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 8. The scene at Emmaus d , and the second manifesta- 
 tion toward mid-day. 
 
 9. Cleophas and his companion return arid announce 
 it to the rest, and are received with incredulity as to 
 the actual fact e ; but the disciples, on the other hand, 
 announce an apparition of our Lord to Simon f . 
 
 10. Soon after, He, for the fourth manifestation, 
 appears to the ten s . 
 
 11. The fifth manifestation to the eleven 11 . 
 
 12. The sixth manifestation on the mountain in 
 Galilee \ 
 
 13. The seventh manifestation to the five hundred J. 
 
 14. The eighth manifestation at the sea of Tibe- 
 rias k . 
 
 15. The ninth manifestation to James 1 . 
 
 16. The tenth to all the Apostles" 1 , on the fortieth 
 day after His resurrection n . 
 
 17. His eleventh manifestation to St. Stephen at 
 his martyrdom. 
 
 18. His twelfth to St. Paul at his conversion. 
 
 19. His thirteenth at St. Paul's first answer be- 
 fore Nero. 
 
 20. His fourteenth to St. John in Patmos. 
 
 The beautiful legend that our Lord first appeared to 
 His mother is not here dwelt upon, inasmuch as it rests 
 upon no authority anterior to the Middle Ages. 
 
 d St. Mark xvi. 12 ; St. Luke xxiv. 13, sqq. e St. Mark xvi. 13. 
 
 f St. Luke xxiv. 33, 34. B St. Luke xxiv. 36 : St. John xx. 192-1. 
 
 * St. Mark xvi. 14 j St. John xx. 26. ' St. Matt, xxviii. 16, sqq. 
 
 J 1 Cor. xv. 6. k St. John xxi. 124. ' 1 Cor. xv. 7. 
 
 m Ibid. n St. Luke xxiv. 44 19.
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 69 
 
 ii. The difficulty as regards the Resurrection-body is 
 no doubt very perplexing, for we know nothing of the 
 conditions of such bodies. Enough is revealed to shew 
 that something ineffable and mysterious attended upon 
 all the apparitions of the Son of God after His resurrec- 
 tion. On the one hand, He appears among the dis- 
 ciples suddenly when the doors are shut, His sacred 
 Body passing through matter without sustaining any 
 let or hindrance thereby. He has the faculty of ren- 
 dering Himself invisible, and of moving from place to 
 place with supernatural speed. He is so changed that 
 one, least of all likely to mistake Him, supposes Him 
 to be the gardener. On the other hand, He is so 
 palpable that He invites the touch of St. Thomas ; and 
 in proof of the abidingness of His Humanity, He eats 
 fish and bread by the fire of coals on the shore of the 
 sea of Galilee. 
 
 And from these data two lines of thought have ex- 
 isted in the Church. St. Irenseus, and they who follow 
 him, hold the risen body of our Lord to have been flesh 
 and blood in the exact sense of our own, and they natu- 
 rally, as against the heretics of the time, strenuously 
 insist upon the identity of the body before and after 
 death. On the other hand, the philosophical school 
 of Alexandria, deeply imbued with heathen learning, 
 and fully alive to the difficulties of the question, have 
 dwelt strongly on the line of thought opened up by 
 St. Paul in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to 
 the Corinthians, where he distinguishes between the 
 natural body and the spiritual body ; where he draws
 
 70 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 the broadest line possible, consistent with perfect iden- 
 tity, between the conditions of all pre-resurrection and 
 post-resurrection bodies. This line was first developed 
 by Origen, but probably traces of it may be found in 
 St. Pantsenus and St. Clement. As a rule, the Alexan- 
 drians opposed Chiliasm, and this rejection involves the 
 notion of a spiritual resurrection . They also assumed 
 that souls at the time of the resurrection should not 
 resume the gross material body, but one of fine, uncor- 
 ruptible texture P. Origen, according to Neander % 
 makes much use of what St. Paul says with reference 
 to the terrestrial and the glorified body, distinguishing 
 from the mutable phenomenal form, the proper essence 
 lying at the foundation of the body, which through all the 
 changes of life remains the same, and is not destroyed 
 by death. The proper essence would, by the co-operation 
 of the divine power, be awakened to a nobler form, cor- 
 responding to the ennobled character of the soul. 
 
 St. Augustine tells us that at one time he held the 
 Alexandrian view, but afterwards saw reason to change 
 his opinion r . Moreover, he asks if parts which serve 
 
 Gieseler, Ch. Hist., vol. i. p. 242, ed. Clarke. 
 
 P Clemens, Pad. ii. p. 230; Orig. de Priiic. ii. 10. 3, and c. 11, cit. 
 Gieseler. 
 
 1 Ch. Hist., vol. ii. p. 403, where he quotes Tlepl hpx-, 1- ii. o. 10 ; 
 c. Cels., 1. iv. c. 57; Libertin. in Psalm., t. xi. p. 388, ed. Loeain ; see 
 also Cels. v. 23, vii. 32. 
 
 1 Vide Retract., lib. i. cap. xvii. torn. i. p. 20. 
 
 I am indebted for the line of thought regarding the different schools 
 of Christian thought, to my valued friend the Eev. D. Greig, whose 
 articles in the "Christian Remembrancer" on the connection between 
 Calvinism and Infidelity well deserve study.
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 71 
 
 for the support of man will survive the resurrection, 
 and he answers in the affirmative 3 . The thoughts of 
 the Schoolmen on the subject of the Resurrection are 
 very valuable. They lay down that 
 
 It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from 
 the dead, First, to commend the justice of God to 
 which it belongeth, to exalt those who for His sake 
 humble themselves. Secondly, to instruct our faith in 
 His divinity, for if Christ be not risen, the Apostle 
 testifies, " our preaching is vain, and your faith also is 
 vain." Thirdly, for the support of our hope, because, 
 when we see Christ who is our Head risen, we may 
 hope that we His members shall also rise again ac- 
 cording to the words of Job, " I know that my Re- 
 deemer liveth." Fourthly, for the instruction of the 
 faithful in morals, for " like as Christ was raised from 
 the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
 should walk in newness of life." Fifthly, for the com- 
 pletion of our salvation, as He was humiliated in death 
 to free us from evils, so He was glorified in rising 
 again to promote us to good things ; as it is written, 
 " Who was given for our sins, and rose again for our 
 justification*." 
 
 Civ. Dei, xxii. 19; Serin. 243, n. 3. 
 
 The science of anatomy supplies us with some hints as to the nature 
 of the post-resurrection body. In the embryo there are the organs 
 which tend to its nutrition, and there are the germs of the future 
 organs of the developed body : so in the developed body there are the 
 organs which tend to its nutrition, and the germs of future organs, such 
 as the supra-renal capsules, which have no office in the present mode 
 of being. It may be that they will find their use in the resurrection 
 of body. ' St. Thomas, qu. Tert. pars 53, Art. 1.
 
 72 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 To confirm our faith in Christ's divinity, that Re- 
 surrection was not deferred to the end of the world ; 
 to confirm our faith in His humanity and death, a cer- 
 tain delay was necessary to make the latter evident, 
 therefore He rose on the third day. Christ is the 
 firstfruits of them that slept, and His Resurrection is 
 such, not in the sense of a simple resuscitation from the 
 state of death, but in that of a freedom from the pos- 
 sibility of dying again. " Christ being risen from the 
 dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion 
 over Him." The vital union was destroyed in death, 
 but not the hypostatic union. Wherefore Christ, ac- 
 cording to the power of His divinity, was the cause 
 of His own Resurrection, but according to His hu- 
 manity He was raised by the Father. 
 
 In order to a true Resurrection, the same body must 
 be re-united to the same soul, and inasmuch as it is its 
 form which determines the truth of the nature of any 
 body, therefore the Body of Christ after His Resur- 
 rection was both a true Body, and of the same nature 
 as before. A phantastic body implies only an appa- 
 rent resurrection. Whatever pertains to the nature of 
 the human body, as flesh, blood, bones, and the like, 
 is integrally, and without any diminution, in the 
 glorious Body of the Risen Christ. But that Body 
 was glorious, First, as being the model of our bodies, 
 which, being sown in dishonour, shall be raised in glory. 
 Secondly, because by the lowliness of His Passion He 
 merited the glory of His Resurrection. Thirdly, be- 
 cause the Soul of Christ being glorious by its perfect
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 73 
 
 fruition of the Godhead, and that glory being only re- 
 strained from filling the Body to accomplish the mys- 
 tery of redemption, when that was done, His Soul again 
 resumed its power to make the Body also glorious ; and 
 yet that Soul resumed the Body stigmatized with the 
 sacred wounds of the Passion ; (1.) for the glory of 
 Christ, to preserve to Him the trophies of His victory ; 
 (2.) to confirm the faith of His disciples in the truth 
 of His Resurrection ; (3.) that He might ever plead 
 them to the Father in His office of perpetual Priest 
 and Yictim ; (4.) to suggest, from the sight of these 
 signs of suffering, to those who have been redeemed 
 by His death how mercifully they have been aided 
 thereby; and, lastly, (5.) to convict the reprobate at 
 the Day of Judgment u . 
 
 Our Lord did not prove His Resurrection to His 
 disciples by argument, because argumentative proof 
 proceeds from premisses which must have been either 
 known or unknown to them. If unknown, it was im- 
 possible, because we cannot proceed from the unknown 
 to prove the known ; if known, it was unnecessary, the 
 proof being in their own power. He contented Him- 
 self with the testimony of Scripture, the foundation of 
 our faith, as contained in Moses, the Prophets, and the 
 Psalms. But He shewed Himself alive after His Pas- 
 sion to His disciples by many infallible proofs and 
 sensible signs, to the intent that (1.) they themselves 
 might be disposed to faith, and (2.) that their testimony 
 might be efficacious. His proofs were sufficient to shew, 
 
 u St. Thomas, q. 54, Art. 1, 2, 3, 4.
 
 74 
 
 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 (1.) the truth, and then (2.) the glory of His Resur- 
 rection. The truth by its solidity : " Handle Me and 
 see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me 
 have ; " its identity, being the same in members as the 
 Body He had before : " Behold My hands and feet, 
 that it is I Myself;" its perfection, by His manifesta- 
 tion of the nutritive life in eating and drinking ; its 
 sensitive life, in sustaining their touch ; and its intel- 
 lectual life, by expounding to them in all the Scriptures 
 the things concerning Himself. 
 
 He shewed the glory of His Resurrection by His 
 entrance through the closed doors, by His vanishing 
 from the sight of His disciples at Emmaus, and by 
 His Ascension into heaven. As St. Gregory the Great 
 says, "He, after His Resurrection, shewed that His 
 body was of the same nature, but of another glory." 
 
 The supernatural fact of the Resurrection of our 
 Saviour being thus established, the thought leads on, 
 by a natural sequence, to His wonderful Ascension. 
 This earth could be no permanent dwelling-place for 
 One entered upon a life immortal and incorruptible. 
 His Divine Nature had never left heaven, and there- 
 fore was not subject to the conditions of place and 
 motion, which after all are mere measures, and of no 
 substantial reality. When our Lord sat with Nicode- 
 mus, He stated that He was in heaven ; but the Human 
 Nature, hypostatically united to the Divinity, could 
 rest for a time under the relations of time and under 
 our present restrictions of space, and therefore, first, 
 by the power of His own Divinity, and then by virtue
 
 OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 75' 
 
 of His glorified Soul united to that Divinity, He 
 ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill 
 all things. His Body by virtue of its union with the 
 Deity in the One Person of the Eternal Word, excelleth 
 all spiritual substances, and therefore fittingly is it 
 highly exalted far ' above all principality, and power, 
 and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
 named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
 is to come." 
 
 Our Lord's Ascension not only raises our souls to 
 Him as the object of our faith, our hope, our love, 
 and our worship, as That to which we direct our prayer, 
 resting on the corporeal form of Him in "Whom dwelleth 
 all the fulness of the Godhead Bodily ; but as our Head, 
 He has gone before us His members, that where He is, 
 there we may be also : He has entered into the heaven 
 of heavens, within the veil, presenting His Body that 
 was prepared, Himself in our Nature, as the eternal 
 Victim of propitiation : He is seated in heaven crowned 
 as the Lord of all, from whence He pours down His 
 gifts upon creation. 
 
 He is seated in two senses ; first, as dwelling and 
 abiding in that special throne of glory which is de- 
 scribed as the Eight Hand of the Father, and the faith 
 in this is the great safeguard against all those forms of 
 Pantheism, Avhich err in confusing created with un- 
 created substance. Secondly, as enjoying the Royal 
 and judiciary power which, as reigning together with 
 the Father, He hath from Him. To Him alone doth 
 it belong to sit there, since according to His Divinity,.
 
 76 ARTICLE IV. 
 
 He alone with the Holy Ghost is equal to the Father ; 
 and according to His Manhood He has the prerogative 
 of a more blessed Human Nature than any creature, 
 and a prerogative of glory due to Him alone ; " for unto 
 which of the angels said He at any time, Sit Thou 
 at My Right Hand until I make Thine enemies Thy 
 footstool?" 
 
 As God, and as Man, He shall judge both the quick 
 and the dead ; as God, He is the Begotten Wisdom 
 and the Truth, and therefore He commanded His 
 Apostles to testify that it is He Who is ordained of 
 God to be the Judge of quick and dead. " The Father 
 judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to 
 the Son." He is also Judge as Man, inasmuch as, 
 being Head of the Church, to Him belongs the power 
 of judgment. "The Father hath given Him authority 
 to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man." 
 By plenitude of grace, and by merit as Man, He 
 judgeth. And though at the last day the saints in 
 glory will be His assessors, yet will they be there also 
 only to add glory to the great Assize : " when He 
 shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be 
 admired in all them that believe in that day x ." 
 
 x 2 Thess. i. 10.
 
 ARTICLE Y. 
 DE SPIRITU SANCTO. 
 
 SPIBITVS Sanctus, a Patre ct Filio procedens, ejusdem 
 est cum Patre et Filio essentice, majestatis, et gloria, 
 rents ac tetcnuis Deus. 
 
 Of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 " THE Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and 
 the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with 
 the Father and the Son, very and eternal GOD." 
 
 THAT the bond in the Holy Trinity, the osculum 
 Patn's et Filii, should have been the object concerning 
 which the greatest divisions in Christendom should 
 have occurred, is an instance of the deep sinfulness 
 in human nature, and of the way in which the gifts 
 of God are perverted by the depraved agency of the 
 free will of man. Though the question that divided 
 the East from the West may really have turned on 
 earthly matters, on strivings for pre-eminence, and 
 perhaps on deep ethnical reasons laid far down in the 
 nature and constitution of man., it was the device of 
 the Patriarch Photius to choose this transcendental 
 truth for the battle-field of the Churches, to give 
 weight to his charges against the Latin Church. It 
 was a point on which there was much to be said on 
 either side. All a priori reasoning tended one way,
 
 78 ATITICLE \. 
 
 tradition testified in the other. The necessities of the 
 case, and the consequences of truths admitted by both 
 parties, led one way ; the past history of the Church, 
 and the actual letter of Holy Scripture led the other. 
 
 On the part of the Latins it was urged that though 
 the procession from the Son is not expressly stated in 
 Holy Scripture, it is clearly to be deduced therefrom. 
 As He is called the Spirit of the Father a , so He is 
 termed the Spirit of the Son b , and the Spirit of Christ c . 
 Again, as the Father is said to send the Spirit d , so the 
 Son is said to send the Spirit e , and to send implying 
 the Communication of Essence, if He be sent by the 
 Son as by the Father, there must be a Communication 
 of Essence, a Procession from the Son. 
 
 Theologically, if the Father in begetting the Son 
 communicates the whole essence and nature, save only 
 the personal attributes of Paternity and Aseity, it fol- 
 lows that the Son, receiving of the Father whatsoever 
 the Father is in Himself, with these two exceptions, 
 must breathe forth the Spirit from Himself as well 
 as the Father doth from Himself. For the Spirit 
 does not proceed from the Father as a Father, else 
 would He be begotten, and another Son. Yet there is 
 this difference as a result of the doctrine of Subordi- 
 nation, that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father of 
 the Father, but He proceedeth from the Son of the 
 Father, who communicating His own individual Es- 
 sence, and consequently whatever He is to the Son, 
 
 * St. Matt. x. 20. b Gal. iv. G. c Rom. viii. 9; 1 St. Pet. i. 11; 
 Phil. i. 19. d St. John xiv. 26. * Ibid. xv. 26, xvi. 7.
 
 OF THE HOLY GHOST. 7!) 
 
 could not but Communicate to Him the Spirit proceed- 
 ing from Him as He hath it proceeding from Himself. 
 What the Father hath in Himself by way of origin, 
 the Son hath by Communication from the Father. 
 
 The Latins seem to say that the Unity in the God- 
 head is distinguished into Persons, and the Persons are 
 distinguished one from another only by the direct 
 relative opposition of causing and being caused, such 
 ;as is implied in the Xames of the Persons themselves, 
 thus : 
 
 He who begets cannot so far be He who is begotten, 
 nor vice rei'sd ; but in all other respects He who is be- 
 gotten is identical with Him who begets. Also, He 
 who makes to proceed cannot, so far, be He who is 
 made to proceed, nor vice tersd ; but in all other re- 
 spects lie who is made to proceed is identical with 
 Him who makes to proceed. 
 
 The Greek Church states its doctrine thus : " The 
 Father is the source and al-na of the Son. and Holy 
 Ghost; but He is the Father of the Son, He is the 
 producer of the Holy Ghost. The Son is the Son, the 
 Word, the Wisdom, the Strength, the Image, the Glory, 
 the Character of the Father. As to the Holy Ghost, 
 He is not the Son of the Father; He is the Spirit 
 of the Father, as proceeding from the Father. He 
 is also the Spirit of the Son, not that He is of the 
 Son, but because He proceedeth of the Father by the 
 Son, for His only author is the Father f ." 
 
 1 Compare St. John Damascene, De Fide Orfh., 1. 1, p. 137 E, and 
 141 b., ed. Le Quien.
 
 80 ARTICLE V. 
 
 Thus, stated theologically, it cannot be doubted that 
 the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, being one in 
 Essence but distinct in person, have two kind of attri- 
 butes, essential and personal. To which of these is the 
 procession of the Holy Ghost to be referred ? If to the 
 first, it follows that as the Holy Ghost proceeds from 
 the Father and the Son, He must also proceed from 
 Himself, which must be rejected ; if from the second, 
 He proceedeth from the Father only, otherwise it would 
 happen that an attribute of Deity was neither essential 
 to the Trinity, nor confined to One Person. 
 
 Moreover, the Unity of the three blessed Persons, 
 being founded on the Common Essence, and on that 
 alone ; if the Filioque be true, it follows, instead of the 
 reciprocal unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being 
 every way equal, there is a proximity between Father 
 and Son which the Holy Ghost has with neither of 
 the two. 
 
 Lastly, the Western doctrine attributes a kind of 
 second, or inferior Monarchy, to the First and Second 
 Persons in the Trinity, making them together a kind 
 of fount or principiation of the Third, which neither 
 has separately, and in which the Third hath no part s . 
 
 The intellect of man bows itself in the presence of 
 such awful thoughts as those which concern the im- 
 manent action of God Most High. With such abstract 
 reasoning, with authorities so equally ranged on either 
 side, who are we that we should decide ? Better is it 
 to turn the thoughts to the point of comfort which we 
 
 * Cf. Chris. Rem., vol. xlviii. p. 488.
 
 OF THE HOLY GHOST. 81 
 
 may draw, when we think of the motives of the con- 
 test. Doubtless the supreme honour and pure worship 
 of God animates both Greek and Latin in this con- 
 test. The Greek dreads that any assault should be 
 made upon what is with us also a matter of faith, 
 the fiovdp%ia, and a double principiation in God is 
 a thought abhorrent to his feelings. The Latin, on 
 the other hand, is jealous of the dignity of the Eternal 
 Son, and will not endure that aught should be dero- 
 gated from Him ; yet surely there is some hope that 
 in reality there is no dispute between them. Both 
 Greeks and Latins admit the words of St. John's 
 Gospel, that the Holy Ghost "proceedeth from the 
 Father." Both Greeks and Latins admit, that the 
 Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Sou. Now of implies 
 either possession or production ; and as we cannot 
 predicate possession of one Person in the Trinity by 
 another, we must predicate production, so that the dis- 
 tinction becomes wire-drawn. Waiving the question 
 of the propriety of the insertion of the Filioque into 
 the Creed, may not the definition of the Council of 
 Florence, when for one short moment, in A.D. 1439, 
 in the Dominican convent at Florence, the schism was 
 healed, and the wall of partition that had divided the 
 East from, the West was broken down be adequate ? 
 
 " The Latins and Greeks, meeting in that holy oecu- 
 menical synod, diligently laboured mutually that the 
 Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost should be 
 most diligently and carefully discussed. Bringing for- 
 ward testimonies from the Holy Scriptures, and very 
 
 G
 
 82 ARTICLE V. 
 
 many authorities of doctors both Eastern and Western, 
 in some of which it was said that the Holy Ghost pro- 
 ceedeth from the Father and the Son, in others from 
 the Father by the Son, two aspects of the same truth ; 
 the Greeks asserted that when they say the Holy Ghost 
 proceedeth from the Father, they say it not to exclude 
 the Son, but because as they say it seems to them that 
 the Latins argue that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from 
 the Father and the Son, as from two principles and by 
 two operations ; therefore they abstained from saying 
 the Hoi} 7 Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the 
 Son. But the Latins asserted that it was not with this 
 mind that they said the Holy Ghost proceeded from 
 the Father and the Son, to exclude the Father from 
 being the Fount and Principle of all Deity, that is, of 
 the Son and Holy Ghost ; or this, that the Holy Ghost 
 proceedeth from the Son, the Son hath not of the 
 Father ; or that there are two principles or two spira- 
 tions. They assert, as they have always asserted, that 
 there is one principle and one spiration of the Holy 
 Ghost. When one and the same sense of the truth has 
 thus been arrived at, they agreed in the following con- 
 fession : 
 
 " That the Holy Ghost is eternally from the Father 
 and the Son, and hath His essence and subsistent Being 
 from the Father and the Son together (Situl et Fi/io), 
 and eternally from Both, as from one principle and 
 one spiration, proceedeth. Declaring that what the 
 holy doctors and fathers say, that the Holy Ghost pro- 
 ceedeth from the Father by the Son, leads to this
 
 OF THE HOLY GHOST. 83 
 
 understanding : that by it is signified, that the Son 
 also, according to the Greek is a cause, according to 
 the Latin a principle, of the substance of the Holy 
 Spirit, as is the Father: and since all things \vhich 
 are of the Father, He gave to His only-begotten Son, 
 in begetting, save Paternity : this also that the Holy 
 Ghost proceedeth from the Son, the Son hath eter- 
 nally from the Father, by whom from all eternity He 
 is begotten." 
 
 This Article, after beginning by assuming the Double 
 Procession of the Holy Ghost, goes on to predicate of 
 Him that He is of one substance, majesty, and glory 
 with the Father and the Son, Very and Eternal God. 
 
 I. This divinity may be proved 1. from the names 
 whereby the Spirit is described in Holy Scripture ; 
 2. from the notes and characteristics of the Divinity 
 attributed to Him ; and -3. from His operation and 
 effects. 
 
 1. The text of the Acts, where St. Peter reproaches 
 Ananias with having lied to the Holy Spirit, and adds 
 that he had lied not to man but to God h . 
 
 2. That in which St. Paul applies to the Holy Ghost 
 the words in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, spoken of the 
 Lord of Hosts ! . 
 
 3. In the Hebrews the author applies to the Holy 
 Ghost the temptations in the wilderness : " They 
 tempted God in the wilderness k ." 
 
 4. In the Corinthians our bodies are said to be the 
 
 h Acts v. 3, 4. ' Acts xxviii. 25 sqq. k Pa. xev., quoted 
 
 in Hcb. iii. 12.
 
 84 AllTICLE V. 
 
 temple of God 1 , and also the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost m . 
 
 5. In the same Epistle, in enumerating the opera- 
 tions, and gifts, and ministrations, they are attributed 
 to powers coming from God and the Holy Spirit n . 
 
 6. In 2 Cor. iii. 17, it is said : " The Lord is that 
 Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is 
 liberty." 
 
 To this may be added the constant use of the article 
 TO before the word Spirit, distinguishing the Person 
 from the Gifts ; the epithet Holy as implying an inte- 
 gral, not an adventitious holiness ; and the word Para- 
 clete or Comforter, the Truth, the Spirit of the Lord, 
 the Spirit of Christ, the Lord Himself, the Spirit of 
 adoption, of love, of liberty, of wisdom, of prudence, 
 of counsel, of strength, of the fear of the Lord. 
 
 II. Next, we gather that the Spirit is God, of one 
 glory with the Father and the Son, from His parti- 
 cipation in those things which belong to God alone. 
 
 1. The fact of His mission and procession is proof of 
 this. St. Ambrose says that as the Wisdom which pro- 
 ceedeth out of the mouth of God cannot be called 
 created, nor the Word uttered from His heart, nor the 
 Virtue in which is the fulness of the Eternal Majesty, 
 so, too, the Holy Spirit cannot be said to be created 
 which is poured forth from the mouth of God, when 
 God Himself so exhibits His unity, as to say, " I will 
 pour forth of My Spirit on all flesh ." 
 
 1 1 Cor. iii. 6. '" Ibid. vi. 19. n Ibid. xii. -111. 
 
 Orat. de Sp. S., c. 97.
 
 OF THE HOLY GHOST. 85 
 
 2. The formula of Baptism has always been alleged 
 as proof; " for what society or communion can there be 
 between the Creator and His creature ? How can that 
 which is made be numbered with its Maker, for the 
 perfection of all men P ?" 
 
 3. And the word " in the Name ; " for we believe 
 man, but we believe in God. 
 
 4. Again, an irrefragable argument may be drawn 
 from His infinite knowledge. " The Spirit searcheth 
 out the deep things of God V To know God or His 
 secrets is in the power of no created Being, and the 
 whole argument runs on the identity of nature as 
 man knows man, so God knows God. 
 
 5. The last and most awful proof of the Divinity of 
 the Holy Ghost is the singular atrocity of sin against 
 Him, the only irremissible sin. 
 
 III. The third kind of argument is that which, de- 
 duces the Divinity of the Holy Spirit from the attri- 
 butes and works predicated of Him in Holy Scrip- 
 ture. Substance and operation must be one. Con- 
 substaiitial things have the same operations ; now if 
 there exist that Bestowal of Grace, of Holiness, of 
 Righteousness, whick the Church terms Justification 
 and Sanctification, which, consists in the remission of 
 sin, and in the infusion of grace or adoption, a creature 
 cannot sanctify another creature r , and the Sanctity of 
 the Spirit is not adventitious, but substantial. Thus 
 St. Cyril admirably reasons s : " He is holy, not by par- 
 
 P Athan., cont. Arian. Or. 2, t. i. p. i. 508, cd. Ben. 1 1 Cor. ii. 10. 
 r Has. ad Anarm. * Dial. vii. clc Trin. 658.
 
 8G ARTICLE V. 
 
 ticipation, nor by an external relation to the Son, but 
 being by Nature and Truth His Spirit. And as it is 
 stupid and illiterate for a man to be called a man, yet 
 something totally different to be vinderstood, so it is 
 very foolish to call the Spirit the Holy Spirit, and yet 
 to deny that He is holy by nature, and to force Him 
 into another nature. For that name does not signify 
 any measure of glory or eminence, as the names of 
 Princedoms, Thrones, or Dominations, which are attri- 
 buted to those who were made by Him ; but it will 
 express rather a substantial quality, such as the word 
 Father, in the case of the Father ; or Son, in that of 
 the Son. And as it would be extremely absurd to call 
 God the Father, and yet not to understand Him as 
 Father ; or to call the Son the Son, and yet not to hold 
 Him as such ; how shall we free from the charge of 
 ignorance those who dare to despoil the Holy Spirit of 
 a natural and true Sanctity ? " 
 
 Again, grace and righteousness are peculiarly as- 
 cribed to Him : " On the Gentiles was poured out the 
 gift of the Holy Ghost V " The offering up of the 
 Gentiles is made acceptable, being sanctified by the 
 Holy Ghost u ." " The love of God is poured out in 
 our hearts by the Holy Spirit x ." 
 
 Again, the immunity from sin, and the power of 
 forgiving it. " Receive the Holy Ghost : whose sins 
 ye remit V &c. 
 
 Lastly, all those striking words of anointment and 
 
 * Acts x. 45. u Iloni. xv. 16. * Ibu?. v. 5. 
 
 y St. John xx. 22, 23.
 
 OF THE HOLY GHOST. 87 
 
 healing are proofs of the point. "How," asks St. Cyril, 
 "can the Holy Spirit be said to be created, if by 
 Him we become partakers of the Father and of the 
 Son. The participation in God cannot come to us 
 from the creature." 
 
 Others argue that the fact of our bodies being 
 temples is proof of this, for to no angel or saint may 
 temples be raised. But the highest proof of all, from 
 Holy Scripture, is His office with regard to the Eco- 
 nomy of Redemption. It is by this operation that 
 the Incarnation took place. " The Holy Ghost shall 
 come upon Thee," was the announcement of the Hoi} 7 
 Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin. Also " the 
 Holy Ghost anointeth and sendeth Christ. Christ 
 was predestinated by the Holy Ghost z ." Christ is 
 said to be full of the Holy Spirit, and how can He 
 not be God, who fills God. By the Spirit He cast 
 out devils, and by the Spirit He was raised from 
 the dead. Christ must not be said to be helped 
 by creatures, nor can the Incarnation be said to be 
 effected by the power and efficacy of anything short 
 of God. 
 
 This argument is well summed up by St. Fulgentius : 
 " Therefore let it be said, if one who was not God 
 could strengthen the powers of heaven, if he could 
 give life, if he could sanctify by the regeneration of 
 baptism, if he could give charity, if he could dwell in 
 believers, if he could bestow grace, if he could have 
 the members of Christ as his temple, then the Spirit 
 1 Horn. i. 4.
 
 88 ARTICLE V. 
 
 may be justly denied to be God. Again, let it be said, 
 that tlie things which, are mentioned of the Holy 
 Ghost could be done by any creature, then rightly 
 may the Holy Spirit be called a creature. But if 
 these things were never within the power of the crea- 
 ture, if those things are found in the Holy Ghost 
 which are competent only to God, we ought not to 
 speak of Him as in nature naturally diverse from 
 the Father and the Son, whom we cannot find to be 
 diverse in operation ; and if it be thus right to acknow- 
 ledge unity of nature from unity of work, let no one 
 hesitate to acknowledge Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 a Unity of persons being preserved, to be one God by 
 nature, who could make all things by His will, who 
 can govern all things by the power of His omnipotence, 
 who can fill all things by the incomprehensibility of 
 His Divinity a ." 
 
 n Ad Transimund. iii. 38. Vide Petavius de Deo; ad loc.
 
 ARTICLE VI. 
 DE DIVINIS SCRIPTURIS, QUOD SUFFICIANT AD 
 
 SALUTEM. 
 
 SCRIPTUKA sacra continet onmia, qua ad salutem sunt 
 iwcessaria, ita ut quicquid in ea nee legitur, neque inde 
 nrolari potcsi, non sit a quoquam exigendum, ut tanquam 
 (irticuliiH fidci crcdatur, ant ad salutis necessitatem requiri 
 putetnr. 
 
 Sacra Scripturce nomine, eos canonicos libros veteris et 
 novi Tedamenti intelligimm, de quorum authoritate in Ec- 
 clcsia nunquam dubitatum est. 
 
 DE ^OillNIBTJS ET NUMEEO LIBEOETJM SACILS 
 VETEEIS TESTAMEKTI. 
 
 Genesis. Prior liber Paralipomenon. 
 
 Exodus. Secundus liber Paralipomenon. 
 
 Leviticus. . Primus liber Esdrce. 
 
 Numeri. Secundus liber Esdrre. 
 
 Deuteronomitim. Liber Hester. 
 
 JOSIHZ. Liber Job. 
 
 Judicum. Psalmi. 
 
 HutU. Proverbia. 
 
 Prior liber Samuelis. Ecclesiastes vel Concionator. 
 
 Secundus liber Samuelis. Cantica Solomonis. 
 
 Prior liber Regum. IV. Prophetee Majores. 
 
 Secundus liber Regum. XII. Prophefce Minores. 
 
 Alios auteni libros (lit ait Hieronynms} legit quidem Ecclesia, 
 ad exempla vita, et formandus mores : illos tamen ad dog- 
 mata confirmanda non adhibet, ut simt, 
 
 Terlius liber Esdrce. Liber Tobia. 
 
 Quartits liber Esdrce. Liber Judith.
 
 90 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 Seliqvttm libri Hester. Hlstoria Sitsannee. 
 
 Liber Sapientitz. De Bel et Dracone. 
 
 Liber Jesiifiln Siracli. Oratio Manassis. 
 
 Saruch jrropheta. Prior liber Machabeornm. 
 
 Canticum trium puerorum. Secundus liber Machabeornm. 
 
 Novi Testament i omnes librcs (ut vulgo recepti sunt) recipi- 
 y et habemus pro canonicis. 
 
 Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for 
 Salvation. 
 
 " HOLY Scripture containeth all things necessary to 
 salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor 
 may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any 
 man that it should be believed as an article of the 
 faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. 
 In the Name of the Holy Scripture, we do understand 
 those canonical Books of the Old and New Testa- 
 ment, of whose authority was never any doubt in the 
 Church." 
 
 Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Booh. 
 
 Genesis. First Book of Chronicles. 
 
 Exodus. Second Book of Chronicles. 
 
 Leviticus. First Book of Esdras. 
 
 Numbers. Second Book of Esdras. 
 
 Deuteronomy. Book of Esther. 
 
 Joshua. Book of Job. 
 
 Judges. Psalms. 
 
 Ruth. Proverbs. 
 
 First Book of Samuel. Ecclesiastes or Pi-eacher. 
 
 Second Book of Samuel. Canticles, or Songs of Solomon. 
 
 First Book of Kings. Four Prophets the greater. 
 
 Second Book of Kings. Twelve Prophets the less. 
 
 *' And the other books, as Illcrome saith, the Church
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 91 
 
 doth read for example of life and instruction of man- 
 ners, but yet doth it not apply them to establish any 
 doctrine : such are these following : 
 
 Third Book of Estlras. Baruch the Prophet. 
 
 Fourth Book of Esdras. Song of the Three Children. 
 
 Book of Tobias. Story of Susannah. 
 
 Book of Judith. Of Bel and the Dragon. 
 
 Rest of the Book of Esther. Prayer of Munasses. 
 
 Book of Wisdom. First Book of Maccabees. 
 
 Jesus the Son of Sirach. Second Book of Maccabees. 
 
 " All the Books of the New Testament, as they are 
 commonly received, we do receive, and account them 
 canonical." 
 
 1. A PROFOUND reverence for the Bible as the 
 inspired Word of God is a dominant idea in the 
 Articles. Not only in the present Article, but in the 
 Twentieth, there is a special jealousy with regard to 
 its authority. Certain statements are made to rest iu 
 a special way oil this foundation. The Creeds are to 
 be received and believed, " for they may be proved 
 by most certain warrants of Scripture" (VIII.) The 
 position with regard to works of supererogation is 
 made to rest upon a text of Scripture (XIY.) ; as is 
 also the universality of human sinfulness (XV.) Again, 
 Holy Scripture is said to set out unto us only the Name 
 of Jesus, whereby men must be saved (XVIII.) Con- 
 ciliar authority also is limited thereby (XXI.) Cer- 
 tain Romish doctrines are said to be repugnant to the 
 Word of God, and are therefore rejected (XXII.) ; so 
 is speaking in a language not understanded of the
 
 92 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 people (XXIV.) Transubstantiation, in the sense in 
 which it is condemned a , is said to be repugnant to the 
 plain words of Scripture (XXVIII.) Tradition and 
 ceremonies also are ruled by it (XXXIV.) And, 
 finally, the power of the civil magistrates is limited 
 thereby (XXXVII.) 
 
 To have such weight, it must be granted that the 
 "Word of God is inspired. Although the Church has 
 never yet ruled in what measure that inspiration is 
 given, or in what way it works, yet from the be- 
 ginning it has been believed that God the Holy Ghost 
 inspired certain persons to record certain events ; that 
 in accordance with the promise of our Lord that the 
 Comforter should bring to mind all the matters to be 
 recorded, these authors owed the remembrance of the 
 facts to supernal illumination, and that therefore there 
 is no room for allowing of any errors, even the slightest. 
 Following the analogy of the Incarnate Son Himself, 
 of His Church, and of His Sacraments, the devout 
 student recognises a Divine and a human element in 
 the Inspired Word. He is no more disturbed by the 
 provincialisms of St. Mark, than he is with the evil 
 lives of the rulers of the Church, or by anything else 
 that exhibits the human organ in the Church, but he 
 cannot allow the human element to account for what 
 seems to imply the slightest historical inaccuracy, be- 
 yond the use of popular unscientific language, the 
 employment of which is a necessity if the revelation 
 is in any sense to be intelligible to those to whom it 
 a See the mode in which the suhject is handled under Article XXVIII.
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 93 
 
 is made. The God of truth cannot give mistaken or 
 imperfect information, and he sees the dilemma, and 
 accepts it ; that either the Bible must be true in every 
 respect, or not the word of God at all. He can accept 
 no such patronised and apologised-for document as the 
 half-belief of the present day would seek to put before 
 him. Making every allowance for the possible errors 
 of copyists, where mistakes may have crept in, he is 
 bound to stake the issue upon the absolute genuineness 
 and truthfulness of what is given to him as the Holy 
 Scriptures. 
 
 And this genuineness and truthfulness being granted, 
 he takes a firm step forward to the thought of its in- 
 spiration. It is no vicious circle to say that Holy 
 Scripture proves the existence of the Church, and that 
 this, the Church, proves Holy Scripture. An am- 
 bassador comes to a king bearing his credentials in 
 a letter. He himself is the authority for the genuine- 
 ness of the letter : when the letter is opened, it is 
 found to define the powers, plenipotentiary or other, 
 of the messenger who brought it. Thus it is with 
 Holy Scripture. We have a set of documents which 
 external and internal evidence, on the ground of the 
 most rigid criticism, agree in holding to be genuine 
 documents. They are certainly of the time of which 
 they profess to be. Costume, incidental illustration, 
 events known from other sources, make this certain. 
 Furthermore, the genuineness of the documents is a 
 strong presumption in favour of their authenticity. 
 This presumption amounts to the highest probability.
 
 9-1 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 The documents are not only real documents, but the 
 events recorded in them really took place. Well, 
 among the events so recorded, there is the institution 
 of a mighty power called the Church, the historic ac- 
 count of the formation of a certain corporation with 
 spiritual faculties, for certain supernatural ends ; and 
 among the spiritual faculties is that of a certain instinct 
 whereby truth is distinguished from error, in conse- 
 quence of an indwelling of God the Holy Ghost. 
 
 The first effect of the exercise of this instinct on the 
 part of the Church, is to declare that the documents, 
 already proved to be authentic, are canonical and in- 
 spired. There is no vicious circle here. The exist- 
 ence of a book, as containing the revealed will of God, 
 is so consonant to merely human ideas of the fitness of 
 things that we find it in many false religions. Both 
 the Hindoos, and the Chinese, and Parsees, have their 
 symbolical volumes by the side of an authoritative 
 system. The fullest development of this is in the 
 case of the Moslem, to whom the Koran stands in the 
 highest order of authority, but then we must recollect 
 that Mahomedanism, being rather a heresy than an 
 entirely false religion, has borrowed this from the 
 Judaism with which it is so strongly impregnated. 
 However, the continued existence of this state of things 
 in these systems shews that there is no antecedent re- 
 pugnance to right reason in the idea of an inspired 
 book standing as a sort of silent appeal beside a living- 
 system of authority, such as the Church of God. 
 
 To us Christians, the position of the ancient Scrip-
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 95 
 
 tures at the time of our Lori is sufficient guarantee 
 for the soundness of the view. Then the Scribes and 
 Pharisees sat in Moses' seat, and our Lord Himself 
 commands deference to them as authorities, but He 
 -constantly appeals to that which was " said to them 
 of old," by way of correction of the Pharisaic utter- 
 ances. No doubt we must make allowance for the 
 fact that the Holy Ghost was not given to the Jewish 
 Church as He is given to the Catholic Church now, 
 but still the Eternal Word was to the old Israel what 
 the Paraclete is to us, and there was an authority in 
 the living Church then, as there was the gift of pro- 
 phecy in the case of Caiaphas. If, then, this system 
 could co -exist with a volume in the position and 
 with the authority of the old Testament, there is no 
 reason that now there should not co- exist in the 
 Church of God two authorities, mutually corrobora- 
 tive of each other, and, so far as individual interpre- 
 tation of each, mutually corrective of each other: the 
 inspired Word and the inspired Church. The inspired 
 Word, receiving its canonicity, its interpretation from 
 the inspired Church ; and the inspired Church, tested 
 in its development by the inspired Word. 
 
 Holy Scripture, either implicite or cxplicitc, contains 
 the faith. " The Church joineth the Law and the 
 Prophets with the writings of the Evangelists and 
 Apostles, and thence drinketh her faith b ." St. Cle- 
 ment teaches that " we have the Lord as the source 
 of the doctrine, guiding the true knowledge from 
 
 b Tcrtullian De Prase., 36.
 
 96 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 beginning to end, 'in divers portions and in divers 
 manners/ through the Prophets, the Gospel, and the 
 holy Apostles c ." " In the two Testaments every word 
 appertaining to God may he sought and discussed, and 
 from them may all knowledge be obtained d ." " The 
 holy and inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves 
 for the preaching of the truth e ." Every word or thing 
 ought to be confirmed by testimony of God-inspired 
 Scripture, to the full conviction of the good and the 
 shaming of the evil. " What is the character of faith ? 
 An unhesitating conviction of the truth of the God- 
 inspired words (Holy Scriptures). What is the cha- 
 racter of the faithful? With the same conviction 
 to embrace the meaning of what is said, and not 
 to venture to annul or to add. For if everything 
 which is not of faith is sin, as the Apostle says, 
 and faith is from learning and hearing through the 
 Word, everything which is without the God-inspired 
 Scriptures is sin f ." "The doctrine of the Church, 
 which is the House of God, is found in the fulness 
 of the divine Scriptures s ." St. Ambrose asks h , " How 
 can we use what we do not find in Holy Scrip- 
 ture?" St. Augustine, "In those things which are set 
 down plainly in Scripture are found all things which 
 contain faith and the way of life, i.e. hope and charity 1 ." 
 So again, " Whatever ye hear thence (the divine Scrip- 
 
 c Clem. Strom, vii. 16. d Origen, in Lev. Horn. v. n. 9. ii. 212, 
 
 cd. De La Rue. e S. Atliannsius, cont. Gent, ad inii. f S.Basil, 
 Seff. 26, 80. c. 22. e S. Jerom. ad Paul. h De Off. i. 23. 
 
 102. * De Doct. Xna. ii. 9. 11.
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 97 
 
 tures) let that savour well unto you; whatsoever is 
 without, reject k ." " The city of God believeth the Holy 
 Scriptures, both the Old and the New, which we call 
 canonical, from which the faith chiefly is derived, 
 whereby the just liveth, by which we walk without 
 doubting, as long as we are absent from the Lord V 
 
 " The opposing parties (Roman. Catholics and members of 
 the English Church) attach different meanings to the word 
 ' proof,' in the controversy whether the whole faith is, or 
 is not, contained in Scripture. Eoman Catholics ra mean 
 that not every article is so contained there that it may 
 thence be legally proved, independently of the teaching and 
 authority of tradition : but Anglicans mean that every article 
 is so contained there, that it may thence be proved, provided 
 there may be added the illustrations and compensations of 
 the tradition. And it is in this latter sense, I conceive, that 
 the Fathers also speak. I am sure, at least, that S. Athana- 
 sius frequently adduces passages as proofs of points in con- 
 troversy, which no one would see to be proofs, unless apos- 
 tolical tradition were taken into account, first as suggesting, 
 then as authoritatively ruling their meaning. Thus you 
 
 k Senii. 46. de Past., c. 11. 21. Opp. v. 238. 
 
 1 Cii: Dei, xix. 18. t. vii. p. 562. 
 
 " We believe that there is no other groundwork whatever for faith 
 except the written Word of God ; because we allow no power in religion 
 to any living authority, except inasmuch as its right to define is con- 
 ferred in God's written Word. If, therefore, you hear that the Church 
 claims authority to define articles of faith, and to instruct her children 
 what they must believe, you must not for one moment think that she 
 pretends to any authority or sanction for that power, save what she 
 conceives herself to derive from the clear, express, and explicit words of 
 Scripture." (Wiseman's Lect., iii. p. 60, ed. 1836.) 
 
 H
 
 98 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 (Anglicans) do not deny that the whole is not in Scripture 
 in such sense that pure unaided logic can draw it from the 
 Sacred Text; nor do we (Roman Catholics) deny, that the 
 faith is in Scripture, in an improper sense, in the sense that 
 tradition is able to recognise and determine it there. Angli- 
 cans do not profess to dispense with tradition ; nor do lloman 
 Catholics forbid the idea of probable, secondary, symbolical, 
 annotative senses of Scripture, over and above those which 
 properly belong to the wording and context n ." 
 
 The Anglican Article expresses itself in terms of the 
 greatest moderation. It defines the sense in which it 
 means that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary 
 to salvation, by the most important qualifications. It 
 leaves the amplest room for the deductions which tra- 
 dition or even individual doctors may gather from it, 
 in the term " or may be proved thereby/' It leaves 
 the fullest scope for pious opinions where it asserts that 
 Scripture, in its letter or in such deductions, alone is to 
 regulate what is de fide. It says nothing against the 
 acceptance of whatever the Church proposes to our be- 
 lief, because whatsoever is so proposed to us must rest 
 ultimately on the authority of Scripture, of which the 
 Church is the guardian and the expounder. All that it 
 seeks to protect the faithful against is the enforcement 
 on them, as requisite to salvation, of individual opi- 
 nions, which being without the authentication of Church 
 authority, have consequently no Scriptural authority. 
 Any accretive development, that would add to the sub- 
 stance of the faith, would be condemned by this Article, 
 
 n Newman's Letter to Dr. Pusey on the Eirenicon, p. 14.
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 99 
 
 "but it would not condemn the enunciation by legitimate 
 authority of any doctrine deduced from the original 
 deposit. 
 
 It leaves a wide range for the indulgence of a holy 
 imagination as the result of meditation on the mys- 
 teries of the faith; all that it guards against is that 
 these shall not become de fide. It guards against the 
 abuse that may arise from the assertion of doctrine on 
 the strength of visions and supernatural illuminations. 
 And its most extended sense does not go beyond the 
 general assertion borne witness to by the Bible, that 
 the Holy Ghost was to lead the Apostles, et<? irdaav vrjv 
 aXijOeiav; that there w r as nothing incomplete in the 
 belief of the Apostolic or Post-apostolic age ; that what 
 has somewhat over-boldly been called the thin and 
 colourless Christianity of the primitive Church was 
 " uble to make men wise unto salvation." 
 
 In the celebrated oration by John of Ragusa, before 
 the Council of Basle, he lays down the following canons 
 with regard to Holy Scripture. 
 
 After asserting, in the words of St. Augustine, " Non 
 crederem evangelio, nisi me commoveret Ecclesiae auc- 
 toritas," that the Catholic Church is ruled over by the 
 Holy Spirit, and cannot err in matters of faith, he 
 adds, that because the declaration of this universal 
 principle is mainly to be taken from the authority 
 of Holy Scripture, he lays down certain rules for its 
 right understanding . 
 
 Concilia, t. xvii. p. 832, ed. Colet.
 
 100 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 1. The foundation of all is, that all Scripture, both 
 of the Old and New Testament, is inspired. 
 
 2. So great is the certitude of the truth of the Holy 
 Scripture, that nothing asserted or expressed in it can 
 be lying or mistaken. To assert the opposite is to 
 destroy the entire foundations of the faith. 
 
 3. It is congruous to the divine essential goodness 
 that God should communicate Himself, by His inspired 
 Word, to all His creatures, according to the measure 
 of their wants and requirements. 
 
 4. Holy Scripture has various senses, e.g. the literal 
 and spiritual sense. 
 
 5. The principal literal sense is not always that on 
 the surface, but what God the Holy Ghost intends, as 
 in the case of the Parables. 
 
 6. The faith, and all things necessary to salvation, 
 are founded on the literal sense, and from it alone may 
 arguments be drawn for such things. 
 
 7. Holy Scripture, well and soundly understood in 
 the literal sense, is an infallible and most sufficient 
 rule of faith. 
 
 8. It is not improper, that in one and the same text 
 of Scripture there may be more literal senses than one. 
 
 9. To the proper understanding of any text, reference 
 must be had not only to the context, but to the rest of 
 the inspired volume. 
 
 10. To discover the true sense it is necessary very 
 diligently to attend to the various methods of proceed- 
 ing, for in the same sentence words are sometimes 
 literal, sometimes mystical
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 101 
 
 11. Difficulties in interpretation are good and neces- 
 sary to call out the diligence of the students, and to 
 try their humility. 
 
 12. Hence the necessity of able expositors. 
 
 13. Those are to be chosen who are best qualified, 
 with preference for the Ancients. 
 
 14. Expositors are to be compared with each other, 
 and with themselves ; and that doctor is to be chosen 
 whose opinion is nearest to the sense which God the 
 Holy Ghost, the author of the Scriptures, intends, 
 and which is corroborated by the authority of the 
 Church. 
 
 15. Holy Scripture suffers from proud and presump- 
 tuous students. 
 
 16. And lastly, Holy Scripture, in its reception and 
 authentic expositions, finally resolves itself into the 
 authority, reception, and approbation of the Catholic 
 Church, as into a first principle of religious doctrine 
 and science. 
 
 To return to the consideration of the Article, while 
 the authority of Scripture is vindicated, nothing is 
 said with regard to any power or duty of individuals 
 to judge whether the decrees of the Church are in con- 
 formity with the Word of God. The constitution of 
 a country, assuming a contract between monarch and 
 subjects, may lay down what are the duties of a sub- 
 ject, without giving individuals the right to judge him, 
 far less to rebel against him. There is no sanction here 
 for the right of private judgment. Such a notion never 
 entered into the minds of the compilers of the Articles. 
 Any modification in the form and rites of a religion
 
 102 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 in those days was a matter of government. No one- 
 dreamt of a man in his study sitting down to evolve 
 for himself out of Scripture a system of religious belief. 
 There was a re-adjustment of the balance of the divine 
 grounds of faith, but the very limitation of authority 
 implied authority. The Articles would be meaningless 
 unless we assume the existence of an institution set up 
 on earth claiming to decide doctrine, to define what 
 should be believed as an article of faith, and to decree 
 what is requisite to salvation. 
 
 After asserting the office of Holy Scripture in acting 
 as a check upon any developing power by way of accre- 
 tion in the Church, the Article goes on to the vexed 
 question of the Canon, and herein takes a middle line 
 between the decree enunciated in the fourth Session of 
 the Council of Trent and the Protestant Confessions. 
 
 First of all it maintains, in accordance with the 
 authority of Josephus, quoted by Eusebius 1 ', the pre- 
 eminence of the twenty-two books 1 of the first Canon. 
 
 v Hist. Eccl., iii. 9. 
 
 i The Jews thus made their enumeration : 
 ("Genesis, 
 
 Books of i ,' 
 
 -{ Leviticus, J- v. 
 
 Moses. -vr , 
 
 lumbers, 
 
 ^Deuteronomy. J 
 
 fjoshua, "^ 
 
 Four Books of i , , IT,., 
 
 I Judges 1, Euth, I 
 Former -{ . .. , >TV. ] 
 
 Samuel, 1 and 2, 
 Prophets. . , , 
 
 (Jvmgs, 1 and 2, j J.VIIL 
 
 x-saa, ->. 
 
 Four Books of Jemn . aml Lam . | 
 
 Later 
 
 Prophets. Ll2 Lesser Proph.J
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 
 
 103 
 
 " The Jewish Church had only twenty-two books of 
 Scripture which might justly challenge credit and be- 
 lief among them ; whereof five were the books of 
 Moses, containing little less than 3,000 years, and 
 thirteen the books of the prophets, wherein they wrote 
 the acts of their times, from the death of Moses till 
 the reign of Artaxerxes, after Xerxes, King of Persia ; 
 and four more containing both hymns to God and 
 admonitions to men for the amendment of their lives ; 
 but from the time of Artaxerxes till our own times, 
 though certain books had been written, yet they de- 
 served not the same credit and belief which the former 
 had, because there was no certain succession of prophets 
 among them. It is henceforth clear how we attach 
 ourselves to the true Scriptures, for in spite of so 
 great a time having elapsed, no one has dared to add, 
 diminish, or alter aught in them ; it being a maxim 
 
 f Psalms, 
 Proverbs, 
 The Preacher, 
 The Song of Soiigs, 
 
 The rest of the ^ j o b, j, IX. 
 
 Holy Writers. Daniel, 
 
 Ezra andXehemiah, 
 Esther, 
 
 '^Chronicles, 1 and 2. J XXII. 
 It would seem that even among the Jews there was a difference of 
 view with regard to the Canon of the Old Scripture, which extended 
 itself to the Christians. The Jews of Palestine admitted the Palestinian 
 Canon, in which were only the books written in Hebrew ; and those 
 'of Alexandria the Alexandrian, which comprehended those written in 
 Greek. Vide Klce's Sistoire des Doymes Chretiens, vol. i. p. 146, 
 Paris, 1848.
 
 104 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 engrafted into all Jews from their childhood to regard 
 them as the dogmas of God, to adhere constantly to 
 them, and, if need be, to die for them." 
 
 The Early Church seems to have followed in the same 
 line. In the Apostolic Constitutions, whatever be their 
 value, there is no mention of the Apocryphal Books ; 
 and in the Canons of the Apostles the old Jewish canon 
 is adhered to, with the addition of a recommendation 
 of the reading of the Wisdom of Sirach for the young, 
 and in some manuscripts the Book of Judith is men- 
 tioned. It is the same with the author of the " Eccle- 
 siastical Hierarchy," though he does in another place 
 mention the Book of Wisdom. In the catalogue of 
 all the books that, by common consent of the Oriental 
 Churches, was received as Canonical Scripture, made 
 by St, Melito, Bishop of Sardis, in the middle of the 
 second century, we have the old Canon, with the ex- 
 ception of Nehemiah and Esther. St. Justin Martyr 
 nowhere quotes the Apocryphal books. 
 
 Origen, in his preface to the Psalms 1 ', gives the 
 Hebrew Canon with the Hebrew names, although he 
 does cite, under the general name of Scripture, Tobit 
 and the Maccabees s . St. Clement gives no list of the 
 Canonical Books, but frequently cites the Apocrypha. 
 Eusebius supplies us with the term dvTi\ey6fj,eva ; and 
 St. Athanasius, in one of his Paschal Epistles, gives 
 a perfect catalogue both of the Canonical and eccle- 
 siastical books then received by the Church, and 
 
 * torn. ii. p. 529. 8 lib. viii. iu Ep. ad Rom. p. 621 and 640.
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 105 
 
 charges orthodox Christians to abstain from apocry- 
 phal writers introduced by heretics. First he gives 
 the twenty-two of the Old Testament, adding that 
 these are the only fountain of salvation from whence 
 all doctrine of piety and religion is preached, and 
 whereunto none ought to add or none detract. Then 
 he speaks of the ecclesiastical books not admitted into 
 the Canon of Scripture, but appointed by the Fathers 
 to be read by those who were beginners in religion, 
 the "Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, the 
 Greek Esther, Judith, Tobit, the Apostles' doctrine, 
 the Shepherd of Hennas. Elsewhere, but not here, 
 he mentions Susanna and the Maccabees, only, how- 
 ever, as avrikeyofieva. 
 
 St. Hilary gives the testimony of the Western Church 
 for the same period. St. Cyril of Jerusalem that of the 
 Palestinian Church, though he puts Baruch and the 
 Epistle of Jeremiah with the Prophecies. He quotes 
 the ecclesiastical books often ; and when he disapproves 
 of apocryphal books he does not mean them, but such 
 things as the false gospels. All this is the more re- 
 markable because in the East they always used the 
 Septuagint, of which the dvTi\e<y6fj,6va are an integral 
 portion. 
 
 The Council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, is the first authen- 
 tic conciliar recognition of the Canon; Baruch, how- 
 ever, being added to the Old, and the Apocalypse being 
 omitted in the New ; the first being, however, pro- 
 bably not the distinct book so called, but merely the 
 history of Baruch as given in Jeremiah. St. Epipha- 
 nius quotes the Hebrew Canon, never mentions Tobit,
 
 106 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 Judith, Baruch, or the Maccabees, and of the two 
 Wisdoms says, " They are not to be counted within the 
 number of the Holy Scriptures, however useful and 
 profitable, having never been put into the Ark of the 
 Covenant*." Yet elsewhere 11 he ranges Wisdom and 
 Ecclesiasticus among the Oeial ypa<f)al. Ecclesiasticus 
 was received among the Ketubim in the fourth cen- 
 tury 3 '. St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzum endorse 
 the teaching of Origen ; and there are some curious 
 iambics of St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium in Ly- 
 caonia, in the same sense, expressing the doubt about 
 Esther. St. Chrysostom acknowledges none but those 
 which were first written in the Hebrew tongue y . 
 
 A new epoch comes in with St. Jerome. He ap- 
 proaches the Old Scriptures in the spirit of enlightened 
 and reverential criticism. For this he was prepared 
 by a certain knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, and by 
 the assistance he received from a Jew with whom he 
 studied. It is from his Prologue to the books of Solo- 
 mon that the quotation in the Article is taken. It 
 is to this effect * : " For as the Church indeed reads 
 the books of Tobit, Judith, and the Maccabees, but 
 does not receive them among the Canonical Scriptures, 
 so let her read these two volumes (the Wisdom of 
 Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon) for the edifica- 
 tion of the people, and not to confirm the authority 
 of ecclesiastical dogmas." 
 
 ' Haer. viii. cont. Epicur., lib. i. t. i. p. 19, t. ii. p. 162. 
 
 u Hser. Ixxvi. ad Aetium, t. i. p. 941. 
 
 1 Dr. Pusey's " Daniel," p. 301. - v Horn. iv. in Gen., t. iv. p. 25. 
 
 z vol. ix. col. 1293.
 
 OF TILE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 107 
 
 Rufinus, whose work on the Creed is one of great au- 
 thority, follows St. Jerome in the division of the books. 
 
 While these books were thus excluded from the 
 Canon, it would be uncandid to deny that the Fathers 
 frequently quote them under the title of prophetic 
 writings, and a certain amount of inspiration was 
 attributed to them. St. Clement of Alexandria and 
 Theodoret quote Baruch ; St. Cyprian, Wisdom and 
 the Maccabees, and Susanna ; St. Cyril, Ecclesiasticus ; 
 and St. Ambrose, Tobit. Other books, also held both 
 by us and the Council of Trent as apocryphal, such as 
 Enoch, Hermas, and the Prayer of Manasses, were 
 quoted in a loose way. 
 
 In the fifth century St. Augustine, while he advo- 
 cates the use of the Latin and Greek versions which 
 had the Apocryphal books, and uses them freely, yet 
 he does set a mark of distinction between them and the 
 books and Canon of the Hebrew Bible a ; yet his work, 
 however, dc Docfriiid C/n-ixtiand*, is that which is cited 
 for the modern Roman Canon. The same was endorsed 
 by the Council of Carthage, A.D. 379 c , by that of 
 A.D. 419, and by that of Hippo, A.D. 393. This testi- 
 mony is followed, with the exception of Baruch and 
 the Maccabees, by Pope Innocent, in his third letter to 
 Exuperius, Bishop of Thoulouse. St. Hilary of Aries 
 demurs to the canonicity of Wisdom. 
 
 At the end of this century Pope Gelasius held a Synod 
 at Rome, and put forth a Canon in the same sense. 
 
 a De Civ. Dei, 1. xviii. 26, 36 ; xvii. c. 20 : De Cur. pro Mart., c. 15. 
 b ii. n. 12, 13. c c. xlvii.
 
 108 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 In the sixth century Cassiodorus, Junilius Primasius, 
 Anastasius of Antioch, Leontius, the author of de Sccti*, 
 and Victorinus of Poitiers, are quoted in behalf of the 
 shorter Canon. 
 
 In the seventh, St. Gregory the Great apologizes for 
 the use of a passage in the Maccabees. St. Isidore of 
 Seville gives both catalogues, preferring St. Augus- 
 tine's. The quinisext Council in Trullo accepts both 
 the Laodicean and the Carthaginian Councils. 
 
 In the eighth age St. John Damascene keeps to the 
 Hebrew Canon and rejects the other, "having never 
 been laid up in the Ark of the Covenant," as Epipha- 
 nius had said before him, whether correctly or not we 
 cannot say. 
 
 In the ninth century Nicephorus, followed by Anasta- 
 sius Bibliothecarius, makes a threefold distinction, ocrai, 
 elal Oeiai ypa(f>ai eKfchrja-iatyfievai, the twenty-two ; 
 then oacu avTi^eyovrai, those which we call the Apo- 
 crypha ; and then the a7roKpv(f)a, viz. Enoch, the Patri- 
 archs, the Prayer of Joseph, the ., Testimony of Moses, 
 the Assumption of Moses, Abram, Eldad and Medad, 
 Elias the Prophet, the prophecy of Sophonias, Zacha- 
 riah the father of John, and the false writings of 
 Baruch, Abaccuc, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Alcuin, con- 
 futing Elipandus, calls Sirach an apocrj^phal and dubi- 
 ous Scripture. Rhabanus Maurus transcribes Isidore. 
 
 The tenth and eleventh ages are not without their 
 witness in Radulphus Flaviacensis, Herman nus Con- 
 tractus, and Gislebertus, Abbot of Westminster. 
 
 The great twelfth-century divines, Hugo and Richard
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 109 
 
 of St. Victor, testify to the assertion in our Article. In 
 the thirteenth, the very same line is taken by the pious 
 and learned author of the G fossa Ordinaria, by Car- 
 dinal Hugo, and by St. Thomas. In the fourteenth 
 century Nicholas Lyranus, who was converted from Ju- 
 daism and became a friar minor, declares his intention 
 of writing on the books which are not canonical, Wis- 
 dom, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit, and the Maccabees. 
 Paulus Burgensis, also a converted Jew, whose notes are 
 printed with the Glossa, keeps up the distinction. This 
 brings us down to the Council of Florence. Of this 
 Council, Carranza gives a doubtful Canon to the Arme- 
 nians, in which the authority of St. Augustine is pre- 
 ferred to that of St. Jerome ; but St. Antoninus and 
 Tostatus in the same age do not obey it. Tostatus, 
 following the ancient Fathers, distinguishes between 
 two sorts of apocryphal books, whereof some are so 
 called because it is not known for certain who wrote 
 them, or whether they were written by the inspiration 
 of the Holy Ghost, or whether all things contained 
 therein be undoubtedly true; others which, beside all 
 these uncertainties, have many things in them mani- 
 festly false or shrewdly suspected to be so. Dionysius 
 Carthusianus says of the books "that though true, they 
 are not to be computed among the Canonical Scrip- 
 tures, and that the Church does not receive them to 
 prove any Article of faith by them." In the sixteenth 
 century the Complutensian speaks of the libri extra 
 Canoncm : Picus of Mirandula, Faber Stapulensis, 
 Clichtoveus, Ludovicus Vives, Erasmus, Ferus, Driedo,
 
 110 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 and, above all, Cardinal Cajetan, maintain the dis- 
 tinction d . 
 
 The neglect with which the Apocrypha is treated is 
 not in the interests of truth. Because there is a marked 
 difference in the authority of the proto-canonical and 
 deutero- canonical books, people should not ignore the 
 latter in the way they do. That they are an integral 
 part of the version generally used by our Lord and His 
 Apostles, ought of itself to invest them with reverence, 
 but they are more important when we come to see the 
 principles involved in them. First, they supply a most 
 important historical link between the Old and the New 
 Testament, carrying on the continuity of the fortunes 
 of the people of God from the time when prophecy 
 ceased. Secondly, they exhibit the gradual develop- 
 ment of truth, a very marked increase of the knowledge 
 of God being traceable between the Books of Moses 
 and the Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. Thirdly, 
 they recognise in a practical manner the permissibility 
 and advantage of religious fiction ; the Book of Judith 
 being probably a romance written to raise the spirits 
 of the chosen people at some time of their depression. 
 Fourth^, they exhibit, in a very marked way, the 
 effect of the union of the Jewish and Greek ideas in 
 the evolution of a religious philosophy. Fifthly, they 
 form a remarkable key to the understanding and in- 
 terpretation of the New Testament, as supplying us 
 
 d See a Scholastical History of the Canon of Holy Scripture by 
 osin. Works, vol. iii. Oxf. Edit. 1849.
 
 OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. Ill 
 
 with the clearest manifestation of the modes of thought 
 current among the Jews in the times immediately pre- 
 ceding the manifestation of St. John the Precursor. 
 Lastly, they are very rich in anticipation of Christian 
 ideas, witnessing to that preparation of heart which 
 was in the power of, and actually obtained by, those 
 earnest souls who waited for the consolation of Israel, 
 and therefore supplying material for an intellectual 
 acquiescence in the award whereby those who rejected 
 our Lord when He came are condemned. 
 
 We find an uncertainty in the early ages relative 
 to the Canon of the New Testament. Eusebius, in 
 that which he has transmitted to us , divides the books 
 into 6fj.o\.ojovfj,eva and avn\e^o^eva ; in the last class 
 he places St. James, St. Jude, the Second Epistle of 
 St. Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of St. John. 
 He designates as voda those whose authorship was de- 
 monstrated to be not Apostolic, as the Acts of Paul, 
 the Shepherd of Hennas, the Apocalypse of St. Peter, 
 the Epistle of St. Barnabas, the book entitled Si$d%at, 
 in the Apostolic Constitutions, and the Gospel of the 
 Hebrews. He says also that some include the Apoca- 
 lypse of St. John. Beyond this he further brackets 
 certain works as aro-jra and Svo-a-efiij, as the Gospels 
 of St. Peter, St. Thomas, and St. Matthew, the Acts of 
 St. Andrew, St. John, and of the other Apostles. 
 
 By degrees the avTi\eyo/j,eva of Eusebius began to 
 take their place among the recognised books. St. Atha- 
 nasius and St. Epiphanius admit them. All, with the 
 exception of the Apocalypse, are cited by St. Gregory 
 
 e Hist. Eccl. iii, 24.
 
 112 ARTICLE VI. 
 
 Nazianzen, the Apostolic Constitutions, and the cele- 
 brated Canon of Laodicsea, C. Cyril. 
 
 Yet we still find occasional isolated opposition against 
 other books of the avTi\eydfj,eva. The Iambics to Se- 
 leucus, printed in the works of St. Gregory Nazian- 
 zen f , say that many do not admit the Second Epistle 
 of St. Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of St. John, 
 St. Jude, the Hebrews; and that the greater part reject 
 the Apocalypse. Didymus of Alexandria doubts the 
 Canonicity of the Second Epistle of St. Peter ; and 
 Theodore of Mopsuestia is indisposed to that of St. 
 James. The Syrian version only recognises of the 
 Catholic Epistles, as Canonical, the First Epistle of 
 St. John, the First Epistle of St. Peter, and St. James. 
 The Latin Church, in view of Montanism, tended to 
 dislike the Hebrews. The Greek Church, in fear of Mil- 
 lenarianism, mistrusted the Apocalypse g . The Council 
 of Nice, by affording means to the Bishops of the East 
 and West to compare notes, enabled the "Western to 
 learn that the Hebrews was part of Canonical Scrip- 
 ture, and the Eastern the genuineness of the Apo- 
 calypse. This practically ended the question as to 
 the New Testament Canon. Doubts subsequent to this 
 were rather the abnormal opinions of individuals, and 
 therefore do not invalidate the statement in the Arti- 
 cles, that concerning what we now receive " there was 
 never any doubt in the Church." 
 
 1 torn. ii. p. 165. 
 
 2 Klee, Sistoire des Dogmes Chretiens, i. 146. Cf. Wcstcott's 
 General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament. 
 Cambridge, 1855.
 
 ARTICLE VII. 
 DE VETERI TESTAMENTO. 
 
 TESTAMENTUH veins novo contmrium non est, quando- 
 quidem tarn in veteri, quam in novo, per Christum, qui 
 tinicus est Mediator Dei et hominum, Deus et homo, 
 aterna vita humano gcneri est proposita. Quare male 
 scntiunt, qui veteres tantum in promissiones temporaries 
 sperasse confingunt. Ojianquam fax a Deo data per 
 Mosen (quoad c&remonias et ritus] Christianos non as- 
 tringat, neque civilia ejus prtecepta in aliqua repub- 
 lica necessario recipi debeant, nihilominus tamen ab 
 obed/entici mandatorum (qua moralia vocantur) nullus 
 (qiiantumris Christianus] est sohdus. 
 
 "Of the Old Testament. 
 
 " THE Old Testament is not contrary to the New ; 
 for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting 
 life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only 
 Mediator between God and man, being both God and 
 Man; wherefore they are not to be heard which feign 
 that the old Fathers did look only for transitory pro- 
 mises. Although the law given from God by Moses, 
 as touching ceremonies and rites, do not bind Christian 
 men, nor the civil precepts thereof ought of necessity 
 to be received in any commonwealth, yet, notwith- 
 standing, no Christian man whatsoever is free from 
 the obedience of the commandments which are called 
 moral."
 
 114 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 Among certain schools of the Reformers there was 
 a great dislike of accounting the Gospel a law truly and 
 pi'operly so called a , implying thereby that Christ our 
 Redeemer was not truly a lawgiver. Also many denied 
 the proposition that the Old Testament, promising pro- 
 perly and directly carnal and temporal goods, promises 
 also, in the figure and symbol of these, spiritual and 
 eternal good things. The Anabaptists held that the 
 Old Testament was abrogated, and refused to accept its 
 authority to confirm truth, or to refute error. In this 
 they renewed the errors of Basilides, Carpocrates, and 
 the Manichaeans. The Family of Love held that its 
 promises of happiness were wholly exhausted by the 
 temporal blessings of this life ; and the Brownists that 
 Christians were necessarily tied to the judicial pre- 
 cepts of Moses, " Which laws were not made for the 
 Jews' state only, but for all mankind, especially for all 
 the Israel of God V A strong Antinomian spirit pre- 
 vailed among many of the extreme schools of the Re- 
 formers, and it is against these, in their various phases, 
 that the Seventh Article of religion is directed. 
 
 The Article speaks of that fresh light that was 
 hed upon the world by the Advent of Jesus Christ as 
 ii teacher of additional truth from heaven. Such, in- 
 deed, were the yearnings of heathenism. The wisest 
 of these, almost in the spirit of prophecy, announced 
 that " One who cared for us" should come "to be our 
 
 a See Bp. Anclrowcs' Sermon on the Nativity, on Psalm ii. 7, p. 289, 
 Anglo-Catholic Library. 
 
 b Barren's "Discovery of the False Church," 1500, p. 96.
 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 115 
 
 instructor, and to remove man's ignorance," "in re- 
 spect of his relations to God and man c ." 
 
 The Church is one and the same, substantially and 
 formally, under the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian 
 dispensations. One and the same object of faith, even 
 Christ, hath been believed in from the beginning even 
 until now, and so shall be believed unto the end of 
 the world ; with this difference, however, that, as time 
 has gone on, the same faith hath been more and more 
 explicit. St. Augustine very well says, " Before the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared lowly 
 in the flesh, just men had preceded ; believing in Him 
 as about to come, as we believe in Him as having 
 come. The times vary, but not the faith ; for the 
 words themselves vary with the time when they are 
 variously declared. ' About to come' has one sound, 
 'come' has another; 'about to come' is changed into 
 ' come :' and the same faith joins those who believed 
 that He was about to come, with those who believe 
 that He has come. We see both enter by the one 
 gate of faith, that is, by Christ d ." 
 
 Thus St. Paul, quoting David, says: "we having the 
 same spirit of faith c ." In short, it must be laid down 
 with the author just quoted, "No one, save by this 
 iaith which is in Christ Jesus, either before His In- 
 carnation or since His Incarnation, has ever been 
 reconciled to God f ." 
 
 c fide Alcibiades Deuteros, Plat. Op., t. Hi. p. 124, Ed. Bekkcr. 
 London, 1826. d In Tract XLV., in Joann. Evang., p. 598. 
 
 2 Cor. iv. 13. f Ferraris, Bibliotheca Canonical
 
 116 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 The first great province of the identity of the Old 
 and New Testaments lies in the matter of direct doc- 
 trine. In the letter, and still more in the spirit of 
 the Old Scriptures we find the Gospel. Truths, that 
 never could be arrived at by the unassisted reason of 
 man, are in germ there. The nature and personality 
 of the One God, His existence in more Persons than 
 one, His government by the Holy Angels, His eccle- 
 siastical Election, His training and discipline of the 
 chosen people, the scheme of redemption by suffering 
 for us in our nature, which He took, the outpouring 
 and unction of the Spirit, the use of water for lustra- 
 tion, the outpouring of Blood for Atonement, the re- 
 wards and punishments of the future state, and final 
 Beatitude in the sight and presence of God, all are 
 found in embryo in the Law, and in the Prophets, 
 and in the Psalms; in life, and strength, and fulness, 
 in the Gospel. 
 
 Again, the Old Testament History is most important 
 in symbolizing to us the fortunes of the present dis- 
 pensation. Not only are the historical personages 
 allegories, as the Apostle bears witness in the case of 
 Abraham and Sarah, but the historical events are ana- 
 logies of what takes place now. The polity of the 
 synagogue, for example, enables us to understand some 
 of the fortunes of the Church of Christ. The law of 
 reward on obedience, of punishment on transgression, 
 holds in the same sense, but in a higher measure now. 
 The overruling of man's disobediences to an eventual 
 good, obtains among us now just as it did in the de-
 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 117 
 
 portation of Joseph to Egypt, when the sin of his bre- 
 thren was by God's goodness made the means of pre- 
 serving life. Hearts under the rejected Gospel ai*e 
 hardened just as was Pharaoh's. Men fail when least 
 they watch themselves, just as Moses, the meekest of 
 mankind, failed from want of meekness. And so with 
 regard to communities and institutions. We get les- 
 sons of great importance as to states and branches of 
 the Church from the fortunes of the Jewish theocracy. 
 Judah and Israel have their types among us now. 
 Schism and its punishment and merciful overruling, 
 and the duty of striving for unity, are what Samaria 
 teaches us. The danger of sin and worldliness in high 
 places, the misery of corruption and unfaithfulness in 
 those who sit in Moses' seat, is what is taught us by 
 her sister Judah. 
 
 Furthermore, the ordinances and rites of the old 
 Law have their distinct places and value under the 
 Gospel. At their best they derived what value they 
 had from the power of the future Incarnation. They 
 testified to the faith of the offerers, they were proofs of 
 obedience to God's commandments, of adherence to His 
 institution, and so they impetrated such grace as was 
 competent to Jew or proselyte of righteousness; in short, 
 it was the opus opertitttid as against the opus operatum 
 of the Gospel. But with the manifestation of the truth 
 the shadow passed away. When Christ came, and the 
 Church was set up on earth, the old rites lost their 
 spiritual power. But they now assumed a new office. 
 They ceased to be in any sense sacraments, they became
 
 118 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 symbols. This we learn from their treatment by the 
 author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He developes 
 their symbolical character as types of the great mys- 
 teries of redemption, and thus their importance is an 
 everlasting importance. The blood of bulls and goats, 
 and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, no 
 longer sanctifieth even to the purifying of the flesh, 
 but the narration of these things in the inspired Word 
 of God, represents to us many of the aspects of the 
 eternal sacrifice of Christ, and supplies us with copious 
 topics of devout meditation. The High-Priest has 
 ceased to offer for rejected Israel, and his office has 
 passed away ; bit the record of his consecration, func- 
 tions, and death, supply us with types of the corre- 
 sponding actions of the Great High-Priest and Apostle 
 of our calling, and enable us to dwell in trustful love 
 on that which in its fulness can never be realized by 
 finite mind. 
 
 Another important instance of the connection be- 
 tween the old and the new covenant is Prophecy. Its 
 importance in the evidential department of the science 
 of theology can hardly be exaggerated. It supplies 
 a proof that almost amounts to demonstration, e.g. 
 the prophecy, in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, of 
 circumstances in the siege of Jerusalem, is known to us 
 with absolute certainty, from the fact of the Septuagint 
 translation having been made before the event. The 
 details are so minute that it cannot be reduced to the 
 notion of a happy conjecture. There is no escaping its 
 weight. Again, those which connect the times of the
 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 119 
 
 Messiah with the cessation of the autonomy of Judah, 
 are corroborated by the external proofs we have that, 
 not only in Judaoa but through the world, at that epoch 
 a deliverer was expected. Lastly, the prophecy of the 
 seventy weeks, counted back fi-om the event, fits in so 
 exactly with the epoch of Ezra's mission to restore the 
 Jewish polity in the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus, 
 and fails so entirely to find a fancied fulfilment when 
 counted from the later period to which the Book of 
 Daniel has been attributed, that we are driven to accept 
 at once the authenticity of the original prophecy, and 
 the providential fulfilment of the thing prophesied. 
 Moreover, this form of evidence increases in value, 
 whereas that from miracle becomes depreciated by 
 time ; for we see not the miracles ; we know of them 
 only by the report of others ; but enemies of the Gos- 
 pel, the Jews, are witnesses to the fore-existence of the 
 prophecies; their growing fulfilments in the kingdom 
 of Christ we see with our ow T n eyes. 
 
 In comparing Judaism with Christianity, two points 
 have been always noticed, 1. That the first was inferior 
 to the other ; 2. That there was an interdependence of 
 the two. The Fathers recognised Christianity as em- 
 phatically the law of liberty, as opposed to the bondage 
 of the Law g ; and therefore it was inconsistent to call 
 011 the name of the Lord Jesus and at the same time 
 to Judaize, for it was not Christianity that believed in 
 Judaism, but Judaism that believed in Christianity, so 
 that every tongue believing in God should be harmo- 
 
 ? Ircn. iii. 12. 4. n.
 
 120 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 nious h . On the other hand, they held their connection 
 in the sense of the Article. "We shall refer to the 
 cause of the difference of the two Testaments, and again 
 to their unity and consonance 1 ." "We acknowledge 
 in this sense a separation, by reformation, by amplifi- 
 cation, by advance ; as the fruit is separated from the 
 seed, so the Gospel is separated from the Law, while 
 it is produced from the Law ; a different thing from it, 
 yet not foreign to it ; diverse, yet not contrary V So 
 that the new covenant is nothing but the old in its pro- 
 gress, in its pure Ideal, in its last consummation : and 
 St. Clement of Rome " sees but one Church since Abra~ 
 ham. The Church of the promise is become, by a natural 
 and necessary transition, the Church of the fulfilment. 
 All that was before Christ, in a sense, continues and be- 
 longs to the present Church. Jewish priests and Chris- 
 tian presbyters are the same institution, and have both 
 a sacrifice to offer. In short, St. Clement is the most 
 marked representation of Church continuity. His lead- 
 ing idea was, We Churchmen are the true Israelites, 
 sons of Abraham and heirs of the promise ; Abraham 
 and Jacob, Moses and David, belong to us alone 1 ." 
 
 h S. Ign. Magii. x. See also specially Euseb. Dem. Ecang. i. 6. 
 
 1 Iren. iii. 12. n. 12. k Tert. ad Marc. iv. 11. 
 
 i Dollinger, "The First Age of the Church," vol. ii. p. 134. Eng. Tr. 
 
 "The doctrinal traditions of the Jewish necessarily passed into the 
 Christian Church. Christ Himself had recognised them, taught out of 
 them, and referred His disciples to the authority of those who sat in 
 Moses' seat, who were their organs. And if He sharply denounced their 
 arbitrary interpretation of the Law, and reproached them for making 
 God's Law of none effect by their own inventions put forth as traditions 
 of the elders, those were perversions of individuals or almost of whole
 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 121 
 
 The statement in the Article is a very remarkable 
 one, if we regard it by the light of the existent con- 
 troversies. It is in so many words a re-assertion of 
 the doctrine of the Schoolmen against the notions of 
 Luther and Melanchthon. Luther said : " The School- 
 men understood the abolition of the Law to mean that 
 the Mosaic ordinances respecting the civil precepts con- 
 cerning the commonwealth and secular matters, which 
 they termed judicialia, as well as the laws touching 
 
 schools; the dominant teaching was independent of them, and was con- 
 firmed and employed in the addresses of Christ and His Apostles 
 
 Tims the religious consciousness of Judaism, in which the Apostles, 
 the early Christian teachers, and most of the first believers had been 
 brought up, flowed in unbroken stream into the Christian Church, and 
 the Jewish became the Christian tradition. There was no violent break 
 or formal renunciation ; Christianity claimed to be, not a reformation, 
 but a fulfilment of Judaism, expectation passing into possession, the wor- 
 ship of a Redeemer who had come instead of a looking for a future one, 
 the Law spiritualized into the Gospel, and a world -religion and universal 
 Church opening its gates to every nation, instead of a mere fellowship 
 of blood and race, a Church (ecclesid) instead of a synagogue. The 
 Christians were conscious of being in communion with the principalities 
 up to that time, and if they threw aside as having no significance for 
 them, the pharisaic tradition about the use of the ceremonial law, they 
 claimed for themselves all its real benefits : the sacred books, the doc- 
 trinal tradition, the moral law as expounded by Christ, and even the 
 ritual law in its principles, with a priesthood, altar, and sacrifice divested 
 of their formal, typical, and carnal character. The Psalms were their 
 manual of prayer and praise, baptism took the place of circumcision, the 
 Paschal feast was transfigured into the Eucharistic celebration of sacri- 
 fice and communion, and the Jewish priesthood, with its descent from 
 father to son after the flesh, when brought to an end by the destruction 
 of the Temple, was replaced by the spiritual succession of the teaching 
 and priestly ministry among Christians. Thus the Christian conscious- 
 ness and life were an outgrowth of the Jewish." (Dollinger, " First 
 Age of the Church," vol. i. p. 222.)
 
 122 ARTICLE VII. 
 
 rites and ceremonies, were, on account of the Death 
 of Christ, pernicious, and were therefore abolished, 
 but that the Ten Commandments, called moralia, still 
 claimed the Christian's obedience.*' 
 
 Luther, in terms, denied this; he taught the abo- 
 lition of civil laws, ceremonies, and moralia at once, 
 especially the last, as these alone accuse the conscience 
 before God, and terrify it; and that the Ten Com- 
 mandments have no right to accuse or alarm the con- 
 science wherein Christ reigns by His grace; even 
 Christ hath abolished the right of the Law when He 
 became a curse for us m . Melanchthon, of whom it has 
 been said by the most eminent living divine in Ger- 
 many, that he wanted iron in his spiritual nature, less 
 consistently, while maintaining rightly that the be- 
 liever, even if the moral law made no claims upon 
 him, would fulfil it, being freely and inwardly moved 
 by the Holy Spirit, yet he asserts, " The law is abro- 
 gated, not that it should not be fulfilled, but that it 
 may be fulfilled, and may not condemn even when it is 
 not fulfilled"." 
 
 "The life of the Saviour is in every relation an 
 organic unity ; and everything in Him, His suffer- 
 ings, His works, His doctrine, His conversation among 
 men, His death on the Cross, were in a like manner 
 calculated for our redemption. It is the merits of the 
 entire undivided God-man, the Son of God, whereby 
 we are won again to God. His three offices of pro- 
 phet, priest, and king, are alike necessarj-. Thus, by 
 
 m Luther, Gal. " Loc. Theol.
 
 OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 123 
 
 the advent of the Son of Man there were of necessity 
 proposed to man the highest degree of ethical and re- 
 ligious knowledge ; the ideal of a life agreeable to 
 God ; forgiveness of sin and sanctification. As these 
 three are united in Christ, they must be found also 
 in us. 
 
 " Christ proposed to man the highest ethical ideal, 
 giving fresh knowledge, and developing the old as 
 found in the Old Testament ; forgiveness of sin, and 
 pardon for every moral transgression are announced in 
 His Name to all who believe in Him ; the union of 
 these two apparently contradictory propositions is me- 
 diated by that which shall be akin both to law and to 
 grace, both to rigid exaction and to merciful remission. 
 This is the sanctifying power which flows from the 
 living union with Christ, the free grace of holy love 
 which in justification He pours out on His followers ; 
 in it all law is abolished, because law no longer stands 
 forth as an outward claim; it is at the same time 
 established, because love is the fulfilling of the law. 
 In love, law and grace become one. In love, the 
 entire undivided Christ becomes living within us, 
 and the moral teacher and forgiver of sin is alike 
 glorified ." 
 
 " Mohler, vol. i. p. 260.
 
 ARTICLE VIII. 
 DE TRIBUS SYMBOLIS. 
 
 SYMSOLA tria, Nicanum, Athanasii, ct quod culgo Apo- 
 stolorum appcllatur, omnino recipienda smit, ct cre- 
 denda, nam firmissimis Scripturanun tcstimoniis pro- 
 ban possimt. 
 
 " Of the Three Creeds. 
 
 " THE three Creeds, Nicenc Creed, Athanasius's Creed, 
 and that which is commonly called the Apostles' Creed, 
 ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they 
 may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy 
 Scripture." 
 
 ST. CYRIL of Jerusalem a beautifully compares the 
 Creed to the mustard seed, for as that in a little grain 
 contains many branches is the whole tree in embryo 
 so this faith, in a few words, hath enfolded in its 
 bosom the whole knowledge of godliness contained 
 both in the Old and New Testaments. Hence it is 
 with the deepest reverence that the Catholic Chris- 
 tian regards these venerable symbols, which, found 
 in their faintest expression in St. Paul's Epistles, may 
 be traced back in more or less definite form to the 
 remotest antiquity. While, after the Council of Nicaea, 
 
 Led. Cat. v. 12, p. 58 0. T.
 
 OF THE THREE CREEDS. 125 
 
 the Creed put forth therein, was binding on the whole 
 Church, and therefore recited once a-year in the holy 
 mysteries, and regarded as the standard or norm of 
 orthodoxy, as is illustrated by the fact of Leo III. 
 hanging it up in St. Peter's in proof of his adherence 
 to the unchanged Creed, yet the Western Church con- 
 tinued to use in the Baptismal Service a form that had 
 come down from the Apostles. In St. Irenaeus and 
 Tertullian we find both Eastern and Western Creeds, 
 as regards the main articles of the faith, but it re- 
 ceived from time to time additional articles. It is 
 difficult, or perhaps impossible, to determine precisely 
 all the detailed expressions of the original Creed, be- 
 cause the Fathers recite its articles at times paraphras- 
 tically, at times summarily. Or again, with special em- 
 phasis against one particular heresy, so omitting some 
 which did not bear on that heresy ; or again, a clause 
 of the Creed is passed over, as being virtually contained 
 in another. Yet there seems to be traces that addi- 
 tions were made in very early times, to meet prevailing 
 heresies. Thus the word "One" appears to have been 
 added in the clauses " I believe in ONE God," " And in 
 ONE Lord Jesus Christ," against the Marcionites, who 
 denied the unity of God, and Cerinthus, who separated 
 Jesus from the Christ. The word " Catholic" occurs 
 very early in the East, where heretics claimed to be the 
 Church ; while unknown in the West, where heresies 
 sprang up later. The clause, " The Communion of 
 Saints," as lying implicitly in " the Holy Church,"
 
 126 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 does not appear in any anodcnt Creed, wherefore it was 
 not introduced, either into the Nicene or the Athana- 
 sian Creeds, and occurs first in the Galilean Sacranien- 
 tar} r , whose date is at the close of the seventh century, 
 although its materials may be much earlier b . 
 
 As to the Eastern or Nicene Creed, we see how the 
 faith against the perversions of heretics, flexibly adapt- 
 ing itself to meet the exigencies of the Church in 
 maintenance of it, was expanded into that of Constan- 
 tinople ; the anathematisms having been dropped, and 
 certain additions made, which by some are said to be 
 due to St. Gregory Nazianzen, by others to St. Gregory 
 of Nyssa, but which embodied in great measure expres- 
 sions of ancient Creeds. Diogenes, Bishop of Cyzicum, 
 tells us that the o-apiccodevra and evavOpajTrijcravra were 
 inserted on account of the Apollinarian heresy. The 
 unending nature of Christ's kingdom was asserted 
 against Marcellus of Ancyra. In the East, Creeds 
 were more the work of Councils than in the West. 
 
 It is a difficulty how, when the Nicene Creed ends 
 with "And in the Holy Ghost," we find so many 
 of the additional clauses of the Council of Constan- 
 tinople already existing in Ariau formularies before 
 that Council. The probable solution seems to be that, 
 there being no heresy at that time in regard to any 
 of those later Articles, the Nicene Creed stopped in 
 the complete confession of the Holy Trinity ; while the 
 
 b Sacr. Galilean. Codex Boliensis Malillon MttsettmHaUcnm.tom.i- 
 par. 2, p. 312.
 
 OF THE THREE CREEDS. 127 
 
 Arians on the one side, and Marcellus of Ancyra on 
 the other, sought to veil their heresies by dwelling on 
 the true doctrines Avhich they also acknowledged . 
 
 After the Constantinopolitan Creed had been sanc- 
 tioned by a General Council, we find no further change 
 in the unchanging East; but in the West the expres- 
 sion Dcum de Deo, which had been in the Nicene for- 
 mula, was probably restored by a Spanish Council, 
 either that of Braga, A.D. 411, or of Galicia, A.D. 447. 
 It is certain that the expression occurs in the formulae 
 of the three Councils of Toledo, A.D. 589. 
 
 Here also occurs the other more important addition 
 of the Filioque which has been fraught with such mo- 
 mentous consequences to the Church of God. This 
 Toledan Creed moreover agrees with the present Eng- 
 lish Form, in which ' holy ' is missed out before the 
 Catholic and Apostolic, as well as the preposition ' in ' 
 in the same clause. 
 
 It is a remarkable thought how, in the history of 
 Christianity, God has used works of anonymous or 
 doubtful authorship to produce the most profound 
 effects upon the intellect of the Church. Putting out 
 of sight, on the grounds of reverence, any discussion 
 as to the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find various works 
 telling markedly oil the religious consciousness of the 
 times, on the authorship of which no certainty has 
 been arrived at. The Apostolic Constitutions, though 
 probably the embodiment of a very early phase of 
 Church discipline, are no longer attributed to is-apo- 
 c Sec Tertullian, Oxf. Ed. note P. p. 496.
 
 128 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 stolic times. The treatise on the Heavenly Hierarchy, 
 ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, is certainly not 
 his work, but has been a storehouse for pious meditation 
 for many centuries. No one can positively say who 
 wrote the Te Dcum, and in later times, the author- 
 ship of the " Imitation of Christ " is still controverted. 
 Thus it is that God uses servants unknown to man 
 for His purposes, and thus the words of some unknown 
 individual, unrewarded by human commendation on 
 earth, receive the blessing from the Most High, and 
 the praise not of man, but of God. 
 
 This is the case with what is termed the Creed of 
 St. Athanasius. It certainly is no Eastern Creed at 
 all, for although now printed in some of the Euchologia 
 of the Greek Church, it is nowhere found in Greek be- 
 fore the twelfth century, and is evidently the result of 
 purely Latin influence. Neither in the West was it 
 promulgated by any council, or by any authority of the 
 see of Rome. Its origin is probably from Gaul. St. 
 Hilary of Aries was long reputed to be its author. 
 Modern criticism bestows the honour upon Yictricius 
 of Rouen. This, at least, is certain, that it was com- 
 mented upon in company with the Lord's Prayer and 
 Apostles' Creed by Venantius Fortunatus about A.D. 
 570, and that in France it generally was called the 
 Faith of St. Athanasius the Bishop, the exposition 
 of the Catholic Faith of Athanasius, the Sermon of 
 St. Athanasius of Faith, the Symbol of Athanasius, 
 the Little Book of Athanasius of Faith, the Sermon 
 of the Catholic Faith. About the year 1050, we have
 
 OF THE THREE CREEDS. 129 
 
 Gualdo of Corby calling it the Catholic Faith ascribed 
 to Athanasius (quern composuisse fertur B. Athanasius}. 
 Honorius of Aries calls it the Faith Quicunque mitt. 
 The Schoolmen generally attribute it to Athanasius,. 
 but in the twelfth century there appears a more cri- 
 tical spirit in the title. A German MS. of Leipzig, 
 A.D. 1180, calls it Fides Anastasii Papa; so in 1120, 
 a Harleian MS. A MS. of the Friar Minors in France 
 has Canticum Bonifacii, cc Chant fust St. Anaistaise qui 
 ApoatoiUcs dc Home, and in a Bodleian MS. of 1400 
 we have Anastasii Expositio Syrnboli Apostoloru-m. Laud. 
 3fi*c., 490. 
 
 All that we can gather is, that it was written in 
 Gaul before the Council of Chalcedon, that it specially 
 referred to the Apollinarian heresy which appeared 
 about A.D. 360, and that its author was deeply imbued 
 with St. Augustine's teaching, especially as expressed 
 in his treatise DC Trinitatc. 
 
 The essence of a revelation is that it must be definite-. 
 We cannot conceive God announcing anything to His 
 creatures which is not precise. There may be question 
 whether a fact is really revealed or not, but there can be 
 no question as to the obligation of accepting the entire 
 conception, if it really be so. Moreover this applies 
 not only to this or that doctrine or faith. It applies to 
 the whole body of truth that claims to be communicated 
 by God. There is no scope for selection of this or that 
 doctrine, which speaks especially to this or that soul. 
 The one question is, What is the sum of revelation ? 
 
 Now, not only has the Christian religion ever main- 
 K
 
 130 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 tamed that God in sundry measures, 7ro\vfiepws A , and 
 divers manners, TroXurpoTr&j?, spake in times past to 
 the human race, communicating so much divine know- 
 ledge as He thought good for them, or as they were 
 able to bear, as to Adam, Noah, and Moses; but it 
 has asserted that one of the offices of the God-man, one 
 of the objects of the Incarnation, was to communicate 
 a fresh and fuller measure of certain truths by the 
 Holy Spirit, which was sent as a consequence of His 
 ascension. Of the gifts for men which He obtained, 
 none was so important as that of the Paraclete, for His 
 indwelling in the Church organic, and in the soul and 
 body of the individual believer, was not only as a prin- 
 ciple of love and holiness, but as a principle of divine 
 faith. " Xo one can say that Jesus is the Lord but 
 by the Holy Ghost." 
 
 But how did the Spirit work ? Of course the work 
 was supernatural, and even its manifestations were such 
 as we now see no more; but its more obvious external 
 manifestations were : 1. the direction of the Apostles, 
 as a corporation, to declare certain Divine truths, the 
 belief in which constituted the right of belonging to 
 the new community, and the participation of the spiri- 
 tual privileges deposited therein, and 2. the illumina- 
 tion of the minds, the memories, and all the inward 
 Bowers of certain of their number to record more fully 
 tf.he supernatural events of the Life of the Founder and 
 His teaching. 
 
 From these two sources spring the two authorities 
 d YiJo Alt'ord on the Epistle to the Hebrews, './/.
 
 OF THE THREE CREEDS. 131 
 
 of the Creeds and the Scriptures. We have already 
 touched upon the second, it remains to say somewhat 
 of the first. 
 
 Before a page of the New Testament was written, 
 Christianity was an organized polity. Like every other 
 polity, it had its laws, its privileges, its penalties, its 
 conditions of membership. Of these last, the necessity 
 of receiving Baptism was the initiatory. But this 
 implied certain requirements. A thorough repentance 
 of all past sin, and a renunciation of the three great 
 enemies of Christ and His people were not sufficient. 
 Beyond this there was the de fide acceptance of certain 
 historic facts, certain theological truths (very simple 
 indeed and rudimentary, but still definite and precise) 
 concerning God. His unity and existence as against 
 Polytheism, His creative energy against Pantheism, 
 the personal existence of His Word against Emana- 
 tionism, the Incarnation of the Word as the distinctive 
 truth of the new religion ; the historic facts of the 
 Birth, Life, Suffering, Death, Rising, Ascension, and 
 Assession of the Word in His Human Nature ; the ex- 
 istence of the Holy Spirit ; was what their Founder had 
 laid down as the terms of knowledge required in those 
 who were to be baptized in the Name of the Father, 
 und of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Moreover we 
 find that close to this primary faith required in the 
 baptized, there were certain " principles of the doc- 
 trine of Christ," " the foundation of repentance from 
 dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine 
 of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resur-
 
 132 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 rection of the dead, and of eternal judgment ," which 
 went to make up the sum of necessary convictions on 
 their part. It will be seen at once that these in sub- 
 stance suggest the Sacraments of the Church, and cor- 
 respond with the Articles of the Creed, when actually 
 formalized. Such was " the form of sound words," 
 to which allusion is made in the Pastoral Epistles of 
 St. Paul, and the irapaKaraO^Kr] or deposit. 
 
 From that day to this, these articles have been the 
 sum and substance of Christianity. Nothing less than 
 that is sufficient. Nothing more than that is of ab- 
 solute necessity to salvation. "When a child is bap- 
 tized, the Church demands no more of him, or of his 
 sponsors, than an assent to the Apostles' Creed and 
 when the Christian soul is going out of the world to 
 meet its Judge, it is in the terms of the same Creed 
 that the dying man is interrogated f . 
 
 In the present day there is a great jealousy of the 
 principle of dogma. It is imagined that a true Chris- 
 tian morality, a holy Christian sentiment can exist 
 without it ; that Creeds, professing to give us very de- 
 finite statements on supernatural subjects, are by the 
 very imperfection of language and thought, only tram- 
 mels to the soul, which is thereby kept from aspiring 
 to the indefinite. Yet this is unreasonable, for there 
 can be no Christian morals without Christian definite 
 faith. Dogma is to morals as cause to effect, will to 
 motion. Christian morality is dogma in action, or 
 practical faith. Indeed, to make men receive and prac- 
 Heb. vi. 1, 2. f Office of Visitation of the Sick.
 
 OF THE THREE CREEDS. 133 
 
 tise a morality severe and painful to human nature, 
 one must give great and positive reasons for so doing : 
 when the morality is superhuman, the motives must 
 be so also. Virtues imply beliefs. Nay more, the very 
 fact of Christian morality and its realization in the 
 world implies a set of dogmas at its back, perfect like 
 unto itself. " By their fruits ye shall know them," 
 said our Lord, and the common sense of mankind has 
 accepted the dictum. As we gather an argument for 
 the existence of God from the contemplation of the 
 divine beauty of things created, so we obtain a proof 
 of the supernatural truths of religion from the lives 
 of those who believe and practise it. 
 
 Hence proceeded the deficiency of motive, that is, of 
 definite belief or dogma, which weakened the moral 
 conceptions of the heathen. Their notions of God, the 
 soul, and a retribution, were so feeble that they could 
 not resist the onslaught of the passions ; but our Lord, 
 manifesting Himself as the Logos, as the Archetypal 
 Reason, whence human reason has ever derived its 
 truths, came to strip the spiritual edifice of the en- 
 cumbering ruins that choked man's understanding; 
 to restore in all their primitive purity and strength 
 those enfeebled truths; to communicate fresh notions 
 destined to aid man's weakness, and finally to place 
 all these things beyond attack, on the impregnable 
 fortress of His own authority, so that the incessant 
 assaults of nineteen centuries have failed to touch the 
 sacred treasure. 
 
 With Him every new precept has been a fresh reve-
 
 134 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 latioii of truth. He has rested the one upon the other. 
 He has made men touch the invisible by faith. Faith 
 has bound dogma to practice, as the bond between the 
 two partaking in the first by its object, in the latter 
 by its principle the link between the creature and 
 the Creator. In Christianity there is a precise adjust- 
 ment between the work of the intellect and the work 
 of the heart. It is not a speculative system. We know 
 that we may act : we act because we kno\v. Where 
 our conception surpasses our power of practice, we have 
 evidence of a fall in an originally grand nature ; but 
 in the original intention of God, in the restoration of 
 humanity in Christ, there is a holy proportion between 
 the province of the understanding and the province of 
 the heart : just as the intellect and will in God, the 
 Son and the Spirit, are hypostatically separate, but 
 essentially one R . 
 
 And such has been the course of the world such 
 the history of the progress of Christianity. From cer- 
 tain convictions, so strong that many have died for 
 them, has proceeded the whole of the supernatural life, 
 which has distinguished the true faith from all others. 
 Because men have held, not as speculations, but wit.li 
 the grim tenacity of a struggle for life, certain truths, 
 the Christian world is what it is. 
 
 And this is no slavery, but rather emancipation. 
 The human soul must think on the relations in the 
 adorable Trinity. This teaches one to think safely, 
 
 <>' Vide Nicolas, Etudes Philosophiqv.es sur le Chnsiiariume, vol. ii. 
 p. 3G7.
 
 OF THE THREE CREEDS. 105 
 
 and safety ever gives the sense of freedom and ex- 
 pansion. The greatest of human minds has found suf- 
 ficient scope for the most abstract speculation on the 
 dogmas of revealed faith, and in such speculation has 
 been aided by the possession of an infallible starting- 
 point in the Creeds. Without Creeds speculation is 
 apt to run into mysticism : with Creeds it is the ex- 
 ercise of the Spirit-illumined faculty, the grandest use 
 of that divine reason which God has implanted in the 
 master-work of His Hands. 
 
 And the same Creed which has this mighty office 
 with the profound thinker, has a no less holy one with 
 regard to every Christian. As a fund of pious medi- 
 tation, we have here the mysteries of the faith pre- 
 sented to us in the briefest form, the great verities 
 brought before us day by day so as to enter into the 
 very substance of the soul. Hence the benefit of mak- 
 ing the Creed a part of man's daily devotion. The 
 repetition of our belief is an act of faith, and we are 
 justified by faith. St. Augustine says : " Say it daily ; 
 when you rise, when you betake yourself to sleep, say 
 your Creed ; say it to the Lord. Do not say, I said it 
 yesterday, I said it to-day, I daily say it, I have it 
 perfect. Call to mind thy faith, examine thyself. Let 
 thy Creed be thy mirror. In it see if thou believest 
 all that thou confessest thou believest, and rejoice in 
 thy faith V 
 
 Speaking of the Council of Nicaea, an eloquent au- 
 thor remarks : " That Asia Minor, where the Christian 
 h Serm. Iviii. torn. v.
 
 136 ARTICLE VIII. 
 
 Church had just held her grand assizes, had been for 
 many centuries the birthplace of all superstitions and 
 of all systems. Philosophy and fable had alike their 
 favoured abode there. The southern coast of that same 
 land was strewn with the ruins of Troy, the brilliant 
 country of the gods of Homer. There was not one 
 of all the flourishing cities along the margin of the 
 Ionian sea, not one of the islands of her archipelago, 
 which could not at the same time boast of a god, and 
 the birth of a sage. Samos had the temple of Neptune 
 and the cradle of Pythagoras. The Apollo of Claros 
 and the Diana of Ephesus were adored on the same 
 shores where Thales and Anaximander had taught, 
 and where Heraclitus first saw the light. But this 
 long labour of the same people to conceive the thought 
 or the image of God, had only produced, till that day, 
 dreams, idols, and monsters. And in less than six 
 weeks, three hundred men unknown to one another, 
 arriving from opposite ends of the world, speaking in 
 different tongues, had been able to give a nervous and 
 concise formula of the Divine nature, destined to tra- 
 verse all oceans and all ages ! And at this day, after 
 fifteen centuries have passed away, from one extremity 
 of the civilized world to the other, in the lonely ham- 
 lets of the Alps, in unknown isles of ocean discovered 
 by modern science, when the solemnity of the Sunday 
 lifts towards heaven brows bent earthward by labour, 
 is heard a concert of rustic voices repeating in one and 
 the same tone the hymn of the Divine Unity : ' I be- 
 lieve in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all
 
 OF THE THREE CREEDS. 137 
 
 things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus 
 Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His 
 Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, 
 Very God of very God, Begotten not made, Being of 
 one substance with the Father, by Whom all things 
 were made, Who for us men and for our salvation came 
 down from heaven, And was incarnate, and was made 
 man ; He suffered and rose again on the third day ; 
 and ascended into heaven, and shall come again to 
 judge . . . And I believe in the Holy Ghost 1 .' " 
 
 ' De Broglie, L'eglise et V empire Somain au 4' ieme siecle, t. ii. p. 68.
 
 ARTICLE IX. 
 DE PECCATO ORTGIXALL 
 
 PECCATUM originis non est (ut fabulantur PcJagiani] in 
 imitatione Adami situm, sed est ritium, ct dcpravafio 
 natura, cujuslibet hominis e.r Adamo natnralitcr ]>ro- 
 pagati : qua fif, vt ab original! jnstitia qnam Jongix- 
 ximedistet, ad malum sua nahira propendeat, ct caro- 
 semper adccrsus spiritum concitpiscaf, undc in unoqvo- 
 qne nasccntiion, iram Dei atquc damnationcm inert-fur. 
 Manet etiam in renafis hwc natnra> depracafio. Qiur 
 fif, nf qffcctiis carm's, Greece <f>p6vr}/j.a o-ap/co? (qund 
 alii sapientiain, alii sen-sum, alii affect um, alii sti<ditii 
 carnis interpretantur} legi Dei non subjiciatitr. Et 
 quanquam renatis et credentibus, nulla proptcr Cln-i<- 
 tiini est eondeinnafio, peccati tamen in sese rationent 
 halcre coneupiseentiam, fatctur Apostofiis. 
 
 " Of Original or Birth- Sin. 
 
 "ORIGINAL sin standeth not in the following of 
 Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is the 
 fault and the corruption of the nature of every man 
 .that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
 whereby man is very far gone from original righteous- 
 ness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that 
 the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and, 
 therefore, in every person born into, this world, it de- 
 serveth (rod's wrath and damnation. And this in-
 
 OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIX. 139 
 
 fection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are 
 regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in 
 Greek, ^povq^a (rap/cos, "which some do expound the 
 wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the 
 desire of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God. 
 And although there is no condemnation for them that 
 believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth confess, 
 that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature 
 of sin." 
 
 IN approaching the subject of the Ninth Article of 
 religion, we have to bear in mind, that at the Re- 
 formation, the Church had to deal 1. with those who 
 denied original sih, and 2. with those who mistook 
 its nature and unduly magnified its consequences. 
 The Family of Love affh'med that the elect and re- 
 generate sin not. The Adamites maintained that they 
 were in as good a state as Adam before the Fall, there- 
 fore without original sin. The older sect of the Be- 
 gards (condemned in the Council of Vienne under 
 Clement Y. A.D. 1311) maintained that man in the pre- 
 sent life can attain unto so great a measure of per- 
 fection, that he is rendered absolutely impeccable, and 
 cannot grow more in grace. The Socinians very soon 
 developed the doctrine of the denial of original sin. 
 On the contrary side, as will be seen, men ran into 
 the opposite extreme. 
 
 The learned Mohler, in treating of the doctrine of 
 original sin, states that the Confession of the An-
 
 140 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 glican Church on every point endeavours to avoid 
 a tone of exaggeration a . Exaggeration on this sub- 
 ject was the cardinal error of the Reformers of the 
 sixteenth century. 
 
 In order to estimate what is the meaning of original 
 sin, it becomes necessary in the first place to consider 
 what was the primitive state of man, in what condi- 
 tion, endowed with what faculties, did he come forth 
 from his Maker's hands ? Now we can only attain to 
 this knowledge by directing our view to the renewal 
 of the fallen creature in Jesus Christ, because as re- 
 generation consists in the re-establishment of our pri- 
 masval condition, the insight into what Christ has 
 given us back affords us the desired knowledge of 
 what was originally imparted to us. Moreover, the 
 Holy Scriptures tell us " that God made man up- 
 right." Man in Paradise was blessed with pre- 
 eminent gifts of body and soul. He was a spiritual 
 being endowed with freedom, capable of knowing and 
 loving God, and of viewing all things in Him. He 
 was formed in God's image and likeness. His lower 
 faculties acted under the guidance of his reason, as 
 his reason was in obedience to God, and thus he lived 
 in blessed harmony with himself and his Creator. 
 He had also the great gift of immortality, even in 
 his earthly part, and an exemption from disease and 
 the ills that lead to death, and all this by a special 
 divine gift, for it is one thing not to be able to die, and 
 another thing to be able not to die, as St. Augustine 
 Symbolism, vol. i. p. 110, ed. 1813.
 
 OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 141 
 
 bears witness. This condition of things is the state of 
 " original righteousness," a state, which by no means 
 merely implies that man was unpolluted by any alloy 
 adverse to God, but what is more, that he stood in the 
 most interior and closest communion with his Maker, 
 and such a state and condition cannot be attained or 
 upheld by the natural powers; in short, no created 
 being can be holy but by the Holy Spirit, and no 
 finite essence can live in loving communion with God 
 but through Him. Therefore the relation of Adam to 
 God, as it raised him above human nature, and made 
 him partaker of that of God, was caused by a super- 
 natural gift of divine grace superadded to the endow- 
 ments of nature. Had these gifts been natural, they 
 would have survived sin, as those of the demons : and 
 it is necessary to distinguish between the state of pure 
 nature, and the superadded gifts which in one sense 
 are accidental qualities. Though, as a matter of fact, 
 both existed together in the unfallen man, it is neces- 
 sary for theological precision to bear the distinction 
 very clearly in mind. 
 
 Some theologians hold that on Adam the super- 
 natural superadded gifts were bestowed simultaneously 
 with his natural endowments, i.e. in the first moment 
 of his creation; others, distinguishing between holi- 
 ness and justice, prefer the opinion that Adam was 
 created in a sound, pure, and unpolluted nature ; and 
 that he was favoured with the supernatural gift of 
 communion with God after he had by his efforts ren- 
 dered himself worthy of its reception. Both theories
 
 142 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 sharply distinguish alike between the provinces of 
 nature and grace. 
 
 Luther's cardinal error was, that he mistook the 
 distinction between the natural and the superadded 
 gifts, maintaining that Adam's acceptableness with 
 God was natural, and an integral constitutive part of 
 his nature. He failed to distinguish between the 
 nature itself of the mind and will, created by God 
 alone without us; and the virtue and uprightness, 
 which are perfected by our co-operation with the 
 srrace of God. Divines called the former " the image." 
 
 O o ' 
 
 the latter "the likeness of God." The importance of 
 this distinction is obvious. Moreover, Luther and 
 many of his followers denied the freedom of the will 
 in fallen man. Though Melanchthon at one time held 
 with his master, he afterwards perceived the abyss 
 into which such a doctrine must plunge the Church, 
 and abandoned it. Yet the servitude of the human 
 will, as it was termed, profoundly influenced the Lu- 
 theran system. Calvin's paradisaic man was also de- 
 void of supernatural gifts, but he allowed him free- 
 will. How this is compatible with an actual predes- 
 tination of all things, even of the Fall itself, is un- 
 intelligible. 
 
 What has gone before is necessary to the elucida- 
 tion of the Doctrine of Original Sin. Our Article 
 tells first of all what it is not. " It consisteth not in 
 the following or imitation of Adam." The rise of 
 the Pelagian heresy in the fifth century is the be- 
 ginning of a new epoch in the history of doctrine.
 
 OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 143 
 
 Till this period, the mind of man had occupied itself 
 with Christology, with the conditions of the existence 
 of the Son of God ; for the earlier heresies, if we ex- 
 cept Gnosticism and Manicheism, had chiefly concerned 
 themselves with His Divine Person and Natures. Theo- 
 logy began now to deal with the subjective. Anthro- 
 pology, the science of man, became its subject. It re- 
 mained for St. Augustine to re-exhibit those wonderful 
 doctrines of the grace of God so precisely stated before 
 by St. Cj'prian, which, expressed with the most subtle 
 analysis by St. Paul, had not been drawn out with 
 precision by the Fathers, either in the epoch of the 
 apologies to the heathen, or in the age of persecu- 
 tion, or in that of the controversies on the mode 
 of existence of the Word made Flesh. Perhaps the 
 Christian was occupied in defending the faith against 
 the heathen public opinion that surrounded him, in 
 strengthening himself and his friends to die for Christ, 
 and in humbly meditating on that Lord who was all 
 in all to him, rather than concerning himself about 
 his own nature in the eyes of Almighty God; or 
 Christians held the faith implicitly; else they would 
 not have been startled by the errors of Pelagius, when 
 he appeared, as something new. St. Augustine shews 
 that it was stated in terms by eminent fathers and 
 bishops in all parts of the world who preceded him b . 
 But the truth was fenced more precisely to meet 
 the errors of Pelagius. Said to be of Welch or 
 Scottish extraction, it seems strange that the scion of 
 b c. Julian, 1. ii.
 
 144 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 a race, ever most susceptible of supernatural ideas, 
 should have been the first promulgator of a system, 
 whose error was a too great reliance on the rectitude 
 and power of the human will. Aided by Celestius and 
 by Julian, he maintained with exceeding acuteness the 
 thesis that man by his natural powers is able to merit 
 eternal life, and that consequently the Fall was hurt- 
 ful only from causing the possibility of the imitation- of 
 Adam's sin, and that to all intents and purposes there 
 was no such thing as original sin. These errors were 
 met by St. Augustine, who maintained the power, the 
 freeness, and the efficacy of divine grace ; in which he 
 was followed by St. Fulgentius, and his teaching be- 
 came so authoritative, that it was formalized and sanc- 
 tioned by the Council of Orange, in language which 
 has been ever since accepted by the Catholic Church 
 of Christ. It is to the effect that Adam, by sin, lost 
 his original righteousness and holiness, drew down 
 upon himself the anger of the Almighty, incurred 
 the penalty of death, and in body and soul became 
 deteriorated ; that this sinful condition is transmitted 
 to all his posterity, through natural generation, en- 
 tailing the consequences that man is of himself in- 
 capable of doing acts well-pleasing to God, or of being 
 in any way justified before Him, save only by the 
 merit of Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God 
 and man. 
 
 To state the matter scientifically : " as between things 
 opposite there is an opposite relation, so from original 
 righteousness, original sin its opposite, may be ex-
 
 OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 145 
 
 plained. But the order of original righteousness con- 
 sisted in this, that the will of man was obedient to God ; 
 and it is the province of the will to direct and rule all 
 the other parts of the soul in conformity to this. Hence, 
 when the will fell away from God, disorder in all the 
 other faculties ensued. Hence, the deprivation of ori- 
 ginal righteousness is the formal cause of original sin, 
 and the disorder in all the faculties of the soul, the 
 material cause ; and that disorder manifests itself in the 
 perverted affection for transitory good, which we call 
 concupiscence." 
 
 "Now this disorder or displacement is called the 
 wound of nature, and it is chiefly felt in the four 
 powers of the soul, which become the conduits of 
 virtue, viz. reason wherein is prudence, will wherein 
 is justice, the faculty of exertion wherein is courage, 
 the faculty of desire wherein is temperance. Reason 
 wounded suffers from, ignorance, justice or righteous- 
 ness wounded suffers from wickedness, the faculty of 
 exertion wounded results in frailty, and that of desire 
 in concupiscence." 
 
 The inheritance of a nature marred both by punish- 
 ment and guilt is manifest in the want of the intuition 
 of God, which presupposes guilt ; for no one can be de- 
 prived of that eternal good for which he was created, 
 unless there be in him something which renders him 
 unworthy to stand in the divine Presence ; in the 
 ignominy which hangs vipon the reason, for that reason 
 is now ashamed of certain motions of the flesh ; and in 
 the preponderance of concupiscence, because man must 
 
 L
 
 146 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 be guilty unless the spirit be in subjection to God, and 
 the flesh and the animal faculties in subjection to the 
 spirit. Here faith, philosophy, and daily experience 
 concur. It is undeniable that the soul of each one from 
 his birth is perverted, and this perverted state is guilt, 
 as the right state of the soul is righteousness. Hence 
 the Apostle, speaking in the person of fallen humanity, 
 says : " I see another law in my members striving 
 against the law of the Spirit, and holding me captive 
 under the law of sin." Then he exclaims : " wretched 
 man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death ?" Then he replies : " Thanks be to God 
 or better, the grace of God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." 
 
 Let it never be forgotten that all this is a great mys- 
 tery. How the soul created by God, and created in all 
 soundness, purity, and integrity, should at the moment 
 of its union with the body not only be deprived of all 
 its supernatural gifts, but be deeply wounded in its 
 natural faculties, is a very great difficulty ; yet this, 
 which involves the doctrine of Creatianism, that souls 
 are created by God, must be accepted rather than the 
 opinion called Traducianism, that souls are transmitted 
 through generation by the parent to the children. 
 
 The error which Luther maintained with regard to 
 the state of man in Paradise told profoundly on his 
 view of original sin. If Adam's acceptableness with 
 God was natural, by the Fall he lost certain natural 
 powers. According to this school fallen man no longer 
 possessed even the mere faculty to understand God and
 
 OF ORIGINAL OH BIRTH-SIX. 147 
 
 His holy will, and in conformity to that knowledge to 
 direct his own will. The image of God, according to 
 Luther's definition, the natural capacity in man to love 
 God, to fear Him, and to confide in Him, was utterly 
 effaced ; the image of the devil was substituted. The 
 freedom of will is only an external freedom, non-existent 
 in spiritual things ; man is now a mere earthly power. 
 Luther maintained that original sin was a substance ; 
 Melanchthon, that it was an innate power. At last it 
 was held that original sin was the very substance of 
 fallen man. 
 
 While we cannot fail to respect that sense of human 
 misery and sin, as well as of the need of redemption, 
 which prompted these notions, we must guard against 
 an error, which by making man the mere mechanical 
 instrument of God's actions, by obliterating a spiritual 
 faculty, transforms moral into physical evil. How can 
 man sin when he has not the faintest idea of God, when 
 he has no faculty to will, when he is devoid of freedom ? 
 
 It will be seen that all true morality must rest on 
 -a certain limitation of tho idea of the magnitude of the 
 effect of original sin. If all the higher spiritual facul- 
 ties be utterly destroyed, how can man really grieve 
 over his shortcomings, if God has deprived him of all 
 power of overcoming and avoiding these shortcomings ? 
 Deeply penetrated as the Church is with the enormity 
 and misery of that hereditary evil which affects our 
 race, she would be false to the experience of life, as well 
 as to precise theology, if she were to allow sentiment 
 to take the place of reason in this respect, and by ex-
 
 148 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 aggeration to undermine the foundation of Christian 
 ethics by the destruction of moral responsibility. Man 
 is only responsible in the measure that he is free, and 
 the utter destruction of the spiritual faculties in fallen 
 roan necessarily acquits him of the misguiding of such 
 faculties. 
 
 The Calvinists did not run into such extremes as 
 these. They took warning from the mistakes of the 
 earlier Reformers. They recovered themselves to a de- 
 gree, but still the language of some of the confessions 
 is very exaggerated and false. For example, the West- 
 minster Confession : " By this sinne (our first parents) 
 fell from their original righteousness and communion 
 with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly de- 
 filed in all the faculties and parts of soul and body 
 From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly 
 indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and 
 wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual trans- 
 gression c ." 
 
 Very different is the tone of our own Article : " It 
 is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, 
 that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
 whereby man is very far gone from original righteous- 
 ness^ and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that 
 
 c The Confession of Faith, p. 22, ed. 1658. 
 
 d "Very far gone from original righteoxisness." The assembly of 
 divines of 1643, in the criticisms which were required of them by 
 Parliament, preferred the phrase, " Wholly deprived of original right- 
 eousness," which would have brought the Article into harmony with 
 the statements of the earlier Lutherans, and the general tenor of the 
 Calvinistic Confessions. Cf. Hardwick, p. 376.
 
 OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIX. 149 
 
 the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit." Now 
 some of the Schoolmen taught that a destructive and 
 infectious quality was introduced into the human body, 
 and that this quality, propagated by generation, con- 
 taminated the soul at the moment of its union with the 
 bod}'. Such a theory, which involves the absurdity of 
 the existence of a positive bad quality, of an essential evil 
 substance, is not taught in the Article ; on the contrary, 
 the words " fault and corruption" are both privative 
 words, implying the lesion of something good in itself 
 by the abstraction of a certain condition ; and this helps 
 us to understand what follows, "that this infection of 
 the nature remains even in the regenerate/' which, as 
 held by Luther, and in his sense, constituted one of his 
 quarrels with the Church. Luther by this meant, that 
 all that he implied by original sin, the utter inability 
 to think, to believe, to will, the entire deadness to good, 
 the obliteration of the image of God and the sub- 
 stitution of the image of the devil, remained even in 
 the regenerate or baptised ; whereas the Anglican Ar- 
 ticle, by its expression " whereby the lust of the flesh 
 is not subject to the law of God," limits it to the con- 
 tinuance of concupiscence, a fact which to his sorrow 
 every one must admit. 
 
 Xow concupiscence or evil desire, being the disorder 
 of the natural powers, was by the Reformers stated to 
 be actual sin, the true image of the devil, which through 
 the loss of the image of God is propagated by gene- 
 ration in man : whereas our Article, following the Apo-
 
 150 ARTICLE IX. 
 
 stle, says "that it is of the nature of sin e ," inasmuch- 
 as, at least, it provokes to sin. We cannot be wrong in. 
 using St. Paul's words, though we recognise the dis. 
 tinctive teaching of our great father in the faith, St. 
 Gregory, who, in answer to the questions of St. Austin 
 of England, lays down distinctly the different stages in 
 sin. Following the teaching of St. James, he sheAVs 
 how there is first the siiggestion, then the delight, and 
 then the consent to sin ; and till the consent is given 
 the sin is not complete. The expression that there is 
 no condemnation for them that believe and are baptised, 
 while it cuts at the root of the unsacramental teachings 
 of the present day, is nearly equivalent to the statement 
 that God hates nothing in the regenerate ; condemna- 
 tion and the hatred of God being to all intents and 
 purposes the same. 
 
 It will be seen that the estimate of the nature 
 and effects of original sin forms the turning-point 
 between the ancient faith of the Church and the sys- 
 tems of the sixteenth century. If all the germs of 
 good be extirpated in fallen man, there can be no co- 
 operation on his part with the work of divine grace. 
 There can be no response to the operations of God 
 upon the soul, therefore man becomes passive in the 
 
 e " This corruption of nature during this life doth remain in those 
 that arc regenerated; and although it he through Christ pardoned and 
 justified, yet both itself and all the motives thereof are truly and pro- 
 perly sin." Westminster Conf'., p. 24-. 
 
 The Assembly of Divines suggest, " It id truly and properly sin.''- 
 Hardwick, 370.
 
 OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 151 
 
 work of regeneration, his justification becomes of ne- 
 cessity the mere imputation of the righteousness of 
 another, there can be no correspondence with God's 
 work by man in the life of the Christian. On the 
 other hand, grant that in fallen man, though "kesus 
 in naturalibus, destitutus in gratuitis," there still exists 
 the capacity for the love of God, there remains full 
 scope for a supernatural transfiguration. Divine grace 
 stoops to this lowliness, imparts to the free-will and 
 sin-polluted faculties a heavenly consecration, really 
 cleanses, strengthens, and matures the soul, leads him 
 on from strength to strength, making him daily better, 
 holier, and more Christ-like, till the hour of his trial 
 is accomplished f . 
 
 { Vide Moliler, Symbolism, 31 134.
 
 ARTICLE X. 
 DE LIBERO AKBTTRIO. 
 
 A est hominis post lapsum Adas conditio, lit sese natura- 
 libus Him riribus, et bonis operibns, ad fidem et inro- 
 cationem Dei converters ac pr&parare non possit. Quare 
 absque gratia Dei (qua per Christum est] nos prat-e- 
 ntente, ut velimus, ct coopcrante, (him voluinm, ad pie- 
 tatis opera facienda, qua Deo grata sunt et accepta y 
 nihil ralemus. 
 
 "Of Free- Will 
 
 << Tni: condition of man after the fall of Adam is 
 such, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his 
 own natural strength and good works, to faith and 
 calling iipon Grod : wherefore we have no power to do 
 good works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without 
 the grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we 
 may have a good will, and working with us, when we 
 have that good will." 
 
 THIS is one of the instances in which the title of the 
 Article does not correspond accurately with its con- 
 tents. In the Article there is no direct assertion of the 
 free-will of man, nor definition of its meaning, though 
 it is implied in its very limitation. The Article ought 
 ically to be termed, "Of the necessity of Divine grace." 
 The whole of man's responsibility rests on the freedom
 
 OF FREE-WILL. 153 
 
 of his will. Some philosophers have maintained that 
 the only argument for the existence of God is to be 
 found in that responsibility. It is therefore one of 
 the gravest of doctrines. If there is no freedom, there 
 can be no virtue nor vice, no merit nor fault, no moral 
 government of the universe. The opposite of freedom 
 is necessity. Once grant necessity, and the idea of God 
 is nearly eliminated from our system. And so with 
 regard to ourselves, under the domination of an impe 
 rious necessity we become mere machines. "No in- 
 animate creatures, neither any irrational animals, but 
 all rational and intellectual beings, whether angels or 
 men, have free-will. Free-will is not a habit, whether 
 natural or acquired, but an appetitive power, the prin- 
 cipal and proper act of which is election. Will and 
 free-will, deXqets Kal jSovXTja-is, rofuntas ct lib. arb. t 
 are not two powers, but different acts of the same 
 power. "Will has immediate reference to the final 
 cause, free-will to secondary or intermediate causes. 
 Free-will never chooses evil, but always good, or ap- 
 parent good a ." 
 
 "Deadly sin, which is an act of free-will, as the 
 choice of that which is absolutely bad, arises from igno- 
 rance or error. Venial sin, as the choice of that which 
 is in itself good, but without due order of measure and 
 rule, arises from absence of consideration. Doubtin^ 
 
 P5 
 
 is not of the essence of election, but is an accident of 
 its exercise in an erring nature. The will is always 
 convertible in this life, but the converting power may 
 
 8 Cf. St. Aug., De Grat, et Lib. Arbit., c. xvii. al. xxxiii.
 
 15-1 ARTICLE X. 
 
 be withdrawn. In the future life, the will of the 
 blessed will be confirmed in good ; the will of the re- 
 probate obstinately established in evil. Christ's human 
 will was as the will of the blessed saints. In respect 
 of His own goodness, which God wills of necessity, He 
 has not free-will, but in respect of contingent events 
 God is said to have free-will." 
 
 And yet the subject is most mysterious. The re- 
 conciliation of the knowledge and ordination of God 
 with the freedom of the human will is one of those 
 mysteries which has occupied the subtlest intellects, 
 and when those intellects have worked to the utter- 
 most, the question is left where it was at the begin- 
 ning. It is therefore enough for us to maintain the 
 two truths, and leave their reconciliation to a higher 
 state of intelligence. Yet, while philosophical thought 
 sustains these two apparently contrarian t truths both 
 floating in the mind, there will always be tendencies 
 one way or the other. Some minds will lean rather 
 to the side of freedom, and the excess of that will be 
 Pelasianism : other minds will lean to that which 
 
 O 7 
 
 takes an exaggerated view of the province granted 
 by God to grace, and that excess will lead to Luther- 
 anism and Jansenism. The Church of God has to hold 
 the balance between the two. On the one hand, she 
 seeks to developo to the highest degree the sense of 
 individual responsibility, seeking to convince every 
 soul of the unspeakable importance of the passing of 
 each hour, making our eternity to depend on the good 
 or evil use of time : on the other hand, she systematizes
 
 OF FREE-WILL. 155 
 
 the beautiful doctrine of grace ; maintains that all that 
 is great and of good report in man is the result of 
 a condescendence on the pai't of God to the creation 
 of His hands; that the beginning, middle, and end of 
 man's salvation is influenced by God ; and that there is 
 a perpetual overflowing effluence from the Person of 
 our Lord and from His Spirit, sanctifying, illumining 
 the soul of man, and aiding him in the search for 
 truth, and in the operation of good. Thus it will be 
 seen that in every good action, there are two factors 
 a divine and a human. As is right, God's holy work 
 goes first, suggesting, exciting, quickening; then fol- 
 lows man, freely yielding himself to the divine impulse. 
 God offers freely and man accepts, and the double work 
 becomes a unity. For His own good purposes, God 
 respects human freedom. He does not force things. 
 Man may resist grace, for the moral order of the world 
 is founded in liberty. 
 
 Luther, however, from his view of original sin, was 
 driven to deny the freedom of the will. In spiritual 
 and divine things, according to him, man is as the 
 pillar of salt into which Lot's wife was turned; yea, 
 he is like a stick or stone, which is lifeless, and has 
 no use of eyes or mouth, or any organ of the senses b . 
 Calvinists, while by their juster view of original sin 
 they were able to admit the co-operation of man in the 
 work of salvation, denied however that grace could be 
 resisted c . According to them it was not in the power 
 of man to receive or reject the action of God. When 
 
 b Lullicr in Genes., c. xix. c Calv. Inst., lib. ii. c. 3, n. 6.
 
 156 ARTICLE X. 
 
 divine grace knocks, the door must be opened. It 
 works invincibly, and those who enter not into life 
 have never had grace, a theory which lands us at the 
 door of the doctrine of predestination. The contro- 
 versy with these, as well as with the Jansenists, turns 
 on this phase in the question. 
 
 The only-begotten Son of God assumed our nature, 
 among other reasons, that He might rescue mankind 
 from that infection and penalty, which by the fault of 
 our first parents it had contracted, and to recall it to 
 communion with God, and raise it to eternal felicity. 
 For God proposed " in the dispensation of the fulness 
 of times, that He might gather together in one all 
 things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which 
 are on earth ; even in Him d ." This gathering toge- 
 ther chiefly consists in the justification of the sinner, 
 and in the aids and assistances whereby man is able 
 to attain to this, and to persevere in it so attained, 
 and to bring forth the fruits thereof, till he attain 
 to everlasting life. 
 
 This at once brings us to the consideration of grace, 
 of which the efficient cause is God, the meritorious 
 cause our Lord Jesus Christ, and the final cause ever- 
 lasting. 
 
 By grace, taken in its widest sense, we mean every 
 gift or benefit either external or internal which is be- 
 stowed out of the mere liberality of God upon the 
 rational creature. In this sense creation, preservation, 
 and their accompanying blessings, much more, law, 
 d Eph. i. 10.
 
 OF FREE-WILL. 157 
 
 teaching, good example, and such like, may be called 
 by the name of grace. Again, the word may be ap- 
 plied to supernatural gifts, and to those miraculous 
 powers which are bestowed rather for the benefit of 
 others than for our own sakes (gratia gratis data}. But 
 the true and rigorous sense of grace (gratia gratum 
 faciens) is that inward help, freely bestowed, which God 
 for the merits of Christ grants to fallen man, both to 
 help his infirmity in the way of abstaining from that 
 which is evil and doing that which is good ; so also 
 to raise him to the supernatural state, in making him 
 fit to perform supernatural actions, so that he may 
 attain unto justification ; and having so attained may 
 persevere until he come to everlasting life. 
 
 This again is divided into habitual and actual. 
 Habitual grace is a supernatural quality permanently 
 inhering in man, making him well- pleasing to God 
 by formally and intrinsically sanctifying him. Actual 
 grace is a certain motion within us excited by God, 
 by which, first, the intellect is led to recognise good 
 and evil, and then the will is led to follow the one 
 and avoid the other in order to the blessed life of 
 heaven. 
 
 Habitual sanctifying grace is twofold : first and 
 second : 
 
 First grace is that by which the sinner is first justi- 
 fied, and from being an enemy is made the friend of 
 God. It is called 'first/ because it presupposes no 
 other habitual grace, being itself expulsive of sin, and 
 is conferred by baptism and penance.
 
 158 ARTICLE X. 
 
 Second grace is the increase of the first, it preserves 
 the first grace, being given to him who has thus re- 
 ceived it. It is conferred by Confirmation, the Holy 
 Eucharist, Orders, the Anointing of the Sick, and 
 Matrimony. Moreover, by prayer, by meditation, by 
 the reading of God's Word, by deeds of mercy, and 
 by every good action done in a state of grace do we 
 acquire it. 
 
 Actual sanctifying grace is threefold : 
 
 i. Prevenient, antecedent, or exciting grace ; 
 
 ii. Assisting, co-operating, or concomitant grace ; 
 
 iii. Subsequent, or completing grace. 
 
 1. Prevenient grace is a supernatural motion of the 
 soul, to will what is good, and to nill what is evil. 
 
 2. Assisting grace is that by which God, when we 
 will and so will that we do, co-operates with us to 
 will and do that which He had previously stirred us 
 up to. 
 
 3. Subsequent grace is that which follows, strength- 
 ens, and confirms the consent of the free-will. 
 
 Again, grace is divided into sufficient and effica- 
 cious grace : 
 
 Sufficient grace, taken specifically, is that which, 
 although it affords sufficient power to produce an effect 
 for which it is ultimately given, does not produce it in 
 defect of the consent of man. 
 
 Efficacious grace is that which always and infallibly 
 infers the ultimate result, and the co-operation of the 
 free-will. 
 
 Holy Scripture makes mention of both these graces :
 
 OF FREE- WILL. 150 
 
 of sufficient " My grace is sufficient for thee e ." " I 
 can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth 
 ine f ." Ezekiel mentions efficacious grace, "I will put 
 My spirit upon you, that ye may walk in My com- 
 mandments s " and St. Paul, " It is God that worketli 
 in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure h ." 
 
 It is a true proposition, that to fallen man grace 
 merely sufficient is granted, which, in defect of the 
 consent of his free-will, is frustrated of the effect ulti- 
 mately intended by God. 
 
 Pelagians denied this, rejecting all grace ; Calvin 
 and Luther maintained that all grace was efficacious, so 
 efficacious that the will acted under compulsion. Baius 
 and Janscn agreed with them. Yet the Scripture goes 
 to prove the contrary, as e.g. Isaiah v. : " O ye in- 
 habitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge be- 
 tween Me and My vineyard ; what more could I have 
 done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? 
 I waited for grapes, and behold it brought forth wild 
 grapes." " Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, 
 how often would I have gathered thy sons 1 ," &c. 
 " I stretched forth My hands all the day long to 
 a rebellious and gainsaying people k ." " Ye do al- 
 ways resist the Holy Ghost 1 ." ""We beseech you 
 that ye receive not the grace of God in vain m ." 
 
 Sufficient grace is bestowed on all men : " That 
 was the true light, which, coming into the world, 
 
 e 2 Cor. xii. 9. l Phil. iv. 13. t Ezek. xxxvL.27. 
 
 b Phil. ii. 13. ' St. Matt, xxiii. 37. * Horn. x. 21; Isa. Ixv. 2. 
 
 1 Acts vii. 51. m 2 Cor. vi. 1.
 
 1GO ARTICLE X. 
 
 lighteth all men n ." " God willeth that all men should 
 be saved, and should come to the knowledge of the 
 truth ." "There is nothing hid from the heat 
 thereof P." 
 
 As corollaries of this we may deduce the following, 
 propositions : 
 
 1. Man, aided by the grace of God, which is wanting 
 to no man, can keep the commandments of God, as did 
 Zacharias and Elisabeth, walking in all the ordinances 
 of the Lord blameless. 
 
 2. He who does what in him lies by the power of 
 grace, grace shall not be denied to him, as in the case 
 of the conversion of Cornelius. 
 
 3. No one by his natural powers can obtain actual 
 grace, or the beginning of spiritual life. "No man 
 can come unto Me except the Father who sent Me 
 draw him q ." " Without Me ye can do nothing r ." 
 
 4. An equal grace may be sufficient in one case, and 
 efficacious in another, as in our Lord's denunciation of 
 Chorazin and Bethsaida in contrast with Tyre and 
 Sidon. 
 
 5. Nay, sometimes less grace converts men, while 
 under the influence of higher grace others remain har- 
 dened, as the men of Nineveh were converted by the 
 grace given through Jonas, and the Jews resisted the 
 grace offered by our Lord Himself. So the fallen 
 angels and Judas may be presumed to have received 
 greater grace than many who are saved. Hence we 
 
 St. John i. 9. 1 Tim. ii. 4. P Ps. xix. 6. 
 
 i St. John vi. 44. r St. John xv. 5.
 
 OF FREE-WILL. 161 
 
 gather that grace in the second stage is rendered 
 efficacious by the co-operation of the human will ele- 
 vated by assisting grace. Thus St. Paul exhorts us not 
 to receive the grace of God in vain : words which clearly 
 warn us to give efficacy to grace by our co-operation, 
 yet that co-operation is not a bare naked co-operation, 
 but a co-operation elevated by grace. 
 
 6. Grace causes no constraint to the will, for it can 
 be resisted. If man is not free, he cannot deserve nor 
 fail in deserving, nor be rewarded nor be punished. 
 Scotus, with, a sort of grim pleasantry, and in the 
 spirit of his age, proposes, that they who deny free-will 
 should be exposed to tortures, until they learn that it 
 is possible that they cannot be tortured. 
 
 The question of grace was not only discussed in the 
 fourth and fifth centuries against the Pelagians and 
 semi- Pelagians, and in the sixteenth against the So- 
 cinians, but since the Reformation the question has 
 again and again come up ; among Protestants in the 
 case of the Arminians and Socinians, among Roman 
 Catholics in the case of the Jansenists and Molinists s . 
 
 8 The error of Jansenism will best be understood by transcribing the 
 five condemned propositions of the Augustinus. Whether the propo- 
 sitions were in the book or not, is not the question now with us. It 
 will be seen that the Church's instinct was wise in stigmatizing them : 
 
 I. Some precepts of God are, according to the present powers be- 
 stowed on man, impossible to those who are just, willing, and striving; 
 also the grace is wanting to them whereby they may become possible. 
 
 II. In the state of fallen nature, inward grace is never resisted. 
 
 III. For merit or demerit, in the state of fallen nature, there is not 
 required in man liberty from necessity, but liberty from compulsion 
 only (co-actione). 
 
 If
 
 162 ARTICLE X. 
 
 Although much has been done in the elucidation of the 
 various truths which hinge upon it, it may be said that 
 the matter is by no means exhausted, and the relations 
 of man to the Sacraments, the discrimination of the 
 orders of nature and grace, the relation between theo- 
 logy and medicine in some questions of morals, and 
 many similar questions, still require development and 
 exposition. 
 
 When we speak of the state of grace, by the word 
 ' state' we technically mean that condition under which 
 human nature is conceived of, in reference to its ulti- 
 mate end according to the laws of Providence. It is 
 divided into the status termini, the condition of those 
 who possess and enjoy the end of man ; and the at at it* 
 via, the condition of those who are militant here 
 upon earth. 
 
 The status ri<e is threefold 1 . the state of innocence, 
 2. the state of fallen nature, and 3. the state of nature 
 restored by Christ. 
 
 1. The state of nature is that in which Adam was 
 placed by God, free from sorrow, misery, and death, 
 with that integrity of nature by which the senses 
 and affections were perfectly subject to the empire 
 of reason, and with original righteousness, and sanc- 
 tifying grace. 
 
 IV. The semi-Pelagians admitted the necessity of prevenient inward 
 grace for every act, one by one, even for the beginning of faith; and in 
 this they were heretics, that they denied that grace to be such as the 
 human will can resist or obey. 
 
 V. It is semi-Pelagian to say that Christ in eft'ect (pmnino) died and 
 shed His blood for all men.
 
 OF FREE-WILL. 1G3 
 
 2. The state of fallen nature is that miserable con- 
 dition of the posterity of Adam, who are not yet freed 
 by baptism from the original " culpa" which it receives 
 from him. 
 
 3. The state of repaired nature is that in which, 
 men are set free and redeemed by the grace of Christ. 
 
 These are all the conditions in which, man in vi& 
 can be or has been ; but to elucidate the subject more, 
 theologians have discussed what are termed possible 
 states, e.g. : 
 
 1. Whether a state of pure nature is possible, in 
 which man can be without vice, and without grace, 
 subject however to the infirmities and miseries to 
 which we are subject. 
 
 2. Whether a state of perfect (Integra} nature is 
 possible, in which man might be destitute of super- 
 natural aid, and not raised to supreme blessedness, yet 
 gifted with such aids of nature as to be free from our 
 miseries, and by the natural virtues to obtain a blessed- 
 ness corresponding with them. 
 
 3. Lastly, whether a state of fallen nature, not to 
 be repaired, is possible, in which man would have been 
 after the sin of Adam, if God in His infinite mercy 
 had not freed him. 
 
 Now to state clearly the errors on these subjects : 
 The Pelagians, in the beginning of the fifth cen- 
 tury, denying original sin, and asserting that Adam. 
 was constituted by God as men are now born, without 
 any aid of nature, and without the auxiliary of super- 
 natural grace.
 
 1G4 ARTICLE X. 
 
 This heresy was revived in the sixteenth century 
 by the Socinians, who, denying original guilt, taught 
 that Adam was created mortal and liable to all our 
 present miseries. 
 
 A close approach to this is the Arminian doctrine 
 which, as expounded by Limborch, acknowledges in 
 Adam no supernatural gift, no indcbita prfrrogatira, 
 although they allow that he was gifted with a certain 
 knowledge necessary to him in his then estate, and 
 with a rectitude which precluded inordinate concu- 
 piscence, and even concupiscence itself, inasmuch as, 
 there being no law, there might be without guilt the 
 most free exercise of the will. 
 
 Although contrary to the Pelagians and Socinians,. 
 they teach that Adam might haA^e been free from death 
 in virtue of the fruit of the tree of life ; they never- 
 theless maintain that man, by virtue of even his pre- 
 sent natural powers, might tend towards, arrive at, 
 and possess God as his last end and highest good ; and, 
 moreover, that Adam's sin, save as a bad example, has 
 in no way done damage to the race of man. 
 
 Calvin, Luther, Baius, and the Jansenists agree with 
 the Pelagians and Socinians as to man's original lack 
 of supernatural gifts and graces, and the original suf- 
 ficiency of his natural powers ; but they go farther, 
 and declare him to be now despoiled of some of the 
 properties and perfections of that nature. 
 
 Quesnel held that the grace of Adam was subsequent 
 to his creation, was due to the integrity of his nature, 
 and produced only human merit. According to him
 
 OF FREE-WILL. 165 
 
 Adam's integrity, sanctity, and all other his prero- 
 gatives were conditions inseparable from, and proper- 
 ties due to nature not yet depraved by guilt. 
 
 The orthodox faith teaches that Adam, as constituted 
 in the estate of innocence, was endowed with super- 
 natural grace, was established in righteousness and 
 holiness, was free from misery and death, was subject 
 neither to concupiscence nor to passion. Moreover in 
 him every affection was entirely under the control of 
 his reason. 
 
 As to the miserable estate of fallen human nature, 
 in which the race of man now finds itself by reason of 
 Adam's sin, deprived of the indcbita dona of nature, 
 subject to our present miseries, to concupiscence, to the 
 powers of the devil and to the wrath of God, and in- 
 fected with Adam's guilt, propagated by generation, 
 the orthodox faith teaches that all men descending 
 from Adam, even the children of the faithful, are born. 
 infected with original sin, deprived of their right to 
 eternal felicity, children of wrath and vengeance, and 
 liable to everlasting damnation. 
 
 Baius, Jansenius, and Quesnel, taught that in man, 
 after Adam's sin, libcrtas indlffcrcntm was wanting ; 
 that for merit or demerit it was sufficient to be free 
 from compulsion, not to be free from antecedent and 
 inevitable necessity. Hence, inter alia, they say that 
 men are guilty of deadly sin even in things which 
 they cannot avoid, and that the involuntary motions 
 of concupiscence are real sins ; that God commands
 
 166 ARTICLE X. 
 
 impossibilities ; and that even to just men some of His 
 precepts are impossible t . 
 
 Such is the doctrine of the grace of God, as it has 
 been formulised by the Church in opposition to con- 
 trariant errors. It is the work of the Divine Word 
 in His Incarnate Nature, the universal Truth, the 
 Eternal Beauty, the Light that shineth into the soul 
 of man. He, the Light of celestial spirits, speaks by 
 an inward voice in the ears of all men ; and as without 
 the sun the universe would be in night and death, so 
 without the Word the kingdom of the powers of the 
 next world would be without life and heat. Grace is 
 that mighty aid to holy action, added to what we are 
 and to what we know by the inspiration of the most 
 ardent and enlightened charity 11 . For the love of 
 God is shed abroad in our hearts, that the soul now 
 made whole may work, not from the fear of punish- 
 ment, but from the love of righteousness. Of grace 
 it is said : " The mountains shall drop sweet wine, and 
 all the hills shall melt;" for the mountains and hills 
 of Judah, with their terraced, vine-clad sides, are but 
 a faint shadow of the joys and real delight and glad 
 fruitfulness of this supereminent gift of God. Of grace 
 it is said : " Thou shalt prevent him with the blessings 
 of goodness," for the blessings of goodness are the 
 grace of God whereby He works in us, that we delight 
 in and love that which He teaches us ; so that if God 
 
 1 Ferraris, BiUiotheca de Gratia, Venice, 1770. 
 St. Augustine, vol. x. p. 246 D.
 
 OF FREE-WILL. 167 
 
 hath not anticipated us in this respect, not only is the 
 spiritual life not perfect in us, but actually not begun. 
 For if " without Him we can do nothing," certainly 
 we can neither begin His work nor bring it to an end. 
 For of the beginning it is said, " His mercy shall go 
 before me ;" and of the end it is said, " His mercy shall 
 follow me all the days of my life x ." 
 
 * St. Augustine, vol. x. p. 415 B.
 
 ARTICLE XL 
 
 DE HOMIXIS JUSTIFICATIOXE. 
 
 TANTVU propter merit it m Domini ue Sercatoris nostri 
 Jem Chrkti, per fidcm, non propter opera et uierita 
 nostra, jitsti coram Deo rcptitamur. Quare sola fide 
 nos jmtifieari doctrina est salubcrriina, ac consolatio- 
 nis plenissima, ut in homilia He jnstijicationc hoininis 
 fusim cxpHcatur. 
 
 " Of the Justification of Man. 
 
 " WE are accounted righteous before God only for 
 the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by 
 faith, and not for our own works, or deservings. 
 Wherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most 
 wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more 
 largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification." 
 
 How man may be accounted righteous in the eyes of 
 the all-holy and righteous God is the most important 
 question that can concern him. For the truth of God 
 requires that in some sense what He accounts righteous 
 must be righteous. The doctrine, therefore, hinges on 
 the relation of the creature to its Creator, on the spiri- 
 tual condition of man in reference to his eternal desti- 
 nies. It is no mere theological discussion, nor argument 
 of the Schools ; it is the mighty question, how is fallen.
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 169 
 
 man brought into relation with God in Christ, and 
 when thus brought, what are the conditions of that 
 relation ? 
 
 But not only is the question most important in view 
 of its intrinsic merit, it has for us the additional ele- 
 ment that historically justification was one of the rally- 
 ing cries of the Reformation. At one particular phase 
 of that event all other questions became subsidiary to 
 it. The Schoolmen had perhaps carried system to its 
 fullest legitimate result, and what followed ? The age 
 of the great mediceval saints a , of the earlier School- 
 divines, and of the great intellectual Popes, was now 
 past. The renaissance had set in. The triumph over 
 the Hussites at the two great Councils of Basle and 
 Constance had put to silence all public opposition to 
 the Church. The fifteenth century is eminently barren, 
 in saints; men were occupied with the fresh surging of 
 political thought, and the sensual glories of heathen- 
 dom ; the classic authors for the scholar, and the pagan 
 sculptures for the artist, really possessed men's souls. 
 The real leaders of European thought were no longer 
 the pupils of Aquinas or Buenaventura, but Politian, 
 and Marsilius Ficinus, and the Medici. The higher 
 intellects sneered at those ceremonies and beliefs, which 
 
 a It is remarkable that the greater number of the saints of this 
 period illustrate the first half only of the fifteenth century. St. Anto- 
 ninus of Florence died in 1459; St. Bernardinus of Siena in 1-144; 
 St. Laurence Giustiniani in 1431 ; St. Vincent Ferrer in 1414, and 
 St. John Capistran in 1456. See the life and writings of Jacob Wira- 
 pheling, by Paul von WiskowatofT, Berlin, 1867 ; also for the time of 
 Louis XI. the sermons of Oliver Maillard.
 
 170 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 they as princes and prelates were paid to maintain. 
 Among the baser sort, "the love of the many had 
 waxed cold," but they were in general sedulous in the 
 external profession of religion. Dimmed as their spiri- 
 tual perceptions were, the belief in the great objective 
 truths of religion remained unimpaired. They con- 
 tinued to place great faith in the external ordinances 
 of religion, while divorcing them from their end as 
 means of grace. And so they went on through life in 
 an infructuous round of barren observances, till they 
 came to the close of a life of alternative sacrament 
 and sin. 
 
 And if the deep instincts of the regenerate soul, 
 never entirely faithless to the grace of baptism, did 
 from time to time acknowledge the hollowness of this 
 condition of things, they were softened by an appli- 
 cation of the coarsest form of the power of the keys, 
 by the indulgences of Tetzsl and his companions. 
 
 It was in opposition to this corrupt state of things 
 that a potent voice through Europe was heard pro- 
 claiming ''justification by faith/' justification in the 
 true sense of the Apostle Paul. Tt thrilled through 
 Christendom, it penetrated even the precincts of the 
 Vatican; and Pole and Contarini 1 ', and the Theatines, 
 felt its power. It was a mighty reaction, and like 
 most reactions it went too far, nay, ran into heresy. 
 The power got into the hands of the more violent. 
 
 b "'You have brought to light the jewel which the Church kept 
 half-concealed/ was Cardinal Pole's comment on a treatise on Justifi- 
 cation by Contarini." Kanke, vol. i. p. 138, cd. 1840.
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAX. 171 
 
 The truths that God worked objectively in the soul 
 through the Sacraments, as media between Himself and 
 man, and that man, responding to grace, whether 
 given in or out of the Sacraments, must needs have a 
 personal, immediate, and individual relation to God, 
 which had peacefully co-existed in the minds of Chris- 
 tians for sixteen hundred years, were precipitated into 
 the sharpest opposition. Again, St. Paul was arrayed 
 against St. James, no doubt to the intense astonish- 
 ment of those blessed Beings in their glorious home 
 in heaven ; and in reaction against the coarseness of 
 Tetzel was marshalled the coarseness of Luther. 
 
 But the treatment of the doctrine by Luther soon 
 ed into great error. First of all, from his conception 
 of the effects of original sin, he was obliged to eliminate 
 all co-operation on the part of man in the work of sal- 
 vation. If man be utterly ruined by the Fall, the 
 operation of God finds as little response in him as in 
 the irrational brute. Secondly, he was obliged to main- 
 tain that justification was only a judicial act of God, 
 whereby the believing sinner is delivered from the 
 punishment of sin, but not from sin itself. All righte- 
 ousness is external to us c . It remains in Christ, and 
 passes not into the inward life of the believer. Thirdly, 
 concupiscence was regarded as subsisting original sin, 
 no distinction being made between feeling it and con- 
 senting to it. Fourthly, he had to hold that all sins 
 in themselves, whatever be their nature, accuse men 
 equally before the tribunal of Christ ; faith being the 
 = oUtl. Declar. iii. de Fid. Just if. 11. p. 665, 48. p. 664.
 
 172 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 only decisive distinction between sinners in the eyes 
 of God. Lastly, on the ground that the faithful, on 
 account of the obedience of Christ, are looked upon as 
 just, although by virtue of corrupt nature they be truly 
 sinners, and remain such unto death d , it follows that 
 no internal and essential difference as to moral bein? is 
 
 O 
 
 recognised between the converted and the unconverted ; 
 the Scriptural antithesis of the old and new man, the 
 old and new creation, lose their point and significance ; 
 the notion of penitence, whereby the transition is 
 brought about, is mistaken ; and the impressive teach- 
 ings of Holy Writ, about a real deliverance from sin, 
 wrought through Christ, and a real mortification or 
 killing of sin in believers , becomes the occasion of 
 self-delusion. Furthermore, the doctrine became dan- 
 gerous, in that it was made to usurp the place of the 
 Sacraments, that it swallowed up all the other factors 
 in the life of the soul, and was substituted as the ground 
 of man's assurance, in place of these Sacraments, which 
 not only are pledges to assure us of grace, but which 
 themselves keep alive and nourish faith and grace 
 within the soul. It was emphatically one-sided and im- 
 perfect, in that it ignored all those blessed truths that 
 are conveyed to us by St. John, when he teaches us 
 that we are branches of the True Vine, each branch 
 partaking of the life and sap of that from whence it 
 springs, the merit and grace and virtue of Christ flow- 
 in forth from Him into all His members. 
 
 O 
 
 As there is no source of error so copious as a mis- 
 
 d Ibid. 15. p. 657. e Rum. vi.; via. 14.
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN, 17& 
 
 understanding of terms, when we proceed to treat of 
 the very important question of justification it becomes 
 our first duty to define the term. In its literal sense 
 it means a making just or righteous, just as rectifica- 
 tion is a making right, or sanctification a making 
 saintly or holy. And this subdivides itself into three- 
 acceptations. 1. As, in human affairs, the word must 
 be restricted to a forensic sense, because man cannot 
 alter or affect the heart, the term 'to justify ' is 
 sometimes taken for to pronounce just, as when in 
 the courts of law one who has been tried is absolved 
 from the accusation and pronounced innocent of the- 
 crime by the judge. Thus in the Gospels : " He, will- 
 ing to justify himself f ;" or, "He that justifieth the 
 wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they 
 both are abomination to the Lord s ." 2. To justify, 
 in the strict sense of the term, and with reference to> 
 the work of God, is to make j ust. Thus St. Paul, con- 
 trasting the crimes of the Corinthians before their 
 conversion with their after condition, says : " But ye are 
 washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in 
 the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit 
 of our God." 3. To justify, is sometimes in Holy 
 Scripture taken for to advance in justice or righteous- 
 ness. Thus, " He that is righteous, let him be righte- 
 ous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still h ." 
 
 The word 'justification' is also taken actively and 
 passively. It is taken actively, when it is described 
 
 f St. Luke x. 29. s p rov . xvii. 15. 
 
 h 1 Cor. vi. 11; and Rev. xxii. 11, 8<Kaio>07jTa>.
 
 174 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 as the proper work of God ; passively, when it is de- 
 scribed as a certain change in the right hand of 
 the Most High, by which man from being unjust 
 becomes just. 
 
 Now the second is the genuine theological sense of 
 the word 'justification.' It is a real and not an ima- 
 ginary process, which takes place in the soul by the 
 operation of God. That process is both external and 
 internal; man is declared and accounted righteous be- 
 cause he is made righteous. Hence St. Paul describes 
 the justified state as a change from the state of sinful- 
 ness into the state of habitual grace and of Sonship, as, 
 " Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, 
 and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear 
 Son \" It is the destruction of the alliance between 
 the human will and the old Adam, the removal of 
 original sin, and every other sin committed previously to 
 itself. It is the contraction of a real and living felloe-- 
 ship with Christ the Bighteous and Holy One ; such 
 fellowship implying the remission of sin and the in- 
 fusion of sanctification. It is the making over and 
 imparting of the righteousness of Christ, so as to be- 
 come inherent in the believer, who thus, no doubt im- 
 perfectly, becomes really just and well-pleasing to God. 
 It restores him to the original righteousness in which 
 he was constituted, l>y means of communion with the se- 
 cond Adam Jesus Christ. By it faith, hope, and charity, 
 with an infinite power of increase, are infused into the 
 soul, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts 
 1 Col. i. 13.
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 175 
 
 by the operation of the Holy Spirit. Those blessings, 
 in technical language, may be summed up under four 
 heads: 1. Reconciliation with God, Who instead of 
 slaves now treats us as friends. 2. The remission of sin, 
 so far as the eternal punishment is concerned. 3. The 
 renovation of the inner man, whereby we who were 
 stained and foul by sin, weakened and diseased, stripped 
 of spiritual goods and half dead, become beautiful ia 
 God's eyes, members of Christ, so closely united to 
 Him, that what is done by and in us is by Him in us 
 done : " I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; I 
 merit, yet not I, but Christ meriteth in me ; I satisfy, 
 yet not I, but Christ satisfieth in me." 4. A right 
 and title to eternal life. 
 
 From what has been stated, it will be seen that justi- 
 fication may be divided into 1. First, 2. Second. 
 
 First justification is that whereby the unjust becomes 
 just. Actively, it is a certain admirable and super- 
 natural act whereby God makes the unjust just. Pas- 
 sively it is a certain supernatural change by which 
 a man from being unjust becomes just. By this a man, 
 from being hateful and unpleasing to God, becomes dear 
 to Him ; instead of an enemy to Him, His friend ; in- 
 stead of impious, pious; instead of wicked, holy; instead 
 of the slave of sin, the servant of righteousness ; instead 
 of guilty of eternal death, the heir of the kingdom 
 of heaven. 
 
 The second justification, actively, is the operation 
 of God whereby He makes the righteous, righteous 
 still, more pleasing, more holy; passively, it is the
 
 176 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 supernatural change whereby man becomes still more 
 righteous, still more holy ; as it is written, " And 
 grace for grace." 
 
 Having defined the term 'justification/ we now ad- 
 vance to the first proposition of the Article, that its 
 meritorious cause is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are 
 accounted righteous before God only for the merits 
 (proptcr mcritum] of our Lord Jesus Christ by (per) 
 faith, and not for (propter) our own works or deservings; 
 and this is founded on the theological truth that He 
 with His own most precious Blood has made satisfac- 
 tion for us to our Father in heaven, and, having ren- 
 dered a perfect obedience to Him in His most holy life, 
 willed that His merits should subserve to our justifica- 
 tion. By His excellent virtues, by His endurance, toils, 
 and labours, by His blessed good-will to us, He not only 
 has satisfied superabundantly for our sins, but He has 
 reconciled us to God, and merited our justification. 
 
 Nay, He not only merited our justification, whereby 
 we are restored to the grace of God, our sins are re- 
 mitted, our spirits renewed, and our adoption and heir- 
 ship bestowed upon us, but He merited 1. that the 
 Sacraments should have a power of justifying, and that 
 the good works which are necessary to the justification 
 of adults should be sufficient for the purpose; and 2. 
 that adults should have grace sufficient for sucli work, 
 for unless these things happened to us for the merits of 
 Christ, and had their sufficiency from Him, we could 
 not say that we were accounted righteous for the merits 
 of Christ, but only by the law and grace of Christ,
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 177 
 
 who of His great mercy freely appointed these reme- 
 dies for us who could in nowise obtain them of our- 
 elvcs ; whereas it cannot be doubted that Christ has 
 Actually satisfied for us, ad condignwn, and merited 
 justification for us, de condiyuo and according to the 
 severity of justice, giving, as He has done, more than 
 \\e owed by our sins ; for His life was better than our 
 sins were bad ; seeing that His life was the life of God 
 and of Man, infinitely well-pleasing to God. And His 
 death was more dear in the sight of God than our 
 offences were hateful J. 
 
 The next point to be considered is the office of faith 
 in justification. Following the teaching of St. Paul, 
 
 J The sum of our hope and justification is this : " For He hath made 
 Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin : that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in Him," (2 Cor. v. 21). Xor can there be any other 
 victim well-pleasing to God, or sacrifice for others, save the Word made 
 flesh; of whom the Apostle says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the 
 world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them " (vt-r. 19). 
 For He imputeth not, who not only pardoneth freely, but truly giveth 
 righteousness and holiness. 
 
 That the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and that that im- 
 putation is necessary for justification, is quite true, but we must not 
 say that men are justified solely by the imputation of the righteousness 
 of Christ to the exclusion of grace, whereby He makes us just by the 
 Holy Spirit, the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts. More- 
 over, the merits of Christ are by faith not only imputed to us, but are 
 applied and communicated to us ; by which process not only our sins are 
 remitted, but a righteousness transmitted from Christ is poured into our 
 souls. This is the justification of the new man. St. Augustine says, 
 " We read that they are justified in Christ who believe in Him, by 
 a hidden communication and inspiration of spiritual grace." Lib. i. 
 de pec. iner. et rem., c. x. n. 11. Bossuet, Pro/, de Reunion entre les Ca- 
 tholiqnes et les Protestants d' Allemagne. CEiivres, torn. xxvi. 19. 
 
 N
 
 178 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 that we are justified freely, the Article asserts that 
 we are accounted righteous for the merits of our Lord 
 by faith. 
 
 Observe distinctly that the Article is here speaking 
 of the first justification, viz. that whereby from being 
 unjust man is made just, and that the faith here spoken 
 of is not the fiducia of Luther, the confidence that one's 
 own sins are remitted, neither is it a bare speculative 
 assent to the supernatural truths of religion, such as 
 exists in the demons; but it is that beginning and root 
 -of the spiritual life, whereby we savingly believe that 
 God is, that He is the rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek Him, and that He hath sent His only 
 Son for the redemption of all men ; without which it 
 is impossible to please Him ; the hand whereby God's 
 grace is apprehended; the intellectual power of soul 
 which lays hold on revealed truth; the root whence 
 springs the holy life, nay, which is the holy life itself 
 in germ and possibility. It is a divine gift of God in 
 the soul, a supernatural infused virtue. 
 
 It must be laid down as a principle that this first 
 justification is the free gift of God. We are justified 
 freely by faith, as the Apostle bears witness. St. Augus- 
 tine says, " Wherefore grace ? because it is given gratis : 
 wherefore is it given gratis ? because thy merits have 
 aiot gone before, but the benefits of God have antici- 
 -pated thee." Elsewhere he says k , "The grace of 
 Christ, without which neither infants nor adults can 
 
 k cap. 1. De Saturn, et Gratia.
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 179 
 
 l>e saved, is not given as the reward of merit, but is 
 given gratis, wherefore it is called grace, 'being justi- 
 fied freely by His grace '.' " This he says, explaining 
 the words of St. Paul " AVho shall deliver me from 
 the body of this death ? the grace of God, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 This faith is not mere speculative, but practical. 
 Love is its vivifying principle. It does not, however, 
 merit, it impetrates justification. 
 
 The justifying faith of Lutheranism, however, is not 
 this. Accoixling to this system man has faith when 
 he believes that he has been received by God into 
 grace ; and that for Christ's sake, who by His death 
 hath offered atonement for our sins, he receives for- 
 giveness of the same. Therefore no sin can damn a 
 man, but unbelief alone; and the word faith changes 
 its meaning into confidence m . 
 
 1 Koin. iii. 24. 
 
 111 " Gratis justilicantur propter Christum per fide in, cum c-reunnt se 
 in gratium ivcipi et peccata remittl propter Christum qui pro poccatis 
 nostris satisfecit." Confess. Aug., Art. iv. 
 
 The form which this doctrine tiikts in modern Englij-h Evangelicalism 
 si-ems to bo of this nature : " We do not misrepresent their doctrinal 
 system by stating it as follows : St. Paul tells us, that a man is justified by 
 faith ; that is, by having faith, and by the faith which he has. But when 
 lias a man this faith ? Is it sufficient that he has love to Christ, and puts 
 his trust in His merits for salvation ? ' Xot necessarily,' it is replied, 
 * because he may be putting some trust in himself too.' What, then, is 
 necessary to constitute him the possessor of this saving faith ? ' He 
 must throw himself upon Christ's merits entirely,' is the answer. But 
 what is the test whereby to judge whether he does trust in Christ thus 
 entirely, or wherein does the entirety of his trust consist, and what is 
 its essence? 'It consists in his renouncing his own merit*. When 
 -a man does this, then and not till then he believes in Christ ; then and
 
 180 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 The Article now proceeds : 
 
 " And not for our own works and deservings." The 
 emphatic word here is for (propter). The antithesis 
 is between the merit of Christ and our merit. "We are 
 said to be justified by the one and not by the other. 
 That is to say, our works are not the meritorious causes 
 of our justification. There is no antithesis between by 
 (per] faith, and for (propter) our works so that the 
 question between faith and works ought not strictly to 
 be imported into an explanation of the letter of the 
 Article, though the close connection of the two subjects 
 tempts one to consider their relation. It is clear that, 
 the first justification being the act whereby we are in- 
 grafted into Christ, before the justice or righteousness 
 becomes habitual, faith must precede merit, which is 
 the fruit of God the Holy Ghost working in those who 
 are already in Christ. 
 
 It is next stated that the opinion that " we are justi- 
 fied by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and 
 very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in 
 the Homily of Justification." If faith is taken in an 
 objective sense, that is to say, as an establishment in- 
 stituted by God in Jesus Christ, in opposition to Ju- 
 daism, or any human and arbitrary system of religion, 
 and the modes of thinking, feeling, and acting, which 
 such religions prescribe ; then it is absolutely, and with- 
 
 not till then he throws himself upon his Saviour's merits; then and not 
 till then he has saving faith.' 
 
 " First of all, the conviction is a negative one ; and, secondly, the 
 conviction is no profound spiritual truth, b\it something ahout the muu 
 himself," Christian Remembrancer, vol. Ixiv. p. 353.
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 181 
 
 out restriction, true, that faith alone justifies. Thereby 
 alone man is able to acquire God's favour : " There is 
 none other Name given unto man whereby he may be 
 saved, but only the Name of the Lord Jesus." It is 
 only through the mercy of God that this Name is given, 
 without any merit on the part of mankind in general, 
 or of individual man in particular 11 . 
 
 " Very many of the Fathers affirm that we are justi- 
 fied "by faith alone . By the word ' alone,' the Fathers 
 never intended simply to exclude all works of faith and 
 grace from the causes of justification and eternal sal- 
 vation : but in the first place the laws of nature and of 
 Moses ; secondly, all works done in our own strength, 
 without faith in Christ, and His preventing grace; 
 thirdly, a false faith or heresy, to which and not to 
 works they oppose faith ; fourthly, the absolute neces- 
 sity of external works, even those which are done 
 through grace, as love, penitence, the reception of the 
 >Sacraments, and the like, whenever the power or the 
 opportunity to do such works is absent : for then faith 
 .alone, without external works, is sufficient, yet not 
 
 " Mobler, Symliolik, vol. 5. p. 211. 
 
 Origen in cap. 3 ad Rom. 9; St. Hilary of Poitiers, Canon 8 in 
 Matt. 6, movet Scribas ; St. Basil, Horn, de Humilitate, 3, t. 2, p. 
 158. The author of the Commentaries on St. Paul in cap. 3, Rom. v. 24, 
 t. ii. p. 46 D ; St. Greg. Xaziuii/.en, Orat. n. 32, 25. t. i. p. 596 C; St. 
 Chrysostom in 3 Gal. 5, t. x. p. 699; St. Hieronymus in cap. 4. ad 
 Rom. v. 3, v. 5, v. 11; Theodore t. Therapeut. 7, t. 4, p. 892; St. Au- 
 gustinus Cont. 2. Ep. Pelag., lib. i. c. 21, 39, t. x. p. 429 ; St. Cyril 
 of Alexandria, lib. x. in Job. cap. 18 ; Pope St. Leo, Ep. 70. Serin, iv. 
 Epiph. St. Peter ; Chrys. Serin, xxxiv. J1ib. Pair., t. vii. p. 872 ; St. 
 1'iosper of Aquitaine, t. i. p. 331.
 
 182 ARTICLE XI. 
 
 without some good affections of penitence and charity r 
 which are internal works ; fifthly and lastly, all vain. 
 assurance and boasting of our works of whatever sort, 
 not only those preceding faith, but those done, either 
 externally or internally, from the grace of faith 1 '." 
 
 Again, the expression is, though not used in Scrip- 
 ture, true and undeniable, if we understand by faith, not 
 a faith segregated from love and hope, and other virtues,, 
 no mere union of the phantasy or feelings with Christ, 
 no barren recognition of Christian truth or conviction 
 about our own spiritual state ; but a new, living spirit, 
 a new divine sentiment regulating the whole man, 
 forming an inseparable unity with charity, " the very 
 bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoso- 
 ever liveth is counted dead before God." "\Vhile an 
 element of hope and trust accompanies this informed 
 faith, its essence does not consist in an assurance of 
 divine grace in Jesus Christ, nor in a confidence in the 
 merits of the Redeemer, by the power of which sins 
 are forgiven. Neither must we hold up this confidence 
 as being able entirely of itself, and abstractedly, to win 
 for its possessors the favour of God. This doctrine 
 has no solid foundation in Holy Scripture; and it is 
 a striking circumstance that, while this Article bears 
 evident traces of having been founded upon a similar 
 one in the Confession of Augsburg, the peculiar symbol 
 of Lutheranism, that a man is justified if he believes 
 that he is justified (an expression which occurs at least 
 
 P Forbesii Consid., vol. i. p. 58, Oxf. ed.
 
 OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAX. 18-' 
 
 seven times in that document), has been rejected froms 
 the Anglican Formulary. 
 
 The Article, in its close, sums up this teaching by 
 saying that it is a most wholesome doctrine, and full of" 
 comfort, that we are justified by faith only ; and refers 
 to the Homily of Justification. There is no Homily of 
 Justification in either Book, but perhaps the Homily 
 on the Salvation of All Men may be meant, as express- 
 ing this same teaching more largely. On this there is 
 no point of controversy. Any question which would 
 possibly arise, must relate not to our being justified 
 by faith only, but to the character of the faith whereby 
 we are justified. And on this all must be agreed. 
 Faith, which had not love, would be the faith of devils, 
 and this, of course, would justify none : faith, which 
 had not the purpose of living to God, and according to 
 His law, would be self-deceit q . 
 
 " We nowhere expressly read in Scripture ' That the 
 righteousness of Christ is imputed to us for righteous- 
 ness.' We read, indeed, in Scripture that 'faith is im- 
 puted unto us for righteousness, that because of Christ's 
 righteousness God does not impute to us our sins,' and 
 that ' righteousness is imputed to us ;' but the Scripture 
 
 i Yet Bossuet puts the question, " Does faith alone justify ?" He- 
 answers, " In regard to the mercy of God and the merits of Christ, 
 there is no doubt hut that they truly justify us. But when the 
 Lutherans, with this most excellent author (Molanus), agree that faith 
 justifies, not a bare faith, or alone, in the sense of being solitary and 
 destitute of the purpose of doing well, they would entirely satisfy Ca- 
 tholics." Projet de Reunion, t. xxv. p. 377. 
 
 Molanus had stated, " the word ' alone' (sola) is not to he taken for 
 'solitary,' i.e. for a dead faith, or a faith destitute of good works, or, at 
 least, of the purpose of doing well." Ib., p. 286.
 
 184 AllTICLE XI. 
 
 nowhere expressly says that God 'imputes to us for 
 righteousness the righteousness of Christ/. . . 'That the 
 righteousness, i.e. the obedience of Christ, is imputed to 
 us, as to effect and fruit, i.e. remission of sins, inherent 
 righteousness, and acceptance to everlasting life ; that 
 it is communicated, attributed, and given to us, is, in 
 fact, said in Scripture wherever it is expressly asserted 
 that by the obedience and death of Christ righteous- 
 ness and salvation have been obtained for us, or that 
 we have been redeemed from sin and reconciled to 
 God : or when it is taught that Christ is of God made 
 unto us righteousness : or that for us He is made sin, 
 that in Him we might be made the righteousness of 
 God : or that by His righteousness and obedience we 
 are made just before God. Yet it would not be safe to 
 say that the righteousness of Christ is the formal cause 
 of our justification. It is more rightly held that Christ's 
 righteousness or obedience, imputed or applied to us, is 
 the meritorious and impulsive cause of our justifica- 
 tion :' that is, it is the external and objective cause, 
 as opposed to an internal and subjective one 1 '. If im- 
 putation mean the collation of the gifts of Christ, the 
 expi-ession is a sound one ; but if it mean that Christ's 
 righteousness is taken instead of our righteousness 
 that His obedience takes the place of ours it is sub- 
 versive of Christian morality." 
 
 It was said at the beginning of this Article, that 
 
 a school of Catholic theologians, headed by Contarini 
 
 and Pole, resting mainly on the necessity of a stronger 
 
 subjectivity in religion, and relying on such authority 
 
 1 Forbesii Consul. Mod., vol. i. p. 113.
 
 OF TTIE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 185 
 
 as that of St. Bernard, had taught a theology in which 
 many elements of Protestant thought existed. A little 
 later, also, we have Catharinus, Cassander, and the emi- 
 nent Groper, attempting an Eirenikon; but logically 
 such Eirenikon could not stand. Justification in the 
 Catholic sense, as a real though imperfect deliverance 
 from sin or stain, was incompatible with a covering of 
 a sin- stained soul with the merits of Christ, so that the 
 soul still remains sinful in itself, though for Christ's 
 sake the punishment is remitted. It was impossible 
 to reconcile two such contrary theories, as one which 
 makes the work of Christ in the soul a real process of 
 right-making and holy-making, with a system which 
 consisted merely in a feeling, a reflective act of the 
 soul that it is certainly in a state of grace. Accord- 
 in gly, a distinct separation took place s . 
 
 s On the continent, also, justification by imputation was the turning- 
 point of the Reformation ; yet hardly a single scientific Protestant theo- 
 logian now maintains it. (Sec a remarkable enumeration of Protestant 
 theologians, in number exceeding forty -two, who have abandoned the 
 doctrine of justification, as it is set forth in the Formula Concord ice and. 
 the Heidelberg Catechism, in fact the prevalent doctrine till 1760. Uol- 
 linger's " Church and Churches," ed. Maccabe, p. 295.) And in England, 
 though during the latter days of Elizabeth and the first of James, it was 
 the dominant teaching in the Schools, it was so thoroughly demolished 
 by Bull, Hammond, and Thorndike, within the Church, and by Baxter 
 among the Nonconformists, its contradictions and destructive conse- 
 quences have been shewn to be so glaring, that it has ceased to maintain 
 itself theologically ; though a class of amiable writers Toplady, Venn, 
 Newton, and Hervey are still quoted with admiration by their followers, 
 who have specially adapted themselves to the well-to-do comfortable 
 Eng ishman, who desires an intelligible, consolatory, and tranquillizing 
 system. This he finds in the doctrine of justification by imputation. 
 A man is there taught that by an act of mere imputation of the righte- 
 ousness of Another, one may pass into a state of perfect security and cer-
 
 186 ARTICLE XT. 
 
 Thus we have endeavoured to expound the holy and 
 blessed doctrine of Justification by Faith, as it has 
 been held in the Church of God from the beginning. 
 From first to last the gift of God, like all His gifts, it 
 blesses mankind by the elevation of every faculty of 
 the soul. Consecrating the free-will to the glorious 
 service of religion, it developes the notion of responsi- 
 bility, and so puts Christian ethics on a solid basis ; 
 at the same time, recognising its absolute need of divine 
 grace in every stage of its process, it renders high 
 praise to God the Father, from whom descendeth every 
 perfect gift. Herein also is the Son glorified, as the 
 sole meritorious cause ; and the Holy Ghost honoured, 
 through whose potent operation alone we are able to 
 will and to do of God's good pleasure. 
 
 tainty of salvation ; that by being clothed with the merits and righte- 
 ousness of the Saviour he may be regarded by Gcd as righteous, although 
 inwardly he is not so; that he can never forfeit this state of grace, for 
 that he is one of the elect. All this depends on his having a com- 
 pletely favourable opinion of his own state. This is assurance. Men 
 announce the immediate and certain forgiveness of all sins, and assu- 
 rance of safety, as the price of momentary excitement and concentration 
 of feeling. This is called ' Preaching the Gospel in its fulness and free- 
 dom.' " Vide Dolliuger, " Church and Churches," pp. 114, 175. 
 
 In short, to sum the matter up scientifically, " it is not faith but the 
 imputation of the sufferings of Christ, which makes man appear justified 
 before God, or that the process of justification is therewith fulfilled, 
 that God attributes to man the sufferings and the fulfilment of the 
 law by Christ, as if man himself had yielded the same obedience ; and 
 that man, through faith, knows and becomes assured of this imputation." 
 p. 209, note.
 
 ARTICLE XIT. 
 DE BONIS OPERIBUS 
 
 Box A opera, qitce sunt fnictus fidei, ct jrustificatoB sequun- 
 tiu', quanquam pcccata nostra expiare, ct dicini judieii, 
 severitatcm ferrc non pots/unit; Deo tauten grata stint, 
 ct aecepta in Christo, atque ex rcra ct rim fide necessario 
 proflnunt, ut plane ex illis cequc fides riva c oynosci possit, 
 atquc. arbor exfructiijudicari. 
 
 " Of Good Works. 
 
 "ALBEIT that good works, which are the fruits of 
 faith and follow after justification, cannot put away 
 our sins, and endure the severity of God's judgment, 
 yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, 
 and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively 
 faith ; insomuch that by them a lively faith may be 
 as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit." 
 
 Tins Article is a protest against the opinion of Luther, 
 that every so-called good work of man, is, when con- 
 sidered in itself, an act of sin, though by reason of faith 
 it is remitted to him a ; that of Melanchthon, that all 
 our works, all our endeavours, are nothing but sin b ; 
 and finally, that of Calvin c , who states the same, only 
 in milder language. On the other hand, it asserts that 
 
 Op., torn. ii. fol. 325 l>. b Loc. Theol, p. 108. 
 
 c Calv. lust., in edit., lib. ii. c. 8, 59; lib. iii. c. 4, 28.
 
 188 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 they cannot take the place of Christ in putting away 
 or expiating our sins, neither can they endure the 
 severity of God's judgment. 
 
 1. First, then, good works are the fruits of faith. 
 This follows from what was said before, that faith is 
 the beginning, and root, and foundation of all our 
 justification. Faith being the beginning of the spiri- 
 tual life, good works must of course spring out of it. 
 When the child is baptized it seeketh from the Church 
 faith, and then and there receives the graces necessary 
 to act rightly. Faith is the root of good works, in that 
 Ihe root and the rest of the tree being of the same sub- 
 stance, these two are in fuct one, different expressions 
 of the same habit of soul : the living faith is the good 
 work still silently shut up in the soul, and the good 
 Christian work is nothing other than the faith brought 
 to light. Hence in Holy Scripture salvation is attri- 
 buted sometimes to work, sometimes to faith. Lastly, 
 it is the foundation, for faith comes first in the order of 
 intellectual conception, and the moral work rests on the 
 intellectual ; for before a man can come to God and so 
 much the more, before a man can follow out the con- 
 sequences of that coming to God he must be con- 
 vinced of His existence, and of the other truths with 
 regard to Himself which He has graciously revealed. 
 
 2. Next, it is said that good works follow after justi- 
 fication. This proposition is self-evident, if we consider 
 what has been said on this subject under the preceding 
 Article. The state of light and grace, which is the 
 justified state, will be one of actions done in union with
 
 OF GOOD WORKS. 189 
 
 Jesus Christ, into whose fellowship we are already 
 entered. Nay, the good works will become the mea- 
 sures, as well as the promoters of the necessary justi- 
 fication, according as it is written, "He that is holy, 
 let him be holy still." 
 
 The Latin version here indicates that the Article 
 follows the mind of St. Augustine. The expression 
 "follow after justification" is rendered "justificatos se- 
 quuntur," and evidently refers to the celebrated passage 
 in the DC Fide ct Operibm of that Father, " Good works 
 follow a justified person, but do not go before in one 
 about to be justified" (scqut justification non aid em 
 praccdere justificandum d ) ; a passage which has been 
 much misunderstood, for the Saint is here speaking of 
 works of righteousness, which, "after the faith has 
 been received and professed," are henceforth to be per- 
 formed ; or of those works which are performed by 
 habitual righteousness, i.e. which are implied in the act 
 of justification, and so are inherent and habitual : not 
 of those good works which, through the assisting or pre- 
 paring grace of the Holy Ghost, dispose to justification. 
 
 3. Yet they cannot put away our sins, i.e. expiate 
 (cxpiare) them. Christ alone is the Lamb of God that 
 takcth away the sins of the world, and we cannot sot so 
 much good work against so much past sin. We cannot 
 keep a debtor and creditor account with God, and pay 
 for the sins we love by certain acts, even the best. This 
 is almost a truism ; for the justified man, inhering, as 
 he does, in the True Vine, even when he falls into great 
 d cap. 14, 21, t. vi. p. 177.
 
 190 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 and terrible sins, will allow no such thoughts to enter 
 his soul. His sense of the offence to God is too great 
 to think that he may thus destroy his guilt ; but this 
 passage must by no means be taken to exclude the ne- 
 cessity of penitential acts whereby, when forgiven, we 
 would seek to discipline ourselves after sin, whereby 
 we would seek to shew to Almighty God that we would, 
 if we could, by a holy revenge, undo the hated past. 
 
 Good works cannot put away sin. " One must dis- 
 tinguish first in what state the works are done, whether 
 in a state of mortal sin, or in a state of grace; and so 
 one must distinguish in ' putting away,' whether it- 
 refer to culpa or pwna." 
 
 " We say, then, 1st. That none of our works can put 
 away sin quoad citlpaw, because if they are done in mor- 
 tal sin they do not satisfy God for the offence against 
 Him ; and if they are done in the state of grace, that 
 state of grace implies the abolition of the offmxa and the 
 rii/pci, by the divine aid, from the satisfaction of Christ, 
 who satisfied for the offences whereby we offend God, by 
 offering up His own Life on the altar of the Cross. 
 
 " Secondly, we say, that no works of ours done in 
 mortal sin are satisfactory to God for the paena due to 
 our sins, even those already absolved in the Sacrament 
 of Penance; because when a sin is remitted by God, 
 so far as the offence is concerned, the sinner, from an 
 enemy, becomes the friend of God, and therefore is no 
 longer to be punished as an enemy, i.e. eternally : yet 
 if the measure of grace bestowed to any so meriting, as 
 that with the remission of the culpa there is not full
 
 OF GOOD WORKS. 191 
 
 remission of the pveiut, the sinner remains bound as 
 a friend to pay the rest of the pcena ; and if he falls 
 into sin again, and becomes again the enemy of God, 
 before he have paid the penalty of that relapse, his 
 works are works in a hostile state, he cannot pay as 
 a friend, and therefore cannot satisfy for that paena. 
 
 " Thirdly, we say, the work of our persevering in 
 the friendship of God, has no impediment in the way 
 of satisfying for that residuum of pcena. In this the 
 Lutherans err doubly, 1. in teaching that when sin is 
 remitted quoad ojfen*am it is remitted also quoad pcenam, 
 in the teeth of the example of David. 2. They take 
 away from the works of the living members of Christ 
 any power that may satisfy for pcena not yet remitted. 
 For this were to contradict the power of Christ the 
 Head in. us : for I satisfy, yet not I, but Christ satis- 
 fieth in me. It were also to contradict the practice of 
 the Church which is used to impose salutary satisfac- 
 tions, by the ministry of pi'iests, on those who, being 
 truly penitents, have confessed their sins e ." 
 
 4. An extreme school of the Reformers held that 
 even the most excellent acts of the just are defiled 
 with sin, and are of themselves worthy of eternal 
 death, although done by the grace of Christ. Every 
 work of ours is an abomination. The expression of 
 the filthy rags in Isaiah Ixiv. 6, (in which the Jewish 
 Church, polluted by idolatry and apostasy, complains 
 mournfully of the severity of the punishments laid on 
 her, and, confessing her sins, alludes to the thing* 
 
 e CVjetan, Opuscnla, torn. iii. p. 169. Antwerp, 1612.
 
 192 ART1CLK XII. 
 
 she had done during her public alienation from God,} 
 was applied by them to the actions of the holiest of 
 Christians. 
 
 This dogmatic use of the text is, of course, wholly 
 independent of a pious employment of it, made, at 
 all times, by holy souls, who in sight of the Infinite 
 holiness of God and their own coming short of their 
 own ideal of what is due from the creature to the 
 Creator, have not found words strong enough to ex- 
 press their own sense of unworthiness. 
 
 This opinion of the Reformers as above stated, is 
 opposed to Scripture, to tradition, to right reason. In 
 the Word of God, the works of the just are called 
 "good 1 ";" " works of light &;" " sacrifices acceptable and 
 well-pleasing to God h ;" "clean robes 1 ;" "fine linen V 
 and they who here have lived holily, are said to have 
 done "works of righteousness, and kept their garments 
 undefiled 1 ;" also, to those who walk aright is promised 
 a great reward, " both in this world, and in that which 
 is to come m " and St. James says, " In many things 
 we all offend n ," therefore not in all things. 
 
 So even those Fathers, who are most opposed to 
 Pelagius, though they denied that a just man would 
 entirely avoid all sin for his whole life, or even for 
 a long portion of his life, yet granted that the just 
 could do so, at least for a short time. 
 
 Lastly, in view of right reason. Can anything be 
 
 1 St. Matt. v. 16. s Epb. v. 8, 9. h Phil. iv. 18; comp. 
 
 Heb. xiii. 16. l Rev. vii.13. k Rev. xix. 8. l Rev. ii.4, iii. 4. 
 m 1 Tim. iv. 8 ; comp. St. Matt. v. 12. " St. James iii. 2.
 
 OF GOOD WORKS. 193 
 
 so despiteful to the grace of Christ, which has freed us 
 not only from, liability to punishment for our innate 
 corruption, but from the dominion of it ? Certainly 
 those who maintain this opinion, although they seem 
 to themselves to extol God's mercy and grace, do, in 
 fact, though unwittingly, exalt the strength of the old 
 Adam, and of indwelling sin more. 
 
 We of the Church of England content ourselves with 
 the affirmation that none of our works can endure the 
 severity of the judgment of God. It is enough that 
 they can endure God's judgment, as tempered with 
 grace and mercy on account of Christ ; but we are not 
 so ungrateful or unjust to that grace, as to assert that 
 nothing whatever can here be performed by us through 
 its strength, which is in view of human frailty not in 
 some way defiled by sin . 
 
 If God should strictly judge our works, they might 
 be said to be vices, and our just works to be unjust; 
 because many things which are now just, good, and 
 meritorious, would be truly vices, and bad, and unjust, 
 if they were brought to the standard of that sanctity 
 and purity wherewith we ought to serve God, and 
 which God might rigorously exact from us, as well 
 on account of His own goodness, as on account of the 
 excellent benefits He has conferred upon us. For not 
 only is it true that the life of ever}* one of the just is 
 denied by many venial sins, but also the very works 
 of the perfect fall very far short of that goodness 
 wherewith we ought to worship, praise, and honour 
 
 Forbesii Consid., vol. i. p. 107. 
 O
 
 194 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 Ood; for they are joined during this life to much 
 imperfection, nor are they so pure, holy, or fervent, as 
 the greatness of the divine goodness towards us re- 
 quires. And whereas God, on account of His exceed- 
 ing kindness and graciousness towards us, does not 
 at present impute to us these defects and imperfections 
 even as a venial fault, yet He might reckon them as 
 u fault if He willed to treat us strictly, and apart from 
 His graciousness and benignity i'. 
 
 While it was right to re-assert the existence of the 
 divine work in the justification of man, and that in one 
 sense eternal life is emphatically the free gift of God, 
 it cannot be doubted that some of the Reformers ran 
 into extremes on the want of value of man's part in 
 the mighty co-operation with the grace of God in 
 making his calling and election sure. Luther by his 
 theory of faith, Calvin by his exaggerated teaching of 
 predestination, went far to destroy man's faith in what 
 he had to do. Moreover, the matter did not rest with 
 the authors of these teachings : their followers very 
 much surpassed them, and a deep Antiiiomian spirit 
 became very prevalent. It was to meet this that the 
 Article was framed. No such Article is found in the 
 code of 1553. It is the result of Archbishop Parker's 
 tirst endeavour to restore a patristic line of thought. 
 He guards indeed the other side, where he says that 
 they cannot expiate sin, or take the place of our Lord's 
 Blood, and where he asserts that they cannot endure 
 the severity of God's judgment; but he goes on to 
 
 P Vega, de Justificatione, ii. 38, cit. Forbes.
 
 OF GOOD WORKS. 
 
 assert that they are 1. grata et accejtta, and 2. that they 
 spring from faith. Both these are distinctly Christian 
 propositions. 
 
 1. The good deeds of those who sent offei-ings to 
 Jerusalem are called a sacrifice, a sweet savour, well- 
 pleasing to God: and various other passages in the 
 Bible enforce this upon us. Indeed, no such severe 
 blow has ever been struck at Christian morality as the 
 one-sided conception of the Reformation on this head. 
 Surely to please God we must in our measure be really 
 virtuous. The approval of God must be correlative to 
 human goodness. To be rewarded " according to our 
 works, good or bad," is not only according to the dic- 
 tates of natural theology and the sense of justice im- 
 planted in each of us, but it is the very foundation of 
 the Gospel teaching. A neglect of this truth leads' to 
 very one-sided notions of religion : in many cases it 
 leads to infidelity. The divorce between theology and 
 morals is against the will of God. To substitute what 
 is termed " a personal interest in the atonement/' 
 which interest is obtained by a renunciation of our own. 
 merit, or by the conviction that the atonement is per- 
 sonally ours, for a life of goodness and virtue wrought 
 in man by the power of the life and death of Christ-, as 
 if the blessed Apostle St. John, and the most wretched 
 lazar of a sinner plucked like a brand out of the fire 
 at the last by a stupendous mercy, were equals in His 
 sight, and should have an equal reward, is an assault 
 upon the conscience. This theory has tended, first of 
 all, to stunting the spiritual life in preventing great
 
 196 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 ventures in faith. It lias destroyed self-sacrifice. It 
 has crippled those usages of self-dedications where men 
 from the love of God have given themselves up to 
 spend and to be spent in His service. It has taken away 
 the motives for self-discipline and watchfulness, tend- 
 ing to substitute sentiment for principle. It has tended 
 to a certain softening of the soul, and to an idolatry of 
 comfort and respectability. In short, it is a mistake 
 to seek to be wiser than Jesus Christ. If He makes 
 the joys of the next world to be the reward of good 
 deeds on earth, who are we that we should seek to 
 place Christian action on a supposed higher platform ? 
 No man can purchase heaven by his good actions, but 
 actions done in the power of Christ, by His grace, with 
 the aid of His Spirit, are the things which determine 
 our position and measure of glory in the life to come, 
 God thus crowning His own gifts in us, so that to Him 
 and to Him alone belongs the glory. 
 
 Although the first grace ever comes from God, and 
 precedes all on man's part, yet faith is the first in order 
 of time in all supernatural acts ; nay, more, it is the 
 source from whence they flow : and, as the Article says, 
 they tell back on their source, the holy act being but 
 the embodied conA r iction, and the strong impression of 
 the soul welling forth and expressing itself in the 
 outward act. 
 
 A true faith here is mentioned in contradistinction to 
 a false faith ; the faith of heretics, as such, has no justi- 
 fying power. Hence the severity with which the Church 
 has always regarded intellectual errors. All religious
 
 OF GOOD WORKS. 197 
 
 truth finds its ultimate term in Christ, who is the 
 Eternal Truth. He it is who warrants all revelation. 
 It is on His authority, as the Revealer of God's will 
 and purpose, that we accept any proposition laid before 
 us. And if the Church be His Body, and the Bible 
 His Word, then those dogmas which we accept on their 
 joint authority come to us on His authority. 
 
 And, next, it is a "lively/ 5 a living faith, which is 
 spoken of. This is the same as the formed faith of the 
 Schoolmen. The form of a thing is that which causes 
 it to be what it is ; the life of a thing is that which 
 gives it the power of motion and energy, of fulfilling 
 the end for which it was created. By a formed faith 
 the Schoolmen understood a faith that had love as its 
 soul, its vivifying, plastic principle, its life, in short, 
 and on this account it was termed fide* chat' Hate for mat a, 
 animata, fides vira, fides civida, a lively faith. This is 
 that higher faith which brings man into a real vital 
 communion with Christ, fills him with an infinite de- 
 votion to God, with the strongest confidence in Him, 
 with the deepest humility and love towards Him, 
 liberates him from sin, and causes all creatures to be 
 viewed and loved in God q . 
 
 It would be improper to pass over the word ' merit/ 
 which so often occurs in theology, as men have justly 
 
 i Mohlcr, vol. i. p. 171. 
 
 The sentiment of this Article is in accordance with the formula 
 agreed upon between Protestants aud Catholics at Ratisbon, in 1541 : 
 " It is a settled and sound doctrine, that sinful man is justified by living 
 and active faith : for by it we are rendered agreeable and well-pleasing 
 unto God for Christ's sake."
 
 198 ARTICLE XIT. 
 
 dreaded a theory of the meritoriousness of good works 
 out of Christ. They have rightly said that the best of 
 man's good deeds, in themselves, are filthy rags. They 
 have dwelt upon the evidence of that imperfection 
 which clings to the actions of man, and taints all 
 efforts done in his own strength. 
 
 But, on the other hand, we must not forget that God 
 in many parts of Holy Scripture makes the eternal life 
 the reward of a holy life here on earth, and that great 
 promises, both in this life and in the world to come, 
 are held out to obedience. Sometimes merit is taken 
 strictly and in the rigorous sense of the word, and 
 means a free action, to which, out of justice, is due 
 a certain reward or premium. At other times it is 
 taken in a wider sense, as a free action entitled to 
 a certain reward, either in terms of debt, or compact,. 
 or condition, or bargain, or even for grace : and gene- 
 rally it is taken for any work which impetrates any 
 reward, and is the cause of its bestowal r . Now, theo- 
 logically speaking, it is a voluntary work, either in- 
 ternal or external, to which in right a reward is due,, 
 according to the Apostle s : "To him that worketh 
 is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt." 
 So that four parties concur to the establishment of 
 merit: 1. The person who merits; 2. the voluntary 
 work, which is the merit; 3. the reward due; 4. the 
 Hewarder. 
 
 However, the question becomes complicated when we 
 deal with the relation which exists between us and 
 
 * Vega, de Justif., lib. viii. p. 192, ed. 1672. s Horn. iv. 1.
 
 OF GOOD WORKS. 190 
 
 God, for it seems difficult to conceive how in justice 
 our work should be rewarded by God, since no absolute 
 and simple right can exist between us : " In Thy sight 
 shall no man living be justified." It can only be 
 a relative right at best, a jim xecuwluiH quid, like the 
 relations of master and slave, only infinitely less than 
 that. Yet this feeble right is of divine ordination, and 
 thus God owes, not to man but to Himself, to reward 
 good actions with eternal life. Moreover, both under 
 the old and new Law we find evidence of covenants- 
 made between God and man, and just as in a covenant 
 between master and slave, an actual right is generated,, 
 so it is between God and man ; yet even then, God is 
 not a debtor to us, but to Himself, to His own will, 
 which induced Him to enter into covenant with us f . 
 
 The word c merit' is hardly to be found in Holy Scrip- 
 ture, though there are expressions nearly equivalent to 
 it, as where we read " worthy," or " to be accounted 
 worthy u ." Yet it is of frequent occurrence in the 
 Latin Fathers of the best and purest ages, e.g. St. Cy- 
 prian, haA 7 ing nearly the same sense as to obtain, or to 
 become apt and fitted for obtaining; so as nothing is 
 detracted from God's grace, from which all merits arise. 
 
 The word is used in this sense in the Latin classics : 
 " Sequi gloria, noil appeti, debet, nee si casu aliquo 
 non sequatur, idcirco quod gloriam non meruit, minus 
 pulchrum est x ." 
 
 Eut the true philosophy of the matter rests on the 
 
 1 Cajetan, torn. iii. p. 168. " St. Luke xxi. 36 ; 2 Thess. i. 5; 
 
 Apoc. iii. 4. * Pliny, Ep., lib. viii. ep. 13, ap. Facciolat.
 
 200 ARTICLE XII. 
 
 truth, that the merit of eternal life is not our work, but 
 the work of Christ our Head in us and by us. Men by 
 grace are made the living members of Christ. The 
 sufferings of the body are the sufferings of the Head: 
 "Why persecutest thou Me?" Christ spoke in Paul, 
 and Paul lived ; yet not he, but Christ lived in him >'. 
 Hence we may say, " I merit, yet not I, but Christ 
 meriteth in me." " I fast, yet not I, but Christ fast- 
 eth in me." 
 
 So that while baptized infants are saved purely by 
 the merit of Christ's life and death, in the case of adults 
 eternal life is due in two ways : 1. by right of the merit 
 of Christ, which He earned in His own person ; 2. by 
 right of the merit of Christ, which Christ the Head 
 earns in the adult and by the adult, it being suitable 
 to the divine liberality that in both ways He should 
 communicate to adults the merit of eternal life, as it is 
 written, " Them He did predestinate to be conformed 
 to the image of His Son z ." And men are so conformed 
 to the image of Christ by having the merit of eternal 
 life in both ways : for He had glory also in two ways, 
 1. by virtue of the hypostatic union, and this was with- 
 out merit; and 2. by virtue of His obedience unto 
 death a , wherefore in a meritorious sense " God also 
 hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that 
 is above every name V 
 
 And this in no wise contradicts what the Apostle 
 says, that "eternal life is the gracious gift (%dpicrfj,a) 
 
 i Gal. ii. 20. ' Rom. viii. 29. a Phil. ii. 8, 9. 
 
 b Cajetan, iii. Tract, x. p. 169.
 
 OF GOOD WORKS. 201 
 
 of God in Christ Jesus/' i.e. to those who are in Christ. 
 For first, the foundation of all is that we are in Christ, 
 not our mere natural selves only ; eternal life is be- 
 stowed upon us because we are in Christ; then, the 
 grace of God, whereby we do good works, is the free 
 gift of God ; whence, as St. Augustine says, " When 
 God crowneth our merits, what else crowneth He but 
 His own gifts ?" Besides, as Theodoret says, " There is 
 110 proportion between temporal evils and those eternal 
 goods." St. Augustine strikingly sums up, "That to 
 which eternal life is owed, is true righteousness. But, 
 if it is true righteousness, it is not of thee ; for it 
 cometh down from above, from the Father of Light. 
 That thou mightest have it, if indeed thou hast it, 
 thou hast in truth received it. For what hast thou 
 which thou hast not received ? Wherefore, O man, if 
 thou art to receive eternal life, it is, indeed, the wages 
 of righteousness; but to t/icc it is grace, for to thee 
 righteousness itself too is grace. For it would be 
 given to thee as a debt, if thou hadst the righteous- 
 ness, to which it is owed, from thyself. But now 
 from His fulness we have received not only the grace, 
 whereby we now live righteousty, in our labour, to the 
 very end, but also grace for His grace, that we should 
 live hereafter in rest without end c ." 
 
 e Ep'st. 194, ad Text., n. 21.
 
 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 DE OPERIBUS ANTE JUSTIFICATIONEM. 
 
 OPERA qua fiunt ante gratiam CJiristi, ct Spiritm rjxs 
 afflatum, cum ex fide Jew Christ i not/ prodeant, mi- 
 ni me Deo grata sitiit, neque gratiam (ut mutti vacant) 
 dc congruo inerenftir. Immo cum non stint fat-fa, ut 
 Deus ilia fieri roluit ct preecepit, ]>r<-cati rationcnt Jiaberc 
 non 
 
 " Of Works before Justification. 
 
 done before the grace of Christ and the 
 inspiration of His Spirit, are not pleasant to God, for- 
 asmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, 
 neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or 
 (as the School-authors say) deserve grace of congruity : 
 yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath 
 willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt no!. 
 but they have the nature of sin." 
 
 THAT which tended to produce confusion concerning 
 the relation between faith arid good works, was the 
 explanation of several passages of St. Paul; e.g. Rom. 
 iii. 28, where it is said, that not through works of the 
 law, but through faith, a man is justified. St. Paul 
 here contends against the Jews of his own epoch, who 
 obstinately defended the eternal duration of the law of 
 Moses, and asserted that not needing a Redeemer from
 
 OF WORKS BEFORE JUSTIFICATION. 
 
 sin, they became righteous and acceptable before God 
 by that law alone. In opposition to this, he lays down 
 the maxim that it is not by the Avorks of the law, 
 i.e. not by a life regulated merely by the Mosaic pre- 
 cepts, that man is able to obtain the favour of Heaven ; 
 but only through faith in Christ, which has been im- 
 parted to us by God, for wisdom, for sanctification, for 
 righteousness, and for redemption. On the one hand, 
 an unbelief in the Redeemer, and confidence in the 
 fulfilment of the law performed solely through the 
 natural powers ; on the other hand, a faith in the 
 Redeemer and the righteousness to be conferred by 
 God. This is the opposition described by the Apostle. 
 He accurately distinguishes between the works of the 
 law and good works ; the former are wrought without 
 faith in Christ, and without His grace ; the latter, with 
 the grace and in the spirit of Christ. 
 
 The Thirteenth Article is another instance where the 
 title does not correspond with its contents. It would 
 be coi*rect if it were worded " Of some works before 
 Justification." There are some works done before jus- 
 tification which are not pleasant to God. There are 
 others of which it Avould be the most extreme want 01 
 charity to predicate such a thing. Again, of works 
 done before justification, some are done before the 
 grace of Christ and the inspiration of His Spirit ; 
 other works done before justification, are done by that 
 grace and with that inspiration. Cornelius was not 
 justified till the Holy Ghost fell on him and he was 
 baptized, but no one can deny that, according to the
 
 204 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 express words of the Angel, his prayers and alms went 
 up as a memorial before God, and impetrated his justi- 
 fication. 
 
 It is very important to bear in mind, that the effect 
 of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ extends to all 
 those for whom He died in the way of sufficient grace 
 being freely imparted to all men. Beyond His cove- 
 nant, outside His Church, to Pagan and to Jew, to those 
 who have heard of His Name, and to those who have 
 never heard of Him, grace is given before faith. God 
 wills that we should pray for all men, on the ground 
 that He willeth that all men should be saved, and come 
 to the knowledge of His truth a . Again, treating of 
 the divine Word, St. John says : " That was the true 
 light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
 world ;" of which words St. Chrysostom asks : " If 
 It lighteth every man coming into the world, how 
 do men remain without light ?" He answers, " It is 
 true so far as It is concerned, but if any, wilfully 
 shutting the eyes of their minds, refuse to recognise 
 the rays of this light, it is not from the nature of 
 the light that they remain in darkness, but from 
 their own wickedness, who wilfully deprive them- 
 selves of this light. For grace is poured forth upon 
 all men b ." Thus also St. Ambrose : " That mystic 
 Sun of Righteousness hath risen on all, hath come 
 to all, hath suffered for all, and hath risen again 
 for all c ." 
 
 * 1 Tim. ii. 4. b Homily on St. John, vol. viii. p. 48. c Cf. lit 
 Psalm c.xvJii. p. 1077, viii. 57; p. 1220, xix. 39. Ed. Paris, 1686.
 
 OF WORKS BEFORE JUSTIFICATION. 205 
 
 This grace is termed medicinal grace, aided by which 
 the heathen are able to fulfil the natural law, and to 
 overcome the difficulties which stand in the way of 
 its observance ; works done by the aid of such assist- 
 ance come within the order of moral rectitude. If 
 the heathen correspond with these graces, greater 
 helps are given them, until God of His free mercy 
 calls them to the supernatural end of life by the be- 
 ginning of faith, either by missionaries sent for the 
 purpose, or by the whispering of their good angel, or 
 inwardly by Himself, or in such other way as seems 
 good to Him. 
 
 Premising this, a sound theology will map out the 
 acts of the unjustified man into several distinct di- 
 visions : 
 
 1. Acts in which neither the grace of Christ nor the 
 inspiration of the Spirit have aught to do, such as the 
 good works of heathen men done from the tradition 
 and custom of their race, from the fear of the public 
 opinion of those by whom they are surrounded. 
 
 2. The splcndida ritia of the heathen, those acts of 
 continence and generosity, performed from simple self- 
 respect, and which may be referred for a motive to 
 pride. 
 
 3. Those acts which may be said to be by the grace 
 of Christ, who is the light of every man that cometh 
 into the world ; as where a heathen follows his con- 
 science, does actions from a sense of duty, and gives 
 free scope to the feelings of benevolence which survive 
 in all men since the fall.
 
 206 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 4. Actions such as those of Cornelius, where ti per- 
 son brought up and trained in an inferior system, lives 
 up to his light, and by so doing draws down blessings 
 upon himself. 
 
 It is with regard to the first class that we must 
 understand the wording of the Article in its absolute 
 literal sense. 
 
 With regard to the second, one must hesitate to say 
 that such acts in a manner are not pleasant to God. 
 Nay, St. Augustine would rather maintain that the 
 just God would be bound to reward them with temporal 
 advantages, just as He gave to the llomans the domi- 
 nation of the earth as a return for their early frugality, 
 adding, however, the significant words, "perceperunt 
 mercedem suam d ." Still, so far as regards the super- 
 natural kingdom of Christ, these works are valueless, 
 and therefore they also, in a less proper sense, come 
 under the condemnation of the Article. 
 
 Touching the third, we are not called on to pass any 
 judgment. How God will deal with the heathen who 
 have never heard His name, is not for us to say. It 
 opens up an immense question, on which there has been 
 no decision by the Church. While charity hopeth all 
 things, no lax view should affect our sense of the duty 
 of missionary exertion, or diminish our value for those 
 assertions which attach the attainment of everlasting 
 life to such conditions as faith, baptism, and holiness. 
 
 The last class of actions of the unjustified man do not 
 come under the condemnation of the Article ; for the 
 
 d De Civ. Dei, lib. v. cap. 15.
 
 OF WORKS BEFORE JUSTIFICATION. 207 
 
 proposition that grace does not act outside the Church 
 has been justly condemned, and it is false to assert that 
 the grace of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy 
 Ghost do not concur with the free-will of man before 
 he is justified. 
 
 In fact, before justification, a mighty process goes 
 on. The grace of Christ, and the inspiration of the 
 Holy Ghost, are not lacking. First of all, grace touches 
 the sinner, for no sinner can of himself turn to God. 
 The first movement towards justification is the free and 
 gratuitous work of God. Christ speaks to the heart, 
 as the abiding Teacher. He announces the Gospel by 
 His Word and by His Church; God the Holy Ghost- 
 rouses the soul by preventing grace. If the free-will 
 responds to this influence, a faith in God's Word is the 
 first result of this. He becomes convinced of the super- 
 natural order of things. He is touched with it, and 
 especially with the thought of the love of God in Christ. 
 He compares himself as he is with what he ought to be. 
 He measures himself by the new standard, with which 
 the Passion of Christ supplies him. He returns to 
 himself and conceives the holy fear of God. Then 
 turning to the thought of Jesus Christ dying for him, 
 he begins to hope that God, for the Redeemer's merits, 
 will pai'don him; he begins to love God and to hate 
 sin; he believed, he now repents. All this precedes 
 justification. 
 
 2. The next question is, Do these works deserve grace 
 de cony r no ? " Works of grace and special aid, which 
 concur with faith, and dispose to regeneration and the
 
 208 ARTICLE XIII. 
 
 forgiveness of sins, are not excluded froui justification : 
 but though they are said to concur with faith, they 
 do not in any sense merit the first justification, for 
 merit dc congruo is now almost excluded from Catholic 
 Schools ." This notion tallies with what the Holy 
 Scripture says of our being justified freely, and by 
 grace : also with what is taught therefrom by St. Au- 
 gustine : but while we admit this, we must not assert 
 that these disposing acts have no influence whatever in 
 the process. Unless we distort the word of God f , we 
 must concede that they are in some way efficient causes 
 of j ustification ; not in the way of merit, but solely from 
 the benignity and gratuitous promise of God s . 
 
 Sufficient weight, in the consideration of this Article, 
 has not been given to the fact that the only works ex- 
 cluded from merit dc con (j mo by its terms are those 
 done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of 
 the Spirit : consequently it does not prejudge the ques- 
 tion whether other works, those which are the fruit of 
 faith, do or do not dispose us in some way to justifi- 
 cation, and dc conyruo (though not de condiyno) merit 
 the grace of justification, according to the teaching of 
 St. Augustine h . At the same time it must be observed, 
 that no Church has ever asserted the doctrine of grace 
 de congruo, and that the Dominican Order has always 
 held that it had a Pelagianizing tendency ; . 
 
 e Stapleton, de Just if., lib. viii. c. 16, cit. Forbes. f Ezek. 
 
 xviii. 21; St. Luke xiii. 3j Acts ii. 38, iii. 19; 1 St. John i. 79. 
 s Forbesii Consid., vol. i. p. 28. h Ep. 105. * See Sarpi, 
 
 i. 344, quoted by Hsirdw ick, p. 101.
 
 ARTICLE XIV. 
 DE OPERIBUS SUPEREROGATION is. 
 
 OPERA qu<e sitpcrerogntionis appellant, non possunt sine 
 arrogantia et impietatc prcedicari. Nam illis declarant 
 homines, non tantum se Deo reddere, qiice, tenentur, sed 
 plus in ejus gratiam facere, quam dcberent, cum apcrte 
 Christus dicat ; Cum feccriti$ omnia qucecimqiie prce- 
 ccpta sunt robis, dicite, servi inutiles sumus. 
 
 " Of Works of Supererogation. 
 
 " VOLUNTARY works besides, over and above, God's 
 commandments, which they call works of supereroga- 
 tion, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. 
 For by them men do declare, that they do not only 
 render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but 
 that they do more for His sake, than of bounden duty 
 is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, "When ye 
 have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are 
 unprofitable servants." 
 
 THERE are two ways of putting every subject. A fact 
 may be so stated as to appear false ; a doctrine so enun- 
 ciated as to be deemed an error : or again, certain re- 
 sults of a course of action may be stated to flow from it, 
 as in the common fallacious argument against use from 
 abuse. Lastly, imperfect reasons may be adduced for 
 a perfectly reasonable course of action. 
 
 Now all these things must be borne in mind when 
 p
 
 210 ARTICLE XIV. 
 
 we discuss the question of what are termed works of 
 supererogation. In the Bible there are plainly laid 
 down certain counsels of perfection. Over and above 
 what is demanded and expected of every baptized man, 
 there are narrower paths in the narrow way, which 
 all are not required to follow, not so demanded or 
 expected. Certain souls have an exceptional religious 
 destiny laid out before them. Some are called to one 
 work, some to another. All souls are not called to 
 Christian heroism, but some are so; and it is an im- 
 perfect view of Christianity which does not give due 
 space for such vocations. It is obvious, e.g. at first 
 sight, that every one is not called upon to be a mis- 
 sionary, or to forsake houses, or brethren, or father, 
 or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for His Name's 
 sake. And yet all of us know of some who have given 
 up some of these things for Jesus' sake. 
 
 While the great mass of Christians are bound to keep 
 their Baptismal and Confirmation vows, others of their 
 own free-will add to them those of Matrimony and 
 Orders. Each of these conditions has the necessary 
 graces for their fulfilment attached to them, and these 
 -constitute the general obligations of the Christian life. 
 But beyond this, under the Gospel, a higher state of 
 things is borue witness to both by our Lord and His 
 Apostles. Certain injunctions are laid on men ; not on 
 all, but on such as can bear it. Certain things are 
 promised, in addition to the ordinary blessings of God, 
 on those who make certain renunciations. Again, St. 
 Paul recommends a certain line of conduct as wise in
 
 OF WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION. 211 
 
 the present necessity. All this higher law is gathered 
 under the heads of Counsels of Perfection, of which 
 the main branches are Poverty, Chastity, and Obe- 
 dience. 
 
 The teacher of ecclesiastical dogma must pursue his 
 way towards the heights of the revelation of God, 
 having to deal with the science whereby men, through 
 the God-enlightened faculty of knowledge, are brought 
 back to Him. He must necessarily touch upon sub- 
 jects which his own religious experience may never 
 have realized, and therefore his humbler task is with 
 regard to the higher teachings of Christianity, merely 
 to reproduce what saints have taught on these recon- 
 dite themes. 
 
 It is in this spirit and with bated breath that one 
 would venture to speak first of perfection, and secondly 
 of its counsels. 
 
 Perfection consisteth not in gifts bestowed by God 
 for the benefit of others, not even in those great spiri- 
 tual gifts, healings, tongues, and the like, which were 
 bestowed upon the early Christians. It is not to be 
 found in austerities or abnegations, nor in sensible 
 consolations ; rather is it the way whereby we travel 
 to our Eternal Fatherland the course we steer towards 
 the " haven where we would be/' It is not hindered 
 by those duties which are undertaken in the spirit 
 of obedience and love, nay, rather is aided thereby 
 It consisteth in the keeping of the commandments of 
 God ; for perfection is the perfect health of the soul, 
 the chief est of the gifts of God, and it is summed up
 
 212 ARTICLE XIV. 
 
 in the words of our Saviour, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
 thy God with all thy soul." 
 
 Thus it will be seen that ' Counsels of Perfection ' 
 are not perfection itself, nay, they are rather means to 
 that end. Counsels are ways of attaining to everlasting 
 salvation ; not necessary for all, but very helpful to 
 those whom God calls to them. The word ' counsels' 
 stands in opposition to the 'precepts' of God; the 
 fulfilment of which is of necessity to salvation ; and 
 no counsel can take the place of exact obedience to 
 precept, or be excused for its non-observance. " Except 
 ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish a ;" " Every tree 
 that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, 
 and cast into the fire b ." On the other hand, counsel 
 is that which is referred to by our Lord : " If thou 
 wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and give 
 to the poor." 
 
 There are many Evangelical counsels which need not 
 be referred to here, but there are three, all boasting 
 about which is especially condemned by the Article. 
 The first is that of Poverty, or the giving up of 
 worldly goods, whereby, disencumbered and free from 
 care, we may follow Christ. It is of this that the 
 Apostles spake when they said, " Behold, we have 
 left all, and followed Thee ; what shall we have 
 therefore c ?" 
 
 The second is Chastity, of body and soul, whereby 
 is fulfilled that counsel of St. Paul : " lie that is un- 
 married careth for the things of the Lord, how he may 
 
 St. Luke xiii. 3, 5. b Ibid. iii. 0. c St. Matt. xix. 27.
 
 OF WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION. 213 
 
 please the Lord. The unmarried woman careth for the 
 things of the Lord, how she may be holy both in body 
 and in spirit." Its special safeguard is humility. But 
 we need also all things that tame the flesh, such as 
 fasting and watching, and similar austerities. This 
 helps to cleanse us from all defilement, both of the flesh 
 and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God. 
 
 The third is Obedience, whereby we mortify our 
 own wills and submit to others, in imitation of Him 
 who " came not to do His own will, but the will of 
 His Father which is in heaven." 
 
 Not in these counsels is the substance of perfection, 
 for perfection is the end of the spiritual life ; it is that 
 which, according to its own nature, unites our wills to 
 God, who is our last End. 
 
 But they are the mighty means whereby that perfec- 
 tion is most easily attained unto. Happy are all they 
 who keep God's commandments, who, for the merits of 
 Christ, shall attain unto everlasting life, in the end 
 being made perfect ; but happier are they who, while 
 still in life, seek to anticipate perfection by exceptional 
 sacrifices for God. They shall enter into glory, and 
 beyond that, with the saints and mighty men who have 
 conquered themselves and all things earthly, shall enter 
 into the incomprehensible joy of their Lord. 
 
 Now fully admitting that the Counsels of Perfection 
 have their place in Christianity, we may not call them 
 "besides, over and above God's commandments," because 
 in the exceptional cases where men are called to them, 
 to these they become God's commandments. Woe be
 
 214 ARTICLE XIV. 
 
 to that soul, which is called to a Counsel of Perfection, 
 has received the grace for a Counsel of Perfection, and 
 fails to fulfil its high destiny ! This, true as it is, could 
 not be taught without arrogancy and impiety, if by it 
 people meant to express, that " by them men do declare, 
 that they do not only render unto God as much as they 
 are bound to do" that is arrogancy; or that "they 
 do more for His sake than of boundeii duty is re- 
 quired/' a sentiment here stigmatized as impiety. It 
 is arrogancy to maintain that there is a certain fixed 
 measure of obedience, which God requires of us, seeing 
 that nothing short of the Perfection of God, and the 
 Standard of Christ, is our great exemplar. It is im- 
 pious to say that any one, for the sake of Christ, does 
 more than is required ; for the whole heart, and soul, 
 and time, and habits are His, and at His service. His 
 claim upon us is illimitable : our best obedience most 
 imperfect, and therefore at best we are unprofitable 
 servants. Unprofitable servants ! what but unprofit- 
 able servants can we repute ourselves, when we mea- 
 sure our very best performances with that which God 
 requires of us : when we call to mind that nothing 
 short of the perfection of God is the standard whereby 
 we shall be measured, and that in Him lie hidden not 
 only all possible perfections that are or ever have been 
 in any of His creatures, but that beyond that there is 
 the inscrutable perfection which is His own attribute : 
 when we remember that the Blessed Humanity of our 
 Lord is that great exemplar upon which the Chris- 
 tian is to form himself; and that the virtues of the
 
 OF WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION. 215 
 
 Son of God made man, are the mirrors whereat he 
 is to dress himself ? Unprofitable servants ! what but 
 unprofitable, in view of the truth that God needs not 
 one of us, that He is in Himself complete in all things, 
 and that the addition or subtraction of an universe 
 adds nothing to, takes nothing from His perfection ? 
 And yet He never calls us to impossibilities, never 
 withholds the grace to do what He desires ; every in- 
 dividual soul is dear to Him, in the mystery of re- 
 demption, His money, His sheep ; and therefore in the 
 order of grace, we are dear and precious in His sight : 
 " And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in. 
 that day when I make up My jewels' 1 ." 
 
 d Mai. iii. 17.
 
 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 DE CHRISTO, QUI SOLUS EST SINE PECCATO. 
 
 CHRISTUS in nostne naturae reritatc per omnia similis 
 factus cst nobis, excepto pcccato, a quo prorsus crat 
 immunis, turn in came, turn in spiritu. Venit id IKJ- 
 mis, dbsque macula, qui mundi pcccata per immola- 
 tioncm sui semel factam, tolleret, et pcccatum (nt in- 
 quit Johannes) in co non erai : sed nos reliqui etiain 
 baptizati, et in Christo regcncmti, in multi* tamen 
 offendimus omnes. Et si dizerimm, quod peccahim 
 non habetmis, non ipsox seduciinus, et ccrita-s in no- 
 bis non cst. 
 
 " Of Chrixt alone without Sin. 
 
 " CHRIST, in the truth of our nature, was made like 
 unto us in all things, sin only except, from which He 
 was clearly void, both in His flesh and in His Spirit. 
 He came to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacri- 
 fice of Himself once made, should take away the sins 
 of the world, and sin (as St. John saith) was not in. 
 Him. But all we the rest, although baptized, and 
 born again in Christ, yet offend in many things ; and 
 if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
 truth is not in us." 
 
 AFTER laying down positively the blessed truth of 
 a Ilomoiisia between our Lord and us, in that He has
 
 OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 217 
 
 actually assumed our nature, with all its attributes, 
 its sinless infirmities, its faculties, and powers, into His 
 divine person, so that as He has become a sharer in hu- 
 man nature, we have become partakers of the divine, 
 the Article goes on to state the one abatement that 
 must necessarily be made to the statement in its 
 breadth which is involved in the exclusion of any 
 thought of sin in connection with Him. 
 
 It is first stated negatively that Christ is without 
 sin; we have therefore in the first place to consider 
 the doctrine of the sanctity of our Lord in His in- 
 carnate nature. By sanctity, we mean that quality 
 which is contrary to what is profane or polluted, 
 which is opposed to sin, which is a state of the soul 
 free from the contagion of deadly crime, which is 
 pure, incorrupt, and adorned with the splendour of 
 divine grace. Now our Lord by Gabriel was empha- 
 tically called the holy thing that was to be born of 
 Mary ; and this took place in three ways : 1. by the 
 gift of sinlessness, the absence of the power of falling ; 
 2. by the perpetuity of that gift ; and 3. by the pleni- 
 tude of grace. If the first Adam was made upright, 
 how much more the second Adam, who, as to body, 
 was formed out of the most pure and perfect flesh 
 and blood of the Virgin Mary, and whose soul was 
 formed on the likeness of the archetypal Word of God, 
 which was taken by Him and proposed as the exam- 
 ple of holiness to all the saints ; for " whom God did 
 foreknow, them He did predestinate to be conformed to 
 the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn
 
 218 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 among many brethren a ." Hence it is in His human 
 nature, assumed into the unity of His Divine Person, 
 that our Lord is the head of the Church, and the au- 
 thor of holiness, which are necessary conditions of tho 
 due dischai'ge of His offices of Mediator, Saviour, and 
 High-Priest b ; and, duly to estimate the plenitude of this 
 grace, we must bear in mind that this special gift was 
 not accidental or communicated, but inherent in Him- 
 self. In Him was the fountain of grace, infinite and 
 uncircum script. And if we ask the awful question, 
 "What was the formal cause of this holiness ? we have 
 to answer that the actual divinity of the "Word by itself 
 sanctifies the human nature assumed into consortship 
 with the same Person ; that the human nature by union 
 with the Word is deified and holy by an archetypal 
 holiness : that the unction of the humanity of Christ 
 has been effected by the Word sanctifying the flesh, 
 by the Father working through the Word, and by 
 the Holy Ghost causing the union of the Word and 
 the Flesh. Hence we gather the truth of the impec- 
 cancy of Christ c . 
 
 The testimony of the ancients to the truth that sin is 
 not to be predicated of our Lord is very ample. Some 
 assert that Christ alone is without any sin, without 
 specifying original sin : others that, Christ alone ex- 
 cepted, all men are defiled with that original sin. 
 
 1. St. Augustine, in the controversy on original sin 
 with Julian, asks him whether he would venture to say, 
 
 a Kom. viii. 29. > Heb. ii. 17, iii. 2. 
 
 c Petavius, de Incarnafione, xt. 10, 1.
 
 OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 219 
 
 to St. Ambrose too, that because he excepted Christ 
 alone from the bonds of a guilty generation, in that He 
 was born of a virgin, whereas all others descended from 
 Adam were born in the bond of sin, he made the devil 
 the creator of all born after the ordinary law of nature. 
 " Charge him/' he says, " as a condemner of marriage, 
 who said that the Virgin's Son was alone born with- 
 out sin V 
 
 " Christ was the first and only man upon earth that 
 did not commit sin, neither was guile found in His 
 mouth e ." 
 
 2. " No one of the saints, of whatever virtues he may 
 be full, yet being gathered from that blackness of the 
 world, can be equalled to Him of whom it is written, 
 ' The holy Thing which shall be born of Thee shall be 
 called the Son of God.' For we, although we are made 
 saints, yet are not born saints, because n*e are con- 
 strained by the very condition of our corruptible na- 
 ture to say with the Prophet, ' Behold, I was shapen 
 in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me.' 
 But He alone was truly born holy, who, that He might 
 overcome the condition itself of corruptible nature, was 
 not conceived in the ordinary way of nature f ." 
 
 The doctrine of the sinlessness of our Lord is very 
 important, when regarded in its relation to other truths 
 of the Gospel. 
 
 I. The conception of a perfectly sinless character was 
 never attained to by the unassisted reason of man. 
 
 d Cont. Jul. ii. 2. e Cyril Alex., de Eecta Fide ad Theodos. r 
 
 torn. v. p. 18. <. ii. * S. Greg, in Job, 1. xviii. c. 52, torn. i. p. 593.
 
 '220 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 II. Impeccancy has never been claimed by any 
 teacher save by our Lord, but He rests His divine 
 mission on it : " Which of you convinceth Me of sin ?" 
 If He is not sinless, on His own shewing, He has no 
 claim on us. 
 
 III. It infuses an element of meritoriousness and 
 sacrificial power into the fact of our Lord's life and 
 death. He was made a curse for us. He bore our sins 
 in His own Body on the tree, whereas in the case of 
 all us, the rest, " the wages of sin is death." 
 
 IV. The teaching office of our Lord is closely con- 
 nected with His sinlessness. In proportion as sin pre- 
 vails, it clouds the higher part of the intellect, and the 
 moral taint will tell upon the belief. Not only does 
 our Lord rest His teaching office, that is, His right to 
 be listened to, on the fact that they could not convince 
 Him of sin, but He claims to be the Truth itself. 
 
 V. It makes the perfection of the Christian to be 
 ever advancing ; for if no standard short of the pat- 
 tern of a sinless Christ be that to which mankind is 
 invited to look as the Species exima pulchritttdtnit, it 
 follows that there is no room for boasting, however 
 highly any one may seem to have attained. Between 
 the perfection even of the Blessed Virgin herself and 
 the perfection of her Son, who alone is, by His own 
 nature, impeccable, because His Manhood is One Person 
 with God the Word, and so holy with an uncreated 
 holiness, there is a great gulph fixed. 
 
 VI. The sinlessness of Christ has a most important 
 bearing on ourselves. If our justification be the im-
 
 OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 221 
 
 parting to us of an actual righteousness, and that actual: 
 righteousness be the righteousness of a sinless Person,. 
 it will be seen what a standard is placed before us. 
 Lastly : 
 
 VII. It infuses into the soul a high sense of the 
 destinies of that creation which now, and for a season,, 
 is made subject to vanity. Not only in body, but in 
 soul and in spirit, are we destined to be changed into- 
 His likeness. The second Man, which is the Lord 
 from heaven, who operates upon us here sacramentally, 
 as the Food of our souls, is the sinless Christ, and it is 
 into His image that we shall be changed from glory 
 to glory. 
 
 The Article here rises from simple dogmatic state- 
 ment into something like religious fervour. It goes on 
 from the assertion of the sinlessness of our Lord to de- 
 duce the conveniency of His being the eternal Victim 
 for sin. Priest and Victim in one, in order to fulfil the 
 necessary conditions of our propitiation, the require- 
 ment of sinless life enters into both natures. His 
 priesthood must be pure, " For such an High-Priest 
 became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
 from sinners, and made higher than the heavens ; who 
 needed not daily, as those high-priests, to offer up sacri- 
 fice first for His own sins, and then for the people 5 ." 
 A sinless Sacrifice is the antitype of a lamb without 
 spot. It was a lamb, or a kid of the goats without 
 blemish, that was to be taken for the sacrificial feast ; 
 and so Christ our Passover must needs be sinless. For 
 * Heb. vii. 20, 27.
 
 222 AUTKLI: xv. 
 
 we are redeemed from our corrupt conversation by the 
 precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without spot, 
 " who did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
 moutbA" 
 
 The impeccable nature of our Lord supplies the 
 special aptitude for His sacrificial function. The per- 
 fectness of the victim under the old law presignified 
 this condition in its antitype, and foreshadowed in no 
 dark similitude that the victim that was to take awav 
 the sins of the world must have no sins of its own to 
 atone for. Herein was the difference between priest 
 and victim under the old law. There the priest was 
 emphatically sinful, he had to offer both for his own 
 sins and for the sins of the people ; but the victim must 
 be perfect, the first-born, free from all defect, otherwise 
 it was not worthy to be offered to God. Under the 
 new dispensation both Priest and Victim are one, 
 wherefore if the Victim be pure, the Priest is pure 
 also ; in short, fulfilling the conditions laid down in 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, " holy, harmless, undefiled, 
 sepai'ate from sinners." 
 
 And this sacrificial aspect of Christ's mediation can- 
 not sufficiently be borne in mind ; for, from the obscu- 
 ration of Eucharistic truth which has prevailed since 
 the Reformation, our Lord's intercession has been looked 
 upon much more as an act of prayer than of sacrifice. 
 Hereby the whole typology of the Books of Moses as 
 representing the ceremonies of the great day of atone- 
 ment, whereby the atonement by slaying being made 
 
 * 1 IVt. ii. 22.
 
 OF CHRIST ALOXE WITHOUT SIN. 223 
 
 outside the veil, the blood was carried, still as atone- 
 ment, by the high-priest into the holy of holies onco 
 a-year is entirely lost ' ; a poverty of conception with 
 regard to the present work of Christ the continued pre- 
 sentation of those Sacred wounds, of that glorious Body 
 which once hung upon the tree, and now, without words, 
 pleads by its very presence within the Holy of Holies 
 at the Father's right hand is engendered ; and the deep 
 cry of the Church, involving its belief in the everlasting 
 propitiation of the Son of God, loses its significance. 
 "Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis." 
 The Article goes on to assert in broad terms tho 
 actual sinfulncss of mankind. In spite of our high 
 privileges in the Gospel ; of our being taken out of 
 the state of nature and put in the state of grace j of 
 our being b} r baptism buried and risen with Christ ; 
 of our being born again of water and of the Holy 
 Ghost ; it is certain that we shall not escape all sins. 
 Though God gives us grace to fulfil His law, though 
 He enables us to meet each temptation as it arises, 
 though He bestows on us sufficient helps to serve Him ; 
 as a matter of fact, we do not do so. To take an ana- 
 logy in the things of this life : just as with sufficient 
 knowledge of arithmetic to sum up a set of figures 
 rightly, we know that if we do so a great many times 
 we shall certainly make a mistake; just as out of 
 a certain number of letters, there are a certain number 
 and average that will be misdirected, so in our own 
 individual case, we may be sure that we shall fall into 
 some sin. The Article does not speak of exceptional 
 1 See Theological Defence fov the Bishop of Brechin.
 
 224 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 cases. It says, " all we the rest." It does not commit 
 itself to what may be the case with regard to saints 
 whom God may by a special prerogative save from grave 
 sin ; as was the case, under the old law, with Zacharias 
 and Elisabeth, who (albeit they might not have been 
 free from infirmities) walked in all the ordinances of 
 the Lord blameless, or as must be the case with regard 
 to His own Holy Mother, of whom, though we may ima- 
 gine imperfections as possible, yet, with whom, for the 
 honour of her Son, we can associate no idea of sin k . 
 To imagine that even for one moment the Blessed 
 Virgin, by a wilful sin, was hateful to her Son, or that 
 by a deliberate evil wish she took the part of Satan 
 against her Son, and conspired to dethrone Him (both 
 which notions are bound up in the idea of sin), is 
 a thought revolting to the pious instinct. 
 
 Closely connected with this is the important ques- 
 tion, whether, by that measure of grace which God 
 metes out in this life, the saints can fulfil the law of 
 God. The matter was discussed in St. Augustine's 
 time, and he expresses himself with great hesitation on 
 the subject. When discussing with Pelagius where 
 Abraham's bosom was, he was unwilling to contend 
 about the power of living without sin by the grace of 
 Christ, although he thought that no one could be 
 shewn who had done it ''. Proceeding from the power 
 to the act, he expressly affirms that he does not wish 
 strenuously to dispute whether there are not some who 
 arrive here at such a perfection of righteousness as to 
 
 k Vide Forbesii Considerationes, ed. Oxf. 1850, t. i. pp. 339377. 
 1 Lib. ii. de Peccat. Merit., c. 6 8, t. x. p. 43 c.
 
 OF CHRIST ALONE AVITIIOUT SIN. 225 
 
 be without sin, although it seemed to him the true view 
 that there are none m ; and in the celebrated letter 
 sent by four African bishops (of whom the Saint was 
 one) to Pope Innocent, it is confessed that there are 
 Catholics to whom it seems not contrary to truth that 
 there are some persons who through grace are able to 
 fulfil in this life the law of God without sin ; that, if 
 the;/ en; they err more tolerably than Pelagius ; but 
 that for them it is enough that no one of the faithful is 
 found in the Church of God, in however high a state of 
 advance and excellency of righteousness, who can dare 
 to say that the petition in the Lord's Prayer, " Forgive 
 us," c., is not necessary for him, and that he has "no 
 sin," although he now lives blamelessly ". 
 
 That the Blessed Virgin is not included necessarily 
 in this condemnation, may be inferred from the lan- 
 guage of some of the formularies. The Collect for 
 Christmas dwells on our Lord's birth from " a pure 
 virgin," which, however, may refer solely to her un- 
 stained maidenhood. The Preface, " that He was made 
 very man of her substance, and that without spot of 
 sin," may also be limited to the immaculate nature of 
 our Lord's conception ; but the Homily on Repentance, 
 in a short dogmatic statement, speaks of " Jesus Christ, 
 who being true and natural God, equal and of one sub- 
 stance with the Father, did at the time appointed take 
 upon Him our frail nature, in the Blessed Virgin's 
 womb, and that of her itndcfiled substance, so that He 
 
 " He Nat. el Gratia, 59, 69, t. x. p. 157 d. 
 " Ep. 95, num. 177, 16, 18.
 
 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 iinirht be a mediator between God and us, and pacify 
 1 1 is wrath." In that oil Wilful Rebellion it speaks 
 of " the obedience of this most Noble and most Virtuous 
 Lady, which doth well teach us who in comparison to 
 her are most base and vile." Of course, between the 
 perfection of God and the perfection of the noblest of 
 His creatures, there is the gulph of infinity fixed. Be- 
 tween essential Sanctity, the Sanctity that is the same 
 as Being, and the most exalted sanctity that is a gift, 
 there can be no possible comparison. There can be no 
 comparison between that which is the attribute of the 
 Creator and the gift to the creature. 
 
 Indeed, as regards the Blessed Virgin, one's first 
 thought with regard to her is a jealousy for the honour 
 of the Lord God of Hosts. Anything that approaches 
 Him must be zealously fended off. We cannot endure 
 that the idea of any created thing, however great and 
 hoh 7 , shall be compared unto Him. He is supreme, 
 and His honour we must not give unto another. There- 
 fore the soul shrinks with an infinite loathing from any 
 of those expressions which seem to trench upon His 
 incommunicable glorv. 
 
 o 
 
 But on the other hand, viewed rightly and in the 
 analogy of faith, the great honour bestowed on Mai'y, 
 the recognition of her place in the order of grace, tends 
 very directly to a proper estimate of the glory of God. 
 As in Alpine scenes one can never estimate the vast 
 distances and enormous magnitudes of the glorious ob- 
 jects by which we are surrounded, from the fact that 
 Part II.
 
 OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIX. 227 
 
 we have no measure or power of comparison till we see 
 some tree or human form, the comparative insigni- 
 ficance of which forms that measure, so it is with the 
 infinitude of God. We ascend towards it through 
 the contemplation of the saints. Take the Virgin as 
 the highest of them all, estimate her pure as Eve at the 
 moment of her creation, add to that the miraculous 
 fact of divine maternity, exhaust all thought and all 
 positive language in the conception and expression 
 of her august prerogatives, and yet, when you have 
 reached the height, God is still infinitely greater. 
 Thus she becomes a height of created nature, whence 
 to rise to the Divine Humanity of her Son, and thence 
 to the infinitude of God, and the higher ideal we 
 have of her, the more complete is our all-imperfect 
 estimate of Him. 
 
 Christ is the glorious sun of righteousness, shining 
 in His strength, glorious and radiant, from whose 
 heat nothing is hidden ; and He shines all the more 
 gloriously and radiantly, by reason of and in com- 
 parison with those derived fires, the saints who shine 
 in the firmament as the stars of heaA'en, and specially 
 with her whom an imaginative and poetic Christianity, 
 playing upon a fancied interpretation of her lovely 
 name, has designated as the Star of the Sea. 
 
 But the question of her immaculate conception is 
 beside the honour due to her. Unless we assume the 
 theory of development as the only intellectual basis 
 for our faith, it cannot be denied that this doctrine 
 has little support in antiquity. AVhile the ancient
 
 228 ARTICLE XV. 
 
 liturgies freely testify to her being undefiled, while 
 Holy Scripture denies the possibility of bringing what 
 is clean out of that which is unclean, and St. Augustine 
 from the honour due to our Lord, refuses to connect 
 the notion of sin with her mother, the notion of a sus- 
 pension of the law of the fall in this individual case is 
 a middle-age idea. The festival was opposed by St. 
 Bernard as a novelty, and as involving the doctrine of 
 the Immaculate Conception, but in so doing he sub- 
 mitted himself beforehand to any contrary judgment 
 from Rome. The festival spread, however, Avith the 
 deepening devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and its sup- 
 porters resented opposition to it as a slight upon her. 
 In this country, it was unhappily iipheld by what 
 are now known to have been forgeries, the relation 
 of a vision in which the Blessed Virgin is herseP- 
 stated to have enjoined its observance, and a letter of 
 St.Anselm enforcing it on the credit of that revelation. 
 The Schoolmen on St. Augustine's principles and tradi- 
 tion continued to oppose it, until Duns Scotus, mainly 
 on abstract grounds, turned the tide, and gained the 
 University of Paris in its favour. The Feast of her 
 Conception began with the Greeks, and was brought 
 by them to Sicily and to Italy. Its object was, to 
 celebrate the first moment of her existence, who was 
 to be the Mother of the Redeemer of the world. Ac- 
 cordingly the day was fixed on Dec. 8, just nine 
 months before that upon which her nativity was cele- 
 brated. It was a natural expression of piety. The 
 Council of Basle charged Turrecremata, the master
 
 OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 229 
 
 of the Sacred Palace under Eugenius IV., to make 
 a report on a subject so fiercely contested among theo- 
 logians. Afterwards, Turrecremata retiring with the 
 more moderate party of the Council, the Council put 
 forth a decree in every sense in accordance with the 
 opinion of the University of Paris ; and, although at 
 this time, being in opposition to Pope Eugenius, it 
 was held to be a schismatical Council, its decree was, 
 by many, (e.g. Gabriel Biel,) accounted to be the voice 
 of the Church. The Council of Trent contented itself 
 with asserting that it had no intention of including 
 the Blessed Virgin Mary in its decree on original sin, 
 and renewed the bulls published on the subject by 
 Sixtus IV. Efforts were from time to time made both 
 by the Franciscan Order, and by the kings of Spain, 
 Philip III. under Paul V., and Philip IV. under Gre- 
 gory XV., to have the doctrine declared to be dogma ; 
 but it was reserved for Pius IX. on Dec. 8, 1854, by 
 the Bull Liejfalilis, to do what he could in this respect. 
 Whether the interests of Christianity have gained by 
 the increase of honour which hereby accrues to the 
 Holy Virgin, and by the additional prominence given 
 to the idea of the Suprasensual in the mystery of re- 
 demption, or have lost by the divorce in sentiment be- 
 tween the past and present Church, by the dissidence 
 between the Old Traditional Faith and the Developed 
 Sentiment of the Living Church, is a question which 
 suggests the gravest consideration, and excites the 
 deepest anxiety.
 
 ARTICLE XVI. 
 DE PECCATO POST BAPTISM UM. 
 
 No N omnc pcccatum mortalc pott Baptismum rohtntarit- 
 pcrpctratu))!, est pcccatum in Spirititm Sanctum, ct irrc- 
 missibile. Proinde fapsis ft Soptismo in pcccata, Incnx 
 pcenitcnticc non est negandus. Post acceptum Spirifum 
 Sanctum possumm a gratia data rcccdcre, atqnc pec- 
 care, denuoqnc per gratiam Dei rcwirc/crc, nc rexipia- 
 ccrc ; ideoquc illi danmandi suiif, qui sr quawrHit hi<* 
 vivant, ampUiis non posse peccarc affirm a n-t, aut cere- 
 resipiscentibiis renice locinn dcnegant. 
 
 " Of Shi offer Baptism. 
 
 every deadly sin willingly committed after 
 baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardon- 
 able. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be 
 denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After 
 we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from 
 grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God 
 we may arise again, and amend our lives. And there- 
 fore they are to be condemned which say, they can no 
 more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of 
 forgiveness to such as truly repent." 
 
 ONE heavy impenetrable cloud hangs over the Gospel 
 of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One appalling 
 thought there is beyond all others terrible, which, re-
 
 OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 231 
 
 vealed to us in mercy, yet blanches the cheek and ter- 
 rifies the soul. It is that in the order of God's pro- 
 vidence there is one sin, for which the Eternal Son, 
 the Redeemer of all men, has declared there is no re- 
 mission : " Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of 
 sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but 
 the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not b& 
 forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word 
 against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him ; but 
 whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall 
 not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the 
 world to come a ." What that sin is, has never yet 
 been declared by authority. Some have thought that 
 it was the imputation of a diabolic origin to the mira- 
 cles of our Lord, though one cannot see how that can 
 be the sin, for the Spirit was not yet given. Others 
 have held that it is final impenitency, but it is left 
 in a terrible suspense that men may fear the judg- 
 ment of God. 
 
 There is another very awful text in the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews, when the author uses the expression that it 
 "is impossible," i.e. impossible for man, though possible 
 for God, (as we see from the use avafcatvi^eiv, rather 
 avaicaivi^eaOai,} " to renew to repentance those who 
 were once enlightened (been baptized), and have tasted 
 of the heavenly gift (of the Holy Eucharist), and were 
 made partakers of the Holy Ghost (in confirmation), and 
 have tasted the good Word of God (the Holy Scripture), 
 and the powers of the world to come," " seeing that they 
 
 8 St.Matt. xii. 31.
 
 232 ARTICLE XVI. 
 
 crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put 
 Him to an open shame." This passage, which is com- 
 monly interpreted of the exceeding great difficulty 
 of a return after an open apostacy from God, has its 
 special importance in these days, when men think so 
 lightly of loss of faith ; when they tamper with doubts 
 and bad books, and imagine themselves none the worse 
 for intellectual sins. It is no carnal sin that is here 
 alluded to ; it is not avarice, nor ambition, nor envy. 
 It is the loss of faith, which being not only a divinely 
 infused gift, but a moral habit, follows the laws of all 
 moral habits, and shall be judged accordingly. 
 
 On these two texts, ^ovatian of Home, urged on by 
 Novatus of Carthage, established his false system. He 
 maintained that "after baptism, there is no room for 
 penitence ; that the Church cannot pardon mortal sin 
 further ; that she herself perishes by the very receiv- 
 ing of sinners V He denied the commission of the 
 priesthood to pardon and absolve, the right use of 
 ecclesiastical discipline, and the power of the keys. 
 Nay, he went so far as to say that those who had 
 fallen into apostacy, had no more hope of salvation, 
 and could not be restored, even after penance c . The 
 occasion of the separation of the Novatians from the 
 Church was that they would not communicate with 
 those who had fallen in the Decian persecution. In 
 all other respects they held the true doctrine, though 
 they mocked at the martyrs, and re-baptized those 
 
 b S. Pac. Ep. iii. 
 
 c Tillemcmt, Jlcmolres pour Serrir, &c., vol. iii. p. 472.
 
 OF SIX AFTER BAPTISM. 233 
 
 who joined their sect. It is probable that the author 
 of the Phifasop/tttmcna was of this school, and the 
 Church historian Socrates shews great sympathy for 
 it. Their orders were recognised in the sense that 
 their bishops on being reconciled were received as 
 bishops. They died out in the seventh century. The 
 last mention of them as existent is about the year 
 A.I). 672. 
 
 But at the Reformation the same texts suggested 
 another phase of error. One extreme form of Calvin- 
 ism was that the saints can never fall away. The doc- 
 trine of final perseverance, coupled with the doctrine of 
 a capricious election, necessarily resulted in this ; and 
 although many good people merely found in a specu- 
 lative view of this kind a sense of comforting assurance, 
 it cannot be doubted that, in the case of some of the 
 fierce sectaries in Germany, Holland, and England, 
 during the Commonwealth, the most fearful excesses 
 were committed under the cloak of this dangerous 
 error. We all know that it was the anodyne which 
 soothed the perturbed deathbed of Oliver Cromwell. 
 
 Now, for the sake of correctness, the first step is to 
 define what sin is ; secondly, to describe its effect ; 
 thirdly, to illustrate its relation to Baptism ; and lastly, 
 to dwell upon sin committed after Baptism. 
 
 1. Sin is variously defined as "an act, deviating from 
 what is ordered for the end of man, contrary to the 
 rule of nature, or of reason, or of eternal law d :" or 
 negatively, it is " every defect in action which implies 
 
 d S.Thos. l ma . qu. G3, 1.
 
 234 ARTICLE XVI. 
 
 violation of order ;" " it is the death of the soul by the 
 withdrawal of grace ; it is to fall away from good, and 
 therefore every defect in duty is of the nature of sin ; 
 it is to neglect the next world for this ; it is anything 
 said, done, or desired against the eternal law ; it is the 
 breaking of the law of God ; the will to retain or to 
 follow what justice forbids." 
 
 It is contrary to the nature of the human mind in 
 its integrity, but according to the nature of the human 
 mind in its fall. It is twofold, that of omission and 
 that of commission ; which last is subdivided into sin 
 of thought, of word, and of deed. 
 
 2. Next, as to the effect of sin. The soul of man, 
 turning away from its eternal, uncreated, and incom- 
 mutable good, converting itself and cleaving to tem- 
 poral, created, and commutable goods, loses a twofold 
 lustre, which it formerly possessed. One, the refulgence 
 of the natural light of reason ; the other, the refulgence 
 of the supernatural light of the Divine wisdom and 
 grace. This loss of lustre is the macula ani>it<c, the 
 stain of the soul; and it remains in the soul till by a re- 
 trogressive motion of the will the man returns to the 
 light of reason and the Divine law, which he does by 
 grace. In the case of mortal sin, by a fresh infusion 
 of habitual grace; and in the case of venial sin, which, 
 however, does not really stain the soul, by any act of 
 that habitual grace which it has not destroyed. 
 
 The act of aversion from the Creator, an inordinate 
 conversion to the creature, constitutes the en /pa peccati, 
 the guilt of sin: mortal, if aversion; venial, if conversion.
 
 OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 235 
 
 The punishment of sin, pant a peecati, is proportioned 
 to both. The punishment of a mortal sin, that sin as 
 an aversion from the Infinite and Eternal, being itself 
 also infinite, must be infinite and eternal. The punish- 
 ment of a venial sin, that sin being but an inordinate 
 conversion to the temporal and finite, and so itself tem- 
 poral and finite, requires to be but temporal and finite. 
 The act of guilt may have passed away, the lustre of 
 the soul may have been renewed, and so its stain re- 
 moved, and yet the liability to punishment may re- 
 main to restore the balance and satisfy the demands 
 of justice. 
 
 Venial and original sin are visited, the one with the 
 pain of sense, pcena scnHuz, the other with the pain of 
 loss, peena clamni ; mortal sin with both. 
 
 Punishment must be 1. contrary to the will; 2. 
 afflictive ; 3. inflicted by reason of guilt. And it may 
 be 1. satisfactory; 2. remedial; or, 3. simply penal c . 
 
 It has ever been held that the Sacrament of Baptism 
 is the specially ordained rite whereby the grace of God, 
 working in the power of the Passion of our Lord, de- 
 stroys and takes away all sins, past and present. It 
 removes in all, equally the entire guilt of sin, and all 
 necessity of future penitence. The baptized person 
 is wholly a new creature in Christ Jesus. It also 
 acts as a check upon future sin in the way of preven- 
 tion f . Baptism is principally ordained as a remedy 
 against original sin g . It at once takes away its penal- 
 
 e S. Tiioni!i.s, l mn . 2 d *. qu. 86. f 3 p. q. 67, 3 c. q. 68, 2, 2. m. 3, 3. 
 s 3 q. 66, 9, c.f.
 
 ARTICLE XVI. 
 
 ties and its infection so far as the individual is con- 
 cerned, but not so far as the nature is concerned, save 
 only in the end h . It cleanses the flesh from all pollu- 
 tion, contracted so far as regards the individual, but 
 not so far as regards the nature. By it the stains of 
 sin, culpa, are washed out, the fire of its incentive miti- 
 gated by grace ; but this fire is not wholly quenched 
 in the present life. Baptism absolves us from all pe- 
 nalty, so far as that penalty is inflicted by God, but it 
 does not take away penalty so far as inflicted by man. 
 
 3. The fall from the supernatural state, the return 
 to sin after this complete cleansing, the re-engagement 
 in the service of the powers of darkness, the deliberate 
 choice of the will in opposition to the will of God, the 
 ingratitude to the best and kindest of Fathers, who 
 has translated us out. of darkness into the kingdom of 
 His dear Son, is surely very grievous. Of necessity 
 the sins of Christians, being sins against grace and 
 light, are infinitely more heinous than those of the 
 heathen. Grace done despite to, conscience violated, 
 the deliberate choice of evil rather than God's law, are 
 bound up in the idea of post-baptismal sin. 
 
 So strongly was this felt in the fourth and fifth cen- 
 turies, that men were apt to put off their baptism until 
 the hour of death. There are various canons to pre- 
 vent this vicious practice. All this illustrates how 
 deeply the thought of the danger of violating the bap- 
 tismal obligations had penetrated into the conscious- 
 ness of the Christian community. 
 
 h 1, 2. q. Art. 5, 81, 32.
 
 OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 237 
 
 But here there was danger of running into excess. 
 Several of the early heresies erred in the direction of 
 over-strictness ; especially the Novatians, against whom 
 this Article is primarily directed. To doubt the grace 
 and mercy of God is most unpleasing to Him. The 
 very Gospel, by its terms, is a Gospel of reconciliation 
 and forgiveness. God is ever more ready to hear than 
 we to pray, and is wont to give more than either we 
 desire or deserve. The freest, the fullest forgiveness is 
 held forth to us for the sake of the Death and Passion 
 of our Lord and only Saviour Jesus Christ, and there 
 is no sin that we can now commit which, if sincerely 
 repented, can resist the effect of His atoning Blood. 
 Therefore, while the Church would seek to deepen 
 within us the sense of the malignity of the deliberate 
 sins of Christians, she assures us that "not every 
 deadly sin committed after Baptism is unpardonable, 
 or sin against the Holy Ghost/' 
 
 Besides this statement of doctrine, we may observe 
 certain corollaries from the structure and doctrine of 
 the Article. 1. The expression ' deadly sin ' implies 
 the distinction between deadly and venial sin, with 
 all the consequences of that distinction. 2. The very 
 denial that sin after baptism is the sin against the 
 Holy Ghost, refutes the notions of those who would 
 reduce the Sacrament of Baptism to a mere admis- 
 sion into the visible Church. Were it such, no per- 
 son could ever have supposed post-baptismal sin to 
 be so terrible. The heinousness of its dishonour, is 
 the measure of the greatness of its efficacy. That
 
 238 ARTICLE XVI. 
 
 must be a very high state of grace indeed, which 
 could involve such a result from its violation. 3. Ob- 
 serve the metonymy. After speaking of the fall after 
 baptism in the negative form, the grant of repent- 
 ance is not to be denied to those who fall after bap- 
 tism, the same proposition is enumerated positively, 
 and in so doing, baptism is said to be " receiving 
 the Holy Ghost." In the Article, " receiving the Holy 
 Ghost" is equivalent to "being baptized." It is true 
 that some of the Reformers took an exaggerated view 
 on this point, since, according to them, the power of 
 regeneration worked no extirpation of sin, the original 
 and carnal sin, as such, remaining in them ; it follows 
 that sin does not dissolve the state of grace received in 
 baptism, or break the fellowship with Christ. Bap- 
 tism thus not only imparted the assurance that all 
 our sins committed before baptism were remitted, but 
 gave the pledge of the remission of sins hereafter to 
 be committed. 
 
 Now the true doctrine of repentance is taught not 
 only in these Articles, but in the Commination Service : 
 "Let us return unto the Lord our God with all contri- 
 tion and meekness of heart : bewailing and lament- 
 ing our sinful life, acknowledging and coH/exxinij our 
 offences, and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits 
 -o penance*" 
 
 Observe the italicized words. They divide the pro- 
 cess into three, the contrition of the heart, the confes- 
 sion of the mouth, and the worthy fruits of penance 
 
 ' Commination Service.
 
 OF SIX AFTER BAPTISM. 239 
 
 as the satisfaction of the life ; and this is in accordance 
 not only with the teaching of the Church, but with the 
 deepest necessities of human nature. 
 
 1. Repentance cannot spring from the mere fear of 
 hell torments. This is not the only path that leads 
 men back to God. We must take a high view of what 
 we are to Christ, and what Christ is to us, and from 
 this thought must spring the emotion which brings 
 us back to Him. Faith and confidence must precede 
 repentance, and from these, hatred to sin and a faint 
 love of God is unfolded. Attrition, as the sorrow for 
 the consequences of sin, is only an incitement to re- 
 pentance ; it requires something more, namely, con- 
 trition, a profound detestation of sin springing from 
 an awakened love of God, with the determination never 
 wilfully to sin again. 
 
 2. But repentance rests not there. What is interior 
 must be outwardly expressed ; as our inward love to 
 Christ is outwardly manifested in acts of charity to His 
 poor, so our deep inward energetic contrition will seek 
 an external manifestation in confession. A reconcilia- 
 tion between two. friends cannot take place without 
 mutual avowals, and this avowal must be definite. So 
 when we confess our sins, it must not be a vague de- 
 claration of our sinfulness, but a specific, definite detail 
 of our transgressions to Christ, or His anointed ser- 
 vant. Yet on the other hand, it must be recollected 
 that perfect contrition takes the place of all outward 
 ordinances. 
 
 3. But this is not all; if, in confession, internal
 
 240 ARTICLE XVI. 
 
 repentance is manifested, the Church acts back on the 
 offender by the claim of satisfaction. It may refer 
 either to the past or to the future. 1. If a man has 
 offended human justice, he must make restitution either 
 to the sufferers, or if that is impossible, in the way indi- 
 cated by his spiritual adviser. 2. As regards the future, 
 satisfaction becomes medicinal, in short, a strength- 
 ening remedy to restore the power of the soul debi- 
 litated by sin. Yet this is not all, penitential exer- 
 cises must be looked on also as real punishment. By 
 sin man contracts a debt which he is quite unfit to 
 pay. Christ has paid it, and to all who enter into real 
 living communion with Him the debt is remitted ; but 
 it is not God's will to remit the temporal consequences 
 of the penitent's previous acts, and justice requires the 
 imposition of those penalties, especially in believers 
 who, having been made members of His Body by bap- 
 tism, have received grace both to perceive what they 
 ought to do, and strength and power to perform it. 
 All this is the work of Christ. By this His merits 
 are in no ways infringed upon. All our satisfactions 
 must be done in Him. We who of ourselves, as of 
 ourselves, can do nothing, in Him who strengtheneth 
 us, can do all things. Therefore all our glory is in 
 the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in "Whom we live 
 and move, and have our being. 
 
 Although the errors against which the Article was 
 directed have passed away, yet something similar has 
 lately reproduced itself in Plymouthism. While one 
 cannot fail to respect every effort at the restoration of
 
 OF SIX AFTER BAPTISM. 241 
 
 Pentecostal simplicity, and respect those who in view 
 of the salvation of their souls withdraw themselves 
 from the world into a stricter community, it must be 
 recollected that many of the heresies of the early 
 Church sprang from an attempt to be stricter than 
 the Church of God. Montanism, Novatianism, and 
 Donatism, are special instances of this, and therefore 
 the same laws which guided the Church in her treat- 
 ment of these errors apply now. No doubt the best 
 confutation of such errors lies in orthodox Christians 
 leading daily stricter lives, for the cause of the uprise 
 of these errors is the laxity of the Church ; God scourg- 
 ing His own Elect by those exaggerations of sup- 
 pressed truth and neglected practices, which constitute 
 the peculiarity of such sectaries as we describe. 
 
 The rise of Plymouthism may be traced 1. to the 
 worldly lives of those who profess the doctrines of 
 the Church, and 2. to the neglect of preaching the 
 Counsels of Perfection. Did a more simple and cha- 
 ritable habit of life prevail, we should not have those 
 attempts at Communism and equality, which must be 
 bad for master, and worse for servant ; neither should 
 we have such a condition of mind as is implied by such 
 propositions as the following : 
 
 1. All that are sanctified are so perfect, that there is 
 no room for confession of sin. 
 
 2. Because we are saved by faith and by grace, 
 a pure and holy life is not necessary that we should 
 attain to glory. 
 
 3. Because our Lord has delivered us by His Hesur-
 
 242 ARTICLE XVI. 
 
 rection, therefore we ought not to pray for deliverance 
 from His wrath. Because the believer has passed from 
 cleath unto life, we ought no longer to pray for de- 
 liverance in the hour of death and at the day of 
 judgment. 
 
 4. Because peace is the essential privilege of the 
 believer, it is superfluous to pray for peace ; because 
 we are saved, it is wrong to ask God to make speed to 
 save us ; because God hath made such meet to be par- 
 takers of the inheritance of the saints in light, we may 
 not pray in the language of the Te Dcit-m " make them 
 to be numbered with Thy saints." 
 
 5. For that God hath granted unto the Gentiles 
 repentance unto life, we ought not to pray for re- 
 pentance. 
 
 6. All prayer for the Holy Spirit is superfluous, be- 
 cause already given. 
 
 All these propositions spring from the confusion of 
 thought which mixes up the Objective with the Sub- 
 jective in the work of man's salvation. God on His 
 part, by the manifestation of His dear Son, has sup- 
 plied a satisfaction, superabundant enough to take 
 away the sins of ten thousand worlds. Nothing is 
 wanting to that entire and complete redemption. 
 Hereby the hopes of glory are held forth to every 
 child of Adam. Jesus is our only Hope, our only 
 Refuge, our Treasure, our End, our All. But now 
 comes another thought. We are free agents, free to 
 choose evil and good, under certain limitation. Life 
 is a trial, in which they only shall be crowned who
 
 OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 243 
 
 strive. All will not be saved, though our Lord died 
 for all. All may be saved, because our Lord died for 
 all. It depends upon the way in which we respond to 
 the grace of God, whether we be saved or not. God 
 gives sufficient grace to all, but grace does not obli- 
 terate free-will, rather it strengthens and elevates it. 
 To answer then the six propositions, one must say, 
 
 1. That our Lord has indeed perfected those that are 
 sanctified, but sanctification is a progressive act, day 
 by day, through God's grace, increasing till we come to 
 the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the 
 fulness of Christ ; and the more we are sanctified, the 
 more humble we necessarily become; and the more 
 humble we become, the more we see ourselves as the 
 All Pure One sees us, the more in the spirit of lowli- 
 ness shall we be able to rejoice in saying in deed and 
 in truth that there is no health in us, and be thrown 
 more and more on the resources of prayer. 
 
 2. The descriptions of the awards of the last day 
 shew us that heaven is a reward, the reward of a holy 
 life. We cannot merit heaven without the grace of 
 God, but God crowns His own work within us with 
 the gift of Eternal Life. 
 
 3. The act of our Lord's Resurrection has delivered 
 us from the wrath to come, has caused our j ustification, 
 and has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers ; 
 but we must still pray for deliverance, for what God 
 lias predestinated to give to each of us, He hath willed 
 shall be obtained through the instrumentality of prayer 
 .and the Sacraments. Pity that poor soul, who, when
 
 ARTICLE XVI. 
 
 the death-sweat is on his brow, and the world failing 
 him, can find no comfort in a prayer for deliverance to 
 Him who alone is mighty to save. 
 
 4 and 5. This goes on the assumption that the be- 
 liever cannot forfeit peace. When one sees the faults 
 of the best around us, faults that in the sight of God 
 are grievous sins, one is amazed that any frame of 
 mind can exist, in which daily repentance is not exer- 
 cised, daily restoration of the measure of grace lost by 
 frailties, not implored. 
 
 6. This is the most marvellous of all the logical re- 
 sults of the system. If there be diversities of gifts r 
 but the same spirit, if there be no possible condition 
 of the spiritual man from the first groan of attrition to 
 the most extatic realization of the Presence of God, 
 which is not caused, and may not be increased, by 
 God the Holy Ghost, to pray for His charismata, and 
 to His Person, is the duty of every Christian at all 
 times. It is the error of the sect that the state of 
 grace cannot bo increased, being perfect. Alas ! what 
 is the best perfection of man when measured and 
 weighed by the standard of Him who charges the 
 angels with folly !
 
 ARTICLE XVII. 
 DE PR.EDESTINATIONE ET ELECTION E. 
 
 PR&DESTIXATIO ad vitam, cst cetermun Dei proposituin, 
 quo ante jacta mundi fundamenta, suo consilio, nobix 
 quidem occult o, comtanter decrcvif, cos quos in C/iristo 
 clcyit ex hominum gene re, a maledicto et cxitio liberarc, 
 atque (tit mm in honorcm cffictd] per Christum ad 
 (Etcrnam salutcm adducere. U-nde qui fain pr&daro Dei 
 bcncfaio snnt donati, illi spiritu ej'iis opportune tempore 
 operantc, sccnndum proposition ejus vocantur, rocationi 
 per rjratiam parent, jiistificantur gratis, adoptantur in 
 fiUos Deiy umyemti ejus filil Jem Christi imagini effici- 
 untur con for ines, in bonis opcribiis sancte ambulant, et 
 demnni ex Dei nmcricordift pertingunt ad sempiternam 
 feUeitatcm. 
 
 Quemadmodum prcedestinationix et ekctionis nostra in 
 C/iristopia consideratio, dukin, suaris, ct incffabilis con- 
 soldtionis plena est, vere piis, et his qui sentiunt in se vim 
 Spiritns Chridi, facia carnis, ct membra, qua adhuc 
 sunt super terrain, mortijicantem, animumque ad cadettia, 
 et superna rapicntem ; turn quia fidem nostram de tsterna 
 salute conscquenda per Christum plurimum stabilit atque 
 confirmaf, turn quia amorem nostrum in Deum, fc/tc- 
 menter aeecndit : Ita hoininibus curio-vis, earnalibus, et 
 Spiritu, Christi dcstitutis, ob oculos perpctuo rcrsari 
 prtcdcstinationis Dei sententiam, perniciosissimitm cst 
 pr&cipitium wide illos diabolus protrudit, vel in dcspc- 
 rationem, vel in cequc pcrnicma/n impiirisfsimce ritte
 
 246 ARTICLE XVII. 
 
 sccitfitatcm. Delude promissiones divinas xic 
 oporM, ut nobis in sacris titeris yeneraliter propo*it- 
 Muit, et Dei ro/untas in nostris actionibus ea xequenda 
 cst, quam in rerbo Dei habemus disertc rerclatatn. 
 
 " Of Predestination and Election. 
 
 " PREDESTINATION to life is the everlasting purpose 
 of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world 
 were laid) He hath constantly decreed by His counsel, 
 secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those 
 whom He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and 
 to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as 
 vessels made to honour. Wherefore they which be en- 
 dued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called, ac- 
 cording to God's purpose, by His Spirit working in due 
 season: they through grace obey the calling: they be 
 justified freely : they be made sons of God by adoption : 
 they be made like the image of His only-begotten Sou, 
 Jesus Christ : they walk religiously in good works, and 
 at length, by God's mercy, they attain to everlasting 
 felicity. 
 
 " As the godly consideration of predestination, and 
 our election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and 
 unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel 
 in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mor- 
 tifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly mem- 
 bers, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly 
 things, as well because it doth greatly establish and 
 confirm their faith of eternal salvation, to be enjoyed 
 through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle 
 their love towards God : so, for curious and carnal per-
 
 OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 24? 
 
 sons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually 
 before their eyes the sentence of God's predestination, 
 is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth 
 
 
 
 thrust them either into desperation, or into wretch- 
 lessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than 
 desperation. 
 
 " Furthermore, we must receive God's promises in 
 such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy 
 Scripture. And in our doings, that will of God is to 
 be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us 
 in the Word of God." 
 
 THE educated thought of the nineteenth century, 
 with some notable exceptions, is content to recognise 
 the existence of the truths of the perfect knowledge 
 and power of God on the one hand, and of the freedom 
 of the human will on the other, and to sit down con- 
 tentedly under the utter impossibility of reconciling 
 them. 
 
 "La contiugcnza, die fuor del quaderno 
 Delia vostra materia non si stentle, 
 Tutta c depinta nel cospetto etemo. 
 Necessita, pero quindi non prc-nde 
 Sc non come dal viso, iu die si speechia 
 Nave, die per torrcnte giu discende"." 
 
 The question is now taken out of the region of pure 
 intellect, and relegated into that of morals; iu other 
 words, the truths are looked upon now only in a prac- 
 tical point of view. How do their co-existence and 
 
 * Par. xvii. 10.
 
 '248 ARTICLE XVII. 
 
 mutual modification tell upon the life? Does a dis- 
 proportionate estimate of the first of these factors deny 
 or cripple the notion of human exertion? Does the 
 undue influence of the second, destroy that abiding 
 rest in the Creator, which is one of the first principles 
 of nature and of revealed religion ? 
 
 But it was not so at the time of the Reformation. 
 Both the good side and the bad side of that event 
 tended to throw the thoughts of men disproportionately 
 on the Divine side of the work in man's salvation. If 
 the great gain of the Reformation was that men were 
 won from an undue trust in the external practices of 
 religion, from the belief that doing certain acts, in them- 
 selves would secure man's salvation ; it was natural that 
 in reaction men should throw themselves exclusively on 
 the thought of God's work in them, to the exclusion of 
 all co-operation of man. On the other hand, if the loss 
 at the Reformation, especially on the Continent, was 
 the faith in the Church as an institution, as the one 
 ordinary channel of God's grace, as the appointed 
 harbour of souls, it followed that a new law of mercy 
 must be found, a new theory of salvation, and that was 
 sought in a theory of absolute predestination. 
 
 A reasoning on the nature and attributes of God, 
 certain texts of St. Paul, and the great authority of 
 St. Augustine in the Western Church, combined to fami- 
 liarize men's minds with the thought of a certain pre- 
 destination in the Divine mind, whereby those are set 
 free who are set free. It was God's will that all men 
 should be saved ; yet all, as a matter of fact, are not
 
 OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 24.0 
 
 saved. How was such a state of things as this to be 
 accounted for ? 
 
 The question was answered diversely. One school 
 held that there could be no limitation to the power of 
 God, that whatever He willed He must will effica- 
 ciously, and therefore, seeing that all men are not 
 saved, it could not be His purpose that all men should 
 bo saved. The other school held that God willed that 
 all men should be saved, but leaving man's will in 
 some sense free to choose good or evil, his final salva- 
 tion was the reward of those good deeds which God 
 predestined him to do. 
 
 "The Church," says M6hler b , speaking of the en- 
 ticing field opened to human speculation on the subject 
 of predestination, " has deemed it her duty to set certain 
 limitations to this spirit. For God can be exhibited 
 in such wise over-a gainst man as to make him entirely 
 disappear ; or man again may be conceived in such 
 a position relating to God, as to subvert the notion of 
 the Almighty as the dispenser of grace. According to 
 the first view, God appears also to act with a cruel 
 caprice, which cannot be conceived by man : according 
 to the second, so to be ruled by the caprice of man, 
 that He ceases to be He who is, and through whom all 
 goodness flows. Accordingly the Catholic Church alike 
 rejects an overruling of God on the part of man, to 
 impart sanctifying and saving grace ; and an over- 
 ruling of man, on the part of God, to compel the 
 former to become this or that. On the contrary, she 
 
 b Symbolism, vol. i. p. 137.
 
 250 ARTICLE XVII. 
 
 teaches, in the former case, that Divine grace is un- 
 merited ; in the latter, that it is offered to all men, 
 their condemnation depending on the free rejection 
 of redeeming aid." 
 
 Calvin expresses himself thus : " We assert that by 
 an eternal and unchangeable decree God hath deter- 
 mined whom He shall one day permit to have a share 
 in eternal felicity, and whom He shall doom to destruc- 
 tion. In respect of the elect, the decree is founded in 
 His unmerited mercv, without anv regard to human 
 
 w * / O 
 
 worthiness : but those whom He delivers up to dam- 
 nation, are by a just and irreprehensible judgment ex- 
 cluded from all access to eternal life." " It is scarcely 
 credible to what truly blasphemous shifts Calvin re- 
 sorts in order to impart to his doctrine an air of so- 
 lidity, and to secure it against objections. As faith is 
 by him considered a gift of the Divine mercy, and yet, 
 as he is unable to deny, that many are represented 
 in the Gospel to be believers, in whom Christ found 
 no earnestness and no perseverance, and whom conse- 
 quently He did not recognise to be the elect, Calvin 
 asserts that God intentionally produced within them an 
 apparent faith ; that He insinuated Himself into the 
 souls of the reprobate, in order to render them less ex- 
 cusable . Instead of acknowledging in the above facts 
 the readiness of the Almighty to confer His grace on 
 all who only wish it, he explains them by the suppo- 
 sition of intentional deceit, which he lays to the charge 
 of the Almight}'. Equally strange is the reason assigned 
 
 c Instit., lib. iii. c. 2. n. 11.
 
 OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION 251 
 
 for the doctrine of predestination. That God wishes 
 to manifest His mercy towards the elect, His justice 
 towards the condemned ; as if the two Divine qualities 
 were separated from each other, and mutually ignored 
 each other. God will be at once just and merciful to all 
 without exception ; not just merely to these, and mer- 
 ciful only to those, as pi'ejudiced judges in this world 
 are wont to be. We must also bear in mind that even 
 the notion of justice, considered in itself, cannot be up- 
 held where no fault exists ; and no fault can be charged 
 to the reprobate, if without possessing the use of free- 
 dom they are condemned from all eternity. Equally 
 baseless would be the notion of mercy, as it has neces- 
 sarily for its object sinners \yho, by free determination 
 of their own will, and accordingly not by extraneous 
 compulsion, have transgressed the Divine moral law, 
 in order thereupon to receive pardon ; for in this case 
 the whole process would be a mere absurd farce a ." 
 
 Now the moderation and cautiousness of the Article 
 is a remarkable contrast to this language 4 ". As a matter 
 of history we know that the Article never contented 
 the Puritans. The very fact of the attempt to ingraft 
 the Lambeth Articles in the present code, during the 
 time of the dominance of the Calvinistic party at the 
 
 d Mohler, Symb., vol. i. p. 1 10. 
 
 e The very history of the process of the construction of the present 
 Article is significant. In the earlier Articles of Edward VI. we find 
 the formula, "licet prtcdestinatioms decreta sint nobis ignota;" and 
 in the curious documents preserved in C.C.C., Cambridge, and published 
 by Dr. Lamb, \ve find these words, as they occur in the latter part of 
 the draft copy of the Article, actually erased by the minium pencil 
 of Matthew Parker.
 
 252 ARTICLE XVII. 
 
 beginning of the seventeenth century, is a proof of this. 
 In fact, the Article is Augustinian, and not Calvinistic. 
 In treating of this tremendous mystery, the Article 
 keeps itself closely to the word of Scripture. It first 
 states the fact of a predestination in the divine mind, 
 very much in the language of St. Paul: "According as 
 He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the 
 world, that we may be holy and without blame before 
 Him in love : having predestinated us unto the adop- 
 tion by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good 
 pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His 
 grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the be- 
 loved f ." It then goes on, still in Biblical language, to 
 describe the processes which attend on this predesti- 
 nation: 1. vocation, 2. obedience to vocation through 
 grace, 3. free justification, 4. sonship by adoption, 
 5. conformity to the image of our Lord, 0. a religious 
 life, and 7. finally eternal felicity. " For whom He did 
 foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to 
 the image of His Son, that He might be the First-born 
 among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did pre- 
 destinate, them He also called : and whom He called, 
 them He also justified: and whom He justified, them 
 He also glorified s ." Having done its duty to Biblical 
 truth by stating almost in its own words the doctrine 
 and its way of working, the Article goes on through 
 the rest of its clauses to guard men against its abuse. 
 While all God's truth, and this among others, tends to 
 comfort, there is the double danger of desperation and 
 f Eph. 5. 4. s Rom. vlii. 29.
 
 OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 253 
 
 recklessness, to be guarded against in the case of bad 
 men. As a matter of fact, we know that, at the time of 
 the Reformation, when men's minds ran in an undue 
 degree upon these abstract subjects, these two op- 
 posite results actually did occur ; and the immoral con- 
 dition of the peasantry in Scotland, where notions of 
 predestination are nmch exaggerated, may be adduced 
 in confirmation of the necessity of the caution expressed 
 in the Article. The Article concludes with two canons 
 of interpretation of Holy "Writ, also with a view to cor- 
 recting the abuses of this mystery ; 1. that God's pro- 
 mises are to be received gcncraliter, that is, as applying 
 to all h ; and 2. the will of God that is expressly de- 
 clared in Holy Scripture is to be followed: and that 
 will is " that all men should be saved, and come unto 
 the knowledge of the truth 1 ;" "that the Gospel should 
 be preached to every creature V "that God sent His 
 Son, that the world through Him might be saved k ;" 
 and "that all who are weary and heavy laden, should 
 come to the Lord Christ for rest l ." 
 
 " Predestiuazion, quanto remota 
 E la radice tua de qucgli aspetti : 
 
 Che la prima cagion non veggion tota ! 
 E voi, mortal!, tenetevi strctti 
 A guidicar : che noi, che Dio vedemo, 
 
 Ison conosciam aneor tutti gli Eletti : 
 
 h Sec Church Catechism, "generally necessary;" also in the au- 
 thorized Version, 2 Sam. xvii. 11, ami Jer. xlvii. 48. 
 
 1 1 Tim. ii. 4. 5 St. Mark xvi. 15. 
 
 k St. John iii. 17. St. Matt. xi. 28.
 
 254 ARTICLE XVII. 
 
 Et enne dolce cosi fatto sccmo, 
 Pcrche '1 ben nostro in qucsto ben s'affina 
 Che quel, che vuolc Dio e noi volemo." 
 
 In order to avoid inconsistency, no interpretation of 
 this Article can be the right one which is at variance 
 with the statements in Article XXXI., " that the offer- 
 ing of Christ is that perfect redemption, propitiation, 
 and satisfaction for all sins of the icholc. icoi'ld, both 
 original and actual ;" and in Article Y., " that eternal 
 life is offered to mankind in Christ ;" and in Article XI., 
 " that Christ is the Lamb who, by the sacrifice of Him- 
 self, should take away the sins of the irorhl." We are 
 therefore compelled to reconcile what is here said of 
 predestination with the truth taught elsewhere of the 
 universality of the effect of the death of Christ. Hence 
 the Calvinistic notion, which confines the benefit of our 
 Lord's death to certain individuals, is not the right 
 interpretation of the Article. God's predestination is 
 bestowed on every baptized Christian. " It is the 
 good will of our heavenly Father declared towards" 
 each such baptized. The fact of God bringing men 
 to baptism is synonymous with His choosing them in 
 Christ out of mankind with his calling them ac- 
 cording to His purpose by His special working in 
 due season. In baptism they become " His own chil- 
 dren by adoption," in the very words of the Article. 
 Thus God's predestination is in one sense His pledge 
 
 m The Church prays for the child about to be baptized, that it may 
 -ever " remain in the number of " His " faithful and elect children." 
 (Public Baptism of Infants.)
 
 OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 255 
 
 of the gift of sufficient grace, and so the considera- 
 tion of such a predestination is full of most pleasant 
 and unspeakable comfort to those who are conscien- 
 tiously using that grace. It says, in exact opposition 
 to Calvinism, that God will not act in a tyrannical, 
 arbitrary way, but according to His mingled justice 
 and mercy ; that we may comfort ourselves in the 
 thought of His predestination for us, His preparation 
 of good things in store for us, with full assurance 
 and trust, only never leaving out of sight, that, as 
 a result of our free-will, we may make vain all that 
 He has put in our power. 
 
 And so with regard to the salvation of others, we 
 are not called on to judge any. " God's ways are not 
 as our ways," and " many shall come from the East 
 and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, 
 and Isaac, and Jacob ; and the children of the king- 
 dom shall be shut out." 
 
 Of the practical effect of Calvinism, it remains for 
 me to speak ; its power as a dominant idea cannot 
 be gain saved. If the value of a religion be the mea- 
 sure of assurance which it can bestow, we have here 
 that assurance held out to us in its most positive form. 
 According to the Westminster Confession, man, by 
 the hearing of preaching, receives the soul-saving 
 faith, that he from all eternity is one of the elect; 
 and that God will impute to him, as if himself had 
 rendered it, the obedience of Christ. This unfading 
 assurance of salvation is never lost, though transitory 
 doubts and obscurities may for a time arise. He
 
 256 ARTICLE XVII. 
 
 believes that he is under the power of irresistible 
 grace, the consistent result of which is, that, where- 
 insoever he fails, it is God's fault, not his. If he sin, 
 he is still one of the elect, and irrevocably in a state of 
 grace, just as happened to David. By such sins the 
 certainty of salvation may be shaken and obscured, 
 but the life of faith and seed of God is never entirely 
 lost to the believer. Man being the passive instru- 
 ment of God's will, the measure of which is the free 
 agency of man, whereby he admits it, a very deep 
 sense of the awful sinfulness of sin, and its terrible con- 
 sequences, in itself, comes necessarily to be weakened. 
 
 Again, it tends to destroy all belief in Sacramental 
 Grace. Without pushing the doctrine to its fatalistic 
 consequences, which would destroy belief in all grace 
 whatsoever save itself, this teaching, though held in- 
 consistently together with other truths, tends to hurt 
 the belief in the Sacraments ; for with it there is no 
 place for Sacraments in the divine order of the Church. 
 A Calvinist cannot look upon Baptism as of any vital 
 importance, if man's salvation depends on an irrespective 
 election ; for he will not grant that grace reaches any 
 but the elect, and as all are not elect, there are many 
 who are baptized who never receive grace. Grace 
 may be given, but, according to this view, grace is 
 not necessarily linked to the Sacrament, even when 
 (as in the case of infants) there can be no hindrance 
 to the reception of that grace on the part of the 
 receiver. If there is an inner circle of election within 
 the great body of the baptized, baptism can be of no
 
 OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 257 
 
 real value, and its continued use is illogical, continued 
 merely out of deference to the letter of Scripture, 
 and to an instinct of piety, which corrects the logic 
 of the mind. 
 
 So with regard to the Blessed Eucharist. A belief 
 in a real Presence of Christ cannot co-exist with 
 a theory of irrespective predestination, and of its con- 
 sequence, irresistible grace. For if the Body and 
 Blood of Christ, and the grace of Christ therewith, 
 were given through the Sacraments, then since grace, 
 according to them, is irresistible, it would necessarily 
 overpower all who received the Sacrament ; which is 
 patently contrary to what Holy Scripture says of 
 those who " eat and drink damnation to themselves," 
 and to what we cannot fail to see with our own eyes 
 in the case of careless and indevout receivers. The 
 presence of Christ must then, according to them, not 
 be in the Sacrament, but in the believing recipient, 
 and that, in a way not peculiar to the Sacrament, nor 
 in any way higher than that, in which any devout 
 Christian may at any time, mentally and spiritually 
 feed on Christ. As it is only to the elect that the 
 Divine gift is imparted, and the rest are passed over 
 by God, so grace must by no means be connected with 
 the visible sign.
 
 ARTICLE XVIII. 
 
 E SPERANDA STERNA SALUTE TANTUM. IN 
 
 NOMINE CHRISTI. 
 
 et illi anathonatiztindi, qiri dicere audcnt itniun- 
 quemque in lege aut scda quam profitctur esse scrran- 
 diini, modo juxta illam, et lumen natures accurate ti.c- 
 erit, cum sacrce literee tantum Jem Christi nomen pra- 
 tficciit, in quo salvos fieri homines oporteat. 
 
 " Of obtaining eternal SalcaUon onl// by the 
 of Christ. 
 
 " THEY also are to be had accursed, that presume to 
 say, that every man shall be saved by the law or sect 
 which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his 
 life according to that law, and the light of nature. 
 For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name 
 of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved." 
 
 THE provisional attitude of the Church of England 
 is exhibited in the remarkable fact that she has gene- 
 rally avoided enforcing her teachings under the penalty 
 of anathema. Unlike the general and provincial Coun- 
 cils, which, not content with defining the truth, have 
 guarded that truth by anathema, in which anathema 
 Jies the essence of what is to be guarded against, and
 
 OF OBTAINING ETERNAL SALVATION, &C. 259 
 
 per contra, what is to be believed, the Church of Eng- 
 land has in the main been contented with stating her 
 convictions, insisting on subscription to them as a con- 
 dition of ministering at her altars, but has not gone so 
 far as to brand the non-reception of her teaching with 
 spiritual denunciations. If the conjecture is right that 
 in 1562 the door of reconciliation was purposely left 
 ajar, the wisdom and charity of such a course as this 
 is evident. To have to retract anything is difficult 
 for man or Church ; to explain is what the most sensi- 
 tive conscience can condescend to. Besides, in avoiding 
 anathematisms, a fertile source of irritation is obviously 
 avoided. We are not disposed to be conciliatory to 
 those who have expressed themselves in the sense that 
 our errors peril our immortal welfare. 
 
 But there is one remarkable exception to this mo- 
 deration, and it is that which is the subject of the 
 present Article. The Church of England anathema- 
 tizes one error, one spiritual sin, the sin of latitudi- 
 iiarianism; and this, because the latitudinarian spirit 
 finds its logical basis in the abnegation of all objective 
 truth whatsoever. Latitudinarianisni is not a tender 
 judgment of the motives of others. It is not a dis- 
 position to find excuses, as from the imperfect demon- 
 stration of the truth to individuals, inveterate preju- 
 dice, peculiarities of intellectual training, or the like, 
 with which it regards the erring. It is the principle 
 that nothing is so certain in religion that it need be 
 insisted on ; that one view is as good as another view ; 
 ihat it does not much matter what people believe, if
 
 260 ARTICLE XVIII. 
 
 their morals be good ; in short, that there are no truths 
 for which a man ought to be prepared to die, no re- 
 vealed will of God, to deflect from which, is ruin to 
 the spiritual nature. In. the presence of latitudi- 
 narianism, Church authoritj r obviously disappears, 
 Creeds are necessarily mistakes, Holy Scripture be- 
 comes an instrument on which one may play any 
 tune, certainty as to religion vanishes. 
 
 Latitudinarianism is the logical consequence of the 
 denial of a Divine authority, lodged in the Church, 
 although many by a happy inconsistency, who have 
 denied that authority, have stopped short of this con- 
 sequence. There have ever been bigotry and persecu- 
 tion on the part of those whose position made bigotry 
 absurd, and persecution a sin. When once the di- 
 vine authority of the Church is given up, there is no 
 reasonable alternative but the human authority of the 
 individual. It may be sought to uphold conclusively 
 another divine authority, that of the Holy Scriptures, 
 a process which actually took place, but experience 
 has shewn that this also resolves itself into the judg- 
 ment of the individual ; the Holy Word of God, as 
 a fact, having been differently understood, so that " pri- 
 vate judgment" appeals, in fact, to the individual's, 
 enlightened or unenlightened, interpretation of that 
 word. 
 
 Closely connected with this, one must consider the 
 cognate question of the practice of the Christian Church 
 to enforce certain truths under pain of anathema. The 
 popular English form of this question exhibits itself
 
 OF OBTAINING ETERNAL SALVATION, &C. 261 
 
 in the defence or reprobation of the damnatory clauses 
 in the Athanasian Creed. It is said, " Why impose 
 a complex formula on the most recondite subjects upon 
 the conscience under so tremendous a censure?" In 
 answer it must be said first of all, that here is no ques- 
 tion of those who never heard the name of Christ, nor 
 of those who have not had the truth persuasively and 
 intellectually placed before them, but of those who, 
 having the dogmas of religion plainly and explicitly 
 taught to them, do perversely set up their judgments 
 against the teaching of God's holy truth, and delibe- 
 rately reject those truths, on the mental acceptance of 
 which our blessed Lord and His Apostles made salva- 
 tion, in one sense, to depend. And that such is the case, 
 must be admitted by all who confess the authenticity 
 of the last chapter of St. Mark's Gospel : " He that be- 
 lieveth and is baptized shall be saved ; he that believeth 
 not shall be damned." In principle the Athanasian 
 Creed says no more nor no less than this. 
 
 The Article then asserts that, in order to attain to 
 everlasting life, it is not sufficient for a man to follow 
 the dictates of his natural conscience. Not only is it 
 asserted that man cannot be saved by the sect or law he 
 professeth, i.e. that there is no objective grace in such 
 law or sect : but it makes the further assertion that the 
 strictest obedience to such a law, though it may obtain 
 temporal rewards, will not affect eternal life : for this 
 reason, that there are certain supernatural gifts which 
 are linked to the manifestation of the Son of God in the 
 flesh. In rigorous justice man has no right as against
 
 262 ARTICLE XVIII. 
 
 God ; therefore he has no right to everlasting life a - 
 Everlasting life is a free gift to man on the part of 
 God, and He has willed that that gift shall stand con- 
 nected in the way of cause and effect with the economy 
 of grace. One of the ends of the Incarnation was to 
 open the way to heaven ; our access to God is through 
 Christ ; and conversely there is no access to God save 
 through Him. The power of His Passion may extend 
 to many who never heard His Name. We have no 
 right to limit the extent of His works, but it must be 
 laid down as a fundamental truth, that whatever grace 
 here or glory hereafter is held forth to sinful man, is 
 held forth in virtue of the merits of the God-man 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Article here rises into fervour as it dwells upon 
 the gracious Name of our Saviour, that Name which is 
 as unguent poured out, which whosoever seeketh shall 
 be saved. " He Himself said, ' Except a grain of wheat 
 fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it 
 die it bringeth forth much fruit.' Let the grain die, 
 and let the corn of the Gentiles spring up. 'It be- 
 hoved Christ to die and to rise from the dead, and that 
 repentance and remission of sins should be preached in 
 His Name/ not only in Judea but among all people, 
 so that from that one Man, which is Christ, thousands 
 and thousands of believers should be called Christians, 
 and should say, ' Thy Name is as unguent poured out.' 
 O Blessed Name ! unguent everywhere poured out ! 
 And whither ? From Heaven to Judea, and thence it 
 
 Vide supra, p. 198.
 
 OF OBTAINING ETERNAL SALVATION, &C. 263 
 
 flows through all the earth, and the Church everywhere 
 says, ' Thy name is as unguent poured out/ not only in 
 Heaven and Earth but even in Hell, for ' at the name- 
 of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in Heaven and 
 things in earth, and things under the earth,' and every 
 tongue confess, and say, 'Thy Name is as unguent 
 poured out/ Behold Christ ! behold Jesus ! Both 
 poured out upon Jingels, both poured out upon men,, 
 and upon those men who, like the brutes, were denied 
 in their own vileness, God ' saving both man and beast/ 
 'for His mercy endureth for ever.' How dear! how 
 cheap ! cheap, but health-giving ! were it not cheap, it 
 would not be poured out for me ; if it were not health- 
 giving, it would benefit me nothing. I am a sharer in 
 the Name, yea, of the inheritance. I am a Christian 
 I am the brother of Christ. If I am what I am called, 
 I am the heir of God and the joint-heir with Christ. 
 And what wonder if the Name of the Bridegroom is 
 poured out, when He Himself is poured out, ' For He 
 humbled Himself, taking upon Himself the form of 
 a servant/ and at last He says, ' I am poured out like 
 water/ The fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily 
 upon earth is poured out, that all we who bear about 
 with us 'the body of this death' should receive of His 
 fulness, and, filled with the odour of life, should say, 
 * Thy name is as unguent poured out V ' 
 
 b St. Bernard in Cimt., Serin, xv. 4.
 
 ARTICLE XIX. 
 DE ECCLESIA. 
 
 ECCLESIA Chnsti visibilis est cactus fidcUum, in quo verlum 
 Dei pur um pradicatur, et sacramenta quoad ea qua 
 nccessario exigantur, juxta Christi institutum rede ad- 
 ministrantur. Sicut erravit Ecclesia Hierosolymitana, 
 Alcxandrina, et Antiochcna ; ita ct erravit Ecclesia llo- 
 mana, non sohirn quoad agenda, ct cceremoniantm rit/ix, 
 vcrum in Jm etiaiti qua credenda aunt. 
 
 "Of the Church. 
 
 " THE visible Church of Christ is a congregation of 
 faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is 
 preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered ac- 
 cording to Christ's ordinance, in all those things that 
 of necessity are requisite to the same. 
 
 " As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and An- 
 tioch have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, 
 not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but 
 also in matters of faith." 
 
 FROM the beginning, under the name of the Church, 
 many have understood, in its more restricted sense, the 
 reunion of those who, believing and professing the faith 
 of Jesus Christ, are members of the society established 
 by Him and in Him on earth, in view of salvation. In 
 its larger sense, it is the society of God's creatures who
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 265 
 
 have a share on earth in the effects of redemption, or 
 who in heaven have remained faithful to God. 
 
 This idea of the Church is expressed in Holy Scrip- 
 ture by figures setting forth its nature and destiny ; as 
 " the kingdom of God," " the city of God," " the house 
 of God ;" but the most sacred and mysterious concep- 
 tion is that of St. Paul, " the Body of Christ a ." 
 
 The first notion with regard to the Church is its 
 visibility. This is in accordance with the teaching of 
 the early Church. It is a light b , the city set upon 
 a hill c . It is the visible means whereby we attain to 
 Christ who is invisible d , whereby we keep His life in 
 ourselves, whose pattern we have no longer before 
 our eyes e . 
 
 " The ultimate reason of the visibility of the Church 
 is to be found in the Incarnation of the Divine Word. 
 Had that "Word descended into the hearts of men, 
 without taking the form of a servant, and accordingly 
 without appearing in a corporeal shape, then only 
 an internal invisible Church would have been esta- 
 blished. But since the Word became flesh, it expressed 
 itself in an outward perceptible and human manner. 
 It spoke as man to man, and suffered and worked after 
 the fashion of men, in order to win them to the king- 
 dom of God, so that the means selected for the attain- 
 
 a Klee, Histoire des Dogmes Chretiens, i. 76. b S. Iren. v. 
 
 20. 11. 1. S. Cypr. de Unit. c S. Chrys. in Jes. Horn. ii. n. 3 ; 
 
 S. Aug. Unit., c. xvi. n. 40 ; Cont. Lift. Petiliani, ii. 104. n. 239. 
 u S. Aug. Serin. 238. 3. e Aug. de Fide Rer. qua: non mdentur, 
 
 c. iv. n. 7. Klee, Hist, des Dogmes Chretiens, vol. i. p. 94.
 
 266 ARTICLE XIX. 
 
 merit of this object fully corresponded to the general 
 method of instruction and education determined by the 
 nature and the wants of men. This decided the nature 
 of those means whereby the Son of God, even after He 
 had withdrawn Himself from the eyes of the world, 
 willed still to work in the world and for the world. 
 The Godhead in Christ having put forth its operations 
 under the ordinary way of humanity, the form also 
 in which His work was to be continued, was thereby 
 traced out. The preaching of His doctrine needed then 
 a visible human medium, and must be entrusted to 
 visible envoys, teaching and instructing after the 
 wonted method ; men must speak to men, in order to 
 convey to them the Word of God. And as in the world 
 nothing can attain to greatness but in society, so Christ 
 established a community; and His divine Word, His 
 living will, and the love emanating from Him, exerted 
 an internal uniting power upon His followers, so that 
 an impulse implanted by Him in the hearts of be- 
 lievers corresponded to His outward institution. And 
 thus a living, well-connected, visible association of 
 the faithful sprang up, whereof it might be said, 
 There they are, there is His Church, His institution, 
 wherein He continueth to live, His Spirit continueth 
 to work, and the Word uttered by Him eternally re- 
 sounds. Thus the visible Church, from the point of 
 view here taken, is the Son of God Himself, everlast- 
 ingly manifesting Himself among men in human form, 
 eternally renewing His youth, the permanent Incar- 
 nation of the same, as in Holy Writ the faithful, too,
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 267 
 
 are called the Body of Christ. Hence it is evident that 
 the Church, though composed of men, is yet not purely 
 human ; nay, as in Christ the Divinity and the Hu- 
 manity are clearly to be distinguished, although both 
 are bound in unity ; so is He in undivided entireness 
 perpetuated in the Church. The Church, His perma- 
 nent manifestation, is at once divine and human ; she- 
 is the union of both. He it is who, concealed under 
 earthly and human forms, works in the Church; and 
 therefore she has a divine and a human side, yet in 
 both undivided ; so that the divine cannot be sepa- 
 rated from the human, nor the human from the divine. 
 Hence these two sides change their predicates. If the 
 divine, the living Christ and His Spirit, constitute un- 
 doubtedly that which is infallible and eternally in- 
 errable in the Church, so also the human is inerrable 
 and infallible in the same way, because the divine with- 
 out the human has no existence for us ; yet the human 
 is not inerrable in itself, but only as the organ and 
 manifestation of the divine f ." 
 
 This leads us on to the next term in the definition : 
 'In the Church the pure "Word of God is preached, 
 and the Sacraments duly administered." 
 
 If Christ the eternal Truth hath built the Church ; 
 truth, transformed by the Spirit into love, is become 
 living among men. The Divine truth, embodied in 
 Jesus Christ, must thereby be bodied forth in an out- 
 ward and living phenomenon, and become a deciding 
 authority if it is to seize deeply on the whole man,. 
 f Moliler, Symlolik, vol. ii. p. 7.
 
 268 ARTICLE XIX. 
 
 and put an end to pagan scepticism, that sinful un- 
 certainty of the mind, which stands on as low a grade 
 as ignorance s . It is, then, the duty of the Church to 
 preach the pure "Word of God j to communicate, on the 
 authority of God, those truths with regard to the nature 
 of God and the destinies of creation which He has re- 
 vealed ; to impress upon the intellects of men the true 
 doctrine of Christ, by oral instruction, by the develop- 
 ment of a school of theology, by symbolical and sug- 
 gestive rites, by catechetical instruction, by preserving 
 and interpreting Holy Writ. Its emphatic office, so 
 far as regards the intellects of men, is to impress upon 
 the minds of men an abiding conviction of certain 
 truths ; which truths not merely Uad to a holy life 
 here and to salvation hereafter, but of which the 
 mental acceptance is itself a part of the integral 
 Christian life, one phase of that supernatural life 
 which, begun in this life, receives its fulness in the 
 eternal world. Thus one department of the Church is 
 to be the Ecclesia docens. To the hierarchy, as dis- 
 tinguished from the great body of Christians, is com- 
 mitted the duty of handing down and communicating 
 these truths, not merely as spiritual nourishment to 
 those within the fold but also to those without, to 
 heathens and strangers, that they may be brought to 
 share in the supernatural blessings which attach them- 
 selves to this blessed yvwais. 
 
 But this is not all. When we come to consider the 
 question of the Sacraments, we shall see that these are 
 
 e Mohler, vol. ii. p. 12, 15.
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 269 
 
 the channels whereby the virtue that proceeds from 
 Christ our Head flows into His Body in general, that is, 
 the Church Catholic, and into us the members in par- 
 ticular. From all antiquity the custody of the Sacra- 
 ments has always been attributed to the Church ; in 
 fact, they are among other things tesserae of membership 
 with her. And, given this custody, it is the duty of 
 the Church to administer them. Next to the teach- 
 ing office of the Church comes the ministerial : next 
 to the appeal to the intellect and heart comes the ap- 
 peal to the purely spiritual part of the nature, and 
 this is made by the Sacraments. A Sacrament does 
 not appeal to the intellect. It does not move the soul 
 by any intellectual consideration. It only per accident 
 touches the heart. It works solely by virtue of the 
 institution of Christ. It derives its power from Him, 
 nay, in a primary sense He Himself operates in all the 
 Sacraments as the High-Priest of the new law, using 
 the earthly minister as the organ only. 
 
 But the Sacraments are so far influenced by the 
 elements of the world that they have their proper mat- 
 ter and form ; that is, there are certain conditions that 
 must be observed, very simple ones indeed, but still 
 definite, which go to give validity to each ordinance. 
 Therefore the Article makes it a note of the Church 
 that in it the Sacraments are duly administered accord- 
 ing to Christ's ordinance ; that all the necessary con- 
 ditions to a valid Sacrament are observed. Thus there 
 is no true baptism without the water and certain words ; 
 the water alone, or the words alone, are not sufficient :
 
 270 ARTICLE XIX. 
 
 moreover, only certain definite words may be used with 
 profit and effect. So, to a valid consecration of the 
 Holy Eucharist, in addition to a definite matter, that 
 is, bread and wine, and a definite form of words, there 
 must be the action of a priest, episcopally ordained, 
 else the Body of Christ is not consecrated (conficitur). 
 
 " As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and An- 
 tioch have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath 
 erred, not only in t/ich" living and manner of ceremo- 
 nies, but also in matters of faith." 
 
 The emphatic word here is tlicir^. It refers to the 
 human side of the Church, or rather to the individuals 
 in the Church who do not live up to the graces be- 
 stowed on them. " The Church as the institution of 
 Christ hath never erred, hath never become wicked, 
 and never loses its energy ; which it ever preserves, 
 although the proof may not always be so obvious to 
 the eyes. To exhibit the kingdom of God upon earth, 
 and also to train mankind for the same, she has to 
 deal with men who were all born sinners, and were 
 taken from a more or less corrupt mass. Thus she 
 can never work outside of the sphere of e:)'l; nay, 
 her destination requii'es her to enter into the midst of 
 evil, and to put her renovating power continually to 
 the test \" 
 
 Individuals will never "in their living" come up to 
 the perfect ideal, and the moral taint will tell upon tho 
 belief. It will affect the acceptance by the intellect 
 
 h It is not in the Latin version, and therefore must have been put into 
 the English with a purpose. ' Mohler, vol. ii. p. 29.
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 271 
 
 of those truths which belong to it, not to grasp, but 
 to yield a reverent submission to. Hence corruption 
 of life will always be correlative to corruption of doc- 
 trine, and in proportion as men fail to practise the 
 moral and practical parts of the Christian religion, in 
 that measure will they fail to apprehend those delicate 
 intuitions which are the fruits of a true faith. A man 
 who lives as though there were no retribution, though 
 he may in words acknowledge what the Creed says on 
 the subject, can, in only a most imperfect sense, be said 
 to believe it ; and still more will that be the case with 
 regard to the finer truths. Practical love to God will 
 alone enable a man really to believe in the Holy Ghost, 
 the love of the Father and of the Son ; and practical 
 righteousness and Christian wisdom, alone enable a man 
 to realize the righteousness and wisdom of God. 
 
 The Article is then directed against the practical 
 and doctrinal corruptions of " members" of the Churcli 
 of Rome, and these errors are declared to be similar to 
 the errors in the Churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, 
 and Antioch. Now by these terms we are not to under- 
 stand the Jacobite communities which devastate these 
 provinces with the miserable heresy of Eutyches. 
 These, having been cut off from the Church by the 
 Council of Chalcedon, which the Church of England 
 acknowledges, cannot by her be termed in any sense 
 the Churches of those countries. The errors in the 
 Church of Rome, therefore, are compared with any 
 errors of the orthodox and believing remnants that 
 have remained in the East testifying to the faith of
 
 272 
 
 ARTICLE XIX. 
 
 Jesus. Now, not only has the Church of England never 
 taken any formal step against the orthodox Eastern 
 Church, but it has always acknowledged the East as 
 a true branch of the Church of Christ, not without 
 many corruptions, the effects of ignorance, and practical 
 deformities, but still honourable and venerable in the 
 highest degree ; and therefore the censure here passed 
 upon the members of the Church of Rome must be 
 compatible with this view of the subject. In short, 
 such censure only is intended as was implied in the 
 general cry for reformation which prevailed all through 
 Europe at the time of the publication of the Articles, 
 and which the Council of Trent, partially indeed and 
 imperfectly, but still in a measure actually, tended to 
 correct. 
 
 Since no doctrine formerly received by all the Ortho- 
 dox Eastern Patriarchates can be pointed out, which 
 the Church of England can be held to have had in view 
 when it declared that those Patriarchates had erred, 
 then neither, by the force of the terms, is any doctrine 
 formerly received of the Latin Church intended, when 
 it says that the Church of Rome had erred. The two 
 clauses are strictly antithetical, and the same degree 
 of error must be meant in both. It may be that the 
 writers of the Article had in their minds tacitl}' to 
 protest against the infallibility of the Church of Home 
 by itself, or that the Church of Rome, as a particular 
 Church, and not as in harmony with the rest of the 
 Church Catholic, was liable to error, which is histori- 
 cally true, e.g. Eugenius IY. has got all ritual writers
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 273 
 
 into endless perplexities by his ignorant definitions of 
 the form and matter of the Sacraments k ; it may be, 
 that they meant to convey that corruptions had crept 
 into the Roman Church too, which required reforma- 
 tion. But neither statement lies in the words of the 
 Article. All which the Article states is an historical 
 fact as to the past. It says of the Church of Rome 
 that it has erred in time past; "hath erred;" as it 
 says of the other Patriarchates that they " hare erred." 
 The Article binds to nothing more than this fact. 
 Whatever lies beyond it must not be imported into 
 the Article, since it says nothing thereon. 
 
 " The boldness with which through Christendom, 
 and especially in Italy, censures were uttered against 
 the Papal Court, and the corruption that had crept into 
 the Church, is well worthy of attention. Dante and 
 Petrarch have spoken with virulence, but were neither 
 personally reproved, nor were their books prohibited. 
 The novels were full of witticisms and adventures at 
 the expense of the monks. Poggio describes the exe- 
 cution of Huss and Jerome of Pi-ague so as to excite 
 compassion toward them and hatred of Rome. His 
 shameless Facetiae, in which the manners of the Roman 
 Court and of its ecclesiastics are held up as laughing 
 stocks, were printed at Rome in 1467. Picus of Mi- 
 randula in the Lateran Council, declaimed against the 
 ambition, the avarice, and the immorality of the clergy 
 with a boldness never surpassed by any reformer l ." 
 
 k Cone. Labb., t. xviii. 1222 and 544. 
 1 Cantu, Storia d'ltalia, Eng. trans, p. 21. 
 
 T
 
 274 ARTICLE XIX. 
 
 " The spirit of Paganism had however penetrated 
 even the Pontifical Court. Men of genius found favour 
 there without regard to the use they made of their 
 talents. Bembo speaks of vows to the goddess of Fame, 
 of appeasing the manes of the subterranean gods. 
 Bembo and Ippolito d'Este, not only had sons but 
 openly acknowledged them. Leo X. accepted the de- 
 dication of a most indecent poem by Ariosto, and 
 caressed the base Aretini. Ulric Yon Hutten says 
 that those who came to Rome came away with three 
 things, a bad conscience, an impaired stomach, and 
 an empty purse : that three things were not believed in 
 Rome, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection 
 of the dead, and the existence of hell : that three things 
 were traded in, the grace of God, ecclesiastical dig- 
 nities, and women m ." 
 
 Thus the "living" of the members of the Church of 
 Rome was, unhappily, notoriously bad. If Florence was 
 the Athens, and Venice the Corinth of mediaeval Italy, 
 the imperial city and metropolis of the Church did 
 not escape the contaminating influences of the times. 
 Italy was at the head of the civilization and refinement 
 of Europe, and alas, of its wickedness. Macchiavelli 
 had destroyed its political morality. The secession to 
 Avignon, and the great schism, shook the confidence 
 of Europe in the Papal See. The Borgias and Pope 
 Julius w r ere strange vindicators of the spiritual king- 
 dom of Christ. The heathen movement, from Nicholas 
 V.'s time, when the Vatican Library was founded in 
 m Cantu, p. 27.
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 275 
 
 1447, and Laurentius Valla began that bright galaxy 
 of scholars, which culminated in the time of Leo X., 
 shocked the moral sense of the Church. Complica- 
 tions, caused by the union of the temporal and eccle- 
 siastical powers, such as certain sanitary arrangements 
 in which the moral health of the community was sa- 
 crificed to the physical, became scandals. As has been 
 said, the spirit of Paganism pervaded the Curia Romana. 
 Yet, that error should creep into the different Churches, 
 had long been recognised as possible. As early as the 
 days of St. Pacian of Barcelona, who died in extreme 
 old age before A.D. 392, and who represented the mind 
 of St. Cyprian, we read such words as these : " There- 
 fore she (the Church Catholic) is also a fruitful and 
 rich vine, with many branches, and the varied tresses 
 of many a tendril. Look ! Are there everywhere large 
 clusters, is every grape full swelled? Have none of 
 these suffered from the winter cold ? Have none en- 
 dured the rough hail ? Have none to accuse the burn- 
 ing heat of summer ? One bud is studded thicker 
 with shoots; another is stronger; another clearer: 
 one bursts forth into fruit; another only into exube- 
 rance of leaves. Yet is she a vine, in every part 
 beautiful 11 ." Moreover, sufficient stress has not been. 
 laid upon the note of sanctity, and its operation on the 
 organic Church; perhaps because, inasmuch as God onl\ r 
 knows those who are His, men prefer to deal with that 
 which is tangible and visible. They therefore appeal, 
 perhaps too exclusively, to the note of unity. And yet 
 
 " Ep. iii. 30, Oxf. Tr. 300.
 
 276 ARTICLE XIX. 
 
 surely the same laws affect both. If man's free-will 
 can affect the sanctity of the Church, so it may affect 
 the unity; and the same laws and circumstances that 
 affect the one, may affect the other. The distinction 
 between the objective and subjective in sanctity and 
 unity must be maintained: the one, that wrought by 
 God only; the other, that which is produced by the 
 co-operation of man. Men ever come short of God's 
 gracious purpose with regard to them, and this applies 
 to the Church as well as individuals. 
 
 A thoughtful person has said that the whole of the 
 latter part of the Article is probably best illustrated 
 by a thoughtful study of the Epistles to the Seven 
 Churches in the Apocalypse. Those words of the Di- 
 vine Head of the Church with the exception of those 
 addressed to St. Paul, standing alone in their pre- 
 eminent majesty and significance as the only words 
 spoken by the Son of Man (hiring the Christian dis- 
 pensation seem to lift the veil of His dealing with the 
 Church, and to shew that the trials, and failings of 
 the local portions of the One Church Catholic may be 
 widely different in kind, and their consequences diverse 
 in degree. 
 
 To those whose strong polemical instincts lead them 
 to be perpetually inclined to "unchurch" be it the 
 Church of Rome, or be it our own, it might prove 
 a not unsoothing study to meditate at times upon 
 the patience of our Divine Lord, not only in His 
 Passion, but in His ascended glory, remembering that 
 in the local portions of the Church Catholic, even
 
 OF THE CHURCH. 277 
 
 in the " earliest and purest ages," we find : " failure 
 of first love;" "toleration of the doctrine of Balaam;" 
 "immoral living introduced by a false prophetess;" 
 "a church which had need to strengthen the things 
 that remain that are ready to die;" and "lukewarm 
 and self-complacent Laodicea." And yet each and all 
 were then integral portions of the Church Catholic, 
 and the merciful word was still, "I will!"
 
 ARTICLE XX. 
 
 DE ECCLESJJE AUTHORITATE. 
 
 \HABET Ecclesia ritus sice cceremom'as statucndijus, ct in 
 Jidci controversies authoritatem ; qufmivis] Ecclesice non 
 licet quicquam instituerc, quod Tcrbo Dei \scripto~\ ad- 
 vcrsetur, nee unurn scriptures locum sic cxponere potest, 
 ut altcri contradicat. Quare licet Ecclesia sit dicinonim 
 librorum testis, et conscn-atnx, attamcn ut advcrsus cos 
 nihil decerncrc, ita prcetcr illos, nihil crcdendum dc ne- 
 cessitate salutis debct obtrudcrc. 
 
 " Of the Authority of the Church. 
 " THE Church hath power to decree rites or cere- 
 monies, and authority in controversies of faith a : and 
 yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing 
 that is contrary to God's Word written, neither may it 
 so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant 
 to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a 
 witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, yet, as it ought 
 not to decree any thing against the same, so besides 
 the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be be- 
 lieved for necessity of salvation." 
 
 THE end of revelation requires a Church, one and 
 visible. The divine truth embodied in Jesus Christ, 
 
 a For the history of the first clause in Article XX., which gave rise 
 to so much discussion in the time of Archbishop Laud, see Collyer's 
 Church History, vol. vi. pp. 364 377, and Hard wick's History of the 
 Articles, p. 143.
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 270 
 
 the eternal Truth, and thereby exhibited in an outward 
 and living phenomenon, is of course a deciding autho- 
 rity; but when He ascended, He left His mystical 
 Body a society which in its turn should be the living 
 expositor of the truth, and represent Him. " As my 
 Father sent Me, so send I you. I am with you always, 
 even unto the end of the world." 
 
 We never can attain to an external authority, like 
 Christ, by purely spiritual means. The attempt would 
 involve a contradiction, which must be disposed of in 
 one of two ways. Either we must renounce the idea 
 that in Christ God manifested Himself in history, to 
 the end that the conduct of men might be permanently 
 determined by Him ; or we must learn that fact through 
 a living, definite, vouching fact. Authority must have 
 authority for its medium. Christ established a credible 
 institution, in order to render the true faith in Him 
 perpetually possible. Immediately founded by Him, 
 its existence is the dc facto proof of what He really was. 
 How doth man attain to the true knowledge of Christ? 
 The Scripture is God's unerring word, but ur are not 
 exempt from error; we only become so, when we have- 
 unerringly received the Word, which in itself is in- 
 errable. In this reception of the Word, human acti- 
 vity, which is fallible, has necessarily a part. But in 
 order that in this transit of the Divine contents of 
 Scripture into the human rnind there be no illusion, 
 it is taught that the Holy Spirit supplies, in His 
 union with the human spirit in the Church, a pecu- 
 liarly Christian tact, and deep sure-guiding feeling.
 
 280 ARTICLE XX. 
 
 By confiding attachment to the perpetuated Apo- 
 stolate, by education in the Church, by "hearing/' as 
 St. Paul would say, a deep, interior sense is formed, 
 \vhich alone is fitted for the reception and acceptance 
 of the written Word, because it entirely coincides with 
 the sense in which the Scriptures were composed. 
 
 Where misunderstandings as to the meaning of the 
 Divine Word arise, the Church must interpret Holy 
 Scripture. The Church is the Bod)' of the Lord ; it is 
 in its universality His visible form, His permanent ever- 
 renovated Humanity, His eternal revelation. He dwells 
 in the community. All His promises and gifts are 
 bequeathed to it, but to no individual, as such, since 
 the days of the Apostles. This general sense is the 
 eKKXrjaiavTiKov (frp6vi]{j.a of Eusebius, the ccclfxiaxtlca 
 intelligent ia and cathoUcuH scuxtts of Vincentius Lirinen- 
 sis. To this sense the interpretation of Holy Writ is 
 entrusted. The declaration which it pronounces on 
 any controverted sense is the judgment of the Church, 
 and therefore the Church is Judex confi-ovcrsiarnta, an 
 "authority in controversies of faith b ." 
 
 Tliis being so, the first question that suggests itself 
 is the law whereby she is to be the judge of contro- 
 versies. We have in a previous Article laid down 
 the relations between the Church and Holy Scrip- 
 ture. We have now to add the other great authority 
 which the Church takes as her guide, in expounding 
 
 b Mohler : but the author identities the ecclc.nasllcus semus witli 
 tradition, which seems incorrect, as tradition is a definite thing, the 
 sensus the power of judging of that thing.
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 281 
 
 that Holy Scripture, and which constitutes the second 
 great factor in her decisions. This is Christian Tra- 
 dition, the concurrent testimony of antiquity, univer- 
 sality, and consent. A doctrine which the Church has 
 received and taught in every age, in every country, 
 and concurrently by all, must be, as agreeable with 
 the Divine Scripture, infallibly true. These two powers, 
 Holy Scripture and ecclesiastical tradition, have his- 
 torically been the sources from whence men ascertained 
 the truth c . 
 
 But, secondly, inasmuch as the Church is indwelt by 
 God the Holy Ghost, it is no mere concocter of formu- 
 laries after a mechanical and lifeless fashion ; it has 
 been guided to express wisely and rightly the form of 
 faith, and therefore has availed itself of new terms, 
 such as " the coiisubstantial," rejecting it in. the wrong 
 sense, accepting it in the right. And so in later times, 
 in regard to the sacred doctrines of the Natures and 
 Person of our Lord, it exercised the Divine gift in 
 dictating the precise terms whereby man might in 
 
 c Sec Dr. Pusey's Sermon on the " Rule of Faith," p. 34. The Fathers 
 at Xicea wrote concerning the Easter, ' it seemed good as follows,' for it 
 did seem good that there should he a general compliance ; but about 
 the faith they wrote not ' it seemed good,' but ' thus believes the Ca- 
 tholic Church;' and thereupon they confessed how the faith lay, in 
 order to shew that their own sentiments were not novel, but aposto- 
 lical ; and what they wrote down was no discovery of theirs, but is the 
 same as was taught by the Apostles : " so at Chalcedon, in their decree 
 the Bishops are careful to shew that they set forth 110 other faith than 
 that of the Fathers, that they are not even devising anew aught lack- 
 ing to the faith, but considering what is useful for the things newly 
 invented by these heretics."
 
 282 AKT1CI/K XX. 
 
 reverence and truth speak of those holy mysteries. 
 But it is not derogatory either to the Church, or to 
 the Office of God the Holy Ghost in her, to maintain 
 that, in some periods, this gift has been less vividly 
 present than at others. 
 
 As man is the microcosm of the universe, so the in- 
 dividual, faithful man, is that of the universal Church. 
 As in the individual the faith whereby he believcth 
 unto salvation is, as we have seen, a faith informed 
 and animated by love ; and as his faith stands in 
 relation to, and is profoundly affected by his moral 
 nature, (so that love and good works are an inte- 
 gral part of vivid faith, and, correspondingly, faith 
 is quickened by a holy life, and expires under the in- 
 dulgence of certain sins,) so something of this kind, 
 limited of course by Christ's promise of indefectibility 
 and the Holy Spirit's guidance, must take place in the 
 Church. There must be a similar process. The divine 
 perception of truth will be quickened in the body of 
 the faithful, in periods of revival and refreshment. 
 The eye of the Church will wax dull when the moral 
 state of society, and especially of its teachers, is at the 
 lowest. Is it impious to believe that the Christian- 
 izing of the Empire, by increasing the material in- 
 terests, by silencing the delator's tongue, by bringing 
 into the net plenty of bad fishes, weakened the spiritu- 
 ality of the Church ? Is it not in the nature of things, 
 that when the old society, before the fresh blood of 
 the barbarians gave it new youth, was actually dying 
 out, the divine ra) f should become dimmed by the
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 283 
 
 fetid exhalations from a putrifying civilization ? "Would 
 the great schism ever have been permitted, had men 
 not lost their sense of the necessity of Christian unity 
 and of the transcendental truths in the Divine na- 
 ture, on which that Christian unity depends ? Surely 
 as under the old law we find a shortening of God's 
 merciful hand caused by the sins of His people, so, 
 even in the dispensation of the Spirit, in the Catholic 
 Church of Christ, we may believe that the depraved 
 use of man's free-will may have worked to the distinct 
 detriment of her teaching office, if faith and works be 
 different aspects of the same habit. 
 
 Hence it may have been, in the providence of 
 God, that no heresy arose in those awful times, when 
 " Christ seemed to be fast asleep in the bark, and the 
 ship was covered with waves, and He Himself seemed 
 to allow of the evils which He did not avenge ll ." And 
 we cannot think that it was without His providence 
 that almost all the heresies which could emerge in the 
 great, central doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the 
 Incarnation, (and we might say also as to the grace of 
 God,) did emerge in those first centuries of strong 
 faith and fresh tradition, so that the highest truths of 
 faith were ruled in the undivided Church. 
 
 It is even remarkable how very little was defined 
 between the fourth General Council and the Council 
 of Florence. The lawfulness of the religious use of 
 images, established in the second Council of Nice, has 
 scarcely the character of a dogma. The Council of 
 d Baron. H. E. A.D. 912.
 
 284 ARTICLE XX. 
 
 Frankfort, in condemning Felix and Adoptianism, had 
 no new definition to make. In the fourth Lateran 
 Council, transubstantiation is rather practically taught 
 in view of the Real Presence, than defined in itself . 
 Perhaps the one great exception is, that in regard to 
 the Procession of God the Holy Ghost, the heresy im- 
 puted by Photius of old, that the Latin doctrine in- 
 volved two "Ap^ai in the Deity, is rejected in the second 
 Council of Lyons ; and the decision of the Council of 
 Florence, that the language used by the Greek and 
 Latin Fathers meant the same, was anticipated. Even 
 in the Council of Trent it is remarkable how very little 
 is defined upon some of the subjects which perhaps 
 mainly occasioned the Reformation, e.g. indulgences, 
 purgatory, the cultus of the saints. 
 
 In fact, the short-comings of sinful humanity have 
 crippled the operation of this divinely-ordered system. 
 So long as the Church was undivided, the organ was 
 in perfection and did its work. The decisions of the 
 Oecumenical Church are the voice of the Holy Ghost ; 
 nothing can exaggerate the veneration or submission 
 with which they ought to be received. But when, 
 for the sins of Christendom, God permitted the great 
 schism between the East and the West, the teaching 
 office of the Church was, for the most part, limited to 
 the authorization, inculcation, and application of truths 
 already infallibly defined, or to the declaration of truth 
 which had not yet that test of infallibility, the re- 
 ception by the whole Church of Christ. We cannot 
 
 e See further on, Article XXVIII.
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 dispose of this fact as we can of the casting forth 
 of Nestorianism or Eutychianisro, or even of the JSTo- 
 vatian schism in earlier times. On the one hand, 
 no heresy can be charged against the orthodox East- 
 erns ; and on the other, the position of the East was 
 founded in no negation of unity or catholicity. Nova- 
 tianism had a theory of its own a false one. The 
 Greek Church became separated by circumstances over 
 which it had no control. From the time of the esta- 
 blishment of the Empire at Byzantium, the elements of 
 the future scission began to work the human passions 
 of the Popes and Patriarchs gave force to a dissidence 
 which probably had its roots in the totally different 
 temperaments and minds of their respective subjects; 
 and in the final quarrel about Bulgaria, which occa- 
 sioned the actual split, it is very difficult to award 
 the meed of praise or blame to either party. If the 
 Easterns, on the plea of the decrees of the Councils, 
 arrogated for the Patriarchs a power to which they 
 had no right, the Westerns were equally bold in assert- 
 ing the prerogatives of St. Peter.. The establishment 
 of the Latin Emperors, and the aggression of a Latin 
 Church at Constantinople, were not to be justified. In 
 short, it is impossible to say that either side was quite 
 right, or that either side had not much to say for it- 
 self; and therefore we cannot aver that either party 
 is cut off from the true Vine, or that either section has 
 ceased to be a part of the Catholic Church of Christ. 
 
 And this assertion has not only been held by in- 
 dividual doctors of the Western Church, but actually
 
 286 ARTICLE XX. 
 
 has been admitted by its most authoritative organs. On 
 no other theory could the Councils of Lyons, Sienna, 
 Ferrara, or Florence ever have been held. If modern 
 theories be true, the Church can only deal with the in- 
 dividual members of separated communities. In the 
 eyes of the Church such communities, according to 
 these theories, have no corporate existence at all. It 
 was not so in those great Councils, nay, it was not 
 so in any of the prior attempts at reconciliation, some 
 of which from time to time were actually successful. 
 One must deny history, if one would assert that the 
 Latins never treated the separated Greeks as a Church. 
 Except by the Ultramontane School, the Orthodox 
 Eastern Church has ever been regarded as a Church, 
 with orders, sacraments, miracles, and jurisdiction, 
 which has never fallen into heresy in short, a real 
 Church, the schism notwithstanding. 
 
 "We find that, long after the time of Cerularius, 
 a certain degree of communion still existed between 
 the East and the West. Leo Allatius has produced 
 several proofs that the act of Cerularius did not pre- 
 vent the unity of the Churches : and the author of the 
 Pcrpetuite de la Foi, says, "that even in the twelfth 
 century, the schism was not yet so formed as that all the 
 Greeks were generally rejected by all the Latins, and 
 all the Latins by the Greeks, and there appeared among 
 many of them marks of ecclesiastical communion f ." 
 
 Again, it must be observed, that in the present day 
 the authority of the Church is made to rest mainly 
 * Palmer's " Treatise on the Church," vol. i. p. 189.
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 287 
 
 on unity. It is said that the Church cannot speak 
 authoritatively except it be one. And yet it is in- 
 fallibility, not authority, of which the reception by 
 the whole Church is the test, which reception is hin- 
 dered when intercommunion is suspended. There may 
 be many degrees of authority, adequate to guide us 
 to the faith, short of absolute infallibility. When 
 a heresy had been rejected of old in a local Church, 
 there was guidance enough for its members, before the 
 universal adoption of its decrees stamped its judgment 
 with infallibility. But apart from this, many years 
 elapsed before it was brought out that unity was the 
 guarantee for authority. Even after the luminous ex- 
 position of the unity of the Church by St. Paul, we 
 find centuries elapse before it is brought out scien- 
 tifically by St. Cyprian. Before that, bishops excom- 
 municated each other, and, resting on the goodness of 
 their respective causes, died in separation, without 
 a doubt as to their eternal safety. Such was the 
 case in the matter of Pope Victor and the Eastern Bi- 
 shops. Even St. Cyprian, who, as a doctor, has done 
 more than any other for the scientific development of 
 the idea of Church unity, actually felt it his duty not 
 to give up the re-baptizing of heretics, which he and 
 a large African Council had ordained, in conformity 
 to an African tradition, although Pope Stephen re- 
 nounced his communion for it, and the great St. Fir- 
 milian confirmed him in this, saying that Pope Stephen 
 had rejected, not St. Cyprian, but himself s . Except 
 when controversy embittered men's hearts, the mere 
 e In St.Cypr. Epp., Ep. 75, n. 25, Oxf. Tr.
 
 288 ARTICLE XX. 
 
 fact of separation was not looked upon as crucial, as 
 we may judge by the way in which the Meletians at 
 Antioch were regarded. So also Lucifer of Cagliari, 
 though the founder of a sect, is always spoken of with 
 the greatest reverence ; and St. Leo, after the death of 
 his great opponent St. Hilary of Aries, speaks of him 
 as " of blessed memory." The Donatists were heretics 
 as well as schismatics. So that, although St. Augustine 
 dwells very prominently on the fact of the schism, it 
 was not pure schism, (such as that between the East 
 and West,) of which he says, that men without the 
 Church may have everything but salvation. 
 
 Nay, the converse of the proposition may be asserted, 
 that the testimony of different Churches, agreeing in 
 handing down the deposit, was regarded as of more im- 
 portance in way of corroboration of truth, than a con- 
 current testimony of two Churches closely united. It 
 was more like the witness we now claim for certain 
 truths from the immemorial practice of the ancient 
 heretical communities. It was the bringing together 
 of witness which was specially called for, as a basis 
 for authoritative declaration. It will be seen that the 
 hinge of the two notions turns on the prominence given 
 to the theory of doctrinal development. 
 
 That the plenary and absolute authority of the 
 organ for deciding controversies should be thus tem- 
 porarily limited is no doubt a startling fact. The 
 philosophizing Christian may rejoice in the thought 
 that the Church is thereby saved from the danger of 
 over-definition. The Catholic Christian will mourn. 
 The mournful fact itself is clear from what has gone
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 289 
 
 before. Inerrancy is not the gift of any individual 
 Church, but of the Church (Ecumenical; and if the 
 Eastern Church be, as we have shewn, a real Church, 
 then, while the East is separate from the West, the 
 power of inerrancy cannot be set in motion or pro- 
 moted ; all that has been decreed in either branch of 
 the Church since the schism is liable to revision, and 
 the promise of guidance given to the Apostles remains 
 restrained as to its present use, in consequence of the 
 perversity of the human will. 
 
 And yet the Church still remains a witness to the 
 truth, even if for the time she has ceased to declare 
 infallibly fresh truth. She testifies as to the old, 
 if she cannot sanction the imposition of new dogma. 
 While the schism lasts, we must be content with 
 this, and in the meantime, it is our duty to labour 
 and pray for unity, that God, in the way He thinks fit, 
 may build up the breaches in the walls of Zion, may 
 unite the scattered limbs of His mystical Body, may 
 mend the rents in His holy coat, may restore Pen- 
 tecostal unity, and then the long silent voice will 
 again be heard, and the TJrim and the Thummim be 
 restored, and the heavens shall rejoice, and the earth 
 exult, that the wall of separation is pulled down, that 
 peace and concord have returned, and that Christ the 
 corner-stone, Who out of two hath made one, hath 
 united in the bonds of love both walls, and held them 
 together in the covenant of eternal unity h . 
 
 h Sulla Eugenii IV., Hard. Act. Cone. Flor., torn. ix. p. 985.
 
 AETICLE XXL 
 
 DE AUTHORITATE CoNCILIORUM GENERALITY. 
 
 GENERALIA Concilia, sine jussu, et wluntate principum 
 congregari non possunt; et ubi convencrint, quia ex 
 hominibus constant, qui non omnes spiritu, et verbo 
 Dei, reguntur, et err are possunt, et interdum errarunt 
 etiam in his qtiee ad normam pietatis (al. ad Deum} per- 
 tinent; ideoque guts ab illis constituuntur, ut ad salu- 
 tem necessaria, neque robur habent, neque authoritatem, 
 nisi ostendi possint e sacris literis esse desumpta. 
 
 " Of the Authority of General Councils. 
 
 " GENERAL Councils may not be gathered together 
 without the commandment and will of princes ; and 
 when they be gathered together (forasmuch as they 
 be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed 
 with the Spirit and Word of God) they may err, and 
 sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto 
 God. Wherefore things ordained by them as neces- 
 sary to salvation, have neither strength nor authority, 
 unless it may be declared that they be taken out of 
 Holy Scripture/' 
 
 IT having been shewn in the preceding Article that 
 the Ecclcsia docens hath power to decree rites and cere- 
 monies, and hath authority in controversies of faith, 
 we come to consider one great channel or organ of
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 291 
 
 that power the (Ecumenical Council a . Given that 
 the Church has this power, by whom or how is it to 
 be exercised? By whom but by the Apostolic ministry 
 who are appointed " for the perfecting of the saints, 
 for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
 body of Christ;" by those to whom was committed the 
 power of the keys, who had among other duties con- 
 nected with admission to communion to test the or- 
 thodoxy of applicants ; by those whose important office 
 it was to hand on the form of sound words which they 
 had received, to their successors. Each bishop held 
 individually what belonged to all in solidum. A pa- 
 ramount authority, therefore, belonged to each Bishop 
 in his diocese, by containing in his single person the 
 authority of the whole body. This is the basis of 
 the Cyprianic theory. 
 
 But a state of things like this was not sufficient, 
 in view of the constant efforts of Satan to sow tares 
 amid the good wheat. The restless activity of the 
 human mind, and the hatred which the sinful in- 
 tellect bears to the true doctrine of the Incarnation, 
 early necessitated a stronger organization. Error often 
 was too powerful for a single bishop to cope with in 
 his own diocese. Error extended beyond the diocese. 
 Way, error infected the Bishop himself. Moreover, 
 questions arose which could not be settled by the 
 
 " Synodi vel Coiicilii nomine majores nostri semper intellexerunt 
 sacerdotes, praesertim episcopos, in locum unum congregates, ut causas 
 eas scilicet definirent, qaaa ad ecclesiae Mem seu mores pertinerent." 
 Melch. Can. de loc. Theo., p. 146, ed. Patav. 1734.
 
 ARTICLE XXI. 
 
 appeal to the sure practice of the Apostles and their 
 followers. The very lapse of time weakened the in- 
 dividual appeal to antiquity. Something else was 
 necessary, and accordingly acting on the precedent 
 of the Acts of the Apostles, when the Apostles and 
 Elders came together to settle the terms of admission 
 of the Gentile converts into the infant Church we 
 find that before the days of Tertullian, " Throughout 
 Greece were held Councils out of all Churches, by 
 means of which matters of importance were treated 
 in common, and the representation of the whole Chris- 
 tian name celebrated with great veneration b ." Fur- 
 thermore, it was held in accordance with our Lord's 
 promise, " that where two or three were gathered to- 
 gether in His Name, He was in the midst of them ;" 
 and men dwelt upon other promises of special guid- 
 ance, that He, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, were 
 specially present on such occasions to control and di- 
 rect the proceedings, to save them from error, and to 
 bless the deliberations. 
 
 The earliest record which we have of a Council, after 
 that mentioned in the Acts of the holy Apostles, is 
 a Sicilian Council held in the year A.D. 125, on the 
 subject of an error respecting the impossibility of 
 a fall after baptism c . Soon after the synodicon men- 
 tions a synod at Rome, in the time of Pope Victor, 
 against Theodotus of Byzantium, who not only had 
 sacrificed in persecution, but had denied the divinity 
 of our Lord d . At Pergamos, in A.D. 152, a synod of 
 
 b De Jejun., c. 13. Labbe, i. 558. d Ib., 568.
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 293 
 
 seven bishops anathematized a form of Gnosticism 
 called the Colorbasian heresy ; in the East, in A.D. 160, 
 Cerdon was thus condemned; at Rome, in A.D. 170 
 and 198, the Quarto-decimans ; at Hierapolis, in A.D. 
 173, Montanus and Maximilla ; and in Palestine, in 
 Pontus, at Lyons, in A.D. 198, the Quarto-decimans 
 again. The Roman synod against Sabellius and foetus 
 was probably held about A.D. 258 e . 
 
 During these early times, from the constant liability 
 of persecution, and the fact of the empire being still 
 heathen, the action of the Church was by small local 
 Councils in different parts, as questions happened to 
 arise, and these, as they got accepted by the other 
 Churches, became the voice of the whole Church. 
 
 In short, during this period we find that every ques- 
 tion that arose was settled by local Councils, increasing 
 in importance and weight, till the State-establishment, 
 under Constantine, allowed a representation in a large 
 sense of the whole Church of God in the great (Ecu- 
 menical Synod of Nicsea. The language with regard 
 to its authority is very strong, and it is remarkable 
 that in spite of the efforts of the Arians and the Arian- 
 izing emperors to establish counter synods, and in spite 
 of the crucial word the Homoiision not having been 
 universally enforced, that Council had a grasp upon 
 the conscience of the Church which none of its rivals 
 succeeded in effecting. 
 
 So great was its effect, that henceforward the autho- 
 
 e Baluz, Nov. Coll. in Cone. i. 848, Col.
 
 294 ARTICLE XXI. 
 
 rity of the episcopate became merged in the repre- 
 sentative institution of Councils. In the midst of much 
 human feeling, violence, and fraud, God used this form 
 of legislation to preserve the truth once declared to the 
 saints. While the intellect of the East surged up and 
 down, a very sea of speculation on the most recondite 
 mysteries of the faith, it was always felt that the 
 decision of a General .Council closed the matter for 
 ever ; they who could not agree continued in their 
 error, but outside the Catholic Church. Thus the 
 Nestorians were cut off after the decision at Ephesus ; 
 and the Cophts, refusing the decree of Chajcedon, to 
 this day remain separate from the orthodox Eastern 
 Church. 
 
 However, from the date of the Council of Nicsea, 
 another power had been asserting itself in the Church, 
 the power of the successor of St. Peter. Often resisted 
 successfully, often urged upon inconsistent and false 
 grounds, that power was gradually more and more 
 felt, especially when the Eastern Empire became weak, 
 and the Western Church, by the conversion of the bar- 
 barians, had placed itself at the head of the new civil- 
 ization. The question eventually was a question be- 
 tween the authority of the General Council and the 
 authority of the Apostolic See. Following up the 
 teaching of the false decretals, the Lateran Councils 
 did all they could to support the Papal authority ; but 
 in the next century, the dreadful corruption and schism 
 induced the princes o/ Europe to insist on the summon- 
 ing of the synods of Constance and Basle. There the
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 295 
 
 doctrine was asserted, and acted on, that the Pope 
 is inferior to the Council. The rival Councils of 
 Ferrara and Florence were in the interests of the 
 Papacy. The Council of Trent left the question un- 
 solved. 
 
 1. The first proposition in the Article does not touch 
 the marrow of the question. It is a mere matter of 
 policy. Under the Empire it was of course an impos- 
 sibility that large bodies of bishops, with their at- 
 tendants, should be allowed to assemble in any city 
 without the cognizance of the civil power. Religious 
 questions then, were what political questions are now. 
 There was the same, or greater excitement prevailing 
 with regard to the question of the Divinity of our Lord 
 or the double Procession, as there is now regarding the 
 most hotly discussed question of secular government ; 
 and just as the first duty of the State is to maintain 
 tranquillity at any price, so it was the duty of the Em- 
 perors to maintain peace in their dominions by the 
 exercise of a control over the assembling of Councils. 
 
 Moreover, recognising as they did the authority of 
 the Council though, in after times we see, as in the case 
 of Zeno and the Henoticon, that they did seek, unsuc- 
 cessfully indeed, to impose formulas by the authority 
 of the civil power they used the Councils as great 
 State engines for the welfare of their people. It was 
 by their own will and suggestion that the General 
 Councils were actually called. This power, in the 
 West in abeyance for many centuries, was evoked 
 again in the instance of Constance and Basle, though.
 
 296 ARTICLE XXI. 
 
 the forms of a certain deference to the ecclesiastical 
 authority were maintained on the score of a long pre- 
 scription. 
 
 It is the same at the present moment. However 
 much a General Council might be desired on the part 
 of the Church authorities, no Council worthy of that 
 name could really be called without the concurrence 
 of the civil powers of Christendom. Even those as- 
 semblages of prelates of the Latin Communion which 
 from time to time have been summoned, have been 
 controlled by the civil authorities of the different 
 countries; much more a Council, such as that of Flo- 
 rence, where free access was given to all to state their 
 claims, would need to have the moral support and 
 sanction of the authorities of the different nationali- 
 ties. No doubt the union between Church and State is 
 loosening all over Christendom, and the time might 
 come when such a condition of things should be 
 possible ; but at this moment, in the present condition 
 of the Church and of civil society, it may be safely 
 admitted that a Council ought not to be assembled 
 " without the commandment and will of princes f ." 
 
 The proposition in the Article has distinct his- 
 torical support. From the time that the Emperors 
 were converted by Christianity, the affairs of the 
 Church were mightily affected by them, and the 
 most important Councils took place at their will*. 
 
 ' Vide Dr. Pusey's " Royal Supremacy." 
 * Socrates, Hist., lib. v., proaem. v. Jus. G. R. 317.
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 297 
 
 Constantine the Great summoned that of Nicsea h ; 
 Theodosius that of Constantinople 1 ; Theodosius the 
 Younger, that of Ephesus k ; Martian and Valentinian, 
 that of Chalcedon l ; Justinian, the fifth, at Constan- 
 tinople m ; Justinian II., that in Trullo n ; Constan- 
 tine and Irene the second Nicene ; and Basil, the 
 eighth, which was held at Constantinople p . 
 
 Yet the Emperors, even as representing the laity, 
 were checked in their interference in Councils. Hosius, 
 Lishop of Cordova, writes to the Emperor : " Mix not 
 thyself in ecclesiastical affairs, and lay not on us com- 
 mands concerning them, but rather learn from us. 
 God has given the imperium to thee, to us the eccle- 
 siastical power q ." St. Ambrose asks Yalentinian the 
 Younger', "When, most clement Emperor, did laics 
 judge a bishop in matters of faith?" Theodosius the 
 Younger, when he sent Count Candidian to the Coun- 
 cil of Ephesus, lays this principle down in his com- 
 mission. 
 
 2. The second point to be considered is the relation 
 between the decisions of a General Council and Holy 
 Scripture. That relation was symbolized by a copy 
 of the holy Gospels being put on a throne in the 
 midst of the assembly as the type of the blessed 
 
 h Euseb., Tit. Const., lib. iii. c. 6. l Socr., Hist., lib. v. c. 8. k Eva- 
 grius, c. 3. ' Loontius, de Sectis, p. 462. m Nicephorus, Hist., 
 
 lib. xvii. c. 27. " Balsamon, De Ed Synodo queedicitur 6 ta Beveregii, 
 Synod., torn. i. p. 151. Cone. Nicen., init. ? Condi. Const., 
 
 Harduin, vol. v. p. 1025. * Up, ad Const, ap. S. Athan., torn. i. 
 
 p. 371. r Up. 21.
 
 298 ARTICLE XXI. 
 
 Spirit. It was always assumed that the duty of a 
 Council was to declare what had been the faith from 
 the beginning, not to propound new objects of belief. 
 A Council might make that matter of explicit faith, 
 which before, being matter of implicit faith only, might 
 in ignorance be contradicted without sin, but it could 
 only give authority to it as a portion of the original 
 deposit and revelation. It must witness to a continuous 
 tradition, and give authority to its enunciation, but it 
 could teach nothing as of divine faith which it did not 
 trace up to the Holy Scriptures. The Council of Car- 
 thage (A.D. 348) declares that it makes its decrees 
 "mindful of the divine precepts, and of the magis- 
 terial authority of the divine Scriptures *." 
 
 3. The next point asserted is that General Councils 
 may err, and sometimes have erred, in things pertain- 
 ing to God. This proposition is strictly true, for it 
 may be proved by the evidence of ecclesiastical his- 
 tory. Not to speak of such Councils as the Arian 
 Councils of Sirmium, that of Ariminum reached the 
 proportions of a general synod ; more than 400 Bishops 
 were assembled there ; a number beyond that at Nice ; 
 much more beyond those of Constantinople. And yet 
 the Synod of Ariminum erred in things pertaining to 
 God. But there is a much stronger instance in the 
 Latrocinium of Ephesus. It was duly summoned with 
 all the appropriate forms ; there was present an im- 
 mense representation of the Church of God, yet it 
 
 Labbe, Cone., torn. ii. p. 747 ; cit. Owen's " Dogmatic Theology," 
 p. 14,
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 299 
 
 went wrong. The inerrancy of a Council can never 
 be guaranteed at the moment. The test of the value 
 of a Council is its after-reception by the Church. 
 Synods of very limited numbers, in very obscure 
 places, have by after reception assumed the weight 
 of an (Ecumenical Council, as, for example, that of 
 Orange on the question of grace; on the other hand, 
 one act of the holiest of all Councils, that of Jeru- 
 salem in the Acts of the Apostles, in the matter of 
 things strangled, has in the West become obsolete. 
 Again, some canons of a Council are accepted, and 
 some reprobated. Discipline also may change, so that 
 in the matter of authority there is not only an after 
 verdict on the part of the living Church, but there is 
 also a constant correction, or rather corrective process, 
 on its part going on, in matters of discipline, which 
 certainly pertain to God ; of course, in the case of 
 dogma, the decision of an approved (Ecumenical Coun- 
 cil forecloses the matter for ever. 
 
 To the understanding of the Article, another most 
 important distinction must be borne in mind. It 
 speaks of General Councils, not of (Ecumenical Coun- 
 cils. Now, though in the strict sense of the term, 
 General, Universal, (Ecumenical, are the same, yet 
 the term (Ecumenical has been consecrated by usage 
 to mean 'a General Council, lawful, approved, and re- 
 ceived by all the Church/ A Council may be general 
 without being lawful. To be General, all the bishops 
 of the world should be summoned to it, and no one 
 excluded but heretics and excommunicated persons.
 
 300 ARTICLE XXI. 
 
 To be lawful and truly (Ecumenical, it is necessary 
 that all that occurs should be done regularly, and that 
 the Church should receive it. Hence there have been 
 Councils, general in their convocation, but not so in 
 their acts or event; such as the Council of Milan, 
 held in the case of St. Athanasius in A.D. 354, and 
 others '. 
 
 "While the Church, then, is in her present rended 
 condition, local Churches must be content to make 
 local decrees, and these may hereafter either by re- 
 ception by the whole Church become part of the 
 Church's living teaching, or receive a certain modi- 
 fication. 
 
 As to the number of Councils, the Churches are not 
 agreed as to their number. The Anglican Church in 
 some of her documents refers to St. Gregory's four, in 
 others to six. The Greek Church holds seven, though 
 Barlaam, in A.D. 1339, treating with Benedict XII., 
 mentions only six u . The Latin Church is not at one 
 with itself on the subject. Some doctors count twenty- 
 one ; that is, two of Nicsea, four of Constantinople, one 
 of Ephesus, one of Chalcedon, five of Lateran, two of 
 Lyons, one of Vienna, one of Pisa, one of Constance, 
 one of Basle, one of Florence, and one of Trent. 
 Others count only eighteen, cutting off Pisa, Basle, and 
 Constance in its later sessions. This is the common opi- 
 nion of the Italians. The French do not consider either 
 the fifth Lateran or that of Florence (Ecumenical *. 
 
 1 Richard, Analyse de Candles, torn. i. p. 4. Paris, 1772. 
 
 u Palmer, ii. p. 203. * Richard, Analyse de Conciles, t. i. p. 108.
 
 OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 301 
 
 The Council of Florence was styled by its editor the 
 eighth (Ecumenical, and is so termed in the Papal 
 licence y . Gaspar Contarini terms it the ninth (Ecu- 
 menical z . 
 
 TABLE OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS WITH THE REPRE- 
 SENTATION OF EAST AND WEST. 
 
 Date. 
 
 
 Numbers. 
 
 Easterns. 
 
 Westerns. 
 
 325 
 
 Nicsea . . . 
 
 318 
 
 315 
 
 3 
 
 381 
 431 
 451 
 
 Constantinople 
 Ephesus . . 
 Clialc-edon . . 
 
 150 
 68 
 353 
 
 149 
 67 
 350 
 
 I 
 1 
 3 
 
 553 
 680 
 
 Constantinople 
 Constantinople 
 
 164 
 56 
 
 158 
 51 
 
 6 
 5 
 
 y Launoius TZpisiol., part viii. ep. xi. 
 p. 563, ed. 1571, cit. Palmer. 
 
 Opera Contareni,
 
 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 DE PURGATORIO. 
 
 DOCTRINA Homanensitim a de purgatorio, de inditfycntiis. 
 de veneratione, et adoratione, turn imaginum, turn re- 
 liquiarum, necnon de invocatione sanctorum, res est 
 futilis, inaniter conficta, et nullis Scripturarum testi- 
 monm innilitur : immo verbo Dei contradicit. 
 
 " Of Purgatory. 
 
 "THE Romish, doctrine concerning purgatory, par- 
 dons, worshipping and adoration, as well of images as 
 of reliques, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing 
 vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of 
 Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God." 
 
 WHATEVER dissidence may be imagined to exist be- 
 tween the preceding Articles and the doctrines as pro- 
 mulgated by the Council of Trent, there is none with 
 regard to the subjects mentioned in the present one; 
 for while the points formerly touched on were ruled 
 by the Church of England subsequently to the earlier 
 decrees of the Council, the questions of Purgatory and 
 Pardons were not discussed for many months after the 
 
 " The words Romanenses and Romanistce were already used as far 
 back as 1520 by Luther and Ulrich von Hutten to designate the ex- 
 treme Mediaeval party." Hardwick, p. 389. Just as in modern French 
 literature, the expression parti romaniste is used for the more pro- 
 nounced section of the Ultramontanes. Observe that the harsh wordier- 
 niciosa of the early Articles is entirely dropped in the later version.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 303 
 
 publication of the Article 1 *. The Article, therefore, 
 cannot be strained into a condemnation and contra- 
 diction of that which did not exist at the time; and 
 we must come to the conviction that it was not the 
 formulized doctrine, but a current and corrupt prac- 
 tice in the Latin or Western Church, which is here 
 declared to be "fond" and "vainly invented/' 
 
 This distinction is a very important one. People are 
 apt to ignore the real reformation which took place 
 within the Latin Church, the wise and scientific treat- 
 ment to which many points were subjected, and the 
 abuses and scandals which were discountenanced. No 
 doubt the reform might with effect have been carried 
 further. Points vitally affecting our own position, e.g. 
 all questions of jurisdiction, might have been defined ; 
 the disciplinary enactments for dioceses might have been 
 extended to the Papal Court ; still a real reform did 
 take place, and it is unscientific or uncandid to ignore 
 it. The reform, such as it was, only came too late. We 
 cannot say what in the Providence of God would have 
 been the results, if the Popes had yielded sooner to the 
 clamours of Europe for a free and (Ecumenical Coun- 
 cil; but they feared similar results to those of Con- 
 stance and Basle, and so the time passed, till all hopes 
 of reconciliation had disappeared. Still the Council 
 did a mighty work c , and such men as St. Carlo Bor- 
 
 b The decree on Purgatory was passed in the twenty-fifth session of 
 the Council, hegun on the 3rd and ended on the 4th of December, 1563. 
 Vide Harduin, Cone., t. x., p. 167, ed. Paris, 1714. 
 
 c Cantu, Histoire des Italiens, t. viii. p. 394, also p. 441.
 
 304 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 roraeo, Archbishop of Milan, St. Thomas of Villanueva, 
 Archbishop of Valencia, Rusticucci, Salviati, Sartorio, 
 Gaspar Contarini, Fra Bernardino Ochino da Siena, 
 Bonomo, Bishop of Yercelli, Paul of Arezzo, Bishop 
 of Piacenza, Ypolito Galantino, the silk-worker of 
 Florence, S. Filippo Neri, and a host of others, who 
 carried on the work, exhibit in their own persons the 
 results that were effected. 
 
 The points against which this Article is directed may 
 be discerned in any of the satires which immediately 
 preceded the Reformation, such as the Epistola Obscu- 
 rorum Virorum, the history of Dill Eulenspiegel, or the 
 Colloquies of Erasmus. These exhibit the picture of a 
 great decay of practical religion, corruption and avarice 
 reigning among the clergy, nothing done to stem the 
 flood of immorality, and, beside this, a round of cere- 
 monies and puerile superstitions. Nothing is so re- 
 markable as the way in which holy names and holy 
 mysteries are placed by Chaucer in the mouths of those 
 who are perpetrating the foulest deeds. It would seem 
 as if morality and religion had got so divorced that 
 there seemed no incongruity in their association. Eras- 
 mus' account of his visit with Colet to Canterbury, and, 
 again, his description of the shrine of Our Lady of 
 Walsingham, well repa}' perusal, and are specially im- 
 portant in considering the Article, as they exhibit the 
 prevalent habit of thought of the time, the every-day 
 devotional life of the people, as seen by the eyes of one 
 of the most intelligent of men. 
 
 Indeed, the one refreshing aspect of the English
 
 OF PURGATORY. 305 
 
 Reformation is that which exhibits to us the way in 
 which the scandals that brought it on were dealt with, 
 how the objects of superstition were cast to the winds, 
 and the gainful frauds exposed and scorned. Even in 
 the reign of Henry VIII. the semi-heathen image 
 of Darvel Gatheren, which had in Wales promoted 
 a horrid cultus, such as is said to have existed till 
 the seventeenth century among the cognate race of the 
 Bretons, was destroyed d . The miraculous rood of 
 Boxley, which was said to move its eyes and lips, 
 and to sweat blood, was broken up among the jeers 
 of the people e ; and through the length and breadth of 
 the land, the instruments of fanaticism were cast into 
 the fire or the water. Even the bones of the saints, 
 the temples of the Holy Ghost, the shrines of the 
 grace of God, were mixed up in the common ruin. 
 Because discredited by a base coinage, the true mintage 
 was destroyed. Because mixed up with manifold im- 
 postures, the real authentic relics were dishonoured, 
 and one common grave received the lying and fraudu- 
 lent objects which had been used to keep alive the fail- 
 ing piety of the preceding ages of declension, and the 
 blessed remains of those holy men who had been the 
 vessels of the favour of God, and His lights in their 
 several generations. 
 
 Excess always leads to re-action. Superstition is 
 closer to irreligion than men think for, and the 
 
 d Vide Froude's History, vol. iii. p. 294. 
 
 e Vide Fuller's Church History, bk. vi. 810, p. 244, ed. 1837; also 
 Froude, iii. 288. 
 
 X
 
 306 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 misery is, that you can hardly prune away the one 
 without promoting the other. Tear the ivy off the 
 mouldering church wall, and you will bring away part 
 of the wall with it. So it was at the Reformation. 
 It was impossible to reform and not to deform; and, 
 as a fact, much that had been once good, and in time 
 abused, was for the time lost. Solemn rites that had 
 lost their significance, or been veiled in an unknown 
 tongue, were cast aside as useless ; edifying ceremonies, 
 such as the washing of poor men's feet, nay, the unc- 
 tion for the sick, which had the support of the Inspired 
 Word itself, were ignored ; doctrines, such as the 
 Communion of Saints, the witness of God to innocence 
 in the case of ordeal, the horrible watchful skill and 
 constant infestation of evil spirits, dropped out of sight, 
 and a one-sided view of God's truth was advocated and 
 enforced. This was specially the case with regard to 
 the subject of the Article. "The Romish doctrine," 
 in the earlier type of the Article termed " the scholastic 
 doctrine," was hereby condemned. It only was con- 
 demned, but somehow people seemed to forget that 
 besides the Romish doctrine on these subjects, there 
 was a Catholic doctrine also ; that the errors lay rather 
 in the exaggeration and want of proportion of the state- 
 ments, than in the substance, and that as formerly 
 there had been danger from excess, there now was 
 danger in defect, in the way of suppressing important 
 truths of the Gosoel. 
 
 A 
 
 For on every one of the points mentioned there is 
 an underlying Christian truth, and it is necessary to
 
 OF PURGATORY. 307 
 
 the right understanding of the Article to know what 
 this is. We cannot tell what the Article means till 
 we know what it condemns ; and we cannot know what 
 it condemns till we know the doctrine, the perversion 
 of which drew forth the condemnation. 
 
 But before proceeding to this, historic truth and 
 candour demand that we should say that the protest 
 in the Article is still needed. One does not here speak 
 of those ancient mountain- shrines in the Tyrol or in 
 Switzerland, where the simple, loving herdsman toils 
 his weary way over brake and fell, encountering danger 
 and real hardship, till he falls down before the Marien- 
 bild, or other object of veneration, to which his steps 
 have been directed. God forbid that we should sit in 
 judgment on the simple faith which prompts the prayer, 
 which, perhaps misdirected, God rewards and hears, 
 as if offered immediately to Himself; but the protest 
 is still needed, because it cannot be denied that super- 
 stition is still tolerated, if not actually encouraged by 
 the authorities of the Church abroad. At Rome itself, 
 in the church of the Ara Coeli, the people are blessed 
 by the elevation of the Bambino, a doll of the infant 
 Saviour, a sort of parody of the solemn rite of bene- 
 diction with the most Holy Sacrament. At Calcata, 
 a place near Civita Castellana, the exhibition of a cer- 
 tain relic f violates the first instincts of decency and 
 
 f Vide Narrazione crltica storica della reliquia pregiosissima del 
 Sanctissimo Prepuzio di N. S. G. C. che si venera nella Chiesa Par- 
 rochiale di Calcata, diocesi di Civita Castellana, e Fendo dell' Eminen- 
 tissima Casa Sinibaldi, Ristampata ed accrescuita per ordine di S. E.
 
 808 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 reverence ; and Loretto still draws her gains from the 
 credulity of the faithful. Nay, even in France, where 
 the battle of the faith is being fought by an able body 
 of clergy, whose tone in some respects presents a very 
 marked contrast to that of the moderate and learned 
 school of divines who adorned the Church of France 
 before the first Revolution, it is to be feared that, as 
 in the notorious instance of the shrine of La Salette, 
 too many are using the weapon of superstition to 
 combat the growing irreligion. 
 
 I. The doctrine of Purgatory, against which the Ar- 
 ticle excepts, is that which is made patent to the eye 
 of every traveller as he passes from Germany into Italy. 
 The wayside shrines which so edify him still continue, 
 but the subjects are changed. In place of the affecting 
 representation of the sufferings of the Eternal Son, and 
 the touching impersonations of the Lord crowned with 
 thorns, with the purple robe and the reed in His hand, 
 which speak to the soul of the wayfarer, terrible re- 
 presentations of the holy souls in flames appal him. 
 They are the predominant, although not the exclusive 
 subject. Sometimes the Madonna is placed in rela- 
 tion to those souls, but oftener still they are by them- 
 selves, appealing for a few pence to the awakened sym- 
 pathies of the passers by. They say, " Have mercy 
 upon me, have mercy upon me, oh my friends ; for 
 the hand of the Lord hath touched me." The popular 
 
 il Sign. Marchese Cesare Sinibaldi Gamlalunga, Barone e Signore 
 delta detta terra. Roma, 1862, presso Vincenzo Poggioli. Con ap- 
 provazione.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 309 
 
 doctrine thus symbolized prevailed in England at the 
 time of the Reformation. Probably, as is believed to 
 be the case in New Spain, it had come to take the place 
 of a living faith in the eternal pains of hell in the case 
 of most men. It was also mixed up largely with in- 
 terested motives on the part of the clergy. There was 
 a perfect traffic in masses for the souls, and men fancied 
 that by leaving money to the Church at the hour of 
 death, and at the expense of their heirs, they might 
 purchase mitigation or exemption from pains, which in 
 degree, though not in duration, were said to equal the 
 pains of hell. The English were very strongly affected 
 by these teachings, for several of the most striking and 
 romantic legends, e.g. the dream of St. Fursaeus and 
 the vision of Drithelm, as recorded in Bede's History *, 
 which had contributed much to fix in the minds of the 
 faithful a conviction of this doctrine, were of British 
 origin, and accordingly the number of endowed chan- 
 tries which were founded, that priests might, in the 
 sweet language of the time, " sing for souls," was im- 
 mense. Of these, the college of All Souls', Oxford, 
 which was established with the idea of study sub- 
 ordinated to that of prayer for those who perished 
 in the French wars in Henry the Fifth's time, saved 
 by the scholastic endowment attached to it, has sur- 
 vived the shock of the Reformation. In the founda- 
 tion, too, of Lincoln College, Oxford, the same duty 
 of prayers for the departed was made co-extensive 
 with that of theological study. The popular doctrine 
 
 e Vide SedcB Historia, book iii. c. xix., book v. c. xii.
 
 310 ARTICLE XXTI. 
 
 of the day is laid down in Sir Thomas More's " Sup- 
 plication of Souls/' a work in which he answered the 
 " Supplication of Beggars," a political brochure, which 
 pleaded for the suppression of the chantries, on the 
 ground that so much was taken from the poor. The 
 chantries were in due time suppressed, but it may 
 be doubted whether the poor profited much by the 
 transaction. 
 
 " If ye pity the poor, there is none so poor as we, 
 that have not a bratte to put upon our backs. If ye 
 pity the blind, there is none so blind as we, which are 
 here in the dark, saving for sights unpleasant and loth- 
 some, till some comfort come. If ye pity the lame, 
 there is none so lame as we, that can neither creep one 
 foot out of the fire, nor have one hand at liberty to de- 
 fend our face from the flame. Finally, if ye pity any 
 man in pain, never knew ye pain comparable to ours ; 
 whose fire as far passeth in heat all the fires that ever 
 burned on earth, as the hottest of all that passed 
 a feigned fire painted on a wall. If ever ye lay sick, or 
 thought the night long and longed for day, while every 
 hour seemed longer than five, bethink you then what 
 a long night we sely souls endure, that lie slepeless, 
 restless, burning and broiling in the dark fire one long 
 night of many days, of many weeks, of many years to- 
 gether. You waiter, peradventure, and tolter in sick- 
 ness from side to side, and find little rest in any part of 
 the bed ; we lie bound to the brands, and cannot lift 
 up our heads. You have your physicians with you, 
 that sometimes cure and heal you ; no physic will help
 
 OF PURGATORY. 311 
 
 our pain, nor no plaisters coole our heat. Your keep- 
 ers do you great ease, and put you in good comfort ; our 
 keepers are such as God keep you from cruel, doomed 
 spirites, odious, envious, and hateful, despiteous enemies 
 and despiteful tormentors, and their company more 
 terrible and grievous to us than is the pain itself; and 
 the intolerable torment that they do us, wherewith from 
 top to toe they cease not continually to tear us h ." 
 
 It was strongly felt at the Reformation-period that 
 the doctrine of Purgatory had been so taught as to 
 invalidate the power of the Passion of Christ. With 
 the usual confusion of the objective and subjective of 
 those times, on the one hand it was coarsely taught 
 that so much suffering would do its work, independent 
 of the merit of Christ, in the way of cleansing so much 
 sin; on the other hand, according to the new learn- 
 ing, it was supposed that our Lord's death took away 
 the temporal as well as the eternal punishment for 
 sin, a mistake, as every day's experience teaches us; 
 for the application of Christ's Blood by the deepest 
 repentance will not restore the lost health to the pro- 
 fligate, nor the squandered wealth to the spendthrift. 
 Moreover, a divorce in thought had practically taken 
 place between the Sacrifice of Christ and the applica- 
 tive and commemorating Sacrifice, so that the souls 
 were thought to be succoured by masses, to the exclu- 
 sion of the thought of that adorable Passion which was 
 pleaded in and by those masses. 
 
 h Morc's "Supplication of Souls," Works, p. 337, Cawood, London, 
 ed. 1557.
 
 312 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 Now the true doctrine, of which the opinion con- 
 demned in this Article is an exaggeration and excess, 
 is founded on the tenderest and deepest sympathies of 
 our common human nature. Mankind will not endure 
 the thought that at the moment of death all concern 
 for those loved ones who are riven from us by death 
 comes to an end. We firmly resist the heathen notion, 
 which the inverted torch and the broken column sym- 
 bolize, that henceforward they are nothing to us, or we 
 to them ; nay, we go so far as to say, that though the 
 tree must lie as it falls, and though death puts an end 
 to each man's probation, so far as he is concerned, yet 
 that Infinite love pursues the soul beyond the grave, 
 and there has dealings with it, in which we who sur- 
 vive have still our co-operation. To pray for the 
 departed is a deep instinct of natural piety, but it 
 is much more than that, it is one of the best-attested 
 doctrines of the primitive Church. The Jews at the 
 time of our Saviour, as they do to-day, prayed for the 
 dead, and there is not a word proceeding from the lips 
 of our Lord which can be tortured into a condemnation 
 of it. There is little doubt that St. Paul prayed for 
 Onesiphorus when dead : for the Greek phrase for " his 
 household" implies his absence ; and he prays for no 
 grace for this life, but only, "The Lord grant unto 
 him, that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day 1 ." 
 The early Liturgies of the Church, which, traced back 
 to the Apostolic times, bear witness to the public teach- 
 ing of the most remote antiquity, are unanimous in this 
 1 2 Tim. i. 18.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 313 
 
 respect. That of Jerusalem prays : " Remember, 
 Lord God, the spirits and all flesh, those of right faith 
 whom we have mentioned and whom we have not men- 
 tioned, from Abel the Just to this day. Do Thou Thy- 
 self give them rest [or refresh them] in the region of 
 the living, in Thy kingdom, in the delights of Para- 
 dise, in the bosoms of our holy Fathers Abraham, Isaac, 
 and Jacob, whence sorrow, grief, and lamentation are 
 banished away, where the light of God's countenance 
 visits and shines continually J." That of Alexandria 
 prays : " Rest [or refresh] the souk of our fathers and 
 brethren who have fallen asleep before us in the faith 
 of Christ, remembering the forefathers, fathers, patri- 
 archs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, bishops, 
 saints, just, every soul perfected in the faith of Christ; 
 and those whom on this present day we commemorate, 
 and our holy Father Mark, the Apostle and Evan- 
 gelist, who shewed us the way of faith," [then after 
 reading the diptychs of the departed,] " and of all 
 these rest [or refresh] the souls in the tabernacles of 
 Thy saints in Thy kingdom, granting them the good 
 things of Thy promises which eye hath not seen, &c. 
 Refresh their souls, and vouchsafe to them the kingdom 
 of heaven k ." That of Constantinople separates off " the 
 oblation for the forefathers, fathers, patriarchs," &c., 
 with the clause " at whose intercessions may God visit 
 us ;" and proceeds, " And remember all who are fallen 
 asleep before us in the hope of the resurrection unto 
 eternal life; and rest [or refresh] them where the 
 > Assem., Cod. Lit., v. 46. k Ass., vii. 2426.
 
 314 ARTICLE XXIT. 
 
 light of Thy countenance visits." The Liturgy of 
 St. Chrysostom, now " in use through the four Patri- 
 archates and Russia, except on the few days on which 
 St. Basil's Liturgy is said," has no special form for 
 those mentioned in the diptychs of the departed. That 
 of St. Basil provides a prayer " For the rest and for- 
 giveness of the soul of Thy servant N". In a lightsome 
 place, where grief and lamentation are fled away, rest 
 [or refresh] him." 
 
 In the Roman Liturgy, the prayers are more varied. 
 In the Canon of the Mass is a prayer "upon the dip- 
 tychs" (occurring in a different place, in the Sacra- 
 mentary of St. Gregory) : " Remember also, O Lord, 
 Thy servants and handmaidens (JV. and j\ r .) who have 
 gone before us with the seal of faith, and sleep in the 
 sleep of peace. To them, O Lord, and to all who are 
 at rest in Christ, we intreat Thee to grant a place 
 of refreshment, of light and peace 1 ." Other prayers, 
 after the pattern of St. Paul's for Onesiphorus, were for 
 a merciful judgment m ; that God would " save the souls 
 of the departed from hell," "from the judgment of 
 vengeance," " from the mouth of the lion," from " the 
 hands of the enemy;" that they endure not "everlast- 
 ing punishments/' " the fire of Gehenna and the flame 
 of hell n ." Or, again, that they may " have part in the 
 
 1 Opp., iii. p. 4. Ben. Comp. p. 289, n. 70. 
 
 m Gclas. Sacrarn. Orat., n. 91, post Sepulturam, p. 751, Murat. : 
 " That before the throne of the glory of Thy Christ, severed with those 
 on the right, we may have nothing in common with those on the left." 
 (S. Greg., t. v. p. 233.) 
 
 n "From the gates of hell deliver their soul , Lord." (Breviary.)
 
 OF PURGATORY. 315 
 
 first resurrection /' or "have a blessed resurrec. 
 
 " Absolve, Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from all bond 
 of sin, and, Thy grace succouring them, let them attain [mereantur] to 
 escape the judgment of vengeance, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light." 
 (Misses pro Def. Tractus.) " Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, de- 
 liver the souls of all the faithful departed from the punishment of hell, 
 and from the lake profound ; deliver them from the mouth of the lion, 
 lest hell (tartarus) swallow them up, lest they fall into darkness ; but 
 let St. Michael, the Captain, present them to that holy light, which 
 Thou hast promised to Abraham and his seed." (Offert.) "Deliver it 
 [the soul of one buried] not into the hands of the enemy, nor forget 
 him for ever; but command him to be received by the holy angels, and 
 to be brought to the house of Paradise ; that, since he hoped and be- 
 lieved in Thee, he may not endure the punishment of hell [inferni] or 
 everlasting punishments," [it used to be pcenas eternas in old Missals, as 
 Missale Rom., Paris, 1521, Ussher,] " but may possess everlasting joys ;" 
 [ib., " on the day of death or of burial"], " that it may escape, the place 
 of punishment and the fire of Gehenna, and the flame of hell, in the 
 land of the living." (Gelasian Sacram., n. 91 ; post obit. Horn., p. 748, 
 Mur.) "May he pass the gates of hell and the ways of darkness," 
 (p. 749). " Deliver him, Lord, from the princes of darkness and the 
 places of punishment" (p. 750), " that he may be free from the burning 
 of eternal fire" (p. 751). "That thou wouldest deliver him from the 
 torments of hell." (Greg. Sacram., post lavat. Corp., ib., p. 215 and 216. 
 " Let him be severed from the fierce burning of the boiling Gehenna." 
 (Post sepult. Corpus, p. 217.) " Grant him to escape the flames of eternal 
 punishment, and gain the rewards of eternal life." (Miss. Anibros. in 
 Pam. Lit., i. 450.) So also in the Jacobite Liturgy of St. James : " Free- 
 ing them from the infinite damnation to come, and making them worthy 
 of the joy which is in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 
 (Renaud., ii. 38.) " Spare the sinners in the day of judgment," (ibid., 
 39). " Forgive those sins especially for which in eternity condemnation 
 is prepared," &c., (ibid., 196). " Let them be hidden under the wings 
 of Thy grace, and not be condemned," (ibid., 222). " Give rest in the 
 habitation of Thy kingdom to all who have fallen asleep in hope of Thee, 
 and free them and us from the unquenchable fire and the worm that 
 dieth not," (ibid., 339 ; add ibid., 350, 364, 378, 405, 520). 
 
 Gelasiau Sacram., n. 91, post olit. Horn, in pp. 749, bis. 750, bis. 
 Murat. ; add GaLic. Sacram. Mists, pro defunct., ibid., p. 950; S.Greg.
 
 316 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 "or that they may obtain eternal felicity in 
 the congregation of the saints ;" " may be enrolled in 
 
 Opp., t. v. p. 228, Paris ; Missale Goth., p. 394, ed. Thomas. Mur. " That, 
 severed from the horror of hell [horrore tartareo], placed in Abraham's 
 bosom, the Almighty would vouchsafe to resuscitate them in the first 
 resurrection, which He shall effect." Tertullian, in reasoning against 
 second marriages, asks how a wife is to pray for the two husbands, the 
 old and the new; and states the boon demanded for the dead one, 
 "refreshment and a share in the first resurrection." (JDe Monog,, x.) 
 
 P " May he rise again among those who rise, and among those who 
 receive their bodies in the day of resurrection may he receive his body, 
 and with the blessed who come at the right hand of God the Father 
 may he come, and among those who possess eternal life may he possess 
 it." (Sacr. Gelas., 1. c., p. 749.) " Let us deprecate the mercy of Almighty 
 God for the spirit of our dear N., whose burial is celebrated to-day, that 
 He would receive him in eternal rest, and restore him by a blessed 
 resurrection." (Ibid.) " Let his soul receive no injury, but when that 
 great day of resurrection and reward cometh, vouchsafe, Lord, to raise 
 him with Thy saints and Thine elect ; forgive him. transgressions and 
 sins ' to the last farthing,' and let him obtain a life of immortality and 
 an eternal kingdom with Thee." (Ibid., 750.) " Eternal God, Who hast 
 given us in Christ, Thy Only -begotten, our Lord, the hope of a blessed 
 resurrection ; grant that the souls of Thy servants, for whom we offer 
 to Thy Majesty this sacrifice of our redemption, may be found meet, 
 through Thy mercy, to attain with Thy saints to the rest of a blessed 
 resurrection." (Preef. Ant. in Pamel. Lit., ii.609.) " That Thou wouldrst 
 command the soul of Thy servant N. to be carried by the hands of Thy 
 holy angels to the bosom of the Patriarch Abraham Thy friend, to be 
 raided up in the last day of the great judgment." (Sacram. Greg., n. 104, 
 p. 214, Murat.) " And may be found meet to be raised among the saints 
 and elect i'n the glory of the resurrection." (Ibid., and in another 
 prayer, at the grave before interment, p. 215.) " Let us pray that the 
 pity of the Lord would vouchsafe to place him in the bosom of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and Jacob; that when the day of judgment shall come, He 
 may cause him to be raised, and be placed among His saints and elect," 
 after interment. (Ibid.) The Jacobite Liturgy prays for the person's 
 resurrection (Ren. ii. 167), " Raise them, O Lord, in that last Day, and 
 be Thy face calm towards them: and forgive for Thy mercy's sake 
 their sins and failings."
 
 OF PURGATORY. 317 
 
 the number of the saints who pleased God." There 
 are prayers also for the recently baptised % and for 
 eternal remission to those who desired penance, but 
 were cut off by death 1 ". There were also the well- 
 known prayers for St. Leo I. and St. Gregory I. 
 specifically *. 
 
 Perhaps it may not be an improbable conjecture, 
 that the Church at first prayed for all the departed in 
 one tenour *, without discriminating, leaving it to God 
 
 i Sacram. Gelas., n. 96, p. 755, ed. Mar. 
 
 ' Ibid., n. 98, p. 756. 
 
 8 " Grant to us, Lord, that this ohlation, by immolating which Thou 
 didst grant that the offences of the whole world should be pardoned, 
 may profit the soul of Thy servant Leo, through," &c., (Sacram. GHregor., 
 p. 101, ed. Murat.) ; and, substituting the name Gregory, (ibid., p. 25). 
 
 ' The ancient Office in the Apostolic Constitutions prays : " We offer 
 to Thee also for all who, from the beginning, have pleased Thee, saints, 
 patriarchs, prophets, just, apostles, martyrs, confessors, bishops, presby- 
 ters, deacons, sub-deacons, readers, singers, virgins, widows, laics, and 
 all of whom Thou knowest the names." (Const. Apost., viii. 12, t. i. 
 p. 403. Cotel.) The Liturgy of Theodorus, in use among the Nestorians, 
 goes on in one tenour : " O our Lord and God, receive from us by Thy 
 grace this sacrifice of thanksgiving, the reasonable fruit of our lips, that 
 there be before Thee a good memory of the ancient just, holy prophets, 
 blessed apostles, martyrs and confessors, bishops, doctors, priests, deacons, 
 and all the sons of the Holy Catholic Church, who in true faith passed 
 out of this world ; that through Thy grace, O Lord, Thou wouldest for- 
 give them all the sins and offences which in this world, in their mortal 
 body and soul subject to change, they sinned or offended against Thee ; 
 for there is no one who sinneth not." (Renaud., Lift. Orient., ii. 620, 
 621.) The Armenian Liturgy prays collectively : "Through this obla- 
 tion grant health, peace, plenty, &c., through it give rest to all who 
 have heretofore fallen asleep in Christ ; to the patriarchs [Adam, Noah, 
 Abraham, &c.], to the fathers, [of tribes, families, of the Armenian 
 people, antistites in its secular sense, C. M.,] to the prophets, to the 
 apostles, to the martyrs, to the bishops, to the elders [i.e. presbyters' 1 ,
 
 318 A11T1CLE XXII. 
 
 to hear her in whatever way He knew for each; 
 and so, that the prayers for deliverance from hell, 
 
 to the deacons, and to the whole clergy of Thy Holy Church, and to all 
 the laity, both men and women, who have ended (their life) in the 
 faith," (said privately, then aloud,) " with whom we beseech Thee to 
 visit us also." Then " of the Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and 
 of John Baptist, and of Stephen the first martyr, and of all the saints 
 let there be remembrance in this holy oblation, we beseech Thee." 
 Then, after full intercessions for the living, special mention of certain 
 departed : " Remember, O Lord, also the spirit of Thy servant N. JV., 
 and have mercy on him according to Thy great mercy, and on (the day 
 of Thy) visitation give him rest in the light of Thy countenance," (but 
 if he be living, " save him from all snares of the soul and body"). 
 "Remember, Lord, also those who have recommended themselves to 
 a mention of them in their prayers, both them that are in life, and them 
 that rest in death ; direct the intention [or " will "] of their requests 
 unto Thee, and of our own to that which is right and that tends to 
 salvation," &c. (Armenian Liturgy [Gregorian], translated by the Rev. 
 C. Malan.) In the Jacobite Liturgy of the twelve apostles, the one prayer 
 comprises all classes : " Remember, Lord, those also who pleased Thee 
 from the beginning, especially the holy glorious Mother of God, Mary, 
 John Baptist, &c. Remember also, Lord, all the faithful departed who 
 have died of old and come to Thee. Receive these oblations which are 
 offered for them to Thee this day, and make them rest in the blessed 
 bosom of Abraham. With hope of Thy mercy, all the departed have 
 received rest, and expect compassions of Thee, our adorable God. 
 Grant that they may be found meet to hear that life-giving word, 
 which shall call them and bring them, that they be invited to Thy 
 kingdom." (Renaudot, ii. 173.) Alcuin has the like prayer in the 
 offices which he framed, chiefly (it is related, Monit. JPratv. Alcuini, 
 Opp., t. ii. pt. i. p. 3, ed. Frob.) from the Sacramentaries of St. Gelusius 
 and St. Gregory : " We humbly pray Thee, Lord, Holy Father, 
 Almighty Everlasting God, for the spirits of Thy servants and hand- 
 maidens, whom )4 /roj the beginning of this world, Thou hast commanded 
 to be brought to Thyself, that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to give them 
 a lightsome place, a place of refreshment and quiet ; that it be allowed 
 them to pass the gates of hell and the ways of darkness, and they may 
 remain in the mansion of the saints and in the holy light which Thou
 
 OF PURGATORY. 319 
 
 related to souls on whom the particular judgment 
 was not yet passed u ; those for the saints were " for 
 increase of their glory/' as was expressed in words 
 in a Gothic Missal, before the close of the eighth cen- 
 tury v ; on which also Innocent III., at the beginning 
 of the thirteenth, says, that " very many thought not 
 
 promisedst of old to Abraham and his seed. Let their souls receive no 
 injury, but when that great day of resurrection and retribution shall 
 come, Thou vouchsafe to raise them, O Lord, together with Thy saints 
 and Thine elect, and efface their transgressions and sins ' to the utter- 
 most farthing,' that they may obtain immortal life and an eternal king- 
 dom with Thee." (Ibid., p. 82.) That of Dioscorus in like way prays 
 God: "Remember all who, from Adam until now, have had a conver- 
 sation well-pleasing to Thee, who have departed unto Thee ; especially 
 those who have excellently ministered and served before T^ee, faithful 
 priests and deacons, who have purified their own souls and those of 
 the people," &c. (Ibid., p. 293.) 
 
 u They occur chiefly on the day of the death or burial (see above, notes 
 k, 1, m). Since some are dying at every moment, the more general prayers 
 may perhaps relate to them, although not specified. Dieringer says of 
 these prayers : " To regard these formularies as prayers for those en- 
 gaged in the death-struggle is, even on this ground, inadmissible ; that 
 this liturgy, in its central prayers, presupposes death as having already 
 occurred; but the expressions are too strong to be applied to Purgatory. 
 But if one brings before one's mind the whole contents of the liturgies in 
 question, that the Church in these prayers sets the departed before her, 
 as they undergo the last agony, are placed before their Judge, pine in 
 Purgatory, await the Resurrection and the Judgment of the world; 
 all this, in time severed, is to the praying Church, directly present, since 
 she may be certain that her intercessions and sacrifices, though as yet 
 future, are taken account of by God at the time when their benefits can 
 still avail to those who are the objects of them." (Lehrb. d. Kath. 
 Dogm., 142, p. 721, ed. 5.) 
 
 T "For the glory of the martyrs and the rest of the departed." 
 (Missale Gothicum in Thomasius, " Codices Sacram. 900 annis vetus- 
 tiores," p. 393, Rom. 1680.)
 
 320 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 unworthy x ." The more common explanation was that 
 they were thanksgivings 7 , which suits the forms in 
 which they were commemorated, yet does not fit in 
 naturally with those in which they were prayed for. 
 St. Epiphanius explains that these prayers were in- 
 tended to mark the difference between the highest 
 saints and God z . St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in explaining 
 the Liturgy, apparently arranges the departed men- 
 tioned in it into three classes; 1. those who are com- 
 memorated and not prayed for " patriarchs, prophets, 
 apostles, martyrs, that at their prayers and inter- 
 cessions God would receive our petition;" 2. the holy 
 dead prayed for " then also in behalf of (virep) the 
 
 x " What is contained in a great many \_plerisqu.e\, viz. ' let such an 
 oblation profit [prosit vel proficiat], this or that saint to glory and 
 honour,' ought to be understood, that it should profit to this end, that 
 he should be more and more glorified on earth, or be honoured; although 
 a great many \_plerique] do not think it unworthy that the glory of the 
 saint be augmented up to the judgment, and that therefore, meanwhile, 
 the Church may wish for an increase of their glorifying." (Innocent 
 III. Archiep. Lugdun. in Decretal. Greg. IX. 1. iii. tit. 41, vel de celebr. 
 Miss. c. 6. Quum Martha, p. 614, ed. Ritter.) 
 
 y S. Aug. Enchirid., c. 109, in his Short Treatises, p. 151, Oxf. Tr., 
 quoted by Innocent III., 1. c. 
 
 z "The prayer for them [the departed] helpeth, although it cuts 
 not off everything of accusation. We make mention of the just and for 
 sinners. For the sinners, we entreat for the mercy of God. For the 
 just, and fathers, and patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, 
 ind martyrs, and confessors, and bishops, and anchorites, and the whole 
 Order, that we may separate the Lord Jesus Christ from the order of 
 men through the honours to Him, and may render Him reverence; 
 mindful that the Lord is not on a level with any among men, though 
 any man be ten thousand fold or yet more in righteousness." (Heer. 75, 
 n. 7, Opp. i. 911.)
 
 or PUROATORY. 321 
 
 holy fathers and bishops ;" and 3. of all universally 
 who have fallen asleep among us, believing that it 
 will be a very great advantage to the souls, in behalf 
 of (inrep) whom the supplication is put up while the 
 " holy and most awful sacrifice lieth there." 
 
 St. Cyril thus meets the difficulty, which, was in 
 the mouths of " many," " What is a soul benefited, 
 which departed out of this world with sins or without 
 sins, if it be remembered at the prayer ?" He answers 
 the question as to "sinners" by an illustration: 
 " Now, surely if a king had banished certain who had 
 offended him, and their relations, having woven a crown, 
 should offer it to him on behalf of those under his 
 vengeance, would he not grant relaxation of the punish- 
 ments ? In the same way we also, offering up to Him 
 supplications on behalf of those who are fallen asleep 
 before us, even though they be sinners, entwine no 
 crown, but offer Christ sacrificed for our sins, pro- 
 pitiating both on their behalf and our own, God, the 
 lover of mankind a ." 
 
 When we turn to individual writers in the early 
 Church, we find various statements with regard to the 
 conditions of the souls of the departed : and those not 
 only in different writers, but in the very same ; and 
 yet some of these writers are ordinarily so consistent, 
 that their sayings have to be reconciled. Then, too, as 
 to other minds, a concurrent language has great weight 
 as representing some common tone of thought or belief 
 in their period. Now, on the one side, we have broad 
 
 Cat. xxiii. Mystag. v. n. 9, 10. 
 Y
 
 322 ARTICLE XXIT. 
 
 statements, which assume that there are but two abodes 
 in the intermediate state, the one for the saved, the 
 other for the lost; and that the abode of the saved 
 is one of rest and refreshment b . They anticipate for 
 
 b " I affirm that souls never perish, for this would be a godsend to the 
 wicked. What, then, befalls them ? The souls of the good are con- 
 signed to a better place, and those of the unjust and evil to a worse, 
 there to await the Day of Judgment." (St. Justin M., Dial. c. Tryph., 
 5, p. 78, Oxf. Tr.) 
 
 " We will answer [Marcion], this very Scripture too [of Dives and 
 Lazarus], which separates Abraham's bosom for the poor man from 
 the inferi, refuting him. For the inferi are one place, I deem ; Abra- 
 ham's bosom, another. For he says that a great gulf intervenes be- 
 tween those regions, and forbids a passage on either side. Nor would 
 the rich man have lifted up his eyes, and that from afar, unless unto 
 an upper region. Whence it is clear to any wise man that there is 
 a certain bounded space called Abraham's bosom, for the reception 
 of the souls of his sons which shall yield meanwhile refreshment to 
 the souls of the just, until the consummation of all things shall com- 
 plete the fulness of reward at the resurrection of all ; a temporary re- 
 ception of the souls of the faithful, where an image of the future shall 
 be delineated, and there be an anticipation of either judgment [of 
 eternal death and salvation]." (Tert., adv. Marc., iv. 34.) 
 
 " Are all souls, then, in the inferi ? sayest thou. Will you, nill 
 you, thou hast there already both punishments and refreshments; the 
 poor and the rich. For why shouldest thou not think that the soul 
 is both punished and cherished in the inferi, under the expectation 
 of either judgment, in a sort of anticipation of it ?" (JDe anima, 
 n. 58.) 
 
 " Passing which gate [of Hades], those who are brought down 
 by the angels set over souls, go not by one way; but the just, 
 light-led to the right, and hymned by the angels presiding in their 
 place, are led to a lightsome spot, where dwell the just from the begin- 
 ning, not constrained by necessity, but ever enjoying the gaze of the 
 things which they behold, and gladdened with the expectation of the 
 things ever new, and thinking them better than these ; to whom their 
 abode brings no troubles ; no burning heat, no frost are there ; but the 
 sight of the righteous fathers which they see ever smiles upon them,
 
 OF PURGATORY. 323 
 
 the departed the same comfort and peace which people 
 commonly do now ; they console under sorrow for losses 
 
 while, after this spot, they await the rest and new eternal life in heaven. 
 It is called Abraham's bosom. But the unjust are dragged by avenging 
 angels to the left" ("to the confines of hell"). S. Hippol., adv. Grcec. 
 et Plat. n. 1, Gall. ii. 451, 452.) 
 
 "As those, who departing from this world according to the common 
 death, are disposed of according to their acts and merits as they shall 
 have been judged worthy ; some into the place called Infernus, some 
 into Abraham's bosom, and in different places or mansions." (Origen, 
 de Princ. iv. 23 (as revised by Rutinus), Opp. i. 185.) 
 
 " For neither are the places which lie below the earth themselves 
 void of ordered and arranged powers. For there is a place where the 
 souls of the godly and ungodly are led, feeling the foretastes of the 
 judgment to come." (Novatian, de Trin., c. i.) 
 
 " The vengeance of hell overtakes us at once, and, immediately we 
 depart from the body, if we have so lived, ' we perish from the right 
 way.' The rich and poor man in the Gospel shew us this; the one 
 placed by angels in the abode of the blessed and in Abraham's bosom, 
 the other at once received into the place of punishment. So quickly 
 did punishment come upon the dead, that even his brothers were still 
 alive. There is no deferring or delaying there. For, as the day of 
 judgment is the eternal award either of bliss or punishment, so the 
 time of death orders the interval for every man by its own laws, com- 
 mitting every one to Abraham or to punishment till the judgment." 
 (St. Hilary, in Psalm ii. 48.) 
 
 " I think that I have to prove first of all, that our souls are not 
 dissolved when they put off the body ; but, according to the quality 
 of their deeds, some are banished to penal places, some are cherished 
 n peaceful abodes." (St. Zeno, lib. i. tr. 16, n. 2, de Besurr.) 
 
 " Why mourn you so pertinaciously those who migrate out of this 
 life to better things?" (Ib., n. 6.) 
 
 "The brazen altar represents the earth, under which is the In- 
 fernus, a region removed from punishment and fires, and the rest of 
 the saints ; in which the just are seen and heard by the ungodly, but 
 they cannot pass thither." (Victorinus, in Apoc. vi. 9; Gall. ii. 57.) 
 (Those spoken of by St. John are martyrs, but Victorinus has only the 
 two classes, sancti and impii, of whom the saints are at rest.) 
 
 " Between death and the ivferi there is this difference ; death it is,
 
 324 ARTICLE XXTI. 
 
 with the same topics, not only that those departed rest 
 from their labours, and have no more strife with sin, 
 but that they are in peace c ; they speak absolutely of 
 
 whereby the soul is departed from the body ; Infernus, a place in which 
 souls are laid up either in refreshment or in pains, according to the 
 quality of their deserts." (S. Jerome, in Os. xiii. 14, t. vi. p. 152, 
 Vail.) 
 
 " After the departure from the body, forthwith there takes place the 
 distinction of the just and unjust. For they are led by the angels to 
 the places meet for them; the souls of the just to Paradise, where is 
 the converse and sight of angels and archangels, and of the Saviour 
 Christ in vision, as is written, ' being absent from the body and present 
 with the Lord.' But the souls of the unjust to the place of Hades," 
 &c. (Qu. et resp. ad Orthod., p. 75 ; in St. Justin M., App. p. 470.) 
 
 " We learn from the Scriptures that the souls of sinners are in Hades, 
 below all earth and sea, as the Psalm (Ixxxvii. [Ixxxviii.] 7) says, and 
 as is written in Job (x. 22). But the souls of the just, after the com- 
 ing of Christ (as we learn from the robber on the cross) are in Para- 
 dise. For Christ our God did not open Paradise for the soul of the holy 
 robber alone, but for all the souls of the holy thereafter." (Quesstt. ad 
 Antioch., q. 19, in St. Athanasius, Opp. ii. 272.) 
 
 The author of the Carmen de judicio Domini in Tertullian., pp. 
 808, 809, knew but of the two abodes. So Prudentius, Cathem. x. 151 
 162, de exeq. def. 
 
 c " We injure Christ, when, as each is called away by Him, we bear 
 it impatiently, as though they were to be pitied. ' I have a desire,' saith 
 the Apostle, ' to be taken and to be with Christ.' But how much better 
 doth he shew the desire of the Christians to be ! Wherefore, if we im- 
 patiently mourn for others who have obtained this desire, we are un- 
 willing to obtain it ourselves." (Tertullian de Pat., n. 9, p. 340, O. T.) 
 " It is for him to fear death, who willeth not to go to Christ : it is for 
 him to will not to go to Christ, who believeth not that he beginneth to 
 reign with Christ. For it is written, ' the just liveth by faith.' If thou 
 art just and livest by faith, if thou truly believest in God, why, since 
 thou art to be with Christ and art secure of the Lord's promise, dost 
 thou not embrace thy being called by Christ, and congratulate thee that 
 thou art rid of Satan ? Simeon, rejoicing in the nearness now of death, 
 said, ' Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace;' proving and
 
 OF PURGATORY. 325 
 
 attesting that then have the servants of God peace, then free, then 
 quiet rest, when, withdrawn from these storms of the world, we gain 
 the haven of our everlasting rest and security." (S. Cyprian de Mor- 
 tal., n. 2.) " The righteous are called to a place of refreshment, the 
 wicked are hurried to punishment" [by the pestilence] ; " the multi- 
 tude of those who are already believers is called to peace." (Ibid., n. 10.) 
 ' We should not regret nor deplore them, nor go into mourning for those 
 who have already put on white raiment." (Ibid., 15.) " Embrace we the 
 day which assigns each to his own domicile ; which restores us, rescued 
 hence and freed from the chains of the world, to paradise and the king- 
 dom of heaven." (Ibid., n. 20.) " The good man shall go, rejoicing, to 
 his everlasting house, but the wicked shall fill all with lamentations." 
 (Greg. Neocas. Metaphr. in Eccl., xii. 6. p. 95, Paris, 1622.) St.Macarius 
 of Egypt even contemplates the perfecting of the imperfect in a moment 
 by God. " Qu. But if a man, engaged in war, and having two sides in his 
 soul, of sin and of grace, is removed from this world, whither goeth he, 
 being held back on the two sides ? Ans. Where his mind hath its aim, 
 where he loveth, there he goeth. Only if affliction and war assail thee, 
 thou oughtest to contradict and hate ; for, that the war cometh is not 
 thine, but to hate is thine. And then the Lord, looking at thy mind, 
 that thou strivest and lovest Him with all thy soul, severeth death from 
 thy soul in one hour (for this is not difficult for Him) and He receiveth 
 thee to His bosom and to the light. For He snatcheth thee, in an 
 hour's turn, from the mouth of darkness, and forthwith translateth thee 
 to His kingdom. For to God all things are easy to do in an hour's 
 turn, so thou have love for Him." (Horn. 26, pp. 151, 152, Par., 1622.) 
 " On the two-fold condition of those who depart out of this life." 
 " When the soul of man goeth forth from the body, a great mystery is 
 accomplished there. For if he be under the guilt of sin, bands of 
 devils come, and angels of the left, and powers of darkness receive 
 that soul, and hold it on their side. See from the good side that this 
 is so. For to the holy servants of God there are from now, angels 
 awaiting, and holy spirits encircling and guarding them, and when they 
 go forth from the body, the choirs of angels receive their souls to their 
 side, to the pure world, and thus they bring them to the Lord." (Id., 
 Horn. 22, p. 133.) St. Hilary : " This guardianship, (to be scorched 
 neither by sun or moon, and to be preserved from all evil,) doth not 
 belong to this time and this world, but is the expectation of the goods to 
 come, when, departing out of the body, all the faithful shall be reserved, 
 through the guardianship of the Lord, for that entrance of the heavenly
 
 326 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 kingdom, placed meanwhile in Abraham's bosom (whither the inter- 
 posed gulf hinders the ungodly from approaching) until the time come 
 of entering the kingdom of heaven. The Lord then ' shall guard their 
 going out,' when, going out from the body, they rest, severed from the 
 ungodly by the interposed gulf. The Lord shall ' guard their coming in,' 
 bringing them into that eternal and blessed kingdom." (In Ps. cxx. 
 fin., p. 383, Ben.) "The joy of each just one, as of Lazarus resting in 
 Abraham's bosom, is shewn. For the joy of the just is when he seeth 
 the vengeance (Ps. Ivii. 11); because, when sinners are to be punished, 
 he rejoices that he is carried by angels into eternal rest." (Ibid., in 
 Ps. Ivii. n. 6, p. 125, Ben.) " Let innocent religion have this confidence, 
 that, if it be put to death unjustly, the soul, going forth from the habita- 
 tion of the body, rests in the guardianship of God." (Ibid., in Ps. liii. 
 n. 10.) The ancient author of the de Virginitate in St. Athanasius : 
 " If thou walkest in the world, thou walkest in death and out of God, 
 according to the Divine Scripture ; but if thou walk in righteousness, 
 thou walkest in life, and death shall not hurt thee. With the just it is 
 not death but translation. For they are translated from this world to 
 the everlasting rest, and as one goeth out of prison, so do the saints go 
 forth from this toilsome life to the good things prepared for them." 
 (n. 8, in St. Ath., Opp. ii. 120, 121.) St. Ambrose : " Death is in every 
 way a good ; because it puts away those principles in us which war 
 against each other, and because it is a sort of harbour for those who, 
 after tossing on the wide sea of this life, seek for an anchorage of secure 
 peace." (De Bono Mortis, 4.) "Unwise persons fear death as the 
 greatest of ills ; but the wise desire it, as if a rest after toil and the 
 end of ills." (Ibid., 8.) "Relying on these considerations, let us betake 
 ourselves courageously to our Redeemer Jesus, courageously to the 
 Council of Patriarchs, to our father Abraham, when our day shall 
 arrive ; courageously to that holy assembly and congregation of the 
 just. We shall go to our fathers, to our preceptors in the faith ; so that, 
 though our works fail us, our faith may succour us, our birthright plead 
 for us. We shall go where holy Abraham opens his arms to receive the 
 poor, as he received Lazarus ; where they rest who in this life endured 
 heavy and sharp inflictions. . . . We shall go to those who sit down in 
 the kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because when 
 asked to supper they did not excuse themselves. We shall go thither, 
 where there is a paradise of delight, where Adam, who fell among 
 thieves, has forgotten to lament his wounds, where, too, the thief him- 
 self rejoices in the fellowship of the kingdom of heaven; where are no
 
 OF PURGATORY. 327 
 
 clouds, where no thunder, no lightning, no storm of wind, no darkness' 
 no evening, no summer, no winter, will vary the seasons. There will be 
 no cold, hail, rain, nor the presence of the sun, moon, or stars ; but the 
 brightness of light will alone shine forth." (Ibid., 12.) St. Chrysostom : 
 " Think, to whom he is gone, and receive comfort ; where Paul is, where 
 Peter, where the whole choir of saints." (In Illud de Dormientibus 
 nolo, Horn. 5, n. 3, t. i. p. 766.) " Nor then [when Joseph made the 
 mourning Gen. 1. 9 11] were the gates of hell broken, or the bands 
 of death loosed, nor was death called a sleep. Wherefore, when they 
 feared death, they did this ; but now, for the grace of God, since death has 
 become sleep, and the end rest, and there is much assurance of the 
 resurrection, we exult and are glad, as removed from life to life. Why 
 say I, 'from life to life?' From the worse to the better, from the 
 temporal to the eternal, from the earthly to the heavenly." (Horn. 67, 
 in Gen. n. 4, t. iv. p. 641.) " It is death no more, but a sleep and 
 a journey, and a translation from worse to better. Wherefore also Paul 
 crieth aloud, ' to depart and be with Christ is much better.' But this is 
 now, since Christ is come, since the gates of brass have been broken, 
 since the Sun of righteousness hath shone forth over the whole world. 
 For then death had still a fearful aspect, and shook the mind of those 
 righteous men." (Ibid., Horn. 45, n. 2, p. 459.) " Death is rest, freedom 
 from labour, reward of toils, reward and crown of struggles. Wherefore, 
 at first, there were wailings and laments for the dead ; but now, hymns 
 and psalmodies. For they wept Jacob forty days, and the Jews wept 
 and mourned Moses forty other days. For then death was death ; 
 now, not so ; but hymns and prayers and Psalms ; all things shewing 
 that the event hath pleasure. For Psalms are a symbol of cheerfulness : 
 ' If any is of good cheer, let him sing Psalms." Since, then, we are full 
 of cheerfulness, we sing over the dead Psalms which bid us be of good 
 courage as to the end. ' Turn again,' he saith, ' unto thy rest, O my 
 soul, for the Lord hath dealt well with thee.' Thou seest that death is 
 a benefit and rest. For he who entereth into that rest, hath rested from 
 his works, as God from His." (Horn, de S. Bernice, &c., n. 3, t. ii. 
 pp. 638, 639.) St. Jerome, to a mother on the death of a daughter : 
 " Let the dead be lamented, but he whom Gehenna receiveth, whom 
 hell devoureth, for whose pain the eternal fire blazes up. Let its, whose 
 departure a company of angels attendeth, whom Christ cometh forth to 
 meet, be rather grieved, if we dwell longer in this tabernacle of death, 
 because, as long as we linger here, we are pilgrims from the Lord." 
 (Ep. 39 ad Paulam de ob. Sites., n. 3, pp. 177, 178, Vail.) St. Augus-
 
 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 those being at peace for whom they pray for rest a ; 
 they so speak not of individuals only, but of the great 
 body of believers. (See above, p. 324, sqq.) 
 
 tine : "Although it is not lawful to doubt that the souls of the just and 
 pious departed live in rest." (De Civ. D., iii. 19.) " Of which [our 
 city of God] how that part had its birth, which is gathered out of mortal 
 men to be associated to the immortal angels, and now is in its mortal 
 pilgrimage on earth, or, in those who have died, rest in secret receptacles 
 and abodes of souls, the same God creating them." (Id., ibid., xii. 9.) 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria : " The force of His words (' Father, into Thy 
 hands I commend My Spirit') laid a beginning and foundation of good 
 hope for ourselves too. For it ought, I deem, to be held fixed, and very 
 justly, that the souls of the saints, departing from the earthly bodies, 
 are deposited, as it were, in the goodness and loving -kindness of God, as 
 into the hands of a most tenderly loving Father, and not, as some of the 
 unbelievers think, linger in the tombs waiting for the libations there ; 
 neither are they, like the sin-loving souls, conveyed to the place of 
 boundless torment, i.e. Hades ; but rather they hasten to the hands of 
 the Father of all, and of Christ our Saviour Who made for us this new 
 way. For He gave up His soul into the hands of His Own Father, that 
 we, too, having in this and through this received a beginning, may have 
 bright hopes, firmly settled and believing, that we, when we have en- 
 dured the death of the flesh, shall be in the bands of God, and in a far 
 exceeding better state than we were in the flesh. Wherefore also the 
 wise Paul writes to us, that it is ' better to depart and be with Christ.' " 
 (On St. Joh., xix. 36, 1. xii. Opp. iv. 1069, Aub.) 
 
 d Archbish op Ussher instances that St. Ambrose says of Valentinian : 
 " Believe we, that the stain of sin being wiped away, he mounts up 
 cleansed, whom his faith washed and his prayers consecrated. Believe 
 we, that he has ' mounted up from the wilderness,' i.e. this dry and un- 
 cultivated spot, to those flowery delights, where, united with his brothers, 
 he enjoys the pleasure of eternal life." " Yet," he adds, " blessed both, 
 if my orisons shall aught avail, no day shall pass you by in silence, no 
 speech of mine shall pass you over unhonoured ; no night shall run by, 
 some portion of my prayers unbestowed, I will frequent you in all my 
 oblations." (De Obit. Valent., n. 77, 78, Opp. ii. 1194.) Of Theodosius, 
 St. Ambrose says : " Freed from doubtful conflict, Theodosius, of august 
 memory, now enjoys perpetual light, abiding tranquillity ; and, for the
 
 OF PURGATORY. 329 
 
 This is the light, bright side. There are to be 
 adjusted with this two sets of statements, both founded 
 on Holy Scripture. 1. The one which unquestionably 
 relates to the Day of Judgment, (whether the general 
 judgment of all, or the particular judgment of the 
 single soul, when it parts out of the body,) St. Paul's 
 
 things which he did in this body, he rejoices in the fruits of the Divine 
 reward. Therefore, because he loved the Lord his God, he hath 
 attained the fellowship of the saints." (De Olit. Theod., n. 32, Opp. ii. 
 1206.) Then he prays, " Give perfect rest to Thy servant Theodosius ; 
 that rest which Thou hast prepared for Thy saints. Let his soul turn 
 thither, whence it carne down, where it cannot feel the sting of death, 
 where it may know that this death is the end, not of nature but of 
 fault. For in that he died, he died to sin, that now there may be no 
 more room for sin ; but he shall rise again, that life may be restored 
 more perfect by a renewed gift. I loved him, and, therefore, I follow 
 him to the land of the living ; nor will I forsake him until by my tears 
 and prayers I bring the man, whither his merits call him, to the holv 
 mount of God, where is perpetual life, where is no corruption, no con- 
 tagion, no groan, no dolour, no society of the dead, the true land of the 
 living, where this mortality puts on immortality, and this corrupt ion puts 
 on incorruption." (Ibid., n.36, 37.) And then again : " Theodosius there 
 abideth in light, and glorieth in the assemblies of the saints." (Ibid., n. 
 39.) Of his own brother Satyrus, after setting forth his excellences, he . 
 says : " He hath, then, entered the kingdom of heaven, because he be- 
 lieved the Word of God," (ibid., n. 61, Opp. ii. 28) ; and concludes the 
 oration, " To Thee now, Almighty God, I commend the guiltless soul, to 
 Thee I offer my sacrifice ; receive, propitious and serene, the brother's gift, 
 the sacrifice of the priest." (Ibid., n. 80.) And to Faustinus he contrasts 
 his sister's death with the perpetual decay of earthly things ; she, " a holy 
 and admirable woman, who is for a time snatched from us, but is pass- 
 ing a better life there ;" " so then," he adds, " I think that she is not so 
 much to be mourned, as to be followed by orisons ; nor is she, I deem, 
 to be saddened by many tears, but rather her soul is to be commended 
 to the Lord." (Ep. 39, Opp. ii. 944.) St. Ephrem, in his Canons for the 
 Departed, prays for those whose praters he had asked, e.g. Can. 16, Opp. 
 Syr. iii. 259, 261.
 
 330 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 description of that fire which shall try every man's 
 work, when they whose work shall be burned shall 
 escape, yet so as by fire. 2. The other, our blessed 
 Lord's words of that prison, into which they who shall 
 be "cast, shall not come forth till" they have "paid 
 the uttermost farthing," which, while some interpreted 
 of hell, others conceived to be a temporary prison ; the 
 debt being paid, not by anything which we can do, but 
 by suffering. 
 
 1. Of the first class, St. Clement of Alexandria 
 says, " We say that fire purifies not flesh but sinful 
 souls, speaking not of that all-devouring and common 
 fire, but of that discriminating fire, which penetrates 
 the soul which passes through the fire e ." Origen pur- 
 sues this with much fuller reference to St. Paul's words : 
 " If, after the remission of sins and the dispensation of 
 the washing of regeneration, we sin, (as we most of us 
 do who are not perfected like the Apostles,) and after 
 or with this sinning do some things as we ought, what 
 awaits us ? If, after the foundation Christ Jesus, thou 
 hast gold, much or little, silver, precious stone, but 
 also wood, hay, stubble, what wouldest thou should 
 happen to thee after thy departure ? Enter into the 
 holies, with thy wood, hay, and stubble, to defile the 
 kingdom of God ? Or again, abide in the fire for the 
 hay, wood, stubble, and receive nothing for the gold, 
 silver, precious stone ? Neither were this equitable. 
 What, then, followeth, to receive first for the wood ? 
 Plainly, that the fire consumeth the wood, hay, stubble. 
 Strom, vii. 6, p. 851.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 331 
 
 For God, Who is a consuming fire, consumed not His 
 own image and likeness, but the wood, hay, stubble, 
 superbuilded f ." Origen is followed in this by St. Am- 
 brose, who believed that the Day of Judgment would 
 be prolonged so that all but great saints would have 
 suffering in it. 
 
 " ' Thou hast proved us by fire/ says David, there- 
 fore we shall be proved by fire ; therefore the sons 
 of Levi will be purged by fire ; by fire, Ezekid; by fire, 
 Daniel. But these, though proved by fire, yet shall 
 say, 'We passed through fire and water,' (Ps. Ixvi. 12). 
 Others shall remain in the fire ; and the fire shall be 
 as dew to them (Song of Three Children, 27), as to the 
 Hebrew children who were exposed to the fire of the 
 burning furnace. But the avenging flame shall con- 
 sume the ministers of impiety. Woe is me, should 
 my work be burned, and I suffer this worsting of my 
 labour ! Although the Lord will save His servants, we 
 shall be saved by faith, but so saved as by fire. Al- 
 though we shall not be burned up, yet we shall be 
 burned. But how some remain in the fire, others 
 escape through it, learn from another Scripture. The 
 Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea, the Israelites 
 passed over ; Moses passed through, Pharaoh sank, for 
 his heavy sins drowned him. In like manner the 
 irreligious will sink in the lake of burning fire g ." 
 
 f In Jerem. Horn. xvi. n. 5, 6, t. iii., pp. 231, 232 (abridged) ; 
 in Num. Horn. xxv. t. ii. p. 368 ; also, in Lev. Horn. xiv. n. 3, 
 p. 259. 
 
 s In Ps. xxxvi. n. 26, i. 790, Sen. Again; "All must be proved
 
 332 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 St. Hilary also, probably, here as elsewhere 11 , fol- 
 lowed Origen ; the more so, since he, with Origen ', 
 combines with St. Paul's words our Lord's saying, 
 "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
 fire ;" " for," he adds, " to those baptized in the Holy 
 Ghost it remains to be consummated by the fire of judg- 
 ment 1 '." "Since we are to give an account for every 
 
 through fire, as many as desire to return to Paradise ; for it is not said 
 lor nothing, that, when Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, 
 God placed at the outlet of Paradise a fiery sword which turned every 
 way. All must pass through the flames, whether he be John the Evan' 
 gelist, whom the Lord so loved as to say to Peter of him, ' If I wish 
 him to tarry, what is that to thee? Follow thou Me?' Some have 
 doubted of his death ; of his passage through the fire we cannot doubt, 
 for he is in Paradise, not separated from Christ. Or, whether he be 
 Peter, he who received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, who 
 walked upon the sea, must still say, ' We passed through fire and water, 
 and Thou broughtest us out into a place of refreshment.' But the fiery 
 sword will soon be turned by St. John, for iniquity is not found in him 
 whom Righteousness loved. Whatever human defect was in him, Divine 
 Love melted it away, for 'her wings are as the wings of fire ?' (Cant. 
 viii. 6.) He who possesses here the fire of love, will have no cause to 
 fear there the fiery sword. But he shall be tried as silver, I, as lead ; 
 / shall burn till the lead melts away. If no silver be found in me, 
 ah me ! I shall be plunged down into the lowest pit, or consume entire 
 as the stubble. Should aught of gold or silver be found in me, not for 
 my works, but through the mercy and grace of Christ, by the ministry 
 of the priesthood, I shall peradventure say, ' They that hope in Thee 
 shall not be ashamed.' The fiery sword, then, shall consume iniquity, 
 which is placed on the leaden scale. One, then, only could not feel that 
 fire, Christ the Righteousness of God, because He did no sin ; for the 
 fire found nought in Him which it might consume." (In Ps. cxviii. 
 Serm. xx. n. 1214, i. 1225, B.) 
 
 b See Bened. Prcef., n. 29. 
 
 1 Horn. 24, in Luc., Opp. iii., 961, 962, De la Rue. 
 
 k In Matt. ii. 4, p. 616; add In Ps. cxviii. Lit. iii. n. 5.
 
 OF PURGATOTCY. 333 
 
 idle word, shall we desire the Day of Judgment, in 
 which we must undergo that unspent fire, and those 
 heavy penalties for expiating the soul from its sins ? 
 The sword will pass through the soul of blessed Mary, 
 that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. 
 If that Virgin, who could contain God, shall come 
 into the severity of the judgment, who shall dare 
 desire to be judged of God 1 ?" 
 
 St. Gregory Nazianzen says, of those who rejected 
 the penitent : " Let these, if they will, go my way and 
 Christ's ; if not, their own. Perchance then they will 
 be baptized with the fire, the last baptism, the more 
 painful and longer, which devours what is course, like 
 hay, and consumes the lightness of all vice m ." He 
 says, in a doubtful case of acting : " The end of these 
 things I will remit to the last fire, which convicts and 
 purifies all things with judgment, if by some craft 
 we escape notice here n ." 
 
 St. Ephrem, since he did not know Greek , is plainly 
 independent. He says, "Both the just and the unjust 
 shall pass through the fire which is to try them, and 
 
 1 In Ps. cxviii. Lit. iii. n. 12. 
 
 m Orat. xxxix. in SS. Lum., n. 19, p. 690, Ben. He uses the word 
 TVXOV in the same way of himself : " Perchance, I shall hereafter be 
 moulded by another moulding, cleansed by the friendly fire." De seipso, 
 v. 496, p. 48, Toll. In Orat. iii. n. vii. p. 71, he exhorts to " build on 
 the foundation of faith, not wood, nor hay, nor stubble, matter unre- 
 sisting and easily consumed, when what is ours is judged by the fire 
 or purified but gold, silver, precious stones, which abide and are 
 stable." 
 
 n De seipso, 10 13. 
 
 9 See Dr. Pusey, " Doctrine of the Real Presence," pp. 411, 412.
 
 334 ARTICLE XXIT. 
 
 shall be proved by it; the righteous pass and the 
 flame is quiet ; but it burneth the wicked and snatcheth 
 him away p :" and " What shall I do, who must pass 
 over the burning flame ? How shall I be able to soar 
 high above it 1 ?" St. Ephrem connects this fire with 
 the fire of hell, which he prays may shrink back 
 "through the precious Body and Blood of Christ, 
 which" "the saved had received; and that the Cross 
 of the Son of the living God may be a bridge over 
 the sea of fire r ." 
 
 St. Jerome, in answer to Jovinian, (who maintained 
 the paradox, that, as there were only two classes, those 
 on the right hand, and those on the left, all the saved 
 would have the same reward,) alleged, among other 
 places, those words of St. Paul : " If he whose work 
 was burned and perished, shall lose indeed the reward 
 of his labour, but himself be saved, yet not without 
 the probation of fire; then, he whose work abides, 
 which he built on the foundation, will be saved with- 
 out the probation of fire, and so there will be some 
 difference between the salvation of each s ." 
 
 St. Augustine expresses himself as strongly as any 
 other fathers as to the benefit of prayers for the de- 
 
 P Canon xlii., Opp. Syr., t. vi. p. 298; Burgess's Hymns of St. Ephr., 
 p. 32. 
 
 i Can. ix., ib. 236 ; Burg., p. 18. 
 
 r See Canon Ixxxi. init., p. 355 ; Parcen. iii. p. 386, P. xiii. p. 432 ; 
 P. xxiii. pp. 458, 459 ; P. Ixiv. p. 535 ; in Dr. Pusey's " Real Presence," 
 pp. 124, 418422. 
 
 8 Adv. Jov., lib. ii. n. 22; t. ii. p. 360, Vail. His words on Am. 
 vii. 4, seem to me to belong to this life.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 335 
 
 parted, and enumerates it among the errors of the 
 Arian Aerius, that he said that oblation "ought not 
 to be made for those asleep V In regard to the puri- 
 fying fire at the judgment, he used the same language 
 as the others, briefly but undoubtingly in earlier works, 
 and has the well-known passage on its awfulness : 
 " ' Rebuke me not, Lord, in Thine indignation.' Let 
 me not be among those to whom Thou wilt say, 'Go 
 into fire everlasting, which is prepared for the devil 
 and his angels.' 'JSTor rebuke me in Thy wrath,' but 
 purge me in this life, and make me such that I shall 
 no longer need the amending fire. (This he says) on 
 account of those ' who shall be saved, yet so as by fire.' 
 Why, but because here they build on the foundation 
 wood, hay, stubble ? If they would build gold, silver, 
 precious stones, they would have no fear as to either 
 fire, not only that eternal fire which shall to eternity 
 torment the ungodly, but that also which shall amend 
 those who shall be saved by fire. For it is said, 
 'Yet himself shall be saved, but so as by fire.' And 
 because it is said, himself shall be saved, that fire 
 is despised. Yet, although they shall be saved by 
 fire, more grievous will be that fire, than whatever 
 men can suffer in this life u ." In his latest works he 
 
 ' De Hares., n. 53, t. viii. p. 55. 
 
 u In Ps. xxxvii. n. 3, t. iv. p. 295. He adds, that in this life 
 good or bad, the martyr and the malefactor, suffer alike the same 
 things. More briefly, de Gen. c. Man. ii. 30, Opp. i. 677. " He who 
 cultivates not this field, but allows it to be choked with thorns, has in 
 this life the curse upon his ' earth' in all his works, and after this life 
 will have either a fire of purgation or eternal punishment. Thus no one
 
 336 ARTICLE XXIT. 
 
 somehow throws a doubt on the interpretation, ex- 
 plaining the " fire" primarily of tribulation in this life x . 
 Even in that last book, De Cwitate Dei?, he writes 
 thus doubtfully : " After the death of this body, until 
 the arrival of that last day of condemnation and re- 
 ward after the resurrection of the bodies, should it be 
 said that in this interval the spirits of the dead suffer 
 
 escapes that sentence (Gen. iii. 17)." "All are rebuked in the day of 
 Judgment, who have not the Foundation, which is Christ. But they 
 are amended, i.e. purged, who, on this foundation, build up wood, hay, 
 stubble. For they ' will suffer loss, yet shall be saved so as by fire.' 
 What, then, prayeth he who willeth not in the anger of the Lord to be 
 either rebuked or amended ? What but that he be healed ? For 
 where health is, neither is death to be feared, nor the physician's hand, 
 burning or cutting." In Ps. vi. n. 3, Opp. iv. 26. " If he shall have 
 built on the foundation, wood, hay, stubble ; that is, if he has built on 
 the foundation of his faith worldly love ; yet, if Christ be in the foun- 
 dation, so as to have the first place in his heart, and i nothing whatever 
 be preferred to Him, such are endured, are suffered. The furnace 
 shall come and shall burn the wood, hay, and stubble ; and ' he shall 
 be saved, yet so as by fire.' This will the furnace (from Gen. xv. 17) 
 do ; it will separate off some to the left ; others it will in a manner 
 strain off unto the right ; the birds it did not divide." In Ps. ciii. n. 5, 
 ib. 1154. He gives the same explanation of Abraham's vision, De Civ. 
 Dei, xvi. 24. 4, " By that fire is signified the Day of Judgment, severing 
 the carnal who are to be saved by fire or condemned in fire ;" and xx. 26; 
 " From these things it seems to appear more evidently, that in their 
 judgment there will be some purifying punishments of some;" and xxi. 
 16 : " Let him opine that there will be no purifying punishments, save 
 before that last and tremendous judgment." 
 
 x Sufferings in this life are but prominent and in the first place, as an 
 adequate meaning of 1 Cor. iii. 11 sqq., with an expression of un- 
 certainty as to any further fulfilment of the words " after this life," 
 dejide et oper., c. 16, pp. 6265, Oxf. Tr. (about A.D. 413, Ben. Preface), 
 in the Enchiridion (not earlier than 421, Ben. Pref.), c. 68, 69, ela- 
 borately in the de 8 Dulcitii queestt. [A.D. 422 or 425, Ben. Pret'.] 
 q. i. n. 6. * xxi. 26, 4.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 337 
 
 such a fire, which they do not feel who had not habits 
 and likings in the life of this body, which require 
 their wood, hay, and stubble, to be burned up ; but they 
 feel who have carried with them the like worldly taber- 
 nacles, whether there only, or here and there, or not 
 there because here, though they experience the fire 
 of transitory tribulation, rescuing venial offences from 
 damnation by consuming them, I do not oppose, for 
 perchance it is true." 
 
 St. Paulinus, of Nola : " ' Our God is a consuming 
 fire.' The Lord grant unto me here, that in me, too, 
 for me, He be a consuming fire. May my heart burn 
 for me with this fire to life eternal, lest my soul burn 
 with it to perpetual punishment. For in this fire shall 
 the day of the Lord be revealed, and 'the fire shall 
 try every man's work, of what sort it is.' If we 
 dwell in the city of God by those works, whereby we 
 become meet to be citizens with the saints, our work 
 shall not be burned ; and that sagacious fire will, when 
 we pass through its ordeal, surround us with no severe 
 heat of punishment ; but, as if we were commended to 
 its care, it will play around us with a kind caress, so 
 that we may say, 'We have passed through fire and 
 water, and Thou hast brought us to a place of re- 
 freshment *.' " 
 
 The other passage, of a prison, where one who is 
 cast shall pay the very last mite, if not interpreted of 
 
 1 Epist. xxviii. ad Sever., n. 1 3, i. 176, Paris, 1085. So also the 
 author of the Ep. ad Marc., n. 7 ; ib. App. ii. 6. Lactantius (though 
 no authority) expresses much the same. 
 
 Z
 
 338 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 hell, as some fathers do, would imply the existence of 
 a place, where those souls should be detained, who 
 although saved, were not yet (on account of their pre- 
 vious misdeeds or neglect of God) admitted to be- 
 hold Him. 
 
 The very ancient Acts of St. Perpetua and St. Felicitas 
 have been thought to have been written by Tertullian a , 
 and, if so, when a Montanist. In them St. Perpetua 
 relates her being called suddenly to pray for her 
 brother Dinocrates, to have seen him with tokens of 
 distress in darkness, and pining for something with- 
 held. After her prolonged prayers night and day she 
 saw him in light, cleansed, refreshed b . In answer to 
 the Pelagians, who quoted this vision, in proof that 
 those who died without baptism might gain its bene- 
 fits through the prayers of others, St. Augustine 
 answers, (1) that it is not Canonical Scripture c , from 
 which, in questions of this sort, testimonies ought to 
 be produced; (2) that "perhaps after baptism he had 
 been in time of persecution alienated from Christ 
 through idolatry," "for which he was in punishment, 
 whence he was freed by his sister's prayers d ." St. 
 
 * Maintained in a letter to Valesius their editor. Ruiuart leaves this 
 doubtful, denies their being Montanist, which Valesius thought, and 
 which to me seems most natural. Tertullian, de Anima, c. 55, refers 
 to one of the visions, so they are very old anyhow. 
 
 b Acta, n. 7, 8. c De Anima, i. 10, iii. 9, Opp. x. 343, 380. 
 
 d II. cc. In i. 10, St. Augustine uses the stronger language : " for which 
 he went into the damnation of death, nor went forth, but as granted to 
 the prayers of his sister about to die for Christ." St. Augustine's con- 
 jecture of the nature of the sin falls in with the expression in the 
 Acts, " I grieved, remembering his fall."
 
 OF PURGATORY. 339 
 
 Augustine entirely believed the Acts, and speaks of 
 "the exhortations of the martyrs in Divine revela- 
 tions 6 ." 
 
 St. Cyprian f , in maintaining that the clemency of 
 the Church in restoring extreme cases of sin, as of 
 adulterers or of those who in persecution had denied 
 the Lord, would not unnerve devotedness or conti- 
 nence, seems to combine both passages. He contrasts 
 " being tortured with long anguish for sins, and long 
 cleansed and purged by fire," with " having purged all 
 sins by suffering" (martyrdom) ; the " being cast into 
 prison, not to go hence until one has paid the last 
 farthing," with " receiving at once the reward of faith 
 and courage." He adds a contrast yet more awful, "to 
 wait in suspense until the Day of Judgment for the 
 Lord's sentence," and being " crowned at once" by Him. 
 
 St. Ambrose, explaining this passage, says, " that the 
 offence is either redeemed by the price of charity, or 
 the punishment relaxed by the estimation of the in- 
 jury ; and that the sin of each is washed away, when 
 the guilty is so long tried by punishment as to pay 
 the penalty of the fault committed g ." 
 
 Eusebius, of Gaul, also connects this text with the 
 fires of judgment : " Thou who hast done things wor- 
 thy of temporal punishment, to whom is addressed the 
 
 e Serm. 280, beg., t. v. 1134. 
 
 f Epist. 55, ad Antonian., n. 16, p. 128, Oxf. Tr. 
 
 * In S. Luc., lib. vii. n. 156, 157, t. i. 1448. I omit Origen on 
 this place, t. iii. Horn. xxv. p. 975; because, speaking of "infinite 
 ages," in the payment of the 10,000 talents, he, probably, is substi- 
 tuting temporal for eternal punishment.
 
 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 "Word of God, ' that they go not out thence until they 
 pay the uttermost farthing,' through the fiery stream, 
 which the prophetic spirit mentions. In proportion to 
 the matter of the sin, will be the lingering in the pas- 
 sage ; in proportion to the growth of the fault, will be 
 the discipline of the discerning flame ; in proportion to 
 the things which iniquity in its folly has wrought, will 
 be the severity of the wise punishment V 
 
 St. Jerome also explains the text briefly : " What 
 lie says means this : ' Thou shalt not go forth from 
 prison, until thou hast paid for even the least sins 1 .' ' 
 
 St. Chrysologus says, on the words of Abraham, " Nor 
 can any one pass hence to you:" "The hearing of 
 this voice terrifies me, brethren, terrifies exceedingly; 
 shewing that, after death, those who have been con- 
 signed to penal custody in hell cannot be transferred 
 to the rest of the saints, unless, having been already 
 redeemed by the grace of Christ, they be freed from 
 this hopelessness by the intercession of holy Church. 
 So that what the sentence [of the Judge] denies them, 
 the Church may obtain, grace bestow V He seems to 
 contemplate some extreme cases, in which, but for the 
 foreseen intercession of the Church, sinners would have 
 been left to hell, but were delivered from it through 
 those foreseen intercessions. 
 
 St. Paulinus asks prayers for his brother who had 
 died " as a debtor " to God in spiritual negligence. 
 "We mourn his death more truly, because we perceive 
 
 h De Epiph., Horn. iii. Bibl. P. vi. 625. 
 ad loc. vii. 28, Vail. k Serm. 123, Bibl. P. vii. 943.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 341 
 
 from those things which were done or ordered by him 
 to his end, he did what corresponded more to our sins 
 than to our prayers, so that he chose to pass to the 
 Lord, a debtor rather than free." St. Paulinus then 
 begged St. Amandus to pray with others earnestly to 
 God, " that through your prayers He may refresh his 
 soul with drops of His mercy. For as ' a fire kindled 
 by Him will burn down to hell below/ so doubtless 
 the dew also of His forgiveness will penetrate to hell, 
 so that when scorched in the kindled darkness he be 
 refreshed with the dewy light of His pity 1 ." To 
 Delphinus, who had converted him, he speaks of his 
 "spiritual negligence," whereby he provided for his 
 sons in this world, rather than remedies for the world 
 to come, " preferring what ought to be secondary, 
 making secondary what was to be preferred." For 
 him he asks, in allusion to the history of Dives and 
 Lazarus, that he would pray lest " we should bring 
 to shame your piety, which gloried in us your sons, 
 a portion of the inheritance being wasted, but rather 
 that it be granted to your prayers, that a drop of re- 
 freshment distilling even from the little finger of your 
 holiness may sprinkle his soul m ." 
 
 These two aspects of the intermediate state require 
 
 1 ~Ep. xxxvi. ad Amand., n. 2, pp. 224, 225. 
 
 m Ep. xxxv. p. 223. St. Nilus speaks of praying for everlasting mercy 
 for the departed : " He that believes that the just buried will rise again 
 from the dead, will be strengthened by hope, will give thanks unto God, 
 will change lamentations into cheerfulness, will pray that the departed 
 may obtain everlasting mercy, will turn to the correction of their own 
 stumbling." (Ep. i. 101, p. 105.)
 
 342 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 reconciliation ; the more so, since each is founded upon 
 Holy Scripture. On the one side it says, " Blessed 
 are the dead who die in the Lord ! Amen, saith the 
 Spirit, for they rest from their labours." For, al- 
 though it is primarily said " from their labours/' i.e. 
 from the toils of this continual strife with infirmities, 
 passions, temptations, sin, it could hardly have been 
 said that " they rest " at all, if, as More said in the 
 names of the departed souls, " when ye rest, which 
 we do never" On the other side, there are those 
 awful descriptions of the judgment, especially that of 
 St. Paul, in which he speaks of a destruction of the 
 building which some who still built upon Christ had 
 raised during their lives, the loss which these endure, 
 the saving of the man himself so as by fire. Then 
 there are our Lord's awful words, as to that gradation 
 of punishment on breaches of charity (which are the 
 more terrible, if that gradation be understood of eter- 
 nal punishment only) ; as to the prison, where " the 
 uttermost farthing" is to be paid ; as to the account to 
 be taken of every idle word. Truly, this throws a very 
 awful light upon the Judgment. If every idle word is 
 to be taken account of, what a very individual, search- 
 ing thing, judgment must be ; and this before Him, 
 and by Him, "Who loved us and Whom we offended ! 
 Awakened conscience and love can imagine no such 
 suffering as this, short of hell. What if the soul be, 
 for a time, or even a prolonged time, uncertain of the 
 issue ! Each such moment would be like a lifetime. 
 St. Macarius of Alexandria says, us by Divine reve-
 
 OF PURGATORY. 343 
 
 lation, that forty days elapsed before the judgment, 
 and that then, according to its works, the Judge com- 
 manded the place of the soul's custody > and this the 
 Angels are related to have assigned to him as the rea- 
 son why " the Church prayed for the souls of the de- 
 parted on the fortieth day n ." St. Cyprian speaks of 
 waiting in suspense to the Day of Judgment . St. 
 Ambrose says, that "the soul is freed from the body, 
 and yet after this life still hangs in suspense through 
 the uncertainty of the future judgment p ." St. Gregory 
 of Nyssa, uniting in one the particular and the general 
 judgments, describes how, in the sight of the glories 
 of heaven and the punishment of hell, the whole hu- 
 man race, from the first creation to the consumma- 
 tion of all things, shall stand in suspense between fear 
 and hope of the future, trembling oftentimes at the 
 events of the things looked for either way, and they 
 who have lived with a good conscience, mistrusting 
 what shall be, when they see others dragged down 
 to fearful darkness by an evil conscience as by an 
 executioner* 1 . The description of the destruction of 
 the wood, hay, stubble, in the fire of the Judgment 
 Day, was thought, not unnaturally, by Origen and 
 others, to imply a more or less prolonged suffering in 
 that Day, according to the greater or less gravity of 
 the things to be destroyed in those who are saved. 
 Christian instinct agrees with this. It cannot ima- 
 
 n De excessujust. et peccat., n. 4, Gall. vii. 239. 
 Ep. Iv. ad Anton., n. 16. P De Cain, ii. 2. 
 
 <J De beatitud., i. 809.
 
 344 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 gine that all this history of sin in those who are saved, 
 can be without some great meaning for eternity. And 
 yet in this life none, probably, but the greatest saints, 
 have any conception what sin is. Then it must be 
 revealed to them in judgment. 
 
 Again, the human instincts of persons of no depth 
 of Christianity, in view of the great mass of im- 
 perfect, ill-taught, erring humanity, the sheep that 
 have gone astray having no shepherd, living and 
 dying as the great mass of men in our large towns 
 live and die have turned aside from the idea of hell, 
 and sought comfort in the deadly error of its denial. 
 Yet the false doctrine does not lie in the assertion of 
 a temporal penal abode, but in the denial of an eternal 
 one. The deep instincts of humanity, combined of 
 pity and of justice, demand a belief in some punish- 
 ment, but deprecate eternal punishment, in the case 
 of many who go out of this world ; and here such 
 teaching as has been cited from the early Church 
 comes in to our aid. Nay, not such as those poor out- 
 casts only whom men have most in their eyes and 
 their minds, because their sins are more tangible and 
 coarse, but and even yet more than these rich 
 and educated men and women, who have more light 
 than they, yet who, to outward appearance, live mere 
 natural lives, immersed in woiidliness, yet not alto- 
 gether, it is hoped, separated from God, are, as they 
 are, seemingly ripe neither for heaven nor hell. God 
 alone knows whether they have deserved hell ; yet 
 their whole tastes, thoughts, feelings, tone of mind,
 
 OF PURGATORY. 345 
 
 would seem to fit them more for a Grecian Elysium 
 than for the Christian's heaven and for the sight of 
 God, of whom they have scarce thought, save to hope 
 that He would not cast them into hell r . Will God 
 think it best for them at once to admit them into His 
 presence, which they have never desired ? Or would 
 they be fit to enjoy it, if He did ? But if not, and if, 
 when the soul is parted from all earthly distractions, 
 it comes to see that God is its only Good, and is yet 
 withheld from His beatific sight, that it may learn to 
 long for Him, this is at once what the schools have 
 called the pcena damni ; and this awakened, unsatisfied 
 longing, with the sense that, through its own fault, it 
 remains in this darkness as to God, may be intenser 
 pain than any, or than all the pain which could be 
 accumulated in one in this life. We know what pain 
 separation from an object of deep human love occasions. 
 What may it not be, of God ? This falls in singularly 
 with St. Cyril of Jerusalem's remarkable expression, 
 " His banished," as though banishment were a chief 
 suffering. 
 
 The very theory of the morality of the Gospel, the 
 notion that justification and sanctification are real, 
 though in the individual often imperfect processes, 
 the belief that salvation depends on obedience 8 , con- 
 duct us to this thought that the work of Christ in us 
 
 1 Of course this charitable hope must not be twisted into any argu- 
 ment for the postponement of a man's conversion to God, in the hope 
 that all will be made well in the intermediate state. 
 
 8 Matt. v. 1, xxv. 34 ; Rom. viii. 17.
 
 346 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 whereby we are saved, being individually imperfect, 
 in view of our insufficient co-operation with it, shall 
 continue to work in us, so that at the day of judg- 
 ment we may be found pure in Him ; that having had 
 grace to keep the Law of God and having failed to 
 do so, yet having died in His faith and fear, God will 
 carry on the process of our being made fit for heaven, 
 not by the gift of fresh grace, but by the same purify- 
 ing process of adversity whereby He fines our souls in 
 this life. We know that we have in us passive bad 
 habits, unheavenly tastes, which the soul contracts 
 through sin, and which remain after the guilt of sin is 
 remitted, and that these must be removed before our 
 entrance into heaven, into which nothing that is im- 
 pure or imperfect may enter. St. Macarius thought 
 that these were removed by God in an instant *. The 
 same has been held by very thoughtful minds, who yet 
 had a deep perception of the holiness of God's love u . 
 Others may think it more probable that God removes 
 the stain gradually, as it was gradually contracted, 
 and that man's cleansing after death will bear some re- 
 lation to his cleansing in this life, as St. Augustine 
 often suggests. Only as regards the eternal condi- 
 tion, as the tree has fallen so will it lie ; and the 
 eternal distinction between the lost and saved is not 
 confused by the process. 
 
 But not only is this thought a source of comfort, in 
 view of such as we have mentioned, it is also fraught 
 with unspeakable consolation in the case of all those 
 
 * Horn. xxvi. n. 18, in Gall. vii. 29. Suarez, Disp. xlvii. 1 6.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 347 
 
 who try to do their duty, and who put their whole 
 trust in their Lord's Passion, and yet are conscious 
 of many short-comings, of want of depth and reality 
 in their contrition. To such, the idea that after death, 
 although they will have no choice of their own, they 
 will be so conformed to the just will of God, that they 
 may joyfully endure that which is to prepare them 
 for the eternal vision and fruition of Him Whom in 
 their poor way they love above all things, is not only 
 not appalling, however terrible, but actually conducive 
 to holy peace. That true humility which ever seeketh 
 the lowest room, will extend beyond the grave; and 
 to bear the indignation of the Lord because one has 
 sinned against Him, is a disposition of soul well-pleas- 
 ing to Him. 
 
 To sum up what has gone before : while our Church 
 has justly stigmatized popular practices which had be- 
 come gainful superstitions, she has not condemned 
 either the devotions of the primitive Church, or the 
 deep truths on which those devotions are grounded. 
 Recognising the fact that prayer for the dead, as 
 taught in the Jewish schools, was nowhere repre- 
 hended by our Lord ; that it was most probably prac- 
 tised by St. Paul, and certainly embodied in all the 
 early liturgies ; knowing that the soul does not sleep 
 in the interval before the resurrection ; and that, 
 although the Christian's trial ends at the moment of 
 death, there is no ground to think that the soul is 
 simply perfected at once, as it shall be at the coming 
 of the Lord Jesus ; deeply convinced that the general
 
 348 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 tone of the teaching of antiquity goes beyond a mere 
 prayer for consummation of bliss both in body and 
 soul, and probably extends to actual forgiveness for 
 some sins (perhaps at the foreseen prayers of the 
 Church), and the mitigation of some penalties ; she 
 has formed her burial service on a theory, of which 
 this doctrine is the only interpretation : that words of 
 hope may be used with regard to all whom she does 
 not know to have died not in the state of grace, that 
 is, all save the unbaptized, the suicide, and the excom- 
 municate x and that therefore by implication, with re- 
 gard to all save them, however basely they may have 
 lived, if (which God alone knows) they but died in 
 a state of grace, the door of salvation is not closed, 
 that prayer and Eucharist for them are still available, 
 and that with trembling hearts we may in the case 
 of those we love, who have been riven from us by 
 death, cast ourselves on the ineffable mercy of Jesus. 
 And so, with regard to the imperfect Christian, who 
 has gone to his account, we may rejoice in the thought 
 that God's love is preparing the soul for perfect frui- 
 tion, and that, through the fire of suffering and the 
 water of affliction, He is bringing him into a wealthy 
 place y . 
 
 1 The Burial Service is framed for those who die in Christ; the un- 
 baptized are excluded, because they have not been made members of 
 Christ, and therefore prayers cannot be said over them, which express 
 that they had been; the suicide and excommunicate, as having ceased 
 to be so. 
 
 y For the legality of prayer for the dead, see case of Woolfrey v. 
 Breeks, Stephen's " Clergy Law," i. 191. The acquittal of Mr. Wilson
 
 OF PURGATORY. 349 
 
 Our English minds have so shrunk from the popular 
 doctrine of Purgatory, because, in the representations 
 of it, physical suffering, and that the suffering of fire, 
 (equal perhaps to that of hell, except in its duration,) 
 has been the one thought brought before us. How 
 could the souls be at rest there ? but the very same 
 Fathers, who speak of suffering after death, speak also 
 of the souls being in real rest and peace, as our Service 
 for the Burial of the Dead says, that " the souls of the 
 faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of 
 the flesh, are in joy and felicity." They believed, then, 
 that their sufferings, however great, did not interfere 
 with that joy. And so Bellarmine, too, says : " Joy 
 and rest are given immediately upon death, to all who 
 depart in charity. For presently all become certain 
 of their eternal salvation, which brings great joy." 
 "Yet/' he adds, "that joy is not given in the same 
 way but diversely, according to the diversity of merits. 
 For to some it is given without admixture of dolour, 
 to others, not without admixture of temporal sufferings, 
 as the same St. Augustine very often teaches z ." The 
 same has been said yet more boldly, because in the 
 language of devotion. 
 
 The treatise of St. Catherine of Genoa (only canonized 
 by Benedict XIV. a ) brought out the happy side of the 
 state of souls, detained, for a time, through their own 
 
 was on the ground of his own defence, that all that he meant was, that 
 in the case of the erring and imperfect, the infinite love of God might 
 pursue them beyond the grave. * De Purg., i. 9, t. i. col. 1894. 
 
 a Ben. xiv. De Canoniz. Sanct., 3, 3, p. 20.
 
 350 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 fault when in the flesh, from the sight of God. " I do 
 not believe," she says b , "it would be possible to find 
 any joy comparable to that of a soul in purgatory, ex- 
 cept the joy of the blessed in paradise a joy which 
 goes on increasing day by day as God more and more 
 flows in upon the soul, which He does abundantly, in 
 proportion as every hindrance to His entrance is con- 
 sumed away." " The souls in purgatory, having their 
 wills perfectly conformed to the will of God, and hence 
 partaking of His goodness, remain satisfied with their 
 condition, which is one of entire freedom from the 
 guilt of sin. Cleansed thus from all sin, and united 
 in will to God, they see God clearly according to the 
 light He imparts to them ; they are conscious, too, 
 what a good it is to enjoy God, that for this very end 
 souls are created. Again, there is in them a con- 
 formity of will so uniting them to God, so drawing 
 them to Him through that natural instinct whereby 
 God is, as it were, bound up with the soul, that no 
 description, no figure, no example, can give a clear 
 idea of it, as it is actually felt and apprehended by 
 inward consciousness c ." " When the soul, by interior 
 
 b Treatise on Purgatory, edited by Abp. Manning, c. 2, p. 3. 
 
 c Ibid., c. 5. The only notice of this treatise by Alban Butler, is 
 in these terms : " The necessity of the spirit of universal sanctification 
 and perfect humility to prepare the way for the pure love of God to 
 be infused into the soul, is the chief lesson which she inculcates." 
 Less. xv. Objections have been made to the line of argument in the 
 text, that from the date of S. Catherine, her treatise must have been 
 known in England at the time of the framing of the Articles : but there 
 is no proof that it was at this time translated into English, or had at- 
 tracted any notice.
 
 OF PURGATORY. 351 
 
 illumination, perceives that God is drawing it with 
 such loving ardour to Himself, straightway there 
 springs up within it a corresponding fire of love for 
 its most sweet Lord and God, which causes it wholly 
 to melt away : it sees in the Divine light how con- 
 siderately, and with what unfailing providence God is 
 ever leading it to its full perfection, and that He does 
 it all through pure love ; it feels itself stopped by sin 
 and unable to follow the heavenly attraction. I mean 
 that look which God casts on it to bring it into union 
 with Himself, and this sense of the grievousness of 
 being kept from beholding the Divine light, coupled 
 with that instinctive longing which would fain be 
 without hindrance to follow the enticing look; these 
 things, I say, make up the pains of purgatory. Not 
 that they think anything of their pains, however great 
 they be ; they think far more of the opposition they 
 are making to the will of God, which they see clearly 
 is burning intensely with pure love to them. God 
 meanwhile goes on drawing the soul to Himself 
 mightily, and, as it were, with undivided energy : 
 this the soul knows well; and could it find another 
 purgatory greater than this, by which it could sooner 
 remove so great an obstacle, it would immediately 
 plunge therein, impelled by that conforming love 
 which is between God and the soul d ." "It is true 
 that the overflowing love of God bestows upon the 
 souls in purgatory a happiness beyond expression 
 great; but then this happiness does not in the least 
 
 d Treatise on Purgatory, c. 9.
 
 352 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 diminish the pain, rather the pain is constituted by 
 this love finding itself impeded ; the more perfect the 
 love, of which God makes the soul capable, the greater 
 the pain. In this manner, the souls in purgatory at 
 the same time experience the greatest happiness and 
 the most excessive pain ; and one does not prevent the 
 other 6 ." 
 
 Had this been even an aspect of Purgatory, pre- 
 sented to the minds of the framers of our Articles, 
 as a possible authoritative exposition of the doctrine, 
 who would say that " the Romish doctrine of Purga- 
 tory" would ever have been censured in it? Anyhow, 
 this doctrine was not included in that censure, since 
 it was not taught. But what heart, which has known 
 but a little of the love of Jesus, and has hated its own 
 sin, would not respond to the thought : 
 
 " It is the face of the Incarnate God 
 Shall smite thee with that keen and subtle pain ; 
 And yet the memory which it leaves will be 
 A sovereign febrifuge to heal the wound; 
 And yet withal it will the wound provoke, 
 And aggravate and widen it the more. 
 When, then, (if such thy lot,) thou seest thy Judge, 
 The sight of Him will kindle in thy heart, 
 All tender, gracious, reverential thoughts. 
 Thou wilt be sick with love, and yearn for Him, 
 And feel as though thou could'st but pity Him, 
 That one so sweet should e'er have placed Himself 
 At disadvantage such, as to be used 
 So vilely by a being so vile as thee. 
 
 e Treatise on Purgatory, c. 14.
 
 OF INDULGENCES. 353 
 
 There is a piercing in His pensive eyes, 
 Will pierce thee to the quick, and trouble thee. 
 And thou wilt hate and loathe thyself; for, though, 
 Now sinless, thou wilt feel that thou hast sinned, 
 As never didst thou feel ; and wilt desire 
 To slink away, and hide thee from His sight ; 
 And yet wilt have a longing, aye to dwell 
 Within the heauty of His countenance. 
 And these two pains, so counter and so keen, 
 The longing for Him, when thou seest Him not ; 
 The shame of self at thought of seeing Him, 
 Will be thy veriest, sharpest purgatory f ." 
 
 II. It is a well-known historical fact that it was the 
 shameless traffic in indulgences which burst the bar- 
 rier which, had long pent up the dissatisfaction which 
 prevailed on account of the scandals and corruptions 
 in the Church. The reforming Councils had no power 
 to stem the increasing corruption; and the expensive 
 tastes of the Roman Curia demanding more and more 
 money, a doctrine, which bad its roots in primitive 
 antiquity, was preached in a way to destroy all Chris- 
 tian morality. To the Dominican and Franciscan 
 Orders, now fallen from their first purity, much of 
 the blame is due, though it is fair to state that they 
 were not the only guilty persons. A hundred years 
 before the promulgation of the Articles, this practice 
 had pointed the satire of the poet; and those ac- 
 quainted with the literature of the period are fami- 
 liar with Chaucer's and Sir David Lindsay's pictures 
 of the " Pardonere." 
 
 f The Dream of Gerontius, pp. 43, 44 
 
 A a
 
 354 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 To call this a " fond thing, vainly invented, and 
 repugnant to the Word of God," is a mild censure. 
 Gardiner himself describes them as " the devil's craft *" 
 At the close of the thirteenth century the fervent 
 Franciscan preacher, Berthold, called the " Penny 
 Preachers" "favourite servants of the devil," and said 
 that " they crowned the devil daily with many thou- 
 sand souls V In theory, the practice was an application 
 of the power to bind and to loose on earth, which was 
 given by our Lord to St. Peter and to the rest of the 
 Apostles ' ; as exercised by St. Paul at Corinth k , when 
 he forgave in the person of Christ. Such power was 
 inseparable from all canonical penance upon deadly 
 sin, the "godly discipline," the loss of which the 
 English Church yearly laments, when "such persons 
 as stood convicted of notorious sin were put to open 
 penance and punished in this world, that their souls 
 might be saved in the Day of the Lord 1 ." For it is 
 essential to law, that the same offence should be sub- 
 jected to the same penalty. But equity alike and 
 mercy required that this severity should be mitigated 
 in view of the subsequent conduct, penitence, and cir- 
 cumstances of the offender. And this the rather, be- 
 cause the question related, not only to the remission of 
 canonical penance, appointed to certain sins, but (and 
 that chiefly) to the restoration to the communion of 
 the Body and Blood of Christ. Hence it was provided 
 
 8 Against Joye, cit. Hardwick, p. 390. h Deutsche Pred., 
 
 p. 384, ed. Kl. ' St. Matt. xvi. 10 sqq., xviii. 18. k 2 Cor. ii. 
 
 4 10. ' Comm. Service.
 
 OF INDULGENCES. 355 
 
 in most cases that communion should be given, in dan- 
 gerous illness, to those excommunicate, yet under peni- 
 tential discipline; and on the approach of a new per- 
 secution in St. Cyprian's time, the lapsed were restored 
 universally, that they " might be fortified with the pro- 
 tection of the Body and Blood of Christ m ." And, more 
 generally, (as was reasonable,) the period of penitence 
 was abridged, on evidence of more than usual sorrow 
 for the sins n ; as, contrariwise, it was prolonged to the 
 impenitent . " When fervour and discipline were 
 weakened, the Church, both in East and West, sub- 
 stituted lighter penances, sooner than the penitent 
 should refuse all acts of penitence, and so risk the loss 
 of his soul P." Penitents were also restored to com- 
 munion, either altogether, or at an earlier period, at 
 the solicitation of those who were about to die, or 
 had suffered for Jesus Christ; in other words, at the 
 instance of martyrs and confessors. Sometimes that 
 restoration was delayed until the martyrdom was ac- 
 complished. The martyrs at Vienne obtained restora- 
 tion for all the lapsed at once, yet at the hands of the 
 Bishop q . St. Dionysius notices the carefulness of the 
 
 m St. Cypr., Ep. Ivii. ad Corn. 
 
 " " Cone. Neocees., can. 3. Cone. Anc., c. 2, 7, 16. Nic. \. c. 12. 
 Arelat. ii. c. 10. Canons of St. Basil, Ep. ad Amphil., c. 4, 7, 53, 74, 84. 
 St. Greg. Nyss., Ep. Can. ad Letoium, can. 811, 13, 18, 20." St. Leo, 
 Ep. 79, c. 5. 
 
 Cone. Garth, iv., can. 75. 
 
 P In the East by Joannes Jejunator and Joannes Monachus, in their 
 Penitentials (ap. Amort, Hist. Ind., P. i. p. 32); as also in Bede, 
 Theodore, Burchard, the Roman. 
 
 1 Ep. Eccl. Lugd., &c., in Eus. H. E., v. 1.
 
 356 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 Alexandrian martyrs in recommending those whose 
 " conversion and penitence they discerned r ." In Ter- 
 tullian's time, not the lapsed, but those excommunicated 
 for adultery, &c., sought restoration from the martyrs 
 in prison s . In St. Cyprian's time the indiscriminate 
 largess of restoration to the lapsed by certain con- 
 fessors, threatened an utter overthrow of discipline, 
 but was moderated and guided by the loving wisdom 
 of St. Cyprian t . St. Gregory of Nyssa regulated by 
 canon u , that " to those who were zealous in penitence 
 all the stages of the public penitence might be abridged 
 by him who was over this matter." Pope Innocent 
 laid down that the ordinary term of remission, the 
 Thursday before Easter, might be anticipated for those 
 in whom " the Priests saw fitting satisfaction x ." By 
 the Council of Ancyra, bishops might deal ((f>i\av- 
 0pw7reve(r6ai) indulgently with those who had taken 
 part in idol-sacrifices y . 
 
 The Crusades awoke through Europe a deep sense 
 of religion ajnong all classes; and when religion af- 
 fects all classes, it has been well said that needs 
 must it be, that it should become coarse. As an in- 
 ducement to make men take up the cross, the privi- 
 
 le-es which the Church was said to hold within her 
 o 
 
 treasuries were freely unlocked to the faithful. It 
 
 r St. Dion. Epist., in Bus. H. E., vi. 41, 42. 
 8 Tert. de pudic., c. i. and xxii. 
 
 1 See his Epistles xv. xxiii., xxv. xxvii., xxx., xxxii. xxxv., Iv. ; 
 and those of the Roman Clergy, Ep. xxx., xxxvi. 
 u Ad JLetoium, can. 8, P. ii. p. 119. 
 x Ep. xxv. ad Decentium. f Can. 5.
 
 OF INDULGENCES 357 
 
 was said that as our Lord and the saints have merited 
 more than was necessary, there was a disposable stock 
 of merits, which the Church could bestow on all who 
 were fitly prepared to receive the benefit, and remis- 
 sion of sin was freely pronounced to all who joined the 
 army that was marching against the Saracens; and 
 these indulgences were declared to be available not 
 only for the living but for the dead. When the Cru- 
 sades ceased, actual service being no longer possible, 
 the permission to buy oneself off the Crusade was al- 
 lowed to the indulgences, and they became marketable. 
 To this day in Spain you may obtain a dispensation 
 for fasting, except on three days in the year, by the 
 purchase of the Bull of the Crusade for five-pence, if 
 a lay person. 
 
 Indulgences were, from the middle of the eleventh 
 century, granted on the occasion of the dedication of 
 churches and canonization of saints. On the occasion 
 of the re-consecration of the Portiuncula, in the time 
 of St. Francis of Assissi, A.D. 1221, the first plenary 
 indulgence seems to have been granted by Pope Ho- 
 norius III. z 
 
 In the beginning of the fourteenth century, a new 
 phase of the doctrine manifested itself in the system 
 of jubilees. In 1300, Boniface VIII. issued a Bull of 
 Jubilee, inviting the faithful to frequent the Basilicas 
 of St. Peter and St. Paul, promising to all who ap- 
 proached them reverently, being truly penitent and 
 contrite, or who shall be penitent, or shall confess in 
 1 On its genuineness, see Amort, p. 149.
 
 358 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 the present or in any future year of the century, 
 not only plenary, but larger, yea, the fullest pardon of 
 all their sins, " non solum plenam, sed largiorem, imo 
 plenissimam omnium suorum concedimus veniam pec- 
 catorum a ." The system was found so profitable, that 
 the period of the jubilee was reduced to fifty, thirty- 
 three, and twenty-five years. 
 
 It was from such a state of discipline as this, that, 
 after the dark ages, the corruptions we have stated 
 were developed. When the Articles were promul- 
 gated, they were in all their abomination. It is but 
 fair to say, that the Council of Trent, while it main- 
 tained the practice, as being the exercise of a power 
 given to the Church by God, and used in the most 
 ancient times also, set itself to check the abuses which 
 it acknowledged b . How far this last has succeeded, 
 one has no power of judging ; but moderate theolo- 
 gians have since that time generally expressed them- 
 selves with great candour on the subject, holding in- 
 dulgences in the primitive sense to be only the re- 
 laxation of those canonical penalties, which, in propor- 
 tion to the gravity of his offence, the sinner ought to 
 endure ; and that in the case of those for the dead, 
 they are but the prayers of the Universal Church, 
 which the Pope and all bishops offer in the name of 
 the Church to God, and which God hears, or hears not, 
 as seemeth good to Him. 
 
 Mabillon says that " there are three degrees of in- 
 
 a In Amort, Hist. Ind., P. i. p. 80. 
 b Session xxv. De Indulgentiis.
 
 OF INDULGENCES. 359 
 
 diligences : 1. In the time of the Apostles, the relaxa- 
 tion from excommunication, as in the case of the in- 
 cestuous Corinthian; 2. In the time of the martyrs, 
 when at the instance of their prayers the public pen- 
 ance was relaxed ; and 3. at the time of the failure 
 of the public penance which in the ninth century 
 began to be not a little diminished. From that time 
 certain indulgences, some more ample than others, 
 were granted, for the remission of the penalty imposed 
 upon or due to sin. The use of public penance was 
 still in force in those times ; but it could be bought 
 off either by Masses and other suffrages, or by alms, 
 or by pilgrimages, or by pious works . The Coun- 
 cil of Cloveshoe (A.D. 747) thought the buying off 
 of penance by alms, a new invention, a dangerous 
 custom ('nova adinventio, periculosa consuetude'). 
 By degrees, however, this method of redemption pre- 
 vailed." 
 
 "In A.D. 878, indulgences were for the first time 
 granted to the dead. Pope John VIII. granted in that 
 year an indulgence to those who fell or were to fall 
 in battle with the Pagans ; and the Bishops of Bavaria 
 besought the same favour for the soul of the Emperor 
 Arnulph, which they desired should be absolved by his 
 authority d ." The notion of a war against the infidels 
 
 c Prtef. ad Seec. 5, Benedictin, n. 107. 
 
 d Ibid. Amort, however, doubts whether these were strictly indul- 
 gences. He observes that, 1. "John VIII. says, 'we absolve them, 
 quantum fas est ;' 2. the absolution was from their gins ; 3. the Pope 
 adds, ' and we commend them by prayers to the Lord.' 4. The Bava- 
 rian Bishops asked for that same indulgence for Arnulph. 5. Card.
 
 360 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 being a directly religious act, involved as a sequence 
 that death in such a war was a sort of martyrdom ; 
 accordingly plenary forgiveness of sins was freely pro- 
 mised. The Bull of the Crusade against the Saracens 
 (A.D. 1118) ran in these terms: "And since ye have 
 determined to expose both yourselves and the things 
 belonging to you to the most extreme perils, if any 
 of you, having accepted the penance for your sins, shall 
 die in the expedition, we, by the merits of the saints 
 and by the prayers of the whole Catholic Church, ab- 
 solve him from the chains of his sins 6 ." That of 
 A.D. 1122 says: "that to those who go to Jerusalem 
 to defend the Christians, and to aid in breaking down 
 the tyranny of the infidels, we concede the remission 
 of all their sins { ." 
 
 However much the Council of Trent may have cleared 
 away the difficulties with regard to pardons, by defining 
 them to be only a remission of the canonical discipline 
 of the Church, it cannot be denied that at the promul- 
 gation of the Article there was a substantial abuse 
 which well deserved its reprobation. What that abuse 
 was will best be seen from Erasmus' tract, De Utilitate 
 
 Ostiensis, A.D. 1260, thought that such indulgences were only absolu- 
 tions from censures, to the effect that the faithful might be free to pray 
 for them in the church," (Hist. Indulg., p. ii. S. v. 1). See the letter 
 to the French bishops as given from Baronius, A. 878, xxxiv. ib. 
 
 In Baronius, A. 1118, xviii. That against Roger, Count of Sicily, 
 in like way, "remitted all sins" under the same terms. Baron., A. 
 1127, v. 
 
 1 Given by Calixtus II. in the Council of Lateran, Aj>. 1122, 
 can. 11.
 
 OF INDULGENCES. 361 
 
 Colloqitiorum, where lie defends the line he took with re- 
 gard to them : " Nor do I, then, condemn papal indul- 
 gences and bulls ; but I censure that greatest of triflers 
 who, thinking nothing of amendment of life, presumes 
 to place his whole trust on human pardon." So in 
 the colloquy " Rash Vows," speaking of one who died 
 on pilgrimage : 
 
 " Con. Was he, then, so pious ? 
 
 " Am. Nay, the greatest trifler imaginable. 
 
 " Con. Whence, then, do you draw the conclusion 
 (that he is now in heaven) ? 
 
 " Am. Because he had his satchel stuffed full of the 
 most ample indulgences." 
 
 Thus in the Vision of Piers Ploughman : 
 
 " Then preched a pardoner, as he a prest were, 
 Brought forth a bulle, with many a bishope's seles, 
 And seide that himself might assolven them all 
 Of falshod, of fastynge, of a-vowes y-broken." 
 
 These indulgences were not granted by the Pope 
 only, but by all bishops %. 
 
 " The ' Questionarius,' ' Pardoner/ or f Preacher/ was 
 already so scandalous, that the antipope, Clement VII., 
 in granting indulgences for building the nave of the 
 cathedral of Aberdeen, A.D. 1380, declares that they 
 shall be of no force if hawked about by these spiritual 
 pedlars : ' Presentes autem mitti per Questuarios dis- 
 
 s Vide J. G. Nichols' "Pilgrimage of St. Mary of Walsingham," 
 p. 98, London, 1849.
 
 362 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 trictius inhibemus, eas si secus actum fuerit carere 
 viribus decernentes V 
 
 "The Quaestor, Questuarius, or Questionarius, the Par- 
 doner, or Rome- raker as he was called, had now fallen 
 on evil days. Even in his better state, when he played 
 something like the part of the travelling deputation 
 of the popular religious society of our own time, the 
 Synod of Exeter, A.D. 1287, could describe him as 
 ' Communiter idiota, vitae pariter inhonestae, confin- 
 gens se peritum et vitse sanctitatem exterius practen- 
 dens . . . ut sic simplicium alliciat animos ad ma j ores 
 eleemosynas largiendas, quas postea in ebrietatibus et 
 luxuriis in omnium conspectu prodigaliter consumere 
 non erubescit \" He was the constant butt of ridicule 
 from the fourteenth century downwards. He figures 
 in the ' flighting' of Kennedy and Dunbar, in ' the 
 Satire of the Three Estates/ and in ' Symmie and his 
 brother ;' but no portrait of him can be compared with 
 that drawn by the master-hand of Chaucer. Lindsay 
 paints him as disheartened and discredited: 
 
 ' But now alace ! our gret abusion 
 Is cleirly knawen till our confusion 
 
 Quhilk I may sair repent. 
 Of all credence I am now guyte, 
 For ith man holds me in despyte, 
 
 That reids the New Testament V 
 
 "The Council of Trent silenced him in 1546, and 
 suppressed him altogether in 1562 1 ." 
 
 h Eobertson's Statuta Heel. Scot., vol. ii. p. 266. l Wilkins' 
 
 Concilia, vol. ii. p. 154. k Poet. Works, torn. ii. p. 9, 27. ' Ro- 
 bertson's Statuta Eccl. Scot., vol. ii. p. 288.
 
 OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 363 
 
 III. " Worshipping and adoration, as well of images 
 as of relics," is the next point excepted against. In 
 the state of ignorance in which the common people 
 were for some time before the Reformation, it is not 
 surprising that this should be so. There is always 
 a danger of religion among the unlettered becoming 
 superstitious, and even in northern nations, there is 
 a tendency to turn objects of faith into anthropo- 
 morphic forms. The employment of Christian art, 
 necessary and advisable as it was, to keep alive 
 a belief among the poor, on St. Gregory's principle, 
 that pictures are the books of the ignorant, had of 
 course its dangerous tendency ; and, as a matter of 
 fact, a cultus of images had grown up which required 
 to be checked, and all its coarser manifestations to be 
 condemned. That condemnation is still due where 
 men of education, in the nineteenth century, have gone 
 so far as to attribute a sort of quasi-sacramental value 
 to images, as is said to be the case with some recent 
 theologians. On the other hand, the absence of pic- 
 tures can alone account for the gross ignorance of re- 
 ligion so prevalent among the peasantry of England. 
 
 The whole history of the employment of art in reli- 
 gion is intensely interesting. In the earliest times 
 there is an entire absence of images, though not of 
 pictures, from the worship of the Christians. Ter- 
 tullian seems to deny that any images were used. 
 Origen and the apologists follow in the same line m , 
 
 m Orig. c. Cels., viii. 17. Csecilius in Minut. P., p. 91. Arnobius, lib. 
 vi., Lact. de mort. Persec., 12.
 
 364 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 and so long as heathenism was an existing fact, there 
 was great reserve in the Church in this respect. In 
 the Catacombs, though there are figures of our Lord 
 and His Mother, most of the decorations are symbo- 
 lical, e.g. Orpheus drawing the beasts to him, to typify 
 our Lord drawing all hearts to Him, and Moses 
 striking the rock, and the multiplication of the loaves, 
 to indicate the two principal sacraments. The early 
 writers held that no image of God was to be made n ; 
 they maintained the bindingness of the literal sense of 
 the Second Commandment ; some censured painting 
 and sculpture altogether p ; yet Tertullian himself men- 
 tions the symbol of the Good Shepherd on the cha- 
 lice* 1 ; and the Encratites were blamed for a certain 
 heathenish cultus to the images of Christ r . The statue 
 at Csesarea Philippi which Eusebius relates, " they 
 say, is the image of Jesus," set up by the woman 
 whom our Lord had healed of the issue of blood ; and 
 the pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul are said, at 
 
 n St. Clem. Al., Strom., vii. 5 ; Orig. c. Gels., 1. c. ; Minut. F., p. 313 ; 
 Lact. ii. 2; and, in regard to God the Father, Greg. II., Ep. 2, ad Leon. 
 Is. in 7 Syn., p. 503 A ; St. Aug., defide et Symb., c. 7. 
 
 St. Clem. AL, Strom., v. 5; Orig. c. Cels., \. 6, vi. 14, vii. 64; Tert. 
 de Spect., 23; de Idol., 3, 4; St. Cypr. Test., iii. 59. St. Augustine 
 held all the Decalogue to be binding on Christians except as to the Sab- 
 bath ; c. Faust., xv. 4, 7, xix. 8 ; con. 2 Epp. Pelag., iii. 4. 
 
 P Clem. Al., Protr., n.4, p. 18; Orig. c. Cels., iv. 31 ; Tert., de Idol., 
 3, 4; c. Hermog., init. 
 
 1 De Pudic., c. 6, 10. In note 28, on St. Paulinus, Ep. xi., it is said 
 " under this form Christ occurs in the Roman Hagioglypta." St. Pau- 
 lin., Opp., t. ii. p. 35. Constantine set them up in the market-places. 
 Eus. de ViL Const., iii. 49. ' St. Iren. i. 25, 6.
 
 OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 365 
 
 least by him, to have been made " after a Gentile cus- 
 tom of so honouring benefactors 8 ." Then, however, 
 the vetri Christiani, and other articles in the Christian 
 museums, shew that gradually the use of art in aid of 
 religion asserted itself. It did not do so, without con- 
 ciliar resistance, as in the celebrated Canon of Elvira : 
 "We will not have pictures placed in churches, lest 
 that to which our worship is directed be seen on the 
 walls." There is the history of St. Epiphanius de- 
 stroying in Palestine the "picture as of Christ or 
 some saint" (he remembered not which), and his re- 
 quest to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, to enjoin that " such 
 veils which are against our religion, should not be 
 hung up in the Church of Christ;" and St. Augustine 
 denies that Christians had images in Churches 1 , and 
 speaks strongly against them u . On the other hand, 
 we have St. Paulinus of Nola's praise of Sulpicius 
 Severus*, for having had St. Martin as "a perfect imi- 
 tation of Christ," painted " in the place where man is 
 formed anew" [the Baptistery] as "an object of imita- 
 tion." Out of modesty, he blames him for representing 
 himself y. St. Paulinus himself had pictures of Job 
 with his sores, Tobit in his blindness, Esther and 
 Judith on two side doors of the Basilica of St. Felix, 
 and figures of Martyrs on the centre door. In the 
 interior he mentions symbols only in mosaic ; Christ 
 
 * H. E., vii. 18. * In Ps. cxiii. n. 6. 
 
 u Ib., and de cons. Evang., i. 10. 
 
 Up. xxxii. ad Sev., n. 2, 3, pp. 199, 200. 
 
 r Natal. S. Felic., x. 2027, Poem., pp. 159, 160.
 
 366 ARTICLE XXIT. 
 
 as a Lamb ; a hand with a crown, symbolizing the pre- 
 sence of the Father ; the Dove, probably on the Cross '. 
 the Cross in a globe of light ; or, standing on a rock 
 whence issued four streams, the Four Gospels z . 
 
 A favourite type was Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac a . 
 Then there were the representations of martyrdoms, 
 as of St. Cassian b and St. Hippolytus c in Prudentius ; 
 St. Theodorus in St. Gregory of Nyssa d ; St. Euphemia 
 (in a piece of exquisite beauty) in St. Asterius e . St. 
 Gregory of Nyssa, too, seems to speak as if the pic- 
 tures of the martyrdoms, such as that basilica had, 
 were to be found commonly in the basilicas of martyrs f . 
 Evidently at first these paintings were historical, and 
 St. Gregory, in his Epistle to Serenus, Bishop of Mar- 
 seilles, commends him for having broken and cast out 
 some images : " I praise thee that thou wert zealous, 
 that nothing made with hands shall be worshipped %." 
 Then he distinguished between their use for instruc- 
 tion, and their abuse for worship. 
 
 From the time of Constantino the cross continued 
 more and more to be honoured ; he himself set it up 
 in many places h ; it was worn as a protection by 
 
 " Ep. xxxii. ad Sev., n. 10, p. 206. and notes, pp. 66 70. 
 
 * St. Greg. Nyss., Orat. de Fil. et Sp. Div., iii. 476, painted in so 
 many places ; Aug. c. Faust., xxii. 73. b Perist., ix. 5 sqq. 
 
 c Ib., xi. 126 sqq. d T. iii. p. 579. 
 
 e Enarr. in Mart. D. EupTiem. in Combefis, i. 207 210. 
 
 f "Whoso cometh unto some spot like this, where is a memorial of 
 the just, and a holy relic, his soul," &c. (Ibid.) 
 
 Epp. ix. 105, xi. 13. 
 
 h De laud. Const., c. ix. p. 740.
 
 OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 367 
 
 St. Macrina, the sister of St. Gregory of Nyssa ' l ; it was 
 defended as an object of honour by blessed Jerome of 
 Jerusalem k . St. Nilus recommends for the decoration 
 of a church one and one only cross, in the sanctuary 
 to the East 1 , and histories contained in the Old and 
 New Testament on every side, done by the hand of 
 the most skilful painter, in order that they who are 
 unable to read the Divine Scriptures, may have a re- 
 membrancer of the worthy actions of those who have 
 nobly served the true God, and be excited to emu- 
 late their "glorious excellencies." In the accusation 
 against Ibas in the Council of Chalcedon, mention is 
 made of "the crosses of silver and gold offered and 
 dedicated m ." 
 
 The history of the enlarged use of images is obscure. 
 Of their use apart from churches, there is the memo- 
 rable instance of St. Meletius, whose image, St. Chry- 
 sostom relates, was placed by the Antiochenes on rings, 
 seals, cups, and chamber-walls n . Theodoret mentions 
 a report that small images of St. Symeon Stylites 
 were set up at the entrances of all the workshops, as 
 a protection . St. Chrysostom speaks of aja\,/j.ara 
 
 ' Up. ad Jokan. Hieros., translated into Latin by St. Jerome, Ep. Ix. 
 He uses stronger language in relation to the image made of the Blessed 
 Virgin by the Collyridians, User. 79, pp. 447. Another statement of 
 the unlawfulness of images was quoted from him in Cone. Const, in 
 Act. vi. ; t. v. Cone. Nic., ii. 
 
 k Galland., torn. vii. p. 530. l Lib. iv. Ep. bd. p. 491, 2. 
 
 m n. 8, Cone. iv. 650, Labbe. 
 
 n Horn, de S. Meletio, t. ii. p. 519, Ben. 
 
 Hist. Eelig., c. 26, t. iii. p. 1272.
 
 368 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 which stood in the church p , which some think to have 
 been the Cross. In the Canons of the Quini-sext 
 Council it is asserted that our Lord should be repre- 
 sented under the human figure, rather than under 
 that of the Lambi. Pope Hadrian says at the time 
 of the Sixth General Council (A.D. 680) that "sacred 
 images and painted histories had of old time been 
 reverenced r ." The popular excitement at the insult, 
 when Leo Isauricus had an image of our Lord cast 
 down, evinces what an outrage they felt it to be to 
 Himself. The Iconoclast troubles were Eutychian in 
 their origin 8 , carried on by godless Emperors, and 
 settled by the second Council of Nice. The protest 
 of the Council of Frankfort rested probably on the 
 misinformation that the Council of Nice had enacted 
 that they who did not pay to the images of the saints 
 service " or adoration, in the same way as to the Deific 
 Trinity, should be adjudged anathema*." 
 
 The dark ages set in, then commences the time of 
 those miraculous and rudely-carved representations 
 which still hold their places in some countries, the 
 Volto Santo at Lucca, and the like. Many sacred 
 images were brought from the East in the times of 
 the Iconoclastic troubles, and formed centres of devo- 
 tion in the West : God probably blessing the poor 
 ignorant creatures who came to Him with what im- 
 
 O 
 
 perfect faith they had. Nor them only, for from that 
 
 P Horn. 10, in Eph., n. 2, t. xi. p. 89. ' Can. 82. 
 
 * Cone., t. vi. p. 136. See Petav. de Inc., xv. 11. 
 
 1 Cone. Francof., can. 2, quoted ib.
 
 OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 369 
 
 rude Byzantine art sprung the unspeakable devotional 
 glories of the early Tuscan and Sienese schools ; the 
 pictures that speak to the soul as very symbols of di- 
 vine truth ; which pourtray, as no human hand before 
 or since has done, the purity of the Virgin Mother, the 
 ever young, ever fresh bliss of the saints in glory, the 
 ineffable sufferings of God made man for us. God is 
 to be praised for the gifts which He bestowed, ob- 
 tained by prayer and sacramental communion, on Beato 
 Angelico da Fiesole, and on those who have toiled in 
 the same spirit, Sano di Pietro, Duccio, and Gentil da 
 Fabraino. Next to the development of a Christian 
 philosophy, the greatest desideratum of the times is 
 the development of a school of Christian art. 
 
 Of the having images or pictures, nothing is said in 
 the Article, only of worshipping them. It was a com- 
 mon saying among many schoolmen, that "the same 
 honour was due to the image as to the original, and 
 so that the image of Christ was to be worshipped with 
 latria, that of the Blessed Mary with hyperdulia, that 
 of the saints with dulia u ." But this language was 
 easily misunderstood ; and probably nothing more was 
 intended than what was expressed in the very opposite 
 way, viz. that " the image was nowise to be worshipped 
 in itself, but only the original was to be worshipped 
 before the image x ," according to the lines engraven 
 in a church at Venice, contemporary, it is thought, 
 with the second Council of Nice : 
 
 u Quoted by Bellarm., Contr. de Imag. Sanct., 5i. 20, t. i. col. 
 2146. Ibid. 
 
 Bb
 
 570 
 
 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 " Nam Deus est, quod imago docet, sed non Deus ipsa ; 
 Hanc videas, sed mente colas quod cernis in ipsa y ." 
 
 And the Council of Nice, which they all acknowledged, 
 had said that "images were to be worshipped, but not 
 with latria*;" and Basil of Ancyra, and Constantino, 
 who recanted before the Council, said "that they re- 
 ceived and worshipped images, but not with latria a ." 
 Whence Bellarmine, too, says, "As to the mode of 
 speaking, especially in sermons to the people, it is 
 not to be said, that any images are to be adored with 
 latria, but contrariwise that they are not to be so 
 adored." In support of this, he quotes two Councils 
 of his own time, which said, " that the people ought to 
 be admonished by preachers not to adore images b ." 
 
 A vivid representation calls forth in us the feelings 
 which are felt towards the original. It is so in feelings 
 merely human. People kiss the picture or some relic of 
 one whom they deeply love, as if it were the person. 
 The picture of a friend speaks to us, and people speak 
 to it, as if it were himself. If one kissed the feet of 
 the Crucifix, it would be accompanied by a mental act 
 to our crucified Redeemer, such as St. Mary Magda- 
 lene's when she kissed His feet in the feast ; it would 
 be an act of humble penitence and adoring love to 
 Himself as our Redeemer. The act would be addressed 
 to our Lord Himself, although elicited by the image. 
 
 The Homilies illustrate what it was in regard to the 
 
 r Quoted by Bellarm., Contr. de Imag. Sanct., ii. 20, t. i. col. 2146. 
 1 Act. vii. Act. i. and iii., quoted by Bell. I. c. c. 22. 
 
 b Cone. Senon., c. 14; Moffunt., c. 41, ib.
 
 OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 371 
 
 veneration or worship of images, which the framers 
 of the Articles had before their eyes . The Council 
 of Trent reformed in the direction which our writers 
 wished, but, by reforming, owned the existence of 
 the evils complained of: 
 
 "Into these holy and salutary observances should 
 any abuses creep, of these the Holy Council strongly 
 [vehementer] desires the utter extinction ; so that no 
 images of a false doctrine, and supplying to the unin- 
 structed opportunity of perilous error, should be set 
 up. All superstition, too, in invocation of saints, 
 veneration of relics, and sacred use of images be put 
 away ; all filthy lucre be cast out of doors ; and all 
 wantonness be avoided ; so that images be not painted 
 or adorned with an immodest beauty ; or the celebra- 
 tion of saints and attendance on relics be abused to 
 revelries and drunkenness ; as though festival days 
 were kept in honour of saints by luxury and lascivi- 
 ousness." 
 
 IV. The worshipping and adoration of relics, is the 
 next subject of condemnation of the Article. The 
 
 c See Tract XC., p. 3237, ed. Pusey. "Thus there was a rood at 
 Boxley, in Kent, made with devices to move the eyes and lips (but not 
 to see and speak), which, in the year 1538, was publickly shewn at 
 S. Paul's by the preacher, then Bishop of Rochester, and there broken 
 to pieces ; the people laughing at that which they adored but an hour 
 before. Such imposture was also used at Hailes Abbey, in Gloucester- 
 shire, where the blood of a duck (for such it appeared at the dissolving 
 of the house) was so cunningly conveyed that it spirted or sprung up, 
 to the great amazement of common people, accounting it the blood 
 of our Saviour." (Fuller, Ch. Hist., book vi. sect. iv. 8 10, vol. ii. 
 p. 244, ed. 1837.)
 
 372 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 shameless frauds of the Friars at the time of the 
 Reformation are well exposed in the writings of the 
 time, and the undue veneration in which the relics 
 of the saints were held is one of its most powerful 
 chapters. Yet the principle that lay at the bottom of 
 the sentiment was not in itself vicious, and had early 
 established itself in the Church. They who see nothing 
 incredible in the mantle of Elias dividing Jordan, in 
 the bones of Elisha restoring a man to life, in the hand- 
 kerchiefs and aprons that had touched St. Paul healing 
 disease and casting out evil spirits, will see no ante- 
 cedent improbability in some of the effects which well- 
 authenticated Church history alleges to have been 
 wrought by God, in connexion with the remains of 
 some of His most distinguished servants. 
 
 To attach a sanctity to the bodies of the saints, which 
 in life had been the temples of the Holy Ghost, which 
 had carried Christ formed within them, was one of the 
 earliest feelings of the Church d . To save the bodies 
 of the martyrs, after their passions, became the privilege 
 of the early Christians. The more solid parts of St. 
 Ignatius, torn by wild beasts, were carried to Antioch, 
 wrapped in linen, and bequeathed to the Church e . The 
 Church of Smyrna collected the bones of St. Polycarp 
 from the fire, where they had been cast to prevent his 
 body being carried off f . St. Saturus plunged a ring 
 
 d See a magnificent passage in the peroration of St. Chrys. Comin. on 
 the Romans. Horn. 32, p. 757, ed. Mont. 
 e Martyr. S. Ignat., n. vii. 
 1 Ep. Encycl. Eccl. Smyrn. de mart. S. Poli/c., n. 17, 18.
 
 OF RELICS. 373 
 
 into his wound and gave it to Pudens as a memorial *. 
 Clothes stained with the sweat of St. Cyprian were 
 eagerly coveted h . At the martyrdom of St. Vincentius, 
 the multitude received the blood in linen cloths with 
 sacred veneration, to be a benefit to their posterity *. 
 The governor Maximus gave notice that he would 
 not allow the relics of St. Tarachus and others to be 
 carried away, but was defeated by the Christians' 
 prayers k . St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and Paulinus of 
 Milan, agree in attesting the miracle of the restoration 
 of a well-known blind-born man to sight, when he 
 touched the hem of the garment which covered the 
 newly-discovered relics of St. Gervasius and Protasius l . 
 The miracle stopped the persecution against St. Am- 
 brose. St. Cyril of Jerusalem mentions that the world 
 was filled with wood of the Holy Cross which was dis- 
 covered there in his time m . The depositing of the 
 relics of martyrs, as an honour of basilicas, is men- 
 tioned by Eusebius n , by Nilus , the eye-witness of the 
 martyrdom of St. Theodotus, by St. Gregory of Nyssa 
 
 s Pass. SS. Perp. et Fel, n. 21, p. 96, Ruin. 
 
 h Vit. et pass. St. Cypr., in Ruin., p. 214. 
 
 ' Pass. St. Vincent., ib., p. 395. Prudentius says the same, pro- 
 bably from the Acts, Hymn. v. Pass. St. Vincent., 341 44. 
 
 k Pass. St. Tarachi, &c., Ruinart., pp. 490, 491. 
 
 1 St. Ambrose, Ep. xxii. Sorori, t. ii. 874, 848, embodying his dis- 
 course to the people ; St. Augustine, Con/ 1 ., ix. 7, n. 16 (see note, Oxf. Tr.) 
 Serm. 286, n. 4, 5, (where he says, " 1 was there ; I was at Milan,") 
 t. v. p. 1689 ; de Civ. D., xxii. 7, t. vii. pp. 1057, 1058 ; Paulinus, Vit. 
 S.Ambr., n. 14. 
 
 m Cat. x. 19. " Vit. Const., ii. 40. 
 
 In Gall., iv. 119.
 
 374 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 on the Martyr Theodoras p , and on the forty mar- 
 tyrs q , and by St. Ambrose r . St. Basil promises to assist 
 the zeal of Arcadius by sending him some martyrs' 
 relics, if he can discover them s ; he asks Soranus to send 
 him some, " since the persecution in your parts even now 
 makes martyrs unto the Lord V St. Paulinus writes 
 " Our brother Victor has informed me, that you, as is 
 worthy of your faith and grace, want, for the basilica 
 which you have built, the blessing from the sacred 
 relics of saints, whereby your Church should be 
 adorned. The Lord is my witness, that if I had even 
 a scruple of sacred ashes more than I need for dedi- 
 cating the basilica which will soon be completed in the 
 Name of the Lord, I would have sent it to you u ." 
 
 St. Jerome asks Vigilantius whether it is ill done 
 of the Bishop of Rome, who, over the venerable bodies 
 of the departed Peter and Paul, offers sacrifice to the 
 Lord, and accounts their tombs Christ's altars ; and 
 not the Bishop of one city only, but the Bishops of the 
 whole world who go into the basilicas of dead men, &c. 
 He relates that the Emperor Constantinus " translated to 
 Constantinople the relics of Andrew, Luke, Timothy, 
 before whose relics demons howl ; that Arcadius trans- 
 lated the bones of the blessed Samuel from Judaea into 
 
 P T. iii. pp. 579, 580. 
 
 i Orat. in xl. Mart., t. ii. p. 213. He says, that "well-nigh the 
 whole earth is blessed with the remains of the forty martyrs," p. 211. 
 
 * Exh. Virg., n. 1. Ep. xxii. Sorori, t. ii. pp. 874 878. 
 
 * Up. xlix. Arcad., t. iii. p. 203. 
 
 * Up. civ. Sorano, p. 354. 
 u Up. xxxi. ad Sever., init.
 
 or RELICS. 375 
 
 Thrace ; while from Palestine to Chalcedon the crowds 
 were as one mighty hive, and lifted on high with one 
 voice the praise of Christ*." In the fourth century 
 the system was distinctly recognised and regulated by 
 Canon, as in the 5th Council of Carthage, A.D. 398, 
 which legislated in regard to the wayside altars erected 
 as memories of the martyrs y . The coarse attack of the 
 inn-keeper Vigilantius was not of a nature to gain him 
 followers, or to disturb the tide of pious feeling. Emi- 
 nent fathers believed that there resided power in the 
 bodies also of the just, which had so long been the 
 temples of the Holy Ghost z ; that God witnessed to 
 them who had witnessed to Him ; and that He shewed, 
 in this way also, that "right dear in the sight of 
 the Lord is the death of His saints;" that prayers 
 were answered near the bodies of the martyrs, and 
 that the touch of their relics dispelled disease. The 
 evidence is irresistible 3 . Modern theorists will solve 
 
 x Adv. Vigil., n. 4. 
 
 i Can. xiv. It directs that the bishops should overthrow those in 
 which it should be proved that there was no body or relic of martyrs. 
 
 z St. Cyril Jerus., Cat. xviii. 16. "There reposes in that body 
 a power greater than that of the soul itself, the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit, which, by the miracles which it performs, gives proof to all of 
 the resurrection." (St. Chrys. de St. Bdbyl., t. ii. p. 635.) 
 
 a St. Hilary says : " Everywhere was the holy blood of the martyrs 
 received, and daily are their venerable bones a testimony, while demons 
 howl at them, while sicknesses are dispelled, while wonderful works are 
 seen." (Cont. Const. Imp., n. 8.) " The tombs of the apostles and mar- 
 tyrs, by the operations of miracles, speak of Him [Christ]." (De Trin., 
 1. xi. n. 3, p. 1084.) St. Gregory of Naziauzum : " By them devils are 
 cast out and maladies cured; whose bodies, even alone, whether touched 
 or honoured, can effect as much as their holy souls ; even whose drops
 
 376 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 the knot by believing that the cures were wrought by 
 the subjective excitation- of spirit and the heated ima- 
 gination of the ignorant votary. It is a humbler and 
 
 of blood alone, and the minute symbols of their passion, can do as much 
 as their bodies." (Adv. Julian. Orat. iii., t. i. p. 76.) " The driving 
 away of evil spirits, the removal of diseases, the foreknowledge of future 
 events all which the very dust of Cyprian can effect, where there is 
 faith, as they know who have made trial, and have transmitted the 
 miracle even to us, and will deliver it to future ages." (Orat. xviii. de 
 S. Cypr., p. 285.) " What if I should speak of diseases and demons 
 expelled in a manner surpassing belief, so as to amount to miracles ? " 
 (Carm. Iamb, xviii.) St. Ambrose: "It is a source of joy unto all, to 
 touch but the extremest portion of the linen that covers them ; and 
 whoso touches is healed." (Ep. xxii. Sorori, t. ii. p. 87.) St. Augus- 
 tine : " What does God, by performing marvellous works near the bodies 
 of the saints but furnish a testimony that what dies perishes not to 
 Him ? and it may hence be understood in what honour He holds the 
 souls of the saints who are with Him when the soul-bereft flesh is 
 adorned with so mighty an operation of the Divinity." (Serm. 275, 
 in Nat. 8. Vincent., n. 3, t. v. col. 1631.) "Think what things God 
 reserves for us in the land of the living, He who bestows things so great 
 from the dust of the dead." (Serm. 317, n. i. de S. Stepk., ib., 1870.) 
 St. Isidore of Pelusium : " Ask those who are cured by those martyrs 
 and learn to how many they vouchsafe remedies." (Up. i. 55. Hieraci.) 
 St.Victricius, A.D. 396: "Do they [the particles of the relics] afford 
 healing to the miserable, in a different way in the East, at Constanti- 
 nople, Antioch, Thessalonica, Neissa, Rome, in Italy ? Are the suffering 
 bodies cleansed in different ways ? John Evangelist heals at Ephesus, 
 and in many other places; and with us is his same medicine. At 
 Bologna heals Proculus, Agricola, and here too we see their majesty; 
 Antoninus heals at Placentia ; Saturninus heals, Trajan heals in Mace- 
 donia. Nazarius healeth at Milan ; Mutius, Alexander, Datysus, Chyn- 
 deus, infuse the grace of health with abundant virtue. Healeth Rogata, 
 Leonida, Anastasia, Anatoclia. I ask, is the remedy of the saints one 
 with us, another with others ? But if all the saints everywhere defend 
 with like tenderness those who reverence them [cuUores~\, cultus is to be 
 added, not majesty to be discussed." (De laud. Sanct., n. xi. Gall. viii. 
 232 ; see also Tlieodoret, below, pp. 413, 41 k)
 
 OF RELICS. 377 
 
 surer line to take, to say that God, dealing with a rude 
 and unlettered race, permitted that these relics should 
 be the media of His own mercy in cure. 
 
 All through the dark ages relic-worship prevailed, 
 but it was after the Crusades that it arrived at its 
 intensity. The thought of the Holy Land filled all 
 Europe with the tenderest sentiments of love and 
 compassion, from the contemplation of the Life and 
 Sufferings of the Saviour ; and the soldiers of the 
 Cross brought home objects which purported to be 
 of the most sacred nature. Beautiful churches, in 
 the purest taste of the first Pointed style were erected 
 to receive them, and the skill of the goldsmith and 
 enameller enlisted to do honour to the blessed objects 
 in a style which still excites our admiration. At 
 first, no doubt, the sight of these relics advanced 
 piety. "Who would not feel his heart burn within him 
 at the sight of a real Thorn that once pierced the 
 Sacred Brow ? But where will not the idolatry of 
 gain creep in ? Even St. Augustine had to complain 
 of the sale of relics, probably fictitious. The enemy 
 " hath dispersed on every side so many hypocrites, 
 under the garb of monks, strolling about the pro- 
 vinces, nowhere sent, nowhere settled, nowhere stand- 
 ing, nowhere sitting. Some hawk about the limbs 
 of martyrs, if indeed they be martyrs V So now, 
 too, the trade in relics led to the discovery of impos- 
 tures, and there was a reaction. In vain the Friars 
 preached them up; the feeling turned against them, 
 b DK Honarfi., c. 28 ; Short Treatises, p. 509, Oxf. Tr.
 
 378 ARTICLE XXI I. 
 
 and at the Reformation in England and Scotland, well- 
 nigh everything which had formerly excited the de- 
 votion of the people all well-nigh, but the body of 
 Edward the Confessor, saved no doubt on account of 
 his royal dignity was ruthlessly destroyed. 
 
 It is again to be remarked that the Article relates, 
 not to the reverence of the relics, (we reverence the 
 remains of any holy dead, much more of those who 
 bore witness to Christ through sufferings which we can 
 hardly imagine), but to " superstitions in their venera- 
 tion" which the Council of Trent had to forbid. St. 
 Jerome had to distinguish the honour to relics from 
 the worship due to the Creator c . " We worship not, 
 we adore not, I say not relics only, but not even sun 
 and moon, nor angels, nor archangels, nor cherubim, 
 nor seraphim, lest we serve the creature more than the 
 Creator Who is blessed for evermore. But we honour 
 the relics of martyrs, that we may adore Him Whose 
 martyrs they are. We honour the servants, that the 
 honour of the servants may redound to the Lord, Who 
 says, ' He that receiveth you, receiveth Me/ '' 
 
 V. Of all the points of difference between unreformed 
 Churches and ourselves, there is none which has prac- 
 tically widened the difference so much as the invocation 
 of saints. The divergence has operated on both sides. 
 Roman Catholics and Orthodox Easterns regard the 
 disuse of this practice as an evidence of great want 
 of faith, and of the presence of an impious unsuper- 
 natural temper on the part of the reformed, while these 
 c Ep. cix. ad Riparium, n. 1.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 379 
 
 in return have accused of superstition, and even idol- 
 atry, the having recourse to any created being in the 
 way of prayer d . One cannot help honouring both sen- 
 timents, however contrariant their practical results. 
 To live in an atmosphere of faith, to recognise in 
 a very loving and practical way the Communion of 
 Saints, to have faith and confidence even in the most 
 subordinate powers of the unseen world, sheds a beau- 
 tiful light over the Christian life of those who have 
 been trained in such devotions; on the other hand, 
 one respects that jealousy for the honour and incom- 
 municable privileges of God which sees danger where 
 others find food for faith, and which centres all its 
 thought on the one Supreme invisible Object of the 
 aspirations of the believing soul. 
 
 Viewing the matter from this dispassionate light, it 
 shall be our duty, first to assert the truth of the literal 
 meaning of the Article, that the doctrine of Romanists 
 " on the Invocation of Saints" is " a fond thing, vainly 
 invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, 
 but rather repugnant to the "Word of God ;" and then, 
 to shew what has been the real mind of the ancient 
 Church upon this point of doctrine. 
 
 There will always be a tendency in human nature to 
 rest in something short of the pure essence of God. 
 His unapproachable holiness bears down upon the hu- 
 man spirit with a crushing weight. Anything that 
 will satisfy the religious instinct, and at the same time 
 prevent the soul from too great a proximity to Him 
 d Palmer's Essay " On Orthodox Communion."
 
 380 AttTICLE XXII. 
 
 Who is a consuming fire, will be eagerly hailed by 
 those who recognise what God is and what they are, 
 till the correctives supplied by the true faith, in the 
 images of love and mercy revealed in the Gospel, make 
 themselves living truths within the soul. It was in 
 this spirit that the Jews in the wilderness desired 
 Moses to stand between them and God. 
 
 Even in JVIahomedanism, the centre of the philo- 
 sophy of which is the unphilosophical belief in an 
 unipersonal God, the worship of the Ooleys or Saints 
 has developed itself. The votary of Islam, maintaining 
 that " God hath not begotten, is not begotten/' con- 
 sistently refuses to worship the Only-Begotten. He 
 cannot accept the blessed truths of a God united to 
 human nature, and so human nature has avenged it- 
 self, and he is now given over to the cultus of men who 
 ought not to be worshipped, and the devotion to AH, 
 Hoosn, and Hooseyn, has avenged the neglect of the 
 true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 
 
 Again, not merely are there deep principles in the 
 human mind which lead to a resting in secondary 
 worship, but the political condition of a people will 
 strongly influence belief in this respect. It cannot be 
 doubted that the state of the old heathenism, at the 
 time of the State-establishment by Constantine, told 
 sensibly in the direction of the development of saint- 
 worship. In Italy, specially, the old Pagan ideas got 
 baptized, and the religious devotion of the vulgar was 
 transformed from the elder forms of heathenism to the 
 purer cultus of the personages of the Holy Gospel and
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 381 
 
 of the Church. That the world gained immensely by 
 the change, the most bigoted religionist must admit. 
 To withdraw the mind from the sensual images that 
 belonged to the beautiful but corrupt Nature-worship 
 of the heathen, to those of the self-denying heroism 
 of the martyrs, must be acknowledged as an immense 
 gain by all those who hold that the imagination ex- 
 ercises power over the whole man; but still, beneficial 
 as the process was, it cannot be doubted that it carried 
 a danger within it, and that it laid the foundation of 
 a state of things, in which a lower standard of religious 
 morality came to be tolerated, and the idea of the one 
 true God to be obscured. Not that either result of 
 necessity took place. M. Comte maintains 6 that, at 
 no time have Monotheistic ideas been so prevalent or 
 strong, as in the full sunlight of the Virgin-worship 
 of the eleventh and twelfth centuries; but still the 
 religion of the vulgar will always exaggerate tenden- 
 cies, and therefore such a warning as that contained 
 in the Articles is specially salutary. 
 
 At the time of the Reformation all this had specially 
 to be insisted upon. The popularity of some devo- 
 tions must have been very great, if the offerings at St. 
 Thomas's shrine at Canterbury in one year amounted 
 to 954 6s. 3d. ; while that at our Lord's was nothing, 
 and at Our Lady's 4 Is. 8d. The gross immorality 
 which was everywhere prevalent found a satisfaction 
 for those spiritual aspirations which never die, even in 
 the bad, in the cultus of some easy saint. 
 
 e Comte Politique Positive, pp. 428433. Paris, 1823.
 
 382 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 But there is another aspect of the practice, which it 
 would be uncandid and unphilosophical to pass over. 
 There are certain high-strung souls, of whose undivided 
 and entire love to God there can be no doubt, whose 
 intense personal devotion to our Lord is the warmest, 
 and who realize His Passion in a measure into which 
 our cold hearts cannot enter, to whom this devotion is 
 congenial. In them it exists in entire subordination 
 to the feelings which the incommunicable right of 
 God to our entire selves engenders and cultivates. 
 We may not be able to understand them, but such 
 there are. There must, therefore, be some aspect of 
 this practice which appeals to a very high part of our 
 nature, and therefore well deserves our careful con- 
 sideration. This can best be attained by tracing out 
 the development of the doctrine in the history of the 
 Church. "We have, then, to ask two questions : 1. Did 
 the Early Church believe in the intercession of those 
 holy persons who have gone to their rest ? and 2. Did 
 the Early Church think it right to address words of 
 petition to them? With regard to the first of these 
 questions, there is not a shadow of a doubt. But, 
 before entering into the details of evidence, it may be 
 as well to point out that it is not only in conformity 
 to all our Christian instincts of love, but that it is 
 a truth of Scripture. All creatures are, of course, 
 alike at an infinite distance from God. The highest 
 creature which God could create must be a creature 
 still ; and, as a creature, finite ; and everything finite 
 is alike distant from the Infinite. But God, " who has
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 383 
 
 ordained and constituted the services of angels and 
 men in wonderful order," has made their mutual 
 ministries a part of the harmony of love in His crea- 
 tion. Not only does Holy Scripture declare, that they 
 are " all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for 
 them who shall be heirs of salvation'," but it speaks 
 of offices which they render, the higher to the lower, 
 and individually to ourselves &. "Twice, in Daniel's 
 visions, an angel enquireth of one most exalted angel, 
 (who yet himself is a creature, for he swears by the 
 living God h ,) and receives an answer 1 ." In Zechariah 
 we see that angels whom God had sent to " walk to and 
 fro on the earth," give account to " the angel of the 
 Lord k ." A superior angel, in another vision, directs 
 another angel to instruct Zechariah 1 . In regard to 
 ourselves, it is our Lord Who told us of the angels of 
 the little ones, " their angels," " always beholding the 
 face of His Father in heaven m ," as a ground of our 
 reverent care not to offend them. It was the Apostolic 
 body which, thinking it impossible that Peter himself, 
 whom they knew to have been in prison, could be at 
 the door, said, " It is his angel n ." They were mistaken 
 as to the fact, but they gave expression to their belief. 
 Our Lord Himself allowed His angels to minister to 
 Him, either together , or in an individual relation 
 to Him. In His dread agony, He admitted of the 
 
 f Heb. i. 14. Dan. xii. 6, viii. 13. h Ibid. ril. 7. ! Dr. 
 
 Pusey, Daniel the Prophet, p. 521. k Zech. i. 1012. l ii. 7, 
 
 8 Heb.; 3, 4, Eng. "' St. Matt, xviii. 10. n Acts xii. 15. St. 
 Matt. iv. 11.
 
 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 strengthening of an angel to His Manhood P. The 
 Old Testament revealed that they were interested in 
 our race. They all " burst forth into jubilee q " at the 
 prospect of our birth ; God gave them charge of His 
 own to "keep them in all their ways 1 "," "ascending 
 and descending 8 " from heaven to earth. We know 
 how they ministered to the patriarchs and defended 
 Elisha * ; how one especially " stood up to protect the 
 people of Israel V The angel of the Lord "prayed 
 for Jerusalem x ;" and, although " the angel of the 
 Lord" in the Old Testament is mostly a manifestation 
 of God, yet since the angel prayed he must have had a 
 created existence y . God's declaration, " Though Moses 
 and Samuel stand before Me, My mind is not towards 
 this people z ," by the force of the words implies that 
 they could intercede, though, doubtless, knowing the 
 will of God, they did not. Isaiah's appeal to God im- 
 plies the same, "For Thou art our Father, though 
 [or, for] Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel will not 
 acknowledge us a ." For the belief that God would own 
 them as their Father, though for their misdeeds the 
 fathers of their race should give them up, implies that 
 these ordinarily did remember them. The prophet 
 
 P St. Luke xxii. 43. Job xxxviii. 7. r Ps. xci. 11. Gen. 
 xxviii. 12, 13. 2 Kings vi. 17. u Dan. xii. 1. * Zech. i. 12. 
 
 y Job xxxiii. 23, is probably an anticipation of our Lord's coming 
 in the flesh. See Pusey on Daniel, p. 519. 
 
 z Jer. xv. 1. The words are "R33^ DS, not lb Comp. Jer. v. 2 ; 
 Is. i. 18, x. 22 ; Am. v. 22 ; Job ix. 20. Even when spoken of things 
 impossible (Jer. xxii. 24 ; Ps. cxxxix. 8) CM presupposes them as pos- 
 sible, since it speaks of what would follow. Is. Ixiii. Ifi.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SATXTS. 385 
 
 contrasts the endurance of God's love with the pos- 
 sible failure of any manifestation of man's. But then 
 this implies a real care on the part of man, although, 
 like Abraham's intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah, 
 it had to come to an end at last. This belief continued 
 on, after the Canon of the Old Testament was closed. 
 In Tobit the angel Raphael says, " When thou didst 
 pray, I offered thy prayer to the Lord b ," and says that 
 he is one of the seven holy angels who present the 
 prayers of the saints, and enter into the presence of the 
 glory of the Holy One c . And Judas sees, in a vision, 
 Onias, " the High Priest who prayed for all the people 
 of the Jews," and Jeremiah, " environed with great 
 beauty and majesty ;" of whom Onias saith, " This is 
 a lover of his brethren and of the people of Israel ; 
 this is he that prayeth much for the people and for 
 all the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God d ." 
 Both are confirmed in the Hew Testament, where 
 heaven is opened to us and we see "the angel 6 ," 
 who "stood before the altar, having a golden censer, 
 and there was given to him much incense, that he 
 should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the 
 golden altar, which was before the throne ; and the 
 
 O * ' 
 
 smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, 
 ascended up before God out of the angel's hands ;" and 
 not he only, but they who are represented by "the 
 
 b Tobit xii. 12. 
 
 c Ibid. 15. Tbese (with 2 Mace.) are alleged in proof by Origen, 
 
 de Orat., n. 11, t. i. p. 213 ; in Joann., t. 13, n. 57, Opp. iv. 273. 
 d 2 Mace. xv. 12 14. e Rev. viii. 3, 4. 
 
 C C
 
 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 four beasts and the four-and-twenty elders," who fall 
 down before the Lamb, and every one of them had 
 harps, "and golden vials full of odours, which are the 
 prayers of the saints f ." And those, who so present 
 the prayers of the saints, must themselves be of our 
 race ; for in their " new song" their thanksgiving is, 
 " Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out 
 of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, 
 and hast made us to our God kings and priests." 
 Heaven and earth are joined in one in Christ our 
 Head. "The heavenly Jerusalem," to which, Scrip- 
 ture says, " we are come," counts in it, we are told 
 in the same place, "an innumerable company of angels, 
 the general assembly and Church of the first-born, 
 which are written in heaven, and the spirits of just 
 men made perfect g ." In Jesus, our Head, are "united 
 things in earth and things in heaven V Angels and 
 men are one family. The " Jerusalem which is above" 
 is the mother of us all j . But then, not of us on earth 
 only is that true, that "we, being many, are one body 
 in Christ, and every one members one of another k /' 
 and that " the members should have the same care one 
 for another; and whether one member suffer, all the 
 members suffer with it ; or one member be honoured, 
 all the members rejoice in it ; now ye are the body of 
 Christ, and members in particular l ." As our blessed 
 Lord says that He is persecuted in His members, or 
 receives our benefits in them, so they who are per- 
 
 f Rev. v. 8. Heb. xii. 22, 23. h Col. i. 20. 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 26. k Rom. xii. 5. ' 1 Cor. xii. 2527.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 387 
 
 fected must have a care for us, who are yet in our 
 pilgrimage, and are beset by infirmities, and whose 
 crown is as yet unwon ; and we rejoice in the glory 
 and honour of those who have attained. Since the 
 angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth, they 
 must have a very individual love for those of our 
 race, and know much of our individual histories ; and 
 so then must those of our race, who are admitted 
 among them, and are " like unto the angels." Angels 
 and saints are one body, Scripture saith. It is, at 
 least, a pious belief, that, out of the redeemed, every 
 rank of the angels shall be filled up, or, if none fell 
 from it m , shall be enlarged. Nay, as our Divine Lord 
 for ever in-oned with His Divine Nature this our poor 
 human nature, the lowest of His rational creation, so, 
 in the nearest possible relation to His Godhead has 
 He, from our same race, placed her, whom, by His 
 grace, He prepared for that unspeakable nearness to 
 Himself; whom, through those her early years, He 
 formed to be the sacred shrine for His Deity ; whom 
 He taught to believe what was in human sight im- 
 possible, yet which, if brought to pass, involved the 
 peril of utter shame ; her, through whose obedience 
 the curse of Eve's disobedience was annulled ; from 
 whose " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto 
 me according to Thy word," her own redemption and 
 the redemption of the world had its beginning. No 
 titles, which the eloquence of human reverence and 
 
 m The Seraphim, with their burning love. Satan, the chief of those who 
 fell, is thought to have been one of the Cherubim. (Ezek. xxviii. 14.)
 
 388 ARTICLE XXIT. 
 
 love have culled for her, reach the majestic simplicity 
 of that, which, in barest truth, utters the mystery of 
 the Incarnation declared in our Creeds, " conceived of 
 the Virgin Mary," that "she bare God/' Theotokos. 
 And since no Divine mystery ends with this world, 
 then, in that closest relation to Himself, higher than 
 the Seraphim, or whatever is highest in the host of 
 heaven, is she, His creature, as God, but, as God-Man, 
 His Mother still. Well, then, may we think of angels 
 and saints as one body under Him, our Head, since 
 He, their Head, is God-Man, and nearest to Himself 
 is His human Mother. Our Lord calls them, too, " like 
 to the angels n ;" nay, He has admitted them to His 
 own throne, as He says, " To him that overcometh will 
 I grant to sit with Me in My throne ; even as I also 
 overcame, and am set down with My Father in His 
 throne ;" "he that overcometh and keepeth My work 
 unto the end, to him will I give power over the 
 nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; 
 as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to 
 shivers : even as I received of My Father P." 
 
 It may almost seem superfluous to adduce passages 
 from the fathers to shew that they taught that angels 
 and saints pray for us. Yet it may have its use. First, 
 then, as to the angels. Clement of Alexandria says q : 
 "The Gnostic prays with angels, as being already the 
 equal of angels ; nor does he ever come to be out of 
 the holy guardianship ; even though he pray alone, 
 
 " St. Mark xii. 25. Rev. iii 21. 
 
 f Rev. ii. 26, 27. ' Strom., vii. p. 879.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 389 
 
 he has the choir of the holy one standing with him." 
 Tertullian speaks of the indecency of sitting at prayer, 
 while the angel of prayer standeth by r . Origen unites 
 the angels and the departed saints: "But not the High- 
 Priest [our Lord] alone prays with those who pray 
 sincerely, but also the angels who 'joy in heaven 
 over one sinner who repenteth more than over ninety- 
 and-nine just persons who need no repentance,' and 
 the souls of the saints who have fallen asleep be- 
 fore (us) s ." He says, " The angel of each one, even 
 of the little ones in the Church, both prays with us, 
 and acts with us in those things about which we pray, 
 wherein it is possible 1 ." "If the angel of the Lord 
 'encamp round about them that fear him, and shall 
 deliver them/ and Jacob speaks truly, not concerning 
 himself only, but all besides devoted to God, saying 
 to him that understands, ' The angel that delivered 
 me from all evils,' it is likely that when many are 
 assembled together sincerely unto the glory of Christ, 
 the angel of each one 'encamps round' each of those 
 who fear ; with that man, that is, whom he has been 
 entrusted to guard and minister to ; so as to be, when 
 the saints are assembled, a twofold Church, one of 
 
 r De Oral., 16, p. 310, Oxf. Tr. 
 
 8 Ibid., n. 11, t. i. p. 213. "It is likely that the angelic powers 
 are present at the assemblies of the faithful, and the power of our 
 Lord and Saviour, yea, too, of the holy spirits, and I think too, even 
 of those who hive fallen asleep before (us), and undoubtedly also of 
 those who are still living, even though the 'how' is not easy to 
 d clare." Ibid., n. 31, p. 269. 
 
 ' Ibid., p. 215.
 
 390 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 men and another of angels." "The power of Jesus, 
 and the spirits of Paul and such as he, and the angels 
 of the Lord that encamp round about each of the 
 saints, concur with and come together with those who 
 are assembled in sincerity u ." And in answer to Celsus, 
 who said, "we must render" to angels "first-fruits 
 and prayers, as long as we live, that we may gain 
 their friendliness," Origen says x , " To Whom we give 
 the first-fruits, to Him we send up the prayers also, 
 having a great High-Priest, Who hath entered into the 
 heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, and we hold the con- 
 fession while we live, having God favourable to us, and 
 His Only-Begotten Son, Jesus, manifested among us. 
 But if we long for a multitude, too, whom we wish 
 to be friendly to us, we learn that thousands of thou- 
 sands stand by Him, and ten thousand times ten thou- 
 sand minister to Him, who, looking at those who 
 imitate their piety to God as kinsmen and friends, 
 co-operate to their salvation who call upon God and 
 pray sincerely, appearing to [them] and thinking that 
 they themselves ought to obey them, and as by one 
 compact, to be present for the benefit and salvation of 
 those who pray to God, to Whom themselves also pray. 
 For they are all ministering spirits sent forth," &c. : 
 and, " The one God over all we must thoroughly pro- 
 pitiate, and have Him propitious Whose entire good 
 will is gained by piety and all virtues ; but if lie 
 (Celsus) will have it, that certain others are to be so 
 propitiated by us after the God over all, let him 
 
 De Orat., n. 31, p. 269. * c. Cels., viii. 34, t. i. p. 766, 7.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 391 
 
 observe that as the motion of its shadow followeth the 
 body when moved, in like way upon the propitiation of 
 the God Who is above all it followeth, that one has all 
 His friends, angels, and souls, and spirits, propitious; 
 and not only do they, too, become propitious to those 
 who are worthy, but they also co-operate with those 
 who wish to serve the God Who is above all, and gain 
 His favour, and comprecate, and co-petition; so that 
 we may dare to say, that with those who delibe- 
 rately prefer the better part when they pray to God, 
 many myriads of holy powers, uncalled, pray with 
 them ?." 
 
 Origen supports his own belief by that of one of the 
 " older masters :" " I so deem that all those fathers 
 who fell asleep before us fight with us and help us by 
 their prayers. For so also did I hear one of the older 
 masters saying z ." He exhorts Ambrose not to fear mar- 
 tyrdom on account of wife and children ; for by thus 
 " becoming the friend of God, thou wilt have greater 
 power to help them." "Then thou wilt love them 
 with more perfect knowledge, and wilt pray for them 
 with greater wisdom V He asks, " Who doubts that 
 all the holy fathers help us by prayers b ?" &c. And 
 there is the passage, well known for the beauty of the 
 thought, that since knowledge is perfected in the life 
 to come, so also other virtues, especially love. " But 
 one of the principal virtues, according to the Divine 
 
 y c. Cels., n. 64, pp. 789, 790. z In Jos., Horn. 16, t. ii. p. 437. 
 
 " De Mart., n. 37, 38, t. i. p. 299. b In Num., Horn. 20, n. 6, 
 
 t. ii. p. 373.
 
 392 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 word, is charity towards our neighbour, which we must 
 needs think is felt by the departed saints towards those 
 who are struggling in this life, more exceedingly than 
 by those who are yet in human infirmity, and are 
 struggling together with those who need aid c ." 
 
 St. Dionysius, of Alexandria : " They who are about 
 to struggle in the sacred conflict of suffering for right- 
 eousness, have angels bringing them aid from heaven d ." 
 St. Gregory Thaumaturgus speaks incidentally of " the 
 holy angel of God, who had as his lot, with great 
 judgment to govern and tend me and be my guardian 
 from boyhood, who nourisheth me from my youth ; 
 him, who in addition to the common governors of all 
 men, is, whoever he may be, specially the attendant 
 teacher of me who am a child, who, being in all 
 besides, everywhere and in all things, my bringer up, 
 stood in charge of me of old, and now, too, rears me 
 up and instructs me and leads me by the hand e . " 
 Even Eusebius says : "How shall we give thanks (for 
 the death of Christ for us) ? Our tongues, our mouths, 
 suffice not, though we had a thousand. We suffice 
 not ; let us seek helpers ; let angels help us ; let 
 archangels, too, give thanks with us, that they, too, 
 may rejoice t ." Didymus, of Alexandria : " It is the 
 
 c De Orat., n. 11, t. i. p. 214. d De Martyr., pp. 40, 41. 
 
 e Orat. Paneg. in Orig., n. 4, Gall. iii. 418. St. Methodius says : 
 " We have received, in the God-inspired writings, that these children, 
 though born of adultery, are delivered over to guardian angels." (Conv., 
 ii. 7, Gall. iii. 682.) 
 
 f Def.de adv. SabelL, 1. i., Gall. iv. 473.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 393 
 
 longing of perfect men, coming to the consummation 
 of sanctity, to become equal to the angels. For angels 
 give aid to men, not men to angels, ministering to 
 them salvation, and announcing to them larger bene- 
 fits of God ." St. James, of Nisibis : " Let not the 
 hatred thou hast against any re-enter thy mind whilst 
 thou prayest. Be assured that thy prayers will be left 
 before the altar, and that he who offers prayer will 
 not receive and raise it from the earth. For he 
 examines thy gift, whether it be polluted. If the 
 prayer be holy, he raises it and offers it in the sight of 
 God. But if he find thee saying in thy prayer, ' For- 
 give me, I too forgive/ he that raises prayer will 
 answer thee who prayest, 'First forgive thou thy 
 debtor, and then I will raise thy prayer to the Lord, 
 Whose debtor thou art V " St. Basil : " Of the holy 
 spiritual powers who have their places in heaven, some 
 are called eyes, from being intrusted to watch over 
 us ; others, ears, from receiving our prayers \" St. Am- 
 brose comments on the words in the Revelations: 
 " which incense, the prayers of saints, is carried by an 
 angel unto that golden altar which is before the throne 
 of God, and glows like a sweet ointment of pious 
 prayer k ." St. Hilary : " The angels of the little ones 
 day by day see God, because the Son of Man came to 
 ' save what was lost/ Therefore both the Son of Man 
 
 De Sp. S., n. 7, Gall. vi. 266. h Serin, iv. n. 7, Gall. v. 30. 
 1 Horn, in, Ps. xxxiii., n. 11, t. i. p. 154. On the Guardian Angel, 
 see further St. Basil, ib., p. 148. 
 
 k De Isaac et anima, c. 5, n. 44, t. i. p. 369.
 
 394 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 saves, and angels see God and are angels of 'the little 
 ones.' The authority is absolute that angels pre- 
 side over the prayers of the faithful; wherefore an- 
 gels day by day offer up to God the prayers of those 
 who are saved by Christ. Therefore it is dangerous to 
 despise him, whose desires and supplications are borne 
 to the eternal and invisible God by the lofty service 
 and ministry of angels l ." 
 
 So also in regard to those who, of our race, were 
 perfected ; those especially who had borne testimony to 
 Jesus by their deaths. In the very earliest times we 
 find such testimony as this. In the account of the 
 martyrdom of St. Ignatius, many profess that they saw 
 him praying over them m . Origen says, " It will not be 
 wrong to say, that all the Saints departed, retaining 
 love for those who still are alive, take care of their 
 salvation and them, by their prayers and by their 
 intervention with God n ." St. Cyprian suggests to 
 St. Cornelius that whichever should first be vouch- 
 safed martyrdom, should not cease our prayers for our 
 brethren and sisters, in presence of the mercy of the 
 Father; and asks the Virgins whom he exhorts to 
 " remember him when virginity shall begin to be 
 honoured in them [i.e. in person] ." 
 
 Eusebius relates how the martyr Potamisena pro- 
 mised to a kind soldier to beg him from her Lord, and 
 obtained his conversion by her prayers p ; and how 
 
 1 In St. Matt., c. 18, n. 5, p. 758. m Patres Apostolici, p. 116, 
 
 ed. Hefele. n In Cant. iii. t. iii. p. 75. De hab. Virg., 362 ; 
 
 Ep. \\\i.fin. Ben. P H. E., vi. 14.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 395 
 
 Theodosia came to the confessors in bonds, " both out 
 of kindness, and, as is likely, to ask them to remember 
 her when they came to the Lord q ." St. Athanasius 
 speaks of the holy Psalmists, " who communicated the 
 words as ministers praying with us r ;" St. Antony says 
 " that the saints use much prayer and gladness in ex- 
 ultation before our Creator. The Maker, too, of all re- 
 joices in our works, and on account of the testimony 
 of the saints gives us immense charismata 9 " Nilus, 
 an eye-witness, relates how (about A.D. 303) the Martyr 
 St. Theodotus, just before he was beheaded, bade the 
 weeping Christians, "weep not, but glorify our Lord 
 Jesus, who had enabled him to finish his course. For 
 I shall be with confidence unceasingly interceding with 
 God in heaven for you*." Eusebius himself says: 
 " that it is probable that holy powers and choirs of 
 sacred angels pray with and over those who send up to 
 God, by prayers, spiritual and pure sacrifices," as it 
 " was probable that a choir of holy angels and men 
 dear to God, the sacred ministers of God, prayed with 
 David u ." St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, says : " that we 
 commemorate those who have fallen asleep before us, 
 patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, that God, by 
 their prayers and intercessions, may receive our peti- 
 tions x ." St. Hilary says : " that apostles, patriarchs, 
 prophets, or rather angels, with a kind of guard, fence 
 round the Church. Good, indeed, is an angel's pro- 
 
 i De Martyr. Pal., c. 7. T n. 31, t. i. p. 1001. ' Epist. v. 
 
 n. 1, in Gall. iv. 666. * Mart. S. Theod., n. 32, in Gall. iv. 128. 
 
 u In Ps. six. 1, Montf. Coll. Nov., i. 75. x Cat. Myst., v. 9.
 
 396 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 tection, but that of the Lord is better J"." St. Gregory, 
 of Nazianzum, says of his father : " I am persuaded 
 that he now (guards the flock) more effectually by his 
 intercession, than he did formerly by his teaching, by 
 how much he is nigher to God z ." And of St. Basil : 
 " His body is assigned to the tomb of his fathers, and 
 he is joined, the high-priest to the priests, that grand 
 voice which still ringeth in my ears to the preachers, 
 the martyr to the martyrs ; and now, indeed, he is in 
 heaven, and there, as I think, is offering up sacrifices 
 for us and praying for the people ; for though he has 
 left us, yet has he not utterly deserted us a ." And of 
 St. Athanasius : " He now, I well know, looks down 
 from above upon our affairs, and reaches out his hand 
 to those who toil for what is excellent, and so much 
 the more that he is free from the bonds [of the flesh] b ." 
 And of his mother Nonna : " And now from heaven 
 she greatly prays over our affairs ." St. Ambrose 
 hopes that he might the sooner rejoin St. Satyrus by 
 his intercessions d . St. Augustine holds that the souls 
 of the martyrs reign with Christ. They chiefly reign, 
 when dead, who have combated for the truth, even 
 unto death. 
 
 St. Chrysostom ends a Lenten exhortation, " If we 
 thus rule our lives, and, together with abstinence from 
 meats, manifest abstinence from evil too, we, too, shall 
 enjoy greater confidence and be admitted to a larger 
 
 f In Ps. cxxiv. n. 6. z Or. xxviii. p. 332. B Orat. xliii. 
 
 p. 831. b Orat. xxxiv. p. 620. c Carm. xciv. 5, Gall. vi. 
 
 379. 288. d De Fide Resur. earn. Jin., t. ii. 1170.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 397 
 
 loving-kindness of God, both in the present life and 
 in that coming awful day, by the prayers and inter- 
 cession of those who have pleased Him, by the grace 
 and loving- kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with 
 Whom e ,"&c. 
 
 St. Asterius, a contemporary of St. Chrysostom, says : 
 " The freedom of speech of the martyrs accomplishes 
 the intercession for the world; and the enemy un- 
 awares fell into the opposite of what he meant. For 
 as many as he slew, having confessed the faith, so 
 many succourers of men did he provide f ." 
 
 St. Leo nowhere uses invocations, but speaks very 
 frequently of the value of the intercession of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul ; once, also, of St. Laurence. He appeals 
 to his own experience and that of those before him : 
 " But as we, too, experienced, and our ancestors have 
 proved, we believe and are confident, amid all the 
 toils of this life, that, to obtain the mercy of God, we 
 shall ever be helped by the prayers of special patrons ; 
 that in proportion as we are sunk down by our own 
 sins, we may be raised by Apostolic merits s ." " Let us 
 use for our amendment the lenity of Him who spares 
 us, that blessed Peter and all the saints, who were pre- 
 sent with us in many tribulations, may vouchsafe to aid 
 our entreaties for you with the merciful God h ." Of 
 
 * Horn. 9, in Gen. fin., t. iv. 71. 
 
 * In SS. Mart. Combef. N. Auct., p. 192. 
 
 8 Serm. 82, in Nat. SS. Pet. et Paul., pp. 326, 327. 
 h Serm. 84, in Oct. App. Pet. et Paul., p. 337. He speaks of the 
 prayers of St. Peter, Serm. 12, 14, 76, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94.
 
 398 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 St. Laurence lie says, " by whose prayer and patronage 
 we trust that we are aided without ceasing '." 
 
 It was, then, an intense, stupid, loveless paradox, 
 of Vigilantius, that, " while we are alive, we ever 
 pray mutually for one another, but that when we have 
 departed this life no one's prayer is heard for an- 
 other 1 '." "If the Apostles and martyrs/' St. Jerome 
 answers, "while yet placed in the flesh, can yet pray 
 for others, while they must still be anxious for them- 
 selves, how much more after their crowns, victories, 
 triumphs ! Paul the Apostle says that ' two hundred 
 threescore and sixteen souls' were granted him in the 
 ship ; and after that, being dissolved, he has begun to 
 be with Christ, shall he then close his mouth, and be 
 unable to utter a word for those, who throughout the 
 world believed at his Gospel?" St. Jerome himself 
 speaks of it as certain that some departed pray for him. 
 He says to Heliodorus, that, when he should himself be 
 crowned, " then wilt thou pray for me too, who spurred 
 thee on to conquer 1 ;" and to Paula of Blaesilla, "she 
 prays to the Lord for thee, and impetrates for me, (cer- 
 tain I am of her mind,) the pardon of my sins m " and 
 to Theodora, on the death of her husband: "He, 
 already safe and triumphant, beholds thee from on 
 high, and aids thee in thy efforts, and prepares thee 
 a place near himself n ." St. Augustine says : " For 
 the faithful departed, prayers are offered ; for Martyrs, 
 
 1 Serm. 85, c. iv. p. 340. k In St. Jerome, c. Vigilant., n. 7. 
 
 1 Up. xiv. n. 3, ad Heliod., p. 29, Vail. Up. xxxix. n. 6, p. 183. 
 
 " Ep. Ixxv. n. 2, ad Theod. Vid., p. 448.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 399 
 
 not : for they departed so perfect, that they are not 
 our clients but our advocates. Nor this in themselves, 
 but in Him, to Whom, their Head, they, perfect mem- 
 bers, cohered. For He is truly the One Advocate, 
 Who intercedeth for us, sitting at the right hand of 
 the Father ; but He is our One Advocate, as also our 
 One Shepherd ." As, then, His character of "the 
 Shepherd of the sheep" does not exclude others being 
 shepherds in and under Him, so neither does His being 
 the One Advocate preclude others being advocates, in 
 His body, with and through Himself. Sulpicius Se- 
 verus, comforting a friend on the death of St. Martin, 
 says : " I cannot command myself not to weep. I have, 
 indeed, sent before me a patron, but I have lost the 
 solace of this present life, although, if grief admitted of 
 reason, I ought to rejoice. For he is inserted among 
 the Apostles and Prophets. He will not be wanting 
 to us, believe me, he will not be wanting ; he will be 
 with us discoursing of him ; he will stand by us pray- 
 ing ; and what he has vouchsafed to do to-day, he will 
 often let us see him, and protect us with his continual 
 blessing, as he did just now P." Prudentius says of 
 St. Cyprian : " Here below he is a teacher ; above, 
 a martyr: here, he instructs men; thence, a patron, 
 he gives loving gifts q ." St. Maximus says " that the 
 
 Serm. 285, in Nat. Martt. Casti et JEmil., n. 5, t. v. p. 1147. 
 
 P Epist. ii. de ob. et app. _B. Mart., Gall. viii. 400, 401. The allu- 
 sions are to a dream which Severus had, just before he heard of 
 St. Martin's decease, in which St. Martin blessed him 
 
 1 Hymn. 13, fin. Gall. viii. 467.
 
 400 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 heathen aimed a blow at the Church by the martyr- 
 dom of St. Sixtus ;" but " that great Xystus, who had 
 on earth been a shepherd of the sheep committed to him 
 by God, was at hand, a patron from heaven r ." At the 
 Council of Chalcedon, mention being made of Flavian, 
 all the Constantinopolitan Bishops said: "Eternal 
 the memory of Flavian ; of the orthodox, eternal the 
 memory Flavian after death lives ; the martyr will 
 pray for us 8 /' & c - The Bishops, collectively, in their 
 synodical Relation to St. Leo, own some aid from 
 St. Euphemia, in whose church they assembled, in the 
 happy accomplishment of their labours : "It was 
 God Who worked, and the victorious Euphemia who 
 crowned the Council by her bridal-chamber ; who, re- 
 ceiving the definition of the faith from us as her own 
 confession, did, through the most pious king and the 
 Christ-loving queen, present it to her Spouse, having 
 lulled the whole confusion of the adversaries, and 
 strengthened the love and confession of truth, and by 
 hand and tongue, having put the question to the votes 
 of all for demonstration*." The Bishops in the Council 
 of Tours, A.D. 461, express their hope that " the in- 
 tercession of the holy and most blessed bishop, St. 
 Martin, which is acceptable to God, will obtain, that 
 the constitution of our humility may, by the mercy of 
 the Lord helping, be preserved V 
 
 * Horn. 2, in Nat. S. Laur. ' Cone. Chalc., Act. xi. iv. 
 
 698, Labbe. ' Cone. Chalc., part iii. cap. 2 ; Labbe, torn. 
 
 iv. p. 835. 
 
 u Cone. Turon., Labbe, torn. iv. p. 1052, prima pagination!? serie.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 401 
 
 But, further, it is equally true and equally scriptural 
 that, in prayer to God, they pleaded to Him the accept- 
 ableness of those to whom they stood in this relation 
 of love. Thus Moses prayed to God, after the people's 
 sin as to the calf: " Remember Abraham, Isaac, and 
 Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou swarest by Thine 
 own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your 
 seed*," &c. He does not say simply, "Remember 
 Thy promise ;" but, " Remember those to whom Thou 
 didst make it." And God speaks of Himself as " keep- 
 ing mercy for thousands ? ;" and Jeremiah pleads to 
 Him that His character " that shewest loving-kindness 
 to thousands z ," i.e. that whereas He " visited iniquity 
 to the third and fourth generation" only, He kept or 
 retained His mercy to manifold more, if they would 
 at last admit of it. And Solomon seems to have 
 pleaded to God, " Lord remember David, and all his 
 trouble/' i.e. his laborious zeal for the House of God, 
 and entreats Him, not for his own deserts, but " for 
 Thy servant David's sake turn not away the face of 
 Thine anointed 3 ." And it is recorded that " for David's 
 sake did the Lord his God give Abijam a lamp in 
 Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish 
 Jerusalem ; because David did right in the eyes of the 
 Lord, and turned not aside from anything that He 
 commanded him all the days of his life, save only in 
 the matter of Uriah the HittiteV And St. Paul says 
 
 1 Exod. xxxii. 13. * Ib. xxxiv. 7. z Jer. xxxii. 18. 
 
 Ps. cxxxii. 1, 10 ; comp. 2 Chr. vi. 41, 42. 
 
 b 1 Kings xv. 4, 5.
 
 402 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 of all Israel, " as touching the election, they are be- 
 loved for the fathers' sakes. For the gifts and calling 
 of God are without repentance ." 
 
 Among the friends of God in the Church of Christ, 
 an eminent place was early given to the Martyrs, as 
 having borne witness to Christ " the True Witness d ," 
 as having been likenesses to His sufferings, in whom 
 especially these words were fulfilled, " If we suffer with 
 Him we shall also reign with Him 6 ;" and His pro- 
 mise, that " he that overcometh, to him will I grant to 
 sit down on My throne f ." Hence the title that they 
 were <rvv0povoi, ' enthroned with' Christ. Hence came 
 the language, so often used of them, that they had 
 much " boldness of speech" with Christ, as having suf- 
 fered for Him. " I know," says St. Gregory of Nyssa of 
 the forty martyrs g , " how mighty they are, and what 
 boldness of speech they have with God." " The}'," 
 says St. Chrysostom, " have much boldness of speech, 
 not when living only, but also having died, yea, much 
 more, having died. For they now bear the stigmata h , 
 the marks of Christ; and, displaying those stigmata, 
 they are able to persuade the King all things 1 ;" 
 and "as soldiers, exhibiting wounds which they have 
 received from the enemy, speak boldly to the king, so 
 these [Juventinus and Maximin, martyrs,] bearing in 
 their hands their severed heads, and bringing them 
 in the midst, can with reason effect all they wish with 
 
 c Rom. xi. 28, 29. d Rev. iii. 14. e 2 Tim. ii. 12. f Rev. iii. 21. 
 s Orat. in xl. Mart., Opp. ii. 211. h Gal. vi. 17. 
 
 ' Horn, de SS. Bernice et Prosdoce fin., Opp. ii. 645.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 403 
 
 the King of heaven k ." Thus, also, Eusebius says, on 
 Psalm Ixxviii. [Ixxix. :] " We are instructed to say 
 these things in prayers, instead of sacrifice and whole 
 burnt offerings putting forward the blood of the holy 
 martyrs, and sending up such supplications as these. 
 We, indeed, have not been held worthy to strive unto 
 death, nor to empty out our blood for God ; but since 
 we are the sons of those who suffered these things, 
 glorying in our fathers' virtue, we beseech to be com- 
 passionated for their sakes } ;" and, at the close of his 
 commentary on Isaiah : " Of which (heavenly con- 
 templation) may we, too, be deemed worthy by the 
 merits and intercessions of all the saints m ." And St. 
 Gregory of Nazianzum : " May my affairs be con- 
 ducted how God wills ; may they, by his [St. Basil's] 
 intercessions, be conducted better n ." And St. Gregory 
 of Nyssa : " May we, too, [as well as the forty mar- 
 tyrs,] enter Paradise, having been strengthened through 
 their intercession unto the good confession of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ; to Whom ," &c. And St. Ambrose to 
 his brother : " That this favour [a speedy reunion] 
 may be conferred on me by thy intercessions, that 
 thou mayest summon me, who long to join thee, more 
 speedily p ." St. Chrysostom closes his homily on St. 
 Pelagia : " May it be by the prayers of this holy 
 martyr, and by those of the rest who wrestled with 
 
 k In Juvent. et Maxim, fin., Opp. 55. 583. ' Montf. Nov. 
 
 Coll., i. 486, 487. m Ibid., t. ii. p. 593. n Orat. 43 
 
 in laud. S. Basil., n. 25, t. i. p. 791. Orat. ii. in xl. Mart. 
 
 Jin., t. iii. p. 511. p De Res. fin., Opp. ii. 1170.
 
 404 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 her, that you may retain in accurate remembrance 
 these things and the rest which have been said, and 
 shewing them all forth by your deeds, may in all 
 things abide well pleasing to God; to "Whom V &c. 
 And on the saying " God remembered Abraham, and 
 sent just Lot out of the overthrow r :" " What, then ? 
 one may say, was the just man saved on the ground of 
 the intercession of the patriarch and not of his own 
 righteousness ? Nay, for the intercession of the patri- 
 arch too. For, when we contribute our part too, does 
 the intercession of the righteous most benefit us ; since 
 if we ourselves are remiss, and place the hope of our 
 deliverance on them alone, we shall gain nothing. 
 Not because the righteous are weak, but because we 
 betray ourselves by our own remissness." Then, hav- 
 ing contrasted God's forbidding Jeremiah to pray for 
 Israel when obstinate in sin, he says, "knowing this, 
 beloved, let us flee to the intercession of the saints, and 
 exhort them to beseech for us ; but let us not rely on 
 their supplications alone, but let us also .order, as is 
 meet, our part, and hold fast to amendment of life ; 
 that we may give room for their intercession for us." 
 He closes his oration on St. Meletius : " Let us all 
 pray in common, rulers and ruled, women and men, 
 old and young, slaves and free, taking the blessed 
 Meletius as sharer of this prayer, (for he has greater 
 freedom of speech now, and his love to us is more 
 glowing,) that this love may be increased, and that 
 
 i Horn. 5. in S. Pelag.fin., ii. 590. 
 
 * Horn. 44, in Gen., n. 2, Opp. iv. 448, 419,
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 405 
 
 it be vouchsafed to us all, as we are now near this urn, 
 so there, too, we may be near his everlasting taber- 
 nacles, and obtain the goods laid up there 8 ;" and, 
 " Taking the holy martyrs as partakers of our prayers, 
 let us pray for length of her [the empress's] life, 
 cheerful old age, sons and sons' sons, and, above all 
 these, that this zeal may be heightened, piety in- 
 creased 1 ," &c. 
 
 There remains the question, "Apart from the prayer 
 to God to grant favours at the intercession of such or 
 such a martyr or saint ; apart also from those instances 
 of rhetorical apostrophe with such expressions as ei TIS 
 aiad^ats, taken evidently from the form of the heathen 
 rhetoricians ; did the early Church think it right 
 directly to ask the saints to use those intercessions, in 
 whose efficacy they believed ?" It is true that no in- 
 stance can be quoted before the Council of Nicaea, 
 except the case related by St. Gregory Nazianzen, out 
 of Acts undoubtedly apocryphal, how Justina, fleeing 
 the assault of Cyprian the magician, (whom those 
 Acts confounded with the great African father and 
 martyr before his conversion,) "abandoning all other 
 hope, fled to God for refuge, and took as her defender 
 against that accursed passion Him to Whom she was 
 betrothed ;" and after many such prayers " besought 
 
 Horn, in 8. Melet.fin., Opp. ii. 523. 
 
 1 Horn. ii. ex xi. Jin., Opp. xii. 334 ; " preached before the Empress 
 and the whole city and magistrates, in the Martyrium, three miles 
 from the city, after she had translated thither the relics of the mar- 
 tyrs at midnight."
 
 406 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 the Virgin Mary to aid a virgin in danger 11 ." Yet 
 it cannot be doubted that in the latter part of the 
 fourth century the great fathers, who secured and 
 transmitted our faith, practised it and taught it. St. 
 Ephrem, in his funeral canons for a departed bishop 
 (for whom yet he prays), asks him, in the vacancy 
 of the see, " Visit thy Church, father, by thy prayers 
 which are heard, and pray for it, like Moses, that 
 there may be a priest like Joshua ; for David had 
 long departed and was not in the day of Hezekiah ; 
 his prayer defended and delivered Jerusalem from 
 Sennacherib." "Let thy prayers defend thy flock, 
 and entreat deliverance for it, and may the congre- 
 gation, which praises thy memory, be blessed by thy 
 prayers; that thy people may rejoice in the (heavenly) 
 chamber, and may say, Praise to Him Who chose theeV 
 And for a monk, for the forgiveness of whose sins he 
 afterwards prays : " Pray to and supplicate God for 
 the congregation of thy beloved, that He would re- 
 ward their tears, which they have shed for thee. 
 Supplicate Him Who heareth thee, that He would for- 
 give them their sins ; raise up thy hand over thy con- 
 gregation, which beareth thy corpse with honour, and 
 bless it as thou wert wont in the name of the holy 
 God ; for very loved and precious is the prayer of the 
 hour of departure. Remember the holy Church, and 
 recall it in the general assembly ; for as a mother 
 she buried thee, and as a sister she honoured thy 
 
 u Orat. xxiv. n. 10, 11. x Can. 1, Opp. Syr. iii. 227.
 
 OF PRATERS TO THE SAINTS. 407 
 
 death y." These, however, are not invocations of saints, 
 but mutual deprecations. In another, the congrega- 
 tion says : " Pray and beseech for all of us, that we 
 may be worthy to behold thee in the (heavenly) courts, 
 and with thee may rejoice and be glad z ." There is 
 also a short prayer : " Apostles twelve, intercede for 
 me; prophets and martyrs, entreat for me a :" and, 
 "Martyrs, who endured resolutely, afflictions cheer- 
 fully, and received crowns perfectly, as is meet, justly, 
 supplicate with us b conjointly, to Christ lordlily, that 
 He would shew mercies abundantly, upon us all un- 
 ceasingly." 
 
 St. Damasus, in his poems, says to a martyr : " Now 
 dweller with the Lord, who guardest the altars of 
 Christ, I pray thee to favour the prayers of Damasus, 
 illustrious martyr c ." St. Gregory of Nyssa asks the 
 martyr, St. Theodore : " Intercede with our common 
 Kiug for thy country, for the martyr's country is the 
 place of his passion. We anticipate afflictions ; we 
 expect danger; not far off are the wicked Scythians, 
 in pangs with war against us. As a soldier fight for 
 us ; as a martyr use boldness of speech for thy fellow- 
 servants. Ask for peace, that these public assemblies 
 may not cease. That we have been preserved un- 
 harmed, to thee we ascribe the benefit; but we ask 
 for safety in the future too. If there be need of greater 
 importunity, assemble the choir of thy brother martyrs; 
 
 f Can. 16, p. 259. z Can. 15 fin., p. 255. 
 
 1 Parcen. ad pcenit., 33, Jin., ib., p. 486. b Not "for us," 
 
 as Ass. 1. c. e Cann. 22, Gall. vi. 549.
 
 408 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 and implore with all. Let the prayers of many righte- 
 ous loose the sins of peoples and districts. Remind 
 Peter ; arouse Paul ; John too, the theologian and be- 
 loved disciple, that they have a care for the Churches 
 which they established d ," &c. He closes his panegyric 
 on St. Ephrem, "Do thou, standing by the Divine 
 altar, and ministering with angels to the life-giving 
 and All -holy Trinity, remember us all, asking for 
 us remission of sins, and the fruition of an everlasting 
 kingdom in Christ our Lord; to Whom 6 ," &c. St. 
 Gregory of Nazianzum says to St. Cyprian : " Do thou 
 look down on us propitiously from above, and direct 
 our speech and life, and shepherd or co-shepherd this 
 holy flock; and, directing the rest, as far as may be, 
 for the best, and driving away the grievous wolves, 
 the hunters of syllables and phrases, and bestowing on 
 us a more perfect and bright illumination of the Holy 
 Trinity, by "Whom thou standest, Whom we worship f ," 
 &c. And to St. Basil : " Do thou, divine and sacred 
 one, look down upon us, and by thy intercessions either 
 stay the thorn of the flesh, given us by God, our 
 discipline, or persuade us to endure it bravely, and 
 direct our whole life for us for the best; and if we 
 be removed thence, receive us in thy tabernacles, that, 
 living together and together beholding the holy and 
 blessed Trinity s," &c. St. Ambrose says: "Angels 
 
 d Horn, de 8. Taeod.fin., Opp. iii. 585, 586. e De Vit. S. 
 
 Ephr.fin., iii. 616. { Orat. 24,, fin., p. 450. 
 
 s Or, 43, fin., p. 832. He also asks his father and mother, " Save me 
 now, too, by mighty supplications." Carm. 97.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 409 
 
 are to be besought for us, who were given to us as 
 a guard; martyrs are to be besought, whose patronage 
 we seem to claim for ourselves by the pledge of the 
 body. They can ask for our sins, who washed what- 
 ever sins they had with their own blood. For they 
 are God's martyrs, our presiders, the surveyors of our 
 life and actions. Be we not ashamed to employ them 
 as intercessors for our infirmity, who knew the in- 
 firmity of the body even when they overcame h ." 
 
 St. Chrysostom says to the people : " Thou, then, 
 when thou perceivest that God is chastening thee, 
 fly not to His enemies the Jews, lest thou kindle His 
 wrath the more against thee, but to His friends the 
 martyrs, the holy and well- pleasing unto Him, who 
 have also much freedom of speech [towards Him] l ." 
 
 St. Jerome says to St. Paula: " Help with thy prayers 
 the extreme old age of thy devotee. Thy faith and 
 works associate thee with Christ ; present, thou wilt 
 obtain more easily what thou askestV St. Chryso- 
 stom exhorts the people : " Not on this festival only, 
 but on other days too, let us be at their side, let us 
 invoke them; let us beg them to be our patronesses 1 " 
 [S. Bernice and Prosdoce]. "Since they have such 
 power and friendship with God, let us, making our- 
 selves their familiars by constant attention and coming 
 to them continually, draw on us, through them, the 
 loving-kindness of God." 
 
 St. Augustine, in his beautiful De Curd pro Mor- 
 
 h De Viduis, c. 9. t. ii. p. 200. ' Adv. Jud. Or. 8, n. 6. 
 
 k Ep. cviii. ad Eustoch. l Opp. ii. 645, Ben.
 
 410 AUTICLE XXTT. 
 
 tuis m , says, that the benefit of burying their friends at 
 the Memorials of the Saints, was that the living "recol- 
 lecting where are the bodies of those whom they love, 
 may commend them to the same saints or patrons." 
 At the second synod of Rome, A.D. 495, they exclaimed, 
 "Lord Peter preserve him/' (the Pope) n . 
 
 But a far stronger impulse than the advice given 
 by these reverenced fathers or their practice, lay in 
 the facts of those days. For apparently (and, in face 
 of the evidence, we cannot contradict it) it was God 
 who encouraged it by the answers to prayer so ad- 
 dressed. Gibbon has scoffed at the fact that one of 
 the miracles very commonly dwelt upon was the cast- 
 ing out of devils. But if it were ever so much, that 
 these persons who spoke as demoniacs, persons pos- 
 sessed, were simple maniacs, still the maniacs were 
 healed. "Were it ever so much, that, in some cases, 
 the body was healed through the mind, this would 
 leave a large residue, in which any mind, open to 
 evidence, must acknowledge "the finger of God." 
 St. Augustine says : " If, to omit others, I would write 
 the miracles of healing alone, which were wrought 
 through this martyr, the glorious Stephen, in the 
 colony of Calama and in ours, many books must be 
 written. And yet all cannot be gathered in one, but 
 those only, of which accounts have been sent in, to 
 be recited before the people. For this we had done, 
 seeing that Divine miracles, like those of old, were 
 multiplied in our times, and that this ought not to 
 m c. iv. t. vi. p. 519. " Labbe, torn. iv. pp. 137, 8.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 411 
 
 be lost to the knowledge of many ." " Many know 
 how great miracles take place in that city (Ancona) 
 through the most blessed martyr Stephen p ." " At 
 Uzalis, where my brother Euodius is Bishop, how 
 many miracles take place, seek and ye will find 1." 
 One which he guarantees, was the temporary restora- 
 tion of an infant, who had died unbaptized, that it 
 might be baptized r . He is careful to say that all was 
 done by Christ : " Ye who know how to love Stephen, 
 love him in Christ. Do we read, or can we read any 
 where in sound doctrine, that Jesus did or doth mira- 
 cles through the name of Stephen. Stephen did them, 
 but by the name of Christ s . This he doth now, too. 
 Whatever ye see done through the memorial of Ste- 
 phen, it is done in the name of Christ, that Christ 
 may be extolled, Christ adored, Christ expected as 
 Judge of quick and dead *." 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa says : " I placed the bodies of 
 my parents near the reliques of the [forty] soldiers, 
 that, at the time of the resurrection, they may be raised 
 with those who have noble freedom of speech. For 
 I know how mighty they are, and I have seen the 
 
 De Civ. Dei, xxii. 8. P Serm. 323, post libell. de 
 
 S. StepTi., n. 2. 9 Ibid., n. 3. 
 
 r Serm. 321 : " The mother said, ' Holy martyr, thou seest I have no 
 solace. Thou knowest why I mourn. Restore me my son, that I may 
 have him in the presence of Him who crowned thee.' " The child re- 
 vived, was baptized, and, all the sacraments now completed, was taken. 
 "When, then," St. Augustine sums up, "God wrought such a miracle 
 through His martyr, could He not there [at Uzalis] cure these ?" 
 
 s Acts vi. 8. Serin. 316, n. 1.
 
 412 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 evident demonstration of their freedom of speech with 
 God." He then relates how " a soldier, long and almost 
 incurably lame, being within the martyrium and the 
 resting-place of the saints [the forty martyrs], having 
 prayed to God, implored the intercession of the saints." 
 The soldier was restored in a vision, his companions 
 heard the sound of the re-setting of the bone. "He 
 awoke and was whole." " This miracle," St. Gregory 
 says, " I saw, falling in with the man, relating it to 
 all, and proclaiming the good deed of the martyrs u ." 
 
 St. Basil is less definite in regard to the forty mar- 
 tyrs. He attests only the number of the applicants : 
 " Forty are they, that send up harmonious prayer. 
 Where two or three are gathered together in the 
 name of the Lord, there is He in the midst of them ; 
 and where forty are, who doubts of God's presence? 
 The afflicted flies unto the forty, the gladdened runs 
 unto them ; the former to find escape from his troubles ; 
 the latter, that his prosperity may be preserved. Thus 
 a pious woman is found praying for her children, asking 
 a return for her husband when absent, health for him 
 when sick. Let your prayers be with martyrs x ." In 
 regard to the martyr St. Mamas, he speaks more defi- 
 nitely : " Remember for me the martyr, all who have 
 benefited by him through dreams ; all who lighting 
 on this holy place, had him as co-operator to prayer ; 
 all to whom, called by name, he has stood by in their 
 deeds ; all whom he has raised from sickness ; all to 
 
 u Orat. in xl. Mart., Opp. ii. 211, 212. 
 
 * Horn, in xl. Mart., n. i. t. ii. pp. 209, 210.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 413 
 
 whom he has given back sons, when now dead ; all 
 to whom he lengthened the appointed term of life. 
 Bring them all together ; form a panegyric from the 
 common contribution y ." St. Gregory Nazianzen tells 
 the Emperor Julian, " By them [the martyrs] devils 
 are driven out and diseases cured z ." St. Chrysostom 
 says of the Egyptian martyrs : " Many, both of the 
 natives and of those who have come from elsewhere, 
 know how great the power of these saints, who also 
 bear witness to what I say, having learned through 
 the experience itself, their free access to God a ." 
 
 St. Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, relates : " Those op- 
 pressed by calamities incidental to man hasten, as to 
 an asylum, to those places, where those thrice-blessed 
 rest, and employ them as legates and mediators of 
 their prayers and requests, on account of their bound- 
 less confidence with God ; thence the poor are solaced ; 
 the sacred temples of the martyrs are tranquil harbours 
 amidst all tumults and storms of life. Thus father or 
 mother taking the sick child having come to any of 
 the martyrs, through him offer up a prayer to the 
 Lord, saying to her mediator, ' Thou hast suffered for 
 Christ, intercede for one who suffers and is ill. Having 
 freedom of speech, use it for thy fellow-servant V ' 
 
 Even Vigilantius appears to have admitted the fact 
 of the miracles; for he argued about them: "He 
 argues against signs and miracles, which take place 
 
 T Horn, in Mam. Mart., n. i. t. ii. pp. 259, 260. 
 
 1 Orat. 4, n. 69, p. 108. a Opp. ii. 700. 
 
 b In S. Mart, in Combef. 3~ot>. Auct., i. 186, 187.
 
 414 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 in the basilicas of the martyrs, and says that they 
 benefit unbelievers, not believers ; as though the ques- 
 tion now were, for whom they take place, and not, 
 by what power they take place." " Tell me not, they 
 are ' signs for unbelievers,' but answer how in ' most 
 vile dust and I know not what ashes' there is such 
 presence of signs and wonders ." Rufinus relates, that 
 the bodies of the martyr Apollonius and his com- 
 panions " were buried in one sepulchre, by which up 
 to the present time many miracles and wonderful signs 
 are wrought for all. Yea, and the vows and prayers 
 are received by them, and are fulfilled with the fruits 
 of the petition d ." 
 
 Prudentius says to St. Laurence : " What power is 
 entrusted, what gifts granted, the joys of the Romans 
 prove, to whom, asked, thou assentest. What every sup- 
 plicant asketh, he beareth off obtained prosperously; 
 they ask, are enriched, tell, and no one returns sad e ." 
 
 Yet more remarkable are the statements of Theo- 
 doret, both as being himself of a dry matter-of-fact 
 mind, and in regard to the extent of the facts which 
 he states. For, in refuting Heathenism, he is con- 
 trasting the martyrs with all which the heathen held 
 great, gods or men : "Time, which withereth all things, 
 hath preserved their glory unwithered. For the noble 
 souls of the victorious (martyrs) traverse heaven, form- 
 ing part of the incorporeal chorus, but their bodies 
 it is not a single tomb that conceals each one of them, 
 
 c S. Jer. cont. Vigil., n. 11, Opp. ii. 397. 
 d De vitis Patrum, c. \^,jin. * ferist., ii. 5G1 568.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 415 
 
 but cities and villages, having shared them between 
 them, style them the Preservers both of soul and body, 
 and healers, and honour them as tutelars and guar- 
 dians : and, employing them as intercessors with the 
 Lord of all, by these means obtain divine gifts. And 
 when the body is severed, the grace remains un- 
 severed. And that small and tiniest relic hath the 
 same power with the martyr who hath never been dis- 
 tributed. For the grace abounding distributeth the 
 gifts f ." " These are truly leaders, and champions and 
 succourers of men, averters of evils, conducting away 
 the injuries brought by demons g ." " Those who were 
 distinguished for piety, and were slain for it, we call 
 averters of evil and physicians, friends of God and 
 benevolent servants, using freedom of speech, and 
 announcing to us the harvest of good h ." 
 
 " But the shrines of the martyrs glorious in their 
 victory, are grand, magnificent, and conspicuous in size, 
 and manifoldly adorned, and sending forth flashes of 
 beauty. And to these, not once or twice in the year, 
 nor even five times do we go, but ofttimes we hold 
 solemn assemblies, and often every day offer h} r mns to 
 their Lord; and they who are in health beg for the 
 preservation of their health; they that are wrestling 
 with any sickness ask a riddance from their sufferings ; 
 the childless men ask for offspring, and the barren 
 women for children. And they who have gained this 
 gift, ask that their gifts may be preserved perfect ; and 
 
 { Grcec. off", cur., viii. t. iv. p. 902, Sch. 
 * Ibid., p. 912. Ibid., p. 915.
 
 416 ARTICLE XXTI. 
 
 those who are setting out upon any journey, implore 
 them to become their fellow-travellers and guides on 
 the way ; and they who have gained their return, offer 
 the acknowledgment of the favour; drawing nigh to 
 them not as gods, but approaching them as devout 
 men, and beseeching them to be intercessors on their 
 behalf. But that they who faithfully ask obtain the 
 things which they ask, their votive offerings clearly 
 testify, manifesting the healing j for some offer models 
 of eyes, others of feet, and others of hands ; and some 
 of them fashioned of gold, others of silver. For their 
 Lord receives the small and cheap things, too, mea- 
 suring the gift by the power of the offerer. But the 
 things which are there testify the ceasing of the suffer- 
 ings, whereby they are placed as memorials by those 
 who have become whole. And these things proclaim 
 the power of those buried there; and their power 
 shews that their God is the true God i ." 
 
 We have already seen St. Augustine, before his 
 people, carefully referring to Christ the miracles done 
 at the intercession of the martyrs. He does the same, 
 in answer to the allegations of the heathen ; that 
 "their gods, too, had done some marvels" [the fables 
 of a legendary antiquity]. He says that neither did 
 the facts bear comparison, nor the ends for which they 
 were done. For that the end of those things had been 
 to obtain worship for creatures ; " but the martyrs do 
 these things, or rather God doth them, they either 
 praying or co-operating, to the advancement of that 
 1 Ibid., pp. 921, 922.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 417 
 
 faith whereby we believe that they are not our gods, but 
 have one God with us. Lastly, they [heathen] both built 
 temples and set up altars, and made priests and offered 
 sacrifices to such gods of theirs ; we build not to our 
 martyrs temples as to gods, but memorials as to dead 
 men, whose spirits live to God ; and we erect altars 
 therein, not to sacrifice to martyrs, but to the One God 
 of the martyrs and of ourselves ; at which Sacrifice, as 
 men of God, who, in confessing Him, overcame the 
 world, they are named in their place and order, yet 
 are not invoked by the priest who sacrifices. For he 
 sacrifices to God, not to them, although he sacrifices 
 in their memorials ; for he is God's priest, not theirs. 
 But the sacrifice itself is the Body of Christ, which is 
 not offered to them, because they, too, are it [viz. 
 Christ's mj'stical body]." He draws out more sci- 
 entifically the contrast between the cultus done to 
 Almighty God and that shewn to the martyrs (which, 
 he says, was the same in kind as that to holy men 
 on earth). In his celebrated treatise against Faustus 
 the Manichean, who charged the Church with hav- 
 ing made an exchange for idols in the cultus of the 
 martyrs, he says : " The Christian people unite in 
 celebrating with religious solemnity the memories of 
 the martyrs, both to excite to an imitation of them, 
 and to be associated with their merits and aided by 
 their prayers ; yet so, that to none of the martyrs, but 
 to the God Himself of the Martyrs, although in places 
 dedicated to martyrs, do we raise altars. For what 
 prelate, standing at the altar in the places of their 
 
 e
 
 418 ARTICLE XXIT. 
 
 holy bodies, ever said, ' we offer to thee, Peter, or Paul, 
 or Cyprian?' But what is offered is offered to God 
 Who crowned the martyrs, in the memorials of those 
 whom He crowned; that through the admonition of 
 the places themselves, a greater affection may arise, to 
 make our love keener both towards those whom we 
 are able to imitate, and towards Him by Whose help 
 we are able. We, therefore, worship the martyrs with 
 that worship of love and of fellowship with which 
 even in this life holy men of God are worshipped, 
 whose hearts we feel are prepared for the like suffer- 
 ing for Gospel truth ; but the martyrs the more 
 devotedly, the safer it is, their conflicts ended j as 
 also with the more confident praise do we exalt those 
 who are already conquerors in a happier life, than those 
 who are still warring here below. But with that wor- 
 ship, which, in Greek, is called 'latria,' in Latin it 
 cannot be expressed by one word, as it is a kind of 
 service due and appropriate to the Divinity alone, we 
 neither worship nor teach to worship other than the 
 One God. But whereas to this worship appertains 
 the oblation of sacrifice (whence their worship, who 
 give this to idols, is called idolatry), we do not any- 
 wise offer, or teach to be offered anything of this kind, 
 either to any martyr, to any holy soul, or to any 
 angel; and whosoever falls into this error he is re- 
 proved by the sound teaching, either that he may 
 amend or be avoided k ." 
 
 k c. Faust, xx. 21. And again : " Even at the memorials of the 
 holy martyrs, do we not offer to God? The holy martyrs have an
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SATNTS. 419 
 
 And St. Jerome : " Madman, who ever adored 
 martyrs ? Who thought man to be God ! ?" 
 
 And St. Cyril, of Alexandria, in answer to Julian : 
 " The holy martyrs we neither say are gods, nor are 
 we wont to worship them, viz., with Divine worship, 
 but relatively and honorifically. But rather we crown 
 them with the highest honours, as having striven nobly 
 for the truth m ." 
 
 St. Asterius, of Amasea, in like manner, says to the 
 heathen : " We worship not martyrs, but we honour 
 them, as sincere worshippers of God. We do not wor- 
 ship men, but we admire those who, in time of per- 
 secution, nobly worshipped God. We deposit them in 
 beautiful shrines, and the houses of their repose we 
 raise magnificent in structure, that we may zealously 
 honour men who died gloriously. But we shew them 
 not an unrequited zeal, but enjoy their patronage to- 
 ward God. For since our prayer suffices not to im- 
 portune God in time of necessity and calamity ; for our 
 supplication is not an obsecration but a reminiscence of 
 
 honourable place. Observe. In the recital at the altar of Christ, they 
 are recited in a better place ; yet they are not adored as Christ ; whence 
 their act who offer this too to idols is called idolatry. When heard ye 
 it said by any other my brother and colleague, or any Presbyter, ' I offer 
 to thee, holy Theogenis, or I offer to thee, Peter, I offer to thee, Paul.' 
 Never have ye heard. It is not, it may not be. If it be said to thee, 
 ' Dost thou worship Peter?' answer what Eulogius [the deacon] said 
 [to the heathen judge] of Fructuosus [his bishop, whose martyrdom 
 he shared], < I do not worship Peter, but God I worship, whom Peter 
 too worships. Then Peter loves thee.' " Serm. 273, in Nat. Fruct. 
 Aug. Eulog., n. 7. t. v. 1108. 
 
 1 c. Vigil., n. 5, t. ii. 3U1, Vail. 1. v i. t. vi. p. 203.
 
 420 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 our sins, therefore we flee to those our fellow-servants, 
 the beloved of the Lord, that they in their own good 
 deeds may heal our transgressions. What censure is 
 it that, honouring martyrs, we too are zealous to please 
 God ? What accusation is it to flee to patrons n ?" 
 
 Such, then, being the authorities, for the practice 
 of asking the prayers and intercessions of the saints, 
 even those same great fathers who jealously guarded 
 for us, and by their toils and sufferings transmitted to 
 us the belief in the All-Holy Trinity and our Blessed 
 Lord's Divine Person : such being the testimony upon 
 which they tested it; viz., the experience of those, who 
 had sought through the saints what God alone could 
 give and had found it, we could have nothing, in 
 principle, to except against it, if only those errors be 
 guarded against, to which our poor nature is so easily 
 inclined, of betaking ourselves to the saints, as to 
 beings less holy, less awful, whom the soul ever ap- 
 proaches with less effort and less fear than Him, Who, 
 being our Mediator, will also be our Judge. The 
 Council of Trent itself desired that " all superstition 
 in the invocation of saints should be removed." A 
 learned writer said, " Many Christians sin for the most 
 part in a thing which is good, in that they venerate 
 the saints no otherwise than God. Nor, in many, do I 
 see what difference there is between their opinion of the 
 saints, and what the Gentiles thought of their gods ." 
 
 " Encom. in SS. Martt. in Combefis. N. Auct., pp. 191, 192. Paris, 
 1648. Lud. Vives on S. Aug. de Civ. D., viii. ult., quoted by 
 
 Bp. W. Forbes' Consid. Mod. t. li. p. 310.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 421 
 
 This is precisely what our homily (which illustrates 
 this Article) excepts against, when, having spoken of 
 the conduct of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, and the 
 monition of the angel in the Revelations to St. John, 
 it sums up, " which examples declare unto us that the 
 angels and saints in heaven will not have us to do any 
 honour unto them, that is due and proper unto God?" 
 
 On the other side, Bellarmine, in treating on this 
 subject, lays down formally these propositions' 1 : 
 " (1.) We may not ask the saints, that the} r , as authors 
 of the Divine benefits, would grant us glory or grace, 
 and other means to beatitude. (2.) Saints are not our 
 immediate intercessors with God, but whatever they 
 impetrate for us from God, they impetrate through 
 Christ." The first statement he proves (1.) from Holy 
 Scripture : " The Lord will give grace and glory ;" 
 and St. James, " Every good gift and every perfect gift 
 cometh down from the Father of lights :" (2.) From the 
 usage of the Church ; for in the prayers read at mass, 
 or in the office on the festival of the saints, we never 
 ask anything else but that, at their prayers, benefits 
 may be granted to us by God. (3.) From reason ; for 
 what we need surpasses the powers of the creature, and 
 therefore even of saints ; therefore we ought to ask 
 nothing of saints beyond their impetrating from God 
 what is profitable for us. (4.) From Augustine and 
 Theodoret, who expressly teach that " saints are not to 
 be invoked as gods, but as able to gain for men what 
 they wish." Bellarmine, however, subjoins: "'When 
 
 v Homily on Prayer, p. 277. t De Sanct. Seat., i. 17.
 
 422 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 we say that nothing should be asked of saints, save 
 that they should pray for us, the question is not about 
 the words, but about the sense of the words. For, as 
 far as the words go, it is lawful to say, ' St. Peter, have 
 mercy upon me, save me,' &c., so that we understand, 
 ' save me and have mercy upon me, by praying for 
 me,' &c. ; for so speaks Gregory Nazianzen and many 
 other of the ancients, and the universal Church, &c. 
 And, as the Apostle says of himself, Rom. xi., ' that 
 I might save some of them,' and 1 Cor. ix." 
 
 St. Thomas Aquinas says : " To Him alone, from 
 Whom we hope to obtain what we pray for, do we, by 
 praying, pay the cultus of religion, because in this 
 we testify that He is the Author of our good things ; 
 but not to those to whom we resort as our advocates 
 with God r ." 
 
 In principle, then, there is no question, herein, be- 
 tween us and any other portion of the Catholic Church. 
 Even where the incommunicable attributes of God 
 have, in expression at least, been invaded, the real 
 underlying belief has been explained to be, that no- 
 thing is obtained for man, no grace, no aid, no gift for 
 body, soul, or spirit, except through or from the One 
 Mediator between God and Man, our adorable Lord, 
 Christ Jesus. Prayer to the saints in heaven is ex- 
 plained, again and again, to be the same in kind as the 
 prayers to the saints on earth; as St. Augustine speaks 
 of the cultus of the saints in heaven being the same in 
 kind as the cultus of saints on earth. " Since the me- 
 
 1 2. 2. q. 83, art. 4, ad 1.
 
 OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 423 
 
 diation of the saints is not invoked like that of Christ, 
 since their mediation is held to be only one of inter- 
 cession not of redemption, since the effectualness of 
 their intercession rests on God's free mercy and the 
 merits of Christ, then the honour of Christ and the 
 al oneness of His redemption is not in the least in- 
 trenched upon. If the intercession of believers on earth 
 may be invoked, without injury to the honour of Christ 
 as Mediator, why not also the intercession of the saints 
 in heaven 8 ?" Had this been all, the Article never 
 could have been written. Not our own Divines only, 
 but foreign reformers, too, have seen nothing herein 
 to reject*. The Church of Rome has not stated the 
 practice to be necessary to salvation, nor required it of 
 any, so that he deny not that, as above explained, it is 
 in itself good and useful. The more this aspect is dwelt 
 upon, the more we shall be disposed to accept the con- 
 clusion of a pious Divine: "Let God alone be reli- 
 giously adored; let Him alone be prayed to through 
 Christ, "Who, truly and properly speaking, is the sole 
 
 s Klec, Kath. Dogmatik., in. 407, 408, ed. 3. " It is good and useful 
 to apply to the saints for intercession and help. They are, namely, 
 friends and beloved of God, whose intercession is effectual, and they 
 being, by reason of their love, inclined to help us, then it is also praise- 
 worthy and beneficial to apply for their intercession, as for that of 
 the righteous living upon earth. Therefore the Church has of old 
 approved and recommended the invoking them, and only rejected the 
 saint-worship which obscured the merits of the Redeemer." Dieringer 
 Lelirl. d. Kath. Dogm., p. 733, ed. 5. 
 
 * Bishop William Forbes quotes even Luther (A. 1518 and 1522). 
 (Ecolampadius, Sucer, Camerarius, apparently the author of the En- 
 chirid. Theol., Consid. Mod., t. ii. pp. 266, 274.
 
 424 ARTICLE XXII. 
 
 and only Mediator between God and man. Let not 
 that most ancient custom, common in the universal 
 Church, as well Greek as Latin, of addressing angels 
 and saints in the way we have said, be condemned or 
 rejected, as impious, or as vain and foolish. Let foul 
 abuses and superstitions which have crept in be taken 
 away, and so shall peace hereafter be easily formed 
 and ratified between the parties. Which, may the God 
 of peace and all holy concord, vouchsafe to grant for 
 the sake of His Only-Begotten Son u ." 
 
 u Forbes, Consld. Mod., ii. 513.
 
 ARTICLE XXIII. 
 DE VOCATIONS MINISTRORUM. 
 
 (al DE MlNISTRANDO IN ECCLESIA.) 
 
 licet cuiquam sumere sibi munus publice prtedicandi, 
 ant administrandi Sacramento, in Ecclesia, nisi prims 
 fuerit ad hcec obeunda legitime vocatus et missus. Atque 
 illos legitime vocatos et missos existimare debemus, qui 
 per homines, quibus potestas vocandi ministros, atque 
 mittendi in vineam Domini, publics concessa est in Ec- 
 clesia, cooptati fuerint et adsciti in hoc opus. 
 
 " Of Ministering in the Congregation. 
 
 " IT is not lawful for any man to take upon him the 
 office of public preaching, or ministering the sacra- 
 ments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called 
 and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to 
 judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and 
 called to this work by men who have public authority 
 given unto them in the congregation, to call and send 
 ministers into the Lord's vineyard." 
 
 THE Article here treats of what is technically called 
 Mission 3 . That the clergy should have such mission 
 is affirmed, not only by implication in such terms as 
 describe them as stewards and ambassadors, but also 
 
 8 Vide S. Pacian, Ep. i. 12, Oxf. Tr. 325, 326.
 
 426 
 
 AHTiri.E XX1IT. 
 
 in so many terms by St. Paul b , where, in a beautiful 
 anti-climax, he describes the order whereby men arrive 
 ut righteousness and salvation. First comes the mis- 
 sion of the preachers ; then the actual preaching of the 
 Gospel ; then the faith of the hearers ; then their wor- 
 ship and calling upon God ; lastly, salvation in this 
 life from the disease of sin, hereafter from death and 
 corruption in glory everlasting. "Whosoever shall 
 call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." " How 
 shall they call on Him in whom they have not be- 
 lieved ? and how shall they believe on Him of whom 
 they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without 
 a preacher ? and how shall they preach unless they be 
 sent ? (aTrocna\(o(ri) except they be Apostles ?" 
 
 Now mission is divided into two kinds, that which 
 comes immediately and proximately from God, and 
 which needs the authentication of miracles and signs ; 
 and that which comes mediately from Him, through 
 those to whom the power of mission is given by the 
 institution of Christ. Just as in the old Jewish Church 
 these two powers existed side by side in the respective 
 institutions of the prophetic and priestly offices, so in 
 the primitive Church we recognise the same. The 
 Epistle to the Corinthians is full of allusions to the 
 supernatural consequences which ensued on the gift of 
 the Holy Ghost, while in the Pastoral Epistles those 
 to Timothy and Titus, we have evidence of the forma- 
 tion of the ordinary hierarchy. Of this hierarchy the 
 t, the mission, is the key-note, referring us 
 
 b Rom. x. 14.
 
 OF MINISTERING IN THE CONGREGATION. 427 
 
 back to Him, Who is the Apostle and High Priest of 
 our Profession, as receiving mission from the Father, 
 for the purpose of transmitting it fresh to the twelve, 
 in whom He lodged all power and authority. The title 
 of Apostle was not confined to the twelve. Barnabas 
 and Paul are first assumed into the holy band to the 
 violation of the mystic number of twelve completed by 
 Matthias. Epaphroditus is termed by St. Paul " my 
 brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, 
 but your apostle," (airoa-roKov) . In the Corinthians, 
 not only does he recognise the existence of Apostles 
 first in their capacity of recipients of supernatural 
 gifts " He gave some Apostles," but we find certain 
 of his brethren recognised as " Apostles of Churches, 
 a glory of Christ," (aTroo-roXot etcK^ija-icov, Sofa Xpta- 
 rov,) where their office and dignity is happily recog- 
 nised in one pregnant sentence. Again, in Rom. xvi. 
 7, Andronicus and Junia are said to be " of note 
 among the Apostles." 
 
 Meanwhile the discontent of the Hellenistic Jews, 
 who thought that their widows were neglected in the 
 distribution of alms, had evoked the institution of the 
 diaconate, and wherever the Apostles established a 
 Church, they ordained men who in the Jewish com- 
 munities were called " elders," in the Gentile Churches 
 " overseers." The first title was one associated with 
 notions of great dignity among the Jews, as there were 
 elders in the Sanhedrin, assessors to the chief priests 
 and scribes, and every synagogue had a chief or pre- 
 
 Phil. ii. 25.
 
 428 ARTICLE XXIIT. 
 
 sident. The title 'overseer' or 'bishop,' occurs in the 
 Alexandrian version in the sense of an ecclesiastical 
 and civil officer. Thus there are three orders in the 
 Church, apostles, overseers or elders, and deacons. 
 
 But only a part of the Apostolic office was to be 
 transmitted, and such part as was transmitted had to 
 be regulated. It was impossible that the solidarity of 
 their power should continue, and there were certain 
 prophetical powers which in the purpose of God and in 
 the nature of things must cease. Accordingly before 
 the close of the Canon of Scripture, we find a certain 
 monarchical power establishing itself in each Church. 
 St. James exercised what we should now call episcopal 
 jurisdiction over the city of Jerusalem ; and the seven 
 Churches of Asia have each an officer termed an angel. 
 Timothy and Titus, from acting as Apostolic delegates 
 of St. Paul, become diocesan bishops, the first of Ephe- 
 sus, the second of Gortyna in Crete. 
 
 In the early quarrels and insubordination, e.g. of 
 Novatians, the line taken, was not to dispute the office 
 of the episcopate, but to set up an anti-bishop. 
 
 This state of things is exactly represented in the 
 Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians, which be- 
 longs to the end of the first century. He recognises 
 three orders: 1. the Apostles, who, in prospect of con- 
 tention arising about the office of ruling, appointed 
 rulers, and ordained for the future after their death 
 other tried men who should hold their office of ap- 
 pointing such persons ; 2. presbyters or overseers ; and 
 3. deacons. He also quotes the threefold ministry as
 
 OF MINISTERING IN THE CONGREGATION. 429 
 
 a type and parallel of the hierarchy of the old law. 
 By the time of St. Ignatius, we find the title of Apostle 
 dropped, out of reverence to those who first bore it; 
 the name of Overseer apportioned to the apostolic 
 office, and thus separated from the presb}'teral ; in 
 this way the three orders are still maintained in their 
 integral distinction. Nor is this the mere local usage 
 of the Churches of Asia Minor. We have distinct evi- 
 dence, at the end of the second century, that this hier- 
 archical constitution prevailed universally, without any 
 known exception, throughout the whole of Christen- 
 dom. " The episcopate was a whole in which each en- 
 joys possession in solidarity." All over the earth, from 
 India to Spain, the episcopate was a definite organ- 
 ization. It is impossible to account for this hier- 
 archical uniformity without pre-supposing an original 
 Divine institution. If we consider the difficulty of the 
 transmission of intelligence, the rarity of the occasions 
 of communication, the deep-rooted ethnical peculiarities 
 of the varying tribes which were converted to Chris- 
 tianity, we can in no way account for it save on the 
 supposition of the threefold ministry being a part of 
 the original constitution of the Christian Church. 
 
 No new form could thus have established itself uni- 
 versally without exciting some opposition ; of that oppo- 
 sition there is no trace in any of the earlier records. 
 In the fifth century, indeed, we find the existence of 
 opposition on the part of Aerius and Vigilantius, but 
 this opposition actually tests the universality of the 
 organization. It was left to the religious exigencies
 
 430 ATITIOTYR XXTIT. 
 
 of the foreign Reformers to frame, first, a theory of 
 the non-necessity of bishops ; and then, to erect the 
 platform of their polity without reference to them. 
 By some, indeed, the new constitution was justified 
 only on the plea of absolute necessity. Calvin re- 
 gretted this imagined necessity. 
 
 The gravity of the matter consists in this. That 
 while we are not in any way to limit the mercy 
 of God, and therefore can understand that in excep- 
 tional circumstances, exceptional conditions of things 
 may be allowed; yet, in the course of the guidance 
 of the Church, it is a truth universally accepted by 
 all who have any pretensions to be sound theologians, 
 that the validity of certain rites depends upon Epi- 
 scopal ordination, i.e. upon the Apostolical Succession, 
 and as a result of the character of Holy Order, none 
 but one so appointed can bind or loose in the Name of 
 Christ, or consecrate His Body. As a matter of fact, 
 in the bodies who have not apostolic mission, the be- 
 lief in both these functions has disappeared, and that 
 disappearance is not the least terrible result of the 
 schisms of the sixteenth century. " If the light that 
 is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness \"
 
 ARTICLE XXIV. 
 
 DE PRECIBUS PUBLICIS DICENDIS IN LINGUA VULGARI. 
 (al DE LOQUENDO IN ECCLESIA LINGUA QUAM POPULUS 
 
 INTELLIGIT.) 
 
 LINGUA populo non intellecta, publicas in ecclesia preces 
 peragere aut Sacramento, administrare, verbo Dei et 
 primitives Ecclesiw consuetudini plane repugnat. 
 
 " Of Speaking in the Congregation in such a Tongue as 
 the People understandcth. 
 
 "!T is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of 
 God, and the custom of the primitive Church, to have 
 public prayer in the church, or to minister the Sacra- 
 ments, in a tongue not understanded of the people." 
 
 IT seems strange that, considering what divine ser- 
 vice is, it should have been necessary to ordain that it 
 should be in the language of the worshipper. Bearing 
 in mind that one great part of oral prayer is the ele- 
 vation of the soul to God, one would hardly imagine 
 that the greater part of the Christian Church should 
 deem it right to offer it in a tongue not understanded 
 of the people. There must be some reason for what is 
 rightly declared in the Article to be " plainly repug- 
 nant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primi- 
 tive Church."
 
 432 ARTICLE XXIV. 
 
 And that this custom is thus repugnant, is manifest 
 from the text of St. Paul, " Yet in the church I had 
 rather speak five words to the edifying of the hearers, 
 than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue 3 ." 
 So also, " Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, 
 how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned 
 say Amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he under- 
 standeth not what thou sayest b ?" Again, positively, 
 we are told, "I will pray with my spirit, and I will 
 pray with my understanding also." God's service is 
 a reasonable service, \oyi,Kr)v \aTpelav VJAWV, a service 
 in which the \6<yos is concerned. 
 
 Though we have no trace of it remaining, except 
 the 'Kyrie Eleison' before the Lord's Prayer, and the 
 ' Agios o Theos' in the office for Good Friday, there can 
 be no doubt that in the earliest ages the Liturgy of 
 the Greek -speaking Roman Church was Greek, and 
 continued such till the transference of the Empire 
 to Byzantium. It is probable that the Latin Liturgy 
 of St. Peter existed also from the very earliest times, 
 if not in Rome, at least in Africa. The Eastern 
 Church, of course, employed the Greek language, which 
 also served for Palestine, where, in consequence of 
 more than two centuries of Hellenism, it was so uni- 
 versally employed, that many scholars believe that it 
 was the very language of our Lord and His Apostles. 
 We have no knowledge of the offices which were used 
 by the Apostles who carried the Gospel into India, 
 Parthia, and other regions, but there is no reason for 
 1 Cor. xiv. 19. b Ibid., 16.
 
 OF SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION, &C. 433 
 
 supposing that the services were in any other language 
 than the vernacular of each region. 
 
 Martene says c , " Although the modern use of the 
 Church is that the mass shall only be celebrated in 
 Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and the reasons for pro- 
 scribing the mother tongue are sufficient, yet it was not 
 so in the beginning." In support of this he quotes the 
 story of St. Anthony the Abbot, told by St. Athanasius, 
 who, knowing nothing but the Egyptian idiom, entered 
 the church, and hearing the Gospel read in which it 
 is enjoined to sell all, straightway went and did so. 
 Still more to the purpose is the history of the life 
 of St. Theodosius the Archimandrite, who built in his 
 monastery four churches, one for the Greeks, one for 
 the Bessi, a third for the Armenians, and a fourth for 
 those beset with evil spirits ; so that it happened that 
 they all (except the beset) carried on the services in 
 their own tongues, so far as the Gospel, and then 
 joined together in the great Greek Church, and here- 
 upon were made partakers of the Divine mysteries. 
 
 A similar fact is narrated by Cyrillus Scythopoli- 
 tanus, in his life of St. Saba. 
 
 In the ninth century, when the Slaves were con- 
 verted to Christianity by St. Methodius, John VIII. 
 highly praised their performing the service in the 
 Slavonic tongue d . He, however, adds, that for the ho- 
 nour of Divine worship, the Gospel is to be read first 
 in Latin and then translated, and if the Count and his 
 
 c De Antiq. Eccl. Nat,, lib. i. cap. iii. art. ii. torn. i. p. 101. 
 d Ep. 247. to Sfentopulcher, Count of Moravia. 
 
 Ff
 
 434 ARTICLE XXIV. 
 
 judges like to hear it read in Latin they may do so. 
 Before this, Methodius had introduced the vernacular 
 among the Pannonians, with the consent of Pope John ; 
 but Gregory VII. forbad it when writing to Vratisloff, 
 Duke of Bohemia. All the Slaves still use the Slavonic, 
 and not only the schismatical communities in the East e , 
 but those in communion with the Latins, as the Ma- 
 ronites, who use Arabic or Chaldaic, worship in their 
 own language. 
 
 It is unnecessary to allude to those mixed rites, where 
 Latin was used in the East, and Greek in the West, 
 sometimes to typify intercommunion, sometimes to meet 
 the case of alien populations, as was specially common 
 in Magna Grsecia. A still more interesting question 
 suggests itself, whether in the West the use of the ver- 
 nacular ever obtained to any great extent. Martene 
 mentions that in the Church of Soissons (Suessonensis), 
 on the feast of St. Stephen, the Epistle was sung in 
 Latin and in French, as also at St. Gatien's, at Tours, 
 and he gives the beginning of it. It is a specimen of 
 what are termed " farsuras," and in a philological point 
 of view is eminently curious. He mentions that in some 
 parishes in the diocese of Rheims they sang, in his 
 own time, a piece in French, describing the life of 
 St. Stephen, which was forbidden by the existing arch- 
 bishop. 
 
 Theodoret makes mention of the translation of the 
 Bible into many tongues f ; and the version of Ulphilas 
 into Msesogothic, A.D. 360, is the first that prevailed in, 
 
 c Vide JBona Eer. Lit., lib. i. c. 9. n. 4. l Grac, Affect., 1. 5.
 
 OF SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION, &C 435 
 
 the West. But we know nothing of a Gothic Liturgy. 
 It is true the Church hymns, e. g. the Te Deum, were 
 rendered into German, as well as the Epistles and Gos- 
 pels, in the ninth century ; and by the Council of Lep- 
 tines, A.D. 743, certain parts of the Baptismal Service 
 were appointed to be in the German language g . Still 
 there was always a tendency to enforce the Latin lan- 
 guage in the West. As the fresh tribes from the north 
 were evangelized by the Roman clergy, it was natural 
 that the Roman clergy should employ and recommend 
 the rites to which they had been accustomed. It be- 
 came the measure of the solidity of the conversion that 
 the Latin tongue was accepted. It was also a great 
 means for the consolidation of the Church's power. 
 Even in the Celtic tribes of Ireland and Scotland the 
 mass, though not the rubrics and hymns, was always 
 in Latin ; and whatever may have been the polity and 
 nationality of the race who first raised to heaven the 
 prayers of the Mozarabic Rite, that glorious formulary 
 speaks to God in the language of the Romans. 
 
 The Eastern Church did not take this exclusive line. 
 Wedded as that Church has ever been to tradition, it 
 freely allowed of the translation of the Euchologia and 
 Liturgies. The great Slave races, who received their 
 knowledge of Christ from the East, as we have seen, 
 were freely allowed their Slavonic services. The Arme- 
 nians and Georgians, Cophts and Syrians, were all 
 allowed to worship God in a tongue which they un- 
 derstood. Time, of course, has told on this arrange- 
 e Labbe and Cossart, Cone., torn. viii. p. 278.
 
 436 ARTICLE XXIV. 
 
 ment. The language of daily use has altered, while 
 the Church language has remained as it was, so that 
 now over the greater part of the Christian world the 
 ignorant among the worshippers imperfectly under- 
 stand what is said in church. 
 
 In extenuation of this state of things, it is urged 
 1. that it would be impossible to be eternally altering 
 the service to suit the alterations of the language of 
 common life ; 2. that more is gained by the reverence 
 which an ancient form inspires than is lost by a par- 
 tial ignorance of it ; 3. that in fact, by means of trans- 
 lation and explanation, the great mass of the faithful 
 do adhibit a rational attention to the sense of that in 
 which they are occupied ; and 4. that it is most impor- 
 tant to embalm the expression, of doctrine in a lan- 
 guage, which, by being dead, has got a definite mean- 
 ing sealed to each word. 
 
 To sum up, it is desirable that, due precaution being 
 taken for the conservation of the true doctrine by cer- 
 tain unalterable formulae, the language of prayer and 
 praise should be that which every ordinarily educated 
 person of average intelligence should be able to follow 
 with perfect facility ; and that in the mutation of lan- 
 guage, the service-books should from time to time be 
 corrected, but only when the amount of discrepancy 
 between the archaic and ordinary tongues has become 
 so great, that an intelligent rational worship is ren- 
 dered difficult or impossible.
 
 ARTICLE XXV. 
 DE SACRAMENTIS. 
 
 SACEAMENTA a Christo instituta, non tantum sunt notce 
 professions Christianorum, sed certa qucedam potius 
 testimonia et efficacia signa gratias atque bonce in nos 
 voluntatis Dei, per qua invisibiliter ipse in no[bi~\s 
 operatur, nostramque fidem in se non solum excitat, 
 remm etiam confirmat. 
 
 Duo a Christo Domino nostro in Emngclio instituta sunt 
 Sacramento, : scilicet, Baptismus, et Coena Domini. 
 
 Quinque ilia vulgo nominata Sacramenta, scilicet, con- 
 firmatio, pcenitentia, ordo, matrimonium, et extrema 
 unctio, pro Sacramentis Evangelicis habenda non sunt, 
 ut quce, partim a pram Apostolorum imitatione pro- 
 fluxerunt, partim vita status sunt in Scripturis quidem 
 probati, sed sacramentomm eandem cum Baptismo et 
 Ccena Domini rationem non habentes, ut qua signum 
 aliquod visibile, seu cceremoniam, a Deo institutam, non 
 habeant. 
 
 Sacramenta non in hoc instituta sunt a Christo ut specta- 
 rentur, aut circumferrentur, sed ut rite illis uteremur ; 
 et in his duntaxat qui digne percipiunt, salutarem ha- 
 bent ejfectum. Qui vero indigne percipiunt, damna- 
 tionem (ut inquit Paulus] sibi ip.sis acquirunt. 
 
 " Of the Sacraments. 
 
 " SACRAMENTS ordained of Christ, be not only badges 
 or tokens of Christian men's profession, but rather they 
 be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace 
 and God's good- will towards us, by the which He doth
 
 438 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but 
 also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him. 
 
 " There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our 
 Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism, and the 
 Supper of the Lord. 
 
 " Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to 
 say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and 
 extreme Unction, are not to be counted Sacraments of 
 the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the 
 corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of 
 life allowed in the Scriptures : but yet have not like 
 nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or 
 ceremony ordained of God. 
 
 " The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be 
 gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should 
 duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive 
 the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation : 
 but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to 
 themselves damnation, as St. Paul saith." 
 
 THE Article begins by stating that Sacraments or- 
 dained of Christ are something more than badges or 
 tokens of Christian men's profession. This was the 
 miserable conception of Zwingli. He maintained Sa- 
 craments to be signs of covenant between man and 
 man, external things in no wise affecting the con- 
 science, neither spiritual in themselves nor working 
 anything spiritual in us, the tokens of those who are 
 spiritual. Luther and Melanchthon's theory was also 
 inadequate. They reduced the Sacraments to tokens
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 439 
 
 of a covenant between God and man, to pledges of the 
 truth of the divine promises for the forgiveness of sins, 
 to means of assurance that the debt of the sins of the 
 faithful receiver is remitted, and of peace to comfort 
 and console him. All this springs from the one-sided 
 conceptions of the justification of man before God. 
 The effects of the Sacraments were confined to the 
 subjective acts of the individual at the moment of 
 reception. In fact, the objective character of the 
 means of grace was lost. Luther's variations were 
 endless. His permanent belief was, that they were 
 a sort of visible preaching to kindle faith. But the 
 Confession of Augsburg is not even fairly orthodox 
 on this point. 
 
 Calvin's teaching was in most respects similar to that 
 of Luther, but he carefully points out all the parts of 
 what is understood by a Sacrament, and recommends, 
 with much urgency, its use, but then he divorces the 
 inward grace from the outward sign. This is the neces- 
 sary result of his theory of election. If it is only to 
 the elect that God's grace is tendered, the rest being 
 passed over by God, it follows that grace is by no 
 means necessarily connected with the outward sign. 
 Hence, in Baptism, those who are not elected are 
 only outwardly washed, and in the Lord's Supper re- 
 ceive mere bread and wine. According to him, Sacra- 
 ments are merely obsignatory. 
 
 Having thus cleared the way to a definition, the 
 Article goes on to state that Sacraments ordained by 
 Christ are " certain sure witnesses and effectual signs
 
 440 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 of grace and God's good- will towards us, by the which 
 He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only 
 quicken, but strengthen and confirm our faith in Him." 
 Observe the singular strength of these words, in com- 
 parison with those of the Confession of Augsburg : 
 " Sacraments are the signs and testimonies of God's 
 good-will towards us, bestowed for exciting and con- 
 firming the faith of those who use them." Again, we 
 call Sacraments rites, which have the commandment 
 of God, and to which is added the promise of grace. 
 Our Article makes five assertions with regard to them : 
 they are 1. sure witnesses of grace, and God's good- 
 will towards us ; 2. effectual signs of grace, and God's 
 good- will towards us ; 3. by Sacraments God works in- 
 visibly in us ; 4. by Sacraments He quickens our faith 
 in Him; 5. by Sacraments He strengthens and con- 
 firms that Faith. There is no point of Catholic teach- 
 ing on the subject which is not amply and explicitly 
 contained in these words. 
 
 1. The first point impressed upon us is, the sense 
 of Sacraments being witnesses of grace, or, in stricter 
 theological language, signifying grace. They are types 
 of that holiness and righteousness which they convey. 
 There is a celebrated passage in St. Augustine, where 
 he says that " Sacraments are called the things which 
 they signify, from a certain similarity and likeness a ." 
 Thus they are the pledges of the divine will in regard 
 to man, and sureties of the truth of God's promises. 
 As God, under the Mosaic dispensation, employed out- 
 S. Aug., torn. ii. p. 203 f., Ep. 98, 9.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 441 
 
 ward signs, and wonders, and tokens, to strengthen 
 the trust of the Jews in the divine assurance, as in 
 the words of Deut. vi. 20, " And when thy son asketh 
 thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testi- 
 monies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the 
 Lord our God hath commanded you?" so our blessed 
 Lord, the new Moses, the Legislator of a better cove- 
 nant, instituted these rites as pledges of the forgiveness 
 of sin, of the bestowal of grace, of communion with 
 God. A pledge to assure us of the inward and spiri- 
 tual grace given to us, is a necessary part of the defi- 
 nition. But this is not all. 
 
 2. The Article says further, that a Sacrament is 
 an effectual sign of God's grace. It not only typifies, 
 it conveys. It is not a bare sign, but an effectual 
 sign, a sign that carries its effect along with it. It 
 is the means whereby we receive the same grace, of 
 which it is the outward visible sign. 
 
 3. By Sacraments God works invisibly in us. All 
 grace flows from the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and 
 the Sacraments are main channels whereby that grace 
 flows into the soul. Christ is the chief and principal 
 worker in all Sacraments, as a function of His ever- 
 lasting priesthood. They work in us by means of the 
 institution of Christ. He has merited for us all things 
 necessary to salvation, and these are freely bestowed 
 upon us by God, if our free- wills only consent to re- 
 ceive them. This consent to receive grace, in other 
 words expresses itself as repentance and faith. Re- 
 pentance and faith make us susceptible of the grace
 
 442 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 of the Sacrament, which thus abide in the Absolute 
 and the Objective. 
 
 4. Sacraments quicken or give life to faith. In the 
 old rituals, the service of Baptism begins with this 
 question to the sponsor in the name of the candidate, 
 What seekest thou of the Church ? and the answer is, 
 Faith. 
 
 5. Sacraments strengthen and confirm faith. As 
 a means of grace, they strengthen the whole soul, in- 
 crease its spiritual capacities both as to the intellectual 
 and the moral part of man's being, and therefore in- 
 timately affect the faith, which, though dwelling in 
 the intellectual part of the soul, is intimately in- 
 fluenced by the morals. The power of increase in 
 faith is indicated by our Lord in the similitude of the 
 mustard seed. Faith exists in the faintest recognition 
 of a superior Being amid the fetich worship of the 
 ignorant savage ; it rises to the keenest recognition 
 of Divine truth in the perfected saint, and to the 
 endurance of martyrdom for these holy convictions. 
 A power so infinitely varying in degree must be pro- 
 foundly affected by the means which God gives us of 
 advancing in righteousness and holiness, so that the 
 Sacraments act directly according to their own nature, 
 and for their appointed purpose, when they confirm 
 and strengthen the faith. 
 
 The Article adds that "the Sacraments were not 
 ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried 
 about, but that we should duly use them." In this 
 sentence the stress is on the words, " were not ordained
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 443 
 
 of Christ to be," &c. The Article does not say, that 
 the things spoken of may not be done, but that they 
 were not the objects for which Christ ordained them. 
 Had they been, they could not have been laid aside 
 without sin. Being of ecclesiastical, not of Divine 
 institution, they were mutable, not immutable. What 
 it affirms is strictly historically true. By carrying 
 the Sacraments about, we are probably to understand 
 the Procession of the Corpus Domini. No person in 
 his senses would say that this was ordained of Christ, 
 but, though not actually ordained of Christ, the prac- 
 tice is not necessarily sinful, nay, if ordered by the 
 Church, in accordance with His will, permissible and 
 edifying. If " gazing" be supposed to imply assisting 
 at the Eucharistic celebration without communicating, 
 it must be recollected that from the very beginning, the 
 penitents called consistentes were required to be present 
 without communicating; and as love waxed cold, the 
 Church thought it better that men should be present 
 at the great Eucharistic Service without communion, 
 rather than turn their backs upon the holy mysteries. 
 But it was distinctly an accommodation to weakness in 
 the beginning, and the normal order of the Church 
 is still, that all present should be in a fit state to par- 
 ticipate in the holy mysteries, and actually do so a . 
 
 As regards the circumgestation of the blessed Sa- 
 crament. From the beginning of the third century 
 
 Both the Articles and Council of Trent agree in considering that 
 private masses are ihe result of the coldness of Christians. Both con- 
 demn it, but both have failed in enforcing universal participation.
 
 444 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 we have evidence of its being reserved in the Church. 
 It was sometimes carried home by the faithful for pri- 
 vate communion, but generally it rested in a ciborium, 
 in the form of a dove hanging over the altar. It was 
 then ready for the exigencies of the sick and dying, 
 and Church history is full of records of the tremendous 
 profanations it endured from the hands of the heathen, 
 or even heretic Christians. At length, on the occasion 
 of the upspring of a pantheistic school in Europe, 
 headed by David de Dinant, and Amaury de Chartres b , 
 the doctrine of the Sacrament received additional con- 
 sideration, and it was deemed expedient to carry the 
 Sacrament through the streets, as a protest patent to 
 every one against the dangerous errors of pantheism ; 
 and since those days the devotional use of the Lord's 
 Body, as divorced from its Sacramental participation, 
 has greatly increased in the Western Church, while 
 the Greek Church and the English Church have re- 
 frained from developing in this direction. 
 
 It is observable that the framers of our present 
 Article omitted a clause contained in the Forty-two 
 Articles, founded upon a misconception, common at 
 that time, of the theological meaning of the term, 
 opus operatum. After the words, "in such only as 
 worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome 
 effect and operation ;" there followed, " and yet that, 
 not of this work wrought [ex opere opcrato] as some 
 men speak ; which word, as it is strange and un- 
 known to Holy Scripture, so it engendereth no godly 
 b Mohler, Synibolilc, vol. i. p. 350.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 445 
 
 but a very superstitious sense." This supposed sense 
 was, that the Sacraments conferred the benefits attached 
 to them, to all who received them, without any good 
 dispositions on their part, sine aliquo bono motu utentis, 
 as people used to say. Such, an opinion could not be 
 too strongly condemned, but nothing could be more 
 alien from the meaning of the term. It is a well- 
 known distinction of the Schoolmen ; " Some receive 
 both the Sacrament and the substance of the Sacra- 
 ment" [viz. those who receive it worthily] ; " some, 
 the Sacrament and not the substance" [viz. those who 
 receive it unworthily] ; " some, the substance and not 
 the Sacrament " [viz. those who desire to receive it 
 aright, but, in the ordering of God's Providence, are 
 prevented]. This distinction in itself excludes the 
 imputation that, according to this doctrine, the Sacra- 
 ments benefited those who received them unworthily 
 by their mere reception. Such, in the language of 
 St. Augustine, " placed a bar" to the reception of 
 their grace. And so those alone universally received 
 the benefits of a Sacrament, who could place no bar. 
 "The Sacrament and the substance together all, in 
 fact, receive who in Baptism are cleansed from original 
 sin." The phrase, ex opere operate, was devised in con- 
 trast with the ex opere operantis, and to distinguish the 
 Sacraments of the new law from those of the old ; to ex- 
 clude human merits, not worthy reception ; to express 
 that God's gift in the Sacrament is a gift special to 
 the Sacrament, " a work worked" by God, beyond and 
 
 c P. Lomb., 1. iv. dist. iv.
 
 446 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 above human co-operation. " When Catholics say that 
 Sacraments confer grace ex opere operato, they do not 
 think that they confer it only from the merits of the 
 receiver, either of condignity or impetratory, but by 
 the virtue of the Sacrament itself, without which, even 
 if such disposition preceded, it would not be given d ." 
 "It is said that Sacraments justify men, ex open' 
 operato, because they do not justify by reason of the 
 merits of the work of the minister, who confers the 
 Sacrament, as far as it is his, as operating [opus oper- 
 antis], viz. in what way he may be worthy of praise or 
 blame : but the work of the minister is considered only 
 in itself, be it done well or ill, so that it be done 
 according to the Divine institution, because it hath 
 this power, not by the virtue or merits of the minister, 
 but by the virtue of the Author who instituted it" 
 [the doctrine of our Article XXVI.] . The Council of 
 Trent guarded the meaning of the ex opere opera io by 
 the words : " If any one say that the Sacraments of 
 the new law do not contain grace, or confer it fo 
 those tcho place no bar to it;" and in their rejection of 
 those who confined the grace of the Sacraments to the 
 elect : " If any say that grace is not given through 
 such Sacraments always to all, as far as relates to 
 God's part, although they duly receive them, but some- 
 times and to some 6 ." In which words they express 
 the same limitation as our Article. 
 
 Of the number of the Sacraments little notice was 
 taken in the Protestant confessions. Luther, regard- 
 d Vazquez in 3, P. d. 131, q. 1. e Scss. vii. can. 6, 7.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 447 
 
 ing them as symbols for the purpose of confirming 
 a man's faith in the forgiveness of sins, could neces- 
 sarily see no sacramental character in many of those 
 rites which had long been esteemed such. He ad- 
 mitted three, Baptism, the Lord's Supper, Penitence'. 
 Calvin also admitted only two Sacraments, in the sense 
 in which he believed any Sacraments ; viz. " outward 
 symbols, whereby God seals to our consciences the 
 promises of His good will towards us to support 
 the weakness of our faith, and we, in turn, attest our 
 piety towards Him, before Him, the angels, and men &." 
 "Baptism testifies that we have been cleansed and washed; 
 the Eucharistic Supper, that we have been redeemed h ." 
 The " five falsely-named Sacraments" he rejected with 
 much vehemence *, whence there is no allusion to them 
 in any of the original reformed confessions j . 
 
 f The number is not defined in the Confession of Augsburg, but these 
 are enumerated in Art. ix. xii. The Apology, on Art. xiii., declares 
 these three to be Sacraments, as "having the command of God and 
 the promise of the grace of the New Testament. For in all three our 
 hearts ought to settle, that God really forgives us for Christ's sake. 
 Confirmation and Extreme Unction, it says, are rites received from the 
 fathers, which the Church, too, does not require as necessary to salva- 
 tion, because they have not the command of God." " If Orders be ac- 
 counted the ministry of the word [i.e. preaching], we should un- 
 deniably call ' order' a Sacrament. Matrimony," it says, " if any one 
 wills to call it a Sacrament, should be distinguished from the former, 
 which are properly signs of the New Testament, and are testimonies of 
 grace and of forgiveness of sins." (p. 155, ed. Tittni.) 
 
 K lust. iv. n. i. h Ibid., n. 22. * Ibid., n. 19. 
 
 J The " declaratio Thoruniensis," the result of an attempt in Poland 
 to unite Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformers, A.D. 1645, alone speak of 
 them. It was received by the reformed in Brandenburg. Aug. Diss. 
 Hist. Lit., in his Corpus Lilb. Syml., pp. 642, 643.
 
 448 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 The septenary number of the Sacraments had long 
 been held both by the Greek and Latin Churches, and 
 there is no ground to deprive of a sacramental cha- 
 racter the rites for which that character is claimed. 
 
 Peter Lombard is the first to forinulize the number 
 in the Latin Church. Before that nothing had been 
 defined. Alexander Alensis k held that confirmation 
 was not apostolic, but ordained by the Council of 
 Meaux ; Buonaventura 1 denies that it was established 
 by Christ ; Cajetan m denies that extreme unction is the 
 ceremony mentioned in St. James. Rupertus Tuicen- 
 sis says, " Sacred Baptism, the Holy Eucharist of His 
 Body and Blood, the twin gift of the Holy Ghost. . . . 
 These three Sacraments are the necessary instruments 
 of our salvation n ." 
 
 The language of the Article is awkward and embar- 
 rassed, whether it be that the use of the word "partly" 
 did not at that time (as it certainly does not by 
 the force of the word itself) imply a logical division 
 into two classes, or that the framers of the Article 
 used it illogically. But, certainly, the words could not 
 have been intended to express any absolute division of 
 the five Sacraments into the two classes spoken of, 
 since, by no possibility, according to the principles of 
 the framers, could Confirmation be classed in either. 
 For the right interpretation of the Article, we need but 
 these simple principles : 1. That the framers did not 
 
 k Alensis, p. 4, q. 9. ' Buonaventura, Sent., 1. 4, dist. 7, q. 2. 
 
 m Cajetan, in Jac. 5, p. 419, ed. Lugd., 1556. n De Victoria, 
 
 Verbi Dei, 1. xii. c. 11, cit. Owen.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 449 
 
 mean to contradict the Homilies, wliich they praised ; 
 2. That the writers, both of the Articles and the Homi- 
 lies, did not use carefully guarded language without 
 a meaning. The word " Sacrament" has notoriously 
 been used in a wider and a stricter sense. The Homi- 
 lies mention St. Augustine's description, "a visible 
 sign of an invisible grace." In this respect they stand 
 out from those other mysteries of the Christian life, 
 which the fathers have here and there called Sacra- 
 ments, such as prayer , or the Lord's prayer p , or fast- 
 ing i, or Holy Scripture 1 , or the Creed p , or Martyr- 
 dom 3 ; for although these are instruments of grace, 
 through the blessing of God, they have not been 
 marked out by any visible sign. Now, in this wider 
 sense, " this Article does not deny the five rites in 
 question to be Sacraments ; it only denies them to be 
 Sacraments in the same sense in which Baptism and 
 the Lord's Supper are Sacraments, ' Sacraments of the 
 Gospel? ' Sacraments with an outward sign ordained 
 by God/ " " If, then, a Sacrament be merely ' an out- 
 ward sign of an invisible grace' given under it, the 
 five rites may be Sacraments; but if it must be an 
 outward sign ordained by God or Christ, then only 
 Baptism and the Lord's Supper are in this sense 
 
 St. Hilary, in S. Matt., c. v. n. 1. 
 
 P " The Sacrament of the Creed, which they ought to believe ; the 
 Sacrament of the Lord's Piayer, how tht-y ought to ask." S. Aug., 
 Serm. 228 fin. 
 
 * " Sacramentum esuritionis." St. Hilary, in S. Matt., c. xii. n. 2. 
 
 1 St. Hil., ibid., c. xxiii. n. 4. 
 
 1 St. Jerome, Ep. ad Ocean., n. 6, p. 418, Vail.
 
 450 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 ' Sacraments.' ' Now, in separating off these two 
 Sacraments from the rest, the framers of the Article 
 followed very high authority in the Latin, Greek, 
 and Syriac-speaking Churches. To name no others 
 now, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and their con- 
 temporary St. Isaac the Great, gave special honour to 
 those two Sacraments which flowed from, the side of 
 Christ . 
 
 These two, the Article calls " Sacraments of the 
 Gospel," as being, as the Catechism says, " generally 
 necessary to salvation;" or, according to the Homily, 
 " having annexed to the visible signs the promise of 
 free forgiveness of sins, and of our holiness and joining 
 to Christ." " Orders," it has been said, " gives power, 
 yet without making the soul acceptable to God ; Con- 
 firmation gives light and strength, yet is the mere 
 completion of Baptism ; and Absolution may be looked 
 upon as a negative ordinance, removing the barrier 
 which sin has raised between us and that grace which 
 
 1 St. Chrysos., ad loc. in Horn. 85 ; St. Aug., in Joan. 10. t. iii. tr. 
 xlv. 9 ; de Luct. Jacob, Serm. 5, t. v. p. 30. " Faith came to me, and 
 called to me, and said to me, that the Sacraments of the Church came 
 forth from the opened side of Christ." (St. Isaac, Serm. de fide ap. 
 Assem. Bibl. Or., t. i. p. 243.) See also Tertullian, de Sapt., c. 16, 
 p. 263 ; St. Ambrose, in S. Luc., 1. x. 135 ; St. Aug., in S. Joh., Tract. 
 cxx. n. 2, ix. n. 10, xv. n. 8 ; de do. Dei, xv. 26, xxii. 17 ; c. Faust., xii. 
 39 ; St. Leo, Ep. xxviii. Flavian. ; S. Paulin. Nol., Ep. xlii. Florent., 
 n. 4; Auct. de Symb., 1. ii. c. 6 ; de cataclysm., c. iv. ; in St. Aug. Opp. 
 t. vi. ; St. Cyril Al., and probably Apollinarius, in S. Joh. xix. 34; 
 author of Testim. de Adv. Dom., in St. Greg. Nyss. ; St. John Daroasc., 
 de Fid. Orthod., iv. 9. See in Dr. Pusey's Scriptural Doctriue of Bapt., 
 pp. 294297.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 451 
 
 is by inheritance ours. But the two Sacraments 'of 
 the Gospel,' as they may be emphatically styled, are 
 the instruments of inward life, according to our Lord's 
 declaration, that Baptism is a new birth, and that in 
 the Eucharist we eat the living bread V 
 
 But although these two great Sacraments are severed 
 off from the other five, it has been observed, that so 
 far from denying them to be Sacraments, the writers 
 of all the formularies acknowledge or imply that they 
 are in some sense " Sacraments." The Homilies directly 
 call Marriage a " Sacrament x ;" and of Orders they 
 say, " neither it, nor any other Sacrament else be such 
 Sacraments as Baptism and Communion are y ." So 
 that we have two of the five expressly called " Sacra- 
 ments," besides the allusion to " other Sacraments." 
 The Article could not say that the five have not " like 
 nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper," unless the writers meant that they were in 
 some sense " Sacraments." And the difference assigned 
 (which is further remarkable) does not relate to the 
 inward grace, but to the outward form. " For that," 
 it continues, " they have not any visible sign or cere- 
 mony ordained of God." In the same way the Homi- 
 lies expressly say, that "absolution" has the inward 
 grace, " forgiveness of sins," only " not by express 
 word of the New Testament, annexed and tied to the 
 visible sign, which is imposition of hands." 
 
 u Newman on "Justification," Lec^. 6, \.fin. T Sermon on. 
 
 Swearing, pt. i, T Homily on Common Prayer and Sacra- 
 
 inents, p. 298.
 
 452 . ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 It was said that the language of the Article, on the 
 number of the Sacraments, is defensible : 
 
 1. To state that there are only seven Sacraments, 
 neither more nor less, is a mode of speech unknown 
 to antiquity. The word was used, if not loosely, in 
 a very extended sense. Christianity, being a religion 
 of mystery, was full of Sacraments. It was the great 
 sacrament of godliness itself, testifying as it did to 
 God manifest in the flesh. 
 
 2. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucha- 
 rist are so pre-eminent over the other five, differ so in 
 kind from them, and hang so closely together, that 
 they may be bracketed off by themselves. What cir- 
 cumcision and the passover were to the Fathers, they 
 are to the Israel of God. They alone are generally 
 necessary to salvation. 
 
 3. Moreover, these two Sacraments alone have an out- 
 ward sign, instituted by Christ Himself, being the means 
 of conveying the inward grace. There is a marked 
 parallelism between them in their previous announce- 
 ment, actual institution, and subsequent administration. 
 
 4. As representing spiritual birth and spiritual food 
 they are the very substance of the Church. All other 
 blessings are subsidiary to these, both in the order of 
 nature, and in the order of grace. 
 
 5. They stand also pre-eminent in that they and 
 they alone, according to the Fathers, have flowed from 
 the riven side of the Second Adam as He slept the 
 sleep of death on the cross, and thus they constitute 
 the mystic Eve, the bride, the Church.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 453 
 
 The language of the Article is unfortunate, not 
 in that it raised two Sacraments above the rest, but 
 in tending to obscure the sacramental character of 
 the other five rites by undue disparagement. Yet, 
 happily, this Article is neither the exclusive, nor the 
 main teacher of our people, according to the ancient 
 principle, lex supplicandi, lex credendi. And, upon the 
 simple principle, that documents should not be inter- 
 preted so as to contradict one another, where they can 
 be harmonized the one with the other, since, in regard 
 to Orders and Confirmation, in the service for each 
 an outward sign is prescribed and an inward grace 
 spoken of; and in Matrimony the benediction of the 
 priest is appointed for those who would be married 
 according to the law of the Church ; and, in Penitence, 
 there is a form appointed for conveying the grace of 
 that Sacrament; it is clear that this Article must not 
 be interpreted as denying that they are ordinances of 
 God for the conveyance of spiritual grace. Of the 
 fifth, the Anointing of the Sick, hereafter. It cannot 
 be denied that seven ordinances have enclosed the 
 whole Christian life in blessed bonds, not all necessary 
 for all, nay, in the highest form of Christian life there 
 is no room for Matrimony ; and in the first fervour 
 of Christian love, they were the exception who needed 
 to be restored by the Sacrament of Penitence, but con- 
 veying, according to men's needs, the grace of which 
 they are channels. They have ever been regarded to 
 have a mystical significance of their own, and separately 
 from the beginning have existed as practices in the
 
 454 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 Church. To illustrate which truth, it may be well to 
 dwell on each in order as follows : 
 
 I. The Sacrament (in this inferior sense) by which 
 the Holy Spirit is communicated to the faithful, to con- 
 firm and perfect in them faith and religion, is termed, 
 on that account, the gift of the Holy Spirit ; Confirma- 
 tion ; perfection ; the seal ; also, the Sacrament of the 
 Spirit, the symbol of the Spirit, the Sacrament of 
 Unction, the imposition of hands, unction, the mystic 
 unction, the unction of salvation. An outward sign 
 and an inward grace are both assigned in Holy Scrip- 
 ture, in that Peter and John were sent by the Apostles 
 to those baptized in Samaria, " And they laid their 
 hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost 2 ;" 
 and that the Holy Ghost came on the baptized a , when 
 Paul laid his hands on them. Baptism and Confirma- 
 tion standing thus distinct in Holy Scripture, the in- 
 timate relation between them, and the custom of ad- 
 ministering the one immediately upon the other, do 
 not prove their identity. In matter, form, and cha- 
 racter they are entirely different. Confirmation Ter- 
 tullian names with Baptism and the Eucharist b ; St. 
 Cyprian gives it the dignity of a Sacrament c ; St. 
 Cyril, of Jerusalem, calls it " the seal of the fellowship 
 of the Holy Ghost d ;" the author of the de Sacra mentis, 
 a special " spiritual seal," speaking of it under " Sa- 
 craments." The Council of Elvira speaks of the bap- 
 tized as "perfected 6 " by it; that of Laodicea said the 
 
 1 Acts viii. 17. a Ibid. xix. 6. b Prats, xxxvi. 
 
 c 70 ad Januar. d Cat. xviii. n. 33. e c. 38, 77.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 455 
 
 baptized "ought after Baptism to be anointed with the 
 heavenly chrism, and be partakers of the kingdom of 
 Christ f j" the Apostolical Constitutions call the unc- 
 tion "the confirmation of the confession [in Baptism], 
 the seal of the covenants s ." St. Cyril, of Alexandria, 
 speaks of "the use of oil, contributing to perfection 
 to those justified in Christ through holy Baptism," 
 as a spiritual meaning of oil h ; and says, " We are 
 anointed with ointments, especially at the time of 
 holy Baptism, making it a symbol of partaking the 
 Holy Spirit V 
 
 The Fathers, both Greek and Latin, speak of Con- 
 firmation being given with the imposition of hands, or 
 with Unction with the Holy Chrism, or with both k . 
 
 f c. 48. g in. 16, 17. h In Joel ii. 23, t. iii. p. 224, Aub. 
 
 1 On Is. xxv. 6, t. ii. p. 353, Aub. 
 
 k Some Marcosian heretics, denying (St. Irenseus says) " the Baptism 
 of the regeneration to God," said, "it was superfluous to bring persons 
 to the water ; but, mingling oil and water with certain words, put it on 
 the heads of those perfected. These, too, anoint with balsam." (St. 
 Iren., i. 10, 1 and 4.) Tertulliau mentions both as following upon 
 Baptism, and speaks of them as the complement of Baptism : "Then, 
 going forth from the laver, we are anointed with the blessed unction 
 according to the ancient discipline, whereby they used to be anointed 
 to the priesthood with oil from a horn. So in us, too, the anointing 
 runneth corporally, but profiteth spiritually; as the carnal act of Bap- 
 tism itself, that we are immersed in water, is made spiritual that we are 
 delivered from sins. Then the hand is imposed, calling and inviting by 
 its benediction the Holy Spirit." (De JBapt., c. 7.) Again, he places 
 both between Baptism and the Holy Eucharist : " The flesh is washed, 
 that the soul may be unbespotted ; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may 
 be consecrated ; the flesh is sealed, that the soul, too, may be guarded ; 
 the flesh is overshadowed by imposition of hands, that the soul, too, 
 may be illumined by the Spirit; the flesh is fed with the Body and
 
 456 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 " In the oldest Latin Sacramentaries and Pontificals 
 only the laying on of bands and its form is prescribed/' 
 
 Blood of Christ, that the soul, too, may be nourished from God." (De 
 Res. earn., c. 8.) St. Cyprian speaks of the sanctification of the oil 
 wherewith the baptized are anointed. (Ep. Ixx. ad Jan.) In the Ep. 
 Ixxiii., ad Jubaian., having spoken of Peter and John "supplying what 
 was wanted, viz. that, prayers being made for them and hands imposed, 
 the Holy Spirit might be invoked and poured upon them ;" he adds, 
 " the like whereto is done among us, that they who are baptized in the 
 Church are offered to those set over the Church, that by our prayers 
 and the imposition of hands they may obtain the Holy Spirit, and be 
 perfected with the seal of the Lord." St. Firmilian speaks of the im- 
 position of hands alone, (Ep. ad S. Cypr., Ep. Ixxv.) ; as does the Council 
 of Elvira (can. 38). The Luciferian in St. Jerome asks : " Knowest 
 thou not that this is the custom of the Churches, that on the baptized 
 hands should afterwards be laid, and so the Holy Spirit invoked ? 
 Askest thou where this is written? In the Acts of the Apostles. Even 
 if it were not supported by the authority of Scripture, the agreement 
 of the whole Church herein would have the weight of a precept." 
 St. Jerome answers thus far : " I deny not that this is the custom of 
 the Churches, that to those who have been bapt'zed by Presbyters and 
 Deacons, at a distance from larger cities, the Bishop goes forth, to lay on 
 hands for the invocation of the Holy Spirit." (St. Jerome, adv. Lucif. 
 n. 8, 9, Opp. ii. 180, 1, Vail.) St. Epiphanius mentions imposition of 
 hands, yet speaking only of Acts viii. 17, 18, (Hcer. xxi., Simon, n. 1); 
 and St. Chrysostom, speaking of Acts xix. 6 only. (In Actt. Horn, xl., 
 n. 1.) On the other hand, St. Cyril of Jerusalem mentions the anoint- 
 ing only. (Cat. xxi.) St. Basil instances the anointing of the bap- 
 tized as an unwritten tradition. (De Sp. S., c. 27.) Theodoret (as 
 a mystical exposition of Cant. i. 2) : " Remember the holy mysteries 
 wherein those initiated [baptized], after denying the tyrant [Satan] 
 and confessing the King, receive as the royal seal the Chrisin of the 
 spiritual ointment, receiving, as in the type, the ointment, the invisible 
 grace of the Spirit." (Opp. ii. 30.) St. Augustine, in his de Bapt. 
 (iii. xvi. n. 21), speaks only of the imposition of hands ; on Ps. xxvi. (in 
 explanation of the dum linitur in the title, n. 2), Cont. Litt. Petil., ii. 
 n. 239 (in allusion to Ps. cxxxiii. 2), de Trin., xv. 26 (on Acts x. 38), 
 of the anointing only. The Apostolic Constitutions mention both in
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 457 
 
 In the formula sent by Clement IV. to Palaeologus for 
 the adoption of the Greeks, in view of union (in 1274), 
 it is said of the Sacrament of Confirmation, " which the 
 Bishops confer through imposition of hands, chrisming 
 the regenerate 1 ." The whole statement of faith was 
 accepted in the letters sent to the second Council of 
 Lyons, held in 1274 m : but the Greeks asked to use the 
 creed and the rites which they had before the schism ; 
 so that this is absolute evidence for the West only. The 
 Synod of Mayence, in 1549, citing the Acts, states that 
 "the Catholic Church received from the Apostles the 
 rule of giving the Holy Spirit to the faithful by the 
 hands of the Bishops, and that this Sacrament was 
 from the beginning given by the imposition of hands 
 alone ; but that soon in the very time of the Apostles, 
 by their tradition, it began to be conferred, with the 
 use of unction." The ground it assigns is, that the 
 Holy Spirit first descended visibly; when this was 
 withdrawn, "the anointing began to be employed to 
 represent the internal spiritual unction n ." 
 
 A Confession of Faith published in 1662, by Nectarius 
 
 ii. 32, vii. 43, 44; unction only in iii. 16, vii. 22. St. Optatus (Sch. 
 Don., iv. 7) alludes to both. Innocent I. (Ep. i. ad Decent. ILugub., n. 
 3) says that a Priest can seal only with oil consecrated by a Bishop. 
 St. Leo (Serm. 24, [in Nat. Dom., iv.] c. 6) mentions Chrism only ; in 
 regard to returning heretics, baptized out of the Church, imposition of 
 hands only (Ep. clix. ad Nicet., c. 7), as being "what was wanting 
 there ;" (Ep. clxvi. ad Neon., n. 2) " by imposition of hands, the power 
 of the Holy Spirit invoked, which they could not receive from heretics." 
 (Ep. clxvii. Rust. Inq., 18.) 
 
 1 Baron., A. 1267, n. 77. m Cone. Lugd. ii., Lit. 
 
 Mich. Palceol. ad Greg. X. n Can. 17, 18.
 
 458 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 of Jerusalem, says that Confirmation was originally 
 given by imposition of hands, but now by unction. 
 
 The blow bestowed on the cheek of the newly-con- 
 firmed person, was a usage imported from chivalry. It 
 is not mentioned before the tenth century. 
 
 II. The second inferior Sacrament mentioned in the 
 Article is that of Penance. According to the ancient 
 faith, for those who had fallen into deadly sin after 
 Baptism, there was established a Sacrament to restore 
 the soul to grace, which is variously called Penance, 
 Confession, Absolution, Reconciliation, the second Bap- 
 tism, the Laborious Baptism, the second Repentance, 
 the second raft after Shipwreck. 
 
 The inward grace, the forgiveness of sins, is promised 
 in the most absolute terms by our Lord Himself, when 
 He said to His Apostles, " Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 
 Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
 them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are re- 
 tained." This power was given in the Apostles to the 
 Church, in the same way as the authority to baptize 
 in the Name of the Holy Trinity, to preach the Gospel 
 to all the world, to teach whatsoever Jesus had com- 
 manded, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. All were 
 primarily committed to the Apostles, to be transmitted 
 by them to their successors. Since we continue to 
 baptize, to teach, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist by 
 virtue of a commission given to the Apostles pri- 
 marily, it would be in the last degree inconsistent 
 to deny the Church's power to absolve from sins in 
 His Name.
 
 OF THE SACRAME^ 7 TS. 459 
 
 There is absolutely no doubt that this mercy towards 
 grievous sinners was exercised by the Church from the 
 very first. The course of public penance, by which the 
 soul was prepared for the grace of Christ in the Abso- 
 lution, is mentioned by St. Irenseus, who speaks of an 
 adulteress, who "having been converted, continued 
 during the whole period [of her life] in a state of 
 penitence" [egopoXoyovpevii, in exhomologesi, old Lat.], 
 " weeping and lamenting what she had undergone 
 through the impostor " Marcus the Gnostic, and of 
 the women, who, having been led astray by him, had 
 no courage to undertake the labours of penance p ; 
 by Tertullian, who shews how, by the disposition of 
 divine goodness, penance purifies the soul from all 
 sins whatsoever, how it is a plank which should 
 bear those sunk beneath the waves of sin to the haven 
 of Divine mercy, and how sin must not be con- 
 cealed, but confessed sincerely i; by Lactantius, who 
 observes as a distinctive note of the Church Catholic 
 the advantage she has in having confession and pe- 
 nance as the cure of sin and of the wounds of the 
 soul r ; by Origen, who says the seventh means of ob- 
 taining the remission of sin, hard and laborious, is 
 penance, when the sinner waters his couch with his 
 tears, when his tears become his meat day and night, 
 when he blushes not to discover his sin to the priest 
 of the Lord, and seek a remedy for the ills of his 
 
 i. 13, n. 5. P Ib., n. 7. 1 De Pcen., ii., iv., 
 
 ix., x. He asks : " Is it better to be damned in secret than ab- 
 solved openly ?" r Instit. Div., iv. 30.
 
 460 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 soul 8 . The course of public penance was known by 
 a technical Greek term, " exomologesis." 
 
 While the true dispenser of pardon is God in His 
 Son Jesus Christ, our great High-Priest, the visible 
 and earthly organ is the Christian Hierarchy ; but no 
 absolution of theirs is valid, without a true repentance 
 arising from the love of God, and a steady determina- 
 tion by His grace never to fall into deadly sin again. 
 Furthermore, perfect contrition, in virtue of the ardor 
 charitatis i which is its form, without the sacrament, 
 effaces all sin ; yet no enlightened and instructed con- 
 science would venture into the presence of its Judge 
 with any of those sins unconfessed and unabsolved, of 
 which He saith : " They which do such things shall 
 not inherit the Kingdom of God V 
 
 In Lev. Horn. ii. n. 4. 
 
 * Origen, in the same passage, in which he speaks of the remission of 
 sins, according to the public penitential discipline of the Church, just 
 quoted, sets, side by side with it, the remission, which is through abun- 
 dance of charity : " The sixth remission takes place through abundance 
 of charity ; as the Lord Himself, too, says, ' Verily, I say unto you, 
 many sins are remitted to her, because she loved much ;' and the 
 Apostle saj s, ' For charity covereth a multitude of sins.' There is 
 yet, too, a seventh, although hard and laborious, remission of sins 
 through penance, when the sinner," &c , (as above.) Origen then 
 contrasts these modes of obtaining forgiveness with different sacrifices 
 of the Mosaic law : " If that charity, which is greater than faith and 
 hope, have abounded in thy heart, so that thou love thy neighbour, not 
 only as th self, but as He sheweth, Who said, ' Greater love hath no 
 man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends ;' know that 
 thou hast offered bread, too, of fine flour, kneaded in the oil of charity, 
 in the unleavened of sincerity and truth. But if in the bitterness 
 of thy weeping thou art subdued by sorrow, tears, and lamentation, if 
 thou have macerated thy flesh and dried it with fasting and much 
 abstinence," &c. (I. c., t. ii. p. 191.) u Gal. v. 21.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 4G1 
 
 III. The rite whereby men were raised in the Church 
 to the clerical state x , was early called ' order/ the ' lay- 
 ing on of hands,' ' ordination,' the ' sacrament of the 
 pontiff,' the ' priestly benediction,' the ' Levitical bene- 
 diction.' Both the outward sign and the inward gift 
 are named in Holy Scripture : " Stir up the gift of 
 God, which is in thee, by the laying on of my hands ?." 
 
 From all antiquity the Church has firmly believed 
 in a special and proper priesthood, having its un- 
 doubted title in the mission and authority it has re- 
 ceived from Jesus Christ, and has expressed this belief 
 in its outward life and organization. It has never 
 denied the universal priesthood of those who are the 
 members of Jesus Christ, our great High-Priest, who 
 have received the unction of the Spirit, and who should 
 offer themselves ever a living sacrifice to God ; but 
 this belief does not contradict the notion that our 
 Lord has intrusted the ministry of the word and Sacra- 
 ments, not to all the faithful, but to certain delegated 
 individuals. "While in one sense acknowledging our 
 Lord to be the One Priest, she has ever firmly held 
 the existence of a proper Priesthood, having an un- 
 doubted title in the mission and authority received 
 from Christ. " Bishops find presbyters are properly 
 termed priests 2 ." That the right to administer the 
 Sacraments is given to a corporation, and very strong 
 language of a certain mediation between God and the 
 people, is found through all the Fathers. 
 
 * " Ordo Sacerdotalis." Tertullian, Exhort, cast., 7, p. 778, Rig. 
 y 2 Tim. i. 6. * St. Aug., Civ. Dei, xx. 10.
 
 462 AKTICLE XXV. 
 
 The Marcionites were the first to misconceive the 
 universal priesthood of Christians. In the Middle 
 ages the Cathari and Flagellants denied the objective 
 reality of the Christian Priesthood. Wickliffe main- 
 tained that a priest in mortal sin is thereby degraded 
 from the priesthood, and loses the poAver of adminis- 
 tering the Sacraments ; whence it would follow that, 
 the inward state of priests being known only to God, 
 the validity of their clerical acts would become radi- 
 cally doubtful and uncertain. 
 
 Luther, insisting on the universal priesthood of 
 Christians, absolutely denied any grace of orders, yet, 
 to avoid anarchy, he admitted, though inconsistently, 
 the necessity of ordination ; yet by it he understood 
 nothing else than an external delegation on the part 
 of the Christian community, which can recall the power 
 thus granted. Calvin allowed Ordination to be "a cere- 
 mony, taken from Scripture, not empty or superflu- 
 ous, but a faithful symbol of spiritual grace." He 
 only did not class it with the other two, he says, 
 " because it is not ordinary nor common among all 
 faithful, but a special rite to a certain function 3 ." 
 But to him Sacraments were as outward things, as 
 seals to a parchment, pictures visibly representing the 
 promises of God b . 
 
 The Church has always recognised these orders in 
 the dignity of the clerical state, the Episcopate, the 
 Priesthood, and the Diaconate. 
 
 St. Ignatius of Antioch is the earliest exponent of 
 Inst,, pp. 19, 28. b Ibid., pp. 14, 15.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 463 
 
 a fact to which the universal consent of tradition bears 
 witness. 
 
 IY. If marriage, even according to the Roman laws, 
 was estimated as the mutual enjoyment of right, both 
 divine and human (jurium dirinomm et humanorum 
 consortium], one may imagine how much more highly 
 it was regarded in the purer atmosphere of Chris- 
 tianity. First in the actual life of the members of 
 Christ, and then in the scientific development of the 
 idea, we find a perfect revolution in the relations 
 which obtained between the sexes. The prevalence 
 of the Manichaean heresy and of Gnosticism, both 
 of which depreciated Matrimony, was under God the 
 means whereby the doctrine concerning it became 
 submitted to Christian analysis, and therefore we find, 
 in those authors who confuted these heresies, a sci- 
 entific treatment of it. Especially is this the case in 
 St. Augustine. 
 
 Matrimony, such as it exists under the Gospel, is 
 the most mysterious expression of human love, shadow- 
 ing out Divine. St. Chrysostom remarks the mystery 
 in this, as laid down in Paradise, how, towards one, 
 heretofore a stranger and unknown, it surmounts 
 the highest love of relationship of parent and child, 
 and parents rejoice to be forsaken for it, as being 
 the earthly contentment of human love. But the 
 Gospel made it more. Through grace, the full, self- 
 forgetful, self-surrender of each to the other in all 
 things lawful, in unfelt, unconscious, because love- 
 ensouled self-denial, makes it a human shadow of that
 
 464 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 Divine self-emptying love of Christ for His Church, 
 wherewith " He gave Himself for it," and of the 
 Church's fealty to its Lord and Head. The mysterious 
 oneness of the married " signified the mystical union 
 between Christ and His Church." St. Paul was 
 speaking of Christian marriage when he said, " this 
 mystery/' or " Sacrament, is great, but I say with 
 reference to Christ and the Church," i.e. the mystery 
 of the conjugal union is great, in its bearing on the 
 union between Christ and the Church. But marriage 
 out of Christianity did not so picture that union, on 
 account of the toleration (1.) of polygamy, (2.) of di- 
 vorce. In any case, it is of Christian marriage that 
 he is speaking, since he is giving a rule for living 
 in it according to the greatness of its mystery. He 
 is writing to Christians about themselves and their 
 own' duties. 
 
 Christian marriage being, then, so high a mystery, 
 the Church from the first joined it in with sacred 
 grace- conferring rites. " How can we find words," 
 says Tertullian c , " to describe the happiness of that 
 marriage, which the Church joineth together, and the 
 oblation confirmeth, and the blessing sealeth, the an- 
 gels report, the Father ratifieth !" St. Siricius says d , 
 " that among the faithful it is a sort of sacrilege, 
 if that blessing, which the priest places upon one 
 about to marry, were violated by any transgression," 
 [viz., if one betrothed to one were to marry another]. 
 
 c Ad Uxor., ii. 8, fin. See the beautiful siquel, pp. 430, 431, 
 Oxf. Tr. d Epist. ad Himer. Tarrac., n. 4.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 465 
 
 St. Jerome 6 says that matrimony, so far from being dis- 
 approved by the Church, is on the contrary conferred 
 by her. If Marius Victorinus, St. Zeno of Yerona, 
 St. Chrysostom, St. Epiphanius, content themselves by 
 recognising in general terms the profound and mys- 
 terious signification of marriage ; St. Augustine fre- 
 quently calls it in the most express terms a Sacra- 
 ment^ even predicating of it an indelible character 
 as in Baptism and Confirmation s. 
 
 In 1179 it was forbidden to receive fees for it, "as 
 for other Sacraments h ." Yet several of the middle-age 
 theologians do not express themselves very strongly 
 on the subject. Abelard and Peter Lombard denied 
 that Matrimony conveyed grace. Durandus, granting 
 that the theologians of his age held it to be a Sacra- 
 ment properly so called, maintained that it was not so 
 in a proper and rigorous sense, but only taken largely. 
 
 V. The unction of the sick is the lost pleiad of the 
 Anglican firmament. One must at once confess and 
 deplore that a distinctly Scriptural practice has ceased 
 to be commanded in the Church of England. Excuses 
 may be made of " corrupt following of the Apostles," 
 in that it was used, contrary to the mind of St. James, 
 when all hope of the restoration of bodily health was 
 
 ' Adv. Jovin., 1. i. 
 
 1 Gen. ad lit., c. ix. n. 12, 7 ; Bon. Conjug., c. vii. n. 7, xxiv. n. 32; 
 2fttpt. et Concup., i. xii. n. 13, xvii. n. 19; Pecc. Orig., xxxiv. n. 39, 
 xxxvii. n. 42. 
 
 s Adult. Conj., ii. 4 ; Nvpt. et Concup., i. x. n. 4, xvii. n. 19 ; do 
 lono Conj., c. vii. ; de Gen., 1. c. 
 
 b Lateran., 1179. Can. \ii. 
 
 Hh
 
 466 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 gone ; but it cannot be denied that there has been 
 practically lost an Apostolic practice, whereby, in case 
 of grievous sickness, the faithful were anointed and 
 prayed over, for the forgiveness of their sins, and to 
 restore them, if God so willed, or to give them spiri- 
 tual support in their maladies. "Is any sick among 
 you ? Let him call for the elders of the Church. And 
 let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the 
 Name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save 
 the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he 
 have committed sins they shall be forgiven him i ." 
 
 On whatever ground, the earliest notice which occurs 
 of the unction of the sick k , is in an Epistle of Innocent 
 I., A.D. 416. For, although Origen quotes the text 
 of St. James, he does so 3 exclusively in relation to the 
 power of the keys, and the course of public penitence l , 
 as Bellarmine acknowledges" 1 , in regard both to him 
 and St. Chrysostom 11 . Yet, since the object of Inno- 
 cent was to inform Decentius as to the practice at 
 Home, as being the only Apostolic Church in the 
 West , his answer conveys not his own judgment 
 
 1 St. James v. 14, 15. 
 
 k Baronius (H. E. 63, xvi.) separates off as altogether distinct from 
 "the Sacrament of unction," the mention of miraculous cures by the 
 use of oil, such as Tertulliau mentions to have been used by Proculus 
 (ad Soap., c. 4); or as Egyptian monks used to expel diseases (Sozom., vi. 
 20 and 29 ; Ruffin. H. E. ii. 4) ; and St. Martin, according to Severus 
 (Vita S. Martini, n. 15); and St. Hilarion, as related by St. Jerome 
 (int. S. Hilarion.) 
 
 1 In Lev., Horn. ii. n. 4. m De Sacr. 
 
 n De Sac., iii. 6. Inn. I., ad Decent., Piajf. and Resp. viii.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 467 
 
 only but a knowledge of that practice. The question 
 of Decentius was, whether a Bishop might anoint the 
 sick ; Innocent's answer was, certainly he might, since 
 according to St. James, presbyters might. But the 
 answer brings out the facts, that the Chrism for that 
 object was prepared by the Bishop, and that the 
 laity might use it in any needs of themselves or their 
 friends. Only those under penance, being in fact exr 
 communicate, could not have it, being a Sacrament, 
 since they were debarred from all Sacraments. 
 
 " There is no doubt that this [the passage of St. 
 James] ought to be understood of the faithful, when 
 sick, who can [possunf] be anointed with the holy oil 
 of Chrism, which, being made by the Bishop, not 
 the Priest only, but all Christians may use, by anoint- 
 ing, in their own or their friends' necessities. But it 
 was added needlessly, that it was doubted as to Bishops, 
 in what, there is no doubt, is allowed to Presbyters. 
 For it is therefore said [in St. James] of Presbyters, 
 because the Bishops, being hindered by other occu- 
 pations, cannot go to all sick persons. But if a Bishop 
 either can or thinks it meet to visit any one, he can 
 unhesitatingly bless and touch with the Chrism, to 
 whom it appertaineth to make the Chrism itself. For 
 on penitents it cannot be poured, because it is a kind 
 of Sacrament. For to whom the remaining Sacraments 
 are denied, how can it be thought that one kind is 
 allowed P?" 
 
 St. Csesarius, of Aries, exhorts persons in sickness to 
 
 P Eesp. viii.
 
 468 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 have recourse to the remedies of the Church, not to 
 charms : " As soon as any illness supervenes, let the 
 sick person receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and 
 then anoint his poor body, that that .which is written 
 may be fulfilled in him ; ' If any is sick among 
 you/ &c. See, brethren, that he who in sickness has 
 recourse to the Church, will both receive health of 
 body and obtain forgiveness of sins. Since these two- 
 fold benefits can be found in the Church, why do 
 hapless men strain to bring on themselves manifold 
 evils through enchanters, or soothsayers, or diviners 1 ? " 
 The passage of Csesarius agrees with that of Innocent I. 
 in presupposing that the sick man anointed himself. 
 
 In the Eastern Church, the early reference to the 
 text relates (as we have seen) to "the power of the 
 keys;" in Origen and St. Chrysostom no mention of, 
 or allusion being made to the sick, much less to any 
 anointing of them. The passage of Victor, of Antioch, 
 was made to bear upon it, only through an inaccurate 
 Latin translation. Victor himself, while explaining the 
 meaning of St. Mark 1 , adduces the passage of St. James 
 
 i In App. 8. Aug., t. v. Serm. 265, olim. 8. Aug. de Temp., 
 Serm. 215. 
 
 r On St. Mark vi. 13, Greek Catena, in S. Marc., p. 125, ed. Possini, 
 Rom. 1673, p. 324, ed. Cram., Oxon. The whole passage is : " Things 
 like this, Luke, too, sets forth; but the 'anointed with oil' [Peltanus 
 glosses ' de mystica unctione et olei usu,'] Mark alone said , to whom 
 James, too, said the like in the Catholic [Epistle] : 'Is any sick among 
 you, let him call to him the presbyters of the Church, and let them 
 pray over him; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Li.rd 
 shall raise him up.' The oil then applied signified both the mercy from 
 God, and the cure of the disease, and the enlightening of the heart.
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 4G9 
 
 as akin to it, but speaks of the anointing and the 
 prayer accompanying it, as a thing of the past, so that 
 the natural inference would rather be, that it was not 
 used in Antioch in his time. He ascribes emphatically 
 the whole effect to the prayer. St. Cj T ril, of Alex- 
 andria, also quotes the text barely, in the course of an 
 abstract argument about heathen incantations s . If 
 people thought that the titles of God would dispel 
 their diseases, he bids them, praying for themselves, 
 utter the words. " Thou," he says, " wilt do better than 
 they [the evil spirits], offering glory to God and not to 
 the foul spirits. I will mention the Divinely-inspired 
 Scripture too, which saith, ' Is any sick among you 
 let him call/ " &c. 
 
 The meagreness of tradition is, however, replaced in 
 some measure by the agreement of the Greeks, the 
 Armenians, the Nestorians, and all the Orientals, with 
 the Latins on this subject ; so that one cannot doubt 
 that a sacramental use of anointing the sick has been 
 from the beginning. 
 
 Our Abp. Theodore, A.D. 680, contrasts the customs 
 of the Greeks and Latins, in that " according to the 
 
 For it is manifest to every one, that the prayer effected the whole, but 
 the oil, as I deem, was the symbol of these things." [Pelt, para- 
 phrased, " But it may be said that prayer effected all these things, 
 but that the oil is only an outward symbol of all those things which 
 take place."^ 
 
 8 De Adorat., L vi. t. i. p. 211, Aub. Palladius, the other speaker 
 in St. Cyril's Dialogue, being satisfied on this subject of augury, St. 
 Cyril goes on to speak of false-s*' earing. Anastasius Sinaita, qu. 23, 
 on the power of evil spirits to produce miraculous effects, extracts 
 this with other passages.
 
 470 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 Greeks a Presbyter may make the Chrism for the 
 sick, if need be ; according to the Romans, it is not 
 allowed, save to the Bishop only V Ecgbert, Abp. of 
 York, A.D. 732, in his extract de jure sacerdotali, has 
 the rule, "That according to the enactment of the 
 holy fathers, if any is sick, he be diligently anointed 
 with sanctified oil together with prayers u ." Among the 
 canons enacted under King Edgar, it is enjoined, that 
 " every Priest give unction to the sick, if they desire 
 it" and "have both baptismal oil and unction for 
 the sick x ," and an enactment occurs, as to his re- 
 port of himself, " when he fetches Chrism," i.e. from 
 the Episcopal city. The unction of the sick " if the 
 sick layman desire it," is enjoined in the canons of 
 .^Elfric y ; and a separate portion of the consecrated 
 Chrism is directed to be kept for that use z . It ap- 
 pears from the ritual, alike of the Western a and 
 
 * Cap. Theod. in Thorpe, Ang.-Sax. Laws, ii. 63. 
 " Excerpt. Ecgb., n. 21. Ibid., ii. 100. 
 
 * Can. 65, 66, 67. Ibid., ii. 259. 7 Can. 47. Ibid., 385. 
 
 * JElfr., Up., Ibid., 391. 
 
 * " O Lord God, Who hast said by Thy Apostle James, ' Is any sick 
 among you ? let him call the presbyters of the Church, and let them 
 pray over him in the Name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall 
 save the sick, and the Lord shall alleviate him ; and if he be in sins, 
 they shall be remitted to him ;' Cure, we beseech Thee, our Redeemer, 
 by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the languors of this sick person, and 
 heal his wounds, and forgive his sins, nnd expel from him all dolours of 
 mind and body, and mercifully restore full health within and without, 
 that, restored by the help of Thy mercy, he may be repaired for his 
 former duties ; who," &c. " H > y Lord, Almightv Father, Everlasting 
 God, Who, pouring the grace of Thy blessing into sick bodies, with 
 manifold love guard* st Thy creature, be pre.-ent, of Thy goodness, at the
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 471 
 
 Eastern b Church, that restoration to bodily health 
 was, and is still, according to the belief of the Church, 
 a primary object of the anointing. Mabillon traces 
 the change to the popular superstition about the be- 
 ginning of the thirteenth century. 
 
 " Of old," he says, " it was used before the via- 
 ticum," [and probably some time before, whence it 
 would follow, that, since it was used once only in the 
 same illness, it would not be used at the last] . Hence 
 he explains the fact, that there is no mention of unc- 
 tion in the life of St. Gertrude (died A.D. 678), of St. 
 Eustasius (died about A.D. 625), of St. Richarius (died 
 about 645), although there is mention of their receiving 
 the viaticum. The anointing with, the holy oil before 
 the viaticum is mentioned in Sugerius' life of Louis 
 VI., as to his Queen St. Chrotildis, and in the contem- 
 porary but anonymous life of St. Hernigundis (died 
 about A.D. 660). 
 
 Mabillon says, moreover, that it came to be called 
 
 / 
 
 "extreme unction" [probably, originally, the last of the 
 
 Invocation of Thy Name, and, freeing Thy servant from sickness and 
 granting him health, raise him up with Thy right hand, strengthen 
 him with might, protect him with power, and, with the longed-for 
 prosperity, restore him to Thy Holy Church, through," &c. Ritual* 
 Rom. Paul V. jussu, edit. Antw. 1669. 
 
 b " Holy Father, healer of souls and bodies, Who didst send Thine 
 Only-Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, healing every disease and 
 redeeming from death, heal this Thy servant also of the sickness of 
 soul and body which encompasses him, and quicken him through the 
 grace of Thy Christ ; for Thou art the Fountain of healings, O Christ 
 our God, and to Thee we send up the glory, to the Father, and the Son, 
 and the Holy Spirit." Euchologion, p. 417. Paris, 1647. 
 
 e Prcef. ad torn. i. Actt. S. Ordinis Benedict.
 
 472 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 unctions used in the rites of the Church during the 
 Christian's life], " not before the close of the 12th cen- 
 tury." For that " the name ' extreme unction ' does not 
 occur in the Sacramentaries published by Menard ; nor 
 in Uldaric, in the Consuetudines Cluniacenses ; nor in 
 Lanfranc, Anselm, Peter Damiani, Peter de Honestis, 
 in the regula Clericorum; nor in St. Bernard or P. 
 Lombard." Yet that " it was called 'extreme unction/ 
 before it was placed after the "viaticum, as appears from 
 the contemporary life of William, Abp. of Bourges, 
 died A.D. 1209, in Bollandus, Jan. 10." " This custom," 
 he says, " continues intact till now only among the 
 Cistercian monks, and perhaps certain Churches." 
 
 The first appearance of the superstition cited by 
 Mabillon, occurs in Constitutions of Richard, Bishop of 
 Salisbury, about A.D. 1227 : " Let the Priest, more- 
 over, say and announce confidently, that after the use 
 of this Sacrament, it is lawful to return to the use of 
 Marriage." 
 
 It occurs, however, two centuries before in .2Elfric's 
 Pastoral Epistle, from which it appears, that some, as 
 a religious act, vowed, in case of recovery, to abstain 
 from the use of marriage ; others, who had not vowed, 
 held themselves to be so bound, looking upon it as 
 a sort of ordination. -ZElfric had to say that those who 
 had not vowed were free in these things, and that 
 unction might be repeated, if any should again fall 
 sick d . From the Canons of Citric, it appears that 
 
 d " If the sick layman desires to receive unction, let him then con- 
 fess him and forgive every grudge before the unction; and if he 
 recovers and after the unction become sick, he may, unless he have
 
 OF THE SACRAMENTS. 473 
 
 some so dreaded the anointing, that they would not 
 consent to receive it. Confession of sin to the Priest 
 was required before the unction could be used e . The 
 superstition was condemned by the sixth statute of the 
 Synod of Exeter, A.D. 1287. There it was found neces- 
 sary to enjoin, that it should be publicly declared 
 through the parochial presbyters f , that that Sacra- 
 ment, as also some others, may be repeated as often as 
 there is need. And thus, because some unskilled laity, 
 thinking unwisely concerning this Sacrament, so ab- 
 hor it, and refuse to receive it even in extremis, fool- 
 ishly thinking that after its reception, the eating of 
 flesh, walking barefoot, and even tokens of love from 
 one's lawful wife, are entirely forbidden g ; the Synod 
 speaks of it as a heresy. This enactment is itself 
 repeated almost verbatim in the Synodal Constitutions 
 
 vowed the contrary, enjoy the society of women, and flesh, if he himself 
 will. In the unction there is healing and forgiveness of sins, and it is 
 no ordination as some men imagine. And if the man he again sick, let 
 him again receive unction, when it he needful." (^Elfric. Past. Ep., 
 n. 47, 48. Thorpe, ii. 385.) 
 
 e " The priest shall have allowed oil apart for children, and apart for 
 sick men, and always anoint the sick in hed. Some sick men are 
 fearful, so that they will not consent to he anointed in their illness. 
 Now we will tell you how James, the Apostle of God, taught hereon : 
 ' If any among you he sick, let him pray with one mind and praise his 
 Lord !' ' If any one among you be sick, let him order to be fetched to 
 him the mass-priests of the Church, and let them sing over him, and 
 pray for him,' &c. Thus spake James the Apostle concerning the 
 unction for sick men ; but the sick must confess with inward groan- 
 ing to the priest, whether he has any crimes unatoned for, before he 
 anoints him, as the Apostle has before enjoined; and no man may 
 anoint him before he pray for this, and do his confession." 
 
 1 Wilkins, Cone, ii. 295. 
 
 ibid., torn. ii. p. 1.35 ; see Staluta Scotice, torn. ii. 278.
 
 474 ARTICLE XXV. 
 
 of H. Wodlake, Bishop of Winchester, about A.D. 1308 h . 
 But the popular dread of the Sacrament prevailed ; 
 and Mabillon thinks it probable, that " on account 
 of such phrenzies, the anointing of the sick began to 
 be reserved for the point of death, and that that cus- 
 tom was gradually extended to all Churches." 
 
 But abusus non tollit mum. The Church of England 
 acted more in conformity to its declared adherence to 
 antiquity, by appointing, in the first instance, a service 
 for the anointing of the sick in her first English 
 Prayer-book. This was among the losses in those 
 unhappy times just before the accession of Mary, and 
 although everything of that earlier liturgy was praised 
 by those who removed it, it has never been restored. 
 Since, however, the Visitation of the Sick is a private 
 office, and uniformity is required only in the public 
 offices, there is nothing to hinder the revival of the 
 Apostolic and Scriptural custom of anointing the sick, 
 whensoever any devout person may desire it. It is, 
 indeed, difficult to say on what principle it could be 
 refused. The rite was restored by the nonjuring 
 Bishops. Meanwhile, until it can be generally re- 
 stored, it may be observed, that it was never considered 
 necessary to salvation, as is formally laid down by 
 St. Thomas *. It was rather a privilege of the devout. 
 
 b And in the Statuta Ecclesia Scoticance, No. 62 (Robertson, Sta- 
 1uta, vol. ii. p. 34), and No. 119 (Rob., ii. 58), where we find the 
 remarkable expression, "Proponat autem sacerdos nihil infirmo quod 
 ante ajgritudinem fuerat licitum post convalentiaoi per extreinam uncti- 
 ouem reddi illicitum." ' iv. dist. 23, q. i. art. \,fin.
 
 ARTICLE XXVI. 
 DE vi INSTITUTIONUM DIVINARUM, QUOD EAM NON 
 
 TOLLAT MALITIA MlNlSTRORUM. 
 
 in Ecclesia visibili bonis mail semper sunt ad- 
 mixti, atque interdum ministerio verbi et Sacramentorum 
 administrationi prcesint, tamen cum non suo, sed Christi 
 nomine agant, ejusque mandato et authoritate ministrent, 
 illorum ministerio uti licet, cum in verbo Dei audiendo, 
 turn in Sacramentis percipiendis. Neque per illorum 
 malitiam, effectus institutorum Christi tollitur, aid gra- 
 tia donorum Dei minuitur, quoad eos qui fide et rite 
 sibi oblata percipiunt, qua propter institutionem Christi 
 et promissionem efficacia sunt, licet per malos adminis- 
 trentur. 
 
 Ad Ecclesice tamen disciplinam pertinet, ut in malos minis- 
 tros inquiratur, accusenturque ab his, qui eorum flagitia 
 noverint, atque tandem justo convicti judicio, deponantur. 
 
 " Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not 
 the effect of the Sacraments. 
 
 " ALTHOUGH in the visible Church the evil be ever 
 mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have 
 chief authority in the ministration of the Word and 
 Sacraments ; yet, forasmuch as they do not the same 
 in their own name, but in Christ's, and do minister 
 by His commission and authority, we may use their 
 ministry, both in hearing the Word of God, and in 
 the receiving of the Sacraments. Neither is the effect 
 of Christ's ordinance taken away by their wickedness, 
 nor the grace of God's gifts diminished from such
 
 476 ATITICLE XXVI. 
 
 as by faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments 
 ministered unto them, which be effectual, because of 
 Christ's institution and promise, although they be 
 ministered by evil men. 
 
 " Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the discipline of 
 the Church, that inquiry be made of evil ministers 
 and that they be accused by those that have know- 
 ledge of their offences; and finally, being found guilty 
 by just judgment, be deposed." 
 
 SOME special prerogatives and responsibilities of the 
 Christian ministry have with more or less logical con- 
 sistency been acknowledged by every sect and Church. 
 Even those who have taught that the ministerial power 
 is a mere delegation of power from the congregation, 
 have yet recognised a certain authority, and demanded 
 a certain morality as a consequence thereof. What is 
 venial in the ordinary member is not so in the case 
 of the minister. A higher standard is demanded of 
 those Vvhose position is that of the chosen and selected 
 teachers of the congregation. 
 
 But if this be so in the case of those sects who claim 
 no sacramental authority for their ministers, how much 
 more is it so with those who recognise the divine 
 hierarchy ; who hold that the Christian priesthood 
 is a delegation from the priesthood of Jesus Christ, 
 according to the words, " As My Father sent Me, so 
 send I you ;" who recognise in the sacerdotal power 
 a transmission from above, not a representation from 
 beneath, according to the words, " Obey them that are
 
 OF THE UNWORTH1NESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 477 
 
 set over you in the Lord/' and who regard the sacred 
 office as the medium of certain mysterious blessings, 
 the holders of that office being " stewards of the mys- 
 teries of God." 
 
 Where this belief prevails, not only is a higher stand- 
 ard demanded of the officers of religion, but anything 
 like sin or immorality is regarded with the greatest 
 abhorrence. That any so invested with the gifts of 
 ordination should partake in the vices or worldlinesses 
 of those around them, is offensive in the highest degree 
 to Christian instincts. A specially holy life is the cor- 
 relative of specially holy gifts, and therefore, like " the 
 hedge of the law" among the Jews, certain amusements 
 and occupations, not in themselves wrong, are pro- 
 scribed by the spiritual sense of the Church, and termed 
 unclerical, meaning thereby that they are unworthy of 
 the thoughts of the clerus, or Lord's heritage. 
 
 Moreover the measure of proportion indicated in the 
 old law, where it is said, " as with the priest so with the 
 people," is observable under the new law. The vices 
 and virtues of the clergy will form a pretty accurate 
 gauge of the religious condition of a Church, and while 
 every reformation and revival has been attended or 
 preceded by increasing strictness on the part of the 
 clergy, (as in the great Cistercian movement in the 
 twelfth century,) all periods of religious decay have 
 been caused or accompanied by a corresponding degra- 
 dation of the character of the clergy. The state of 
 things indicated by the manners pourtrayed in Chau- 
 cer's " Canterbury Tales," is sufficient proof of this.
 
 478 ARTICLE XXVI. 
 
 Or take the scornful picture given by Dante a : 
 
 " Venne Cephas : e venne el gran vasello 
 De lo Spirito Santo magri e scalzi 
 Prendendo '1 cibo di qualunque hostello 
 
 Or voglion quinci e quindi chi rincalzi 
 Le moderni Pastori, e che li meni 
 Tanto son gravi : e chi dirietro gli alzi. 
 
 Cuopron de' manti loro i palafreni, 
 Si che due hestie van sott' una pelle : 
 Patienza che tanto sostieni." 
 
 But while the sensitiveness of the conscience of the 
 Church touching the virtues of the clergy must be re- 
 cognised and admired, the student of history cannot 
 fail to notice from the earliest period a tendency to 
 forget the institution in the individual, and to ignore 
 the organic commission in the qualities of the person 
 commissioned. Nothing but a well-grounded faith 
 in the hierarchical structure of the Church will pre- 
 vent men falling into this extreme, and as a matter 
 of fact, from very ancient times there have been sects 
 who made the validity of the Sacraments depend on 
 the worthiness of him who administered them, and it 
 is asrainst these that the Article is directed. 
 
 o 
 
 Now the very nature of a Sacrament implies that it 
 not only signifies grace given, but actually bestows it, 
 in virtue of the institution of Christ. The Thomists 
 held that the Sacraments worked as physical causes, the 
 Scotists as moral causes of grace, but both maintained 
 that they operated not per accidcns but per se ; that is, 
 
 Paradiso, xxi. 119.
 
 OF THE UNWORTHINESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 479 
 
 in conformity with their divine purpose and by the 
 virtue attached to them by our Lord, they always ob- 
 tain their end, and confer their peculiar grace in all 
 cases universally, where man imposes no obstacle. But 
 a further question arose : could that obstacle be found 
 in the moral state of the administrator ? It was granted 
 that certain moral conditions in the case of the reci- 
 pient could mar the eifect of the Sacrament, but what 
 about him who ministered it ? The Church has always 
 held that his unworthiness could put no obstacle to 
 grace, nor foul the source whence flowed the streams of 
 Christ's benediction. " He who receiveth is not injured, 
 even if he who bestows should seem unworthy ; nor are 
 the unspotted mysteries denied, should the priest ex- 
 ceed all men in wickedness, (vrapeXa'cretey 15 )." St. Au- 
 gustine points out that if this were not so, man would 
 lose all his motives for confidence in God, and God 
 would cease to be his only hope c . St. Optatus shews 
 that they who baptize are the labourers, not the 
 householder ; and that the Sacraments are holy per se ; 
 and that it is to shut God out of His gifts to main- 
 tain otherwise d . 
 
 Yet from an early period this truth was resisted, 
 1. by the Novatians, who rejected the Baptism of 
 the Church e , ascribing, an ancient writer says f , the 
 
 b S. Isid., 1. iii. Ep. cccxl. : see also Greg. Naz., Orat. 40; Chrys., in 
 Matth. Horn. 1. n. 3. c Cont. Lit. Petil., i. 4. n. 5, and 
 
 i. 3. n. 4 ; 6. n. 7. d De Schism. Don., v. 4. 
 
 * St. Cypr., Up. Ixxiii. n. 2. p. 243, Oxf. Tr. 
 
 ' Quastt. V. et N. T., ap. q. 102, in St. Aug., Opp. t. iii. App., 
 p. 98, Ben.
 
 480 ARTICLE XXVI. 
 
 efficacy of the Sacraments to the character of him 
 who administered them ; 2. by the Donatists, who, re- 
 garding the piety of the administrator as the condition 
 of the efficacy of the Sacraments, refused to recognise 
 the ordination of Csecilian by Felix of Aphthonga, 
 whom the Donatists accused falsely of having been 
 a traditor, that is, having in the persecution deli- 
 vered up the sacred vessels and books, under threat 
 of death . 
 
 At the great revival of mental thought in the 
 middle ages, this notion, probably caused by the ex- 
 ceeding corruption in the lives of the ecclesiastics, was 
 again and again produced. Arnold of Brescia, and 
 his adherents, taught it. The Vaudois maintained 
 that priests in mortal sin could not consecrate the 
 Eucharist, and that the transubstantiation took place 
 not in the hand of the unworthy celebrator, but in the 
 mouth of the worthy communicant ; that a bad priest 
 could not absolve ; that it was better to confess to a pious 
 laic than to a wicked clergyman. Wicliffe, and Huss, 
 though he is not always consistent, pretended that 
 a priest in mortal sin is thereby degraded from his 
 priesthood, and from his power to operate Sacra- 
 ments. It will be seen that as the inward state of 
 the clergy is known to God alone, the validity of 
 
 f It appeared subsequently, from the curious Acts of the Synod of 
 Cirta (in St. Aug. c. Crescon., iii. 27, 28), that those who originated the 
 Donatist schism by consecrating Majorian in the place of Csecilian, had 
 themselves been "traditores," and had at that S}'nod accorded each 
 other a mutual amnesty.
 
 OF THE UN WORTHINESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 481 
 
 their acts on this theory becomes radically doubtful 
 and uncertain 11 . 
 
 This led on to another error at the time of the Re- 
 formation. The efficacy of the Sacraments was held 
 no longer to depend on the interior disposition of the 
 minister. Not the beneficial effect only, but the reality 
 also of the Sacrament was held to depend on the in- 
 terior disposition, the faith of him to whom the Sacra- 
 ment was administered *. 
 
 Our Article condemns both these notions. It lays 
 down that the Sacraments have an objective value in 
 virtue of their institution. Sacraments "be effectual 
 because of Christ's institution and promise ;" there- 
 fore they do not depend on the state of the recipients. 
 It also lays down that the clergy, who have chief 
 authority in the ministration of Word and Sacra- 
 ments, do not minister in their own name, but in 
 Christ's ; therefore neither do they depend on the 
 state of the celebrant. The Article, however, thinks 
 it right to bring prominently forward the necessity 
 of men being in a fit state for the beneficial par- 
 taking of these ordinances, and therefore dwells on 
 the fact that the grace of God's gifts in the case of 
 wicked clergy is not diminished from such as " by 
 faith and rightly" receive them. 
 
 h Vide Gerson, Besponsio ad Error, de orat. privat.jidelivm, torn. ii. 
 p. 654; Du Pin, D'Argentie, Collect. Judiciorum de nov. err., torn. i. 
 p. 2 ; p. 168. 
 
 1 Luther, Capt. Eab., torn. ii. ed. Gen. p. 286 ; Conf. Aug. xiii. Apol. 
 art. iii. n. 155. 
 
 T i
 
 482 ARTICLE XXVI. 
 
 " Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the discipline of the 
 Church that inquiry be made of evil ministers." That 
 the vices of the clergy helped to produce the Reforma- 
 tion is a fact allowed on all hands. In the Provincial 
 Council held in 1549 at Edinburgh, it is declared 
 "that the two main roots and causes of the evils 
 which have occasioned the disturbances, and the here- 
 sies which the Synod met to check, are the corruption 
 of manners and profane indecency of life of the clergy 
 on the one hand, and the gross ignorance of good let- 
 ters and all arts on the other k ." The same convention 
 exhorts the prelates and beneficed clergy in the bowels 
 of Jesus Christ and for zeal of piety, in order to meet 
 heresy, to amend their ways, "lest they should pro- 
 ceed to correct the morals of others, themselves en- 
 tangled in notorious crimes, to the great scandal of 
 the people, and increase of heresy 1 ." The pictures 
 of the habits of the clergy given by these canons is 
 terrible. To forbid the unblest offspring of unhallowed 
 alliances to remain in the parsonages, to condemn im- 
 plication in secular business, to repress sumptuousness 
 of apparel, to enforce some sustentation for poor people 
 out of their benefices, to order decency in their fami- 
 lies, which families were most ill-ordered, to enforce 
 preaching at least four times a-year, to regulate the 
 schools and the quality of those ordained and presented 
 to benefices, to repress pluralities, were among some 
 of the efforts made to turn the tide of the Reforma- 
 tion in Scotland ; but it was too late. The very effort 
 
 k Cone. Prov. Eccl. Scot., ii. p. 81, ed. Robertson. l Ibid., p. 118-
 
 OF THE UNWORTHTNESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 483 
 
 to restore discipline drove over some of the younger 
 abbots and beneficiaries to the cause of the Reformed 
 to escape Reformation. Perhaps sin and fear had 
 paralysed the energies of those who made the laws. 
 Of the six bishops present at the Synod of 1549, three 
 at least were stained with the worst crimes condemned ; 
 the salt had lost its savour, and the violence of the 
 subsequent changes becomes the measure of the cor- 
 ruption which occasioned them. 
 
 In England it was not so bad, though even here 
 there was much to amend. The succession of earnest 
 prelates never wholly died out, even to the last. Wit- 
 ness the praise of Warham by Erasmus, and Fuller's 
 less generous testimony to the eminent merits of Fisher. 
 
 That a false opinion, that had created the great 
 schism, of the Donatists in Africa, should be con- 
 demned, is not surprising. No body such as the Eng- 
 lish Church could continue to maintain an organic 
 existence, if the efficacy of its sacramental rites de- 
 pended upon the inward condition of its ministers. 
 But the condemnation is remarkable when we remem- 
 ber that the opinion here censured was the centre-point 
 of the reforming theories both of Wicliff and of Huss. 
 According to these, the wicked or unworthy priest was 
 no priest. An immoral Pope was no true successor of 
 Peter, or Vicar of Jesus Christ. The great popularity 
 of the name of Wicliff, as the great forerunner of the 
 English Reformation, has blinded men to the real cha- 
 racter of the communistic and anti-social theories in 
 State craft which he advocated ; and it is a remark- 

 
 484 ARTICLE XXVI. 
 
 able thing that one of the Articles of the Reformed 
 Church of England should in such trenchant terms 
 deny his theory of the priesthood. The solution of 
 the difficulty seems to be that although Wicliff had 
 told profoundly on the conscience of England, (we 
 find this in the conduct of Robert Hallam, Bishop 
 of Salisbury, at the Council of Constance, who not 
 only inveighed against the vices of Pope John XXIII., 
 but objected to the burning of Huss,) nevertheless 
 as a party the Lollards were never popular in Eng- 
 land, (Shakspeare is said to have called Falstaff, Sir 
 John Oldcastle, in his first draft of Henry IV.,) and 
 therefore it is doubtful whether these earlier Re- 
 formers are the true fathers of the later ones. Pro- 
 bably, so far as the destructive side was concerned, 
 the earlier denunciations of the scandals did much to 
 break down the faith of the people in the old objects 
 of reverence, either persons or things, but they did 
 not go to construct anything of the late Reformation. 
 On the contrary, the distinctive tenets were, as in the 
 case of the present Article, condemned by the Church, 
 and the notions found a more congenial home in some 
 of the wild sectaries who gave so much trouble in the 
 later days of Elizabeth's reign.
 
 ARTICLE XXVII. 
 DE BAPTISMO. 
 
 BAPTISMUS non est tantum professionis signum, ac dis- 
 criminis nota, qua Christiani a non Christianis discer- 
 nantur, sed etiam est signum regenerationis, per quod 
 tanquam per instrumentum, recte baptismum suscipientes 
 Eccksice insenmtur, promissiones de remissione pecca- 
 torum, atque adoptione nostra in filios Dei per Spiritum 
 Sanctum visibiliter obsignantur, fides confirmatur, et n 
 divince invocationis gratia augetur. 
 
 Baptismus parvulorum omnino in Ecclesia retinendus est, 
 ut qui cum Christi institutione optime congruat. 
 
 " Of Baptism. 
 
 " BAPTISM is not only a sign of profession, and mark 
 of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned 
 from others that be not christened ; but it is also 
 a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by 
 an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are 
 grafted into the Church; the promises of forgiveness 
 of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by 
 the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; faith 
 is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer 
 unto God. The baptism of young children is in any 
 wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable 
 with the institution of Christ."
 
 48G ARTICLE XXVII. 
 
 To be severed from the mass of mankind, to be dis- 
 tinguished as the little flock to whom it has pleased 
 the Father to give the kingdom, is no small privilege, 
 yet this is the first and lowest conception of the Sacra- 
 ment of Baptism. It is a mark of difference " whereby 
 Christian men are discerned from others that be not 
 christened" (Lat. a non Christianis). But it is something 
 infinitely higher than this, and the gifts therein be- 
 stowed are classed by the Article under the following 
 four heads. 
 
 First, " it is a sign of regeneration or new birth, 
 whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive Bap- 
 tism rightly are grafted into the Church." 
 
 Here observe, first of all, that the word " sign" is 
 the technical word for the outward part of any Sacra- 
 ment, and therefore, it means that the aspersion of the 
 neophyte with water, or his immersion therein, ac- 
 companied by a definite form of words, is the outward 
 act which conveys regeneration or new birth ; such Sa- 
 crament acting instrumentally (per instntmentuni), that 
 is, as the instrument ordained by Almighty God, the 
 result of which is, by a strict law of cause and effect, 
 that the person receiving Baptism rightly is grafted 
 into the Church. Of this engrafting St. Chrysostom 
 says a : " Blessed be God, Who alone with wonders 
 made all things, and changeth all. Behold they en- 
 joy the calm of freedom who a little before were held 
 captives; they are denizens of the Church who were 
 
 m Oral, ad neophytos apud Augustinum contra Julianutn, lib. i. 
 paragraph 21.
 
 OF BAPTISM. 487 
 
 wandering in error ; and they have the lot of righteous- 
 ness who were in the confusion of sin. For they are 
 not only free, but holy ; not holy only, but righteous ; 
 not righteous only, but sons ; not sons only, but heirs ; 
 not heirs only, but brethren of Christ ; not brethren 
 of Christ only, but co-heirs ; not co-heirs only, but 
 members ; not members only, but a temple ; not a 
 temple only, but instruments of the Spirit. See how 
 many are the free gifts of Baptism : and whereas some 
 think that the heavenly grace consists only in the 
 remission of sin, lo ! we have accounted ten glories 
 thereof. Wherefore we baptize infants, although they 
 have no sins, that holiness, righteousness, adoption, in- 
 heritance, brotherhood with Christ, may be added to 
 them ; that they may become His members." 
 
 Secondly, " The promises of forgiveness of sin, and 
 of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy 
 Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed," (msibiliter obsig- 
 nantu)'}. Again, says St. Chrysostom : "The being 
 sealed is a mark of great Providence ; that we are not 
 set apart only, not taken by lot only, but sealed. For 
 as one would make manifest those who fell to him, so 
 also God set us apart that we should believe, He has 
 sealed us that we should inherit the things to come. 
 Again, through the things that are passed, He esta- 
 blisheth those to come. For if it is He Who establisheth 
 us to Christ, (that is, Who suffereth us not to be broken 
 from the faith toward Christ) ; and He also Who 
 anointed us, and gave the Spirit in our hearts, how 
 shall He not give us the things to come ? For, if He
 
 488 ARTICLE XXVII. 
 
 gave the beginnings, and the foundations, and the 
 root, and the fountain, that is, the true knowledge 
 of Himself, the participation of the Spirit, how shall 
 He not give the result thereof?" 
 
 The Liturgies of the East and West agree in calling 
 Baptism a seal, an impress, a guardian mark to those 
 baptized. The baptized themselves are, in the language 
 of the Revelations, called " the sealed " and while they 
 use the word " seal" chiefly of the great sacramental 
 act of Baptism itself, they regard that great mystery 
 as casting a portion of its radiance before and behind, 
 and giving efficacy to other acts connected with it. 
 The Church regards our Lord as favourably allowing 
 the charitable work of bringing new members to Him, 
 and so believing that He anticipated a portion of His 
 grace to preserve them during the interval until they 
 are fully prepared for Baptism, they ventured to affix 
 His seal on catechumens ; or, after Baptism, they again 
 visibly and formally affixed it, thereby representing to 
 the mind what has first been worked invisibly by the 
 Holy Spirit. As this was done in the form of the 
 Saviour's cross, and the term "seal" applied to that 
 act of impressing the cross, it is probable that the 
 word "sealing" was connected with a corresponding 
 outward act, such as the sealing of the forehead ac- 
 tually spoken of by St. John ; so that, we may infer 
 that the use of the cross in Baptism was coeval with 
 Christian Baptism itself, which imparts to us the saving 
 virtue of the Passion of Christ b . 
 
 b cf. Dr. Pusey's Tract on Baptism, p. 140.
 
 OF BAPTISM. 489 
 
 Thirdly, " Faith is confirmed." In the ancient rituals, 
 at the beginning of the service, the god-parents were 
 asked in the name of the child to be baptized, " What 
 seekest thou of the Church ?" and the answer is, 
 "Faith." This teaches us that, whereas God's first or 
 prevenient grace brings men to Faith and Baptism, 
 and a certain pre-disposition of faith along with re- 
 pentance is bestowed in that holy ordinance, yet, as 
 a consequence of our incorporation in Christ, fuller 
 measures of assisting grace are bestowed upon the 
 recipient, and that faith, which in its inchoate state 
 obtained the grace of Baptism, is by that same Bap- 
 tism increased and confirmed according to the blessed 
 promise of God, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will 
 fill it." 
 
 Fourthly, " Grace is increased by virtue of the invo- 
 cation of the divine name" (vi divinee invocations), for 
 thus the Latin version of the Article teaches us to 
 understand what in this connection would be unin- 
 telligible, viz. the expression in the English Article, that 
 " grace is increased by virtue of prayer to God." This 
 in its literal sense would be a truism, but, rightly in- 
 terpreted, it asserts the great religious truth that Bap- 
 tism not only confers but increases grace, bestows more 
 abundantly the help and assistance of God according 
 to the enlarged capacities of the new man in Christ, 
 makes the soul more and more radiant and beautiful 
 in the eyes of God. 
 
 The question of infant Baptism, while not without 
 its authority, according to the terms of the Article, in
 
 490 ARTICLE XXVII. 
 
 the inspired Word of God, rests mainly upon that of 
 the Church. Perhaps nothing tends to exhibit in so 
 striking a manner the objective nature of the Sacra- 
 ments of the new law, than the practice of conferring 
 them upon those who are incapable of reason, in the 
 belief that from such a ceremony any possible good 
 result shall follow. This difficulty has not only per- 
 plexed many good Christians, but forms the ground 
 of defence of the advocates of adult baptism. 
 
 The doctrine can in no way be explained away, or 
 its edge blunted. True, that beyond certain indica- 
 tions of the existence of baptismal grace and growth 
 herein exhibited in the lives of some favoured ser- 
 vants of God, we have ordinarily no direct evidence of 
 the new principle of spiritual life therein imparted. 
 But faith needs not external tokens of what God has 
 promised. We have nothing to do but to submit 
 our reason to what the Church has taught us, firmly 
 convinced that since our Blessed Lord suffered the little 
 children to come unto Him, and since St. Paul pro- 
 nounced the children of his converts to be holy, we 
 may be sure that the bounty and goodness of God 
 works invisibly in His elect, anticipates by grace the 
 first risings of the lower motions of our nature, deter- 
 mines the soul to good from earliest days, tends it 
 from youth up with fostering hand, arms it in the 
 beginning for the battle of life, and prevents it in all 
 its doings with His most gracious favour. 
 
 The Article expresses itself distinctly but cautiously 
 on the subject of infant Baptism. It asserts that " it
 
 OF BAPTISM. 491 
 
 is in any wise to be retained," and grounds that re- 
 tention on the dogmatic fact, that it is most congruous 
 with the institution of Christ, (cum institutione Christ i 
 optime conyruat,} i.e. just what we should expect from 
 that law of benediction, supernatural power, and un- 
 merited grace, which the Gospel emphatically exhibits. 
 
 And this very much represents what Holy Scripture 
 indicates on the subject. While there is no direct 
 command for the practice, all analogies and all in- 
 ferences are in its favour. The practice of infant 
 circumcision, and of the infant baptism of proselytes 
 among the Jews; the universality of the injunction 
 "to teach all the nations, baptizing them ;" the ab- 
 soluteness of what our Lord said to Nicodemus d , 
 coupled with the " Suffer the little children to come 
 unto Me e ; " the assertion that the children of Chris- 
 tians are " holy f ," which implies a cleansing from 
 original sin ; the practice of the Baptism of house- 
 holds %, all are in favour of the practice, which actually 
 from St. Justin h , Tertullian ', Origen k , and others, we 
 find to have obtained, although in later times the 
 practice of deferring Baptism became common, out 
 of fear of forfeiting the fulness of its gift by grave 
 subsequent sin l . 
 
 The reader will remember what has been said under 
 Article XVI. as to the effect of the Sacrament of Bap- 
 
 c St. Matt, xxviii. 19. d St. John iii. 5. e St. Mark x. 14. 
 
 f 1 Cor. vii. 14. e Acts xvi. 15, 33 ; 1 Cor. i. 16. 
 
 h ApoL, i. 15, p. 11, Oxf. Tr. ! De Bapt., c. 18. 
 
 k In Luc., Horn. xiv. J See St. Aug. Conf., i. n. 17, 18, 
 pp. 10, 11, Oxf. Tr.
 
 ARTICLE XXVII. 
 
 tism on sin m . It is in amplification of what was there 
 stated that we assert the general effects of Baptism to 
 be as follows : 
 
 I. According to the words of Ezeldel n : " Then will 
 I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be 
 clean : from all j^our filthiness, and from all your idols 
 will I cleanse you;" and those of the Apostle: "So 
 many of us as have been baptized into Jesus Christ 
 were baptized into His death ? Therefore we are 
 buried with Him by Baptism into death : that like as 
 Christ was raised up from, the dead by the glory of 
 the Father, even so we also should walk in newness 
 of life. For if we have been planted together in the 
 likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness 
 of His resurrection : knowing this, that our old man 
 is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be 
 destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
 For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we 
 be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live 
 with Him : knowing that Christ being raised from 
 the dead dieth no more ; death hath no more domi- 
 nion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto 
 sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. 
 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed 
 unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord " since all sin pertains to the oldness of life 
 to which a man by his Baptism dies, and he thereby 
 begins to live in newness of life, it follows that all sin 
 is taken away by Baptism. 
 
 p. 235. n ch. xxxvi. 28. Rom. vi. 311.
 
 OF BAPTISM. 493 
 
 II. As by Baptism a man is incorporated into the 
 Death and Passion of Christ, (for if " we be dead with 
 Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him p ,") 
 so the Passion of Christ becomes the remedy of each 
 man just as if he had suffered in deed ; but the Passion 
 of Christ is a sufficient satisfaction for all the sins of 
 mankind, and therefore he who is baptized is freed 
 from the reatus, the liability to all the punishment due 
 to his sins, as if he had fully satisfied for them. . This 
 happens by his being made a member of that Body, of 
 which He Who suffered and satisfied is the Head. 
 
 III. Baptism takes away the penalties of this pre- 
 sent life, but not in this present life ; only in the re- 
 surrection of the just, when this mortal shall have 
 put on immortality, shall these be removed. And this 
 is as it should be, for two reasons. 
 
 1. It is meet that the incorporate members of the 
 one Body should, like the Head, suffer and die, bear 
 the cross, and win the crown. 
 
 2. Men must not come to Baptism to avoid the 
 sufferings of this present life, but to gain the glories 
 of the next. 
 
 IV. By Baptism graces and virtues are conferred 
 upon men ; for, being thereby incorporated into and 
 made members of that Body, of which Christ is the 
 Head, from that Head graces and the plenitude of 
 virtues are derived unto all. " Of His fulness have 
 all we received q ." 
 
 V. By Baptism each one is born again into the spi- 
 
 P Rom. vi. 8. i St. John i. 16.
 
 494 ARTICLE XXVII. 
 
 ritual life, which is by the faith of Christ, according 
 to the Apostle, "The life which I now live in the 
 flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God r ." But 
 life can only exist in members united to their head, 
 from which they receive sense and motion; so from 
 the spiritual Head, Christ, are derived the spiritual 
 sense, which is the knowledge of truth ; and the spiri- 
 tual motion, which is the instinct of grace. 
 
 VI. This of course opens up the question of the 
 theological reasons for infant Baptism, for how can 
 the knowledge of the truth and the instinct of grace 
 be in those who have no will or reason ? To this 
 it is answered, that as the promises attached to Bap- 
 tism by Christianity belong to all the members of 
 Christ, they attach to children with all their con- 
 comitants ; but grace and the infused virtues are 
 the concomitants of that newness of life which is the 
 special grace of Baptism, therefore children obtain 
 them, in habit but not in act; of which, of course, 
 they are incapable ; just as one asleep may have the 
 habit of virtue, but while sleeping he is precluded 
 from exercising it. St. Augustine s beautifully illus- 
 trates the theory of sponsorship : " Mother Church, 
 in dealing with her babes, uses for them others' feet 
 
 O * 
 
 that they may come, others' hearts that they may be- 
 lieve, others' tongues that they may confess." So that 
 they believe, not by their own act, but by the faith of 
 the Church communicated to them. 
 
 * Gal. ii. 20. Serin, x., de Verb. Ap., 176, t. v. 840, Ben.
 
 OF BAPTISM. 495 
 
 VII. The next grace of Baptism is the opening 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was signified mi- 
 raculously * at the Baptism of our Saviour. To open 
 the door is to remove the impediment which prevents 
 entrance ; but that impediment is the culpa and reatus 
 pcence, both of which are removed by Baptism, in that 
 it incorporates men into the Passion of Christ. 
 
 VIII. The effects of Baptism are, as to its essence, 
 the same in all, but not, of necessity, its accidental 
 effects. Essentially, it was ordained to regenerate all 
 men into the spiritual life ; but accidentally, in the 
 case of adults, coming with more or less devotion, they 
 may receive more or less of the grace of newness : also 
 the divine virtue, in the extinction of the law of sin 
 in the members, may in some cases miraculously work 
 to its entire destruction, according to a special ordina- 
 tion of divine Providence u . 
 
 IX. A serious question arises, how far does a feigned 
 Baptism hinder its effect. It is almost too horrible to 
 suppose such a thing, but a fiction may arise, either 
 from unbelief, or from contempt of the Sacrament, or 
 from a celebration of the ordinance in such a way as 
 would vitiate the Sacrament, or from an indevout ac- 
 cess to it. The answer is, that in all cases Character, 
 the invisible seal upon the soul, is conferred ; but the 
 other effects are for the' time suspended, and emerge 
 when the fiction is destroyed by penitence x . 
 
 1 St. Luke iii. 22. u St. Aug., de Peccat. Merit, et Remiss., c. 89. 
 
 * St. Thos. 3 a qu. 69, 110. 
 
 Baptism holds the first place among the Sacraments, because it is
 
 496 ARTICLE XXVII. 
 
 the gate of the spiritual life ; by it we are made members of Christ, 
 and become of the Body of the Church. It was instituted by our Lord 
 before His Passion, as we learn from the third chapter of the Gospel 
 of St. John. Baptism is divided into Baptism fluminis, flaminis, and 
 sanguinis ; yet the first only is the Sacrament, the others, in defect 
 thereof, are sufficient for the justification of the sinner. 
 
 Yet beyond these cases, Baptism is necessary to salvation, neces- 
 sitate medii. 
 
 The matter of Baptism is twofold, proximate and remote. The 
 proximate matter is the ablution of the body, which should be such 
 that it may be perceived that the water touches the body ; this may 
 be, either by immersion of any part of the body into water, or by 
 the affusion of water on the body, or by the aspersion of sufficient 
 water to wet the body. The remote matter is natural water, either 
 cold or hot, or bitter or sweet, or rain or river, or well or spring, or 
 bath or sea, or turbid or muddy, or sulphurous. Also melted snow or 
 condensed steam are valid. But oil, any bodily excreta, wine, milk, 
 juices, are invalid vehicles of the grace. Distilled water and broths are 
 doubtful. Where from necessity baptism has been administered in 
 doubtful material, it is best to rebaptize conditionaliter. 
 
 The form of Baptism in the Latin and English Church, is, " I bap- 
 tize thee," &c. In the Greek Church, " Be the servant of God baptized 
 in the Name," &c. 
 
 For the essence of the form of Baptism four things are required. 
 There must be expressed, 1. The person "Thee;" 2. The action of the 
 minister"! baptize;" 3. The invocation of the adorable Trinity "in the 
 name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" 4. The 
 assertion of the Unity as well as Trinity conveyed by " In the name 
 of." The expression " In the power of," would not be valid. 
 
 Baptism in the name of Christ, or in the name of the Lord Jesus, in 
 spite of a Canon of Pope Nicholas I. (A quodam Judto 24 de Consec. 
 dist. 4) is generally held to be invalid. The passages in the Acts of the 
 Apostles do not mean that this was the primitive form, for that were 
 to contradict the direct command of our Lord ; but that the Apostles 
 administered the baptism of Christ, not that of John, or of Paul, or of 
 Cephas; that it was instituted by Christ, and admitted men into His 
 Communion and covenant. St. Cyprian (Ep. Ixxiii.) says: "Peter makes 
 mention of the Lord Jesus, not in the way of omitting the Father, but 
 that the Son may be joined with the Father." (See also St. Aug., lib. 
 iii. cont. Maximin., 17.) The ordinary minister of Baptism is he who
 
 OF BAPTISM. 497 
 
 has ordinary jurisdiction. A deacon may baptize, by commission from 
 the bishop, in defect of priests. 
 
 In case of necessity any one, having the use of reason, who baptizes 
 with water in the name of the Holy Trinity, is accepted, priest, 
 deacon, layman, male, female, heretic, or excommunicate. Persons are 
 not to be re-baptized who are baptized with the proper form and words 
 by heretics, even by Calvinists who deny that Baptism remits sin, 
 unless there be a doubt of the sufficiency of the administration. The 
 Baptism of adults is properly in the hands of the Bishop, if he wills to 
 do it solemnly, otherwise it belongs to the parish priest. 
 
 Priests of another parish baptizing against the will of the incumbent 
 are to be severely punished, for usurping jurisdiction contrary to the 
 mind of Christ. 
 
 One person ought to be baptized at a time, except in extreme 
 necessity. 
 
 A parent ought not to baptize his child, except in case of necessity. 
 No one can baptize himself. 
 
 Every man, and man only, while on earth is the subject of Baptism. 
 Children, idiots, madmen, monsters, are all subjects of Baptism. It is 
 not the custom of the Church to baptize the children of unbelievers 
 against the will of both their parents, but if one parent be Christian, 
 or if there be the immediate approach of death, or if, arrived at the age 
 of reason, they themselves require it, they may be baptized. 
 
 No moral disposition is required in children or idiots, but in adults 
 to receive Baptism validly and frnctuously are required three things, 
 1. The consent of the will ; 2. Faith, at least actual ; 3. Repentance. 
 
 The external confession of sin is not of necessity. (Tract, de Sacr., 
 ap. S. Ambr., 3,2; S. Thos. 3 a . qu. 68, art. 6.) A dying man who has 
 lost his senses may be baptized, if one only witness has heard him ex- 
 press the desire of it. A person coming to Baptism without faith or 
 contrition receives the character of Baptism, for it is valid, but in his 
 case for the time infructuous. He, may, however, repent and believe, 
 and then the Sacrament is not to be reiterated. 
 
 Kk
 
 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 DE CCENA DOMINI. 
 
 C(ENA Domini non est tantum signum mutuce benevolentice 
 Christianorum inter sese, verum potius est Sacramentum 
 nostrce per mortem Christi redemptionis. 
 
 Atque acleo, rite, digne, et cum fide sumentibus, panis quern 
 frangimus est communicatio corporis Christi: simi liter 
 poculum benedictionis est communicatio sanguinis Christi, 
 
 Panis et vini transubstantiatio in Eucharistia ex sacris 
 literis probari non potest ; scd apertis Scripture verbis 
 adversatur, Sacramenti naturam evertit, et multarum 
 super stitionum dedit occasionem. 
 
 Corpus Christi datur, accipitur, et manducatur in Ccena, 
 tantum ccelesti et spirituals ratione. Medium autem 
 quo corpus Christi accipitur, et manducatur in Ccena, 
 fides est. 
 
 Sacramentum Eucharistiae, ex institutione Christi non ser- 
 rabatur, circumferebatur, elevabatur, nee adorabatur. 
 
 " Of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 " THE Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the 
 love that Christians ought to have among themselves 
 one to another; but rather it is a Sacrament of our 
 redemption by Christ's death : insomuch that to such 
 as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, 
 the bread which we break is a partaking of the Body 
 of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing is a par- 
 taking of the Blood of Christ. 
 
 " Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 499 
 
 of bread and wine) in the supper of the Lord, cannot 
 be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain 
 words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacra- 
 ment, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. 
 
 "The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, 
 in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual 
 manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ 
 is received and eaten in the Supper, is faith. 
 
 "The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by 
 Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, 
 or worshipped." 
 
 1. THE awful and tremendous mystery of the Sacra- 
 ment of our Lord's most sacred Body and precious 
 Blood, the holy of holies of the new law, the Shechinah 
 of the Christian dispensation, is the subject of the 
 Twenty-eighth Article. It begins by denying the low 
 and grovelling conception of Zwingli, who maintained 
 that the Supper was no more than a tessera, or sign of 
 communion between man and man. Zwingli elimi- 
 nated all supernatural influence from the act. In the 
 plainest sense he taught an entire absence of spiritual 
 grace. The Article also denies the doctrine of QEco- 
 lampadius, who saw nothing more in the Eucharist 
 than a symbol whereby one is bound to sacrifice for 
 one's neighbour, after the example of Jesus Christ, 
 one's body and blood, as baptism is a sign by which 
 one binds oneself to give up one's life for the faith 
 which one professes. The Anabaptists also, seeking 
 in their false enthusiasm to establish an abstract mo-
 
 500 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 rality on the ruins of dogmatic faith, desired only to 
 recognise in the Eucharist a symbol of the mutual de- 
 votion which Christians ought to have for each other. 
 
 2. The first positive statement of the Article is that 
 it is "a Sacrament of our redemption by Christ's 
 death." This is equivalent to the expression of Theo- 
 doret, fjivarrjpiov acorrjpiov*, or to that used by St. 
 Augustine on the occasion of his mother's death b , 
 Sacr amentum pretii nostri. 
 
 " Insomuch as to such as rightly, worthily, and with 
 faith receive the same, the bread which we break is 
 a partaking of the Body of Christ, and likewise the 
 cup of blessing is a partaking (in the edition of 1553 
 'a communion') of the Blood of Christ." This expres- 
 sion, being the embodiment of Holy Scripture, must 
 mean, of course, what God the Holy Ghost meant in 
 Holy Scripture, and of that meaning the consent of 
 the ancient Church is a better interpreter than any 
 of us. The word Kowwvia everywhere in Holy Scrip- 
 ture means an actual participation or communion of 
 that which is spoken of. 
 
 The Scripture word fcoivwvla, as applied to the Body 
 and Blood of Christ, means not only that we receive 
 that Body and Blood, but that we become one Body 
 and one Blood with Him, as St. Paul explains in 
 1 Cor. x. 17 : " For we, being many, are one Bread." 
 On which Theophylact says : " He does not say, ^ero^, 
 but tcoivavia, a more excellent word, as if he would 
 imply the closest union. What he says is of the act : 
 
 * In 1 Cor. xi. 23. b Couf., ix. 36.
 
 or THE LORD'S SUPPER. 501 
 
 ' It is that which flowed from the side of Christ, and 
 receiving of it we commemorate, that is, we are united 
 to Christ. Are you not ashamed, O Corinthians, to 
 return to the cup of idols, after that cup which hath 
 delivered you from idols ? ' ' St. Chrysostom also notes 
 this difference : " Why said he not participation ? Be- 
 cause he intended to express something more, and to 
 point out how close are the unions ; in that we com- 
 memorate not only by participating and partaking, 
 but also by being united. For as that Body is united 
 to Christ, so also are we united to Him by this Bread ." 
 It will be seen, therefore, that the word "partaking" 
 in the English translation is no adequate rendering of 
 the Latin, which is the Scriptural communicatio. 
 
 This patristic explanation of the word KOIVCDVLCI dis- 
 poses of the formula whereby Calvin endeavoured to 
 steer a middle course between the Lutheran teaching 
 on the one hand, and that of Zwingli and (Ecolampa- 
 dius on the other. He taught that the Body of Christ 
 is truly present in the Lord's Supper, and that the 
 believer partakes of it ; but he only meant that simul- 
 taneously with the bodily participation of the material 
 elements, which in every respect remained what they 
 were, and merely signified the Body and the Blood, 
 a power emanating from the Body of Christ, which 
 is now in heaven only, is communicated to the Spirit. 
 Framed originally under the pressure of the confusions 
 among the Reformed, this middle opinion made its 
 way among them, and included many of the Lutherans 
 
 c Horn. xxiv. ; 1 Cor. x. 17.
 
 502 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 themselves, as its advocates employed, without hesita- 
 tion, the expression that Christ is really present in the 
 Eucharist, and His Body and Blood given to believers 
 for participation. In England, in consequence of the 
 great authority of Richard Hooker, who, in the gradual 
 process of working himself out of Puritanism, had on 
 this mysterious doctrine attained to Catholic feeling, 
 while he adhered to Calvinistic definition, this view 
 has obtained to an extent remarkable in view of its 
 intrinsic inanity. It does not satisfy the letter of 
 Scripture, which distinctly predicates the affirmative 
 proposition, "This is My Body." It contradicts the 
 testimony of the primitive Church, as we shall pre- 
 sently proceed to shew from a long catena of autho- 
 rities. It has exhibited its unsatisfactoriness in never 
 having been able to maintain an abiding existence, 
 either rising into the Catholic doctrine, or, more com- 
 monly, degenerating into a bare Zwinglianism, and has 
 only found favour with those who, unwilling to accept 
 the profound mystery of the Holy Eucharist with all 
 its consequences, are unable to bring themselves to 
 an absolute denial of any presence of Christ, and, 
 therefore, in this formula find a sop to the cravings 
 of an intellect which dreads to carry to conclusions the 
 premisses which in reason only lead to the acceptance 
 of the Catholic doctrine. 
 
 The word KOivwvia disposes also of what has been 
 termed the theory of virtualism or equivalence 
 a theory which proposes to attempt the impossible 
 task of reconciling the high and mysterious expres-
 
 OP THE LORD'S SUPPER. 503 
 
 sions of our Lord Himself, His holy Apostles, and the 
 primitive Fathers, with such a view of the doctrine 
 of the blessed Sacrament as practically amounts to the 
 real absence of our Lord therefrom. A virtual Pre- 
 sence, as it is sometimes incorrectly called, means, when 
 we examine it, a bestowal of the grace, efficacy, virtue, 
 or influence of the atoning Death of our Lord. It sup- 
 poses the bread and wine to be equivalents for the 
 absent Body and Blood, so that to partake with faith 
 of the former is virtually and in effect as though we 
 partook of the latter. The very Body and very Blood 
 are supposed to be absent. They are not actually 
 "given" or "taken." They are neither present by 
 consecration nor present in devout reception. Some- 
 what of this nature was that theory of a school of 
 the Nonjurors, which owed its existence to John 
 Johnson, the learned author of " The Unbloody Sacri- 
 fice." It was, that the Body of our Lord, which had 
 been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the 
 Virgin Mary, had ascended into heaven, there to re- 
 main till the restitution of all things ; but that in the 
 Divine mysteries, on consecration, the Holy Ghost' de- 
 scended upon the gifts of bread and wine, which had 
 been offered in sacrifice to God, and joining Himself 
 with them, made them the Body and Blood of Christ 
 in power and efficacy. 
 
 Moreover, it is not said in the Article that we are 
 partakers of Christ, or of a grace from Christ, but the 
 Bread which we break, i.e. the Bread which has been 
 blessed and consecrated by our Lord's words, " This is
 
 504 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 My Body," through the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
 is the communion or participation of the Body of 
 Christ ; and the Cup of Blessing, i.e. the Cup blessed 
 by the words, " This is My Blood," is the partaking 
 of or communication of the Blood of Christ. 
 
 In adducing the following passages from the Fathers, 
 I would only premise that I have selected such passages 
 as contain the doctrine of the Real Objective Presence, 
 I mean that the Body and Blood of Christ are so 
 sacramentally present in, or under, the consecrated 
 Bread and Wine, that the Fathers either called the 
 whole, the outward and the inward part together, or 
 even the outward part alone, by the name of the in- 
 ward part, the Body and Blood of Christ. I, have 
 passed over all the passages (which are naturally far 
 more numerous) in which the Fathers speak of our 
 " receiving the Body and Blood of Christ," " that 
 saving Body, Christ Himself; " that we " eat His Body," 
 or "drink Blood from His side;" "receive Him and 
 lay Him up in ourselves, and place the Saviour in our 
 breasts." All passages which speak only of the "re- 
 ception" I have omitted. 
 
 St. Ignatius d , consecrated Bishop of Antioch by St. 
 Peter, says of the Docetse who did not believe in the 
 reality of our Lord's Body : " They confess not that 
 the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
 which suffered for our sins, which the Father in His 
 mercy raised again." 
 
 Justin Martyr, a disciple of Apostles, in giving an 
 
 d Ep, ad Smyrn., n. 7.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 505 
 
 account of the Christian worship to the Emperor : 
 " We do not receive it as common bread, or as common 
 drink, but in what way Jesus Christ our Saviour, being 
 through the Word of God Incarnate, had both flesh 
 and blood for our salvation, so also have we been 
 taught that the Food, over ichich thanksgiving has been 
 made by the prayer of the word which is from Him 
 (from which [food] our blood and flesh are, by trans- 
 mutation, nourished), is the Flesh and Blood of Him, 
 the Incarnate Jesus. For the Apostles, in their records 
 which are called the Gospels, have delivered that Jesus 
 so commanded them, that He, having taken bread and 
 given thanks, said, ' Do this in remembrance of Me. 
 This is My Body.' And, likewise, having taken the 
 cup and given thanks, He said, ' This is My Blood V " 
 
 St. Irenseus, who says that he remembers the times 
 of his youth with Polycarp (the disciple of St. John) 
 better than recent things, argues against the Gnostics : 
 " If the Lord belonged to another Father, how was 
 it just that taking bread, of this our creation, He con- 
 fessed that it was His Own Body, and He affirmed that 
 the mingled drink of the cup was His Own Blood f ?" 
 
 In the Harmony ascribed to Tatian or Ammonius, the 
 words of the Gospel are paraphrased thus : " And 
 then, having taken bread, and afterwards the cup of 
 wine, He bare witness that it was His Body and Blood, 
 and bade them eat and drink, for that it was a memo- 
 rial of His coming suffering and death g ." 
 
 e Apol., i. 66. f iv. 33, 2. * Harm. iv. Evang., 
 
 Bibl. Patr., ii. P. ii. p. 210, A.
 
 506 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 Tertullian, on whose antiquity the Homily lays such 
 stress, speaks to this effect : " The zeal of Faith might 
 speak on this head all the day long, mourning that the 
 Christian should come from the idols into the Church . . . 
 that he should approach those hands to the Body of the 
 Lord, which bestowed bodies on demons. Nor is this 
 enough. It were a small matter that they should re- 
 ceive from other hands that which they defile, but 
 they themselves also deliver to others that which they 
 have defiled. Makers of idols are chosen into the 
 ministry of the Church. Horrid sin ! The Jews laid 
 violent hands but once upon Christ; these every day 
 assault His Body. O, hands worthy of being cut off ! 
 Let them now consider whether it were said only in 
 a figure, ' If thine hand offend thee, cut it off.' What 
 hands ought more to be cut off than those by which 
 the Body qf the Lord is offended^ ?" 
 
 And here, in order of time, comes in the Greek 
 inscription found at Autun, which is assigned to the 
 second century, because, in A.D. 202, the Greek Church 
 in France was laid desolate. The antiquity of this part 
 of the inscription, and its testimony to " the Divinity 
 of our Lord, and the divine dignity of the Sacraments," 
 are recognised with satisfaction by Dr. Christopher 
 Wordsworth. As the inscription has only been known 
 for these few years, but is of extreme value for the 
 simplicity of the faith expressed by it, it is right to 
 cite his words from his printed letter to Cardinal Pitra, 
 the Benedictine editor *. The inscription relates to 
 
 "" De Idol., 8, p. 228, 0. T. Spicil. Solesm., t. i. p. 5G3.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 507 
 
 the two great Sacraments, and affirms only what all 
 Catholic Christians must hold in common, the Real 
 Objective Presence. " Quam valida vero ad catholicam 
 veritatem stabiliendam et ad hsereticam pravitatem de 
 Christo Deo, de divina Sacramentorum dignitate, pro- 
 fligandam, testimonia suppeditet non sine summa volup- 
 tate videmus. Et hanc priorem inscriptionis partem 
 antiquitus in marmore extitisse . . . pro comperto 
 habeo." Dr. Wordsworth does not say anything about 
 the definite date of the inscription, but he believes it 
 to be ancient, " antiquitus." The lines relating to the 
 Holy Eucharist are: "Receive the honey-sweet [food] 
 of the holy things of the Saviour;" or, as others, "of 
 the Saviour of the holy." " Eat, drink, having Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour, in thy hands." 
 The well-known anagram IXQT2 occurs at this same 
 time, both in the Greek and Latin Church ; in the 
 Greek, in a hymn ascribed to St. Clement of Alex- 
 andria ; in the Latin, in Tertullian. In St. Clement of 
 Alexandria, as well as in this inscription, it is used in 
 reference to the Eucharist k . It occurs in the recently 
 discovered works attributed to St. Melito. It occurs 
 also in Origen, St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, St. Optatus, 
 Severian, Bishop of Gabala, the rival and enemy of 
 St. Chrysostom, Sedulius, St. Paulinus, St. Augustine, 
 St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Prosper, the African author 
 of the De Promiss. Dei, and St. Cyril of Alexandria 1 . 
 There can neither be a simpler nor a fuller statement 
 
 k See Dr. Pusey, Real Presence, p. 338, note. 
 
 1 See the passages collected in Spicil. Solesm., t. iii. p. 527.
 
 508 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 of the Objective Presence of our Lord, God and Man, 
 in the Holy Eucharist, received in the hands to be food 
 to the faithful than in this inscription, which the Pro- 
 vidence of God has brought to light. 
 
 Author of the Carmina adv. Marcion m : " From what 
 creation suppose ye the Bread and Wine are, and must 
 be confessed to be, His Body and Blood ? Proved not 
 He Himself the Maker of the world by deeds ? And, 
 at the same time, that He bare a Body of Flesh and 
 Blood?" 
 
 Origen : " We, rendering thanks (e^apto-Toui/re?) 
 to the Creator of the universe, eat the Bread, offered 
 with thanksgiving (eu^apio-ria?) and prayer over the 
 things offered, which [bread] becometh, for the prayer's 
 sake, a certain Holy Body, which halloweth those who 
 use the same with a sound purpose n ." 
 
 Note the reserve in this passage. The author is 
 arguing with a heathen, to whom it was not right to 
 expose the Mystery, and therefore uses reserve : " Ye 
 who are wont to be present at the Divine Mysteries, 
 know how, when ye receive the Body of the Lord, ye 
 keep It with all care and veneration, lest any particle 
 of It should fall, lest any of the consecrated gift should 
 escape you. For ye believe yourselves guilty (and ye 
 believe rightly) if any thereof fall through negligence ; 
 but if ye use so great caution, and rightly use it, in 
 preserving His Body, how do ye think it a less guilt to 
 have neglected the Word of God than His Body ?" 
 
 m L. 5, ap. TertuU. " Cont. Cels., 8, c. 33. 
 
 In Exod., Horn. xiii. 3, p. 176.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 509 
 
 St. Dionysius the Great, of Alexandria, who was 
 consulted in most questions of moment by other 
 Churches : " For I could not venture to renew from 
 the beginning (i.e. to re-baptize) one who had heard 
 the Eucharist, and joined in answering the Amen, and 
 stood by the table, and stretched forth his hands to 
 receive the Holy Food, and had received it, and for 
 a long while had partaken of the Body and Blood 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ p ." " For I do not think that 
 women, who are faithful and devout, would venture, in 
 such a state, to approach the Holy Table, or to touch 
 the Body and Blood of Christ "." 
 
 St. Cyprian : " For how do we teach or provoke 
 them to shed their blood in confession of the name, if, 
 when about to engage, we deny them the Blood of 
 Christ T ." " Let us also arm the right hand with the 
 
 * sword of the Spirit/ that it may boldly reject the 
 deadly sacrifices, that, mindful of the Eucharist, the 
 hand which has received the Lord's Body, may em- 
 brace the Lord Himself, from Him to receive hereafter 
 the reward of heavenly crowns 8 ." "Those mouths 
 sanctified by heavenly food, after the Body and Blood 
 of the Lord, loathed the profane contagion, and the 
 relics of idol feasts V " A violence is offered to His 
 Body and Blood, and they sin more now against the 
 Lord with hand and mouth, than when they were 
 denying Him u ." 
 
 P Euseb. H. E. vii. 9. q Up. ad Sasilid., can. 2. p. 114. 
 
 * Ep. Ivii. ad Cornel. Up. Iviii. ad Thibarit., 10. ' De 
 Lapsis, 2, p. 154, Oxf. Tr. " Ibid., 11, p. 163.
 
 510 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 See how St. Dionysius the Great, Origen, St. Cyprian, 
 agree with the Inscription of Autun in speaking of 
 communicants as having in their hands "the Body 
 of Christ." 
 
 Magnes : " For it is not a type of the Body, nor 
 a type of the Blood, as some have blindly and idly 
 said, but is in truth the Body and Blood of Christ x ." 
 " Through that union whereby I am united, the Holy 
 with the earthly, I give Bread and Wine, commanding 
 them to be My Body and Blood *." 
 
 Hipparchus and Philotheus, martyrs in the persecu- 
 tion of Maximian, about A.D. 297 : "Three years have 
 now passed since we received Baptism in the Name of 
 the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
 from the hand of a priest of the true faith, whose 
 name was James, and he gave us continually the Body 
 of Christ and His Blood 1 ." When they had con- 
 verted James, Pyragrus, Rumono, and another, this 
 same priest " baptized them in the name of the 
 Trinity, and imparted to them the Body and Blood 
 of Christ." 
 
 Eusebius, the historian: "On every day before 
 the Sabbath [Friday] we make a remembrance of the 
 Saviour's Passion, through the fast which the Apo- 
 stles then first fasted, when the Bridegroom was taken 
 from them; on every Lord's-day, quickened by the 
 consecrated Body of the same Saviour's Passion, and 
 sealed in our souls by His precious Blood V 
 
 * Frag. ap. Gall., Hi. 541. 7 Ibid., 2. z Assent. Acta 
 
 Mart., ii. 123. " De Pasch. in Mail Scriptt. Vett., i. 257.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 511 
 
 St. James of Nisibis (one of the foremost of the 
 Nicene Fathers, who had the gifts of miracles and 
 prophecy) : " Abstain thou from all uncleanness, and 
 then receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and care- 
 fully guard thy mouth, through which the King hath 
 entered ; nor mayest thou, man, any more bring 
 forth through thy mouth words of uncleanness V 
 "From that place where He kept the Passover, and 
 gave His Body that they should eat, and His Blood 
 that they should drink, He went away and departed 
 thither with His disciples, where they took Him. 
 When then His Body was eaten, and His Blood drunk, 
 He was 'counted among the dead/ For our Lord 
 with His own hands gave His Body for food, and 
 when He was not yet crucified He gave His Blood 
 for drink c ." " When He had washed His disciples' 
 feet, He sat down at the table, and then gave them 
 His Body and Blood d ." 
 
 St. Athanasius : " Thou wilt see the Levites (dea- 
 cons) bearing bread and a cup of wine, and placing 
 them on the table ; and so long as the supplications 
 and prayers have not yet taken place, bare (fyiKos) is 
 the bread and the cup ; but when the great and won- 
 derful prayers have been completed over it, then the 
 Bread becometh the Body, the Cup the Blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ 6 ." "Let us come to the consecra- 
 tion of the mysteries. This bread and this cup, so 
 
 b Serm. iii. 2, p. 46, ed. Eom. c Serm. xiv. de Pasch., 
 
 4, p. 341. d Ibid., p. 346. e Serm. ad Baptizat. ap. 
 
 h. de Pasch. Mail Scriptt. Vett., ix. 625.
 
 512 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 long as the prayers and supplications have not yet 
 taken place, are bare elements, but when the great 
 prayers and holy supplications have been sent up, the 
 word cometh down into the bread and cup, and it 
 becometh His Body f ." 
 
 Juvencus, a Spanish poet about A.D. 330, thus para- 
 phrases the history of the institution of the Lord's 
 Supper : " When He said these things, He brake the 
 Bread with His hands, and being broken He gave it 
 to them, and having holily prayed, He taught His 
 disciples that He gave them His own Body." " Then 
 the Lord taketh the cup, and it being filled with wine, 
 He sanctifieth It with mighty words, and giveth It 
 them to drink, and taught them that He had di- 
 vided His own Blood. And He saith, 'This Blood 
 will remit the sins of the people, This My Blood 
 drink ye *.' " 
 
 St. Julius, Bishop of Rome : " An inquiry concern- 
 ing Christ's Blood and Christ's Body [on occasion of 
 the false accusation that St. Athanasius had broken 
 a chalice] is carried on before an external judge, in 
 the presence of catechumens, nay, worse than that, 
 before heathens and Jews, who have so bad a name 
 in regard to Christianity V 
 
 Council of Alexandria, A.D. 339 : " Our sanctuaries 
 are now, as they have always been, pure, and ho- 
 noured only with the Blood of Christ, and His pious 
 
 1 Ibid. Hist. Evang.. L. iv. B. P. iv. 74. 
 
 h Ep. ad Euseb. in S. Ath. Apol. ag. Arians, 31.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 513 
 
 worship 1 ." "For to you only it appertains to have 
 the first taste of the Blood of Christ, and to none 
 besides. But as he who breaks a sacred cup is an 
 impious person, much more impious is he who in- 
 sults the Blood of Christ k ." 
 
 Julius Firmicus : " We drink the immortal blood 
 of Christ ; to our blood is the Blood of Christ united ; 
 this is the healthful remedy for thy wickedness 1 ." 
 
 St. Thecla, Maria, Martha, Maria, Ami, Persian 
 martyrs under Sapor, A.D. 337, to the apostate priest, 
 who, with a drawn sword, endeavoured to make them 
 apostatize : " Is this that holy propitiatory Thing 
 which we received from thy hands ? Is this the life- 
 giving Blood which thou usedst to bring near to our 
 mouths m ?" 
 
 St. Hilary : " If the "Word was truly made Flesh, 
 and we, through the food of the Lord, truly receive 
 the Word made Flesh, how must He not be thought 
 to abide in us by the way of nature, Who, being born 
 Man, took to Himself the nature of our Flesh, now 
 inseparable from Him, and, under the sacrament of 
 the Flesh to be communicated to us, hath mingled 
 the nature of His own Flesh with His Eternal Na- 
 ture 11 ." "Was He unwilling to suffer? but, before, 
 He had consecrated the Blood of His own Body, which 
 was to be shed for the remission of sins ." " What 
 
 1 S.AtTi. Apol. c. Arian., init. p. 14, 0. T. k In S. Ath. 
 
 Apol. off. Ar., 6, p. 20, 0. T. ' De err. Prof, relief., p. 44. 
 
 m In S. Maruthas, Assem. Acta Mart., i. 125. n De Trin., viii. 13. 
 In Matt., c. 31, 7. 
 
 Ll
 
 514 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 frenzy didst thou exercise against the Church of 
 Thoulouse ? The clergy were beaten with clubs ; the 
 Deacons were crushed with boxing-gloves armed with 
 lead ; and on Himself, as the holy will understand, 
 on Christ Himself hands were laid P." 
 
 Arian Council at Philippopolis : " Presbyters were 
 dragged naked by him to the market-place, and (what 
 must be said with tears and grief) he openly and pub- 
 licly profaned the consecrated Body of the Lord, hung 
 to the necks of the priests q ." It is to be observed 
 that they use the same phrase as Eusebius. It was 
 then probably a received phrase. But to speak of 
 the " consecrated Body of the Lord," must mean that 
 that of which he speaks became such by consecration. 
 " Sinning profanely and atrociously against the Body 
 of the Lord and His mysteries r ." 
 
 St. Damasus, " learned in the Scriptures * : "- 
 
 " Tarsicium sanctum Christ! sacramenta gerentern, 
 Cum male sana manus voluit vulgare profanis, 
 Ipse animam potius voluit dimittere csesus, 
 Prodere quam canibus rabidis caelestia membra V 
 
 St. Optatus : " For what is the Altar, but the 
 Throne of the Body and Blood of Christ u ?" " Where- 
 in had Christ offended you, Whose Body and Blood 
 dwelt here at stated times ? " . . . . " In this way ye 
 
 P c. Const. Imp., 11. i Ap. S. Hil. Fragm., iii. 9. 
 
 r Ibid., 23. St. Jerome, Ep. xlviii. ad Pamm., n. 17. 
 
 t In Baronius, A. 381, n. 21, from Antiq. Liscrip. App., p. 1174, n. 2. 
 u De Schism. Donat., vi. 1, p. 90, ed. Dupin.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 515 
 
 have imitated the Jews ; they laid their hands on 
 Christ on the Cross ; by you He was smitten on the 
 Altar v ." "This great crime has been doubled by 
 you, in that ye brake the chalices too, which bear 
 the Blood of Christ x ." 
 
 St. Ephrem : " ' Standing on their feet ! ' because 
 one sitting may not receive the living Body ; ' and 
 no stranger shall eat thereof/ because no one unbap- 
 tized eateth of the Bodyy." "This was fulfilled in 
 our Lord, when in the Mount of Jerusalem He brake 
 His Body and divided His Blood, and said, ' This ye 
 shall do for a remembrance of Me *.' '' " Thou wilt 
 not burn the hand which received a portion of Thy 
 holy Body, together with the hand which smote Thee 
 on Thy cheek, Thee, the Creator. The mouth which 
 ate Thee will not howl, together with the mouth which 
 spat on Thee, on Thy face a ." " Whom Thou hast made 
 meet to administer in the Sanctuary, and to distribute 
 Thy Body and Thy Blood to Thy flock, may his pas- 
 ture be with Thy lambs b ." "He brake His Body 
 before thee, and mingled His Blood and gave it 
 thee c ." 
 
 St. Basil : " Thou introducest higgling into spiri- 
 tual things and the Church, where we are entrusted 
 with the Body and Blood of Christ d ." " Let him not 
 bless either publicly or privately, nor distribute the 
 
 * Ibid., p. 91. r Ibid., c. 2, p. 92. T On Exod. xii. 
 
 t. i. p. 213. In Isa. xxv. 26, t. ii. p. 61. Can. 12, 
 
 t. iii. p. 24,6. b Can. 13, p. 247. c Parcen., 16, p. 439. 
 
 Ep. liii. Chorepisc., 1, iii. 147.
 
 516 AltTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 Body of Christ to others, nor perform any liturgical 
 office ; but, satisfied with his rank, let him weep before 
 the Lord, that his sin of ignorance may be forgiven 
 him'." 
 
 St. Gregory of Nyssa : " Wherefore also He who ever 
 is, sets Himself before us as Food, that we receiving 
 Him in ourselves, may become that which He is f ." The 
 Bread, again, is up to a certain time common bread, but 
 when the mystery shall consecrate it, it is called and 
 becomes the Body of Christ *. " Well do I believe 
 that now, too, the bread, sanctified by the Word of 
 God, is trans-made (fj,eTa7roielo-6at) into the Body of 
 God, the Word h ." "For both there [in the Lord's 
 Natural Body] the grace of the Word hallowed that 
 Body, whose composition was from bread, and which 
 itself, too, was in a manner bread ; and here [in the 
 Sacrament], in like way, the bread (as the Apostle 
 says) is hallowed by the Word of God and prayer, not 
 through meat and drink passing on into the Body of 
 the Word, but trans-made (peTcnroiovpevos) straight 
 into the Body of the Word, as it was said by the 
 Word, ' This is My Body * ! ' " 
 
 St. Gregory of Nazianzum : " One of those who 
 approach to the approaching God, and is accounted 
 worthy of the holy station and order V " Whoever 
 besides ministers about the holy Table of God, and 
 approaches to the approaching God 1 ." 
 
 e Up. cxcix. (Can. 2), Can. 27, p. 294. { In Eccles, iii. 8. 
 
 Horn. viii. t. i. p. 456. e De Sapt. Christi, iii. 370. h Orat. 
 
 Catech., c. 37. ' Ibid. k Orat. xxi. c. 7. ' Orat. xlii. c. 26.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 517 
 
 " And thou, wretched man, wilt thou boldly receive 
 In thy palms the Mystic Food, or God embrace 
 "With hands, wherewith thou hast dug up my grave m ." 
 
 Csesarius (brotlier of St. Gregory of Nazianzum) : 
 " He trarapleth under foot God the Word, the Son of 
 God, who, in covetous hands lifted up against his 
 neighbour, receiveth fearlessly the Sacramental ele- 
 ments, accounting them like common bread and wine, 
 which, in the eyes of the faithful mind, are contem- 
 plated, God n ." " And yet we believe the Divine 
 Revelation, that not as being equal or like, yet that 
 still properly and fitly, It is the Divine Body which 
 is consecrated on the holy Table, and is indivisibly 
 distributed to the whole sacred band, and partaken 
 of without ceasing to be ." 
 
 St. Amphilochius (friend of St. Basil and St. Gregory 
 of Nazianzum) : " He, the Father, is both greater and 
 equal, greater than He who receives vinegar to drink, 
 equal to Him who poureth out as wine His own proper 
 blood, TOV TO OiKelov olvo^oovvTos aljMa p ." 
 
 Esaias Abbas : " If thou wiliest to take the Body 
 of Christ, take heed that there be no anger or hatred 
 in thy heart against any one 1" 
 
 St. Ambrose : " So often as we receive the Sacra- 
 ments, which by the mystery of the sacred prayer are 
 transfigured into Body and Blood, we shew forth the 
 
 "' Carm., 1. ii. 2, Epigr. 69. " Interrog. 140, Dial. 3 ; 
 
 Gall. vi. 98. Ibid., Int., pp. 127, 169. P Serm. adv 
 
 Arian. in Mali Script. Vett., iv. p. 10. 1 Reg. ad Monach., 50.
 
 518 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 death of the Lord r ." " What more noble than Christ, 
 who in the Feast of the Church both ministers and is 
 ministered B ?" " Where His Body is, there is Christ V 
 "And in the ministering of the Apostles is set forth 
 the future distribution of the Body and Blood of the 
 Lord 11 ." "Where Christ, the Head of all, is daily 
 consecrated V " At the same time, it is shewn what 
 sort of person he ought to be who ministereth to Christ. 
 For, first of all, he must be free from the allurements 
 of various pleasures, shun inward drowsiness of mind 
 and body, that he may administer the Body and Blood 
 
 of Christ See what thou doest, O priest, and 
 
 touch not with feverish hand the Body of Christ x ." 
 " How in such hands wilt thou receive the all-holy 
 Body of the Lord ? how wilt thou bear to thy mouth 
 the Precious Blood, having in thine anger unlawfully 
 shed so much bloody?" " But if human blessing was 
 of such avail as to change nature, what say we of the 
 Divine Consecration itself, wherein the very words of 
 our Lord and Saviour operate? For that Sacrament 
 which thou receivest is consecrated by the Word of 
 Christ. But if the word of Elijah was of so great 
 power as to bring down fire from Heaven, shall not 
 the Word of Christ avail to change the nature of the 
 elements ? Of the works of the whole world thou hast 
 read, 'He spake, and they were made; He com- 
 
 * De Fide, iv. 10. s De Cain et Abel, i. 5, 19. ' In Ps. 
 
 cxix. Serm. viii. 48. u In S. Luc., 1. vi. 84. v De Virg., 
 
 i. 11, 65. x De Fid., c. x. 65. ' In Theodoret, Eccles. 
 
 Hist., 1. v. c. xvii. t. iii.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 519 
 
 xnanded, and they were created/ The word of Christ, 
 then, which could make of nothing what (as yet) was 
 not, cannot it change the things which are into that 
 which they were not? For it is not a less thing to 
 give new natures to things, than to change natures. 
 But why use we arguments ? Let us use His own. 
 example, and build up the truth of the mystery by 
 the example of the Incarnation. Did the wont of 
 nature precede, when the Lord Jesus was born of 
 a Virgin? If we inquire for the order of nature, 
 woman united with man was wont to bear. And this 
 Body which we consecrate is from the Virgin. Why 
 iuquirest thou here for the order of nature in the 
 Body of Christ, when, against nature, the Lord Jesus 
 Himself was born of a Virgin ? True is the Flesh 
 of Christ, which was crucified, which was buried ; 
 true therefore is the Sacrament of that Flesh. The 
 Lord Jesus Himself declares, ' This is My Body/ Be- 
 fore the blessing of the heavenly words, another kind 
 is named ; after the consecration the Body is signi- 
 fied. He Himself saith, it is His Blood. Before con- 
 secration it is called other ; after the consecration it is 
 named Blood. And thou sayest, Amen, i.e. it is true ; 
 what the mouth speaketh, let the inward mind confess ; 
 what the speech uttereth, let the affection feel z ." " In 
 that Sacrament Christ is : because it is the Body of 
 Christ ; it is not therefore bodily food, but spiritual. 
 "Whence, too, the Apostle saith of its type : ' Our 
 fathers did eat spiritual meat, and did drink spiritual 
 
 * De Myster., 5254
 
 520 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 drink.' For the Body of God is a spiritual Body ; the 
 Body of Christ is the Body of the Divine Spirit a ." 
 
 Author of the De Sacramentis (a Bishop, and pro- 
 bably a disciple of St. Ambrose) : "The Altar is 
 a figure of the Body, and the Body of Christ is on the 
 Altar a ." "You say, perhaps, 'my bread is common 
 bread.' But that bread is bread before the words of 
 the Sacraments ; when the consecration is added, from 
 bread it becomes the Flesh of Christ. How can that 
 which is bread, be the Body of Christ ? By Consecra- 
 tion. And the Consecration, in whose words is it? 
 The Lord Jesus'. For all the rest which had been 
 said before is said by the priest ; praises are offered to 
 God ; prayer is made for the people, for kings, for the 
 rest. When the Venerable Sacrament is to be con- 
 secrated, the priest now no longer uses his own words, 
 but he uses the words of Christ. So, then, the word 
 of Christ consecrates the Sacrament. What is the 
 word of Christ ? That by which all things were 
 made. The Lord commanded, the heaven was made ; 
 the Lord commanded, and the earth was made ; the 
 Lord commanded, and the seas were made; the Lord 
 commanded, and all creatures were brought forth. 
 Thou, seest, then, how powerful in working is the 
 Word of Christ. If, then, there is such power in the 
 Word of the Lord Jesus, that those things which were 
 not should begin to be, how much more is it opera- 
 tive that the things which were should still be, and 
 be changed into something else ! So, then, that I may 
 
 a De Myster., 58.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 521 
 
 answer thee, it was not the Body of Christ before the 
 Consecration, but after the Consecration I say to thee 
 that now it is the Body of Christ 'He spake, and 
 it was made ; He commanded, and it was created.' 
 Before it is consecrated, it is bread ; when the words 
 of Christ are added, it is the Body of Christ. Then 
 hear Himself saying 'Take and eat ye all of this, 
 for this is My Body.' And before the words of Christ, 
 it is a cup, full of wine and water ; when the words of 
 Christ have operated, the Blood of Christ is caused 
 to be there, which redeemed His people V " So, then, 
 not idly dost thou say, Amen, already thereby confess- 
 ing in spirit that thou receivest the Body of Christ. 
 The priest saith to thee ' The Body of Christ,' and 
 thou sayest, Amen, i.e. true c ." 
 
 St. Jerome : " God forbid that I should speak any- 
 thing unfavourable of these; for, succeeding to the 
 Apostolic rank, with holy mouths they make Christ's 
 Body, through whom also we are Christians d ." " But 
 let us hear that the bread which the Lord brake aud 
 gave to His disciples was the Body of the Lord our 
 Saviour, since He Himself said to them, ' Take, eat ; 
 this is My Body ;' and that the cup was that of which 
 He said again, ' Drink ye all of this ; for this is My 
 Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many.' 
 That is the cup of which we read in the Prophet 
 ' I will receive the cup of salvation/ And in another 
 place 'Thine inebriating cup, how good is it!' If, 
 
 b Ibid., c. iv. 14, 15; c. v. 23; 25. c iv. 2, 7. 
 
 d Ep. xiv. ad Heliod., 8; comp. Hooker, v. 77, 2.
 
 522 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 then, ' the bread which came down from Heaven' is the 
 Lord's Body ; and ' the wine which He gave to His 
 disciples is the Blood of the New Testament, which 
 was shed for many for the remission of sins e ,' " &c. 
 " Nought richer than he who carries the Body of the 
 Lord in a wicker basket, His Blood in a glass f ." 
 " What ails the minister of tables and of widows 
 (the deacon), that he swells and lifts himself up above 
 those (bishops and priests) at whose prayers the Body 
 and Blood of Christ is made * ?" 
 
 Luciferian, quoted by St. Jerome : Lucif. " It is not 
 the same thing to shed tears for sins, and to handle 
 the Body of the Lord. It is not the same thing to 
 fall at the feet of the brethren, and from on high 
 to administer the Eucharist to the people V 
 
 Jerome of Jerusalem : " Many of those in the world 
 often experience workings of such grace and of the 
 Holy Spirit; those, I mean, who assist at the altar, 
 and who approach to partake of the mysteries of Christ. 
 For on a sudden they are filled with tears and joy 
 and gladness. Whence also the Christian is fully 
 convinced that he doth not receive mere (\fri\ov) bread 
 and wine, but in truth the Body and Blood of the Son 
 of God, sanctified by the Holy Ghost 1 ." 
 
 Theophilus, of Alexandria: "Nor do we call the 
 bodily substance vanity, as he (Origen) thinketh (fall- 
 ing, in other words, into the doctrines of Manichaeus), 
 
 Up. cxx. ad Hedib., 2. l Ep. cxxv. ad Bust., 20. 
 
 f Ep. cxlvi. ad Evang. 1. h Adv. Lucif,, 3. 
 
 1 Comm. Christian, util., Gall. vii. 529.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 523 
 
 lest the Body of Christ also should be subject to vanity, 
 through the eating whereof we, being satiated, daily 
 ruminate on His words, ' Unless a man eat My Flesh, 
 and drink My Blood, he has no part in Me V " 
 
 St. Gaudentius, of Brescia: "Himself then the 
 Creator and Lord of Nature, who ' bringeth forth 
 bread from the earth/ of bread again (for He both 
 can, and hath promised), makes His Own Body ; and 
 He who of water made wine, makes also wine of His 
 Own Blood k ." " That you may not think that to be 
 earthly, which has been made heavenly through Him 
 who passeth into it, and made it His Body and Blood." 
 . . . . "When He reached forth the consecrated Bread 
 and Wine to His disciples, He said, ' This is My Body ; 
 this is My Blood.' Let us believe Him Whom we have 
 believed. Truth cannot lie/'. .."But that He appointed 
 the Sacraments of His Body and Blood to be offered 
 in the form of Bread and Wine, there is a twofold 
 reason 1 ." 
 
 St. Isaac the Great: "I beheld that her cup was 
 mingled, and instead of wine it was full of Blood, and 
 instead of bread, a Body was placed for her in the 
 midst of her table. I saw the Blood and trembled ; 
 and the Body, and fear seized me ; and she [Faith] 
 made a sign to me, ' Eat, and be silent ; drink, child, 
 and scrutinize not.' . . . She shewed me a Body slain, 
 and placed thereof between my lips, and cried to me 
 sweetly, ' See what it is thou art eating.' She gave 
 
 J Epist. Pasch., A. 401, 11; ap. S.Jerome, Ep. xcvi. i. 564. 
 k De Pasch., tr. ii. B. P. v. p. 946. J Ibid., p. 947.
 
 524 ARTICLE XXVIIT. 
 
 the pen of the Spirit, and bade me subscribe ; and 
 I took, I wrote, and I confessed, ' This is the Body 
 of God V" 
 
 St. Paulinus, of Nola, friend of St. Ambrose and 
 St. Augustine, wrote as part of an inscription for an 
 altar, under which a piece of the Cross was to be 
 placed : 
 
 " Cuncta salutiferi coeunt martyria Christi, 
 Crux, Corpus, Sanguis, martyris ipse Deus." 
 
 St. Maruthas (a very great man, a friend of St. Chry- 
 sostom) : " Now as often as we approach to the Body 
 and Blood, and take It in our hands, we believe that 
 we embrace the Bod} T , and that we are of His Flesh 
 and His Bones, as it is written. For Christ did not 
 call it a type and a likeness, but that in truth ' This 
 is My Body, and this is My Blood V " And so St. 
 Maruthas, in his Liturgy, paraphrases our Lord's words 
 of Consecration : " Jesus took bread into His holy 
 hands, and giving thanks to the Father, blessed, sancti- 
 fied, brake, and divided to the disciples, and said, Take 
 eat, believe and be certain, and so proclaim and teach, 
 that this is My Body which is broken for the salvation 
 of the world, and to those who eat It and believe in 
 Me, giveth expiation of sins and life eternal ." And 
 in like way he paraphrases the words of Consecration 
 of the Cup. 
 
 We now come to the testimony of the great St. 
 
 m Serm. de Fide ap. Assem. Bibl. Or., t. i. p. 220. n Co mm. 
 
 JLcang. in Assem., i. 179. In Renaudot. Liturg. Or., ii. 263.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 525 
 
 Augustine : " For on this account it seemed good to 
 the Holy Spirit, namely, that for the honour of so 
 great a Sacrament, the Lord's Body should enter the 
 mouth of a Christian previously to other food p ." " And 
 when the Apostle said this, the discourse was upon 
 the subject of those who, treating the Lord's Body 
 like any other food, took it in an undiscriminating 
 and negligent way. If, then, this man is rebuked who 
 does not discriminate, that is, see the difference of, the 
 Lord's Body from other meats, how must he be damned, 
 who, feigning himself a friend, comes to His Table 
 a foe q !" "Christ was carried in His Own Hands, 
 when commending His Own Body, He said, ' This is 
 My Body.' For that Body He carried in His Own 
 Hands T ." " That Bread which ye see on the Altar, 
 sanctified by the Word of God, is the Body of Christ. 
 That Cup, rather what the Cup holds, sanctified by the 
 Word of God, is the Blood of Christ s ." " For the 
 Blood of Christ hath a loud voice on earth, when, on 
 receiving It, all nations answer, Amen*." 
 
 St. Chrysostom : " O marvel ! love of God for 
 man ! He who sitteth aloft with the Father, is at that 
 hour held in the hands of all, and giveth Himself to 
 those who will, to enfold and embrace u ." " For when 
 they were eating and drinking, He took bread, brake 
 it, and said, 'This is My Body which is broken for 
 
 P Ep. liv. ad Januar., 8. 1 In S. Joh., Horn. Ixii. 1. 
 
 r In Ps. xxxiii. [xxxiv.] Serm. 5. n. 10. " Serm. 227, in Die 
 
 Pasch., iv. * Cont. Faust., xii. 10, t. viii. p. 231. u De Sa- 
 
 cerdot., Hi. 5, i. 382.
 
 526 AUTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 you for the remission of sins.' The initiated know 
 what I mean : and again, the Cup, saying, ' This is 
 My Blood, which is shed for many for the remission 
 of sins.' And Judas was present when Christ said this. 
 This is the Body which thou, Judas, didst sell for 
 thirty pieces of silver ; this is the Blood for which, 
 a little before, thou madest that shameless compact 
 with the reckless Pharisees V " The same who adorned 
 that Table, adorneth this too now. For it is not man 
 who maketh what lieth there to become the Body and 
 Blood of Christ, but Christ Himself who was crucified 
 for us y ." "For indeed His Body is set before us 
 now ; not His garment only, but even His Body ; 
 not for us to touch It only, but also to eat, and be 
 
 filled Believe, therefore, that even now it is that 
 
 Supper, at which He Himself sat down. For This is 
 in no respect different from That. For neither doth 
 man make This and Himself the Other, but both This 
 and That is His own work. When, therefore, thou 
 seest the Priest delivering It unto thee, account not 
 that it is the Priest that doeth so, but that it is Christ's 
 Hand that is stretched out. . . . For He that hath given 
 the greater, i.e. hath set Himself before thee, much 
 more will He not think scorn to distribute unto thee 
 of His Body. Let us hear, therefore, both priests and 
 subjects, what we have had vouchsafed to us; let us 
 hear and tremble. Of His Own Flesh He hath granted 
 us our fill; He hath set before us Himself sacrificed z ." 
 
 x De Prodit. Jud., 5. r Ibid., 6. 
 
 ' In S. Matt., Horn. 1. 3.
 
 OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 
 
 "That Table at that time was not of silver, nor that 
 cup of gold, out of which Christ gave His disciples 
 His Own Blood : but precious was everything there, 
 and awful, for that they were full of the Spirit a ." 
 " Purer than what sunbeam should not that hand be, 
 which is to sever this Flesh, the mouth that is filled 
 with spiritual fire, the tongue that is reddened by that 
 most awful Blood b ?" "I would give up my life rather 
 than impart of the Lord's Blood to the unworthy ; and 
 will shed my own blood rather than impart of such 
 awful Blood contrary to what is meet c ." "I say now, 
 if even a man's garment be what one would not ven- 
 ture inconsiderately to touch, what shall we say of the 
 Body of Him who is God over all, spotless, pure, asso- 
 ciate with that Divine Nature, the Body whereby we 
 are, and live ; whereby the gates of hell were broken 
 down, and the sanctuaries of Heaven opened? How 
 shall we receive This with so great insolence ? Let us 
 not, I pray you, let us not slay ourselves by our irre- 
 verence, but with all awfulness and purity let us draw 
 nigh to It ; and when thou seest It set before thee, 
 say thou to thyself, 'Because of this Body am I no 
 longer earth and ashes, no longer a prisoner but free; 
 because of This I hope for heaven, and to receive the 
 good things therein, immortal life, the portion of 
 angels, converse with Christ; this Body, nailed and 
 scourged, was more than death could stand against ; 
 this Body the very sun saw crucified, and turned aside 
 his beams; for This, both the veil was rent in that 
 
 Ibid., 3. b Horn. Ixxxii. 5. c Ibid., 6.
 
 528 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 moment, and rocks were burst asunder, and all the 
 earth was shaken. This is even that Body, the blood- 
 stained, the smitten, out of which gushed the saving 
 fountains, the one of blood, the other of water, for all 
 the world A .'" "And these things thou doest when thou 
 hast enjoyed the Table of Christ, on that day on which 
 thou hast been counted worthy to touch His Flesh witli 
 thy tongue. Whosoever thou art then, that those 
 things be not so, do thou purify thy right hand, thy 
 tongue, thy lips, which have become a threshold for 
 Christ to tread upon e ." " For it is in no common 
 manner that our lips are honoured when they receive 
 the Lord's Body f ." "And then, thus scrupulous as 
 thou art in this little matter, dost thou come with 
 soiled soul, and thus dare to touch It ? And yet the 
 hands hold It but for a time, whereas into the soul 
 It is received entirely g ." 
 
 Council of Carthage (under Aurelius), A.D. 398 or 
 401 : " That if need compel, the Deacon may, in the 
 presence of the Presbyter, at his bidding, deliver to 
 the people the Eucharist of the Body of Christ h ." 
 
 Philo Carpasius, of Cyprus, A.D. 401 : " These (the 
 deacons) bear the Body of Christ and His Blood, the 
 Head of the Church \" 
 
 Apostolical Constitutions, doubtless a very ancient 
 and authoritative workJ : "Those who bestow upon 
 
 d In 1 Cor. x. 16, Horn. xxiv. 7. e Horn, xxvii. 7. 
 
 1 Horn, xxx., 2 Cor. xiii. 12. * On Ephes. i., Horn. iii. 
 
 h c. 38. ' In Cant., c. 37. j See Dr. Pusey on 
 the Real Presence, pp. 605 8.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUP p EH. 529 
 
 you the Saving Body and the Precious Blood V " Let 
 the Deacons after the prayer, some attend exclusively 
 to the offering of the Eucharist, ministering to the 
 Lord's Body with fear 1 ." 
 
 St. Cyril, of Alexandria : " What is the cause and 
 efficacy of the mystical Eucharist? Why do we re- 
 ceive It within us? Is it not that It may make 
 Christ to dwell in us corporeally also by participation 
 and communion of His Holy Flesh m ." " We shut 
 to the doors, and Christ appeareth to us all visibly 
 and invisibly invisibly as God, and visibly again in 
 the Body, and He permitteth and giveth us to touch 
 His Holy Flesh. For according to the grace of God, 
 we approach to the participation of the mystical Eu- 
 charist, receiving Christ in our hands, that we too 
 may firmly believe that He hath truly raised His own 
 Temple 11 ." "If anyone should dare to say that the 
 Word of God was transformed into the nature of the 
 Body, one might very reasonably object to him, that 
 He, on giving His Body, did not rather say, 'Take, 
 eat, this is My Divinity which was broken for you,' 
 and ' This is not My Blood, but rather My Divinity, 
 which is shed for you.' But since the Word, being 
 God, hath made the Body, born of a woman, His Own, 
 without undergoing any alteration or change, how 
 was it not right and true that He said to us, ' Take, 
 eat, this is My Body?' For being Life, as God, He 
 made it both Life and Life-giving ." " I hear that 
 
 k ii. 33. l 1. ii. c. 57. m On St. John xv. 1, 1. x. c. 2. 
 
 n Ibid., in xx. 16. Adv. Nest., iv. 5. t. vi. pp. 118, 119. 
 
 M m
 
 530 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 they say that the mystic Eucharist is unavailing for 
 blessing, if a portion of it remain to the next day. 
 They are mad who say this. For Christ is not altered, 
 nor shall His Holy Body be changed ; but the power 
 of the Eucharist and the life-giving grace is abid- 
 ing in it P." 
 
 St. Isidore, of Pelusium : " If our God and Savi- 
 our, being made Man, gave the Holy Ghost to be the 
 completion of the Divine Trinity, both as being, in the 
 invocation of Holy Baptism, numbered together with 
 the Father and the Son as freeing from sins, and as, 
 upon the Mystical Table, making the common bread 
 the Very Body of His own Incarnation V' &c. " The 
 fine linen that is spread out underneath the ministry 
 of the Divine gifts, is the ministration of Joseph of 
 Arimathea. For as he, having wrapped the Body of 
 the Lord in fine linen, committed to the tomb that 
 Body, through which our whole race has gained the 
 fruit of the resurrection, so we, consecrating the shew- 
 bread upon fine linen, find undoubtedly the Body of 
 Christ, gushing forth for us with that incorruptibility, 
 which He whom Joseph attended to the tomb, the 
 Saviour Jesus, rising from the dead bestowed r ." 
 
 Theodotus, Bishop of Antioch, died A.D. 427: 
 " As the king himself and his image are not two 
 kings, neither are the Yery Personal Body of Christ, 
 (avro TO Xpicrrov crwjjia TO evvTroararov] , which is 
 in heaven, and the Bread, the antitype thereof, dis- 
 
 P Up. ad Calosyr., t. vi. P. 2, p. 365. 1 1. i. Ep. 109, ad 
 
 Marathon., p. 34. * 1. i. Ep. 123, p. 38.
 
 or THE LORD'S SUPPER. 531 
 
 tributed to the faithful by the priests in the churches, 
 two bodies." Thus he asserts the identity of the Body 
 of Christ in heaven and on the altar, and yet, in that 
 he speaks of the antitypes, distinguishes the outward 
 and inward parts. 
 
 Paulinus, the Deacon : " Honoratus also, priest of 
 the Church at Vercellae, when he had laid himself 
 down to rest in the upper part of the house, heard 
 three times the voice of one calling him, and saying 
 to him : ' Arise, make haste, for he is now about to 
 depart/ He, going down stairs, offered to the Saint 
 the Body of the Lord s ." 
 
 Eusebius, of Alexandria : " Be early then in the 
 Church of God, approach the Lord, confess to Him 
 thy sins, repent with prayer and a broken heart, abide 
 during the Divine and Holy Eucharistic service, com- 
 plete thy prayer, on no account leaving before the 
 dismissal. Behold thy Lord, divided in pieces and 
 distributed and not expended; and if thou hast thy 
 conscience clean, approach and communicate of the 
 Body and Blood V 
 
 St. Maximus, of Turin : " Fitly then, and as though 
 for a sort of fellowship, was it appointed that the 
 martyrs should be buried there, where the Lord's death 
 is daily celebrated, as He Himself saith : ' As often 
 as ye do this, ye do shew forth My death, till I come/ 
 So should they who died for His Death rest under 
 
 8 Vita S. Ambrosii, n. 47, ap. S. Ambrosii Opp. t. ii., App. p. xii. 
 1 Orat. de Die Dom. init., Gall. viii. 252, about A.D. 444. See for 
 an account of this Father, Dr. Pusey, Real Presence, pp. 449, 450.
 
 532 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 the mystery of His Sacrament. Fitly, I say, and as 
 though for a sort of fellowship, is the tomb of him 
 who was slain placed there, where the Lord's slain 
 Body is placed, that they whom the cause of one 
 suffering had bound with Christ, the sanctity of one 
 place might unite V 
 
 Theodoret : " Do not we, enjoying the holy Myste- 
 ries, communicate with the Lord Himself, whose Body 
 and Blood we say they are ? For we are all partakers 
 of that one Bread. How can we communicate with 
 the Lord through His precious Body and Blood, and 
 again with devils through meat offered to idols v ?" 
 
 As the "meat offered to idols" is something orally 
 received, " through which" idolaters communicated with 
 devils, so, plainly by force of the contrast, " the Body 
 and Blood" was orally received, " through which they 
 communicated with Christ." 
 
 While Theodoret states, that " after the consecration 
 the mystic symbols do not depart from their own 
 nature, for they remain in their former substance, and 
 figure, and form, and can be seen and touched as be- 
 fore x ;" he adds, " but in thought they are conceived, 
 and believed, and adored as being those things which 
 are believed x ." Moreover, he distinctly says, " we call 
 the mystic fruit of the vine, after the consecration, 
 the Lord's Blood." . . . "Thou knowest that God hath 
 called Bread His own Body ?," assuredly not untruly 
 nor unreally. 
 
 u Serm. 73, de Sanctis, prtccip. S. Cyprian. T In 1 Cor. x. 16, 17, 
 iii. 228. x Dial. ii. t. iv. p. 126, Sch. r Dial. L, Ib. p. 25.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 533 
 
 Theodotus, of Ancyra (he took a prominent part 
 against Nestorius in the Council of Ephesus) : " He 
 who then drew the Magi with unspeakable might to 
 holiness, hath now also to-day gathered together this 
 joyous assembly : He, no longer laid in the manger, 
 but lying on this saving Table. For that manger was 
 the mother of this Table. For that cause did He 
 lie in that [manger], that on this [table] He might 
 be eaten, and might to the faithful become Saving 
 Food*." 
 
 St. Peter Chrysologus : " The woman touched His 
 raiment, and was healed, and was freed from her long 
 weakness. Wretched we, who daily handle and re- 
 ceive the Body of the Lord, and are not healed of our 
 wounds a ." " Let Christians, who daily touch the 
 Body of Christ, hear how much medicine they can 
 take from the Body Itself, when the woman seized all 
 her health from the hem only of Christ b ." " Himself 
 is the Bread, which, sown in the Virgin, leavened in 
 the Flesh, kneaded in His Passion, baked in the fur- 
 nace of the Sepulchre, laid up in Churches, placed on 
 the altars, provides heavenly Food daily for the faith- 
 ful ." " He is Himself the Bread which cometh down 
 from Heaven : . . . . which is daily brought to the 
 Table of the Church for heavenly Food : which is 
 broken for the forgiveness of sins, which feeds and 
 nourishes them who eat It to life everlasting : this 
 Bread we daily ask to be given to us, until we enjoy 
 
 1 Horn, in Nativ. Dom. in Cone. Eph., p. 3, c. 9. 
 a Serin. 33. b Ibid. 34. c Ibid. 67.
 
 534 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 It wholly in that endless day d ." "He transmitted 
 His Body to the Table of the Church, that It might 
 be heavenly Flesh for the nations to eat unto salva- 
 tion e ." " I grieve, truly do I grieve, when I see 
 that the Magi poured gold around the cradle of Christ, 
 and I see that Christians have left empty the Altar 
 of the Body of Christ f ." 
 
 St. Proclus : " By such prayers then they looked 
 for the descent of the Holy Ghost, that by His Divine 
 Presence, He might make and declare the Bread of- 
 fered for sacrifice, and the wine mingled with water, 
 that very Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
 which takes place no less even until now, and shall 
 take place unto the end of the world &." 
 
 St. Leo : " Since the Lord says, ' Except ye eat the 
 Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye 
 have no life in you/ ye ought so to communicate of 
 the holy Table as to doubt nothing of the truth of 
 the Body and Blood of Christ ; for by the mouth is 
 that received which is by faith believed; and vainly 
 is Amen answered by them who dispute against what 
 they receive V " They neither learn by hearing, nor 
 understand by reading, what in the Church of God 
 is so concordantly in the mouth of all, that not even 
 by tongues of babes is the truth of the Body and 
 Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Communion 
 passed over in silence \" 
 
 d Serm. 71. e Ibid. 95. ' Ibid. 103. ? Tract, de 
 
 Tradit. Liturg. Div. h Serm. 91. l Up. lix. ad Cler. 
 
 et Pleb. Const., 2.
 
 or THE LORD'S SUPPER. 535 
 
 St. Nilus: "A leaf of paper made of papyrus and 
 size, is called mere (ylri.\bs) paper, but when it receives 
 the signature of the Emperor, it is (as is well known) 
 called Sacra. So conceive with me also of the Divine 
 Mysteries, that before the Intercession of the Priest, 
 and the descent of the Holy Ghost, the oblations are 
 mere (v/aXoy) bread and common (KOIVOV) wine ; but 
 that, after those dread invocations, and the coming of 
 the Adorable, Good, and Life-giving Spirit, the Obla- 
 tions, laid on the Holy Table, are no more mere 
 (^rCkov] bread and common (KOIVOV) wine, but the Pre- 
 cious and Immaculate Body and Blood of Christ, the 
 God of all, 'purifying from all iniquity* those who 
 communicate with fear and great longing k ." " Then 
 [the Angels] dispersed hither and thither over the 
 whole holy House, co-operating, each of them, with 
 the Bishops, Priests, and all the Deacons, there pre- 
 sent, who were administering the Body and venerable 
 Blood, they aided and strengthened them V " Let 
 us not approach to that Mystic Bread, as to mere bread 
 (v/rtXw aprw). For It is the Flesh of God ; Flesh 
 Venerable, and Adorable, and Life-giving. For It 
 quickens men dead in sins m ." 
 
 St. James, of Sarug : " From what time He took 
 it [the bread] and called it His Body, it was not 
 bread, but His Body, and they ate it, marvelling ; 
 eating His Body, and He lay with them at the 
 table, and drinking His Blood, and hearing the 
 
 k 1. L Up. 44. i 1. ii. Ep. 294. m 1. iii. Ep. 39.
 
 536 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 voice of His teaching n ." Again, on the Real Pre- 
 sence : " Our Lord divided His Body with His own 
 Hands at the table, and who dareth to say now that 
 it was not His Body? He said, 'This is My Body/ 
 and who averreth it not? If any aver it not, he is 
 no disciple of the Apostolate. The Apostles averred 
 it, and whilst He was alive, and lay at table with Him, 
 they ate Him/' He adds the reason : " Faith stoops 
 not to questionings. She knows how to accredit : to 
 scrutinize she never learnt. The chosen disciples were 
 anxious to hold true what the Son said ; not, to scruti- 
 nize or ask as shameless ones. The bread which He 
 brake, and called His Body, they knew to be His 
 Body : and so they accounted it, as if in very deed 
 its Blood were trickling ." 
 
 After stating the Supper of the Lord to be a Sacra- 
 ment of our redemption by Christ's death, the Article 
 proceeds, "Insomuch that to those who rightly, wor- 
 thily, and with faith receive the same, the Bread which 
 we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ." 
 
 Admitting the distinction of a Sacrament being 
 generally necessary, necessitate medii and necessitate prce- 
 cepti, and holding that the Holy Eucharist is thus 
 necessary on the latter ground P, it will be seen that 
 to a beneficial reception, everything must be done 
 which is necessary to secure on man's part the sub- 
 jective appropriation of the work of Christ. If Christ 
 
 n Serin. 66, de Pass. fiom. in Antirrliet., 2, cap. 9, p. 46, S.Ephr. 
 Opp. Syr. t. ii. 
 Ibid., c. 12, p. 50. P Lugo. De Huch., Dist. iii. 11.
 
 or THE LORD'S SUPPER. 537 
 
 on the cross be the Objective Atonement, Christ in the 
 Holy Mysteries rightly, worthily, and with faith re- 
 ceived is its subjective appropriation. The import- 
 ance of these words cannot be exaggerated. First, 
 the sacrament must be received rite, all that the 
 Church requires in the way of previous preparation 
 of repentance, according to the present discipline of 
 the Church, must be gone through. " Let a man ex- 
 amine himself, and so let him eat of that bread." He 
 must interpose between his sins and the Holy Mys- 
 teries such means as the Church has laid down in 
 different times, to secure a prosperous approach. This 
 has varied in different times. The penitential Canons 
 shew this in the early Church ; in the modern Roman 
 and Greek Church alike auricular confession is obliga- 
 tory before Communion in case of every mortal sin ; 
 whereas the Anglican Church admits all on contrition, 
 with the practice of confession in case of an unquiet con- 
 science, and of consequent scruple or doubtfulness, viz. 
 whether a person should or should not communicate. 
 
 And next it must be received digne. This applies to 
 the inward disposition of the heart. Not till a man is 
 really contrite for his sins is he justified in approaching 
 the Lord's Body. Confession and absolution without 
 a hearty sorrow for sin, springing, at least, from de- 
 testation of its foulness, will not avail to destroy the 
 past. We must repent for the love of Jesus, because 
 we have offended the kindest and tenderest of friends, 
 the Spouse and Lover of our immortal souls. Charity 
 is the form of contrition. The supernatural love of
 
 538 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 God is that which gives life to the sorrow for the past, 
 which otherwise would work death, as the Apostle 
 bears witness. Hence true sorrow for sin is lifelong, 
 and hence, in spite of the fullest faith in the ordinances 
 of grace and the fulfilment of the Lord's promises, the 
 cry of the penitent Christian is still "Amplius lava 
 me ab iniquitate mea," and he dies crying to his 
 Master, " Dimitte nobis debita nostra." 
 
 The question of " with faith" shall be treated more 
 at length as we proceed in considering the Article. 
 
 The doctrine of the real objective Presence being 
 certainly true, as being contained in our Blessed Lord's 
 own words, "This is My Body;" and attested by the 
 whole Christian Church from the times of the Apostles q , 
 it follows that some sort of change must have taken 
 place as to the elements through consecration. " Be- 
 fore/' as St. Athanasius says, " bare (tyiXos) is the 
 Bread and the Cup ; but, upon consecration, the Bread 
 becometh the Body ; the Cup, the Blood of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ 1 ." 
 
 This change was, in the oldest time, expressed by 
 the simplest terms 8 ; "It is," "It becomes;" or, in 
 prayer to God, " consecrate/' " perfect," " appoint," 
 " make s ." The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, and others 
 following him, use the words, " changing by Thy 
 Spirit." There are also other more emphatic, yet 
 
 i See Dr. Pusey, " The Heal Presence of the Body and Blood of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ the Doctrine of the English Church j" and "The 
 Defence of the Bishop of Brechin." 
 
 * See above, p. 511. ' See Dr. Pusey, pp. 252254.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 539 
 
 rare words, occurring once or twice only in each father 
 who used them, " transmake," " transelement," " trans- 
 fashion," "re-order," "transfigure," " transfer *." 
 
 Against any of these, the English Church has never 
 made any exception ; but only to a specified sense of 
 the word " transubstantiate," which is popularly taken, 
 not as implying a change in the ovaia, or " essence," 
 of a material thing, but the desition of the material 
 substances of which that creature of God is composed. 
 The word, " substance," " substantially," came to have 
 stress laid upon it through the heresy of Berenger. 
 That talented, bountiful, but vain- glorious and dis- 
 honest man, used the terms of the Church in an 
 unreal sense. He made no difficulty in professing 
 that " the Bread of the Altar, after consecration, is the 
 very Body of Christ, which was born of the Virgin, 
 which suffered on the Cross, which sitteth at the right 
 hand of the Father ; and the Wine of the Altar, after it 
 is consecrated, is the true Blood, which flowed from 
 the side of Christ u ." But he meant, (as he explains him- 
 
 * /teTairoie'o), once by St. Gregory of Nyssa, and once by Tkeodoret, 
 translating St. Ambrose; juerao-roixeKta once in the same passage of 
 St. Greg. Nyss. ; (ttra$v6ftim and /uTa<r/ceua&>, each once by St. 
 Chrysostom; "transfiguro" twice by St. Ambrose; "trausfero" hi 
 the Galilean Sacrameutary. 
 
 u This was in the Council of Lateran, 1078. (See Martene and 
 Durand, Thes. Nov. Anecd., iv. 103.) Berenger states that the con- 
 lession was accepted by Gregory VI., as clearing him from heresy at 
 a convention of Bishops, on All Saints' Day [A.D. 1078] ; that in 
 a Council in the following Lent this amended form was substituted : 
 " I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth, that the Bread and 
 Wine, which are placed on the Altar, are, by the mystery of holy 
 prater and by the words of our Redeemer, substantially converted into
 
 540 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 self,) only by representation * ; he assailed impetuously 
 the belief, that the Body of Christ, which is at the 
 
 the Irue and proper and life-giving Body and Blood of Jesus Christ 
 our Lord ; and are, after consecration, the true Body of Christ, which 
 was bom of a Virgin, and which, offered for the salvation of the world, 
 hung upon the Cross, and which sitteth on the right hand of the 
 Father, and the true Blood of Christ, which was shed from His side, not 
 only by the sign and virtue of the Sacrament, but in its own proper na- 
 ture, and the truth of its substance." (Ib. 104.) Berenger, after explain- 
 ing these words away in his own fashion, says that he declined accept- 
 ing them as an exposition of his meaning, understanding that the Pope 
 was satisfied with his own statement, but that finding he was required 
 to own, and "did own, prostrate on the ground, that" he "had up 
 to that time erred, in that when" he " said of the sacrifice of the 
 Church, that ' the Bread and Wine consecrated on the altar are the 
 Body and Blood of Christ,'" he "had not added, 'substantially.'" 
 This he recanted. (Ib., pp. 108, 109.) 
 
 * The following statements, from his second answer to Lanfranc, 
 are pure Calvinism, but they agree with what Lanfranc says of him at 
 an earlier period: "Not seen are the Body and Blood of Christ, which 
 are laid up in heaven, because if before the time of the restitution of all 
 things thou layest down that the Flesh of Christ can, (I say not, be seen 
 by the bodily eyes,) but be anywhere upon the earth, thou dost against 
 the prophecy of David, against the Apostle Peter, against his co- Apostle 
 Paul, against all authentic Scripture. But thou dost lay down, that 
 the Flesh of Christ, being called down (devocatam), is, before the time 
 of the restitution of all things, present, when thou assertest that the 
 faithful receive nothing else from the altar except the Flesh and Blood 
 of Christ (sensualiter), which is so against the grounds of faith, that none 
 of the faithful ought to think that he receives to the refreshment of his 
 soul ought save the Flesh of his Lord God, whole and entire. Yet not 
 called down from heaven, but abiding in heaven, which no reason 
 allows to take place by the mouth of the body ; but that it should be 
 done by that most enlarged devotion of the heart, cleansed to see God, 
 is hindered by no indignity, by no difficulties; to which, i.e. to the 
 devotion of the heart, to the gaze of the soul, St. Ambrose necessarily 
 draws you, (will you, nill you,) in the book wherein lie exhorts to 
 receive the Sacrament of the altar." (Bereng. de S. Ccena adv. Lanfr., 
 pp. 157, 158, ed. Neander.)
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 541 
 
 right hand of God, is brought down thence so as to be 
 present here ?. He rejects contemptuously the belief of 
 
 " Christ the Lord requires of thee, that thou shouldest believe that by 
 His most pitying love towards the human race, it was wrought that He 
 shed His Blood, and, by so believing, shouldest wash thee from all sin by 
 His Blood (sanguine for sanguinem) ; He requires that, having ever in 
 memory that same Stood of Christ, thou shouldest place the life of thy 
 inner self in it, as a viaticum to accomplish the journey of this life, as 
 thou settest the life of thy outer self in external food and drink." 
 Then, after speaking of Baptism, " He requires that through the bodily 
 eating and drinking, which takes place through the outward things, the 
 bread and wine, thou admonish thyself of the spiritual eating and 
 drinking, which takes place in the mind from the Body and Blood of 
 Christ, while thou refreshest thyself in thy inner self with the Incarna- 
 tion and Passion of the Lord, that according to the humility whereby the 
 Word was made Flesh, and the patience whereby He shed His Blood, 
 thou form the life of thy inner self with what humility thou oughtest, be 
 eminent in what patience thou oughtest, that thou acquiesce in them, 
 rejoice in them, as, in thy outer self, thou acquiescest in thy food and 
 drink. For thou hast no reason to shrink from eating bread and drink- 
 ing wine, because it is, as St. Ambrose says in this very treatise on the 
 Sacraments, ' a wonted and known creature.' But making an inference 
 from the washing, which takes place in regeneration through the Blood 
 of Christ, in the refreshment of the altar, he says, as thou hast 
 received the likeness of death, so thou drinkest the likeness of His 
 precious Blood." (Ibid., pp. 222, 223.) Lanfranc had charged him with 
 this, in his answer to the recantation of the confession, to which he 
 swore at the Council of Rome : " Thou boldest that the bread and wine 
 of the Lord's table, at the consecration, remain, as to the substance, 
 immoveable. That is, that they were bread and wine before consecra- 
 tion, and are bread and wine after consecration, and that they are 
 therefore called the Flesh and Blood of Christ, because they are cele- 
 brated in the Church in memory of the crucified Flesh, and of the Blood 
 shed from His side, that we, being thereby admonished, may ever have 
 in mind the Passion of the Lord, and, so bearing it in mind, may un- 
 ceasingly crucify our flesh with its vices and affections." Lanfranc well 
 adds, "If these things be true, the Sacraments of the Jews were better 
 and Diviner than the Sacraments of Christians." (B. P. xviii. 775, fin.) 
 
 y See in note x. He had said in his former book, " Who can either
 
 542 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 Lanfranc in an actual substantial Presence, which he 
 repeatedly calls by a scoffing term, (of which he knew 
 that it did not express that belief,) " portiuncula 
 carnis et sanguinis z ." The term " substantialiter," 
 which he complains of being required to add to his 
 confession at the Synod at Rome, was necessary to 
 prevent evasion, in that he confessed that the Bread 
 
 conceive by reason, or grant that by miracle it could come to pass, that 
 bread is broken in the Body of Christ, which [Body], after the Resur- 
 rection, is perfect with entire incorruptibility, and, unto the time of the 
 restitution of all things, remains in heaven indevocalle." (B. P. xviii. 
 770, in Lanfr. de Corp. Dom., c. 17.) Lanfranc answers, "As to this, 
 that thou opposest the incorruption of the Lord's Body, and that, until 
 the Day of Judgment, it cannot be called down (devocari) from heaven, 
 as a ground of impossibility to our faith, whereby we believe that He 
 is truly eaten hy His faithful, thou either dost not understand our faith, 
 or understanding it, strivest, by expounding it amiss, to deprave it 
 to thy own destruction. For we in such wise believe that our Lord 
 Jesus Christ is truly and healthfully eaten by those who receive wor- 
 thily, as to hold most assuredly that He exists in the heavenly places, 
 undented, uncorrupt, uninjured." 
 
 z The phrase occurs so often in his second book against Lanfranc, as 
 evidently to have been a favourite term of reproach with him. He uses 
 it also twice in his answer to Adelmann : " Mine, or rather the cause of 
 the Scriptures, stood thus, that the Bread and Wine of the Lord's table, 
 is not sensualiter, in a way cognisable by the senses, but intellectually, not 
 by absumption, but by assumption, is changed, not into a portiuncula 
 carnis against the Scriptures, but, according to the Scriptures, into the 
 whole Body and Blood of Christ." And " it is not the opinion but the 
 insanity of Paschasius and the vulgar, that in the altars a portiuncula 
 of the Flesh of the Lord is now, too, broken with the hands, is now, too, 
 crushed by the teeth of the outer man." (Epist. Purgator. c. Almann 
 in Martene and Durand. Thes. Nov., t. iv. p. 111.) His meaning under 
 the term portiuncula must be, that whereas, according to his own 
 opinion, he fed on Christ whole and entire, at the right hand of God, 
 only a portiuncula of His Body and Blood could be present under the 
 consecrated species. He calls it "particula carnis Christi" (Ib.)
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 543 
 
 and "Wine were the Body and Blood of Christ, but 
 only as reminding us of them. It was the conviction 
 of his contemporaries that this was his heresy a , and the 
 
 * Adelmann states to Berenger what was said of him, both in Italy and 
 Germany, that he seemed to think " of the Body and Blood of Christ, 
 immolated daily on the holy Altars throughout the earth, otherwise 
 than the Catholic faith holds ; viz., (to use their words of thee) that 
 there is neither true Body of Christ nor true Blood, but a certain 
 figure and similitude." (Ep. ad Bereng., B. P. xviii. 438.) Berenger, 
 in his answer, evades this by saying that he "was never a Manichsean; 
 i.e. that he believed that the Body of Christ was true and human." He 
 adds, " When I grant that anything is given [dari, Mab.] to become the 
 Body of Christ, then, since Christ had only a true Body, I must grant 
 that it becomes the true Body of Christ. But I grant that the Bread 
 and Wine of the Altar, after consecration, become, according to the 
 Scriptures, the Body and Blood of Christ ; and therewith I cannot but 
 grant that the Bread and Wine are made to faith and intellect the true 
 Body and Blood of Christ." Distinguishing the res sacramentorum 
 from the sacramenta, he says: "it is true nevertheless that the true 
 Body of Christ is set forth on the very Table, but spiritually true to the 
 inner man ; that in it [the Table] the Body of Christ is spiritually eaten 
 uncorrupted, uncontaminated, unattrite, by those only who are mem- 
 bers of Christ." (Epist. Purg. c. Almann., p. 110.) See also ab. note x. 
 Hugo, Bishop of Langres, writes to him, " Thou sayest, speaking too 
 largely, ' In this Sacrament the Body of Christ is in such wise, that 
 the nature and essence of the Bread and Wine is not changed/ and 
 thou makest the Body, which thou hadst said was crucified, intellectual, 
 wherein it is most evident that thou confessest it incorporeal." ( Tract, 
 de corp. et sang. Christi cont. Berengar., B. P. xviii. 417.) Abbot Durand 
 treats the explanation of the Berengarians as mere colouring of their 
 heresy. [Satan] "has persuaded some to think, and with cunning whis- 
 pers to convey to others, that nothing in the Sacraments of the Lord is 
 done according to truth, but rather that everything is enacted in figure 
 and likeness. Who, cunningly to free themselves of the suspicion of 
 heresy, and to shew their agreement with the Lord's teaching, cloak 
 themselves with this cunning act, and so, tampering, colour their dogma 
 of profane novelty, as to say that the Bread and Wine, which are 
 brought to the altar, after consecration too, remain what they had 
 been, and so are, in a manner, the Body and true Blood of Christ, not
 
 544 ARTICLE XX VIII. 
 
 Catechism of the Council of Trent says, that the cor- 
 
 naturally, but figuratively. But if this great perverseness be anywise 
 admitted, that in the mysteries of the Lord there be believed to be no 
 truth, but a shadowy falsehood is alone maintained, what remains but 
 that the whole teaching of the Christian profession perish ?" (De corp. 
 et sang, Dom., P. i., Bibl. P. xviii. 420.) "God forbid that we should 
 be joined in like faithlessness with men so perverted, and from the 
 truth itself averted, and in the Holy Communion of the Lord's Body 
 and Blood, we should confess aught less than the Catholic Church 
 throughout the whole world preaches ; in which there is, in truth, as 
 true Flesh of Christ and true Blood as Christ Himself is truthful, 
 Who first sanctified them, and gave to His own thereafter the autho- 
 rity and form of sanctifying them by His own power." (Ib., P. ii. p. 421. ) 
 "It being understood that thou didst extol John Scot [Erigena], con- 
 demnest Paschasius, boldest things contrary to the common faith of the 
 Church, a sentence of condemnation was promulgated against thee, 
 depriving thee of the communion of the Holy Church, which thou 
 busiedst thyself to deprive of its Holy Communion." (Lanfranc (to 
 Berenger) de corp. et sang. Dom., c. 3, B. P. xviii. 765.) " Berenger, of 
 Angers, formed a heresy after his own name, and contrary to Evangelic 
 truth, presumed to deny the truth of the Body and Blood of the Lord ; 
 asserting that, in the sacrifice of the Lord, the Bread and Wine are not 
 really or essentially, but figuratively only, converted into the Body and 
 Blood of the Lord. Pope St. Leo IX. then diligently examined the heresy 
 by the general judgment of a synod, and, after examination, condemned 
 it by a synodal judgment. Berenger himself he deprived of the com- 
 munion of the Church, which he by bis assertions wished to deprive of 
 the communion of the Lord's Body and Blood. Then he summoned 
 him to be heard at the then approaching synod, to be held on the next 
 September at Vercellse. The Apostolicus by synodal judgment condemned 
 the opinion of Berenger, and the book of John Scotus on the Body of 
 the Lord, under anathema, and confirmed the faith, which all Catholics 
 have hitherto had and still have, of the truth of the Body and Blood of 
 the Lord." " At the General Synod at Tours, Berenger anathematized 
 under oath his own heresy, and under the same oath promised that he 
 would thenceforth keep the common faith of the holy Church, as to the 
 truth of the Body and Blood of the Lord." (Auct. de Berengarii 
 damnatione multiplici (written A.D. 1088, the year of Berenger's death) 
 in Cone. xi. 1425, ed. Col.) Of the Joannes Scotus, whom Berenger
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 545 
 
 rection of this error was the object of the definition of 
 
 professed himself ready to vindicate, Ascalinus says that he argued 
 vehemently against the Heal Presence. "I see that John Scotus 
 strains with every nerve and his whole intent to this alone, viz., that 
 this which is consecrated on the Altar is neither truly the Body nor 
 truly the Blood of Christ. This he endeavours to establish from works 
 of the Fathers, which he explains perversely : as the prayer of St 
 Gregory, ' Let Thy Sacraments, O Lord, perfect in us what they con- 
 tain, that what we act in figure, we may receive in real trnth.' In ex- 
 pounding this the aforesaid John, among other things contrary to the 
 faith, says, ' these things are done in (specie) appearance, not in truth.' " 
 Theodosius, in his letter to Henry I. of France, states the heresy to be 
 that they [Bruno, Bishop of Angers, and Berenger, of Tours] maintain 
 that the Body of the Lord is not so much a body as a figure and 
 shadow of the Lord's Body. (Cone. xi. 1437, Col.) Guitmund alone 
 says that some of his disciples ascribed to him " impanation." In 
 answer to Roger, who mentions the common belief, "Berenger and 
 those who follow him assert that the Eucharist of the Lord is not truly 
 and substantially the Body and Blood of the Lord, but is only called 
 so, because it is a sort of shadow and figure significant of the Body 
 and Blood of the Lord," Guitmund says, that as far as he could 
 extract from some Berengarians, "some say that there was nothing 
 whatever of the Body and Blood of the Lord in that Sacrament, but 
 that they are only shadows and figures. But some, ceding to the right 
 reasons of the Church, yet not receding from their folly, that they may 
 seem to be in some measure with us, say that the Body and Blood of 
 the Lord are there really contained but in a hidden way, and that they 
 may be received (so to speak) impanated. And this they say is the 
 more subtle mind of Berengarius himself." (T>e corp. et sang. Christi 
 veritate in Euch., L. i. B. P. xviii. 441.) Undoubtedly Berenger often 
 veiled his attack on the doctrine of the Real Presence, under the sem- 
 blance of an attack on the belief that that which decayed was the Body 
 of Christ. The then belief of some (e.g. of Guitmund himself) that the 
 Holy Eucharist did not nourish, and that the consecrated elements 
 never decay (Guitmund, ib., L. ii.), which the Roman Church has aban- 
 doned, gave him an advantage in this respect, in that some of his 
 opponents shrunk back from an evident truth. But no one, I think, 
 who knows Berenger's utter dishonesty, can doubt that this was but 
 a veil of his real attack. The expression, too, of horror at bis bias- 
 
 N n
 
 546 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 the Council of Lateran b . And, accordingly, the Canon 
 uses the word, " is transubstantiated," but the whole 
 stress is on the Real Presence. " c The Same is the 
 Priest and the Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, "Whose Body and 
 Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar are truly contained 
 under the species of Bread and Wine ; the Bread being 
 transubstantiated into the Body, and the Wine into 
 His Blood, that for the perfecting of the mystery of 
 unity, ice may receive of His, what He received of ours 
 [Flesh and Blood]." In the writings against Berenger, 
 "truly" and "essentially" are used as equivalent to 
 " substantially d ." 
 
 Lanfranc, when appealing against Berenger to the 
 
 phemies (See Cone. Brian. Cone. xi. 1430, Cone. Paris., ib., 1436) is not 
 jikely to have been elicited, had there been a reverent acknowledgment 
 of the Real Presence. 
 
 b "Another means remains by which we may investigate the judgment 
 of the Church on matters of faith, viz., the condemnation of the con- 
 trary doctrine and opinion : but it is a known fact that so universally 
 ditl'useti and disseminated throughout the Universal Church at all times, 
 and so unanimously received by all the faithful, was the belief of the 
 Real Presence of Christ's Body in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, 
 that when, five hundred years since, Berengarius dared to deny it, 
 asserting that it was only a sign of Christ's Body, he having been 
 promptly condemned by the unanimous voice of the Council of Vercellac, 
 convoked by the authority of Leo IX., anathematized his heresy ; sub- 
 sequently returning to the same impious madness, was condemned bv 
 three other Councils, one held at Tours, the other two at Rome, of 
 which latter two, one was convened by Nicholas II., the other by 
 Gregory VII. ; the same sentence was afterwards confirmed by Innocent 
 III. in the great Council of Lateran; and the faith of the same truth 
 was subsequently more openly declared and established by the Councils 
 of Florence and Trent." (Cat. Eom., p. ii. c. 4, qu. 29.) 
 
 c Cone. Lai., iv. can. 1. d See above, note a.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 547 
 
 faith of the Church throughout the world, uses no 
 other language than we should use now. What he 
 affirms of Latins, Greeks, Armenians, and all who are 
 called Christians, he might have affirmed of us now. 
 " If that is true which thou believest and supportest as 
 to the Body of Christ, false is that which is believed 
 and supported thereon by the Church throughout the 
 world. For all who rejoice in being, and being called, 
 Christians, glory that they receive in this Sacrament 
 the true Flesh of Christ and His true Blood, both 
 taken from the Virgin. Ask all who have received 
 any knowledge of the Latin language and of our 
 letters. Ask Greeks, Armenians, or any Christians 
 whatsoever, of whatsoever nation, they attest with 
 one mouth, that this is their faith e ." 
 
 It is self-evident that the English Article does not 
 go directly against the Council of Lateran : (1.) be- 
 cause the term " transubstantiatio" is a subordinate 
 part of the Lateran Canon; (2.) because, (as we shall 
 
 e Adv. Bereng., c. 22, B. P. xviii. 776. In like way we should all 
 subscribe to Ascalin's protest to Berenger : " With Paschasius and 
 other Catholics, I am not only minded, but with veneration I receive 
 that the Very Body and Very Blood are taken by the faithful on the 
 Altar under the species of Bread and Wine." (Epist. ad Bereng. in 
 Cone. xi. 1434, Col. Again, " We ought not to wonder or doubt that 
 God can effect, that this which is consecrated on the Altar, is by the 
 virtue of God the Holy Ghost, and the ministry of the Priest, united 
 to that Body, which our Redeemer took of the Virgin Mary, (since each 
 is a corporeal substance, each is visible,) if we remember that we our- 
 selves are compacted of a corporeal and incorporeal, of a mortal and im- 
 mortal substance ; if, lastly, we firmly believe that the Divine and 
 Human Nature met in One Person. Let dust and ashes unfold to me 
 the explanation of the first and second, and then let it think that 
 it suffices to make clear the first." (Ib., 1435.)
 
 548 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 see hereafter) even of the statement in which it occurs, 
 our Article does not even touch upon the most im- 
 portant part, the change "into the substance of the 
 Body and Blood of Christ;" (3.) because there is 
 ground to think that two entirely distinct meanings, 
 and those not having the slightest bearing upon one 
 another, have been given to the word " substance." 
 
 The solution of what difficulty remains will be found 
 in the meaning attached to that word. Does the 
 word mean natural substance? the component parts, 
 the constitutive principles which chemistry makes 
 known to us, or is it the subtle essence, subsistence, 
 the ova la, which corresponds to personality in men 
 and angels ? This can only be determined by a com- 
 parison of the Article with other documents of the 
 Church, and with the context of the Article itself. 
 
 I. The other document of the Church in which the 
 doctrine of Transubstantiation is treated of is the 
 Black Rubric at the end of the Communion Service, 
 the history of which forms a significant commentary 
 on our exposition. 
 
 It is well known that a declaration in form like this, 
 but containing a mighty and vital difference, was, with- 
 out the consent of the Church, and apparently without 
 any authority but that of the Privy Council, appended 
 to King Edward's Second Book. It had apparently 
 been discussed among the bishops, and no deter- 
 mination come to, and at last, before publication, it 
 was put out and bound up with that edition of the 
 Prayer-book.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 549 
 
 It disappeared from the Prayer-book of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, and was not taken in by King James. 
 
 At the last revisal in Charles the Second's time, to 
 meet as far as possible the scruples of the Puritans, 
 on their petition, it was agreed f that the Declaration 
 should be for the first time assumed into the Prayer- 
 book by competent authority as we should now hold, 
 but a total and radical change was made before it was 
 deemed orthodox and admissible. The courtiers of 
 King Edward had denied that there was any " real or 
 essential presence there being of Christ's natural flesh 
 and blood." The divines of King Charles could not 
 assent to this, so they altered the words, into "any 
 corporal presence of Christ's natural flesh and blood." 
 The emphatic word here is " corporal/' which is a very 
 different thing. Heal or essential implies the quidditas 
 or substantia of the Schoolmen; corporal, one of the 
 qualities of the same. 
 
 Now in this document we find that it is not the 
 metaphysical ovaia that we are concerned with, but 
 the natural substance. "The Sacramental Bread and 
 Wine remain still in their very natural substances." 
 Natural substance here is equivalent to the (^vais, or 
 natura, of Pope Gelasius and Theodoret. 
 
 II. The context of the Article further confirms this 
 interpretation. 
 
 Four results are said to spring from it. Four con- 
 comitants are in the tenor of the Article said to attend 
 
 f CardweU's Confer., p. 322.
 
 550 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 upon Transubstantiation. 1. That it cannot be proved 
 by Holy Writ ; 2. that it is repugnant to the plain 
 words of Scripture ; 3. that it overthroweth the nature 
 of a Sacrament ; 4. that it has given occasion to super- 
 stition. 
 
 1. and 2. Now it is perfectly clear, that so far from 
 the pera/SoXi] in the Holy Sacrament being improbable 
 on the grounds of the letter of Scripture, it is the sacra- 
 mental theory which comes nearest to that letter ; for 
 our Lord did not say, ' This is joined with My Body,' or 
 ' this signifies My Body/ or ' this represents My Body/ 
 or 'this has the power and efficacy of My Body/ but 
 "This is My Body." It is evident that the letter 
 of Holy Bible alludes to a deep inward mysterious 
 change, whereby what was bread is called, and is, 
 Christ's Body. 
 
 "The Bread and the Wine is not TUTTO? of the 
 Body and Blood of Christ. God forbid. But it is the 
 very (avrb) deified Body of that very (avrov) Lord, 
 who said, This is of Me, not the type of the Body, 
 but the Body, and not the type of the Blood, but the 
 Blood e." 
 
 Yet the plain words of Scripture, in that they 
 freely use the word "bread" to describe the Blessed 
 Sacrament after consecration, go against the desition 
 of the signum therein. 
 
 3. The Article does not charge Transubstantiation 
 with the common incorrect argument that it contra- 
 
 t St. John Dam., Orth.fid., 1. iv. c. 13.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 551 
 
 diets the senses, but that it overthrows the nature 
 of a Sacrament. Now this greatly helps us in our 
 view that it is not the abstract theory of a change, but 
 the incorrect physics which are condemned. Such 
 a change only is excepted against, as would involve 
 a physical desition of what before existed in such wise, 
 that the visible sign of That which is invisible should 
 have no real existence. 
 
 There is no argument so strong against this abuse 
 of the Scholastic theory of Transubstantiation as the 
 natural one, connected with the thought of its de- 
 stroying the nature of a Sacrament, derived from the 
 controversies of the fifth century with regard to the 
 Xatures and Person of our Lord. The Monophysite 
 heretics wished to teach that our Lord's Body was 
 now changed into a Divine substance, and they illus- 
 trated it by the supernatural change of the sacramental 
 symbols. This was met in the face by Orthodoxus : 
 " You are taken in the net which you have woven ; 
 the mystic symbols do not, after consecration, depart 
 from their own nature ; they continue in the former 
 essence and shape, and are visible and palpable as 
 before; but in thought they are conceived, and be- 
 lieved, and adored, as being those things which are 
 the objects of faith V 
 
 The same assertion is made by Pope Gelasius in his 
 
 treatise De Duabus Naturis, a tractate which, though 
 
 doubted by some Roman theologians, is quoted by 
 
 St. Fulgentius only nine years after its publication, 
 
 h Theodoret, Eranistes.
 
 552 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 and therefore must be genuine. An indirect argument 
 like this stands on the ground of circumstantial evi- 
 dence, which, though hardly a safe guide where none 
 other exists, adds indefinitely to certainty when it 
 operates in confirming direct testimony. Granting 
 the existence of that whole class of authors who 
 admit that in the Holy Eucharist there is an earthly 
 and a heavenly nature, this incidental argument conies 
 in with tremendous power, nothing having been less 
 in the mind of the authors at the time, than to make 
 any declaration on the subject, so vexed in after times, 
 i.e. the desition of the signuni in the Holy Eucharist. 
 
 And yet if this analogy is quoted for the continued 
 existence of the signum, it is only just that it should 
 be extended to that which is supplied by the similitude 
 of the entire doctrine of the Incarnation. Given that 
 our Lord exists in two natures, there is but one Divine 
 personality which determines the mode of existence of 
 those natures. Analogically, therefore, given that the 
 two natures remain in the Blessed Sacrament, the per- 
 sonal existence of it must be Divine, and therefore the 
 soul will not rest in the outward sign, but will rise to 
 the thought of the Thing signified, and dwell therein 
 by faith and loving contemplation. It is as a result of 
 this that the Fathers, when they speak of the Holy 
 Sacrament, speak of it only by the name of the in- 
 ward part. 
 
 4. The last assertion is that the coarse view of Tran- 
 aubstantiation has given rise to many superstitions. 
 This goes very much to enforce what has been said
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 553 
 
 above. People would not have asserted that any honour 
 was superstitious which was paid to the Presence of 
 our Lord in the Sacrament, but they would say that it 
 was superstitious to use the blessed Sacrament for pur- 
 poses for which it never was intended, and which have 
 never been sanctioned by the Church; for example, 
 it would be superstitious to bury the Sacrament with 
 the dead, or to mix It with ink for the purpose of 
 signing the condemnation of a heretic, as was done in 
 the case of the Synod of Rome in 648, in the matter of 
 the Monothelites. 
 
 Again, it would not be superstitious to believe, that 
 as in the case at Bolsena, (assuming the circumstance 
 to be true,) our Lord attested the truth of His pre- 
 sence in the Sacrament by an appearance of blood ; but 
 it would be superstitious to believe that that appearance 
 was physical, that it was our Lord's Blood, and as such 
 be received. And so, it would be superstitious to be- 
 lieve that those appearances of Christ as a little child 
 in the Sacrament, which have been said from time to 
 time to have been vouchsafed to God's servants, was 
 the actual body of our Lord in its natural condition. 
 
 All that the letter of the Article denies, is that by 
 virtue of the words of consecration such a change 
 takes place in the proportions and conditions of the 
 elemental substances now mentioned, that the same 
 component parts which before made up the forces of 
 bread, now make those of flesh and blood. This is not 
 the case even as to human food. Bread and Wine are 
 commuted into flesh and blood ; but the same physical
 
 554 
 
 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 component parts are not present in each *. Much less 
 have we any occasion to think of anything so earthly, 
 under the name " substance," i.e. " essence" of Bread 
 and Wine, since it is confessed on all hands that " our 
 Saviour Himself ever sitteth at the Hight Hand of the 
 Father in heaven, according to His natural mode of 
 existence," while He is " sacramentally present with 
 us by His own substance," not in any carnal way, but 
 "by that mode of existing, which although we can 
 hardly express in words, we may, through thought 
 illumined by faith, understand to be possible to GodV* 
 And here it is of moment to draw attention to an- 
 other important change in our present Article. Bishop 
 Geste, who said of the Article, " that it was of mine 
 owne pennynge," (that is, obviously so much of it as 
 was new in the final revision), caused to be struck out 
 all mention of the terminus ad quern, i.e. "into the 
 
 1 The following analysis of the component parts of wheat, flesh, and 
 blood, has been furnished to me hy an eminent physiologist : 
 
 Oxygen 
 
 Hydrogen 
 
 Carhon 
 
 Nitrogen 
 
 Sulphur 
 
 Phosp. Lime and Magnesia 
 
 Pot. and Soda, (Phosp., &c.) 
 
 Chlor. Soda 
 
 Iron (Ox. and Phosp.) 
 
 Silicon 
 
 k Cone. Trid., Sess. xiii. c. 1. 
 
 Wheat. 
 
 Flesh. 
 
 Blood. 
 
 43-40 
 
 21-39 
 
 2] -43 
 
 5-80 
 
 7-57 
 
 7-17 
 
 46-10 
 
 51-83 
 
 51-95 
 
 2-29 
 
 15-01 
 
 15-07 
 
 0-03 
 
 0-03 
 
 0-05 
 
 1-06 
 
 0-64 
 
 0-29 
 
 0-75 (potass) 
 (Salt in bread) 
 (?) occasional 
 0-03 
 
 3-09 
 0-44 
 
 (?) 
 
 1-17 
 
 2-40 
 0-47 
 
 o-oo 
 
 accidental from 
 
 
 
 husks. 
 
 
 
 100-00 
 
 100-00 
 
 100-00
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 555 
 
 substance of Christ's Body and Blood ;" and restricted 
 the rejection of the word Transubstantiation to the 
 terminus a quo, "the change of the substance of the 
 Bread and Wine." This alteration is much stronger 
 than if the words which he omitted had never stood ; 
 for the omission was a deliberate act. It shews evi- 
 dently that of the former complex explanation " the 
 change of the substance of bread and wine into the 
 substance of Christ's Body and Blood/' the only point 
 excepted against was a change in the substance of 
 Bread and Wine. 
 
 It remains to consider what the Article means as 
 to this, which alone remains as a difficulty. 
 
 Substantia is manifestly, by the force of term, some 
 one thing. It concerns us not so far, whether it be 
 material or immaterial ; only it may be observed that 
 we do not know what matter itself is. Chemistry, 
 whose employment is the analysis of the compound 
 objects of which our senses are cognisant, has (at least 
 as represented by one of its most eminent discoverers ') 
 set aside the idea that matter is compounded of atoms. 
 He says, "To my mind a, or the nucleus, vanishes, 
 and the substance consists of the powers, or m. And, 
 indeed, what notion can we form of the nucleus, in- 
 dependent of its powers? All our perception and know- 
 ledge of the atom, and even our fancy, is limited to 
 the ideas of its powers. What thought remains, on 
 which to hang the imagination of an a, independent 
 
 1 Professor Faraday, in a paper on the Nature of Matter, in the 
 " Philosophical Magazine," Feb., 1844, p. 141.
 
 556 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 of the acknowledged forces ? Now the powers we know 
 and recognise in every phenomenon of the creation, 
 the abstract matter in none; why, then, assume the 
 existence of that, of which we are ignorant, which 
 we cannot conceive, and for which there is no philo- 
 sophical necessity?" 
 
 All which we know of are certain " forces." What 
 is the unity which holds them together we know not. 
 But one thing cannot, at the same time and in the 
 same sense, be many things. The substantia of bread 
 and wine cannot be what we mean by the physical 
 substances, i.e. all those component parts which are 
 united in it. This is but to say that we use a singular 
 and a plural in different senses. Every crumb of a 
 piece of bread would, if detached, have its own sub- 
 stantia ; but also every crumb of a piece of bread would 
 have in it all those things which the whole has 
 oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, &c. And the component 
 parts, or, as we popularly call them, substances, can- 
 not be the same as substance. "Substance" is some- 
 thing beyond them. St. Thomas says that " substance 
 is discerned by the intellect alone, and not by sense." 
 But these component parts of bread may, by analysis, 
 be made discernible by sense. Now what those who, 
 believing our blessed Lord's Presence in the Sacrament 
 of the Altar, alone desiderate, is, not to be required 
 to believe what, in things of which the senses are 
 cognisant, would contradict them. The Catechism of 
 the Council of Trent meets these difficulties by saying, 
 that " the Eucharist is, after consecration, called bread,
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 557 
 
 because it has the appearance, and still retains the 
 quality, natural to bread, of supporting and nourishing 
 the body m . It says that this natural quality is retained, 
 not that it is restored by the creation of fresh materia, 
 or by the bringing back of the old miraculously, or 
 by any other miracle, which the explanations of the 
 Schoolmen presupposed. All Christians must believe 
 any miracle which comes to them by authority. But 
 no authority is alleged for these. They are only 
 opinions of the Schoolmen, and those, mutually con- 
 tradictory. This " natural power of nourishing," of 
 which our senses are cognisant, is the only remaining 
 property of natural substances, which the Anglican 
 formularies can include, when they speak of the " bread 
 and wine remaining in their natural substances," i.e. 
 that they have all the characteristic properties which 
 our senses can discern. Those formularies do not refer 
 to any abstract questions about " substance." 
 
 But now even natural philosophy comes in to our 
 aid. It is pretty well agreed that material bodies con- 
 sist of a number of unextended forces. " Some of these 
 forces are permanent, others are visible; for while 
 the substance remains the same, the phenomena are 
 perpetually varying. Each body, therefore, may be 
 considered to be a collection of changeable forces, re- 
 sulting from the activity of a great substantial force. 
 It is evident that the shifting forces may be looked 
 upon as qualities, emanating and radiating from a 
 central force, which is the permanent source of them 
 m P. ii. c. 4, q. 38.
 
 558 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 all, and which is the substance. It is also clearly 
 conceivable, that these forces should remain after the 
 central force or substance is gone n ." 
 
 Now this is just the distinction which was needed. 
 We do not at all understand what the ova-la or substau- 
 tia of anything is. We can conceive that it is, not ichat 
 it is. It seems, according to these last explanations, 
 to be that, which constitutes a thing what it is, that 
 which lies at the bottom of its being. It is deeper and 
 more recondite than anything which affects our senses, 
 even than those forces which "naturally support and 
 nourish our bodies." If this be so, the question is at 
 an end. There is but one belief as to the presence of 
 Christ, that He, " our Saviour, Who now sitteth at the 
 right hand of the Father in heaven according to His 
 natural mode of existence, is yet present to us by His 
 substance sacramentally ." The question has relation 
 only to the Bread and Wine, what the Roman Church 
 means by the " substanti" which it affirms to cease to 
 remain, and we by the "substances" which we affirm 
 to remain. If "substance" means no more than its 
 Greek equivalent, ovcria, "essence;" and if the term, 
 " is transubstantiated," means no more than those old 
 words, "becomes," "is;" and if, by it, the Roman 
 Church only means to guard with greater accuracy our 
 blessed Lord's words, " This is My Body," not contra- 
 dicting anything which we know by experience, not 
 basing a theology upon a supposed illusion of our 
 
 n Dalgairns, " The Holy Communion," App., note F., p. 423. 
 Cone. Trld., 1. c.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 559 
 
 senses, but only asserting that that "quidditas" (what- 
 ever it be) whereby the bread was bread, is removed, 
 leaving all those forces of which alone we are cogni- 
 sant, then, God be thanked, Who has said to a great 
 mountain which stood between us, " Be thou a plain." 
 There is nothing in such a statement which our Article 
 denies, or which could form a difficulty to any soul, 
 which believed the blessed Presence of our Saviour, of 
 His Body and His Blood. 
 
 " The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in 
 the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual 
 manner." One cannot exaggerate the importance of 
 the words given, taken, and eaten. "The Body of 
 Christ," observe how completely the Article adopts 
 the old nomenclature ; it does not say the Sacrament 
 of the Body of Christ, but Corpus Christi, the Body of 
 Christ, shewing that what was in a partial way de- 
 scribed in the beginning of the Article, from its effects 
 as a partaking of the Body, is objectively the Body 
 itself. "The Body of Christ" is first given, that is, by 
 the Priest, or rather by the Great High-Priest, through 
 the ministry of His earthly representative. It is next 
 taken, first into the hand of the communicant, there- 
 fore the Body is something external to him who takes 
 it; it is objective and independent of anything in him. 
 It is Christ's Body before he takes it. It is given to 
 him in what the Priest gives him, and that, the Article 
 says, is the Body of Christ. The heavenly and spi- 
 ritual manner applies equally to all the three. It is 
 given in a heavenly and spiritual manner, for the
 
 560 ARTICLE XXVIIT. 
 
 whole action is supernatural. It is taken in a heavenly 
 and spiritual manner, for we have here to do with the 
 order of grace, not the order of nature. It is eaten 
 after a heavenly and spiritual manner, for " It is the 
 Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." 
 The explanation of the term " only," is best left to its 
 author, Bishop Geste. 
 
 Yet once more, the words, " The Body of Christ 
 is given, taken, and eaten, only after a spiritual and 
 heavenly manner," contain the doctrine of an Objec- 
 tive Presence. For it is said not only given and re- 
 ceived, which might imply something which takes 
 place within the soul only, but given, taken, and eaten, 
 which implies an external act on the part of the person 
 receiving. The "taking" and "eating" are two dis- 
 tinct acts i. 
 
 i It is vain to say, as some have said, that this has no force. The 
 very arguments used to disprove its force add to it. It has been said 
 (and these are the strongest cases which they can produce) that even 
 Calvin says, "Nihil dubito quin et Ipse vere porrigat et ego accipiam." 
 Accipio, in Calvin's sense, is "receive," not "take." 
 
 The formula of the Conference at Poissy (1561 ), " Confitemur Jesum 
 Christum in cocna nobis offerre, dare, et vere exhibere substantiam sui 
 corporis et sanguinis, operatione Spiritus sancti, et nos recipere et edere 
 spiritualiter et per fidem verum illud corpus quod pro nobis mortuum 
 est" (quoted from Hospinian, Hist. Sacram., ii. p. 520), was not 
 a genuine, "reformed" statement, but a form in which the reformed 
 statement had been re-moulded by the Roman Catholic theologian 
 Despense. It has also an important qualification at the close, which 
 Beza supplies in his account of the Conference. (Histoire Ecclesi- 
 astique des Eglises Reformees, t. i. p. 382, ed. 1841.) Nothing could 
 be more hollow than this attempt to state the Calvinistic doctrine, so 
 that it might pass with the Queen Mother and the French politicians 
 and the Galilean divines.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 561 
 
 The accurate language of this clause is further illus- 
 trated by what was deliberately rejected on revision. 
 In the Articles of 1553, there had been a sentence in 
 these terms : " Forasmuch as the truth of man's nature 
 requireth that the body of one and the self-same man 
 cannot be at one time in diverse places, but must needs 
 be in one certain place : therefore the Body of Christ 
 cannot be present at one time in many and diverse 
 places. And because (as Holy Scripture doth teach) 
 Christ was taken up into heaven, and there shall con- 
 tinue unto the end of the world, a faithful man ought 
 not either to believe or openly to confess the real and 
 bodily presence (as they term it) of Christ's flesh and 
 blood in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper." In the 
 Parker Latin MS. of 1563, the following clause was 
 here added, but struck out in the Synod : " Christus, 
 in ccelum ascendens, corpori suo immortalitatem dedit, 
 naturam non abstulit ; humane enim nature verita- 
 tem (juxta Scripturas) perpetuo retinet, quam uno et 
 definito loco esse, et non in multa, vel omnia simul 
 
 The real meaning of this ambiguous statement is further illustrated 
 by Beza himself: " Jesum Christum, verum Deum et verum hominem 
 per visibilia signa nobis offerri, ut mentes nostrae fide in coelum, ubi 
 nunc est Christus, sublatse Ilium spiritualiter contemplentur, et omni- 
 bus Ip<ius bonis et thesauris perfruantur : idque tarn certo et vere quam 
 nos videmus accipimus edimus et bibimus corporalia et visibilia signa." 
 (Ib., p. 514.) Beza's party explained the "Sancti Spiritus opera- 
 tione" to be that " fide et Spiritus S. operatione, mentes nostrse, quarum 
 hie est prsecipue cibus, in coelum elatse perfruantur corpore et sanguine 
 prsesente." (Ib., p. 521.) Beza also maintains, " Quaereudum esse in 
 ccena Christum eo modo quo esset antequam carnern induisset." 
 (Ib., p. 513.) 
 
 O O
 
 562 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 loca diffundi, oportet. Quum igitur Christus in coelum 
 sublatus ibi usque ad finem seculi permansurus, atque 
 inde, non aliunde, (ut loquitur Augustinus,) venturus 
 sit, ad judicandum vivos et mortuos, non debet quis- 
 quam fidelium, et camis ejus et sanguinis, realem et 
 Corporalem (ut loquuntur) praesentiam in Eucharistia 
 vel credere vel profiteri T ." The dogmatic importance 
 of these deliberate rejections must not be undervalued. 
 
 The clause in the Article which we are consider- 
 ing, contains first the fact that the subject we have 
 treated of is the Body of Christ in the Supper. And 
 all the assertions made concerning it are that its 
 mode of existence is absolutely supernatural. What 
 is heavenly and spiritual cannot be liable to the laws 
 of physics. It is something emphatically mysterious. 
 The relation of the Body of Christ to the species of 
 Bread and Wine is so wondrous that the mind fails 
 to grasp it, and only dares to use language with re- 
 gard to it which has been sanctioned by the Church. 
 Thus we may properly say without figure that the 
 Body of Christ is fed upon, but only in an improper 
 sense may we say that it is broken, according to the 
 words 
 
 " Xulla rei fit scissura 
 Signi tantum fit fractura." 
 
 All these matters find their ultimate term in the diffi- 
 cult question whether it can be said that Christ is 
 locally in the Sacrament s , " of which we may in brief 
 
 1 See H&rdwick, pp. 312, 313. 
 
 St. Too 3 ., qusBst. 75, art. 1, and 76, art. 5.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 563 
 
 lay down, that the Body of Christ, if it be compared 
 with the form of bread, is not in them as in a place, 
 because as the substance of bread is not said to be in 
 its accidents as in a place, so neither does the Body 
 of Christ which succeeds to it under those accidents. 
 But, if the Body of Christ be compared with the place 
 of the species, it can be so compared in two ways ; 
 either as the Body of Christ according to itself, or as 
 denominated by and invested with the species. In 
 this second consideration, the Body of Christ may be 
 said to be in that circumscribed place, not properly, 
 but improperly, and secundum quid ; for as, by reason 
 of the species, we in an improper sense say it is seen 
 and handled, because the species are seen and handled, 
 so, for the same reason, we may improperly say that, 
 because the species are circumscribed by space, It also 
 is. Lastly, if the substance of the Body of Christ ac- 
 cording to itself be compared to place, it is not said to 
 be in place physically and in a circumscribed fashion 
 or quantitatively; for although it be there properly, 
 yet it is not by a circumscription ubi, because the res 
 ubicata corresponds with the parts of space by its own 
 parts, and in this sense St. Thomas denies that the 
 Body of Christ is locally in this sacrament V 
 
 We proceed to consider " the means whereby the 
 Body of Christ is received and eaten." 
 
 The words of the Article must, both (1) on account 
 of the literal meaning, and (2) in reference to the con- 
 text, be confined to the subjective act of communi- 
 * Lugo, Disp. vi. iii. ed. Migne, 223.
 
 564 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 eating. The passage does not mean that Faith makes 
 the difference between its being the Body of the Lord, 
 or not the Body of the Lord which is received and 
 eaten ; it does not mean that Faith is that which 
 makes the distinction between a real presence and 
 a real absence of the Body of Christ : but it means 
 that the condition of reception on the part of the re- 
 cipient, according to Christ's ordinance and the inten- 
 tion of the Church, that is, for the spiritual good of 
 the said recipient, is Faith. 
 
 Observe the words "received and eaten." These, 
 in their literal sense, are essentially subjective. They 
 describe what is necessary on the part of the commu- 
 nicants to a beneficial partaking, and they mean no 
 more, for we must now compare the words with the 
 preceding clause of the Article. The preceding clause 
 has stated the supernatural and mysterious nature of 
 the whole transaction. " The Body of Christ is given, 
 taken, and eaten in the Supper," there is the whole 
 action, after a Heavenly and Spiritual manner, in 
 a way that transcends the senses, in the order of grace 
 and not in the order of nature ; and Bishop Geste, the 
 author of the Article, tells us that his own insertion 
 of the word "only" does not militate against the 
 objectivity of the Presence. But when we come to 
 consider the office of Faith in the matter, there is 
 a remarkable omission. It is asserted that the whole 
 action is Heavenly and Spiritual, by avouching that 
 the Body is given, taken, and eaten; when we speak 
 of Faith it is said merely that it is received and eaten.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 565 
 
 The word " given" is the differentia between the two 
 statements, and in the word " given" there is bound 
 up the whole question of the reality and objectivity of 
 the Presence. 
 
 This view of the real meaning of the Article is sup- 
 ported by the response in the Scottish Communion 
 Office at the awful moment of reception. The com- 
 municant is directed to answer to the words of the mi- 
 nister, "Amen." What does this mean? It means 
 what it meant in the ancient Church, from which the 
 custom is derived. In the early Church the earliest 
 words were alone, " the Body of Christ, the Blood of 
 Christ," to which the faithful assented " Amen." The 
 disciple of St. Ambrose gives the interpretation, " So 
 then not idly dost thou say Amen, already thereby 
 confessing in spirit that thou receivest the Body of 
 Christ. The Priest sayeth to thee, the Body of Christ, 
 and thou sayest Amen, i.e. true. What thy tongue 
 coufesseth let thy affections retain u ." 
 
 The statement in the Article is in perfect harmony 
 with the language of the ancient Church. It would 
 be unnatural if in the glowing language of Liturgies 
 and Fathers the high office of Faith should not be 
 fully recognised. 
 
 When, in 1661, the words " with faith" were added 
 to the words " draw near" in the English office, the 
 apparent source from which they were taken was the 
 Liturgies of Armenia, Jerusalem, St. Chrysostom, and 
 St. Basil. All say, " Approach with the fear of God, 
 
 u De Sacr., 1. iv. c. iv.
 
 5C6 ARTICLE XXV11I. 
 
 and faith and love." The love is omitted in the Ar- 
 menian. What was this but to say to the people, 
 It is by Faith that you will profitably partake of these 
 holy mysteries. 
 
 And this again is most emphatically set forth in 
 the Confession of the Eucharistic Faith, which, in va- 
 rious forms, is so prominent in the Liturgies of Egypt 
 and Ethiopia x . As for example : 
 
 " The holy, precious, living, and very Body of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is given for re- 
 mission of sins and life eternal to those who receive it 
 with faith. Amen. 
 
 " The holy, precious, life-giving, and very Blood of 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is given for 
 remission of sins, and eternal life to those who receive 
 it with faith. Amen. 
 
 " This is the Body and Blood of Emmanuel, in very 
 truth. Amen. I believe, I believe, I believe, hence- 
 forth and for evermore. Amen. 
 
 " This is the Body and Blood of our Lord and Sa- 
 viour Jesus Christ, which He took of the holy and 
 pure Virgin Mary. . . . 
 
 " I believe, I believe, I believe that His Divinity 
 was not divided from His humanity, no, not for an 
 hour, nor the twinkling of an eye. He gave Himself 
 for us to salvation, remission of sins, and life eternal, 
 to those who receive them (the Body and Blood) with 
 faith. I believe, I believe, I believe, henceforth and 
 for ever." 
 
 * Renaudot, vol. i. p. 520.
 
 or THE LORD'S SUPPER. 567 
 
 Tins is only the richest specimen of a class of these 
 Confessions. For another, taken from the Coptic Li- 
 turgy of St. Basil, vide Neale's " Introduction to His- 
 tory of the Eastern Church." So also in the Western 
 Church >'. From the Leonine Sacrarnentary, take the 
 following: " Adesto quaesumus Domine plebi tuao; ut 
 quse muxwt jideiiter, et mente sirnul et corpore, te pro- 
 tegente, custodiat." 
 
 So also St. Gregory : " Da nobis . . . ut sancta tua 
 . . . semper fideli mente sumamus z ." 
 
 This language of primitive antiquity bears witness 
 to the fact that faith is the appointed instrument for 
 reception of that which (in the sublime words which 
 the ancient Liturgy of the "West, embodying, as we 
 may believe, the tradition of the Apostles, has not 
 feared to put in juxtaposition with the very words of 
 the divine Consecrator,) is emphatically Mi/sterium 
 Fidci. 
 
 The necessity of the office of Faith in devout recep- 
 tion must be ever present in our view. It is indeed 
 Mi/sterium Fidei in ways and senses far beyond what 
 the course of controversies has elicited, or indeed what 
 our mind can ever exhaust. If ever faith have an 
 office in our approaches to God, it is when we kneel 
 before His altar. 
 
 " The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by 
 Christ's ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, 
 or worshipped." 
 
 The Latin version here is suggestive. Hitherto the 
 
 T Muratori Lit. Rom., i. 3G9. * Ibid., ii. 43.
 
 568 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 rendering of the term "Lord's Supper" has been Ccena 
 Domini; here, as in the preceding clause touching 
 Transubstantiation, we have the ancient word Eu- 
 charistia, Ev^aptarla a . And it is necessarily used not 
 for the ceremony, but for the Divine Gift ; that which 
 was the result of consecration ; the " Elements," as 
 they are popularly termed by a phraseology in which 
 the common language has preserved a sense of the un- 
 speakable mysteriousness of that most august Sacra- 
 ment 1 *. 
 
 The Article does not prohibit the practices men- 
 tioned, but merely states that the reservation, circum- 
 gestation, elevation, and adoration of the Sanctissimum 
 is no part of Christ's institution. "Such ceremonies 
 may be, and are, omitted without breaking our Lord's 
 enactment touching the Eucharist. The Church might 
 leave them out, and yet leave the whole of His institu- 
 tion untouched. So much is really the whole amount 
 of the prohibition, as far as the sentence is con- 
 cerned c ." 
 
 That the Sacrament of "the Eucharist," as the Latin 
 Articles term it, was not by Christ's ordinance reserved 
 is admitted on all hands. The Council of Trent asserts 
 that "it was instituted that it might be received" 1 ," 
 but the Church has from the earliest times reserved 
 the Holy Sacrament, regarding it as a most precious 
 pledge from heaven and the miracle of divine love. 
 
 a See the word JEucharistia in Ducange's Glossary. 
 b Ignat., Smyrn., n. 7; Phil., n. 4; Justin, Apol., 5. 65, Iren. iv. 
 18, n. 5. ' J. Keble. d Se s. xiii. cap. 5.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 
 
 St. Justin Martyr says, that after celebration, the Eu- 
 charistic Elements were sent by the hands of the Dea- 
 cons to those not present 6 . A touching instance of 
 this is recorded in the act of the martyrdom of St. 
 Lucian f . In the second century it was the custom for 
 Bishops to send It as a token of peace and unity B. 
 That the Eucharist was reserved in the Church under 
 both kinds from the fourth century, is proved by St. 
 Chrysostom in his letter to Pope Innocent 11 , where 
 the Saint describes the outrages of the soldiers in the 
 church of Constantinople. At Nola It was kept in 
 a golden casket \ which was laid up in the sanctuary. 
 And this is probably the meaning of what Anastasius 
 writes in his Life of Pope Nicholas, " Fecit autem ut 
 in Basilica Salvatoris cruces de argento purissimo 
 quse pendent ante figuram substantiae carnis ejusdem 
 Dni. N. J C. k " 
 
 St. Basil not only mentions that in times of persecu- 
 tion the faithful were constrained to take the Com- 
 munion into their own hands, and that the solitaries 
 in the desert had to have recourse to the same prac- 
 tice, but mentions that it was the ordinary use of the 
 Church of Alexandria, and asks, " Ought they not to 
 believe that That which they carry home 1 in their 
 
 e Apol., i. 68, p 52, Oxf. Tr. f Act. 8. Luc. op. Sur. 
 
 e Ep. Irencei ad Victor, ap. Euseb. H. E., v. c. 24. 
 
 u Ep. ad Innocent., PP. apud D. Constant., t. i. p. 783. ' Amb., 
 Ep. iv. n. 4. k Vide Ducange. 
 
 1 " Eucharistiam domum delatam et in area servatam, scribunt Tertul- 
 lianus sub finem libri ad Mart., lib. ii. ad uxor. S. Gyp., lib. de lapsis. 
 S. Aug., lib. iii. Cont. Crescon., cap. 11 ; Bas., in Epist. celxxxix.; Joan.
 
 570 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 hands, is the Same Thing which they receive in church 
 at the hands of the Priest m ." This custom, which was 
 universal, is believed to have lasted till the Papacy of 
 Hormisdas, A.D. 514, and to have be"en retained even 
 longer in the East. It was also reserved in long 
 journeys by land and by sea n . The custom lasted till 
 the Crusades . 
 
 Becket carried It round his neck on the occasion 
 of his going in search of Henry II. "When the ordeal 
 by 6re was proposed to be resorted to, to test whether 
 the Pope was right in excommunicating Savonarola, 
 his friend, Fr. Dominic, who was to make the fiery 
 trial, held It in his hand. 
 
 Anciently the Sacrament was reserved at the con- 
 secration of bishops and at the ordination of priests, 
 to be consumed by them during the forty days after 
 the ceremony p , and it was frequently buried with the 
 dead q . 
 
 So also for the communion of infants and of the 
 sick, and for the Missa Prcesanctificatorum both in the 
 Roman, Greek, and Milanese Churches. In fact, till 
 
 Moschus, cap. 29. 79 ; Vernm id Canon 3 Cone. Csesaraugustani 
 vetitum, quo anathematizatur is qui Eucharistise Gratiam acceptam in 
 ecclesia non coiisuinpserit. Tide Baron., An. 57, n. 149, 150 ; An. 293, 
 n. 2. Cone. Tolet., i. cap. 14 ; Capitul., lib. vii. cap. 473." Ducange 
 in verb. Eucharistia. 
 
 m Ep, cclxxxix. ad Ces. Pat. 
 
 n S. Amb., de Mort. Sat. ; S. Greg., Dial, iii. 37, &c. 
 
 Vit. S. Lauren. O'Toole, Archiep. Dub., Apud Surium. 14 Nov.; 
 cap. 8, t. vi. 313 ; Vit. S. Ludomci, Reg. Fr., 25 Aug. ,- t. iv. 912. 
 
 P Ord. Romanus, Epist. Fulbert ad Erhard. 
 
 1 S. Greg., Dial., ii. 24.
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 571 
 
 the thirteenth century, we have distinct evidence that 
 in different ways, sometimes in a ciborium, sometimes 
 suspended over the altar enveloped in veils, some- 
 times in tabernacles in the form of a dove, some- 
 times in aumbries beside the altar, sometimes along 
 with images and relics of the saints, sometimes under 
 baldachins, and sometimes in towers a few feet from 
 the high altar, the blessed Sacrament was reserved 
 with great dignity and honour. The practice of re- 
 serving the blessed Sacrament for the sick has ob- 
 tained in the Scottish Church, by an unwritten tra- 
 dition, since the days of the Non-jurors. 
 
 The carrying about of the Blessed Sacrament in 
 solemn procession is a ceremony of the Western 
 Church. It does not exist in the orthodox Eastern 
 Church, nor in the English Church; neither do any 
 of the Eastern heretical Churches practise it. It is 
 impossible to fix the exact date of the commencement 
 of the practice. On the one hand, the opinion of 
 those who would maintain that it took its rise in 
 Pavia in 1404, on the authority of Donatus Bossius, 
 a jurisconsult of Milan r , is contradicted by history; 
 on the other hand, that of those who make it syn- 
 chronize with the authorization of the Festum Corporis 
 Christi by Urban IV. in 12G4, is confuted by the 
 silence of Durandus writing in 1286. It is, however, 
 alluded to in documents of the Church of Chartres, 
 1339 : of Sens, 1320 ; of Tournay, 1323. Cassander 
 maintained that it is certain that the Feast was not 
 r Chron, a Mundi init. ad an. 1492.
 
 572 ARTICLE XXVIII. 
 
 instituted by Urban IV. for the exposition of the 
 Blessed Eucharist, but that the faithful should as- 
 semble in great numbers in the churches, there to 
 sing the praises of God, and to prepare themselves 
 by acts of piety to participate worthily on that day, 
 and receive it with respect. The celebrated Cardinal 
 Groper, the ornament of the Church of Cologne, in- 
 veighed against many of the abuses connected with 
 this ceremony, so late as 1560. St. Carlo Borromeo, 
 in the acts of the Council of Milan, puts restrictions 
 on the public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 8 . 
 The feast was celebrated at Liege fourteen years be- 
 fore the Bull of Urban, and did not become universal 
 till after the Council of Vienne in 1311. 
 
 " The Sacrament was not by Christ's ordinance lifted 
 up." In spite of the text in St. Paul's Epistle to the 
 Galatians, where in allusion to the divine mysteries, 
 it is said that Jesus Christ is set forth verily crucified 
 before their eyes 4 , we cannot trace back this custom 
 to Apostolic times. In a certain form we find some- 
 thing of the kind very anciently practised in the 
 Greek Church u . 
 
 In the Western Church there is no allusion to it in 
 the early Sacramentaries of Gelasius, Leo, or Gregory, 
 nor in the works of St. Isidore of Seville, or Rabanus, 
 
 Tit. De Sac. Euch. De Expos, in orat., 40 horarum. 
 
 1 Gal. iii. 1. 
 
 " Longe post orationem dominicam brevi tamen ante communionem 
 spatio, juxta Jacobi, Basilii et Chrysostomi Liturgias, Dominicum 
 Corpus, non ita ut a populo conspicatur elevat Graecus Sacerdos." 
 (Goar, not. 158, in Miss. Chrys., p. 143. col. 2.)
 
 OF THE LORD'S SUPPER. 573 
 
 or Walafride, or any of the ancient writers who explain 
 the ceremonies of the Church. It is when we come to 
 mediaeval times, that the practice is recognised, such 
 as in the Speculum Ecclesia of Hugh of St. Victor ; 
 in Hildebertus of Le Mans x (A.D. 1136). It is con- 
 stantly alluded to in the Provincial Synods of the 
 thirteenth century, as also by Durandus*. The eleva- 
 tion of the chalice does not obtain among the Greeks, 
 and is by no means universal among the Latins. 
 
 It is unnecessary to go into the question of the 
 worship of our Lord in the Sacrament, after the ex- 
 haustive treatise of John Keble, TOV ^aKapirov, to 
 which the reader is referred. 
 
 1 De Offic. Miss. ' Rationale Div. Off.
 
 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 DE MANDUCATIONE CoRPORIS CHRISTI, ET IMPIOS 
 ILLUD NON MANDUCARE. 
 
 IMPII, et fide viva destituti, licet carnaliter, et visibilitcr 
 (ut Augustinus loquitur) Corporis et Sanguinis Christi 
 Sacramentum, dentibus premant, nutto tamen modo 
 Christi participes efficiuntur. Sed potius tantae rci 
 Sacramentum, seu Symbolum, ad judicium sibi man- 
 ducant, et bibunt. 
 
 " Of the Wicked ichich eat not the Body of Christ 
 in the Use of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 "THE wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, 
 although they do carnally and visibly press with their 
 teeth (as St. Augustine saith) the Sacrament of the 
 Body and Blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they 
 partakers of Christ, but rather to their condemnation 
 do eat and drink the sign or Sacrament of so great 
 a thing." 
 
 THIS Article was first published in 1571. It is 
 wanting in all the printed copies till that date. It 
 is found in the Parker Latin MS. of 1563, and in the 
 Parker English MS., 1571 ; also in the Latin edition 
 of 1571, printed by John Day, and published by the 
 Queen's authority. It does not appear in the early
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 575 
 
 printed copies of the Articles as finally put forth 3 . 
 The passage from the supposed treatise of St. Augus- 
 tine, which, extruded by the Benedictine editors from 
 that author, is found in Bede, Alcuin, and others, was 
 distinctly verified by a reference to the treatise from 
 whence it is taken b . The Twenty-ninth Article was re- 
 adopted on the llth of May, 1571, and finds its place 
 in all the printed copies of that date, whether English 
 or Latin. We must account for the hesitation with 
 regard to its enunciation on the grounds either of 
 Queen Elizabeth's own feelings, or on those of the 
 scruples of her advisers. In fact we know that an 
 interview took place on the subject between Parker 
 and Cecil , where the latter called in question the 
 fairness of the quotation from St. Augustine. 
 
 The doctrine concerning That which is received 
 by the wicked in the Holy Sacrament, stands in 
 a middle position between two truths, with e'ther of 
 which it must be reconciled. On the en; hand, 
 regarding the blessed Sacrament as the food of the 
 soul and the subjective appropriation of the merits 
 of Christ, remembering also that the Sermon on this 
 doctrine, in the sixth chapter of St. John, is entirely 
 silent on the subject, we must hold that there can be 
 no beneficial reception to those in a state of sin ; that 
 it cannot act as a charm in the case of those who are 
 unprepared ; that so far are they from the blessedness 
 
 Hardwick, p. 128, n. 2. b ibid., p. 140. 
 
 c Strype's Parker, p. 331.
 
 576 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 of union with Christ, that it were far better that they 
 had not approached those holy mysteries. On the 
 other hand, it is equally true that the Holy Commu- 
 nion is such by virtue of consecration ; that Christ's 
 presence does not depend upon the mental emotion and 
 spiritual condition of the recipient ; that the Sacrament 
 is what it is by the power of the institution of Christ. 
 If this be so, wherein shall we reconcile these apparent 
 contradictions? It is found in the fact that Christ 
 is, in certain cases, present in the Sacrament, not to 
 bless, but to judge that reception of the Sacrament 
 by the wicked conveys something more serious than 
 a negation that the wicked not only do not receive 
 grace, but do receive judgment. 
 
 The language of the Article means that the res 
 Sacramenti is received by the wicked ; and the great 
 voice of antiquity, with the exception of some passages 
 in St. Augustine, supports this view. 
 
 It is in entire conformity with the teaching of the 
 Epistle to the Corinthians : " Wherefore whosoever 
 shall eat this bread and (or) drink this cup of the 
 Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and 
 Blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, 
 and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that 
 cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, 
 eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not dis- 
 cerning the Lord's body d ." 
 
 Unless the Bread and the Cup be what we believe 
 
 d 1 Cor. xi. 27.
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 577 
 
 Them to be, how can an unworthy communicant be 
 guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ ? On any other 
 theory he may be ungodly, irreverent, profane, even 
 sacrilegious ; but on this theory alone can these terri- 
 ble words be used in their truth, " Guilty of the Body 
 and Blood of the Lord." What else can they mean 
 than that to receive the inward part, the Body and 
 Blood of Christ, unworthily, is to be guilty in that 
 very respect ? 
 
 Again, in the next verse, the Apostle supplies the 
 way and means towards avoiding that profanation 
 "Let a man examine himself/' The whole Church 
 system of penitence is here placed between past sin 
 and the Holy Communion. The lapsed Christian is to 
 purge his unworthiness by examination, and its con- 
 comitant exercise of repentance. 
 
 And all this in view of the dreadful results of a neg- 
 lect of these means, for he that eateth and drinketh 
 unworthily eateth and drinketh Kpipa, 'judgment/ 
 which our translators have rendered by the verv strong 
 
 / / O 
 
 word 'damnation;' and why? because they do not 
 discern "the Lord's Body." Bengel says, "Domini 
 Antonomasia, i.e. Jesu. Ecclesia non dicitur corpus 
 Jesu aut corpus Domini, sed corpus Christi, hie igitur 
 de proprio corpore Domini Jesu agitur." 
 
 How could the Lord's Body be discerned, if It was 
 not there ? Why should St. Paul give this reason for 
 these fearful condemnations falling upon the irreverent 
 sinner, if there were no presence of the Lord to be 
 violated no ineffable condescension to be disdained. 
 
 p p
 
 578 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 In the words of St. Chrysostom e , commenting on the 
 words, " Not discerning the Lord's Body/' - " not 
 searching, not bearing in mind as he ought, the great- 
 
 * 
 
 ness of the things set before him not estimating the 
 weight of the gift, For if thou shouldst come to know 
 accurately, Who it is that lieth before thee, and WJio 
 He is who giveth Himself, and to whom, thou wilt 
 need no other argument, but this is enough for thee 
 to use all vigilance." 
 
 The argument from St. Paul rests partly on the 
 whole tenor of what he says in this passage, partly on 
 his very express words. That first argument from the 
 whole context may be stated syllogistically in this 
 fashion : 
 
 Unworthy communicants either receive something 
 besides bread and wine, or they do not. 
 
 If they receive nothing but bread and wine, their 
 sin is not greater in kind than the misuse of any other 
 ordinance, e.g. prayer. 
 
 But St. Paul plainly teaches that it is greater in 
 kind, that it is something sui generis, a sin standing by 
 itself. It is to be guilty of, or in relation to, the Body 
 and Blood of Christ. 
 
 Therefore they who are so guilty cannot be receivers 
 of nothing but bread and wine. 
 
 And there being no alternative between real absence 
 and real presence, they must in some sense receive 
 Christ, the inward part of the Sacrament. 
 
 But, distinct from, and over and above this, is 
 
 Horn. 28. in 1 Cor., sect. 2.
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 579 
 
 St. Paul's remarkable phrase, the most characteristic 
 and doctrinal expression in the passage, that which 
 St. Paul assigns as the ground why to " eat and drink 
 unworthily/' is to eat and drink damnation to them- 
 selves, viz. fj,rj Sia/cplvcav TO trw^a rov Kvpiov, fj,r) 
 Sia/cplvfov, that is, not discerning in the Latin sense 
 not discriminating between the Body of the Lord and 
 all other foods. But there would be no blame in not 
 so discriminating between the Body of the Lord and 
 other food, unless that Body were present there. 
 
 If these words of the Apostle may be turned aside 
 from their meaning, there is no safety for the reten- 
 tion of any plain and explicit statement of the Word 
 of God. 
 
 The formularies of the Church rightly understood 
 support the view that the res Sacramenti is received by 
 the wicked. 
 
 1. In the exhortation before the actual reception we 
 are told " For as the benefit is great, if with a true 
 penitent heart and lively faith we receive that Holy 
 Sacrament (for then we spiritually eat the Flesh of 
 Christ and drink His Blood ; then we dwell in Christ, 
 and Christ in us : we are one with Christ, and Christ 
 with us) ; so is the danger great if we receive THE 
 SAME unworthily." "Whether " the same" here applies, 
 according to the strictness of construction, to "the 
 Flesh of Christ," or to the antecedent word "Holy 
 Sacrament," we arrive at the same result, and that is, 
 that that which is received by the good, the Same 
 is received by the wicked and unworthy.
 
 580 AKTICLE XXTX. 
 
 2. Moreover, in the warning before the Communion, 
 we are exhorted "to consider the dignity of that 
 Holy Mystery, and the great peril of the unworthy 
 receiving thereof;" where we again see that what is 
 provided for the good may be unworthily received by 
 the evil. 
 
 3. Again, the same "Holy Sacrament" is described 
 to be " so divine and comfortable a thing to them who 
 receive it worthily, and so dangerous to them that will 
 presume to receive it (that is, the same] unworthily." 
 
 4. Then, the Church commits herself to the belief 
 that Judas received the Holy Sacrament, according to 
 the almost unanimous consent of antiquity, and de- 
 duces a warning lest, after the taking of the Holy 
 Sacrament, certain evil results follow. 
 
 5. So also the receiving the Holy Communion un- 
 worthily is said to "do nothing else than increase the 
 sinner's damnation." 
 
 It must be observed that here, in an address to the 
 people, the word Sacrament is taken in the popular 
 sense, not to mean the Sac r amentum, or outward part 
 only, but the whole ordinance. 
 
 6. In the prayer of Humble Access the emphatic 
 word "so to eat the Flesh of Christ, that our sinful 
 bodies may be made clean by His Body," implies 
 thereby that there is such a way of eating the Flesh 
 of Christ as that men may not be cleansed thereby. 
 
 7. In the second Post-Communion Prayer, or public 
 thanksgiving, beginning " Almighty and ever-living 
 God," emphasis is laid on the word " duly."
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 581 
 
 But the Article under consideration affords another 
 proof of the position. 
 
 At the end of Article XXV., in speaking of the 
 Sacraments generally it is said : " The Sacraments 
 were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to 
 be carried about, but that we should duly use them. 
 And in such only as worthily receive the same they 
 have a wholesome operation, but they that receive 
 them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation, 
 as St. Paul saith." 
 
 Here, though the passage is put under the head of 
 the Sacraments in general, it is clear that the Holy 
 Eucharist is specially alluded to, for no one then gazed 
 on Baptism, nor could they carry it about ; but the 
 other Sacrament was both gazed upon and carried 
 about. Assuming then that it is the Holy Eucharist 
 which alone is alluded to, we find in the end of this 
 Article the same doctrine which we have found in the 
 Exhortations, and therefore, under pain of detecting 
 a fearful inconsistency, we must believe that the true 
 sense of Article XXIX. must be in accordance with 
 this. It is also to be observed that by connecting this 
 passage of Article XXV. with Article XXIX. we are 
 led to identify the statement, that in worthy receivers 
 only Sacraments have a wholesome effect or operation, 
 with the statement that unworthy receivers are in no 
 wise partakers of Christ. In other woTfls, to be a 
 "partaker of Christ," in the sense of Article XXIX., 
 is to have in one's self that wholesome operation, 
 which is identical with the "strengthening and re-
 
 582 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 freshing " of the Catechism which strengthening and 
 refreshing is distinguished by the Catechism from the 
 Body and Blood, as the Virtus Sacramenti from the 
 Res Sacramenti. 
 
 Moreover, it must be mentioned that there is much 
 that is curious about the reception of this Article." It 
 is a well-known fact that Queen Elizabeth never, in 
 the midst of her worldly policy, lost her faith in the 
 Objective Presence of our Lord in the Holy Sacrament. 
 Peter Heylin mentions f , in close connexion, these two 
 anecdotes : " That when Dean Nowell of St. Paul's 
 spoke less reverently in a sermon preached before her, 
 of the Sign of the Cross, she called aloud to him from 
 her closet window, commanding him to retire from that 
 ungodly digression, and to return unto his text." And, 
 " that, on the other side, when one of her divines had 
 preached a sermon in defence of the Real Presence on 
 the day commonly called Good Friday, in 1565, she 
 openly gave him thanks for his pains and piety." 
 
 She was not likely then to accept this Article in 
 any other sense than one consistent with this belief. 
 Now the Article appears to have been composed in 
 the end of 1562, and submitted to the Convocation of 
 that date by Archbishop Parker %. It was accepted by 
 the Upper House, but rejected by the Lower, unless, 
 as has been thought, its omission in the authorized 
 text, as settled after the Synod, was the result of 
 Queen Elizabeth's will h . 
 
 f Hist. Ref., p. 296, ed. 1674. 
 if Hardwick, Hist. Art., p. 128, ed. 1851. h Ibid., 136, 139.
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 583 
 
 In the Convocation of 1571, the Article was restored. 
 It is noteworthy that this was the very Convocation 
 in which the bishops, by the famous canon Conciona- 
 tores, imposed upon the clergy, as their guide in the 
 doctrinal interpretation of Scripture, the authority of 
 the Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops. 
 
 Now, if there is any fact in theological history 
 capable of demonstration, I think it is this, that the 
 Catholic Fathers and ancient Bishops did teach, alike 
 in liturgies and in treatises, that in some sense the 
 unworthy communicants do receive the Body and 
 Blood of Christ to their condemnation. This, to say 
 the very least, must throw a strong light upon the 
 interpretation of this Article. 
 
 The words of the Article cited as St. Augustine's, 
 are not in the treatise as fully as there quoted. The 
 interpolation is that of Venerable Bede, in the eighth 
 century ; such an interpolation being in consistence 
 with the faith of Bede, who most emphatically taught 
 that " the Holy Body and Precious Blood were offered 
 up" in " sacrifice" on the altar. 
 
 It is right, however, to say that the interpolation is 
 wholly in accordance with the mind of St. Augustine. 
 It becomes our duty, therefore, from other passages 
 in this great Father, to deduce what he really meant. 
 We must premise that, amid the many and conscien- 
 tious retractations by which in his latter days he cor- 
 rected any mis-statements even in minute matters in 
 his early teaching, no trace of retractation is to be 
 found on this point. We may therefore arrive at
 
 584 AKTICLE XXIX. 
 
 a pretty strong probability as to what he really felt 
 on the subject. 
 
 1. The following expressions appear to be in unison 
 with the famous passage quoted in the Article : " The 
 sign which shews that one has eaten and drunk is this, 
 if he dwelleth and is dwelt in, if he inhabiteth and is 
 inhabited, if he cleaveth that he be not abandoned 1 ." 
 " There are persons who have not only in the Sacra- 
 ment, but in reality, eaten Christ's Body, being placed 
 in that very Body of His, of which the Apostle saith, 
 ' We, being many, are one Bread and one Body.' He 
 who is in the unity of that Bodj r , in the coherent mass 
 of the members of Christ, of which Body the faithful 
 communicants are wont to receive the Sacrament from 
 the Altar, he is truly to be said to eat the Body of 
 Christ, and to drink the Blood of Christ k ." "The 
 wicked are not to be said to eat the Body of Christ, 
 because they are not to be accounted among His mem- 
 bers," and adds that Christ's words, " Whoso eateth 
 My Flesh and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me, 
 and I in him," " shew what it is to eat the Body of 
 Christ, and to drink His Blood, not as to the Sacra- 
 ment only, but in truth ; that is, to abide in Christ, so 
 that Christ also should abide in him V 
 
 The key-note to many of the dicta of St. Augustine 
 is his theory of perseverance. Alike as to Baptism and 
 the Holy Eucharist, he often seems to speak as though 
 a gift that was not retained was not really possessed, 
 
 1 Tract . 27, in S. Joh. 
 k Civ. D., xxi. 25. ' Ibid., 25, *./.
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 585 
 
 i.e. as if in the sight of God any existence of good 
 which was not permanent was actually unreal. It is, 
 in short, a Christian application of the heathen maxim, 
 " Count no man happy before his end." This is 
 one-sided language, and such as men do not usually 
 employ. 
 
 2. This language, then, must be held in combination 
 with such other Augustinian language as follows: 
 
 On St. Paul's words, "Guilty of the Body," &c., 
 St. Augustine says " that the Apostle was discoursing 
 011 those who, treating the Lord's Body like other food, 
 took it in a negligent and indiscriminating way m ." 
 
 " Do so many who, either in hypocrisy eat that Flesh 
 and drink that Blood, or who, after they have eaten 
 and drunk, become apostate, do they ' dwell in Christ 
 and Christ in them ?' Yet assuredly there is a certain 
 manner of eating that Flesh and of drinking that Blood 
 in which whosoever eateth and drinketh It dwelleth in 
 Christ. He, then, doth not dwell in Christ and Christ 
 in him who eateth the Flesh and drinketh the Blood 
 of Christ in any manner whatever, but only in some 
 certain manner n ." 
 
 " Any one who unworthily receives the Sacrament 
 of the Lord does not, because he himself is evil, cause 
 it to be evil, nor because he receives not unto salva- 
 tion, has he received nothing, for that was no less 
 the Body and Blood of the Lord to those also to 
 whom the Apostle said, ' He that eateth and drinketh 
 
 m Tract. 62, in S. Joh. " Serm. 71.
 
 586 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to him- 
 self ." 
 
 3. These expressions arrive at their intensity when 
 they are brought to the crucial point whether the 
 wretched Judas did or did not receive the Lord's 
 Body. 
 
 St. Augustine says : " The Lord allows Judas to 
 receive among the innocent disciples what the faithful 
 know to be our Ransom P." 
 
 " Of one Bread hath Peter and Judas received. Peter 
 received unto life, Judas unto death q ." 
 
 How shall we reconcile this apparent discrepancy ? 
 It is reconciled by St. Augustine himself. 
 
 He says, " the good, together with the bad, eat and 
 drink the Body and Blood of Christ, but with a great 
 distinction, for these are clad in the wedding garment, 
 but those have it not. . . . And hereby, although at one 
 and the same feast, these eat Mercy, those Judgment 1 ?' 
 
 In both cases there is a reception of the Body and 
 of the Blood of Christ, but there is only a profitable 
 reception to the good, for, as we have seen, St. Augus- 
 tine uses Real as if it meant beneficial, in conformity 
 with his views on final perseverance. Those who, in 
 the language of the liturgies, keep what they have re- 
 ceived, who persevere in the spiritual union of Christ's 
 mystic Body, are said by St. Augustine " so to partake 
 of Christ as to dwell in Him." 
 
 Le Bapt., c. Don., v. 8. P Ep. xliii. 
 
 i Tract. 50, in S. Joh. See other passages of S. Aug. in Dr. Pusey's 
 " The Real Presence the Doctrine of the English Church,' 5 pp. 262 2G5. 
 r Ad Donat. post Collat., n. 27.
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 587 
 
 To sum up the teaching of St. Augustine, it must 
 ever be borne in mind, in seeking to ascertain his 
 meaning, that he holds, as it were, two inward parts 
 or res in the Sacrament : 1st. Christ's real but now 
 spiritual Body, which He took of the Blessed Virgin ; 
 2nd. His mystical Bod}', the Church of God's elect, 
 and that all receivers partake of the first, and only 
 worthy receivers of the other. 
 
 This will be yet more clearly seen, if we observe the 
 context of that passage from which the Article quotes. 
 Our author is there speaking of a res, of which only 
 worthy communicants partake, and this res is, strictly 
 speaking, a permanent inherence in the mystical Body 
 of Christ. This mystical aspect of the Holy Commu- 
 nion which, it will be remembered, is so beautifully 
 illustrated in that prayer of our Church which speaks 
 of due receivers of the holy mysteries as " very mem- 
 bers incorporate in the mystical Body of" our Lord, 
 and in its holy fellowship, was by no means absent 
 from the mind of Fathers like St. Chrysostom and St. 
 Cyril, who would not have agreed with St. Augustine 
 on the question of the decrees of God. 
 
 But the Article does not in any way stand com- 
 mitted to St. Augustine's view of predestination. It 
 does not even use his precise language in the very 
 place which it quotes from. him. It gives its genuine 
 meaning, but it substitutes words which express that 
 meaning for his own. St. Augustine in that passage 
 says, " Who dwelleth not in Christ, and in whom 
 Christ dwelleth not, doth neither eat His Flesh nor
 
 588 AKTICLE XXIX. 
 
 drink His Blood, but rather, unto judgment to him- 
 self, eat and drink the Sacrament of so great a thing." 
 Bede rightly explained St. Augustine's words by add- 
 ing the word "spiritually," i.e. to the health of his 
 spirit, or, in other words, so as to be "partaker of 
 Christ/' As St. Jerome says, "His blood we drink, 
 and without Him we cannot drink/' Without Christ, 
 we cannot be "partakers of Christ." This, which 
 St. Augustine shews to have been his meaning, the 
 framer of our Article directly expresses. Instead of 
 saying that " the wicked cannot eat the Flesh of Christ, 
 or drink His Blood," i.e. as St. Augustine himself shews 
 that he meant these words, "cannot so eat the Flesh 
 of Christ and drink His Blood as to be partakers of 
 Christ," the Article at once uses the scriptural phrase. 
 " The wicked are in no wise partakers of Christ." 
 By the necessity of the case they cannot be. They can- 
 not be " partakers of Christ" of whom Holy Scripture 
 uses the awful language, that they are " none of His." 
 They abide not in Christ, nor He in them. They, He 
 says, are "cast forth as a branch and withered." To be 
 a " partaker of Christ," is the language of St. Paul. Our 
 Article uses St. Paul's language in St. Paul's meaning. 
 No one ought to attempt to maintain that our Art^le 
 uses the words of Holy Scripture in a non- scriptural 
 sense. There can be no beneficial reception to those 
 in a state of sin. It is impossible to point out any 
 distinction between the statement of the Article, that 
 "the wicked are in no wise partakers of Christ," and 
 that " there can be no beneficial reception to those in
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 589 
 
 a state of sin." Whatever our bias may be, we dare 
 not affix to words of Holy Scripture used in our 
 Articles any other than their scriptural meaning. The 
 words " partakers of Christ," in the Article, must mean 
 the same as "partakers of Christ" in Holy Scripture, 
 from which our Article has taken them. But in Holy 
 Scripture, to be "a partaker of Christ" is to have 
 a share, so to speak, " in Christ and of Christ," to be 
 united with Him, to have a share of the blessedness, 
 the graces, the acceptance which is in Him and from 
 Him. No paraphrase expresses the depth of those 
 simple words of Holy Scripture, "partakers of Christ." 
 For whatever blessedness flows from Him, what they 
 primarily mean is, share in Christ Himself. This 
 the Article denies of the wicked. To those who re- 
 main such unto the end, Christ tells us that He shall 
 say, " I never knew you." However near they ap- 
 proach to Him, they are none of His; and since by 
 His grace alone we can partake of Himself, they who 
 have not His grace cannot "partake of Christ," can 
 have no share of Him. 
 
 The fratner of the Article altered St. Augustine's 
 words. He brings out St. Augustine's meaning by 
 changing the concise words which St. Augustine used, 
 and by substituting the scriptural phrase, which, as 
 appears from the other places of St. Augustine, ex- 
 presses what that Father really meant, And this 
 meaning we must have taken, whether it made for 
 or against our views. For we are bound to take the 
 words of our Articles in their strict, grammatical mean-
 
 590 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 ing, and we must take a scriptural phrase in its 
 scriptural meaning. But we now happen to know, 
 over and above, that this was the meaning of the 
 framer of the Article. 
 
 It appears from Archbishop Parker's Letter to Lord 
 Burleigh, that he alleged St. Augustine's authority in 
 this Article only up to a certain point. Parker wrote : 
 " Sir, I have considered what your Honour wrote to 
 me this morning concerning St. Augustine's authority 
 in the Article, in the first original agreed upon, and 
 I am still advisedly in mine opinion concerning so much, 
 wherefore they be alleged in the Article. 3 ' Now, as has 
 been observed, to say that the words of St. Augustine 
 were alleged only "concerning so much," implies that 
 there was some further point for which it might be 
 supposed that they could be alleged. Now, St. Augus- 
 tine's own words might (though not in their true 
 meaning) have been taken to deny that "those who 
 dwell not in Christ, nor Christ in them," in any 
 way receive within themselves the Body and Blood of 
 Christ. People have so understood them. Archbishop 
 Parker says that the Article stops short of some fur- 
 ther point. But there is no further point of which 
 the Article could stop short, but that the wicked in 
 some way receive within themselves the Body and 
 Blood of Christ. The words, "are in no ways par- 
 takers of Christ," exclude all benefit from the recep- 
 tion any share of Christ Himself. There is only one 
 further point for which Parker could say that the 
 Article stopped short of alleging St. Austin, viz. that
 
 OF THE WICKED, &C. 591 
 
 they received in themselves, though they have no 
 share in them, no benefit from them, the Body and 
 Blood of Christ. 
 
 Even supposing that we had no light thrown on 
 the true interpretation of this Article from St. Augus- 
 tine, from other Fathers, or from the Prayer-Book, 
 it seems that its own words, " but rather to their con- 
 demnation," are the key to the whole. The Article is 
 antithetical. One member of the antithesis, is, "In 
 no wise are they partakers of Christ." The other is, 
 " But rather to their condemnation they eat and drink," 
 &c. These two members must be logicallv opposed. 
 The idea denied in the first must be the opposite to 
 that which is affirmed in the second. But the idea 
 affirmed in the second is that of condemnation. There- 
 fore the idea denied in the first must be that of jus- 
 tification. Justification, then, must be implied in the 
 partaking of Christ ; in other words, the partaking of 
 Christ means a beneficial reception only. 
 
 The popular objection has no weight at all, except 
 by importing into the words of the Article a mean- 
 ing which they will not bear. The Article does not 
 deny (Grod forbid !) that we receive orally the Body 
 and Blood of Christ; it does not say, that by faith 
 we feed on Christ at the Right Hand of God, con- 
 templating Him there. It is speaking of beneficial 
 reception only. It had said, that " to such as rightly, 
 worthily, and with faith receive the same, the Bread 
 which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ." 
 It anew states this, " Faith is the mean whereby we 
 beneficially receive it."
 
 592 ARTICLE XXIX. 
 
 An argument has been drawn from the heading of 
 the Article, "which eat not the Body of Christ," that 
 the Church of England meant to deny that they re- 
 ceive it at all, not to assert that they receive no benefit 
 from it. But since the body of the Article only says 
 that " the wicked are in no wise partakers of Christ/' 
 (which, plainly, they cannot be,) then the heading can- 
 not be held to contain more than this. For no heading 
 of an Article or Canon (any more than of an Act of 
 Parliament) may lawfully be employed to introduce 
 into the substance of such Article or Canon, a mean- 
 ing which the grammatical structure of the words of 
 such Article or Canon does not admit. Nor can the 
 heading of an Article form a proposition, binding upon 
 us, distinct from the meaning of the body of the 
 Article. For this would be to make such heading 
 a 40th Article, which is, of course, inadmissible. Both 
 statements must mean the same. But this they do, if 
 we understand the words " eat not" in the sense which 
 they have in St. John, &c., whence they are taken, 
 " eat not so as to dwell in Christ and He in them 8 ." 
 
 * See Dr. Pusey "The Eeal Presence the Doctrine of the English 
 Church," pp. 252259.
 
 ARTICLE XXX. 
 
 DE UTRAQUE SPECIE. 
 
 CALTX Domini Mcis non est denegandus ; utraque enim 
 pars Dominici Sacramenti ex Christi institutione et 
 prceccpto, omnibus Christianis ex eequo administrari 
 debet. 
 
 " Of both Kinds. 
 
 "THE Cup of the Lord is not to be denied to the lay 
 people; for both the parts of the Lord's Sacrament, 
 by Christ's ordinance and commandment, ought to be 
 ministered to all Christian men alike." 
 
 THE Utraquist controversy involves principles even 
 more important than the actual point ruled. Right 
 as it is that in an ordinance " so mysterious, so 
 closely appertaining to the Sacrament of our Lord's 
 Passion and of our redemption, there should be no in- 
 fringement of our Lord's commands V the change 
 from that which was in the beginning divinely in- 
 stituted, involves nothing less than that the living 
 Church has the power to alter not only that which 
 stood upon an unbroken tradition of nearly twelve 
 hundred years, but that which was done "by Christ's 
 
 Cyp., ad Core., Ep. Ixiii.
 
 594 ARTICLE XXX. 
 
 ordinance and commandment." It was not till the 
 time of the Schoolmen that the mind of the Church 
 seriously set itself to the matter in hand. . The danger 
 of irreverence had suggested before this means for 
 securing the consecrated elements from profanation. 
 In the Greek Church the Body of the Lord had been 
 administered with a spoon, after it had been dipped in 
 the Blood. The Blood had been received through 
 a golden pipe to prevent any accident. It was reserved 
 for the Scholastic era to solve the difficulty by the with- 
 drawal of the Chalice from all but the celebrant. This 
 was not effected without resistance. In Bohemia, as all 
 know, it was the occasion of wars and persecutions. In 
 England, the Cup could not be withdrawn without the 
 introduction of an unconsecrated drink, which was given 
 ostensibly to assist in the deglutition of the Blessed 
 Sacrament under the form of Bread, but probably to 
 pacify the people for the loss of the Divine Chalice b . 
 
 The question was one of the chief subjects of decision 
 at the Council of Basle. The subject, on the Roman 
 Catholic side, is treated at great length in the speech 
 by Johannes de Ragusio, which is given among the 
 Acts of the Council . 
 
 He lays down 1. that Communion under both kinds 
 is not necessary for all the people, necessitate mcdii ; 
 2. neither is it so necessitate prcecepti ; 3. nay, in view 
 of the custom and law of the Church, it is not only not 
 
 b See some interesting papers by F. C. H., in " Notes and Queries," 
 1st Series, xii. 477 ; and 2nd Series, i. 143. 
 c Cone., Labbe and Cossart, t. xvii. p. 817.
 
 OF BOTH KIXDS. 595 
 
 useful but actually hurtful. He passes briefly by the 
 first point, on the ground that God has not so tied 
 His poVver to Sacraments, as not to be able to save 
 souls but in that way, and devotes himself to the next 
 head, which he maintains 1. by the divine law; 2. by 
 the practice of our Lord ; 3. by the authority of General 
 Councils ; 4. by the dicta of doctors. 
 
 1. Under the first of these heads he quotes three 
 texts in the sixth chapter of St. John, where there 
 are so many allusions to the true Bread and none to 
 the true Wine. 
 
 2. Under the second, he draws an analogy from the 
 multiplication of the loaves ; also he cites the Lord's 
 Prayer, " Give us this day our supersubstantial bread/' 
 
 3. Under the head of Councils, after some special 
 pleading for a Canon in the Sixth General Council, he 
 tries to turn the Canon of the eleventh of Toledo, where 
 a previous Canon with regard to reception had been 
 modified, to a very opposite purpose from what was 
 intended. He thinks that the second Canon of the 
 Council of Rheims testifies to the practice. He also 
 cites the Council of Worms. 
 
 4. He rests much on the custom of the Church, 
 shewing, that though the custom varied, there were 
 early testimonies to the practice. He quotes Pope 
 Innocent allowing consecration in one kind only, in 
 regions where wine cannot be got, and adduces many 
 of the Schoolmen : Alexander Ales, Albertus Magnus, 
 St. Thomas, St. Bonaventura, Petrus de Tarantasia, 
 and Ricardus de Media Villa. After going into ab-
 
 596 ARTICLE XXX. 
 
 stract reasons for the practice, lie states that the mo- 
 tives which induced the Church to insist on it was the 
 danger of spilling the species; the danger of corrup- 
 tion ; the practical assertion of the truth that Christ 
 is totus sub utraque specie; the special honour of the 
 sacerdotal state, and the recognition of a state of 
 languor which had come over the Church, the laity 
 in the days of martyrdom having pressed for the com- 
 munion of the Chalice, a condition which no longer 
 existed. 
 
 Not a word is said of " They all drank of it d ;" nor 
 of the authority of St. Paul in the Corinthians. He 
 does not meet the distinct testimony to the universal 
 practice of the early Fathers, such as Justin Martyr e , 
 or of St. Cyprian f , or the evidence supplied by all 
 the Liturgies, or the witness of all the Fathers and 
 Popes till the time of the Schoolmen. But it must 
 be remembered that even the Schoolmen themselves 
 admit the blessing of the Chalice, "Because the use 
 of the faithful and the unity of the mystic body is 
 not perfectly signified without the double sign, and 
 therefore in virtue of a Sacrament both ought to 
 be had *." 
 
 The most remarkable testimony in favour of the 
 practice is that of Pope Gelasius, which has come 
 to us through Gratian h . "A Priest ought not to re- 
 ceive the Body of Christ without His Blood. So Pope 
 
 d St. Mark xiv. e Apol., i. 65. f De Lapsis, cxxxii. 
 
 8 Alb. Mag., 4 sent. dist. viii. 13. h Corpus Jut: Can. Deer., 
 
 iii. pars; De Consecr., dist. ii. c. 12.
 
 OF BOTH KINDS. 597 
 
 Gelasius to Bishops Majoricus and John : ' But we 
 have learnt,' says Gelasius, ' that certain persons, 
 after having received only the portion of the sacred 
 Body, abstain from the Chalice of the sacred Blood, 
 Which persons, without doubt (because they are said 
 to be bound by I know not what superstition), should 
 either partake of the Sacraments in their entirety, 
 or be excluded from the entire Sacraments, BECAUSE 
 
 THE DIVISION OF ONE AND THE SAME MYSTERY CANNOT 
 TAKE PLACE WITHOUT GREAT SACRILEGE/ " Before him, 
 
 St. Leo i excommunicated certain African Manichaeans, 
 who from their wicked principles objected to the Sa- 
 cramental Cup. 
 
 However, while we have the evidence that univer- 
 sally in the public and solemn Liturgy of the Church, 
 the faithful received the Blessed Eucharist under both 
 species till the twelfth century, it is due to histo- 
 rical truth to state that there were certain practices 
 which shewed that in cases of necessity, communion 
 under one kind was considered lawful. For example, 
 the early Christians carried home the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment in a linen cloth called a dominicum, but we have 
 no record of the holy Blood being reserved in a phial. 
 In St. Cyprian J we have an account of a child being 
 communicated under the species of wine. It was car- 
 ried on the breast, at sea, in an orarium, as in the 
 case of St. Birinus, Apostle of Wessex. Again, the 
 saints in the desert carried away the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment in the species of bread, and in some cases the 
 1 Serm. iv. Quadr. J De Lapsis, vi. 16.
 
 598 ARTICLE XXX. 
 
 sick when communicated from the reserved Sacrament 
 received in that kind only. Children, as we have just 
 seen, received only under the species of wine k . These 
 instances, and they go over a great range, not only 
 serve to console one under the contemplation of the 
 fact that the Occidental Church causes all but the 
 celebrant to abstain from the Sacrament of the Cup, 
 but also illustrate how the mind of the Church became 
 trained to the thought that it might dispense with the 
 Chalice without danger of invalidating the Sacrament. 
 They shew that those thus deprived lose not any grace 
 necessary to salvation. Still it is to be deplored that 
 the matter has been thus ruled, for: 
 
 I. It brings the practice of the Church into an un- 
 happy antagonism with. Holy Scripture, for, however 
 we may insist on St. Paul's alternation " Whosoever 
 shall eat of this bread, or drink (rj TTIVT}} of the cup 
 of the Lord," or on the celebration being termed the 
 breaking of the Bread, there is no gainsaying the 
 " drink ye all of it," especially as interpreted by 
 the practice of twelve centuries. It is due to truth 
 to say that Roman Catholics meet the text by hold- 
 ing that our Lord spake to the Apostles as in the 
 character of Priests, and that therefore the question of 
 the laity does not come in ; but then the real ques- 
 tion is, that the Chalice is not held back from the 
 laity as such, but from all priests and laity, save only 
 the celebrant. 
 
 II. It has given rise to painful scruples of conscience, 
 
 k Cyp., de Lapsis.
 
 OF BOTH KINDS. 599 
 
 and to persecution and treachery, as in the case of 
 John Huss, and the Bohemians. However defended 
 on the score of reverence, it ought never to have 
 formed a cause of such severities as were practised. 
 The whole story is a sad one, and discreditable to the 
 persons concerned therein. 
 
 III. But the most serious thing is, that according 
 to the best theologians something is lost by the depri- 
 vation. While the Sacrament under one kind conveys 
 all the graces necessary to salvation, the Chalice has 
 a special grace of its own the grace of gladdening. 
 If the Sacraments cause that which they signify, the 
 species of bread and wine must signify in different 
 ways ; and that diversity will refer, both to the sign, 
 and to the mode of the signifying, and to the thing 
 signified. Therefore, the effect of the two will not be 
 common but diverse. Both species together signify 
 the plenitude of the heavenly feast and the perfect 
 satisfaction of the soul, which each by itself does not 
 signify. 
 
 While it is granted that either species refects us by 
 causing habitual grace, there are certain secondary 
 effects of the spiritual meat and drink : that of the 
 meat is to strengthen the weak, as it is written, " and 
 bread to strengthen man's heart ;" that of drink is to 
 give joy to the sad, " and wine that maketh glad the 
 heart of man 1 /' is that spiritual transport, the iti- 
 ebriatio aninue, of which the Scripture speaks m . 
 
 1 Ps. civ. 15. m Vide Lugo, de Sacramento Eucharistice, 
 
 dist. xvi. sect. iii. p. 488, ed. Migue, 1841.
 
 600 ARTICLE XXX. 
 
 Indeed, to say that the Cup has not a gift over and 
 above the other species, would be to contradict the 
 Church, which after reception of the Body, directs 
 that the words be used, " the Blood of our Lord Jesus 
 preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life."
 
 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 DE UNICA CHRISTI OBLATIONE IN CRUCE PERFECTA. 
 
 OSLATIO Christi semel facta perfecta est redemptio, pro- 
 pitiatio, et satisfactio pro omnibus peccatis totius mundi, 
 tarn originalibus, quam actualibus. Neque prater il- 
 lam unicam, est ulla alia pro peccatis expiatio ; unde 
 missarum sacrificia, quibus vulgo dicebatur Sacerdotem 
 offerre Christum in remissionem pcence, aut culpce, pro 
 vivis et defunctis, blasphema, figmenta sunt, et perni- 
 ciosas impostures. 
 
 " Of the One Oblation of Christ finished upon the Cross. 
 
 " THE offering of Christ once made is the perfect 
 redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for all the 
 sins of the whole world, both original and actual : 
 and there is none other satisfaction for sin but that 
 alone. "Wherefore the sacrifices of masses, in the 
 which it was commonly said that the Priest did offer 
 Christ for the quick and the dead, to have remission 
 of pain or guilt, were blasphemous fables, and danger- 
 ous deceits." 
 
 " THE breaking of the Bread and the Prayers," which 
 are the terms used for the worship of the primitive 
 Church a , have from the beginning been invested with 
 
 a Acts ii. 42.
 
 602 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 a sacrificial character. The Greek original of the 
 New Testament brings this out much more strongly 
 than the English translation. Thus, in the Acts of 
 the Holy Apostles, the expression, " as they were mi- 
 nistering," is rendered by the hieratic word \etrovp- 
 yovvTwv ; the Christian ministers in the person of 
 Christ, TWV ayicav \et,TOvp<yb$*, are Siaicdvoi, T?}? tcaivvjs 
 Biad^KTjs c ; the worship of the Church of the Gentiles 
 as elected on the ruin of the Jews is the Trpocrfopa TWV 
 edvwv ; not only ev%al and Serjaets (' prayers and sup- 
 plications') but ev^apiarlat are to be offered for all 
 men ; it is asserted that e%ofji,ev dvcriacmjpiov ; the old 
 Levitical words adscara, 'sacrificial commemoration/ 
 rendered avd^vrjfns, and asah rendered vroielv, by the 
 LXX, are adopted by Christianity ; and St. Paul, ani- 
 mated entirely by the sacerdotal idea, calls himself Xet- 
 Tovpjbv 'Irjo-ov Xpiarov els ra eOvrj, lepovpyovvra TO ev- 
 ayyektov TOV 0eoy, iva yevrjTcu rj Trpoa-fopa TWV edvwv 
 evirpoa-SetcTOs, yyiao-fievr) ev UvevfiaTu 'Ayly d . Accord- 
 ingly, in the very earliest ages, we find such expres- 
 sions, irpocrtyopa, Ouaia, lepovpyla, dblatio, Sacrificinni 
 Dominicum, Dominiciim, freely used, and the sacrificial 
 aspect of the Holy Eucharist is clearly stated by St. 
 Clement, of Rome e , and by St. Ignatius f . St. Justin 
 speaks of the Eucharistic Sacrifice being pre-signified 
 by the pure offering mentioned by the Prophet Malachi g . 
 St. Irenseus h , after relating the institution, adds this 
 
 b Heb. viii. 2. = 2 Cor. iii. 6. d Rom. xv. 16. 
 
 e 1 Cor. n. 40, 45. ' lEpfi. n. v. ; Magn., n. vii. ; Phil. iv. 
 
 K Tryph., 41, 117. h S. Iren. iv. 17, n. 5.
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 603 
 
 remark : " Thus Jesus Christ has established the Sacri- 
 fice of the New Testament, which the Church offers 
 to God throughout the whole world, according to the 
 teaching handed down by the Apostles." He states 
 that it is the Word Who is offered in this Sacrifice *. 
 
 Origen k asserts that in the Christian Churches there 
 is a Sacrifice, at once commemorative and propitiatory, 
 that is to say, the Eucharist. 
 
 St. Cyprian l , who had occasion to enter upon the 
 consideration of the doctrine of the Holy Eucharist 
 with a view to satisfying the scruples of certain igno- 
 rant and simple persons who demurred at the use of 
 wine in these holy mysteries, asks : " Who is more a 
 Priest of the Most High God than our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, Who offered a sacrifice to God the Father, and 
 offered the same which Melchisedek had offered, i.e. 
 bread and wine, namely, His own Body and Blood ?" 
 In the same letter he says : " If Jesus Christ our Lord 
 and God is Himself the great High-Priest of God the 
 Father, and first offered Himself a Sacrifice to the Fa- 
 ther, and commanded this to be done in remembrance 
 of Himself, surely that priest truly acts in Christ's 
 stead, who imitates that which Christ did; and he 
 then offers a true and full sacrifice in the Church to 
 God the Father, when he begins to offer it according 
 as he sees Christ Himself offered it." 
 
 St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in his " Catechism," which 
 is very important as shewing the actual practical in- 
 
 1 S. Iren. iv. 18, n. 4. k In, Lev. Horn. xiii. n. 3. 
 
 1 Ep. Ixiii.
 
 604 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 struction of the Church of his time, says, without 
 oratorical periphrasis, "We offer Jesus Christ immo- 
 lated for our sins m ." 
 
 But a still clearer evidence of the faith of the early 
 Church is to be found in the early Liturgies. The 
 parts of these which are found in all, and are thus 
 traced up to a common ancestry of unwritten tradition, 
 are so venerable in their antiquity, that many great 
 scholars have maintained that they are more ancient 
 than the later epistles. In any case, they are docu- 
 ments of the highest authority, and unimpeachable 
 witnesses to primitive practice. Now, in all these 
 without exception, we have the distinctest enunciation 
 of the Sacrificial character of the Holy Eucharist. In 
 spite of the insertion of the prayer of St. Chrysostom 
 into our morning service, which was in 1544 appended 
 to the Litany, it is probable that the English Re- 
 formers were not conversant with the Eastern Litur- 
 gies, otherwise we cannot conceive how they could 
 have preferred the Second to the First Book of Ed- 
 ward, or have rested content with the emendations at 
 the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth. 
 
 Bearing in mind, then, the hieratic language of 
 Holy Scripture, the unbroken tradition of Church doc- 
 tors from the earliest times, the witness of the ancient 
 Liturgies, (a witness corroborated by the fact that many 
 of these have been used by bodies which have been 
 alienated from the Catholic Church since the Council 
 of Chalcedon, and so become an independent testi- 
 
 m Myst. Cat., xxiii. n. 10.
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 605 
 
 mony,) we are safe in accepting the truth, that in view 
 of the imperfection of the Levitical rites, and of His 
 Eternal Priesthood after the order of Melchisedek, our 
 Lord, although He was about to offer Himself once 
 for all upon the altar of the Cross to His Father, by 
 means of His death to obtain eternal redemption for 
 us, yet because His is an abiding Priesthood, in order 
 that He might leave to the Church a visible rite 
 whereby the bloody Sacrifice once for all to be accom- 
 plished on the Cross might be represented, remembered 
 till the end of the world, and its virtue applied to the 
 remission of sins as they are committed, at the Last 
 Supper, in the night that He was betrayed, offered to 
 God the Father His own Body and Blood under the 
 form of Bread and Wine, delivered Them to the Apo- 
 stles, and, by the words " This do in remembrance of 
 Me," commanded them and their successors thus to 
 shew forth His death till He come again. 
 
 One cannot find any contradiction between this Arti- 
 cle and the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharistic Sacrifice 
 thus stated. In the words of Mr. Palmer n : " The Arti- 
 cle condemning the sacrifices of masses, in which it was 
 commonly said that Christ was offered for the quick 
 and dead for the remission of pain or guilt," " rightly 
 censures that erroneous view of the Sacrifice, but does 
 not declare against the doctrine of the Eucharistic 
 Sacrifice rightly understood." And elsewhere : " The 
 Thirty-first Article is directed against the vulgar and 
 heretical doctrine of the reiteration of Christ's Sacrifice 
 n Treatise on the Church, vol. i. p. 400, cd. 1842.
 
 606 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 in the Eucharist. It was those ' raissarum sacrificia, 
 quibus vulgo dicebatur sacerdotem offerre Christum in 
 reraissionem pcenae, aut culpae, pro vivis et defunctis/ 
 which are pronounced 'blasphema figmenta et perni- 
 ciosse imposturoe ;' but not ' missaruin sacrificia,' as 
 understood by the Fathers, and in an orthodox sense. 
 The Article was directed against the errors main- 
 tained and countenanced by such men as Soto, Har- 
 dinge, &c., who, by rejecting the doctrine of a Sa- 
 crifice by way of commemoration and consecration, 
 and not literally identical with that on the Cross, and 
 by their crude and objectionable mode of expression, 
 countenanced the vulgar error that the Sacrifice of the 
 Eucharist or mass was in every respect equal to that 
 of Christ upon the Cross, and that it was, in fact, 
 either a reiteration or a continuation of that Sacri- 
 fice," i.e. actively a continuation. " The Article was 
 not directed against the doctrine of the Eucharistic 
 Sacrifice, as explained by Bossuet, Yeron, and others, 
 with which we have no material fault to find ." 
 
 Or if it be right to claim Episcopal sanction for this 
 view, it is to be found in the words of the late Lord 
 Bishop of Exeter : " Again I see the same high autho- 
 rity numbers among the errors of Rome which our 
 own Church has renounced, that a propitiatory virtue 
 is attributed to the Eucharist P." "I am not aware 
 of our Church having anywhere condemned such a 
 doctrine. That it has condemned (as we all from our 
 
 Treatise on the Church, vol. ii. p. 347. 
 l> Pastoral Letter of 1851, p. 53.
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 607 
 
 hearts condemn) ' as blasphemous fables and dangerous 
 deceits/ ' the sacrifices of masses, in the which it was 
 commonly said that the Priest did offer Christ for the 
 quick and dead to have remission from pain or guilt,' 
 we know and heartily rejoice. But this is very far, 
 indeed, from saying or meaning that the Eucharist 
 hath not ' a propitiatory virtue,' and we must be very 
 careful how we deny that virtue to it. The conse- 
 crated elements ought not to be separated in our minds 
 from the propitiation for our sins, continually pre- 
 sented for us before the throne of God. Whether we 
 regard them in correspondence with the meat-offerings 
 and drink-offerings of the Old Testament, as memo- 
 rials of the one great Sacrifice, and so, in union with 
 that Sacrifice, by virtue of Christ's appointment, re- 
 presenting and pleading to the Father the atonement 
 finished on the Cross or as answering to those por- 
 tions of the typical sacrifices which were eaten by the 
 Priests and offerers in either case, they are inti- 
 mately united with the altar in heaven and with its 
 propitiatory virtue. 'In these holy mysteries,' in an 
 especial manner, heaven and earth are brought toge- 
 ther. Sursum Corda. 'Therefore with angels and 
 archangels, and all the company of heaven, we laud 
 and magnify Thy holy Name/ The partakers of the 
 Sacrifice, are partakers of the altar and of all its in- 
 estimable benefits, the first of which is the propitiation 
 for our sins. For, in the Eucharist, as a Sacrament, 
 'we eat our ransom,' as St. Augustine says, we receive 
 spiritually ' the Body of our Lord Jesus Christ which
 
 608 ARTICLE XXXT. 
 
 was given for us/ 'the Blood which was shed for 
 us ;' in the same Eucharist as a Sacrifice, we, in repre- 
 sentation, plead the one great Sacrifice which our Great 
 High-Priest continually presenteth for us in heaven. 
 In heaven, He presenteth ever before the Father, in 
 person, Himself, mediating with the Father as our 
 intercessor ; on earth He invisibly sanctifies what is 
 offered, and makes the earthly elements, which we 
 offer, to be sacramentally and ineffably but not in 
 a carnal way His Body and Blood. For although 
 once for all offered, that Sacrifice, be it remembered, 
 is ever LIVING AND CONTINUOUS, made to be continuous 
 by the resurrection of our Lord. According^, St. 
 John tells us, in Rev. v. 6, 12, that he beheld, and lo 
 in the midst of the throne stood a Lamb as it had 
 been slain, and to Him is continually addressed the 
 triumphant song of the heavenly host, ' Worthy is the 
 Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and 
 wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and 
 blessing/ To Him His Church on earth, in the Eu- 
 charistic Service, in like manner, continually cries, 
 ' Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that 
 takest away the sins of the world/ JSTot that tookest 
 away, but still takest ' Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata 
 mundi/ As, then, the Sacrifice is continuous, its pro- 
 pitiatory virtue is continuous, and the fulness of the 
 propitiation is pleaded for the whole Church, where- 
 soever the commemoration of it is exhibited in the 
 Holy Eucharist." 
 
 The key to the meaning of the Article is in the
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 609 
 
 words "wherefore" and "satisfaction." Any con- 
 struction which condemns a doctrine of Eucharistic 
 Sacrifice consistent with the first sentence of the Article, 
 makes it self -contradictory, inasmuch as the Article 
 expressly confines itself to excluding any notion which 
 would militate against the perfection of the offering of 
 Christ once made upon the Cross, as being the only 
 " satisfaction for sin." For " there is but one real, 
 true, and proper Sacrifice, viz. the offering which the 
 Incarnate Son of God made of Himself upon the Cross 
 to the Eternal Father." 
 
 The Sacrifice in the Eucharist is substantially the 
 same as the Sacrifice of the Cross, because the Priest 
 is the same in both, and the Victim is the same in 
 both ; just as the Sacrifice which Christ the eternal 
 Priest is now presenting to His Father in heaven, is 
 the same which He offered upon the Cross, because 
 He Himself is the same Victim and Priest both in 
 one. But there is a difference. There is a difference 
 in the manner of offering. In heaven Christ is not 
 offering Himself in the same manner as He did upon 
 the Cross. We cannot rightfully censure or approve 
 the first part of this proposition, without consideration 
 of the second. If we deny the first as contradictory 
 to the Article, we must deny the second, for it also 
 affirms a Sacrifice of Christ distinct in the manner 
 of offering from that on the Cross, distinct both as 
 not meriting any more, and as not accompanied by 
 suffering and so far both statements stand in the 
 same relation to the statement in the Article ; if the 
 
 R r
 
 610 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 second is not contradictory, neither is the first. Are 
 we prepared to say that the second statement in the 
 proposition, "The Sacrifice which Christ the eternal 
 Priest is now presenting to His Father in Heaven, is 
 the same which He offered upon the Cross," is con- 
 tradictory to the Article, and is equivalent to setting 
 up another meritorious Sacrifice ? If not, there is no 
 confusion of thought. While the Sacrifice is con- 
 tinuous, the Satisfaction; properly so called, is not so. 
 The "atonement/' as meritorious, was finished upon 
 the Cross. 
 
 If the doctrine be said to be antagonistic to the 
 statement, "Christ in His Holy Gospel hath com- 
 manded us to continue a perpetual memorial of that 
 His precious death until His coming again," it must 
 be recollected that we are dwelling on the act of our 
 blessed Lord in meritoriously dying upon the Cross, 
 an act in time which being past can be commemorated. 
 If we withdraw our thoughts for one moment from the 
 Blessed Eucharist to the action of our Lord in heaven, 
 we find that there, by the presentation of His Humanity, 
 He does make a memorial of His act upon the Cross. 
 In that celestial service we find the two elements of 
 a real presence and a commemorative offering, and if 
 we believe a real presence in the Holy Sacrament, with 
 the change from a natural to a supernatural condition, 
 we can apply this reasoning to establish an analogous 
 offering in the Church below. 
 
 That a memorial of a Sacrifice may be the Sacrifice 
 itself, is plain from the case of the Paschal Lamb j
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 611 
 
 which, offered as it was year by year continually, was 
 in kind the same sacrifice with that originally offered 
 in Egypt, yet truly a memorial of it. When, therefore, 
 the Homily says, " we must be careful that we do not 
 of a memory make it a Sacrifice," we may not under- 
 stand it as though the two ideas were inconsistent, but 
 rather as follows : ' It is not to be accounted a distinct 
 and independent Sacrifice ; we must never use it or 
 think of it apart from its relation to the One Great 
 and True Sacrifice which had gone before.' And this 
 is no doubt St. Chrysostom's meaning, when having 
 said, "we celebrate no other Sacrifice, but the same 
 always," he as it were qualifies his words, adding, 
 "or rather we make a remembrance of a Sacrifice;" 
 i.e. it was never to be forgotten that this rite, though 
 most truly a Sacrifice, was so by being the memorial 
 of the One Sacrifice on the Cross. Memory, then, 
 is not inconsistent with Sacrifice. If it were, there 
 could be no Sacrifice of the Altar at all. 
 
 The next point which requires to be considered is 
 the assertion of the futility of the sacrifices of masses 
 in reference to the quick and the dead. It is not 
 inconsistent with this to assert that 'We pray that 
 the whole Church may receive, through this Sacrifice, 
 the benefit of the Lord's Passion, each, of course, 
 according to his need and capacity of receiving. 
 Whence the Eucharist is called by some of the Fathers 
 a Sacrifice for the Living and the Dead/ Where 
 a word is absolutely necessary to convey a meaning, 
 the use of that word must be risked, but always with
 
 612 ARTICLE XXXT. 
 
 careful explanations. We are not content with say- 
 ing the Church simply, nor yet the whole Church, but 
 we say "all the whole Church V that there may be 
 neither limitation nor reserve in our application of the 
 Sacrifice. And as the Church, in the amplitude of 
 its extent, embraces both worlds, the visible and the 
 invisible, we must be understood to pray and to offer 
 for all the living members of Christ's Body, whether 
 sojourning with us here on earth, or departed hence in 
 the Lord for we cannot offer for all the whole Church 
 unless we do, when we comprehend all who are in it, 
 all who are united to Christ, all who are one with us 
 in that mystical Body which is the fulness of Him 
 Who filleth all in all. It is no new use of the term 
 to apply the very peculiar expression of "all Thy 
 whole Church," to those in the intermediate state ; 
 many English divines have done so without blame. 
 
 However people may wish to disparage the tes- 
 timony of the early Liturgies, it is a fact which 
 cannot be gainsaid, that in ever// one of them, with- 
 out exception, there is a commemoration of the faith- 
 ful departed. The entire universality of the prac- 
 tice must remove any ground for doubt on the sub- 
 ject. Much has been said about the difficulties of 
 arriving at what the ancients believed, but here 
 over the whole Christian world we have evidence for 
 this truth from the most solemn documents which 
 may be traced up to the highest antiquity, docu- 
 ments which with the strongest evidences of a com- 
 
 i Communion Office, Book of Common Prayer.
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 613 
 
 mon origin, yet vary sufficiently to become concur- 
 rent testimonies in favour of any doctrine which they 
 agree in expressing. 
 
 And secondly, it may be further said that the appli- 
 cation of the blessed Eucharist to the departed, must 
 in our Church stand and fall with the practice of 
 prayers for the dead. In its aspect of the great ob- 
 lation, the Holy Communion may be considered as 
 prayer in its most intense and highest form. If it is 
 unlawful to pray for the faithful departed, it must be 
 unlawful to remember them in the sacred mysteries ; 
 but if the first practice be permitted, the second must 
 be so likewise. The Church of England has judi- 
 cially ruled in her Supreme Tribunal, that prayer for 
 the Dead is not unlawful r . 
 
 It cannot be doubted that in the very earliest and 
 purest ages of the Church, it was universally believed 
 that the celebration of the Holy Eucharist had spe- 
 cial reference to the faithful departed. TertulHan 8 : 
 " Wherefore does she pray for his (her husband's) soul, 
 and begs for him in the meantime refreshment, and 
 a share in the first resurrection, and offers for him 
 on the anniversary of his death." St. Cyprian *, pro- 
 viding against the clergy becoming executors, says 
 that the Bishops who preceded him resolved that there 
 should be no oblation for such, nor should the sacrifice 
 be celebrated for his repose (" nee sacrificium pro dor- 
 mitione ejus celebraretur"). The passage in St. Cyril's 
 
 r Case of Woolfrey v. Breeks, Stephens's Clergy Law, i. 191. 
 
 * De Monog., n. x. * Ep. i. ad Cler. et Pleb. Furnis.
 
 614 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 Catechism is well-known : "Also on behalf of the 
 holy Fathers and Bishops who have fallen asleep before 
 us, and of all in spirit who have already fallen asleep 
 among us, believing that it will be of very great as- 
 sistance to the souls, for which prayer is raised while 
 the holy and most awful Sacrifice lies before us." St. 
 Macarius u , of Alexandria, discusses the subject of the 
 advantage that accrues to the soul when " an oblation 
 is offered up to God in the Church for the dead." St. 
 Epiphanius, in controversy with Aerius v , asserts and 
 defends the practice of making a commemoration of the 
 just, and on behalf of sinners : " on behalf of sinners 
 supplicating for mercy from God, and for the just . . . 
 in order that on account of the honour that we pay 
 to Christ, we may separate Him from the race of 
 men. " St. Ambrose x : " Give the heavenly Sacra- 
 ment, let us follow the soul of the grandson with our 
 oblations." St. Chrysostom.? describes the actual ritual 
 of his time as obtaining 7rapa/j.v6ia for the dead. 
 The reader will also remember the last injunction of 
 St. Monica to St. Augustine. 
 
 One common argument against the Eucharistic Sa- 
 crifice is that, according to this belief, one must hold 
 and teach the blasphemy, that the Sacrifice in the 
 Eucharist must be substantially, virtually, and essen- 
 tially, although not as He appeared on Calvary, Christ 
 still laying down His life for the sheep, still shedding 
 
 u Serm. de Excess., n. 3 5, p. 238, t. vii. Galland. T Adv. 
 
 Seer., 75. x De obit. Valent., t. ii. p. 1189, 8. 56. 
 
 i In Act. Apost. Horn. ix. ; also xli. in 1 Cor. iii. ad Philip.
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 615 
 
 His Blood for our redemption, still discharging the 
 yet unpaid penalty for human guilt ; that the sacrifi- 
 cial work, in all its essentials of suffering, dying, and 
 atoning, instead of being finished, must be still only 
 in progress of accomplishment ; that, in fact, there 
 is a propitiation of the same merit, nature, power, and 
 efficacy, that Christ's offering on the cross was not 
 the alone satisfaction for sin ; that one must deny 
 that the oblation of Christ was finished upon the 
 Cross ; that one must believe that that Sacrifice of 
 the Holy Eucharist re-enacts the Sacrifice of the Cross 
 in all its essential entirety ; that one must hold our 
 Lord's eternal Priesthood to consist in His being an 
 eternal victim, that is, suffering and dying to atone; 
 that this belief, to be consistent, implies not only that 
 Christ undergoes in another mode the Sacrifice of the 
 Cross, but that His Sacrifice of Himself was insufficient, 
 inasmuch as a repetition is tantamount to insufficiency 
 of the first act of sacrifice. 
 
 Now all this is more than met by the thought that 
 that one Sacrifice and its all-sufficient merits live on, 
 as in our Lord's perpetual presentation of Himself in 
 heaven, so in our Eucharistical Oblation of His Body 
 and Blood sacramentally present on our altars. We 
 have nothing apart from that One Sacrifice ; our 
 Eucharistic Oblation is not something in and for it- 
 self; something independent of that One Sacrifice, even 
 while it pleaded it. Such is its union with that Sacri- 
 fice, that it is a perpetual application of its virtue ; 
 yet not as something distinct, but as united with it
 
 61 G ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 through the oneness of that which is offered, that same 
 Body of Christ offered on the Cross to make atonement 
 for the sins of the whole world and for each one of us, 
 offered and presented to the Father, in heaven and in 
 the Church below, on the "altar above," and on the 
 Holy Table, in pleading and for application of the 
 Atonement once for all wrought upon the holy Cross. 
 On the Cross that offering was made once for all with 
 shedding of Blood ; on earth the offering is made in 
 an unbloody manner, as the ancient Church attests. 
 On the Cross, that offering merited the salvation of 
 the world ; on the Altar, Christ being risen from the 
 dead, dieth no more, but the fruit of that death is 
 made over to the faithful. On the Cross, the full satis- 
 faction was paid ; on the Altar, the memorial of that 
 satisfaction is made to the Father, in correspondence 
 with the memorial made upon the celestial Altar. 
 
 To shew the harmony between the doctrine of the 
 Eucharist Sacrifice as taught by the Fathers, and 
 the teaching of the Article, while on the one hand we 
 are bound to receive as true what has been taught 
 tibigue, semper, et ab omnibus, the Church's concurrent 
 exposition of the "Word of God " in the best and purest 
 ages ;" on the other hand it must be consistent with 
 that other truth of God, which the Thirty-first Article 
 declares, out of St. Paul. And the solution is found in 
 the oneness of that which was sacrificed, the Body of 
 Christ, offered in satisfaction for our sins, with blood- 
 shedding on the Cross, offered mystically, sacrament- 
 ally, aOvrws and avaifj,a.KT(as, as the Fathers speak,
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 617 
 
 without shedding of blood, or without sacrificial slay- 
 ing, on the Altar. And this is further illustrated 
 1. by a comparison of our acts on earth with our 
 Lord's everlasting Priesthood in heaven. Since His 
 perpetual presentation of His pleading Body there, (by 
 which continual intercession He obtains for us all 
 grace,) does not interfere with the completeness of 
 the Sacrifice on the Cross, so neither does the corre- 
 sponding presentation on earth in the Eucharistic Sa- 
 crifice. 2. Other objections are to be met by stating 
 the belief of the Fathers, 1. that there is a real sacri- 
 fice in the Holy Eucharist; 2. that what is offered 
 is the Body and Blood of Christ, invisibly and sacra- 
 mentally present with us, but still the same Body 
 which our Saviour offered for us in His own merito- 
 rious Sacrifice on the Cross; (for although His Body 
 is present with us in a different way, it is still the 
 same Body, for our Blessed Lord hath not two Bodies, 
 but one only;) 3. that by offering and pleading this, 
 we, if there be no let or hindrance on man's part, 
 obtain the more readily the grace of God which we 
 entreat for. 
 
 The matter may be made clearer by the distinction 
 between "the active and passive sacrifice," i.e. sacri- 
 fice as "the action of offering," and sacrifice as "the 
 thing offered." It is simply an ambiguity in our 
 language, in which we use the same word (as is noticed 
 in Johnson's Dictionary,) for 1. " the act of offer- 
 ing ;" 2. " the thing offered." Theologians use the 
 word " sacrifice " in the one English sense, of " the
 
 618 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 thing offered ;" those who object to their teaching 
 take it in the other, of " the act of offering." Article 
 XXXI. uses the word sacrifice in the sense of "the 
 act of offering." In this sense every one must affirm 
 what the Article affirms, (it is a simple and funda- 
 mental matter of faith). As an act of immolation, 
 atonement, satisfaction, the offering of Christ was 
 "finished once for all." 
 
 With all which men, educated in imperfect systems 
 of theology, say on the perfectness and all-sufficiency 
 of our Lord's act of oblation His active Sacrifice 
 one must most entirely concur. It is a matter of re- 
 joicing (amid the misbelief in many quarters at the 
 present day) to observe the jealousy for the mainten- 
 ance of these most vital truths; amid our many sor- 
 rows, it is gratifying to find, on the part of men even 
 of extreme views in one direction, such harmony with 
 the ancient faith on the blessed Atonement of our 
 Lord. No Christian can say otherwise, than that 
 the Sacrifice of the Cross was "the one oblation of 
 Christ," oblatio unica, "the offering of Christ once 
 made," semel facia, " for all the sins of the whole 
 world, and there is none other satisfaction for sin but 
 that alone," prater illam unicam neque est ulla alia. It 
 stands alone in all respects. It is one and singular 
 in the victim, the act, and the result. There is only one 
 Christ, one offering for sin, one purchase of man's re- 
 demption. The Sacrifice of the Cross was Christ's 
 offering of Himself, performing an act which was 
 unique in itself, and securing a purchase which was
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 619 
 
 entire in itself. Although extending in its effects 
 throughout eternity, the Sacrifice of Christ i.e. His 
 act of sacrificing Himself, His shedding of His pre- 
 cious Blood for man's salvation, His dying for us, 
 atoning for us, meriting for us, making intercession 
 for us, is, in time, place, and circumstances, a thing 
 of the past. It was laying doicn His life, dying, volun- 
 tarily submitting to death ; and death, when really 
 fulfilled, is an accomplished fact, a thing past and 
 complete in itself. Again, the Sacrifice of Christ 
 teas offered upon the Cross ; it was the act of a certain 
 specific time and place, as distinct from all other 
 occasions and places. The Sacrifice of the Cross was, 
 moreover, a perfect act of atonement and satisfaction for 
 the sins of the whole world, which Christ alone was 
 able to make, and did make by the single act of dying, 
 and which, when made, was ended as complete and 
 sufficient for its purpose. 
 
 Every Christian must believe this. And so, on the 
 other hand, every Christian must repudiate the fearful 
 errors which are ignorantly supposed to follow from 
 the true doctrine, " there never can be any other sacri- 
 fice (i.e. any other act of sacrifice) identical with the 
 Sacrifice of the Cross." Assuredly not. No one ever 
 said so. All that is said is with St. Chrysostom, What 
 tee offer is the Same which our blessed Lord then offered 
 for us. Obviously, to say or imply that Christ was 
 still laying down His life for the sheep, still shedding 
 His Blood for our redemption, still discharging the 
 yet unpaid penalty for human guilt, is more than
 
 620 ARTICLE XXXT. 
 
 a contravention of the Thirty-first Article ; it is blas- 
 phemy. 
 
 But it has sometimes been said, the distinction be- 
 tween " the action of offering/' which was completed, 
 perfected, finished, once for all upon the altar of the 
 Cross, "and the Thing offered," must be set aside on 
 the ground that where the offerer is the same and the 
 thing or person offered the same, the act of offering 
 must be the same also. Will the reasoning hold? 
 Apply it to the ritual of the Day of Atonement. It 
 was the same pontiff who immolated the victim outside 
 the tabernacle, and who presented its blood within the 
 holy of holies ; the latter function being described by 
 the Apostle as the offering of the blood 2 ; a phrase, 
 most momentous in relation to the anti-typical part 
 of the subject. It was also the same victim in both 
 cases. But who will say that the act of offering, 
 when the sacrifice was slain, and the act of present- 
 ing its blood within the holy of holies, was one and 
 the same act? Again, apply this inference to the 
 sacerdotal work of our Lord. He was the Offerer 
 on the Cross, and is the Offerer before the Throne. 
 On the Cross and before the Throne there is but 
 one Thing or Person offered ; one Sacrifice, in that 
 passive sense in which theologians have used the 
 terms. But, on the above assumption, it would follow 
 that the "action of offering/' on the Cross and in 
 Heaven, was one and the same; in other words, 
 that the satisfaction or Atonement which belongs to 
 
 1 Heb. ix. 5.
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 621 
 
 our Lord's meritorious death on Calvary would not be 
 " perfect," or " once made," but continuous. 
 
 The Fathers mean by their saying, that our Blessed 
 Lord, now too, "is the Offerer and the Oblation," 
 that "the Sacrifice here below is part of His Melchi- 
 zedekean priesthood. He invisibly consecrates ; He 
 invisibly offers." Our Lord invisibly offers, in that 
 He invisibly consecrates. St. Ambrose says : " though 
 Christ is not now seen to offer, yet Himself is offered on 
 earth, when the body of Christ is offered; yea, Him- 
 self is plainly seen to offer in us, Whose Word sancti- 
 fieth the Sacrifice which is offered a ." Christ now, also, 
 doth invisibly and efficaciously all which is done in 
 His Name. Christ baptizeth, although not in the same 
 mode as He baptized on earth. Christ absolveth, al- 
 though not in the same mode as when He said to the 
 penitent before Him, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." 
 Christ consecrateth, Whose word of power consecrates, 
 although not in the same mode as on the night be- 
 fore His Passion. Christ is the only Teacher, although 
 not in the same mode as when He spake the Sermon 
 on the Mount. He comforteth, though not in the 
 same way as when He said on earth, "Be of good 
 cheer," or "Peace be unto you." So neither does 
 it follow, nor is it true, that because our Lord, by 
 His word, still consecrates our offering, He is the 
 Offerer in the same way as when, on the night before 
 He suffered, He anticipated the assault of the Jews, 
 "according to the mode of His priestly act, ineffable 
 * In Ps. xxxviii. 25, p. 852.
 
 622 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 and invisible to man, and offered Himself as an Offer- 
 ing and Sacrifice for us, Priest at once, and 'the 
 Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the 
 world V " He offered Himself by anticipation at the 
 last Supper ; He offered Himself in deed by His meri- 
 torious death on the Cross; He offereth Himself by 
 presenting Himself, our High-Priest for ever, in the 
 presence of the Father in heaven ; He mystically of- 
 fereth Himself in the Holy Eucharist, not only in 
 that He consecrate th by His word the gifts which He 
 has taught us to offer for a memorial of Himself, 
 but that, being Sacramentally present, He is "pre- 
 cious in the eyes of the Father." Yet because He 
 Himself is the agent in all, it follows not that He 
 acts in the same way in all. On the Cross, He made 
 the offering; in heaven, He presents it, and as God- 
 man, pleads it ; on earth He giveth it to us to plead, 
 in that He consecrates that Offering, whose very Pre- 
 sence pleads, in that it is, in a mystery, the Body 
 which was broken, the Blood which was shed for us. 
 
 But it may be argued that the assertion " An eter- 
 nal Priesthood implies, by the necessity of the case, 
 a perpetual victim, and that perpetual victim is the 
 offering of the Body of Jesus," is completely opposed 
 to Scripture, because a victim is one enduring death 
 for others, and a perpetual victim is a contradiction 
 in terms. 
 
 Neither the Latin victima (as used either in classic 
 writers, or in a theological sense by the Fathers,) 
 b S. Greg. Nyss., in Christ. Resur., Or. i. t. iii. p. 389.
 
 OF THE ONE OBLATION, &C. 623 
 
 nor the English "victim" means "one enduring death." 
 The Latin means, if we accept the authority of Fac- 
 ciolati, " a thing destined to be sacrificed/' or " which has 
 been sacrificed." For the English, Johnson gives the 
 original and metaphoric meaning : 1. "A sacrifice, 
 something slain for a sacrifice. 2. Something de- 
 stroyed." The act of being offered was ordinarily so 
 brief as not to be taken into account. The only idea 
 which the word "victim" had not, was "enduring 
 death." It continued a victim, after death, until it 
 was consumed. Animal sacrifices perish ; our Great 
 Sacrifice abideth. The title belonged to Him before 
 He was slain. For He is the Lamb slain from the 
 foundation of the world. It applied to Him in the 
 same sense, and in the same sense only, while He was 
 dying. For His Death consummated the Sacrifice. 
 It applies to Him equally now, as the Lamb which 
 hath been slain, and is most especially applicable to 
 Him who " appears," or " exhibits Himself, " con- 
 tinually before God for us, with all His saving wounds, 
 the tokens of His Passion. An eternal Priesthood 
 implies, by the necessity of the case, something to be 
 perpetually offered, and that which is perpetually offered 
 for us by our Melchizedek is the Body of Jesus. 
 
 Many of these objections flow from an inadequate 
 belief in the doctrine of the perpetual Priesthood of 
 our Lord and His unceasing intercession for the whole 
 Church. It is to be feared that some hold, rather, that 
 having made His one Oblation upon the Cross, He has 
 now ceased from any exclusively priestly function. Is
 
 624 ARTICLE XXXI. 
 
 their idea of His intercession more than that of an oral 
 all-prevailing prayer ? But God hath said, " Thou 
 art a High-Priest for ever." And He is not in such 
 wise a High-Priest, that He can be imagined separate 
 from the Sacrifice which He once offered. For that 
 Sacrifice was Himself. That Sacrifice is His Manhood, 
 never to be divided from His Godhead. He has car- 
 ried within the veil that Holy Body, once wounded 
 for our transgressions, and those very wounds, which 
 He shewed to St. Thomas, now resplendent in glory, 
 still move the Father to look upon the face of His 
 Anointed, and for His sake freely to give us all things. 
 And as this is no derogation from the oneness and 
 completeness of our Lord's atoning act on Calvary, 
 BO neither is it a derogation therefrom that we, in 
 the Holy Eucharist, with all our prayers, present 
 unto the Father the same Holy Body, present in an 
 ineffable way by the words of consecration. 
 
 Note on ' adscara 1 and ' asah? p. 600. 
 
 2. f. fecit, i.e. paravit victimam vel hostiam Deo offeren- 
 dam (sacrificia enim diis convivii instar parata offerebantur), inde ob- 
 tulit. Thus, Ps. Ixvi. 15 ; Exod. xxix. 36, 38, 39, 41 ; Num. vi. 17 ; &c. 
 (Cf. gr. if pa tptiftv, If pa ptfciv, et omisso ace. pe^eiv 6tf, II. 2, 400; 8, 
 250 ; Od. 14, 251, lat. sacra, res dhnnas,facere, et ellipt.facere, i.e. sacri- 
 
 ficare, Cic." Gesenius ad verb. Thes. p. 1075, 6. n~l3TN 2. "Verbale 
 
 T T : - 
 
 Hiphil ab ea radicis significatione, quse supra no 1, bb. exposita est, pr. 
 ' sacrificium rnemoriale, in memoriam revocans.' LXX. Vulg. favrj^Strvvov, 
 memoriale. Sic appellabatur ea fertorum pars, qua? una cum thure in 
 altari comburebatur, cujusque suavis odor in ccelum ascendens ejus, qui 
 sacrum obtulerat, memoriam numini commendiire credebatur. Lev. ii. 
 2, 9, 16, v. 12, vi. 8. Num. v. 26." Ib. v. -QT, p. 417.
 
 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 DE CONJUGIO SACERDOTUM. 
 
 EPISCOPIS, Presbyteris, et Diaconis nullo mandato divino 
 prceceptum est, ut aut ccelibatum voveant, ant a matri- 
 monio abstineant. Licet igitur etiam illis, ut caterix 
 omnibus Christianis, ubi hoc ad pietatem magis facere 
 judicaverint, pro suo arbitratu matrimonium contrahere. 
 
 " Of the Marriage of Priests. 
 
 " BISHOPS, Priests, and Deacons, are not commanded 
 by God's law either to vow the estate of single life, 
 or to abstain from marriage : therefore it is lawful for 
 them, as for all other Christian men, to marry at their 
 own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve 
 better to godliness." 
 
 THE first point here to be observed is the title, and 
 though we have observed that there is a certain loose- 
 ness in the use of terms in the titles of the Articles, 
 yet here and there there are indications of a set pur- 
 pose in the phraseology used. Now both the title and 
 the contents of the Article of 1571 differ from the 
 earlier digest. In the title of Article XXXI. of 1553, 
 it is laid down categorically, " The state of single life 
 is commanded of no man by the word of God ;" or as 
 it is said in the Latin, Ccelibatus ex verbo Dei pr&cipitur 
 
 s s
 
 626 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 nemini. This prceceptum of the title is changed in 
 the body of the Article into mandatum, " neither is any 
 one compelled, jure divino, to abstain from matrimony." 
 The revised Article uses the expression De conjugio 
 sacerdotum. The language in the second place is 
 a little strengthened, and both the ideas of mandatum 
 and prceceptum are conjoined nullo mandato divino pros- 
 ceptum est ; and it then goes on to add that the clergy 
 in this respect may act as other Christian men. Now 
 not only is the marked contrast of the clergy with 
 other Christian men an observable thing, but the use 
 of the word sacerdotum shews how entirely the English 
 Reformers repudiated the idea of a mere minister, and 
 assumed that of a \eiTovpyos or sacerdos. Had the word 
 stood alone we might have supposed it to be a slip, 
 but bearing in mind the employment of it in Article 
 XXXI., we may suppose that it was no incuria, but 
 intentionally done. If so, we have the identity of the 
 priesthood before and after the Reformation asserted, 
 just as actually we find maintained in the amended 
 Statutes of Corpus Christi College, where it is held 
 that the Fellows, " though discharged from massing," 
 were still of necessity to be Priests a . 
 
 And the word, in being used to cover the three 
 sacred orders, adds to the importance of the phrase- 
 ology ; for though in the primitive Church, in St. 
 Cyprian, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, the word is used 
 for the Episcopate, just as the corresponding term 
 lepevs is used by St. Chrysostom ; and though after- 
 * Vide Statutes, Corpus Christi College.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 627 
 
 wards it was sometimes with and sometimes without 
 the specification secundi ordinis, used for the Presby- 
 terate ; the including the Diaconate in the term, shews 
 how high in the Article is the estimate of all the orders 
 according to the old definition : " Sacerdos, quasi 
 sacrum dans, a Dei mysteria administrandoV The 
 early use of saccrdos and levita for Priest and Dea- 
 con, derived into the Christian phraseology through 
 the Vulgate, shews how completely the new law was 
 looked upon as the continuation and supplement of 
 the old law. 
 
 The proposition that the celibacy of the priesthood 
 is not jure divino is absolutely Catholic. It has ever 
 been regarded as a matter of pure discipline, varying 
 with the different ages, and the necessities of the 
 Church. The law might be relaxed to-morrow over 
 the whole world; but it is the distinguishing feature 
 of Christianity to be at once both real and ideal. It 
 throws itself into the world, accepts the complex phe- 
 nomena of civilization, and deals with men as it finds 
 them. And yet it never loses sight of the thought that 
 its real home is not on earth but in heaven, and that 
 it has to transmute the elements of this world into 
 a higher order. Compounded of the divine and the 
 human, it has to subdue and elevate its inferior nature, 
 and the actions of this mixed creation are referred to 
 celestial personality. The divine Person of our Lord 
 shines down upon His work, and just as it was the 
 Divinity and not the Humanity which supplied the 
 b Ducange, ad verb.
 
 G28 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 Personality to Him, so in His work on earth it is the 
 nobler element that must dominate. In our Divine 
 Lord the Godhead determined the operation of the 
 Humanity, which was assumed as the instrument of 
 the Divinity ; His Personality was not human, but 
 Divine ; His Human Will ever followed His Divine 
 Will ; His Human acts were deified ; of that Humanity 
 we are partakers, and through It, St. Peter says, we 
 are " partakers of the Divine Nature c ." The tendency, 
 therefore, of religion will always be to the ideal ; it 
 will at least recognise a high standard, however far 
 it may come short of it. 
 
 Now we find that this actually was the fashion, on 
 which our Lord promulgated the Gospel. While He 
 came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it, to give 
 it a fresh sanction and larger grace, while He was 
 manifested that He might elevate the ordinary society 
 of men, and make them live so as that by His merits 
 they might attain everlasting life, He also instituted, 
 as we have seen in a previous Article (XIV.), what are 
 termed Counsels of Perfection. He gave the rule of 
 a higher life, formed upon His own most holy life, for 
 " such as could receive it." Voluntary poverty, in 
 imitation of Him who had not where to lay His head; 
 voluntary obedience, as following Him Who for our 
 sakes was subject to Joseph and Mary, the works 
 of His hand; virginal purity, at the foot of Him 
 Who was the Virgin Son of a Virgin Mother, become 
 those higher exceptional graces the ideal, in short, of 
 c 2 Pet. i. 4.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 629 
 
 Christianity, the highest manifestations of the re- 
 sults of the Gospel ; a law, not for all but for the 
 few : yet these few, lights of the world in their seve- 
 ral generations. 
 
 A view like this could not but profoundly affect 
 the sacerdotal requirement. Even in the lowest types 
 of Christianity, as has been already stated under 
 Article XXVI., it is always expected that the clergy 
 shall be an example to the flock, shall lead a somewhat 
 stricter life than others, shall abstain from certain 
 harmless amusements, and deny themselves in what 
 is permitted freely to their people. Still more was 
 this the case in the early Church, when the new re- 
 ligion in all its strength was the regenerating power 
 of the world ; when, in the face of a corrupt and effete 
 Paganism, it was giving new life to society. Then 
 the demand for any high qualifications in the clergy 
 naturally took the shape of an exaction of adherence 
 to the Counsels of Perfection. Yet neither our Lord, 
 nor His Apostles, nor again their successors the 
 early Bishops, strained human nature beyond what it 
 could bear. While our Lord laid down the rule of 
 perfection for such as could bear it, He allowed the 
 Apostles to choose as clergy men who were married 
 once d . St. Paul makes provision, for the conduct of 
 
 d " He [St. Paul] says that a Bishop must be blameless, husband of 
 one wife. He so saith, not enacting this as a law, but hindering un- 
 restrainedness." St. Chrys. in 1 Tim., Horn. x. The Bishop of Thy- 
 atira, consecrated probably by St. John, was, according to the un- 
 doubted reading (Rev. ii. 20), married, though his marriage turned out 
 ill. " Thy wife, Jezebel." " The word aov is in the best and oldest
 
 630 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 such married men, and for the regulation of their 
 families. While recognising the claims of " the present 
 necessity" freely, he allows St. Timothy and St. Titus to 
 ordain as Bishops once-married men who were blame- 
 less and well conducted in the ordinary rules of life e . 
 The injunction to St. Titus at least, implies that such 
 as were married, were married before ordination. The 
 Greek Church was very strict in enforcing this limi- 
 tation. 
 
 The Apostolic Canons, or Ante-Nicene Eastern Code, 
 while they forbid any of the three sacred orders to put 
 away their wives on plea of religion, exclude digamists 
 and those who have married widows or divorcees ; and 
 absolutely forbid marriage after ordination f . At Neo- 
 csesarea, in 314, Priests married after ordination are 
 to be degraded e . At Ancyra the same rule is laid 
 down, but Deacons signifying their intention of marry- 
 ing before ordination may do so\ The Synod of 
 Gangra condemned those, who, misled by the heretical 
 teaching of Eustathius, the Semi-Arian Bishop of 
 Sebaste, on marriage, would not receive communion 
 from a married priest, as though he ought not to 
 minister \ 
 
 The abuse of the o-vf^Trapecad/cTot or subintroductce, 
 
 MSS., the Syrian and older Latin version (in Cyprian and Primasius 
 'uxorem tuam'), and is therefore rightly received into the text by 
 Meyer, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and Buttmann. Only Diisterdick re- 
 jects it, manifestly on grounds other than critical, for the evidence is 
 overwhelming in its favour." (Dollinger, " First Ages of the Church," 
 p. 293, not. 2. Eng. Tr.) 
 
 e 1 Tim. iii. 2 ; Tit. 5. 5, sqq. ( Can. v., xvi., xvii., xxv. 
 
 b Can. x. l Can. i.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 631 
 
 however, implies a co-existent life of celibacy both of 
 men and women. For to celibates only could there 
 either be temptation to, or plea for, this strange and 
 perilous custom. There are notices of its extending 
 to some few clergy, and this implies an existing custom 
 of clerical celibacy. For when corrupt ways or self- 
 deceits are noticed, it implies that such self-deceit 
 was an exception. The abuse was the resource of 
 those, who having, in whatever way or on whatever 
 ground, given up marriage, wished for the solace of 
 the intimate society of the other sex, meaning no sin, 
 though too often, after a time, involved in it. St. Cy- 
 prian, indeed, who first mentions the abuse, expressly 
 states that one Deacon only was involved in it ; and 
 he was at once excommunicated J. But in Antioch, 
 which the heathenized Paul of Samosata did what in 
 him lay to demoralize (A.D. 260), a formal name (crvv- 
 eio-dfcroL) was invented by the inhabitants for those 
 virgins who were domiciled among men. Paul him- 
 self had several such with him, as had his Presbyters 
 and Deacons k . This, then, is a trace of celibacy of 
 clergy, even in the luxurious Antioch. They were 
 living as celibates, till Paul corrupted them. Leontius, 
 who, when a Priest, was deposed for this practice in 
 an aggravated form ! , was also an insulated case ; yet 
 
 J See S. Cypr., Ep. ad Pompon., p. 7, and note in Oxford Translation. 
 In Ep. xiv., St. Cyprian speaks of the Presbyters and Deacons as re- 
 straining these evils. 
 
 k Ep. Synod. Cone. Ant. in Eus., H. E. vii. 30. 
 
 1 St. Atb., Apol. pro fuga, 26 ; Ep. ad Jlfon., 38. The Synod of 
 Ancyra forbade virgins to live as "sisters" with any, can. 19, but with-
 
 632 ARTICLE XXXTI. 
 
 each such bad case implies that celibacy had an emi- 
 nence, which bad men wished to attain without its 
 sacrifices. 
 
 At the Council of Nicsea it was proposed to forbid 
 the use of marriage to Bishops, Priests, and Dea- 
 cons, who had married as laymen. It was "vehe- 
 mently resisted" by St. Paphnutius, an aged confessor, 
 as " a heavy yoke which ought not to be imposed on 
 consecrated men, lest from excessive preciseness the 
 Church should be injured." His authority, the more 
 strong because he himself had led a virgin-life, was 
 sufficient to prevent any law being made upon the 
 subject. Marriage, then, among the clergy remained 
 unforbidden. St. Gregory Nazianzen was the son of 
 the bishop of that see. Eusebius and Socrates have 
 many instances of a married clergy m . 
 
 Custom, however, had gone further than law. The 
 Canon of Nicsea, which forbade that "any Bishop, Priest, 
 or Deacon, or any other of the Clergy, should have 
 a arvveia-a/cTos with him, unless it were mother, sister, 
 or aunt, or person liable to no suspicion n ," implies 
 
 out any allusion to clergy. St. Clement, of Rome, in his first Syriac 
 Epistle, c. 10, warns against the custom of those " who dwell with 
 virgins under pretence of piety." Later, St. Jerome mentions the " Aga- 
 petse and the virgins who daily fall." (Ep. xxii. ad Ewstoch., n. 13, 14.) 
 St. Chrysostom has two homilies on subintroducti and subintroductce, 
 but with no reference to the clergy. Gie.-eler's statement, that " this 
 custom chiefly burst in among unmarried clergy," is unsupported by evi- 
 dence. His statement also, that it is alluded to in Hernias, Pastor 
 1. iii. si<n. 9, 11, is altogether a mistake ; nor does there seem to be 
 any allusion to this abuse in Tert. dejej., c. 17 
 
 m Socr., i. 11 ; Soz., i. 23. n Can. iii.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 633 
 
 an extensive clerical celibacy, which it protects from 
 scandal. St. Epiphanius says, that " the priesthood 
 sets out mostly from virgins, or, if not, from monks ; 
 but if they suffice not for the service, from such as are 
 continent as to their own wives, or are widowers from 
 a single marriage ." "This," he says, "prevailed as 
 to Deacon, Priest, Bishop, and Subdeacon, especially 
 where the Canons of the Church were accurately ob- 
 served V " In some places/' he adds, " Presbyters, 
 Deacons, and Subdeacons had children, because men's 
 minds had grown relaxed, and, for the multitude, 
 Clergy were not found." St. Jerome, who says that 
 some Bishops required those whom they ordained to 
 be previously married, and that the people sometimes 
 preferred to elect married Priests to be Bishops, lays 
 it down broadly as the rule of the East [i.e. the Patri- 
 archate of Antioch] and Egypt, as well as Home, that 
 the Clerks should be either virgins or continent, whether 
 out of or in marriage q . Yet his saying that there 
 were "as many twice-married Bishops as at Arimi- 
 num r " [300], though vaguely said and spoken ap- 
 parently of such twice-married, as had married once 
 only since their Baptism, implies an extensive married 
 clergy. 
 
 Origen had laid down, as the ground of clerical con- 
 tinency, St. Paul's words, that the married were not 
 to defraud one another, except by consent for a season, 
 that they might give themselves unto prayer. If so, 
 
 Expos, fid., n. 21. f Hcer. 59, n. 4. 
 
 'i Adv. Vigil., n. 2. * Ep. Ixix., ad Ocean. 2, 3.
 
 634 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 "it is certain that the perpetual sacrifice is impeded 
 to those subject to conjugal necessities. Whence it 
 seems to me, that to offer the perpetual sacrifice be- 
 longs to him alone, who should have devoted himself 
 to unceasing and perpetual chastity s ." Eusebius follows 
 him, when comparing the Gospel with the old law. 
 He quotes St. Paul's words, " the husband of one wife," 
 but adds, " but for the consecrated, who are engaged in 
 the service of God, it is fitting that they refrain them- 
 selves from marital intercourse*." St. Cyril, of Jeru- 
 salem, uses the argument, "if he, who fulfils well" 3 - the 
 office of Jesus' Priest, refrains himself from women x /' 
 against those who denied the Incarnation. St. Gre- 
 gory, of Nyssa, urges Moses' command y , as a ground 
 of sacerdotal continency z . 
 
 The (Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon prefaces its 
 prohibition to Headers and Can tores to wed with 
 Pagans, Jews, or heretics, unless they promised to ac- 
 cede to the orthodox faith, with the words, " Since 
 in some Eparchies they are allowed to marry." Yet 
 in the East, after this, we find Bishops having children 
 by their lawful wives during their Episcopate. The 
 discipline in the East was stereotyped by the Council 
 at Trullo. It forbade clergy who had risen to the 
 Subdiaconate to marry after ordination ; but it allowed 
 those who should marry previously, to live with their 
 wives, except at their turn to celebrate, that they 
 
 Horn. 23 in Num., n. 3 ; Opp., ii. 358. Dem. Ev., i. 8, 
 
 fin. p. 33. KU\WS. I Lcct. xii. n. 26, p. 13G, 0. T. 
 
 y Ex. xix. 15. * De Virgin, fin., Opp., iii. 178.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 635 
 
 might gain what they ask of God a . Bishops were for- 
 bidden to do this, on pain of deposition b . If a married 
 Priest was advanced to the Episcopate, his wife, having 
 first heen separated by mutual consent, was, after his 
 consecration, to enter some distant monastery, being 
 provided for by the Bishop c . 
 
 In the West, Tertullian stated it to be an admitted 
 rule, that a second marriage excluded from orders. 
 "I remember some twice-married to have been de- 
 posed from their order." "No other can be a Priest, 
 than he who, as a layman, had only once been a hus- 
 band* 1 ." Elsewhere he insults the Catholics for having 
 twice-married Bishops e . The inconsistency is nothing 
 strange in Tertullian ; perhaps the solution may lie in 
 the different senses given to 'digamus,' which some- 
 times includes those only who married twice after their 
 baptism, sometimes those also, who, as Christians, 
 had married once only f . Hippolytus, however, in the 
 Philosophumena, makes it one of the charges against 
 Pope Calixtus, that they had begun to be lax on this 
 subject. " In his time digamous and trigamous Bi- 
 shops, Priests, and Deacons, began (ijp^avro) to be ad- 
 vanced to the clericate. If any also who was among 
 the clergy (eV K\rjpw wv) married, such an one remained 
 
 * Can. vi., xiii. 
 
 b Can. xii. The Canon speaks of the cusLom as prevailing in Africa, 
 Libya, and other places, and of the offence which it occasioned to 
 the people. 
 
 c Can. xlviii. d De Exhort. Cast., c. 7. 
 
 e De Monogamia, c. 12. 
 
 f See Dr. Pusey on Tertullian, note X, pp. 420432.
 
 636 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 in his office as if he had not sinned %." In Spain, the 
 Council of Elvira, A.D. 309, forbade marital intercourse 
 to the three orders, on pain of remotion from their 
 office h . 
 
 The law presupposes, however, the previous marriage 
 of many clergy, which is recognised also in another 
 Canon 1 , prohibiting a Bishop or any other Clerk to 
 have any other with him, except a sister or a daughter 
 dedicated to God. This implies also that the clergy 
 were of mature age. " Very many (plurimi} Priests 
 and Deacons, however, continued to have children in, 
 or even out of marriage," (as St. Siricius states in his 
 answer to Exuperius of Tarragona, A.D. 398,) maintain- 
 ing this custom on the ground of the Old Testament 
 law k . Laymen also were ordained, who had been more 
 than once married ! , and this the Spanish bishops did, 
 as if it had been enjoined rather than forbidden '". 
 St. Siricius lays down that, on the principles of the 
 old law, "all we, Priests and Deacons, are bound by 
 an indissoluble law, to give hearts and bodies to sobriety 
 and chastity." Those who used marriage in the priest- 
 hood were to be deposed ; but it was allowed to live 
 in single marriage till thirty, which was fixed as the 
 age of the Diaconate n . 
 
 The second Council of Toledo, A.D. 405, required 
 that those dedicated by their parents to Holy Orders, 
 
 * Philosoph., ix. 12, p. 290. h Can. xxxiii. 
 
 1 Can. xxvii. k Up. ad Exup., n. 7. 
 
 1 "Quibus fuerint numerosa conjugia," ib., n. 8. m Ibid. 
 
 n Ibid., n. 9. Five years more were required for the Presbyterate ; 
 ten more for the Episcopate.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 
 
 and educated under the Bishop's eye, should, at eigh- 
 teen, be interrogated publicly, as to their wish to 
 marry. From those who so will, they say, " we cannot 
 take away what is granted by the Apostles," but such 
 were to be admitted to Holy Orders only in advanced 
 age, when, by mutual consent, they had renounced 
 the use of marriage . 
 
 In Africa, in the Council of Carthage, A D. 428, the 
 same enactment was made as at Elvira, that " what 
 Apostles taught, and antiquity observed, we, too, may 
 keep P." 
 
 St. Innocent I., in his answer to Victricius, Bishop 
 of Rouen, A.D. 404, abridging the arguments of Siricius, 
 lays down the continence of Priests and Deacons as an 
 Apostolic tradition, observed in the Roman Church 1. 
 
 St. Leo's answer to the inquiry of Rusticus, Bishop 
 of Narbonne, whether Deacons were allowed the use of 
 marriage, lays down, as the recognised law of the 
 Church, that the ministers of the altar, equally with 
 the Bishops and Presbyters, were prohibited from this. 
 
 Can. i. The eighth Council of Toledo, A.D. 636, forbids the marriage 
 of Subdeacoiis, as a breach of previous law. 
 
 P Cone. Garth, ii., can. ii. In the fifth Council of Carthage, A.D. 438, 
 (Cod. Eccl. Afr., can. xxv.,) this enactment was received as " having 
 been established in diverse Councils." Those who infringed it were 
 to " be removed from the ecclesiastical office." 
 
 1 " For the sake of those who, through ignorance or sloth, do not 
 maintain ecclesiastical discipline, and venture on many things not to be 
 ventured on, thou hast rightly asked that in those parts the form be 
 observed which the Roman Church holds, not so that any new precepts 
 be commanded, but that we wish that those things, which have been 
 neglected through the sloth of some, be observed by all, which yet 
 were constituted by Apostolic tradition and of the fathers."
 
 638 ARTICLE XXXIT. 
 
 " In order that from a carnal, it should become a spiri- 
 tual marriage, they must not send away their wives, 
 yet they must have them as though they had them not, 
 that the love of wedlock may be unimpaired, and the 
 act of marriage may cease r ." In his letter to Anas- 
 tasius, Bishop of Thessalonica, he expressly includes 
 the Subdeacon as bound by this law, and lays down 
 that none was to be advanced to the three higher 
 orders, who was found not to have so refrained B . 
 
 In Gaul, the Council of Turin, A.D. 401, forbade 
 those who had children, while in the ministry, to be 
 admitted to higher orders*. The first Council of 
 Orange, A.D. 441, forbade any married men to be or- 
 dained, unless with purpose of conversion, they should 
 first profess chastity; Deacons, who used marriage, were 
 to be deposed u . The second Council of Aries, A.D. 452, 
 forbade any one in the bond of wedlock to be raised 
 to the priesthood, unless he should first be converted ; 
 a Deacon, or any upwards, who for his solace should 
 have any woman, except grandmother, mother, sister, 
 daughter, granddaughter, or wife, converted with him, 
 was excommunicate x . It also adopted the two Canons 
 of the Council of Orange y. The first Council of Tours, 
 A.D. 460, relaxed a constitution of their fathers, which 
 withheld from communion any Priest or Deacon who 
 continued to have children, but forbade such to offer 
 sacrifice to God, or minister to the people, or to rise 
 
 1 Ep. clxvii. Inq. 3, p. 1422. Ep. xiv. c. 4, p. 687. 
 
 * Can. viii. u Can. xxii. Can. xxiii. provided that 
 
 a Deacon, breaking this rule, should be put aside from his office. 
 1 Can. ii., iii. f Can. xliii., xliv.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 639 
 
 to any higher order z . The Council of Agde, A.D. 506, 
 enforced " the rule of ecclesiastical life and discipline 
 which had gone from Bishop Siricius to the provinces," 
 incorporating a portion of the letter of Innocent I. a 
 The third Council of Orleans, A.D. 538, renewed the 
 old Canon about clerical continency. The second 
 Council of Tours, A.D. 567, had still to re-enact, " that. 
 a Bishop should have a wife as a sister;" and that 
 " a Bishop, who had not an episcopa, was not to be fol- 
 lowed by any crowd of women, but that the ministers 
 of the Church, especially the Clerks who serve the 
 Bishop and ought to guard him, should have liberty 
 to eject strange women from frequent co-dwelling V 
 The Council also states that " not indeed all, but many 
 \_phires~\ Archpresbyters of villages, Deacons, and Sub- 
 deacons, were suspected by the people of remaining 
 with their wives." It enjoined that they should be 
 accompanied by other Clerks. A Presbyter, Deacon, or 
 Subdeacon, ftrand with his presbytera, or diaconissa, or 
 subdiaconissa, was to be excommunicated for a year, 
 and deposed from all clerical office . The wives, how- 
 ever, of married Priests or Bishops were not withdrawn 
 into convents, as appears from the history of Stephania, 
 wife of Pope Adrian II. In A.D. 868, Eleutherius, who 
 had deceived and married her daughter, being already 
 espoused to another d , murdered mother and daughter. 
 The greater strictness of law in the West led to 
 
 z Can. ii. Can. ix. b Prof, and can. ii. c Can. 
 
 xii., xiii., xix. d Hincmari Eemensis Annales, A. 868, iu Pertz, 
 
 Hon. Germ., i. 476.
 
 640 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 greater laxness of practice. The Western Councils of 
 the ninth century f , and still more in the tenth cen- 
 tury g , indicate that concubinage prevailed, and a sort 
 of half-recognised marriage was very common. There 
 were frequent Canons of Councils that no son should 
 succeed to the benefice of his father. 
 
 The Council of Mayence, A.D. 888, had absolutely 
 to prohibit the clergy from having any females what- 
 ever, even the allowed relations, in their dwellings, 
 much guilt, even incest, having been the result 11 . The 
 Council of Metz, in the same year, made the like 
 enactment, though alluding only to the evils'. The 
 constitution of Riculfus, Bishop of Soissons k , A.D. 889, 
 and a Council of Nantes (exact date unknown) refer 
 to the same, and speak of other sins by reason of the 
 attendants l . Even a saint, St. Peter Damiani, had to 
 write against horrible sins of the clergy, which one 
 can neither name nor even remotely allude to m . The 
 work was stolen, and suppressed for a time, because he 
 could not but speak plainly 11 . But one remedy, the 
 marriage of the clergy, became extensive. Leo VII., in 
 a letter to the Kings, Dukes, Bishops, Abbots, Counts, 
 and specially to the Bishops of Salzburg, Ratisbon, 
 Frisingen, Seben, and the rest of the Bishops through- 
 out Gaul, Germany, Bavaria, Swabia, A.D. 939, speaks 
 of the clergy taking wives, like the rest of Christians . 
 
 f Aux. 836, Mayence, 888. f Poitiers, 1,000, can. vi. 
 
 h Can. x. ! Can. v. k c. 14. ' Can. iii. 
 
 m Liber Gomorrhianus, Opusc., 7. " See Baron., A. 1049, n. 10 15. 
 Epist. 3.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 641 
 
 Guido, early in the eleventh century, says that this was 
 done throughout Italy p . Benedict VIII., in the preface 
 to a Council of Ticino, inveighs against the publicity and 
 extent of these marriages, which, by the provision made 
 for the children, impoverished even wealthy Churches. 
 He re-enacted the old laws, which were confirmed by 
 the Emperor Henry II. (This was between 1014 and 
 1024.) The name presbyterissa was a recognised name, 
 and appeared in public instruments 1. The instance of 
 the Church of Milan, in which " all the Priests and 
 Deacons," and even the Archbishop was married r , was 
 the more remarkable on account of the proverbial 
 excellence of its clergy 8 . They had even a tradition 
 that St. Ambrose formally allowed single marriage *. 
 
 The laxity infected even Monastic bodies. In the 
 Celtic provinces of Europe the Church lands came to be 
 hereditary in the Abbot's or Priest's family. Sacerdo- 
 talism became hereditary, and the names Mactaggart, 
 the priest's son ; MacNab, the abbot's son ; Mactavish, 
 
 P Disciplina Farfensis, in Fetus discipl. Monast., Paris, 1726, p. 37. 
 
 i Aventinut, L v. p. 346. From stress of time the following facts are 
 put together from the authorities given in Gieseler's Kirchengeschiehte. 
 
 r Heribert, A. 10191046. Chron. Medial, in Murat. Scriptt. Eer. 
 Hal., t. iv. p. 122, quoted by Gies. 
 
 8 " Mediolanum in clericis, Papia in deliciis, Roma in sedificiis, 
 Ravenna in Ecclesiis." (Landulf, Hist. Mediol., iii. 1.) Gieseler quotes 
 also Anselm of Lucca (Alexander II.), "Unless all the Priests and 
 Deacons of this city had wives, in preaching and in other good manners 
 they were very effective." (Ib. 4.) " The Papal legate, P. Damiani, 
 attested, that ' verily he had never seen such a clergy.' " ( Arnulf., 
 Hist. Med., iii. 12.) Ib. 
 
 1 Land. i. 11, quoted ib. 
 
 Tt
 
 642 ARTICLE XXXIT. 
 
 the nun's son, are abiding testimonies of the laxity of 
 the discipline of the Scoto-Irish Church. It was the 
 same throughout Europe, as an accurate historian, Sir 
 James Mackintosh, one by no means likely to over-esti- 
 mate the work of a great Church-reformer, has declared 
 his opinion, that Gregory VII. incidentally saved re- 
 ligion in Europe from becoming a caste-religion, like 
 Brahminism, with all the withering influences which 
 such caste-religion implies. 
 
 One of that Pontiff's weapons in restoring disci- 
 pline was the enforcement of clerical celibacy. This 
 was adopted with certain modifications by Lanfranc in 
 1076, an exception being made for the country clergy 
 who had already married wives ; but St. Anselm, in 
 1102, at the Council of "Westminster, forbade marriage, 
 separated those married, suspended them a dwinis, and 
 forbade the faithful to be present at their services. 
 The law of the English Church, thenceforward till the 
 Reformation, exacted celibacy in the clergy. 
 
 But, "quid leges sine moribus vanse proficiunt?" 
 An old Saxon Chronicle says, "all those decrees had 
 
 / ' 
 
 no effect ; all retained their wives, by the king's per- 
 mission, as they had done before u ." For the Bishops 
 "left it to the king to judge as to the focarm of the 
 priests ; and the matter ended with the gravest scandal. 
 For the king took infinite money from the Presbyters 
 to redeem their focarm x ." In 1208, in the reign of 
 King John, all the house-keepers {focarm} of the Pres- 
 byters and Clerks throughout all England were taken 
 Ad A. 1129, in Wilkins' Cone., i. 411. * Matt. Paris, A. 1129.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 643 
 
 by the king's officers, and obliged to redeem them- 
 selves at a heavy sum. So it was in other Northern 
 kingdoms. The rule of clerical celibacy was enforced 
 with difficulty, and broken. The long list of decrees 
 of Councils against " the concubines, house-keepers 
 (focariae), and servants (pedtsseqtue)" of the clergy y, is 
 an indication of the efforts to maintain clerical celi- 
 bacy, and of their failure. Sometimes the Bishops 
 connived at its breach ; at times, it is said, " for money 
 or some other temporal advantage z ," more often, it is 
 to be hoped, looking upon the forbidden quasi- marriage 
 as the least of two evils a . The gloss on the decree, 
 that those Clerks who had offspring " should be re- 
 moved from the sacerdotal office b ," said, " But it is 
 commonly said that for simple fornication one ought 
 not to be deposed, since few are found without that 
 vice." A Chancellor of Paris said publicly, " in the 
 hearing of his whole school, which was full of so many 
 men, of so great account and learning," " that never 
 did the old enemy, in any matter, so circumvent the 
 Church of God as in the utterance of that vow c " [of 
 
 r Scbrockh (K. G. Th. 27, pp. 205, 6) enumerates 24, between 
 A. 12071302. 
 
 * Prelates, who should do so, are sentenced to the like penalty with 
 the offenders, by Cone. Lat. iv. A. 1215, can. xiv. Both rules were 
 enforced in the Constltt. Edmund. Cantuar., A. 1236, c. 4. 
 
 a Such quasi-marriages were often, however, contracted with a bad 
 conscience ; some changing the person repeatedly [totiens mutenf], all 
 putting them away in extremis. Antigraphum Petri, (written between 
 A. 11531173) in Gieseler, par. 3, Abschn. 3, 65, n. d. 
 
 b Dist. 81, c. 6. 
 
 c Peter Comestor, reported by his pupil, Giraldus Cambr., aii ear- 
 witness, in Cave, Hist. Lit.
 
 644 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 the continency of the clergy] . A celebrated summist 
 lays down, "that a Confessor, who advised an Acolyte, 
 who had not the gift of continency, to marry secretly, 
 evading the eyes of his Bishop, commits no great sin. 
 For we believe it to be a less sin to retain his benefice 
 [contrary to law] with a secret marriage, than to have 
 fornicaria against the divine prohibition. But if sub- 
 sequently he be compelled by his prelates to come to 
 Holy Orders, we believe that it is a less sin, uxore uti, 
 than to fornicate with another, if he will not wholly 
 to contain d ." William Durand, Bishop of Mende, sug- 
 gested whether, since all the efforts of Councils and 
 Popes had been unavailing, " it would be expedient 
 that, in the Western Church, the custom of the Eastern 
 Church, as to the vow of continency, should be retained 
 in regard to those to be advanced [to Holy Orders], 
 especially since in the time of the Apostles the custom 
 of the Eastern Church was observed 6 ." In Hungary, 
 Synods allowed the marriage of the clergy in the 
 eleventh century. Compulsory celibacy was first esta- 
 blished there, in Denmark, Sweden, and Poland in 
 the thirteenth. In Silesia, a Bishop of Breslau wrote 
 against it in the twelfth; and in Bohemia, in the 
 thirteenth century, complaints were made to Inno- 
 cent III. of an Archbishop of Prague, who notori- 
 ously had a wife, by whom he had children f . 
 
 d Summa qua incipit Commiserationes Domini, c. 165, in Flacii 
 Cat. Test. Verit., ii. 662, Lugd. 1597. 
 e De modo gen. cone, celebr., p. ii. rubr. 46. f. xxxv. v. 
 f See authorities in Gieseler, 1. c.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 645 
 
 In the fourteenth century, a fresh indication of ex- 
 isting evils appears, in that the laity compelled the 
 clergy to take concubines, thinking it necessary for 
 the safety of their own families *. In some parts of 
 Ireland and Norway, it was the custom of the country 
 that the Bishops and Priests should have concubines 
 publicly; they accompanied the Prelates on visitations; 
 the amasice, or wives of the Presbyters, took rank ; 
 Presbyters who had none paid double procurations, as 
 infringers of their country's custom h . " Much the same 
 ways as to luxury were altogether observed, as to the 
 priests of Gascony, Spain, and Portugal, and the coun- 
 tries contiguous to Africa ; whence in all those parts 
 there were more natural than legitimate children, and 
 more such were openly promoted and preferred in the 
 grant of ecclesiastical titles V In Spain, Asturia, Gal- 
 licia, and elsewhere, Presbyters and others in Holy 
 Orders married publicly \ In Italy fines were imposed 
 by successive Councils J; that of Bergamo, A. 1311, 
 
 8 The Council of Palencia, A. 1322, c. 7, fin., excommunicated indivi- 
 duals, and laid an interdict on any community who should do so. Nic. de 
 Clamengis says that " in most parishes they would not tolerate a Priest 
 who had not a concubine, so persuaded were they of the universal in- 
 continency, and that even this precaution sufficed not." (De Preesul. 
 Simoniacis, Opp., p. 165.) In the next century the Prisons with 
 difficulty allowed of any other, on the same ground. JSneas Sylvius, 
 A. 1440. (Cosmogr., ii. 35.) 
 
 h Theod. a Niem. Nemus Unionis, Tract, vi. 35. 
 
 5 Alv. Pelag. de planctu eccles., ii. 27. " With a marriage-feast, as if 
 lawful wives. Sometimes with a public instrument, promising not to 
 part with them, especially noble ladies, and endowing them with the 
 goods of the Church." 
 
 > Bavenn., A. 1317, rubr. 4; 10 librae for having or permitting sus-
 
 646 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 imposed twice as large a fine on a Prelate as on an 
 ordinary Clerk k . The Council of Presburg, A. 1309, 
 imposed on concubinarii publici the forfeiture of one- 
 fourth of the income of the benefice, avowedly as being 
 more effective than excommunication 1 . The Council 
 of Mayence, A. 1300, imputes its revival to the avarice 
 of some who counted gain to be godliness m . Bishops 
 were said not to presume to rebuke as being them- 
 selves tainted 11 . The Emperor Charles IV. threatened 
 to sequestrate the revenues of those who gave occasion 
 to this scandal, but was checked by Innocent VI., as 
 interfering with the freedom of the Church . 
 
 The complaints of previous centuries heightened in 
 the fifteenth. In the beginning of the century, it was 
 said for certain that clergy of the Roman Curia still had 
 their concubines without shame, notoriously to all p . 
 Card. Julian assigned as his ground for acquiescing in 
 the Council of Basle, to which he had been indisposed 
 " the deformity and dissoluteness of the clergy of Ger- 
 many, whereby the laity are beyond measure irritated 
 
 pected persons; Benevent., A. 1331, c. 55, 56; Constitt. ~Eccl, Ferr., 
 A. 1332, c. 31. 
 
 k Ten librae of Pavia for a Prelate or Rector, five fora common Clerk. 
 Rubr. 6. ' Cone. Posoniens., c. 5. 
 
 m Nic. de Clamengis complained taut " in most dioceses Rectors of 
 parisbes commonly and publicly have concubines at a fixed price settled 
 with their prelates." (De ruina Eccl., c. 22.) 
 
 n Theobald, publ. conq. in, Cone. Const., in v.d. Hardt. Cone. Const., 
 t. i. P. xix., p. 909. He made stronger charges. 
 
 iv. Ep. ad Carolum. 
 
 * P. de Pulka in C. of Constance, A. 1416. On the horrible state of 
 the Court at Avignon, something is quoted from Petrarch, more alluded 
 to in Milm. Lat. Chris., v. 500, n. g.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 647 
 
 against the clerical order, induced me to come here. 
 It is much to be feared that, unless they mend, the 
 laity will, as they publicly declare, like the Hussites, 
 burst upon the whole clergy. A deformation of this 
 sort gives great boldness to the Bohemians, and greatly 
 colours their errors, because they inveigh chiefly against 
 the foulness of the clergy. Wherefore, even if a Gene- 
 ral Council had not been instituted here, it would have 
 been necessary to form a Provincial Council for re- 
 forming the clergy ; since it is, in truth, to be feared, 
 that unless that clergy correct itself, even if the heresy 
 of Bohemia should be extinguished, another should be 
 aroused 1." The Council of Paris, A. 1429, states, that 
 "for the crime of concubinage, whereby many eccle- 
 siastics and religious are infected, the Church of God 
 and the whole clergy are held in derision, abomination, 
 and reproach among all nations ; and that most abomin- 
 able wickedness has so prevailed in the Church of God, 
 that simple Christians do not now believe that forni- 
 cation is mortal sin r ." The fine on concubines was 
 forbidden 8 , but practised 1 , probably in the hope that 
 
 i Epist. Julian, ad JSug. iv. in Fasc. rer. fug. et expet., Lond., 
 p. 56. r c. 23. 
 
 8 By Cone. Paris., A. 1429, c. 23 ; Cone. Dertus., A. 1429, c. 2. The 
 Council of Basle prohibited it, " under pain of eternal malediction, and 
 a fine of the double of such receipt ; required prelates to remove the 
 persons, if need be, by aid of the secular arm, and not to permit 
 the sons so born to remain with their father." (Sess. 20, Deer. 1.) 
 
 1 "A penalty of ten florins for not dismissing concubines orfocarice, 
 or other women suspected of incontinency," was imposed by a Synod 
 of Breslau between 1447 and 1458. (Hartzheim Cone. Germ., v. 445.) 
 " Complaints were made of this by Fel. Hammer lin, Dionys. Carth.
 
 648 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 the mulct might deter at least the poorer clergy. Those, 
 who so offended, boasted of it u ; the laity were some- 
 times scandalised, sometimes copied it y . It is a grave 
 and pious Abbot, no mere declaimer against the vices 
 of his times, who says of the clergy, " By the ex- 
 ceeding badness of their lives, they slay miserably the 
 sheep of Christ ' Pro libris sibi liberos comparant, pro 
 studio concubinas amant.' Let not then the Priests 
 wonder that the laity despise them, since themselves 
 despise the commands of Christ. I fear vehemently 
 that shortly graver things will arise against the 
 clergy 1 ." Popes would ordinarily be selected from 
 the better clergy ; but, besides that the century closed 
 with the thirty years of Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII., 
 Alexander VI., ^Eneas Sylvius, afterwards Pius II., 
 answers with levity his father's blame, that he had 
 had a son from sin, treating it as a matter of course. 
 " Wide-spread is this plague, if plague it is to be called, 
 to do what is natural V' &c. " Let a Presbyter be avari- 
 cious, an usurer, glutton, &c., if he be not incontinent, 
 
 (de vita et regim. AroJiidiac., Art. 19, " against the dangerous, vicious, 
 and damnable custom of visiting and receiving money fromfornicarii.") 
 Herm. Ryd. de Seen (de vita et honest, cleric., c. 1). Theodorie, Arch- 
 bishop of Cologne, A. 1423, commanded under severe penalty the dis- 
 missal of the concubines, but changed soon. " The Bishop took money 
 from the priests, and left them their concubines ; perhaps he knew not 
 how to meet the wickedness of the times by any other remedy, or, 
 scared by the number, he despaired of effecting anything." Jac. Sibert. 
 (de calamit. Jiuj. temp.) 
 
 " Steph. Episc. Brandenb. comm. ad Orat. Domin., c. 17. 
 
 T Ludov. Episc. Spir. in summons to Martini Synod., A. 1486. 
 
 * Trithi-mius Abb. Spanh. instit. vita Sacerdot., c. 1, about A. 1485. 
 
 1 it. i. Ep. xv. He relates his seduction of the mother.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 649 
 
 lie is accounted by all to be holy and honest z ." " The 
 priesthood was held so low, and daily lower, that many 
 were ashamed to become Clerks, or allow their people 
 to become so a ." One only token there was, that God 
 had not forsaken His Church, that while the world 
 was full of satires on these excesses b , earnest men in 
 every portion of it complained of it c . " In no cen- 
 tury," it is said, " were there so many decisions of 
 Synods and Bishops against concubinarii as the fif- 
 teenth d ;" or so many complaints of their uselessness. 
 Stringent measures in Italy produced, it is said, still 
 worse evils and a more degraded clergy e . 
 
 z Lavacr. Consc., c. 6. " Why is it that the rest of mankind, of 
 whatever condition, hate us ? Certes, we cannot say, that the children 
 of this world persecute us, as children of light for we are not children 
 of light, but of darkness. No other ground occurs to us, except that 
 we are transgressors of the law." Ib. Ib., c. 7. 
 
 b Gieseler quotes several. The contemporary Epigram on Innocent 
 VIII. was but too forcible ; the more so, for its allusion to his title, as 
 Pope, the "father." 
 
 c Gieseler refers to the following well-known names : St. Laurence 
 Justinian, Patriarch of Venice (de complanctu Xt. Perf., Opp., ii. 6) ; 
 Tostatus, Bishop of Avila (c. cleric, concub., Opp., xxv. 58) ; St. Anto- 
 ninus, Archbishop of Florence (Summa Conf. P. iii. de cler. pral. Ep., 
 c. 10-16) ; Dionys. Carthus. (de vita et regim. Prasul., art. 18, 27 sqq. 39, 
 de vita et regim. Archid., art. 19 sqq., de vita Canon., art. 12, de vita 
 Curat.) ; Rod. Sancius, Bishop of Zamora and Referendary of Paul II. 
 (Spec. vit. hum., ii. 19) ; the Lavacrum Conscientite (c. 4, 13, 15, 17) ; 
 Baptista Mantuan., General of the Carmelites (Alfonsus, 1. iii., de 
 calamit. temp., 1. iii.) ; Job. Trithemius (Instit. vit. sacerdot., espec. 
 
 c. 2) ; and others. 
 
 d Gieseler, referring to the documents in Theiner, die Einfuhrung 
 
 d. erzwungenen Ehelosigkeit u. ihrefolgen, &c., b. 2, Abth. 2, p. 642, sqq. 
 Carove, vollst. Samml. d. Colibatgesetze fiir d. Kath. Weltgeistl. mit 
 Anm., p. 342, sqq. 
 
 e J . F. Picus, Lord of Mirandula, Orat. ad Leonem P. M. et Cone, 
 Lat. de reform, mor., A. 1517, in Brown's Fasc., p. 419.
 
 650 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 These scandals had become so intolerable at the time 
 of the Reformation, that it is not wonderful that there 
 should be a mighty reaction. The Church had, indeed, 
 struggled against the abuses. The Council of Basle 
 had, in its twentieth Session, ordained that " any 
 cleric, of whatsoever state, condition, religion, dignity, 
 even Papal and otherwise eminent, who shall after 
 due notice ... be a public concubinary, shall in the 
 space of three weeks be, ipso facto, suspended, and de- 
 prived of the fruits of his benefice; if he dismiss not 
 his concubine, or take her back when dismissed, he 
 shall be deprived of all his benefices." A public con- 
 cubinary is defined to be, " he who retains a woman 
 suspected of concubinage and defamed, who, when ad- 
 monished by his superior, does not in effect dismiss 
 her." These canons had been re-affirmed by various 
 provincial synods : in Scotland, so late as the Pro- 
 vincial Synods of Linlithgow and Edinburgh in 1549, 
 and again in 1558 and 1559 ; but they had failed. The 
 Church had to be reminded, as it is in the terms of the 
 Article, that clerical celibacy is not of divine institu- 
 tion, and that, being a matter of discipline, it was in 
 the power of the Church, in view of the intolerable 
 corruption of the times, to allow men to marry at their 
 own discretion, "as they shall judge the same to serve 
 better to godliness." This had seemed to some the only 
 remedy in the fifteenth century. Setting aside the 
 sort of proverb of Pius II., as Pope, "With great 
 reason marriage had been withdrawn from the Priests ; 
 with greater, it seems, would it be restored f /' (for 
 f Platina de vitis Pontif., p. 762, ed. 1645.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 651 
 
 his own previous history takes away its weight*), 
 the well-known Canonist Panormitanus (himself an 
 Abbot and afterwards Archbishop) discusses the ques- 
 
 He had said, however, earnestly, as ^Eneas Sylvius, " Perhaps it 
 would be no worse, that very many \_quam plures] should he married, 
 since many might be saved in a married priesthood, who are damned in 
 a sterile Presbyterate." (Hist. Cone. Has., 1. ii. p. 86.) As Cardinal, he an- 
 ticipated that another Pope [perhaps himself] might give dispensations. 
 (Ep. cccvii.) See also in Gieseler, extracts from the so-called Reforma- 
 tion Sigismunds, "an important voice from that time," and the so-called 
 " Reformation Friederichs III. ;" Fel. Hammerlin (de lib. Eccl.) ; Alain 
 Chartier, Secretary of King Charles VI. and VII., who says, " The 
 avaricious disorders of Priests have detached Bohemia from the Church 
 of Rome. Why say I, Bohemia ? nay almost all Christendom. For the 
 people of the Church have by their faults so debased themselves and 
 their office, that they are despised by all in the Church, great or small, 
 and hearts are estranged from the obedience of holy Church by the 
 dissoluteness of her ministers. For, as was said, they have left espousals, 
 hut they have taken instead lawless, vague, and dissolute luxuries. 
 What has the law against the marriage of Priests effected, but to turn 
 lawful generation into adultery, and honest co-habitation with one wife 
 into multiplication of scandalous luxury ?" Oird. Job. Ant. in S. Georgio 
 said, that " this command gives occasion of ensnaring many souls, and 
 therefore he believes that as the Church brought in this precept of 
 continence, it will at some time revoke it. And such revocation will be 
 conformable to the Apostle's saying, ' as to virgins, I have no command- 
 ment, but I give counsel.' " Editor of Aur. et singul. lectura super iv. 
 decretalium ad tit. vi., " Qui clerici vel voventes matrimoniuin con- 
 trahere possunt." The desirableness of revoking the prohibition was 
 advocated by Jo. le Maire, Historiographer of Louis XII., de Schism, 
 et Cone. Eccl. univ. diff., P. i. c. 2, P. iii. c. 15; Polyd. Verg., de rer. 
 invent., v. 4. Adolf, Bishop of Merseburg, Prince of Anhalt, " The im- 
 moral unmarried life of the clergy was before his eyes. Wherefore he 
 and many thought it good, that marriage should be again allowed them 
 in Council, since otherwise this evil was not to be hindered." (In 
 Georff. Fiirst zu Anhalt, Vorr. zu d. Fred. v. d.falsch. proph.) Bapt. 
 Mant., the Carmelite, dwells on men's censures against the prohibition, 
 Fasti, 1. i., de S. Hilario, Opp., t. ii. f. 252.
 
 652 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 tion, and decides in favour of the removal of the 
 prohibition : " Can the Church at this day enact, that 
 a Clerk may contract marriage, as do the Greeks ? 
 I believe that it can ; and I not only believe that 
 the Church has the power of enacting this, but I 
 believe that it would be a healthful statute for the 
 good and salvation of souls, that those who wish to 
 use continence and to merit the more, should be left 
 to their will ; but those who will not to contain, may 
 marry : for experience teacheth, that quite the contrary 
 effect follows from that law of continence, since at this 
 time they do not live continently nor are pure, but 
 are stained by unlawful intercourse, with gravest sin 
 to themselves, whereas with their own wife it would 
 be purity, as it is said, cap. Niccena h ; whence the Church 
 ought to act, like a good physician, and if experience 
 shews that a medicine rather hurteth than profiteth, 
 should take it away. And would that this were done 
 in all positive constitutions, that at least they should 
 bind, as to the penalty, not as to [involving] fault. 
 For positive statutes have so multiplied, that scarce 
 any can be found who have not corrupted their 
 ways *." 
 
 Nothing is said in the Article to the disparagement 
 of the single state. On the contrary, the tone of the 
 Article and of the Marriage Service is at variance 
 with modern notions on this subject. They by no 
 
 b Decret. Gratian., p. i., Dist. xxxi. c. 12. 
 
 1 Lect. sup. c. cum olim, De clericia conjugotis, Deer. Greg., \. iii. 
 tit. iii. c. 6.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 653 
 
 means regard marriage as a matter of course, upon the 
 part either of the clergy or people. The Article claims 
 for the clergy the same freedom as the people ; but 
 it sets before both, as the one ground, which "shall 
 serve better to godliness?" Not earthly happiness, nor 
 " Isaac's pure blessings and a verdant home," not the 
 union of souls in holy love, nor anything else on this 
 earth, is proposed as its measure; but this only, "Js 
 marriage likely or not to benefit the immortal soul?" 
 The question implies, that what is, in itself, free, is 
 not free to each. For no one can be free to do that 
 which, to him, does not, in his judgment, serve best 
 to godliness. The Marriage Service goes further, by 
 speaking of marriage as, with other motives, a remedy 
 for those who " have not the gift of continency." For 
 those who have any gift of God clearly are responsible 
 for it. Much more the clergy, by how much their 
 office brings them nearer to God. When God bestows 
 the gift, the argument for such celibacy is founded 
 on the very words of our Saviour Himself, where 
 He commends a single life, and concludes with the 
 significant comment, " He that is able to receive this 
 saying, let him receive it." Contrasting the Law of 
 Moses, in which divorce was allowed on account of 
 the hardness of men's hearts, with the law of grace 
 and divine strength which He came to announce and 
 to inspire, He rests the benediction of the single life 
 on those additional graces whereby under the new 
 covenant men are able, in a higher degree than under 
 any previous dispensation, to fulfil the will of God.
 
 654 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 The next argument is found in the counsels of 
 St. Paul k , with regard to virginity. Plainly, the 
 "present necessity" is not, as has been sometimes sup- 
 posed, the condition of persecution in which the early 
 Corinthian converts were presumed to live. For in 
 neither Epistle is there any evidence of such persecu- 
 tion. On the contrary, the Christians in that com- 
 munity were living on perfect terms of friendship 
 with the heathen around them. The " present neces- 
 sity," therefore, must apply to the world under Chris- 
 tianity, and so the spirit of St. Paul's counsels must 
 apply to all time. 
 
 Again, in that primeval religion handed down by 
 early tradition among the heathen, which, in its fore- 
 shadowings, omens, and prophecies, is such a strong 
 proof of the adaptation of the eventually - revealed 
 Christianity to the wants and aspirations of man, we 
 find side by side with sacerdotal caste, which implies 
 a hereditary married priesthood, a higher and holier 
 ideal, in which the virgin life is made the condition 
 of ministration in the most sacred functions. Among 
 the Indo-European races, the Greeks, the Romans, and 
 the Indians, as well as among those Oriental races, 
 where the malignity of matter and the purity of mind 
 were distinguishing principles, we find that the ideal 
 of heathenism had handed on the tradition of those 
 earlier truths which had ever subsisted in the old 
 and simple religions of nature. 
 
 Moreover, as there lurked in the old heathenism 
 
 k 1 Cor. vii.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 
 
 a certain appreciation of the highest ideal of life, so 
 even in Gnosticism we see a caricature and distortion 
 of the same. It is Gnosticism, which St. Paul describes 
 and condemns where he speaks of the early heretics 
 forbidding to marry ; they erred in maintaining the 
 body to be absolutely sinful, and the work of an in- 
 ferior demiurge. The truth in this system was a cer- 
 tain aspiration after the higher life. The Church at 
 once met the error, and the truth ; the error, by assert- 
 ing the sanctity and quasi - sacramental character of 
 marriage, the truth lurking in Gnosticism, which was 
 the sanctity of nature and the immaterialism and spiri- 
 tuality of the human mind, by elevating virginity '. 
 
 As the Jewish Priests, during their ministration, were 
 obliged to abstain from their wives, when they com- 
 memorated God's mercies to the Jewish people, pro- 
 pitiated Him for their sins, and lived in habitual com- 
 munion with Him ; so the Christian Priest, who is not 
 bound to a mere monthly attendance at the temple, 
 but to a constant service, would seem to have a more 
 continual call to the continent life. 
 
 Upon whom or how many in any given period, God 
 is or would be pleased to bestow the gift of continence ; 
 whom, among men, He has created for the virgin life, 
 lies in the secrets of the Divine Predestination. It is 
 for individuals to learn for themselves, whereto God 
 has called them, and neither to hold back from His 
 calling, nor thrust themselves, uncalled, into a vocation 
 for which God has not fitted them. Individuals, doubt- 
 
 1 See Mohler's Criticism on the Metnor'al of the Freihurgh Pro- 
 fessors, in the Vermischte Schriften, p. IV 7.
 
 656 ARTICLE XXXII. 
 
 less, may obtain, as well as lose, a vocation for them- 
 selves ; but they must obtain it before they venture 
 upon it. It is a problem for the Church, to provide, 
 as far as in her lies, that none should miss that voca- 
 tion, whom God, in His eternal counsels, has created 
 for it, and, on the other hand, to secure that those, 
 who have not that calling, should, as St. Paphnutius 
 advised at the Council of Nice, not have a burden laid 
 upon them which they are unable to bear, God not 
 having designed them for it. The Church has tried 
 different ways. The Greek Church has one stereotyped 
 plan of gathering into monasteries those who have the 
 calling to the celibate life, and, while requiring of her 
 Priests that they should marry before the priesthood, 
 selecting for the Episcopate those who have ever led 
 the virgin life, or who, being widowed, have been 
 withdrawn from secular to monastic life. Of old, in 
 the Western Church, together with the enforcement of 
 continence on the three higher orders, there was a pro- 
 vision, more or less extensive, that those destined for 
 the Clericature, who did not feel, in themselves, the 
 gift of continency, should marry very early, so that 
 children might be born to them, for some twelve 
 years, before they should enter upon the service of the 
 altar m . The middle ages witnessed an attempt and 
 failure to enforce an universal celibacy of the clergy 
 from the first. Since the Reformation, a more careful 
 training of the future clergy in the Clerical seminaries 
 has guarded those who would be guarded from that 
 knowledge of sin, which increases tenfold the difficul- 
 See above, pp. 636, 637.
 
 OF THE MARRIAGE OF PRIESTS. 657 
 
 ties of continence when the trial-time comes. " They 
 are pure as angels," said a French Bishop of his semi- 
 narists. The Church of England has, as yet, left this, 
 as well as other matters relating to the soul, purely to 
 the consciences of individuals. It leans to the celibate ; 
 it does not enjoin it. But as men's souls are stirred 
 more and more by the Spirit of God, it must be, that 
 celibacy, among men too, and especially among those 
 whom God calls to the priesthood, will become a recog- 
 nised religious vocation. Wise will be her course, if 
 she follows the Apostle's advice, and, without limiting 
 the freedom which he admitted, directs her sons, as 
 the more excellent way, to that which he chose. 
 
 After what has been said, it is unnecessary in a 
 treatise of this kind to enlarge upon the increased 
 influence, the capacity for labour, the disentanglement 
 from the world, the economy of living, the increased 
 facilities for missionary and hospital work of a celibate 
 priesthood. At the price of much individual suffer- 
 ing, a mighty engine for the conversion of the world 
 is thus recognised in clerical celibacy, as the fruit of 
 self-devotion upon the call of God. And the spirit of 
 St. Paul, reflected in the Apostolic Constitutions and 
 Canons of the fourth century, finds its highest inter- 
 pretation in such self - dedication, where the matured 
 will, after having tested its powers, yields itself a living 
 sacrifice to duty and to God. 
 
 ' 
 
 u u
 
 ARTICLE XXXIII 
 
 DE EXCOMMUNICATIS VITANDIS. 
 
 Qui per publicam Eccksi<e denunciationem rite cub unit ate 
 Eccksice prcecisus est, et excommtmicatus, is ab universa 
 fidelium multitudine (donee per pcenitentiam publice re- 
 conciliatus fuerit arbitrio Judicis compeie.ntis) habendm 
 est tanquam ethnicm et publicanus. 
 
 " Of excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided. 
 
 " THAT person which by open denunciation of the 
 Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, 
 and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole 
 multitude of the faithful, as an heathen and publican, 
 until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received 
 into the Church by a judge that hath authority there- 
 unto." 
 
 To cut the offending member from the body is a 
 power which natural law grants as inherent in every 
 society. The expulsion of unruly members, or of those 
 who refuse to obey the conditions of the implied con- 
 tract which membership presupposes, is necessary to 
 its well-being. All this holds in an increasingly true 
 sense where we have to deal with supernatural ideas ; 
 and with more or less consistency every form of reli- 
 gion has arrogated to itself the right of expulsion ;
 
 OF EXCOMMUNICATE PERSONS, &C. 659 
 
 and in the measure that highest spiritual privileges are 
 attached to incorporation and visible communion, there- 
 with the importance of the power for such expulsion 
 must be conceived of. The highest notion, of course, is 
 where the consequences of the deprivation of visible 
 communion tell upon the soul in the next world, even 
 to the endangering of salvation. Under the Jewish 
 law the cutting off from the people, though sometimes 
 meaning death by the judgment of God, or by the 
 hand of man a , was latterly understood of excommuni- 
 cation, which was either niddui, excommunication for 
 a month ; or cherem, excommunication accompanied 
 with imprecations, the intensest form of which was 
 shammatta. In the earliest times we find that the Chris- 
 tian Church wielded this terrible power, and made it 
 the basis of all its discipline. With a graduated scale 
 of Church censures, she reserved excommunication as 
 the ultimate term of her jurisdiction. St. Irenseus men- 
 tions the final excommunication of Cerdon. Origen 
 bears witness to the practice of the expulsion from 
 communion of offenders, especially the incontinent. 
 Tertullian, in view of his Montanist ideas, gives us 
 much insight into the discipline of the Church during 
 his time. The Canons of the Church not only lay 
 down rules for the exercise of this discipline, but 
 actually enforce many of their own enactments under 
 penalty of anathema b . 
 
 1 Kings xiv. 10; Exod. xxxi. 14, 15; Levit. xvii. 4. 
 b Vide Appendix to Sermon upon Evangelical Repentance by the 
 Bishop of St. Andrew's. Oxf., 1841.
 
 660 ARTICLE XXXIII. 
 
 When the kingdoms of the earth became Chris- 
 tian, and had in certain cases to be dealt with by 
 the Church in a corporate capacity, the theory of 
 excommunication and interdict received further de- 
 velopment. 
 
 It is unnecessary here to dwell at length upon the 
 public discipline of the ancient Church, how the peni- 
 tents were divided into weepers, hearers, kneelers, and 
 co-standers ; how crimes were visited by long terms of 
 penance in proportion to the magnitude of the offence ; 
 how some were only reconciled in the article of death, 
 and how some crimes were thought too great for resti- 
 tution to communion in this life, though the mercy of 
 God was hoped for them in the next. The Article 
 distinctly asserts the duty of the faithful to take part 
 with the justice of the Church, and strengthen the 
 bands of her discipline by holding the excommunicate 
 person as a heathen man and publican in the very 
 terms of the Gospel 6 , and in these words the present 
 Church of England in theory, and to a certain degree 
 in practice, adopts all the ancient teaching on this 
 awful subject. It must not be concealed that certain 
 complications arising from State establishment, from 
 the predominance of a legal school which has given 
 undue prominence to the assertion of temporal rights 
 and to the protection which civil law gives to character, 
 have crippled the exercise of godly discipline. Never- 
 theless, the Church has never ceased to deplore its 
 decay, and to pray for its restoration. 
 St. Matt, xviii. 17.
 
 OF EXCOMMUNICATE PERSONS, &C. 661 
 
 The teaching and practice of the Church on the 
 subject of excommunication have been thus formu- 
 larized in the Latin Church, and as the theory of the 
 Church of England is intimately connected with it, 
 some of the details are here given, with a view to 
 clearness. An excommunication is an ecclesiastical cen- 
 sure, by which a Christian man is separated from the 
 communion of the Church. It depends on the power of 
 binding and loosing granted to her prelates by Christ, 
 " If he neglect to hear the Church d :" observe also the 
 practice of the Apostle handing the offender over "to 
 Satan," on which St. Austin says, " Because the devil 
 is without the Church as Christ is in the Church, so 
 he is given over to the devil who is removed from 
 the communion of the Church." Excommunication 
 is nearly the same as anathema, but the latter is the 
 more solemn form of the process, nay, in general, is 
 more awful. 
 
 Excommunication is divided into the greater and 
 the lesser. The greater is that ecclesiastical censure, 
 whereby the Christian is separated from the commu- 
 nion of the faithful absolutely and simply ; i.e. is de- 
 prived of all common blessings, such as the Sacraments 
 of the Church, both as to administration and recep- 
 tion, as well as common prayer and society. The 
 minor is that whereby the Christian is deprived only 
 of the passive reception of Sacraments. When ex- 
 communication is spoken of indefinitely it means the 
 greater. Again, excommunication is divided into 1. ex- 
 d St. Matt, xviii. 17.
 
 CG2 AimcLE xxxin. 
 
 communicatio laia sent entice, and 2. excommunicatio scn- 
 tcntiae fcrendce. The first is that which is incurred ipso 
 facto, either by the perpetration of the crime, or by 
 the sentence of the judge ; excommunicatio sent entice 
 ferendae, is that, which though held as established in 
 law, yet is not at once and ipso facto incurred before 
 the sentence of the judge. 
 
 Thirdly, excommunication is divided into that which 
 is carried out by the law, and that which is carried 
 out by the individual. Excommunication qua a jure 
 fcrtur, is when anything is prohibited by law, canons, 
 constitution, or decree, under penalty of such, or of 
 anathema. That qua a judice fcrtur, is that which for 
 any crime is inflicted by the judge. Hence, censure 
 in kind is one thing, in law another as regards the 
 individual ; inasmuch as the first is of perpetual obli- 
 gation, till revoked by legitimate authority, the other 
 depends on the life of the censurer. 
 
 In the Roman Church there is the further distinc- 
 tion of reserved and unreserved excommunication. 
 
 All Bishops and other Ordinaries can excommunicate 
 in their territories and dioceses, so chapters sede va- 
 cante, heads of orders, General Councils. 
 
 Only Christians, in this life, gravely and continu- 
 ously offending, capable of reason, and subject to the 
 jurisdiction of the ex communicator, can be excommu- 
 nicated. Jews, Pagans, Saracens, and other infidels, 
 cannot, because they have never been baptized nor are 
 within the Church ; but heretics can, because they 
 have been baptized, and have taken on them the faith
 
 OF EXCOMMUNICATE PERSONS, &C. 663 
 
 of Christ. The dead cannot be, for the binding is, 
 " whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth," not under the 
 earth. Next, gravity and contumacity are necessary, 
 and not even against the contumacious, unless they 
 have been summarily warned. 
 
 The judgment of God rests on the truth, which 
 neither deceiveth, nor is deceived ; but the judgment 
 of the Church sometimes rests on opinion, which can 
 easily err and cause to err, whence it sometimes hap- 
 pens that he who is bound by God is loosed by the 
 Church, and he who is free with God is bound by 
 the sentence of the Church. Clave errante is a recog- 
 nised ground of appeal. 
 
 The first effect of excommunication is to deprive 
 the excommunicate person of the active and passive 
 use of the Sacraments. 
 
 2. Of the common suffrages of the Church, and the 
 spiritual blessings which flow from the public offices 
 of the clergy and the sacrifices of the faithful. 
 
 3. Of the right to assist at the divine offices. He 
 may, however, hear sermons, recite prayers in private. 
 
 4. Of Ecclesiastical sepulture. 
 
 5. Of Political communion with the faithful. 
 
 6. In some countries he cannot be judge, advocate, 
 or witness. 
 
 7. All his ecclesiastical acts are invalid, except the 
 election of the Pope, no excommunication of a cardinal 
 invalidating that. 
 
 8. It renders him incapable of receiving ecclesiastical 
 revenues.
 
 CC4 ARTICLE XXXIII. 
 
 9. The excommunicated person is incapable of hold- 
 ing benefices. 
 
 10. He cannot obtain any rescript of grace or jus- 
 tice from the Apostolic See, unless in the actual case 
 of excommunication, on appeal, it may be obtained for 
 the defence of the excommunicate person. 
 
 11. It renders him suspect of heresy if he do not 
 purge himself within the year. 
 
 12. It renders excommunicate (at least so far as 
 the minor is concerned) all those who communicate 
 v/ith the excommunicate person. 
 
 The effect of the minor excommunication is three- 
 fold : 
 
 1. He may not partake in any Sacrament. 
 
 2. If without necessity he administers a Sacrament, 
 he sins at least venially. 
 
 3. He cannot be elected to an ecclesiastical bene- 
 fice. 
 
 Absolution, in the case of excommunication a jure, 
 may be granted not only by Bishops and Prelates hold- 
 ing jurisdiction, but, so far as the forum internum is 
 concerned, by parish Priests and simple confessors. 
 
 From excommunication ab homine, carried out by 
 special sentence, none can absolve but he who laid it 
 on, or his deputy, or his successor, or the superior of 
 the censurer having plenary jurisdiction, but not as 
 Archbishop in respect of his suffragans, except in case 
 of appeal. 
 
 A man may be absolved out of confession, in absence, 
 against his will; after death, if he died penitent, he
 
 OF EXCOMMUNICATE PERSONS, &C. 665 
 
 may be so far absolved as to be capable of Christian 
 burial, and of the suffrages of the Church. 
 
 Absolution may be given absolutely, or on condition, 
 or ad cautelam, or cum reincidentia ; that is, he may 
 fall again under it if he neglect to do what he has 
 promised, or for a special purpose as a judicial ex- 
 amination. No one can be absolved from the greater 
 unless he swear to obey the commands of the Church, 
 and not to sin in the kind again ; also, he must make 
 restitution so far as he can. Yet if he neglect to fulfil 
 this, he does not relapse into the excommunicate state, 
 but should be again excommunicated. Yet he who ab- 
 solves without an oath, absolves illicitly though validly. 
 Absolution extorted from fear is invalid. 
 
 Nothing will place before the student the awful 
 character of excommunication in so striking a light, 
 as the form of service which has for many centuries, 
 with various modifications, been used in the Western 
 Church, since the ninth or tenth century. Before that, 
 no special form was prescribed. Martene gives some 
 very terrible forms, but what is here exhibited is suffi- 
 ciently striking and awful. 
 
 When the anathema, i.e. solemn excommunication 
 for grievous faults, is to be inflicted, the Bishop, dressed 
 in amice, stole, and cope, of violet colour, with a 
 simple mitre, assisted by twelve surpliced Priests, 
 having all burning candles in their hands, shall sit 
 on a faldstool before the altar, or in some other public 
 place as shall please him ; he shall there pronounce 
 and emit the anathema in this manner: "Inasmuch 
 as N, y by the persuasion of the devil, laying aside
 
 666 ARTICLE XXXIII. 
 
 by apostacy that Christian promise which he made in 
 Baptism, has not feared to lay waste the Church of 
 God, to despoil the ecclesiastical property, and vio- 
 lently to oppress Christ's poor ; therefore, anxious 
 lest he perish, by the pastoral negligence for which in 
 the tremendous judgment we shall have to give an 
 account before the Chief Pastor, our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 according to that which the same Lord terribly 
 threatens, saying : * If thou shalt not announce to the 
 wicked his sin, his blood will I require at thy hand,' 
 We have warned him canonically once, twice, thrice, 
 and even four times, in order to convince him of his 
 wickedness, inviting him to emendation, satisfaction, 
 and penance, and correcting him with paternal affec- 
 tion. But he, alas ! despising salutary counsels, in- 
 flated with the spirit of pride, disdains to give satis- 
 faction to the Church which he has injured. Yerily, 
 information is supplied by the precepts of the Lord 
 and His Apostles how we ought to act with regard to 
 such transgressors. For the Lord says, ' If thy hand 
 or thy foot offend thee, cut it off and cast it from 
 thee ;' and the Apostle says, 'Put away the evil thing 
 from among you;' and again, 'If any one who is 
 called a brother is a fornicator, or covetous, or an 
 idolater, or an evil speaker, or a drunkard, or a robber, 
 not to take food with him.' And St. John, the be- 
 loved disciple of our Lord, forbids us to salute such 
 a wicked one, saying, ' Receive him not into thy 
 house, neither bid him God speed, for whoso biddeth 
 him God speed, communicateth in his wicked works.' 
 Fulfilling, therefore, the precepts of our Lord and
 
 OF EXCOMMUNICATE PERSONS, &C. 
 
 His Apostles, let us cut off this putrid and incurable 
 member, which will not take medicine, by the sword 
 of excommunication from the Body of the Church, 
 lest the remaining members of the body become tainted 
 as by poison, by such pestilent disease. Therefore, 
 since he despises our admonitions and frequent exhor- 
 tations, and when thrice summoned according to our 
 Lord's precept, he has neglected to repent and amend, 
 since he has neither bethought himself of his fault, 
 nor confessed it, nor sent an embassage to make any 
 excuse, nor hath asked pardon ; but, the devil harden- 
 ing his heart, has persevered in the wickedness on 
 which he hath entered, according to the words of the 
 Apostle, ' according to his hardness of heart and im- 
 penitence, hath treasured up for himself wrath against 
 the day of wrath.' Therefore, him, with all his ac- 
 complices and supporters, by the judgment of God 
 Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and of 
 blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all saints, 
 also by the authority of binding and loosing in heaven 
 and in earth bestowed upon our mediocrity by God, 
 we separate from the reception of the precious Body 
 and Blood of our Lord, and from the society of all 
 Christians, and we exclude him from the thresholds 
 of holy mother Church in heaven and earth, and we 
 decree him excommunicate, and anathematized, and 
 damned with the devil and his angels, and all the 
 lost in eternal fire, till he recover himself from the 
 snares of the devil, and return to amendment and 
 penance, and satisfy the Church of God which he 
 hath injured ; delivering him to Satan for the destruc-
 
 668 ARTICLE XXXIII. 
 
 tion of the flesh, that his soul may be saved in the 
 day of judgment." 
 
 " Then all shall answer ' Fiat, fiat, fiat, ! ' Which 
 being done, the Bishops and Priests ought to cast to 
 the earth the candles which they held in their hands. 
 Then a letter must be sent through the parishes, and 
 even to the neighbouring Bishops, containing the name 
 of the excommunicated person, and the cause of his 
 excommunication, that no one henceforth through igno- 
 rance may communicate with him, and thus cause of 
 excommunication may be taken from all." 
 
 It will be seen how in the midst of all these terrors, 
 the emendation of the sinner is held in view, and pro- 
 vision made for his restoration. The same spirit ani- 
 mates the Article. The excommunicate person is to 
 be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful as 
 a heathen and publican, only till he be openly recon- 
 ciled by penance, and received into the Church by 
 a judge that hath authority thereto. If there be a re- 
 markable fact in the history of the discipline of the 
 Church, it is her great tenderness with regard to sinners, 
 imitating her Divine Head. She embraces the return- 
 ing prodigal, and on the slightest indications of re- 
 pentance restores him to her Sacraments. She has 
 again and again resisted the rigorous spirit of indi- 
 vidual members since the days of her condemnation 
 of Novatianism.
 
 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 DE TRADITIONIBUS ECCLESIASTICIS. 
 
 TEADITIONES atque ceeremom'as easdem non omnino neces- 
 sarium est esse ubique, aut prorsus consimiles. Nam ut 
 vari<e semper fuerunt, et mutari possunt, pro regionum, 
 temporum, et morum diversitate, modo nihil contra ver- 
 bum Dei instituatur. 
 
 Traditiones, et ceeremonias ecclesiasticas, qua cum verbo 
 Dei non pugnant, et sunt authoritate publica m- 
 stitutee, atque probates, quisquis privato consilio volens, 
 et data opera, publice violaverit, is, ut qui peccat in 
 publicum ordinem Ecclesies, quique laedit authoritatem 
 Magistratus, et qui infrrmorum fratrum conscientias vul- 
 nerat, publice, ut cceteri timeant, arguendus est. 
 
 Qucelibet Ecclesia particulars, sive nationalis, authorita- 
 tem habet instituendi, mutandi, aut abrogandi ceere- 
 monias, aut ritus ecclesiasticos, humana tantum authori- 
 tate institutos, modo omnia ad adificationem fiant. 
 
 " Of the Traditions of the Church. 
 
 " IT is not necessary that traditions and ceremonies 
 be in all places one, or utterly like ; for at all times 
 they have been divers, and may be changed according 
 to the diversities of countries, times, and men's man- 
 ners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. 
 Whosoever, through his private judgment, willingly 
 and purposely doth openly break the traditions and
 
 670 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to 
 the Word of God, and be ordained and approved of 
 common authority, ought to be rebuked openly, (that 
 others may fear to do the like,) as he that offendeth 
 against the common order of the Church, and hurteth 
 the authority of the magistrate, and woundeth the con- 
 sciences of weak brethren. 
 
 " Every particular and national Church hath autho- 
 rity to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites 
 of the Church, ordained only by man's authority, so 
 that all things be done to edifying." 
 
 THE word ' tradition/ in the sense in which the Article 
 means it to be taken, is synonymous with the term con- 
 suetudo, meaning such a custom as is produced by the 
 simultaneous and frequent action of the greater part of 
 a community. It is divided into consuetudo facti and 
 consuetude Juris. The first, which leads to the second, 
 is the repeated use of the community to do anything, 
 without the obligation of so repeating it. The second 
 is a right constituted by such repeated acts. And this 
 consuetudo juris, inasmuch as it tends to the introduc- 
 tion of new law, is, as it were, a second sort of law. 
 
 Taken generally, custom admits of a threefold di- 
 vision : 
 
 1. Custom prater Icgem, which is also called consti- 
 tutive law, is that which is found in those cases which 
 are not denned by common law. It has the force of 
 law, but to its obligation it is necessary that it should 
 be introduced by an entire people, or, at least, the wiser
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 671 
 
 and greater part of it, with the intention of really bind- 
 ing itself thereby. Hence customs of devotion, (such as 
 bowing at the Gloria,} are not of obligation. In this 
 sort of custom prescription is a necessary element. 
 
 2. Custom sccundum legem is, that we suppose a pre- 
 existent law, and either reduce it to practice, or, if it 
 be doubtful, interpret it. It is important as confirming 
 and strengthening existent law, and securing its being 
 enforced. 
 
 Custom contra legem is that, by which the written 
 law has either never been in use, or if in use has been 
 abrogated by a contrary use. It cannot prevail against 
 divine or natural right or law. No custom can abrogate 
 the necessity of fasting, or the laws against perjury. 
 But every positive human law, whether civil or canoni- 
 cal, may be abrogated by a contrary custom, so that 
 that custom be 1. reasonable, and 2. possess sufficient 
 legitimate prescription. 
 
 1. The first condition implies that it shall not op- 
 pose divine or natural law, nor be reprobated by the 
 Canon Law ; that it gives no occasion or licence to sin, 
 and that it has no injurious effect on the public wel- 
 fare. No custom can be pleaded that infringes on 
 these. 
 
 2. Legitimate prescription must be a long time. 
 In the Canon Law ten years is prescription ; in the 
 English Common Law sixty years; in the Scots Law 
 forty years; in America twenty years are necessary. 
 In civil matters a tacit abrogation on the part of 
 the civil authority is implied by the toleration of the
 
 672 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 custom, therefore an exact rigorous time is not insisted 
 on in civil matters a . 
 
 Tradition, then, or custom, being in this manner the 
 subject of time and action, the Article says rightly that 
 it has at all times been diverse, and may be changed 
 according to the diversities of countries, times, and 
 men's manners. It adds the solemn caution, that by 
 these fluctuations nothing be ordained against God's 
 Word. That paramount authority of Holy Scripture 
 which is so remarkable a characteristic of the XXXIX 
 Articles, and which the Church of England inherited 
 from the great teachers of the Middle Ages, supplies 
 the limit to the diversity of the traditions of the 
 Church. 
 
 It is the same with regard to her ceremonies. While 
 the action of the Holy Ghost within the body of Christ 
 will be ever suggesting to her new forms of devotion 
 and edifying rites, and these will be profoundly modi- 
 fied by climate, by the history of thought, and by the 
 degree of civilization, there will ever be a check upon 
 the revolution of the expression of the devotion of the 
 Church in an ultimate appeal to God's Word, not only 
 as the earliest historic record of Christianity and the 
 first link in the golden chain of Catholic tradition, but 
 also as a document possessing such authority as no 
 other claims, or has had conceded to it. 
 
 The in-dwelling of God the Holy Ghost will illumine 
 the minds of the different nations without destroying 
 their national characteristics, and therefore we shall 
 * From Ferraris Siblioth. Canon. Jurid. v. Consuetudo.
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 673 
 
 not be surprised to find many marked peculiarities in ' 
 the services and ceremonies of the different Churches 
 throughout the world. The tone of the services of the 
 Greek Church is markedly different from that of those 
 of the Westerns ; and even among the Westerns, in the 
 more limited field of variation, strong points of indi- 
 viduality have been conserved. The prevalence of 
 direct prayer to our Lord in the Mozarabic rite pre- 
 serves the recollection of the struggle with Arianism 
 in Spain. The Ectense in the Milanese rite are no 
 doubtful indications of the originally Oriental source 
 of the Ambrosian Office. The great predominance of 
 vernacular hymns in the Church of Germany testifies 
 to an endeavour to supply that national demand for 
 affective hymnody, which Luther, at the time of the Re- 
 formation, used with such mighty effect ; as in such in- 
 stances as are recorded in history, where a whole con- 
 gregation, celebrating the Services after the fashion of 
 their fathers, would suddenly burst forth into one of 
 the German hymns of the new learning. As a matter 
 of fact, we know from history that this was the case, 
 and the following quotation from the Ecclesiastical 
 History of Sozomen exhibits to us the fact, that the 
 diversities of ceremonies mentioned in the Article have 
 been from the beginning. 
 
 " Different customs prevail in many Churches where 
 the same doctrines are received. There are, for in- 
 stance, many cities in Syria which possess but one 
 Bishop between them ; whereas, in other nations, a 
 Bishop is appointed even over a village, as I have nay- 
 
 x x
 
 674 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 self observed in Arabia and in Cyprus, and among the 
 Novatians and Montanists of Phrygia. Again, there 
 are but seven Deacons at Rome, answering precisely to 
 the number ordained by the Apostles, of whom Stephen 
 was the first martyr, whereas in other Churches the 
 number of Deacons is unlimited. At Rome, Alleluia is 
 sung once annually, namely, on the first day of the 
 Festival of the Passover ; so that it is a common thing 
 among the Romans to swear by the fact of hearing or 
 singing this hymn. In this city the people are not 
 taught by the Bishop, nor by any one in the church. 
 At Alexandria the Bishop alone teaches the people ; 
 and it is said that this custom has prevailed there ever 
 since the days of Arius, who, though but a Presbyter, 
 broached a new doctrine. Another custom also pre- 
 vails at Alexandria, which I have never witnessed nor 
 heard of elsewhere, and this is, that when the Gospel is 
 read, the Bishop does not rise from his seat. The 
 Archdeacon alone reads the Gospel in this city, whereas 
 in some places it is read by the Deacons, and in others 
 only by the Presbyters ; while in many Churches it is 
 read on stated days by the Bishops ; as, for instance, 
 at Constantinople, on the first day of the Festival of 
 the Resurrection. In some Churches the interval called 
 Quadragesima, which occurs before this festival, and is 
 devoted by the people to fasting, is made to consist of 
 six weeks ; and this is the case in Illyria and the 
 Western regions, in Lybia, throughout Egypt, and in 
 Palestine : whereas it is made to comprise seven weeks 
 at Constantinople, and in the neighbouring provinces,
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 675 
 
 as far as Phoenicia. In some Churches the people fast 
 three alternate weeks, during the space of six or seven 
 weeks, whereas in others they fast continuously during 
 the three weeks immediately preceding the festival. 
 Some people, as the Montanists, only fast two weeks. 
 Assemblies are not held in all Churches on the same 
 day, or upon the same occasions. The people of Con- 
 stantinople and of several other cities assemble to- 
 gether on the Sabbath as well as on the next day, 
 which custom is never observed at Rome or at Alex- 
 andria. There are several cities and villages in Egypt 
 where, contrary to the usages established elsewhere, 
 the people meet together on Sabbath evenings, and, 
 although they have dined previously, partake of the 
 mysteries. The same prayers and Psalms are not re- 
 cited, nor the same passages read on the same occa- 
 sions, in all Churches b ." 
 
 The tendency of modern Church legislation is in 
 the direction of uniformity of worship. In our own 
 Church the necessities of the time make the mainte- 
 nance of the Prayer-book in its integrity a sacred duty. 
 In Scotland an influential school have done what they 
 could to get rid of the national Office for the Celebra- 
 tion of the Holy Communion. In France the Ultra- 
 montane party have toiled sedulously to expel the local 
 and Diocesan Breviaries, and to substitute the Roman 
 Office. There is something to be said for this substi- 
 tution : perhaps there is more to be said for the reten- 
 tion of the older forms. As union is strength, so, no 
 b Sozomen, "Ecclesiastical History," bk. vii. c. 19.
 
 676 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 doubt, a vast wide-spread uniformity of rite will tend 
 to stereotype and strengthen those ideas, of which that 
 rite is the type and watchword. On the other hand, 
 much beauty, the evidence of much thought, must be 
 lost by the abandonment of any service which has 
 gained a real hold upon a people. It is unwise in any 
 sense to weaken the antiquarian and sentimental value 
 of any rite, and, above all, there may be deep theo- 
 logical reasons which, having suggested and main- 
 tained the peculiar practice, it were wrong to contro- 
 vert. Perhaps, to sum up, it may be said that by uni- 
 formity of rite, strength and concentrated energy are 
 gained at the expense of that passive power which un- 
 broken tradition ever gives, and of that sense of large- 
 ness and freedom which is so important an element 
 and so conducive to the health and action of the Body 
 of Christ. 
 
 The next clause in the Article is a caution against 
 those persons, who, of their private judgment, openly 
 break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church. 
 
 The order of the words is observable. The evils 
 arising from such infringement are stated to be 1. "of- 
 fending against the common order of the Church; 
 2. hurting the authority of the Magistrate ; 3. wound- 
 ing the consciences of the weak brethren." The autho- 
 rity of the Church in these matters, although not in- 
 volving any matter of faith (for the Article is treating 
 only of Adiaphora), is placed first ; and then only 
 injury done to the authority of the Magistrate. For 
 since, according to ancient custom, the Magistrate gave
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 677 
 
 a civil sanction to customs, or "the common order of 
 the Church/' then, to infringe that, to which he had 
 lent this sanction, was to lower his authority also. 
 The wont of giving such civil sanction to the laws of 
 the Church dates back to the earliest times of the 
 converted Empire. To "confirm" the decrees of a 
 Council became a technical term. The fathers of the 
 second General Council wrote to Theodosius ; " "We 
 pray your Clemency, that you will confirm with the 
 writing of your Piety the decree of the Council, so 
 that, as you honoured the Church by the letters 
 which convoked it, you may set your seal to the con- 
 clusion which we have decreed c ." The fathers of the 
 Council of Ephesus applied to the younger Theodosius, 
 that " the things set forth by the (Ecumenical and 
 holy Council for the confirmation of godliness against 
 Nestorius and his impious doctrine, may have their 
 own strength, being corroborated by the assent and 
 approbation of your Piety d ." The Emperor Marcian 
 speaks of " confirming the holy Synod" [of Chalcedon] 
 "by the decree f our Clemency 6 ;" and the fathers, 
 in their Synodical Epistle to St. Leo, speak of the 
 Emperor's having " confirmed by a law the judg- 
 ment of your Piety." Justinian directed the Patriarch 
 Mennas to send to the Metropolitans of his diocese 
 " what had been decreed by the Chief Priests and 
 confirmed by the Empire." Constantine Pogonatus 
 
 e Epist. Syn. Cone. Const, ad Theodos. 
 d Cone. Eph., Art. 5. e Cone. Chalc., Art. 6.
 
 678 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 confirmed by his "sacred edicts f " the sixth Council 
 against the Monothelites ; and "the decree of the 
 Synod and the Emperor's edict" was spoken of by 
 Leo II. " as a two-edged sword of the Spirit, by which 
 that error was stricken through." Of particular Coun- 
 cils, the first Council of Orleans, A.D. 511, applied to 
 King Clovis, that "if what we have ordained is ap- 
 proved to be right by" his "judgment also, the con- 
 sent of so great a king and lord may, with the greater 
 authority, confirm the sentence of so many priests." 
 The recitation of the Nicene Creed, as settled by 
 the Council of Constantinople, before the Communion 
 of the Body and Blood of Christ, was decreed in the 
 third Council of Toledo, A.D. 589, at the suggestion of 
 King Recared, and "corroborated" by him. Three 
 days' litanies in Advent, by which "every Christian 
 soul should make humble amends to the Lord of 
 heaven," were decreed in the fifth Council of Toledo, 
 A.D. 636, at the exhortation of King Suintilla, and, as 
 well as the sixth Council, A.D. 638, were " confirmed" 
 by him. Ecclesiastical regulations aS to benefices, sus- 
 pension of any negligent Bishop, the appointment of 
 three rogation-days in every month, were enacted by 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth Councils, A.D. 693, 694, 
 at the suggestion of King Egiza, and confirmed by 
 him. The Council of Aries, Mayence, Rheims, Tours, 
 Chalons, were held by Bishops at the command of 
 Charlemagne for the correction of the condition of the 
 
 1 Ep. Const. Poff. ad Leon.
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 679 
 
 Church, A.D. 813. " The Bishops sought the remedies 
 of the evil in Holy Scripture and the Canons." The 
 Councils of Mayence and Aries expressly submitted 
 them to Charlemagne for revision ; the Councils of 
 Chalons and Tours state, that "the Canons made in 
 each Synod were collated before the Emperor in the 
 General Council at Aix, when they were confirmed, 
 so as to have the force of law. Justinian, in his 
 Novella Const itutiones, and Charlemagne, in his Capi- 
 tulare, embodied the ancient Canons, to which they 
 gave the force of law. Lothaire carried on the work 
 of his grandfather, and formed a Capitulare, "to be 
 kept as a law by all the lieges of the Holy Church 
 of God, or of ourselves in the kingdom of Italy." Pope 
 Leo IV. bound himself to observe "those capitula 
 and precepts of Lothaire and his predecessors in all 
 things g ." A minute collation of our Anglo-Saxon 
 ecclesiastical and civil laws, shews that the kings gave 
 a civil authority to what had been previously enacted 
 by the Bishops. It is, then, in accordance with ancient 
 precedent, that the Article gives a secondary but real 
 place to the sanction of the Civil Magistrate. The 
 civil power usurped, cajoled, bribed, corrupted, op- 
 pressed; but the principle, implied by the Article, 
 that the Civil Magistrate could give a civil sanction 
 to the law of the Church, which, if given, was to be 
 respected, was consistent with ancient precedents. 
 "Every particular or national Church hath autho- 
 
 * C. de Capitulis, dist. 10, ap. Gratian. The above is epitomised 
 from Dr. Pusey on the Royal Supremacy, ii., xiv., xv., xvii.
 
 G80 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 rity to ordain, change, and abolish ceremonies or rites 
 of the Church." 
 
 The question, what constitutes nationality, is one of 
 those which at this moment is perplexing the poli- 
 ticians of Europe, and has been the great pretext under 
 which the Revolutionists of this century have advocated 
 their designs. The present state of the world is to be 
 upset, because the political circumstances of past ages 
 have bound together divers races under one form of 
 government. It is said that government is essentially 
 conterminous with nationality ; and yet it is very diffi- 
 cult to say in what nationality consists. It cannot con- 
 sist in unity of race ; for the most perfect polity that 
 ever existed, the ancient Roman Empire, was an aggre- 
 gate of many ; and the form of the American Republic, 
 which the necessities of the nineteenth century in the 
 Western, hemisphere have evolved, includes the emi- 
 grated subjects of almost every European state and their 
 descendants. It cannot be a question of language ; for 
 we see the same language prevailing in monarchies and 
 republics, the conditions of which make fusion and iden- 
 tification impossible. We are therefore driven back upon 
 history, and the only definition of a nation which will 
 satisfy rigorous criticism, is a polity organized under 
 one supreme head, constituted of such individuals as, 
 from the circumstances of past history, by conquest, 
 marriage, or treaty, have been united into one con- 
 crete whole. From this definition it will be seen that 
 unity of religion can no longer enter into the essence 
 of a nation. It was not so at the time of the framing
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 681 
 
 of the Articles. The Eastern Empire broadly em- 
 braced the Eastern Church. The Armenian religion 
 was; above all, the symbol of a passionate nationality ; 
 while in the "West the great Latin Church ruled the 
 wills and consciences of Roman and Teuton. Then 
 came the Reformation. The old habits of order, the 
 ignorance of the political possibility of toleration, sug- 
 gested to the reforming Kings of Germany and their 
 Theologians no other basis but nationalism as the 
 foundation of the new Creeds. Having no Episcopate, 
 and regarding all Christians as equally Priests, they had 
 no unity except in the person of the Sovereign. The 
 Sovereign was their Bishop. And, therefore, we are 
 struck in the history of the continental Reformation 
 with the amount of the personal influence of the indi- 
 vidual potentates, the difficulties which the preachers 
 had in dealing with the civil authority, and generally 
 with a confusion of ideas as to the relative spheres of 
 Church and State. We have seen Lutheranism and 
 Calvinism, if not chemically combined, at least blended 
 into a new Evangelical Church at the will of an en- 
 ergetic Sovereign. 
 
 In England this tendency prevailed, but under dif- 
 ferent conditions. It was held in check by the ex- 
 istence of a spiritual body, which Henry was obliged 
 to own, and through which his successors hoped to 
 rule. The fact that she was an island tended greatly 
 to insularity of thought. In one sense the Reforma- 
 tion was only the final act in a long struggle be- 
 tween the Regale and Pontificale, which, with dif-
 
 682 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 ferent successes at different times, had been fought 
 out since the days of "William the Conqueror. 
 
 Many things contributed to an Anti-Italian feeling. 
 The English kings carefully nursed it. The bitter 
 recollections of the national humiliation in the reign 
 of King John, which, but for its consequences, would 
 have died away, as all past things do, was kept alive 
 and aggravated by the continued exactions of the 
 Roman Curia h , and the conferring of English benefices 
 upon Italians, who knew not the language of the 
 people, nor the face of their flock *. These often died 
 
 h The complaints in Matthew Paris are well known. The expression 
 of a Pope that England was " an inexhaustible well," became unhappily 
 notorious. The reputed venality of the Roman Court was admitted by 
 Honorius III. (M. Paris, A. 1226). John Andrese mentions, that at the 
 Council of Vienne a commutation was spoken of (of which he himself 
 approved), whereby the Pope and Cardinals should have one-twentieth 
 of the clerical revenues of all Europe, in lieu of tenths, first-fruits, &c., 
 payments to Ugates and nuncios. (Comm. in Deer. Greg., i. tit. 32. 
 c. 15.) 
 
 ' The Epistola Universitatis regni Anglia, addressed to Pope Innocent 
 IV., at the Council of Lyons, says that " beside the aforesaid subsidies 
 [to the Pope], the Italians (of whom there is now an infinite number), 
 are now enriched by churches belonging to the patronage of the reli- 
 gious, who are called their Rectors," the Italians " taking no cure of 
 souls, neither knowing their sheep, nor known by them ; using no hos- 
 pitality nor almsgiving (as the statutes of the Church prescribe), but 
 only exporting the income out of the kingdom, impoverishing the king- 
 dom not slightly, and seizing its revenues." " The Italians, deriving in 
 England more than 60,000 marks annually (besides other sources of 
 income), derive from the kingdom a larger revenue in bare money than 
 the king himself." (In Matth. Paris, p. 666.) These complaints were 
 repeated after the Council in letters from the King, the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury and his suffragans, the Abbots, the Universitas Anglix. 
 (See in Brown, fasc. rer. exp. etfug., ii. 420, sqq.)
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OF THE CHURCH. 683 
 
 at Rome, and their places were filled up with other 
 Italians, before the patrons knew of the vacancy k . 
 Sagacious minds foresaw impending evil '. The Eng- 
 lish kings made political capital of these grievances 
 in the way of strengthening the realm, by exciting 
 indignation against all foreign interference, and espe- 
 cially all foreign taxation. Henry VIII. dexterously 
 seized the weak points of the Roman Court, professing 
 to relieve his people from the evils involved by ap- 
 peals to Rome, and the money-demands of its Court. 
 He would take off the yoke of Rome, in order to make 
 way for, and make fast his own. 
 
 There could be no doubt that in his resistance to 
 the Roman Court, Henry VIII. at first carried with 
 him the great mass of the English people, and it was 
 only when men began to see whither events were irre- 
 
 k Ibid. 
 
 1 The above letters to the Pope end with heavy prognostications. 
 The Abbots close theirs, " Let your Holiness provide that the kingdom 
 and priesthood be no wise divided ; for if the English Church should be 
 brought to ruin, a division being made between the kingdom and priest- 
 hood, both people and priest may groan, and the ruin of many follow 
 without delay." " The peers, clergy, and people" end theirs, " unless 
 the things aforesaid be speedily corrected by you, let your Holiness 
 hold for certain, that it may with reason be feared, that such peril will 
 impend both on the Roman Church and on the King, as cannot easily 
 be remedied." (See further in Eirenicon, pp. 80 82.) 
 
 Durandus, Bishop of Mende, quoted "the vulgar proverb," "who 
 wishes all loses all." "The Roman Church claims to itself all things 
 (universa), whence it is to be feared that it will lose all things; for as 
 Solomon says, ' Whoso squeezeth vehemently, draweth blood. 5 An ex- 
 ample of which is in the Church of the Greeks, which is said, on this 
 ground, to have departed from the obedience of the Roman Church." 
 (de modo eel, gen. Cone., p. ii. tit. 7.)
 
 684 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 sistibly dragging them, that the Pilgrimage of Grace, 
 and the Lincolnshire and Exeter Rebellions, exhibited 
 the continued existence of the opposite spirit. When 
 the breach with Rome was effected, on no other ground 
 could the Reformation be justified and defended but on 
 that of nationalism ; and putting out of the question 
 the Celtic populations of Ireland and Wales, the unity 
 of race that generally prevailed through the island, 
 and the separation by the sea from all other kingdoms 
 save that of Scotland, enabled the experiment to be 
 tried under the most favourable circumstances. 
 
 It now remains to be seen how far the principle of 
 nationalism may be extended into things of religion. 
 Obviously, nationalism must in no ways affect the 
 faith. The faith is one everywhere, and in all times. 
 But what is claimed in the Article is only that every 
 particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, 
 change, and abolish ceremonies, or rites of the Church, 
 ordained only by man's authority: and to this pro- 
 position every one must give his assent. It had for 
 its example the national Churches under the Empire ; 
 Africa, Spain, (perhaps Portugal,) and Gaul, each used 
 their own code; as the Greeks had before the Coun- 
 cil of Nice. 
 
 The passage just quoted from Sozomen, which in so 
 few words brings strikingly before us the variations of 
 practice in things non-essential in the Early Church, 
 is confirmed by the Great Council of Nicsea itself, 
 where it says, " Let the ancient customs prevail ;" and 
 m Can. vi.
 
 OF THE TRADITIONS OP THE CHURCH. 685 
 
 antiquity shews us that from the beginning, even in 
 regard to the administration of the very Sacraments 
 themselves, there were variations of form : and if such 
 was the case with regard to these, how much more is 
 this permissible in such inferior matters as discipline, 
 ceremonies, and whatever else tends to edification ! 
 Variations have taken place both with times and 
 places, and the same Churches have not always ob- 
 served the same rites. 
 
 To any one who studies the structure of the present 
 service-books of the Church of England, it will be 
 evident that, while this principle was admitted in some 
 cases to a degree with which we do not sympathize, 
 there was a wise adherence to what had gone before. 
 The old forms in spirit remained the same, except 
 where they were actually and advisedly altered, and 
 thus the identification of the Church before and after 
 the Reformation, where it was possible, was vigorously 
 maintained. 
 
 This principle is fully admitted by the great founder, 
 under Christ, of the present English Church. St. 
 Gregory the Great, writing to St. Augustine of Can- 
 terbury, who had requested information how he was to 
 act, that wise and sagacious Pontiff writes : " But it 
 pleases me, that whatsoever you have found either in 
 the Church of Rome, or of those of Gaul, or in any 
 Church whatever, which would please Almighty God 
 better, you would carefully select ; and into the Church 
 of England, which at present is new in the faith, intro- 
 duce by your instruction and care the most exalted
 
 686 ARTICLE XXXIV. 
 
 things you have been able to collect from many 
 Churches ; for we must love not things for places, but 
 places for things. Out of each Church, therefore, 
 choose those things which are religious, pious, and 
 right; and these, collected, as it were, in a bundle, 
 deposit in the minds of the English for their prac- 
 tice." In this he followed the well-known example of 
 St. Ambrose, as quoted by St. Augustine in the 54th 
 Letter to Januarius. Indeed, the diverse forms for 
 the administration of the ordinances of religion, such 
 as Absolution and Extreme Unction, as illustrated in 
 the Greek and Latin Churches, and, again, in the rites 
 of the Eastern heretics, as well as those forms which 
 were in use in the Middle Ages in Western Europe, 
 are sufficient confirmation of the truth of the position 
 laid down in the Article, that grace is not absolutely 
 tied to one form of sacramental words, and that, a for- 
 tiori, with regard to the ordinary forms of prayer, a large 
 latitude may be conceded. In fact, at the Council of 
 Florence, a Canon was made in the exact sense of this 
 very Article, that every one should observe the rites 
 and customs of his own Church, which it is not lawful 
 for any one to change by his private authority.
 
 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 DE HOMILIIS. 
 
 TOMUS secttndus Homiliarum, quarum singulos titulos 
 huic articulo sufy'unximus, continet piam et salutarem 
 doctrinam, et his temporibus necessariam, non minus 
 quam prior tomus Homiliarum, qua editce sunt tempore 
 Edwardi Sexti : Itaque cas in Ecclesiis per ministros 
 diligenter, et dare, ut a populo intclligi possint, reci- 
 tandas esse judicai'imus. 
 
 DE NOMINIBUS HOMILIARUM. 
 [These are given in English, as under.] 
 
 " Of Homilies. 
 
 " THE second book of Homilies, the several titles 
 whereof we have joined under this Article, doth con- 
 tain a godly and wholesome doctrine, and necessary 
 for these times, as doth the former book of Homilies, 
 which were set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth ; 
 and therefore we judge them to be read in churches by 
 the ministers, diligently and distinctly, that they may 
 be understanded of the people. 
 
 " Of the Names of the Homilies. 
 
 "1. Of theriglit use of the Church. "3. Of repairing and keeping 
 " 2. Against peril of Idolatry. clean of Churches.
 
 688 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 "4. Of Good Works: first of "13. Of the Passion of Christ. 
 Fasting. "14. Of the Resurrection of 
 
 " 5. Against Gluttony and Christ. 
 Drunkenness. " 15. Of the Worthy Receiving 
 
 "6. Against Excess of Apparel, of the Sacrament of the Body and 
 
 " 7. Of Prayer. Blood of Christ. 
 
 " 8. Of the Place and Time of " 16. Of the Gifts of the Holy 
 
 Prayer. Ghost. 
 
 "9. That Common Prayers and "17. For the Rotation-days. 
 Sacraments ought to be ministered " 18. Of the State of Matri- 
 
 in a Known Tongue. mony. 
 
 " 10. Of the Reverent Estirna- " 19. Of Repentance, 
 tion of God's Word. " 20. Against Idleness. 
 
 "11. Of Alms-doing. "21. Against Rebellion." 
 
 " 12. Of the Nativity of Christ. 
 
 FROM the very beginning of Christianity, the preach- 
 ing of Sermons and Homilies has formed a very im- 
 portant department of the teaching office of the Church. 
 It mainly took the form of commenting upon the in- 
 spired records, hence the usual term was "tractare." 
 In the time of St. Cyprian, at least in the Church of 
 Africa where the sees were very small and numerous, 
 preaching was the special office of Bishops. Even 
 elsewhere, it was contrary to usage that a Presbyter 
 should discourse in the Presence of a Bishop. In the 
 Alexandrian School, however, we have the catechetical 
 lectures of Origen. After the age of the Apologies, 
 when the faith had to be vindicated from the attacks 
 of open enemies, we find that the edification of the 
 faithful by exhortations from the Holy Scriptures forms 
 a great part of the literature of the Church. St. Cyril, 
 of Jerusalem, has given us his Sermons on the Mys-
 
 OF HOMILIES, 689 
 
 teries of the Faith, delivered in preparation for the 
 Easter Baptism and Communion of the neophytes of 
 Jerusalem; and St. Chrysostom, he of the golden mouth, 
 is emphatically the great sermon - writer of the East. 
 Eusebius preserves his own great Sermon at the con- 
 secration of the Basilica at Tyre. Other Fathers also 
 in the East, as SS. Gregory of Nyssa and Nazianzen, 
 and Basil, have come down to us in the exhortations 
 they gave to their people ; while in the West, St. 
 Ambrose, St. Augustine, and St. Leo, are the most 
 prominent of the many sermon -writers, who, like 
 St. Zeno of Yerona, St. Maximus of Turin, St. Gau- 
 dentius of Brescia, fulfilled one solemn function of 
 the episcopal office in preaching the Word of God. 
 St. Cyril of Alexandria is said by Gennadius, of 
 Marseilles, who flourished about sixty years after St. 
 Cyril's death, to have composed very many Homilies, 
 which " are committed to memory by the Bishops of 
 Greece." There seems to be an allusion to something 
 of this in St. Cyril himself, in a very curious exegesis 
 of the words, "When thou comest into thy neigh- 
 bour's vineyard a ," &c., although of his popular ser- 
 mons but few have reached us, except the glowing one 
 on the Mystic Supper, and those on St. Luke, pre- 
 served in a translation by the Syriac Christians, and 
 lately brought to England and translated. He says 
 on the passage above mentioned : " I think it not unfit 
 for us to apply this to some others, who, plucking as 
 it were some spiritual food the words of the teachers 
 Dent, xxiii. 24.
 
 690 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 in the Churches, which are, may be, somewhat suddenly 
 uttered, are not content with this, but going on to 
 speak beyond bounds, and, as it were, putting them 
 into a vessel, commit them to their tablets, with love 
 of learning indeed, but wronging, in respect of under- 
 standing, the brethren, in that what is treated off-hand 
 they commit to writing, as if it had been finished with 
 much care. And yet the Law, my good friends, would 
 I say to them, clearly commanded to put nothing into 
 a vessel V 
 
 Many of these teachings lived on beyond the fall 
 of the Empire into the Dark Ages, and we cannot doubt 
 that the exposition of Scripture in Homilies must have 
 been one of the methods whereby the fresh nations of 
 the North were won under the dominion of Christ. 
 But as love waxed cold, the duty of preaching became 
 less insisted on, and the habit of preaching varied 
 with the langour of the Church. Among the .very 
 popular writers of the ninth century was Haymo, 
 Bishop of Halberstadt. His Homilies for the Sundays 
 and principal Saints' Da} r s, were printed in Paris in 
 1545. In the East, preaching gradually died out, 
 so that at present it hardly forms any part of the 
 public worship of the Church ; but in the West it never 
 entirely ceased in the worst times. There was per- 
 haps little original in the teaching till the time of 
 St. Bernard, when the Crusades, stimulated by the 
 trumpet-voice of Peter the Hermit, called all Western 
 Christendom to fight for the Sepulchre of the Lord. 
 b De Adorations, lib. viii. p. 267.
 
 OF HOMILIES. 691 
 
 These public appeals, however, were not the only ser- 
 mons of the period. In the Cistercian Order, follow- 
 ing St. Bernard, there rose up a school of mystical inter- 
 pretation of the Word of God, which spoke to the con- 
 sciences of men, and drew them to faith and obedience 
 by the tenderest persuasion. That School passed away, 
 and, in opposition to the Manichsean and Socialistic 
 errors of the twelfth century, the powers of preaching 
 were again called forth by the formation of the Domi- 
 nican Order ; and the eternal wisdom of God, sanctify- 
 ing the intellect of man, was invoked to the crushing 
 of error and inculcation of religious truth. From this 
 Order emerged the celebrated Thauler, who had so pro- 
 found an effect on Luther, and many others of distinction. 
 This School, debased by the scandals of the century 
 before the Reformation, recovered itself. For in 1612 
 Bernard Gualtier published an anonymous volume by 
 some members of the Dominican Order, called Sermones 
 Discipuli. Perhaps the Discipulus was John Herolt, 
 whose Sermones Quadraycsimales were printed at Maintz 
 in the same year. Neither were there wanting in the 
 Seraphic order, which inculcated a more mystical and 
 affective theology, preachers of renown. St. Anthony 
 of Padua, is renowned for the wonderful effect of his 
 simple exhortations in making many conversions to 
 God ; shewing that it is unction and not learning only, 
 the blessing of God and not the ability of the preacher 
 only, that touches the soul of man. In the fifteenth 
 century a well-known collection was made with the 
 quaint title of Dormi Secure, and was published. The full
 
 692 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 title was " Sermons for Sundays, with Explanations of 
 the Gospels throughout the year, sufficiently notable 
 and useful for all Priests, Pastors, and Chaplains : 
 which under another name is now called, Sleep se- 
 curely, or sleep without care, because they can with- 
 out much study be incorporated and preached to the 
 people." 
 
 There exist many copies in MS. of the Sermons of 
 John Felton, Yicar of St. Mary Magdalene, in Oxford. 
 A selection from the names of the authors of the ser- 
 mons that were printed soon after the discovery of 
 the art of printing, will shew what was deemed best 
 worth preserving of the mediaeval sermons : There 
 are those of Robert Caraccioli di Licio, printed in 
 1473 ; F. Bartholomaeus de TTrsinis, 1473 ; Joannes 
 Gritsh, 1477; Ambrosius Spiera, the Servite, 1497; 
 Antonio de Vercellis, Minorite, 1491 ; Bartholomaeus 
 de Pisis, Minorite, 1498 ; Leonardus de Utino, 1471 ; 
 Matthias Bosso, of Verona, 1495 ; Blessed Michael 
 Carchano, of Milan, 1476 ; Thomas de Haselbach, 
 1478 ; Herman de Pitr, 1481 ; Jacobus de Clusa, 
 1474; Frater Peregrinus, 1480; Paul Wann, 1497; 
 Hugo de Prato Florido, 1484 ; Meffret, 1487 ; Jacobus 
 a Voragine, 1485 ; Gabriel Biel, 1496 ; Joannes Nider, 
 1489. 
 
 But by the time that the Reformation had arrived, 
 much of this had lost its savour. The quality of the 
 preaching, according to the testimony of Berthold, had 
 greatly deteriorated. It is matter of history how it 
 was used by the venders of indulgences. Nay, even
 
 OF HOMILIES. 693 
 
 as to the quantity of the Sermons, the neglect of 
 preaching by the clergy of all ranks was a never- 
 failing subject of complaint and invective in Scotland 
 for many years before the Reformation. "The Pre- 
 lates certainly are dumb dogs," says the reforming 
 monk of Cambuskenneth, in 1536, " unable to bark 
 in the cloister. They associate with kings and princes 
 in cities and palaces, and therefore their voice is 
 not heard in the cloister. Wherefore, in the day of 
 anger and vengeance, the blood of their brethren will 
 be demanded at their hands ." Dunbar and Lindsay, 
 as satirists and Protestants ; Quentin Kennedy, and 
 Ninian Wingate, as Catholics and apologists, alike 
 bear witness to this fact. We know from the satirists 
 of the day, into what a state the public preaching 
 had been degraded. Probably the parochial clergy 
 in England had very much abandoned the practice, and 
 left it to the ignorant and superstitious friars. In any 
 reform that must take place, fresh life must be in- 
 fused into this department of Christian theology. As 
 a matter of fact, the Reformers, before the breach 
 with Rome, began to use it for their own purposes. 
 It was not to be supposed that the Church of Eng- 
 land should neglect this weapon in doing the work 
 of those times. 
 
 The First Book of the Homilies was the first book 
 pertaining either to the public worship or teaching 
 of the Church, which was put forth in the reign of 
 
 c Fr. R. Richardin, Exeg. in Can. D. Augustini, fol. 188, 189. 
 See Statuta Ecclesice Scoticance, torn. ii. p. 288.
 
 694 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 Edward VI. Henry died in January, 1547, and the 
 Homilies bear the date of July 31 of the same year. 
 Taverner had had Cranmer's sanction for the publish- 
 ing of his " Postils," and the Bishops in the Convo- 
 cation of 1542 had agreed " to make certain Homi- 
 lies for stay of such errors as were then by ignorant 
 preachers sparkled among the people." The project 
 took none effect then, but five years afterwards the 
 present First Book was printed by Grafton, with a 
 preface running in the King's name, in which all the 
 clergy, having cure of souls, were commanded to read 
 it through to their parishioners again and again, until 
 the King's pleasure should be further known. Nine 
 editions were printed before the end of 1547, but they 
 were very ill received. If the Priest misliked them, 
 he read them unintelligibly ; if the people, there was 
 such talking and babbling in the church that nothing 
 could be heard. In 1549, when the Prayer-book was put 
 out, to make them less distasteful, they were divided 
 into parts. In March, 1552, they obtained the express 
 sanction of Convocation in the Thirty-fourth of the 
 Forty- two Articles. On the accession of Elizabeth, a 
 bill of Uniformity passed both Houses, with the Book 
 of Common Prayer annexed to it. This, by the rubric 
 in the Communion Service, carried with it the Homi- 
 lies. In the editions a few verbal alterations were 
 made, the only doctrinal one being the substitution of 
 the word "governor" for "supreme head over all," in 
 the Homily of Obedience. It was printed separately, 
 but uniformly with the Second Book. The two books
 
 OF HOMILIES. 695 
 
 were not incorporated till near the end of the reign 
 of James I. 
 
 It was intended in King Edward's time to put forth 
 fresh Homilies, as may be seen from the rubric in the 
 second Prayer-book, but death prevented him. Bonner 
 published some Homilies in Queen Mary's reign, and 
 on the accession of Elizabeth the Second Book of the 
 Homilies, in which the number of subjects treated was 
 twenty, while the number of treatises were thirty- 
 eight, was published. In 1573, on the occasion of 
 the two rebellions, the Homily against Rebellion gave 
 six parts more. Much time passed before the book 
 was ready, but at length, with the Thirty-nine Arti- 
 cles, it was submitted to the famous convocation of 
 1562, and received its approbation; yet Convocation 
 had not much to do with them, as it only began to sit 
 on the 12th of January, and the Articles involving the 
 Homilies were passed on the 5th of February. The 
 Queen took much longer time for her consideration of 
 them. They did not come out of her hands untouched. 
 The exact date of publication is not ascertained. They 
 were, however, in the hands of the public Aug. 1, 1563. 
 Six editions were speedily published. At first, it was 
 necessary to enjoin the clergy to read the Homilies 
 distinctly, on account of their dislike of the innovations 
 contained in them. In process of time the aspect of 
 things changed, Puritanism became the enemy to be 
 dreaded, and the Homilies were enjoined to be read 
 by way of stifling the prophesyings ; James, for the 
 same reason, sought assistance from the Homilies, as
 
 696 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 is noticed in his directions concerning preachers, dated 
 Aug. 4, 1622. Then came forth the first folio edition 
 of 1623, in which the two books are for the first time 
 united into one volume. Some changes were made 
 in the style, but the only modification of teaching 
 is contained in two brief marginal notes, referring 
 to the conduct of St. Ambrose and the Emperor Theo- 
 dosius. 
 
 The authorship of the Homilies in every case has 
 not yet been ascertained. Some, however, have been 
 distinctly traced to their writers. In the First Book : 
 
 1. " The Exhortation to the Reading of Holy Scrip- 
 ture," is probably by Archbishop Cranmer. 
 
 2. " Of the Misery of Man," is certainly by Arch- 
 deacon Hartsfield. 
 
 3. 4, 5. " Of Salvation," " Of Faith," and " Of Good 
 Works," are all by Cranmer. 
 
 6. " Of Charity," by Bishop Bonner. 
 
 7. " Of Swearing," by an anonymous writer who 
 made use of Becon's invective against swearing. 
 
 8. 9, 10. " Of Falling from God," unknown ; " Of 
 Fear of Death," unknown ; " Of Obedience," un- 
 known. 
 
 11. "Against Adultery," by Thomas Becon. 
 
 12. " Against Contention," unknown. 
 
 The authorship of the Homilies in the Second Book 
 is much more uncertain, though Bui-net speaks of 
 the great share which Bishop Jewel had in compiling 
 them : 
 
 1, 2, 3. " Of the Right use of the Church," " Against
 
 OF HOMILIES. 697 
 
 peril of Idolatry," " Of repairing and keeping clean 
 of Churches," are probably from the same hand. The 
 second is based upon a document under the title of 
 " A Treatise of Master Nicholas Ridley," purporting to 
 be an address to King Edward, but really presented 
 to the Queen by Archbishop Parker. It again is de- 
 rived from a work of Bullinger. 
 
 4. " Of Fasting," probably by Bishop Grindal. 
 
 5. " Against Gluttony and Drunkenness," partly 
 from a Homily by Bishop Pilkington, and partly an 
 adaptation of a discourse of Peter Martyr. 
 
 6. " Against Excess of Apparel," perhaps by Bi- 
 shop Pilkington. 
 
 7. 8, 9. " Concerning Prayer," " Of the Place and 
 Time of Prayer," "Of Common Prayer and Sacra- 
 ments," probably Jewel. 
 
 10. " Of certain Passages in Scripture," a few sen- 
 tences taken from a tract of Erasmus. 
 
 11. " Of Alms-deeds," the author is greatly indebted 
 to St. Cyprian. 
 
 12. " Of the Nativity," unknown. 
 
 13. " Of the Passion for Good Friday," from Taver- 
 ner's Postils. 
 
 14. "The Second Sermon of the Passion," unknown. 
 
 15. " Of the Resurrection," from Taverner. 
 
 16. " Of the Sacrament for Whit-Sunday," ascribed 
 to Jewel. 
 
 17. "For Hogation-week," unknown. 
 
 18. "Of Matrimony," half from Veit Dietrick, of 
 Nuremberg, and half from St. Chrysostom.
 
 ARTICLE XXXV. 
 
 19. " Of Repentance," two thirds of the first part 
 are translated from Rodolph Gualther. 
 
 20. " Against Idleness," perhaps by Jewel. 
 
 21. "Against Rebellion," added on the occasion of 
 the rising in the North in 1569. 
 
 The measure of authority claimed for the Homilies 
 is one that has been affected by the views of those 
 that have quoted them. One party, in order to gain 
 authority for their tone of doctrine, have sought to 
 elevate them almost into the position of a standard of 
 doctrine, not seeing how any such attempt would 
 recoil upon themselves. Others have used them with 
 more skill as bearing witness to many truths obscured 
 by a current teaching, yet distinctly enunciated or 
 presupposed by them. It is enough to say that, in tho 
 words of the Article, " they contain a godly and whole- 
 some doctrine;" that the great truths of Christianity 
 are borne witness to ; that at the time of the Refor- 
 mation some of these truths, having become obscured 
 by superstition, needed to be re-asserted ; that there- 
 fore the Homilies were "necessary for these times." 
 To extend the expression "these times" to the present 
 epoch seems to do violence to the natural meaning of 
 the words. It would become an insulated passage 
 in the Articles, in which the words were no longer 
 to be taken in their original grammatical meaning, 
 and which the Convocation which imposed them could 
 not have imagined without the gift of prophecy. If 
 any meaning in relation to the present times were to 
 be forced into the words, it must be that they should
 
 OF HOMILIES. 699 
 
 be retained as witnesses of a past phase in the history 
 of the Church, and as warnings against the return of 
 such a state of things as brought on the Reformation. 
 
 The last clause in the Article, " we judge them to 
 be read in the Church diligently and distinctly," was 
 to meet the case of the lower clergy who disliked 
 the changed tone of thought in the Homilies, or many 
 of their statements, some of whom neglected to read 
 the Homilies at all, while others read them in such 
 a way that they were utterly unintelligible to the 
 people, as has been mentioned in discussing the body 
 of this Article.
 
 ARTICLE XXXYI. 
 DE EPISCOPORTJM ET MINISTRORUM CONSECRATIONE. 
 
 LIBELLVS de consecratione Archicpiscoporum et Epi- 
 scoporum, et de ordinatione Presbyterorum et Diacono- 
 rum, editus nuper temporibus Edwardi VI. et autlto- 
 ritate Parliament illis ipsis temporibus confirmatus, 
 omnia ad ejusmodi consecrationem et ordinationem ne- 
 cessaria continet, et nihil habet quod ex se sit aut stipe r- 
 stitiosum, aut impium : itaque quicunque juxta ritnx 
 illius libri consecrati, aut ordinati sunt, ab anno se- 
 cundo praedicti regis Edwardi, usque ad hoc tempux, 
 aut in posterum juxta eosdem ritus consecrabtinfttr, aut 
 ordinabuntur, rite, atque ordine, atque legitime statuimus 
 esse, etfore consecrates et ordinatos. 
 
 " Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers. 
 
 "THE book of consecration of Archbishops and Bi- 
 shops, and ordering of Priests and Deacons, lately set 
 forth in the time of Edward the Sixth, and confirmed 
 at the same time by authority of Parliament, doth 
 contain all things necessary to such consecration and 
 ordering, neither hath it any thing that of itself is 
 superstitious and ungodly. And therefore whosoever 
 are consecrated or ordered according to the rites of 
 that book, since the second year of the forenamed 
 King Edward, unto this time, or hereafter shall be 
 consecrated or ordered according to the same rites, we
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 701 
 
 decree all such to be rightly, orderly, and lawfully 
 consecrated and ordered." 
 
 Our Lord is the immediate founder of the hierarchy, 
 because it was He who ordained the Apostles Bishops, 
 when He said to them : " As My Father sent Me, so 
 send I you ; receive the Holy Ghost ; go ye into all 
 the world and make disciples of every creature ; what- 
 soever ye shall bind or loose on earth shall be bound 
 or loosed in heaven." These words denote a power 
 without limit, its measure is the wants of humanity, 
 its field of action the world. At the beginning of the 
 Church there was one general Episcopate. 
 
 Of this oneness His promise to St. Peter had been 
 the type and earnest. In St. Cyprian's well-known 
 words, " The Lord saith unto Peter, ' I say unto thee, 
 that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build 
 My Church, and the gates of Hell shall not prevail 
 against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of 
 the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt 
 bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven ; and 
 whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed 
 in heaven.' To him again, after His resurrection, 
 He says, ' Feed My sheep.' Upon him, being one, 
 He builds His Church ; and though He gives to all 
 the Apostles an equal power, and says, ' As My Father 
 sent Me, even so send I you ; receive ye the Holy 
 Ghost ; whose soever sins ye remit, they shall be re- 
 mitted to him, and whose soever sins ye retain, they 
 shall be retained/ yet, in order to manifest unity,
 
 702 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 He lias by His own authority so placed the source 
 of the same unity, as to begin from one. Certainly 
 the other Apostles also were what Peter was, endued 
 with an equal fellowship both of honour and power, 
 but a commencement is made from unity, that the 
 Church may be set before us as one." 
 
 St. Peter, then, and the rest of the Apostles left 
 Bishops in their stead, deriving their authority im- 
 mediately from themselves, and through them from 
 Christ. St. Clement says, in the well-known pas- 
 sage of his Epistle, written to allay the dissen- 
 sions in the Church of Corinth, " Our Apostles knew, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, that there will be 
 contention about the name of the Episcopate. For 
 this cause, then, having received perfect foreknow- 
 ledge, they settled the aforesaid [Bishops and Dea- 
 cons], and meanwhile gave a rule of succession, that 
 when they should fall asleep, others, approved men, 
 should succeed to their ministry a ." And St. Irenaeus 
 speaks of the Apostolic succession of the Bishops, as 
 a proof of their Apostolic doctrine ; as in the celebrated 
 passage, " The tradition of the Apostles, manifested 
 in the whole world, all who wish to see the truth 
 may behold in every Church, and we can enumerate 
 those who were instituted Bishops in the Churches 
 and their successors down to us, who neither thought 
 nor knew aught of the phrenzies of these men. For 
 had the Apostles known hidden mysteries, which they 
 taught the perfect, apart and unknown to the rest, 
 * Ep. i. n. 44.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 703 
 
 they would even specially deliver them to those, to 
 whom they committed the Churches themselves also. 
 For very perfect and blameless in all things, they 
 wished them to be, whom they left also as their suc- 
 cessors, delivering to them their own office of instruc- 
 tion, since, if these acted well, great good would result ; 
 if they fell, extremest calamity V 
 
 It is probable that the Apostles chose cities and 
 towns for their chief ministry, since these were the 
 heart of each country, whence the Gospel would reach 
 most easily to the smaller places. It is in cities, where 
 we hear of Apostles abiding; they are cities which, 
 in the main, they address. The metropolis of the 
 country or province became naturally the ecclesiastical 
 metropolis, the see of the first Bishop of that province. 
 Such grouping of sees occurs even in the Apostolic 
 Canons. " The Bishops of each nation must own him 
 who is first among them, and regard him as head, and 
 do nothing extraordinary without his mind c ." The 
 Council of Antioch, making the terms of this more 
 definite, speaks of it as "the Canon of our fathers," 
 and assign the reason. " The Bishops in each Eparchy 
 must own the Bishop presiding in the metropolis, and 
 submit to his thought for the whole Eparchy, because 
 in the metropolis all from all sides who have matters 
 meet together ; whence it seemed good that he should 
 be first in honour, and that the other Bishops d ," &c. 
 The Council of Laodicea requires that "the Bishops 
 should be set in their ecclesiastical rule by the judg- 
 
 b iii. 3, L c Can. xxxiii. d Can. ix.
 
 704 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 ment of the metropolitans, and the Bishops around 6 ." 
 The Council of Eliberis speaks of " the place in which 
 the first see of the Episcopate is established f ." The 
 Council of Nice lays down that " a Bishop should be 
 appointed by all the Bishops in the Eparchy ; but it 
 this should be difficult on account of a pressing neces- 
 sity or length of way, that three should meet together, 
 the absent Bishops concurring, and agreeing by letter ; 
 but that the validity of what took place should in each 
 Eparchy be assigned to the metropolitan e ." It has 
 alike no other title for the highest sees than " the 
 Bishop in Rome," " the Bishop in Alexandria V The 
 substance existed without the name. 
 
 This subdivision, which was made, in no way in- 
 terfered with the oneness of the Episcopate, which is 
 expressed in St. Cyprian's characteristic words, Episco- 
 patus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenet ur { . 
 And so Pope Symmachus : " After the pattern of the 
 Trinity, whose power is one and undivided, there is 
 one Priesthood among the many Bishops." 
 
 "It is a fact recognised universally in the Church, 
 and as certain as its existence, that Jesus Christ has 
 established in the person of His Apostles, a power in- 
 vested with a holy and legitimate authority, and that 
 this authority, conferred on the Apostles to govern the 
 Church, has passed to Bishops instituted by them, and 
 is preserved in all the successions of those who have 
 followed them. The most ancient monuments attest 
 that nothing can be done without the Bishop; that 
 
 e Can. xii. f Can. xxxviii. Can. iv. h Can. vi. 
 
 1 St. Cypr., de Unitate Eccl.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 705 
 
 without them is neither Baptism, Eucharist, or absolu- 
 tion ; that they are in God's stead, and on this ground 
 claim authority in things divine ; that it is by tradi- 
 tion, of which they are the living links, that the Canon 
 of Scripture is ascertained ; that it is by them that 
 controversies of faith are to be determined ; that it is 
 by them that we are in the Church, that the Church 
 itself subsists and can with certainty be recognised V 
 
 This Article has not to do with the present Ordinal 
 as given in the Prayer-book, but with one in tempo- 
 rary use from the second year of Edward VI. till the 
 time of Charles II. ; it is, however, of primary import- 
 ance, that its sufficiency and canonicity should be as- 
 serted and proved, inasmuch as the strength of every 
 chain being exactly the strength of the weakest link 
 and no more, if orders conferred under this rite had 
 been invalid, no supplementing in after times would 
 have availed. Unless the ordainers and consecrators 
 were true Bishops themselves, they could not by a more 
 perfect rite confer grace which they had not, or in 
 any way improve the ecclesiastical position of the com- 
 munity to which they belonged. On the other hand, 
 if the rite was sufficient, they were free to make that 
 rite more edifying, orderly, and impressive ; and this 
 is just what the later revision has done. 
 
 The act of King Edward ordained that such form 
 and manner of making and consecrating of Arch- 
 bishops, Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and other minis- 
 ters of the Church shall be used, (observe the recog- 
 k Klee, Hist. Doff., I 116. 
 
 z z
 
 '06 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 nition of the minor orders,) as by six prelates and six 
 other men of this realm, learned in God's law, by 
 the King's Majesty appointed, shall be devised for 
 that purpose. The act passed the Lords: Tonstal, 
 Bishop of Durham; Oglethorp, of Carlisle; Heath, 
 of Worcester ; Thirlby, of Westminster ; and Day, of 
 Chichester, protesting. 
 
 From the earliest periods of the Church, ordination 
 has been invested with the greatest solemnity. It 
 has been entrusted to the Bishops only, ordination by 
 Presbyters being a thing unknown, or if known, only 
 known to be declared absolutely null, till Luther and 
 Calvin. 
 
 In the Apostolic Constitutions 1 , when a Priest is 
 to be ordained, the Bishop lays his hand on his head, 
 the Priests and Deacons standing by, while the Bi- 
 shop says a prayer, invocating grace on him. who 
 has been elected by the suffrage and consent of all 
 the Clergy. By the Canons of the Tenth Council of 
 Carthage, when a Bishop is to be consecrated, two 
 Bishops are to hold the New Testament over his 
 head, and while one Bishop pronounces the prayer 
 of consecration, the rest of that order present lay 
 their hands upon his head. At the ordination of 
 a Priest the Bishop makes the prayer, and all the 
 Priests in church with him lay their hands on the 
 head of him thus ordained. In the case of a Deacon, 
 the Bishop only does so. 
 
 In the Pseudo-Dionysius it is said: "The Bishop 
 
 1 Lib. viii. c. 16.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 707 
 
 elect who comes for consecration is to kneel before the 
 Altar, the Gospels are held over his head, he receives 
 imposition of hands from the consecrating Bishop." 
 There is likewise a solemn form of prayer used on this 
 occasion. A Priest at his ordination, kneels likewise 
 before the Altar, the Bishop laying his right hand on 
 his head, and completing the ordination with solemn 
 prayers. When a Deacon is made, he kneels before 
 the Altar on only one knee, and then the Bishop, lay- 
 ing his hand upon his head, pronounces a prayer 
 proper for those of that order. All these respective 
 orders are signed with the sign of the cross, the names 
 and degrees of the persons published, and lastly, they 
 are saluted by the Bishop and the rest of the Clergy m . 
 In the Greek Church, the Archbishop, standing be- 
 fore the Holy Table, prays for the descent of the Holy 
 Ghost upon the elect, and holding his hands upon his 
 head, reads the instrument of his election ; then after 
 some prayers, opening the Gospels, he lays them on 
 the head of the person consecrated, the other Bishops 
 also touching him. He likewise makes three crosses 
 on his head, and pronounces the prayers of conse- 
 cration. Then one of the Bishops assisting reads 
 part of the Litany, the Archbishop with his hand 
 on the head of the elect makes another prayer, takes 
 the Gospels from off his head, invests him with the 
 omophorion. Then he is saluted by all and conducted 
 to the Bishop's seat n . 
 
 m Pseudo-Dion., i. 363, 364, ed. 1634; vide Morinus, De Sac. Ord., 
 ii. p. 51. n Vide Euchologion, p. 160, ed. Venice, 1854.
 
 708 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 At the Ordination of Priests, the beginning of the 
 Office is like the former ; the three crosses are made, 
 hands are imposed, and prayer made specifying the 
 order to which the elect is advanced. The Litany is 
 said by a Priest, the proper habit put on, and the kiss 
 of peace given. Then the elements being unveiled, 
 the Bishop puts a piece of bread into the hand of the 
 person ordained, and laying his hand on his head 
 bows his body over the Holy Table. Then the ordained 
 person returns the bread to the Bishop, and receives 
 the Sacrament before the rest of the Priests. 
 
 The Missale Francorum, given by Mabillon, follows 
 exactly the form of the Council of Carthage . 
 
 In the ninth century supplementary rites come in ; 
 the ring and pastoral-staff were given to Bishops, and 
 the sacred vessels to Priests. In the Sacramentary 
 joined to the end of the Ordo Romanm, the last is done 
 with the words, " Receive thou authority to offer sacri- 
 fice to God, and to celebrate mass both for the quick 
 and the dead." The Sacramentary of Gelasius speaks 
 of offering sacrifices, but there is nothing of the de- 
 livering the vessels. 
 
 Neither is this enjoined in the Pontifical of Corbey 
 of the ninth century, though there the hands of the 
 Priest are to be anointed, and his offering sacrifices for 
 the sins and offences of the people is made mention of. 
 
 So in the English Saxon Ordinal, called Egbert's 
 Pontifical, the Priest's hands are anointed with oil 
 and chrism, his head anointed, and an officiating habit 
 Collier's " Church History," vol. v. p. 368.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 709 
 
 placed upon him. The ordination prayers mention 
 his offering sacrifice for the sins of the people, but 
 not " for the quick and the dead." No rule is given 
 for the delivery of the vessels. 
 
 The Schoolmen lay great stress on this delivery, and 
 even go so far as to doubt the validity of ordination : 
 conferred without it ; on the other hand, they have 
 always granted the canonical character of the Eastern 
 orders. 
 
 The modern teaching of the Church of Rome on the 
 essentials of ordination is to be found in the Homo 
 Apostolicus of St. Alfonso p . In his 17th Tractate on 
 the Sacrament of Order, No. 15, we find the following 
 words : " The second question is whether the matter 
 and forms of the Sacraments, especially of order, are 
 all specifically determined by Jesus Christ. The first 
 opinion denies this, along with St.Bonaventura, Bellar- 
 mine, Valentini, Morinus, Lugo, Salmeron, &c. Their 
 only reason is, that otherwise there could not be dif- 
 ferent matter and forms in the Greek and Latin 
 Churches, especially in the case of the Sacrament of 
 Order, seeing that in the Greek Church both the priest- 
 hood and the diaconate are conferred by the imposition 
 of hands only; while in the Latin the handing over 
 the instruments is required, according to the decree of 
 Eugenius IV., as has been already mentioned. Where- 
 upon they assert that as regards Baptism and the Eu- 
 charist our Lord ordained specifically both the matter 
 and the form ; but regarding the other Sacraments, 
 P TO!, vii. p. 466 sqq., ed. Turin, 1848.
 
 '10 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 He instituted them in kind only, leaving to the Church 
 the power of determining them specifically, by giving 
 them the words and things that should express the 
 effect of the Sacrament. This opinion is probable, but 
 there is a more probable opposed to it, which holds 
 that the matter and form of all the Sacraments were 
 specifically determined by our Lord ; so Merbes, Ha- 
 bert, Juvenin, Tournely, Petrocor., Concina, and many 
 others, with St. Thomas, who cannot be denied to be 
 of this opinion, when he says : ' For that the sanctifi- 
 cation of man is in the hands of God "Who sanctifieth 
 him, it belongs not to man by his own judgment to as- 
 sume the things whereby he is sanctified, for this must 
 needs be determined by the institution of God. And 
 therefore in the Sacraments of the new law, by which 
 men are sanctified, it is needful to use things deter- 
 mined by the Divine institution 1.' To this opinion 
 Benedict XIV. adheres, who says there is no foundation 
 to prove that this power was conceded to the Church 
 by Jesus Christ, nay, that it is opposed to the Council 
 of Trent 1 , where it is said that the Church can do 
 nothing touching the substance, but only touching tho 
 administration of the Sacraments. But as regards the 
 diversity of the Greek and Latin Churches, it is an- 
 swered that the giving of the instruments is not held 
 as essential matter, only accidental though integral. 
 And to the decree of Eugenius, we answer with Merbes, 
 Tournely, and Concina, that the Pope then did not 
 determine the matters essential to order, but only 
 i 3rd. p. qu. 60, a. 6. r Sess. 21, cap. 2.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 711 
 
 wished to instruct the Armenians in the rites of the 
 Roman Church to which they wished to be united." 
 
 " The third question is, what is the matter of the 
 Priesthood, whether only the imposition of hands, or 
 the giving the instruments, and what is the form ? 
 
 " There are three opinions : 1. that of Fagnani, Soto 
 and a few others, who hold that the only matter is the 
 tradition of the instruments which the Bishop gives the 
 candidate, and the form ' Take thou authority of offer- 
 ing sacrifice,' &c., and by this matter and form is be- 
 stowed the power not only of sacrifice but absolution. 
 The sole motive of this opinion is taken from the decree 
 of Eugenius IV., where it is said, ' The order of Priest- 
 hood is given by presenting with a cup with wine, and 
 a paten with bread.' But this opinion is commonly 
 not received by the doctors. 2. The second is that of 
 Bellarmine, Estius, Scotti, Layman, Salmeron, Conine, 
 Holzm., Vasquez, who maintain that in the ordering of 
 Priests there is a double essential matter, so that by 
 the tradition of the instruments power is given over 
 the real Body of Christ, viz. that of sacrificing, with 
 the words, ' Take authority,' &c., and by the imposition 
 of hands power is given over the mystical body of 
 Christ, viz. that of absolving, with the words, 'Take 
 the Holy Ghost, whose sins thou remittest they are re- 
 mitted.' 3. The third opinion, that of Martene, Becanus, 
 Tournely, Juvenin, Petrocor., Concina, and others with 
 St. Bonaventura, with which Benedict XIY. also agrees, 
 holds that both powers are given to the Priest by the 
 sacred imposition of hands, namely, when the Bishop ex-
 
 '12 AllTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 tends his hands over the candidate with the Presbyters 
 attending, as the Council of Trent says, 'that the minis- 
 ters of extreme unction are Bishops, or Priests rightly 
 ordained by them by the laying on of the hands of the 
 Presbytery.' This opinion is confirmed by the Council 
 of Trent s , ' that we are taught sufficiently in the Holy 
 Scriptures what things are chiefly to be attended to in 
 the ordination of Priests and Deacons, but that we have 
 nothing else assigned as the matter of the Sacrament 
 of Order than the imposition of hands : it must be said, 
 that beside the imposition, nothing else in ordination 
 is of essential necessity.' It is also proved by the 
 Greek rite, whereby, as has been said, men are or- 
 dained solely by the laying on of hands, seeing that 
 the validity of Sacraments depends essentially on the 
 forms and matter instituted by Jesus Christ. To this 
 must be added what Benedict XIY. with Marteue 
 mentions, ' that the giving of the instruments was not 
 introduced into the Church before the eighth or ninth 
 centuries'. ... As to what the form according to this 
 third opinion is, some say, ' Take thou authority/ 
 but more probably Morinus and Tournely say it is the 
 prayer which the Bishop says in the imposition afore- 
 said, and the words which he says at the end in the 
 third laying on of hands, 'Receive the Holy Ghost,' 
 are only declarative of the Spirit being already given. 
 The third opinion is the more probable, but because 
 the second is probable, at least extriusically, that in 
 practice is to be followed." 
 
 Sess. 23, c. 2.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 713 
 
 The question of the validity of Anglican Orders used 
 to turn on three hinges ; 1. Was Barlow, through whom 
 alone the succession was supposed to come, himself con- 
 secrated ? 2. Is there sufficient documentary evidence 
 for the Consecration of Matthew Parker ? 3. Were the 
 form, matter, and intention sufficient to confer valid 
 ordination ? 
 
 As to the first, using the words of Dr. Lingard *, 
 " For ten years Barlow performed all the sacred duties 
 and exercised all the civil rights of a consecrated Bishop. 
 He took his seat in Parliament as Lord Bishop of St. 
 David's. He was styled by Gardiner 'his brother of 
 St. David's.' He ordained Priests : he was one of the 
 officiating Bishops at the Consecration of Bulkley, [and 
 likewise of Skip,] yet we are now called upon to be- 
 lieve that he was no Bishop, and consequently that 
 nobody objected to his orders, though they were known 
 to be illegal : or to his ordinations, though they were 
 known to be irregular ; nor to his performance of Epi- 
 scopal Functions, though it was well known that each 
 such function was a sacrilege !" 
 
 As to the second, 1. The Public Records shew that 
 Parker was elected by the Dean of Canterbury and four 
 canons on Sept. 6, 1559 : on the 9th the Queen issued 
 her Commission to the Bishops to consecrate, and 
 punished them on their refusal. On Cecil consulting 
 Parker, he replies that, in conformity with the statute 
 25 Henry VIII., the King must direct letters patent 
 to an Archbishop or to four Bishops to confirm and 
 1 Catholic Magazine, 1834.
 
 714 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 consecrate the Archbishop elect : that the consecration 
 must take place on a Sunday, in a certain place, and 
 the Book of Edward VI. used. The difficulty remain- 
 ing, six doctors of Canon Law were consulted, who, by 
 an instrument still extant, gave opinion that the Queen 
 could dispense with the rigour of the law, and empower 
 the deposed Bishops to execute the functions required 
 by the statute ; wherefore, on Dec. 6, just three months 
 after the election, (shewing how carefully everything 
 was gone about,) a second commission was issued to 
 six Bishops, any four of whom were to consecrate the 
 Bishop Elect. This took place on the 17th. The event 
 was boldly patent to the world. It was mentioned in 
 letters of the extreme party to their friends at Zurich. 
 Matthew Parker's own diary, with the touching ad- 
 dress, "Heu Heu Domine Deus, in quse tempora ser- 
 vasti me," is extant u . The narrative of the Conse- 
 cration, with a duplicate at Cambridge, still exists, 
 and gives the minutest account of what actually took 
 place v , describing the very dresses and ceremonies em- 
 ployed, noting specially as the fact that all four conse- 
 crating Bishops said, " Take the Holy Ghost," &c. 
 
 Therefore, the study of the document shews that 
 the question does not turn on the validity of Barlow's 
 consecration; for in order to make the consecration 
 absolutely secure, every one of the four officiating 
 
 u The consecration is mentioned by Machyn in his Diary, under the 
 same date ; and in the reign of James I., when the Fable of the " Nag's 
 Head" was first propounded, an aged nobleman bore solemn witness 
 that he had been present on the occasion. 
 
 v See Appendix to Courayer, p. 332.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 715 
 
 Bishops was ordered to use the sacramental words. 
 Of these four Bishops, two were consecrated by the 
 old Pontifical, and two by the reformed ritual of 
 Edward VI., and the three had their descent quite in- 
 dependent of Barlow. 
 
 As to the third point, the form, matter, and inten- 
 tion it is said that the form of Anglican Orders is 
 imperfect, inasmuch as the office of a Bishop was not 
 specified when hands were laid on Matthew Parker. 
 The four consecrating Bishops used the following 
 words : " Accipe, inquiunt, Spiritum Sanctum, et 
 gratiam Dei, quaa jam per impositionem manuum 
 in te est, excitare memento : non enim timoris sed 
 virtutis, dilectionis et sobrietatis Spiritum dedit no- 
 bis Deus x ." 
 
 It has been said that these do not determine the 
 office, and would suit the case of a parish-clerk as well 
 as a Bishop. To this it must be answered ; 1. That 
 the use of the words of St. Paul, in which he gives the 
 charge to St. Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus, shews that 
 it was in the minds of these consecrators to confer on 
 the candidate the authority of a primitive Bishop. 
 Next, that there were other prayers in the service 
 which distinctly determined the meaning of the ac- 
 tion ; and 3rdly, that the reformed Bishops were in 
 no worse case than their predecessors ; for in none of 
 the English Pontificals, except that of Exeter, (which 
 never was used, there being no record of any Bishop 
 of Exeter having taken the principal part in conse- 
 x Cardvvell, " Doc. Annals," i. 278.
 
 716 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 crating a Bishop,) is there any determining word at the 
 time of the imposition of hands. In the Sarum Pon- 
 tifical it runs thus : " Finita letania surgant oranes 
 praeter electum. Et duo Episcopi ponant et teneant 
 evangeliorum codicem super cervicein ejus et inter 
 scapulas clausum, et, ordinatore super eum fundente 
 benedictionem, reliqui episcopi qui adsunt manibus suis 
 caput ejus tangant et dicat ordinator Yeni Creator, ut 
 supra in ordinibus. Sequatur : Oremus. Oratio. Pro- 
 pitiare Dornine supplicationibus nostris et incliuato 
 super hunc famulum tuum cornu gratise sacerdotalis, 
 benedictionis tuee in eum infunde virtutem ; per Domi- 
 num Nostrum Jesum Christum Filium Tuum, qui Te- 
 cum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus." 
 
 The formula, " Receive the Holy Ghost," belongs 
 to the time of the schoolmen. Martene acknowledges 
 that they were unknown to antiquity, so that they 
 are scarcely found in any Pontifical older than his date 
 by four hundred years. Of all that he had seen, those 
 of Aries, Angers, and that of William Durandus, were 
 the only Pontificals that had them. It was only then, 
 that not content with praying for the descent of the 
 Holy Ghost, they thought it right to add His bestowal 
 in the imperative mood. Bearing this in mind, all 
 that the Council of Trent has said is that it is not to 
 no purpose that the Bishop says, " Receive the Holy 
 Ghost." 
 
 The next collateral proof of the validity of Anglican 
 ordinations is to be found in the Brief of Julius III., 
 under date March 8, 1554; the Pope, without any
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 717 
 
 distinction of the ordinations conferred in the reigns 
 of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., or allusions to the 
 difference of their respective ordinals, left it to the 
 judgment of Cardinal Pole to rehabilitate those whom 
 he should judge worthy, to allow them to use the con- 
 secration they had received, and to consecrate those 
 who were not yet consecrated. The passage in the ori- 
 ginal runs as follows : " Necnon de personis quorum- 
 cunque Episcoporum vel Archiepiscoporum, qui Me- 
 tropolitanam aut alias Cathedrales Ecclesias de manu 
 laicorum etiam schismaticorum, et praesertim qui de 
 Henrici Regis et Edouardi nati ejus receperunt, et ea- 
 ruin regimini et administrationi se injecerunt, et earum 
 fructus, reditus et proventus etiam longissimo tempore 
 tanquam veri Archiepiscopi aut Episcopi, temere et de 
 facto usurpando, etiam in haeresin ut prscfertur inci- 
 derint, seu an tea hseretici fuerint ; postquam per te uni- 
 tati sanctae matris Ecclesise restituti exstiterint, tuque 
 eos re-habilitandos esse censueris, si tibi alias digni et 
 idonei videbuntur, iisdem metropolitanis et aliis Cathe- 
 dralibus Ecclesiis denuo, necnon quibusvis aliis Cathe- 
 dralibus etiam metropolitanis Ecclesiis per obitum vel 
 privationem illorum prsesulum, seu alias quovis modo 
 pro tempore vacantibus, de personis idoneis pro quibus 
 ipsa Maria regina juxta consuetudines ipsius regni tibi 
 supplicaverit authoritate nostra providere, ipsasque 
 personas iisdem Ecclesiis in Episcopos aut Archiepi- 
 scopos prseficere : ac cum iis qui Ecclesias Cathedrales 
 et Metropolitanas de manu laicorum etiam schismati- 
 corum ut praefertur receperunt, quod iisdem seu aliis,
 
 '18 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 ad quas eas alias rite transferri contigerit, Cathedra- 
 libus etiam Metropolitans Ecclesiis in Episcopos vel 
 Archiepiscopos prceesse, ipsasque Ecclesias in spiritu- 
 alibus et temporalibus regere et gubernare, ac munere 
 consecrationis eis hactcnus impenso uti, vel si illud eis 
 nondum impensum extiterit, ab Episcopis vel Archi- 
 episcopis Catholicis per te nominandis suscipere libere 
 et licite possint." 
 
 But this is not all. The Bull goes on to provide 
 for the possible consecration of priests ordained irregu- 
 larly, i.e. by the ritual of Edward VI., if such be ad- 
 vanced to the Episcopate : " Necnon cum quibusvis 
 per te ut prsemittitur pro tempore absolutis et rehabili- 
 tatis, ut eorum erroribus et excessibus praeteritis non 
 obstantibus, quibusvis Cathedralibus etiam Metropoli- 
 tanis Ecclesiis in Episcopos et Archiepiscopos prsefici 
 et praoesse, illasque in eisdem spiritualibus et tempo- 
 ralibus regere et gubernare ; ac ad quoscunque etiam 
 sacros et presbyteratus ordines promovere, et in illis 
 aut per eos jam licet minus rite susceptis ordinibus 
 eliam in altaris miiiisterio ministrare necnon munus 
 consecrationis suscipere, et illo uti libere et licite vale- 
 ant, dispensare etiam libere et licite possis, plenam et 
 liberam apostolicam auctoritatem per prsesentes con- 
 cedimus facultatem et potestatem V 
 
 At the Council of Trent, a discussion took place, 
 
 y See further a learned note in tlie Rev. Arthur Hacldan's edition 
 of Archbishop Bramhall's Works, vol. iii. p. 114, note g; also p. 70, 
 note e, in which reference is made to the rehabilitation of Bishop 
 Scory by Bouner after he had put away his wife.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 719 
 
 which tended to shew that Anglican orders were ad- 
 mitted on every ground except that of their non-confir- 
 mation by the Pope z . The question arose incidentally 
 out of the controversy as to the origin of jurisdiction, 
 whether directly from God or from the Pope. After 
 some discussion, O'Hairt, Bishop of Achonry in Ireland, 
 shewed that for these reasons it could not be maintained 
 that jurisdiction was immediately from God : 1. That in 
 the hierarchy there would be many heads, so that it 
 would rather bring anarchy, and all would be upset. 
 2. That thereby the opinion of the heretics would be 
 strengthened ; for that in England the King calls him- 
 self Head of the Church, and creates Bishops who are 
 consecrated by three Bishops, and say that they are 
 true Bishops, who are from God ; but we deny that, 
 because they are not adsciti by the Roman Pontiff, 
 and we say so rightly ; and by this reason alone, and by 
 
 * Vid. Le Plat, Collect. Trid., vol. v. p. 578, ed. Lovan : " Acadensis 
 Tliconus, ostendit tribus rationibus non posse subsistere, quod ajunt 
 jurisdictioncm immediate esse a Deo. Primo, quia in hierarcbia essent 
 multa capita, potumque reddentur anarcbia ac totum everteretur. 
 Secundo, quia ex eo magis confirm aretur opinio hareticorum. Nam et in 
 Auglia rex vocat se caput Ecclesise Anglicae et creat episcopos qui 
 consecrantur a tvibus ej>iscopis, ajuntque se veros episcopos, qui sunt 
 a Deo, nos vero id negamus, quia non sunt a Pontifice Romano asciti, et 
 recte dicimus, liac que tantum ratione illas convocemus, non alia, non 
 elapsi ostendent, se fuisse vocatos, electos, consecutos, messos : igitur si 
 in canon dicatur tantum a Christo institutes, liinc inferrent electionem 
 fieri ex modo instrumento, quod quale sit omnibus tain rege quam 
 Papffi. Tertio, quia si jurisdictio esset tota a Deo Papa non posset ilium 
 tollere et transferre in alium, Sunt non potest prohibere consecratione 
 quia ordinct et conficiat eucharistiaui. Quia senteutia omnibus placere 
 maxime visa est."
 
 720 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 no other, do we convince them, for they themselves shew 
 that they have been called, elected, consecrated, granted 
 mission. Therefore, if it be said in the Canon that 
 they are only instituted by Christ, they might infer 
 from this that election might take place by a mere 
 instrument, which might be the same in all, Pope or 
 King. 3. That if jurisdiction be all from God, then 
 the Pope cannot take it away and transfer it to another, 
 just as he cannot prohibit a consecrated person from 
 ordaining, or consecrating the Eucharist. This senti- 
 ment seemed greatly to please all. 
 
 It is plain from this that the Anglican Bishops, 
 ordained by the Pontifical of the reign of King Ed- 
 ward VI., were acknowledged to have every element 
 of the Episcopal character, except recognition by the 
 Pope. 
 
 Given, therefore, the historical truths of the facts of 
 Parker's consecration as attested by a regular notary 
 admitting the doctrine laid down by St. Alfonso 
 taking into consideration, in the way of corroboration, 
 what passed upon the subject at the Council of Trent, 
 it is absolutely certain that Anglican Orders are valid 
 and regular, unless the Pope's recognition be essential. 
 And that that recognition is not essential, is proved 
 by the fact that the validity and regularity of the 
 orders of the Eastern Church have always and by all 
 persons been admitted. While on the one hand one 
 must respect the jealousy with which so important a 
 matter as the validity of orders ought to be watched, 
 on the other hand it must be borne in mind what
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 721 
 
 a strong temptation there is for opponents to deny them 
 for polemical purposes. In the controversy between 
 England and Rome, the question has been complicated 
 by the tradition of re-ordination, founded on a very im- 
 perfect examination of the case in the instance of that 
 uncomfortable Scotsman Bishop John Clement Gordon, 
 and still more by the unscholarly deliverances of Euge- 
 nius IV. on the matter and form of the Sacrament. 
 
 But we may retort irregularity on the impugners of 
 Anglican orders. While four Bishops were carefully 
 warned each to use the consecrating words in the case 
 of Parker, it had been in the occasional practice both 
 of East and "West to admit as valid Consecration by 
 one Bishop. There is a case of a single consecration 
 in the history of St. Athanasius, another in that of 
 St. Heliodorus ; and in the ancient Scoto-Irish Church, 
 in spite of the great multitudes of Bishops that were 
 in Ireland, the practice was constant. 
 
 Nay, even in the case of the Papal See, there were 
 tremendous irregularities. If we may believe Luit- 
 prandus a , John XII. ordained a deacon in a stable, 
 and another of the Popes, Pelagius I., was himself con- 
 secrated by two Bishops and a Presbyter, as Anastasius 
 bears witness b . 
 
 To charges, moreover, of laxity, as to the enforce- 
 
 * Lib. vi. chap. 7. 
 
 b " Dum non essent Episcopi qui eura ordinarent, invent! sunt 
 duo Episcopi, Joannes de Perusio et Bonus de Ferentino, et Andreas 
 presbyter de Ostia, et ordinaverunt eura pontificem." Vide Baronius 
 ad Ann. 555. 
 
 3A
 
 722 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 merit of Episcopal ordination after the Reformation, 
 as in the well-known case of Whittington, Dean of 
 Durham, and the others who in Elizabeth's time were 
 instituted into benefices; all one can say is, that it was 
 wrong, exceptional, and speedily remedied. But more 
 than that, it was distinctly an inheritance of pre- 
 Keformation times. Benefices and Bishoprics had been 
 held by non-ordained persons, even by children c . 
 
 c Among the documents preserved in the archives of Magdalen 
 College, Oxford, we find a Bull of Pope Nicholas mediating in a dis- 
 pute between the Founder and the Bishop of Salisbury, touching the 
 benefice of Brvghtwell, in which a layman, a medical man, by nation 
 reputed to be a Greek, held the living for ten years, alleging a pap;il 
 exemption from holy orders. He had had a curate (procurator), but 
 that curate was now dead, and the Rector could not be found. Upon 
 this the Bishop of Winchester, the patron, presented William Darsset. 
 The Bishop of Salisbury refused to institute him, and he appealed to 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury. He then received institution, whereon 
 the Bishop proceeds to sequestrate the living, intending, as was sup- 
 posed, to interfere with the Bishop of Wmton's patronage, but alleging 
 that it still belonged to Thomas French. The Bull enjoins the Com- 
 miss r oners to put an end to all debate between the parties, and if the re- 
 cited premises are true, to put William Darsset in full and peaceable 
 possession of the benefice, invoking, if necessary, the interference of the 
 secular arm. (Communicated by the Rev. H. R. Bramley, Fellow 
 of St. Mary Magdalen College.) " At no time during the 300 years 
 which preceded the Reformation does it appear that the Scottish 
 Bishops succeeded in making orders an indispensable qualification for 
 a benefice. Synodal Statutes in the thirteenth, Provincial Statutes 
 in the sixteenth, alike confess that rectories and other offices of the 
 Church were filled by men who had not even received the clerical 
 character." (Robertson's Statuta, p. ccvi.) In the old Irish Church 
 similar abuses prevailed. St. Bernard in Vita S. Ma^achise speaking of 
 the Church of Armagh, says : " Denique jam octo extiterant ante Celsum 
 (St. Malachi's predecessor) viri uxorati, et absque ordinibus, litterati 
 tamen."
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 723 
 
 Since the reign of Queen Elizabeth the Episcopal 
 succession of the English Church has received two in- 
 fusions of what may be termed foreign blood. The 
 first of these is the introduction of that of the Irish 
 succession by the part which Primate Hampton took in 
 the consecration of Bishop Morton, and by the trans- 
 lation of Bishop Murray, of Kilfenora, to Llandaff. 
 
 The usually received fact that the present Irish suc- 
 cession is purely Irish, based on the supposition that 
 all the Bishops save two conformed at the Reformation, 
 is now denied. It is quite true that several Irish 
 Bishops were present at the Council of Trent ; Thomas 
 O'Herlihy, Bishop of Ross; Donatus Mac Congail, 
 Bishop of Raphoe; and Eugene O'Hairt, Bishop of 
 Achonry, took part in the discussions. And Wauchope, 
 Archbishop of Armagh, " the blind Bishop," who was 
 forced by the Pope into the place of Dowdall during 
 his lifetime, was present at some of the latter sittings ; 
 but these three Bishops are in the Council described 
 as Pius IV.'s Bishops, and they, therefore, must have 
 been appointed between 1560 and 1568. The two 
 Bishops, who, in 1560, refused to sanction the removal 
 of the Pope's jurisdiction, were Walsh, of Meath, and 
 Leverous, of Kildare. With the exception of these, all 
 the Irish Bishops remained in their respective Sees, 
 and from them, in conjunction with Abp. Curwen, the 
 present Bishops have derived their orders. Dr. Stud- 
 dert has shewn how carefully the Irish consecrations 
 were attended to. The Irish Act, 2 Eliz., c. 4, abolishes
 
 '24 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 conge d' elire d and substitutes collation by letters patent ; 
 enacts that the collation be signified to one Archbishop 
 and two Bishops, or else to four Bishops; that every 
 Archbishop and Bishop shall with all speed invest and 
 consecrate ; that if they refuse they shall incur the 
 penalties of prsemunire and provisors. Though the 
 records of the actual consecrations are lost, there are 
 directions about temporalities of Alexander Craike, 
 Bishop of Kildare, and evidence of a ritus papali* 
 (Cotton's Fasti] used in the case of Roger Skiddie, 
 Bishop of Cork and Cloyne in 1562. Then came 
 Loftus, Archbishop of Armagh, and Robert Day, of 
 Kildare; and in the case of Christopher Gafney, Bi- 
 shop of Ossory, the Queen orders all things requisite 
 and meet for electing, consecrating, and installing, to 
 be done, as in like cases is used. The same orders 
 are given in Latin in the case of James McCaghwell, 
 Bishop of Cashel e . 
 
 But even if it be said that all these facts are only 
 probabilities, it is certain that the Irish Orders are 
 valid through Hugh Curwen. He was consecrated by 
 Bonner and other recognised Bishops, according to the 
 Roman Ritual in Queen Mary's reign ; and even if his 
 consecrations were performed without assistant Bishops 
 
 d See a curious letter on the difficulty of working the conge d' elire 
 hi the case of Archbishop Loftus in consequence of the chapter there, 
 " whereof the greatest part be temporal men. Shane O'Neil's horse, 
 men be so sparkeled and out of order, that they cannot be assembled." 
 (Shirley's Original Letters, p. 120.) 
 
 e See Lee's Letter to Abp. of Dublin, 4to., 1866, p. 36.
 
 OF CONSECRATION OF BISHOPS, &C. 7'25 
 
 (of which, however, all the proof lies the other way), 
 all that can be said is that they were irregular, not 
 invalid. 
 
 The other intervention of a foreign Bishop in the 
 line of English Bishops was by Marc Antonio de Do- 
 minis. This prelate, who was Archbishop of Spalato, in 
 Dalmatia, for a time conformed to the Anglican Church 
 in the reign of James I., and was by him made Dean 
 of Windsor. During his residence in England he 
 assisted at the consecrations of Bishops Felton and 
 Monteigne. 
 
 The only remaining point to be noticed is the argu- 
 ment against the validity of the Anglican Orders from 
 the want of intention. Bishop Barlow's opinions on 
 Holy Orders were very loose, but still we must believe 
 that he intended bonafide to do and to say, what he 
 actually did and said in the matter of the consecration. 
 He was required to perpetuate the succession of Eng- 
 lish Bishops. Oglethorp refused to have anything to do 
 with it. Kitchen, though mentioned in the commission, 
 failed the Queen at the last. Meanwhile, the Bishops 
 of the Old Succession were dispossessed, and a new com- 
 mission issued. Thus, there only remained beside the 
 suffragan of Hull, the Bishops to whom the commission 
 was sent, with Bale, who took no part in the consecra- 
 tion. Whatever view Barlow had of Orders, he evidently 
 intended to obey Elizabeth, and the questions put to 
 the Canonists by the Queen, and the strict rule laid down 
 ad majorcm cautelam of all pronouncing the sacramental 
 words, shew that the whole matter had been seriously
 
 726 ARTICLE XXXVI. 
 
 considered. The prayers also of the Service indicate 
 sufficiently what was meant by it, and this must satisfy 
 the real doctrine of intention ; for if the doctrine of 
 intention be supposed to be influenced by the private 
 opinions of the minister, no one can be certain of any 
 single baptism or ordination. Intention is satisfied, if 
 a person really intend to do what he has to do seri- 
 ously, not in jest. Barlow intended to make a Bishop, 
 and did so. What opinion he had on the grace and 
 indelibility of Holy Orders has nothing to do with the 
 question. 
 
 The reason for the concluding clause of the Article 
 is the same as that which prompted the Act of Par- 
 liament, 8 Eliz., c. 1 : "An Act declaring the making 
 and consecrating of the Archbishops and Bishops of 
 this realm to be good, lawful, and perfect." The 
 doubts which it recites in the preamble are on the 
 point whether the same were duly and orderly done 
 according to the law or not ; the remedy is partly 
 to shew that it has been duly and orderly done accord- 
 ing to the laws of the realm, and partly to provide 
 for the more surety thereof. Bonner had alleged that 
 the Ordinal, repealed along with the Prayer-book in 
 the time of Queen Mary, had not been separately 
 named in the revising Statute, 1 Eliz. c. 2. Both the 
 Act and the Article are passed ex majori cautcla, 
 a valid consecration being the corner-stone of the 
 whole ecclesiastical edifice.
 
 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 DE CIVILIBUS MAGISTRATIBUS. 
 
 REGIA Majcstas in hoc Angliee regno, ac ceeteris fjus 
 dominiis summam habet potestatem, ad quam omnium 
 statuum hujus regni, sive illi eccksiastici sint, site civiks, 
 in omnibus causis, suprema gubcrnatio pertinct, et nulli 
 externce jurisdictioni est subjecta, nee esse dcbet. 
 
 Cum Regia Majestati summam gubernationem tribuimms, 
 quibus titulis intelligimus animos quorundam calumnia- 
 torum offendi, non damus Regibus nostris, aut vcrbi Dei, 
 aut Sacramentorum administrationem, quod etiam In- 
 junctiones ab EHzabetha Regina nostra, nuper edita, 
 apertissime testantur ; sed earn tantum preerogativam, 
 quam in sacris Scripturis a Deo ipso, omnibus piis Prin- 
 c'qnbus, videmus semper fulsse attributam : hoc est, ut 
 omnes status atque ordines fidei suae a Deo commissos, 
 sive illi eccksiastici sint, sive civiles, in officio contineant, 
 et contumaces ac delinquentes gladio civili coerceant. 
 
 Romanus pontifox nullam habet jurisdictionem in hoc rcgno 
 Angliae. 
 
 Leges regni possunt Christianos propter capitalia et gravia 
 crimina, morte punire. 
 
 Christianis licet, ex mandato Magistratus, arma portare> 
 etjusta bcUa administrare. 
 
 " Of the Civil Magistrates. 
 
 " THE King's Majesty hath the chief power in this 
 realm of England, and other his dominions, unto whom
 
 723 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 the chief government of all the estates of this realm, 
 whether they be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes 
 doth appertain, and is not, nor ought to be, subject 
 to any foreign jurisdiction. 
 
 " Where we attribute to the King's Majesty the chief 
 government, by which titles we understand the minds 
 of some slanderous folks to be offended, we give not to 
 our Princes the ministering either of God's Word, or 
 of the Sacraments, the which thing the injunctions 
 also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most 
 plainly testify ; but that only prerogative which we 
 see to have been given always to all godly Princes 
 in Holy Scripture by God Himself; that is, that they 
 should rule all estates and degrees committed to their 
 charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical or tem- 
 poral, and restrain with the civil sword the stubborn 
 or evil-doers. 
 
 "The Bishop of Rome hath no jurisdiction in this 
 realm of England. 
 
 " The laws of the realm may punish Christian men 
 with death for heinous and grievous offences. 
 
 " It is lawful for Christian men, at the command- 
 ment of the Magistrate, to wear weapons, and serve 
 in the wars." 
 
 THE subject of Article XXXVII. is the Civil Magis- 
 trates. First the supremacy of the Queen's Majesty in 
 the realm over all estates, in all causes, is asserted. Next 
 the Fact and the Propriety of its subjection to any 
 foreign jurisdiction is denied. 
 
 After this comes an explanation that the term ' chief
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 729 
 
 government* does not extend to the ministering either 
 the Word or Sacraments, but does extend over all 
 persons, "all estates and degrees," and to restraining 
 evil doers with the civil, not the spiritual sword. 
 
 The jurisdiction of the Pope in the realm is denied ; 
 the right of capital punishment is asserted; and the 
 lawfulness of the use of arms and of war at the com- 
 mandment of the Magistrate is asserted. The Latin 
 article imports the consideration that the war must 
 
 The question of Royal Supremacy is one as old as 
 the State establishment in the time of Constantine. 
 So long as the Christian Church was a persecuted 
 community, it administered its own laws; its Bishops 
 were its judges in secular things; and, according to 
 the rule of St. Paul, men did not go to law before the 
 heathens but before the saints. Externally the Chris- 
 jian aimed at being a good subject, prayed for the 
 stability of the Empire, even for the heathen Emperor. 
 He had no difficulty directly in serving in the im- 
 perial legions, though there existed an accidental diffi- 
 culty from the homage that was required from him 
 to the Roman Eagles, or tutelary deities of the army, 
 and to the person of the Emperor. How property was 
 held, (for even at that early period the Church, espe- 
 cially that of Rome, did possess property,) we do not 
 know. The Archdeacon of Rome had the care of the 
 sacred vessels, which at a very early period were re- 
 markable for their costly material. The churches were 
 apparently held in trust by the Bishop and clergy.
 
 730 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 Even under the Pagan Emperors the Church pos- 
 sessed land, though without legal sanction. In the 
 third century we have evidence of the possession of 
 a see-house at Antiocb, which Paul of Samosata wished 
 to retain after he had been deposed a . After the con- 
 fiscations of Diocletian, Constantino ordered the land 
 to be restored, and by an edict of 321 he permitted 
 the Church to receive bequests (bona) in real property. 
 There is no contemporary record for any great grant 
 of land by Constantino, the forged donation being first 
 known to be in existence A.D. 860. By the time of 
 St. Gregory the Church was very rich, and it is reason- 
 able to believe that, the Emperor having opened the 
 door to such bequests, wealth flowed in from the de- 
 votions of the faithful. Indeed, Valentinian had to 
 make a law checking the scandalous practices con- 
 nected with such gifts. If Anastasius is to be trusted, 
 Constantino bestowed upon the Basilicas which he 
 founded in Rome alone, property to the value of 
 235,527 gold crowns, of which 60,000 went to the in- 
 come of the Pope. The aggregate weight of the orna- 
 ments given to the Sanctuary was 1,880 Ibs. of gold, 
 19,513 of silver, and 7,420 of bronze. 
 
 It is needless to add, that the discipline as well 
 as the doctrine of the Church was a purely internal 
 matter, in which the State had no interest nor control. 
 Beyond a growing suspicion of the existence of Chris- 
 tianity as a dangerous organization, and occasional 
 fanatical outbursts, chiefly in the provinces, ending 
 Theodoret, H. E., ii. 8; Euseb., H. E., 1. vii. c. 30.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 731 
 
 in a temporary persecution, the attitude of the Em- 
 pire to the Church was a contemptuous suspicious 
 toleration. 
 
 It was a wonderful thing that the community should 
 govern itself by the help of one sanction. Excommu- 
 nication, or the power of ejecting an erring brother, 
 was the ultima ratio of the Church, but then that bore 
 fruit in the world to come. The power of binding and 
 loosing was the charter of all Church discipline, for it 
 relegated the sanction of the visible Church into the 
 unseen world. If salvation depended, clave non errante, 
 upon Church membership, and Church membership 
 under certain laws was in the hands of the Hierarchy, 
 it placed the control of the Church absolutely in their 
 hands. And the power of discipline came with it, as 
 we have seen when we have treated of the Church 
 having authority in controversies of faith ; power with 
 regard to doctrine also was included, for false doctrine 
 being an excommunicable sin, the same absolute con- 
 trol which the Church had over morals extended to 
 matters of belief. 
 
 The State establishment at once modified these con- 
 ditions. On the one hand the Episcopal jurisdiction 
 which, in the way of arbitration, had been used to 
 settle the disputes among the faithful, was turned 
 into a coercive judicial power, the remains of which 
 are found among most of the Romanesque races of 
 Europe, and the shadow of which has remained in 
 England till our own time. On the other hand, the 
 Civil jurisprudence of the State had to modify itself
 
 732 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 to meet the requirements of the new faith; Church 
 and State here worked in harmonious alliance, and the 
 world profited by the alliance. However, beside this 
 mutual influence, the two systems, developing homo- 
 geneous codes of law, lived on in indifferent harmony 
 with each other, ages after ages. The conflict between 
 the Canon and the Civil laws in various countries was 
 only the outcome of this state of things. In most 
 countries the Civil law has generally superseded the 
 other, as material interests have become greater and 
 greater. 
 
 It was the same in Politics. The ecclesia doccit*, 
 ' the clergy/ the Hierarchy, to a certain degree main- 
 tained their authoritative position, after that the State 
 became Christian. However great was the predomin- 
 ance of the Civil power, it generally recognised cer- 
 tain functions proper to the Spiritualty. It found that 
 within its influence there was another power which it 
 could not touch the domain of conscience. In pro- 
 portion as dogmatic questions assumed a concrete form, 
 that domain of conscience extended itself to many 
 mixed questions, and collisions between the temporal 
 and spiritual powers became the inevitable result. 
 
 The history of the world from the fourth century 
 is a record of this collision. Sometimes fought out 
 on the plain principle, as in the fight of the Inves- 
 titures, sometimes disguised under the appearance of 
 factions, as the Guelphs and Ghibellines, the Bianchi 
 and the Neri b ; the question profoundly agitated the 
 
 b Dante's Inferno, xxxii. 6.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 
 
 733 
 
 Church, and was asserted with different success till 
 the Reformation. The Church, now represented by 
 the see of Rome, ever pushed its pretensions to the 
 utmost limit. The State did all it could to protect 
 itself against encroachments, by pragmatic sanctions. 
 When supernatural ideas were strong, the Church pre- 
 dominated ; when they were weak, either from material 
 progress, or the effect of the vices of the clergy, the 
 Church became proportionately enfeebled. From the 
 time of Hildebrand onward, there is a tradition of op- 
 position to sacerdotal claims. The treatise De Unitate 
 Ecclesise conservanda (cir. A.D. 1092), the epistola Leo- 
 diensium adversus Paschalem II. (A.D. 1099 1118), 
 Benzo's panegyricus in Henricum III. (cir. A.D. 1313,) 
 the Dispute concerning the power of Popes, and Em- 
 perors by .ZEgidio Colonna (A.D. 1316), the tractate de 
 Potestate Regia et Papali by John of Paris cognomento 
 Surdi, or " qui dort." (A.D. 1304), Dante de Monarchia, 
 William Occam's several treatises, and, above all, the 
 celebrated Songe du Vergier (Somnium Viridarii), are 
 the chief works before the fifteenth century in which 
 this spirit is manifested c . There was an element of 
 Erastianism d in the Councils of Basle and Constance, 
 
 c Friedberg. de Finium, &c., p. 248. 
 
 d Hallam's " Middle Ages," vol. ii. p. 363. 
 
 " Before the appearance of the early Reformers, a republican or aristo- 
 cratic spirit in ecclesiastical polity, strengthened by the decrees of the 
 Councils of Constance and Basle, by the co-operation, in some instances, 
 of the Church with the State in redressing or demanding the redress of 
 abuses, and certainly also by the vices of the Court of Rome and its 
 diversion to local politics, had fully counterbalanced, or even in a great
 
 734 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 the aristocratic and episcopal and national element in 
 tlie Church itself was worked in the interests of the 
 State, against the Papacy or purely spiritual authority ; 
 and one aspect of the Reformation was a resignation on 
 the part of religion of the spiritual independence, and 
 the laying at the feet of the Civil power many rights 
 that had been contended for for many an age. 
 
 The loss of England at the Reformation led, if not 
 to the institution of Concordats, at least to their fre- 
 quent employment. The relation between the Civil 
 and Ecclesiastical power now became a matter of treaty 
 in each State. Sovereigns made the best terms they 
 could, and wrung from the occasional weakness of the 
 Papacy what it could not help granting. Still the 
 Curia Romano, has never bated its theoretical rights, 
 and while the State has managed in most cases to 
 insist on the right of \he placitum regium or Exequatur, 
 the power of preventing bulls being published within 
 its limits, and the institution of an appeal from the 
 abuse of spiritual power in the Civil Courts, both that 
 Exequatur and that appellatio ab abusu have been con- 
 demned in the Encyclica of Dec. 8, 1864. 
 
 The principles of Nationalism had developed them- 
 
 measure silenced, the bold pretensions of the school of Hildebrand. 
 In such a lax notion of Papal authority, prevalent in Cisalpine Europe, 
 the Protestant Reformation had found one source of its success. But 
 for this cause the theory itself lost ground in the Catholic Church. 
 At the Council of Trent, the aristocratic or episcopal party, though it 
 seemed to display itself in great strength, comprising the representatives 
 of the Spanish and Gallican Churches, was for the most part foiled in the 
 question which touched the limitations of the Papal Supremacy. From 
 this time the latter power became lord of the ascendant."
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 735 
 
 selves two hundred years before the Reformation. 
 England, not being a part of the Empire, had always 
 maintained its insular character ; and, in spite of the 
 moral effect of the death of St. Thomas of Canterbury, 
 had always struggled to carry on the traditions of 
 the Constitutions of Clarendon. In France the influ- 
 ence of the lawyers who, in opposition to the Councils, 
 had developed the royal power by the inculcation of 
 the Code of Justinian, had tended, in union with the 
 gradual absorption of the great fiefs, to give increased 
 power to the Crown, while the traditions of the Holy 
 Roman Empire, especially in their Ghibelline em- 
 bodiment, had ever been in the direction of thwarting 
 and opposing the theologico-political theories of the 
 Church, as expressed by the Papacy. Dante's language, 
 where a submission to, and enlightened knowledge of, 
 the profoundest doctrines of the mediaeval Church, are 
 coupled with the keenest and most openly-expressed 
 scorn for the vices of the individual Popes, serves as 
 an illustration of the position taken up by many of the 
 thinkers of Europe long before the Reformation. His 
 beautiful dream of an Universal Monarchy, if hostile to 
 the notion of an aggregate of nationalities, at least 
 developed a theory of the self-sufficiency of the State, 
 which in the presence of actual facts, i.e. of the im- 
 possibility of such universality, tended much to con- 
 solidate the notion of the autonomic existence of 
 nations. 
 
 The Great Schism and the Convocation of the Coun- 
 cils of Constance and Basle helped in this direction.
 
 736 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 The lawyers became a new power in the world, and did 
 what they could to consolidate the Civil State. When, 
 in 1418, Martin Y. began to restore the Papacy after 
 the Schism, we find him combating them in France, 
 protesting against the Statute of Pro visors in England, 
 and dealing in no measured terms with the spirit ot 
 rebellion, which the previous degradation of the Spiri- 
 tualty had engendered e . 
 
 Thus also in Scotland, ecclesiastical questions were 
 discussed and determined in Parliament during the 
 fourteenth century. A case of disputed election to 
 a Benedictine house was appealed from the judgment 
 of the Diocesan to the Conservator (the Bishop who 
 presided in the Church before the establishment of 
 the two Archbishoprics), but finally decided by the 
 King in Parliament by the advice of the clergy then 
 present in 1391. In 1401, any one, thinking him- 
 self unjustly excommunicated, might appeal from the 
 Bishop to the Conservator, from the Conservator to the 
 Provincial Council, w r here such questions should be de- 
 termined so long as the schism should last. To this 
 ordinance the clergy consented during the schism, like 
 the rest of the King's lieges. In 1417, the question 
 whether Martin V. was to be acknowledged was de- 
 bated, not in a Provincial Council of the clergy, but 
 in a General Council of the three estates of the realm. 
 In 1425, the bishops are authorized to search for 
 
 e Vide Bull printed in Burnet's " Reformation." Edit. Pocock, vol. iv. 
 p. 148. Also Archbishop Chichele's Appeal from the Pope to a General 
 Council, ib., vol. v. p. 485.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 737 
 
 heretics and Lollards by Parliament. In 1427, Parlia- 
 ment framed a measure for expediting the procedure 
 in the secular cases in the Ecclesiastical Courts, and 
 next year made rules about the treatment of leprosy 
 by the clergy. This boldness in dealing with eccle- 
 siastical matters startled the Papal Court, and con- 
 tentions arose which were only silenced by the con- 
 fusions that sprung from the murder of James I. 
 
 But there was another aspect of the question beside 
 the relations between the Regale and the Pontificale. 
 That between sovereign and people was long unde- 
 termined. Against the traditions of the Empire in the 
 Middle Ages, a host of communities, and sects, such 
 as the Fraticelli, Beguards, &c., had sprung up, ad- 
 vancing the most extravagant views of Government : 
 even the Franciscan Order itself had strong demo- 
 cratic tendencies. The Schoolmen had laid down 
 a sound doctrine, that while the Hierarchy is imme- 
 diately from God through Christ, "As My Father 
 sent Me, so send I you," the civil power came from 
 God mediately through the people. "Without as- 
 suming the absurdities of an original compact, such 
 as formed the base of the social theories at the be- 
 ginning of the century, they held that power was 
 for the sake of the governed, not of the governors. 
 But still the tendency of the weakening of the Papal 
 power in the previous centuries, and of the breaking 
 up of the feudal system, especially in France, by the 
 absorption of the great fiefs into the Crown, had been 
 to give very great power to the State. Although the 
 
 SB
 
 738 ARTICLE XXXVIT. 
 
 Stuart theory of the divine right of kings was not yet 
 formulized, one phase of the earlier Reformation was, 
 as has been said, to give very great power to the Sove- 
 reign. But soon reaction followed. Calvinism was 
 essentially democratic. It sprung up in a republic ; it 
 became the dominant religion of the most successful 
 republic of modern times ; and it has given a re- 
 publican tinge to every country that it has touched. 
 Geneva, Holland, and Scotland, are witnesses of this. 
 The conversation between Mary of Scotland and Knox, 
 on that monarch's first arrival in Scotland, turned 
 on the assumption, that if princes became enemies of 
 God (that is, did not support the Reformation), God's 
 servants owed them no allegiance. The formula was, if 
 a father went mad and offered to kill his children, 
 they might tie his hands, and take his weapon from 
 him; in like manner, if princes would murder the 
 children of God, it was no disobedience to restrain 
 them from their evil purpose. 
 
 The first proposition of the Article, therefore, is an 
 assertion of the chief power of the Queen's Majesty. 
 That power claims such privileges as, inherited from 
 pre-Christian times, had been derived into the Holy 
 Roman Empire, which was emphatically the State, 
 the successor of that Great Polity which ruled the 
 earth at the time of the coming of our Lord. England 
 had never been in a strict sense part of the Great 
 Empire. The Romans had abandoned it; the northern 
 Barbarians had invaded it : the Saxons, after growing 
 from a heptarchy into one kingdom, had maintained
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 739 
 
 independent relation with the Empire ; the kingdom 
 of England imitated the style and title of the emperors 
 of New Home ; the Bretwalda became the Basileus ; 
 there was a great affectation of Grecian etiquettes ; but 
 the whole theory of England was that it was a free 
 and independent kingdom. This is the first proposi- 
 tion of the Article. But next to that, after certain 
 explanations of the autonomic claim, there is a certain 
 jurisdiction to be renounced. 
 
 The jurisdiction here renounced was that jurisdiction 
 which, supported and strengthened by the false Decre- 
 tals, and formulized by individual theologians after 
 the Council of Trent, had for nine hundred years been 
 exercised over the Church of England. From the 
 time of the mission of St. Augustine by Pope Gregory, 
 reference had been made to Rome, although only very 
 slightly from the time of Theodore to the Conquest 
 669 1066. The interference eventually extended to 
 the most minute things. The documents lately pub- 
 lished from the stores of the Vatican, touching the 
 interference of the Church of Rome with those of Ire- 
 land and Scotland, shew that nothing was too great or 
 too small for its exercise. From a question of the 
 regency of a kingdom down to the proper shape of 
 a monk's hat f , all came under its consideration. The 
 confirmation of Bishops and Abbots, the dispensations 
 in matrimonial cases, appeals from episcopal sentences, 
 the concession of privileges to orders, made the Supre- 
 macy be felt in every county of the kingdom, while the 
 
 1 Theiner, Vetera Monumenta Scotorum et Hibernorum, p. 76.
 
 740 ARTICLE XXX VII. 
 
 higher politics of the realm were profoundly affected 
 by it. Not the least remarkable point was the drain 
 upon the resources of the country by the exaction of 
 annates, first-fruits, Peter's-pence, and the intrusion 
 of Italian and other foreign personages into the bene- 
 fices of the Church of England. It is a question how 
 far, even in the zenith of the Papal power, the Ita- 
 lian interference was on the side of righteousness and 
 truth. In spite of the presumption that injured inno- 
 cence would find redress at the threshold of the apo- 
 stles, and that a cause, removed from local passions and 
 prejudices, had the best chance of being settled equi- 
 tably at Rome, it is to be feared that the result was 
 the paralysis of the ordinary jurisdiction of the Bishop. 
 Even Hildebrand could not, as Innocent III., have en- 
 forced justice, in opposition to the vast machinery of 
 the Roman Curia, and its vis inertia. Appeals were 
 made by the English Clergy on every occasion against 
 their Bishop. They were seldom prosecuted ; the re- 
 sult was the mere prostration of the Episcopal and Me- 
 tropolitan authority. The loudest complaints of the 
 venality of Rome are of the thirteenth century, and 
 some even in the twelfth. In the fourteenth and fif- 
 teenth centuries, the power of gold was still said to 
 tell in the decision of appeals, and, rightly or wrongly, 
 an abiding sense of the venality of the Roman Curia 
 possessed the mind of Europe. Long before the Refor- 
 mation there was a strong anti- Italian party in the 
 English Church, and it must never be forgotten that 
 the actual breach was consummated by the Catholic
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 741 
 
 Convocation of the Church, by Gardiner, and Bonner, 
 and Warham. 
 
 Yet that the mediaeval Papacy, with all its faults, 
 had an office in God's kingdom and in the history of 
 the world, cannot be denied. As the strongest con- 
 crete form of the Episcopate, it was the preserver and 
 dispenser of moral and religious tradition. It knit 
 together in visible unity the various races which, as 
 powers of this world, succeeded to the Roman Empire, 
 and enlarged it. The Apostle of England had been 
 sent and guided by that great Pontiff, who was so 
 marvellously raised up at a time very critical for the 
 history of Christianity, St. Gregory the Great. St. 
 Augustine of Canterbury impressed on England an en- 
 thusiastic devotion to the see of Rome ; the Apostles 
 of Germany, issuing from England, implanted it to- 
 gether with the Gospel itself among the people whom 
 they converted. Christians, in whatever different lands, 
 using whatever different languages, were one body. 
 One was their faith ; one, their discipline ; one, their 
 worship. And this unity was personified in him, who, 
 throughout Western Christendom, was looked to as 
 the common Father. The Pope, as the Head and Fa- 
 ther of Christians, was, in theory at least, the earthly 
 refuge of the oppressed. He wielded an authority, 
 before which kings, or a barbarian aristocracy, trem- 
 bled ; which could rebuke vice, or tyranny, or brute 
 force upon the throne, with an authority greater than 
 its own. Even the forged decretals (unhappy, in its 
 consequences, as any fraud must be) were framed, not 
 by Rome, nor with its cognizance, but as a protection
 
 742 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 against lawless civil power. In the miserable tenth 
 century the Papal authority was still exercised in the 
 name of Popes, who themselves have left their names 
 only as a proverb of reproach. Strange, that the de- 
 cline of the Papal power began with one, who himself 
 sustained its loftiest claims. Boniface VIII. found his 
 authority at the zenith. His hermit predecessor had 
 been reluctantly allowed to enact that he might him- 
 self abdicate. He himself acted nobly as the Pacifi- 
 cator of Europe. He commanded peace to such mon- 
 archs as the English Edward I. and Philip the Fair, 
 with their allies; he was (as Benedetto Gaetani) ac- 
 cepted as the arbiter ; an interdict was to lie on 
 the infringement of some chief terms ; he received 
 Scotland as a fief of the see of Rome ; he had given 
 a king to Hungary ; and had conferred the Empire 
 on Albert. Millions (it was said " almost all Christen- 
 dom") flowed to Rome to visit the shrines of St. Peter 
 and St. Paul, at the Jubilee which he instituted ; his 
 Bull, Ckricis faicos, exempted all Clergy everywhere 
 from any tax, under excommunication ; and in the 
 Unam sanctam affirmed the absolute subjection of the 
 civil to the Papal power. Yet he died accused of 
 every imaginable or unimaginable sin, (many charges 
 primd facie are utterly incredible,) required by the 
 French king to defend himself before a General 
 Council. His successor, Clement V., had to account 
 it a gain that the French king abandoned the pro- 
 secution s . The Council of Vienne declared Boniface 
 
 * He fpeaks of it as an inspiration of God, Diploma in Rayn. Ann. 
 A. 1311, n. 30. Villani says that CJement V. promised to Philip ou
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 743 
 
 " a Catholic and undoubted Pope V But the fact that 
 a Pope should, at the instigation not of the French 
 king only, but of the States General, with all the eccle- 
 siastics present, and above seven hundred acts of adhe- 
 sion l , be tried, after death, before a General Council, 
 for atheism, simony, incontinence, witchcraft, heresy, 
 and unnamable crimes k , must have had a very profound 
 effect upon the mind of Europe. The Bull, May 1311, 
 pronounced that Philip, in all the proceedings against 
 Boniface, was "moved by a just zeal and fervour for 
 the Catholic faith." Everything which could reflect 
 upon him was to be effaced from the Roman records. 
 The Bull, Clench laicos, was cancelled as a source of 
 scandal 1 ; the other Bull, Unam Sanctum, was declared 
 to make no change in the relations of France to 
 the see of Rome m . The precedent of an appeal to a 
 General Council against a Pope for supposed heresy 
 or immorality, was virtually admitted by the praise of 
 Philip, and the fact of the Council. On this followed, 
 what has been called the Babylonish captivity, the 
 seventy years' residence of the Popes at Avignon, sub- 
 jects of the king of France. 
 
 The fiscal necessities of the impoverished Courts of 
 Lyons and Avignon made the demand for money more 
 and more peremptory. As the Papacy ceased to repre- 
 
 the Blessed Sacrament, as one condition of his elevation to the Papacy, 
 to " destroy and annul the memory of Pope Boniface." Hist. Fior. viii. 
 80. He is followed by St. Antoninus. 
 
 h Anton. 3. p. tit. 21, c. 3. ' Bulajus, Hist. Univ. Par., 
 
 iv. p. 46 sqq. k Ib., p. 41 sqq. 
 
 1 Clement., 1. iii. tit. 17. m Extrav. Comm., 1. v. tit. 7, c. 2.
 
 744 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 sent a Christian want and idea, it became more and 
 more rapacious. John XXII. imposed the tax of an- 
 nates, or first-fruits, on all benefices, to be paid into 
 the Papal Chancery ; he reserved to himself all the bi- 
 shoprics in Christendom. Benedict XII. assumed the 
 right of disposing of all benefices vacant by cession, 
 translation, or deprivation. After the return from 
 Avignon, the Great Schism occurred. The shake to 
 men's convictions by this event cannot be exaggerated. 
 That the organ devised for the unity of the Church, as 
 the Papacy with more or less distinctness had been 
 recognised to be for centuries, in development of the 
 teaching of St. Cyprian, should give way under the 
 pressure and increasing strength of the adolescent 
 nationalities of Europe, was a mighty blow to the 
 Western Church. Humanly speaking, but for that, 
 the Reformation would never have taken the shape 
 it did. Men's minds for nearly a generation had got 
 into the way of doubting who was Pope, and therefore 
 .the element of certainty, which had been so attractive 
 a notion in dependence upon it, was lost ; lost not only 
 to that generation, but with more perilous results to 
 those who succeeded. 
 
 The fifteenth century accustomed men's minds to 
 a lowering of the Papal authority. It opened with 
 the deprivation of the two rival Popes by the Council 
 of Pisa n , and the broken oath of the new Pope, Alex- 
 
 " Sess. xv. Jur. 5. The " Sentcntia definitiva et privativa," runs : 
 "The holy and universal Synod, representing the universal Church, 
 aud to whom the cognizance and decision of this cause is known to
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 745 
 
 ander V., to continue the Council, until it should have 
 effected a reform . On his decease, the Cardinals un- 
 happily chose one of notoriously disgraceful life, Bal- 
 thassar Cossa (John XXIII.), to succeed him ; and no 
 one could dispute the righteousness of the act of the 
 Council of Constance, which, partly on the ground of 
 those notorious sins, deposed him p . The necessities 
 of the times supported the claim of the Council to have 
 authority over " any person, of whatever, even Papal, 
 dignity." Two Councils, Constance and Basle, claim- 
 ing to be General Councils, and to have " their autho- 
 rity immediately from Christ/' declared " the necessity 
 of a general reformation of the Church of God in its 
 head and members; claimed obedience herein and in 
 things which appertain to faith, and asserted the sub- 
 jection of the Pope to a Council q . Specifically, the 
 
 appertain, pronounces, decrees, defines, and declares, that Angelas Co- 
 rario and Peter di Luna, both and each, were notorious schismatics, 
 and notorious heretics, departing from the faith, entangled with the 
 notorious and enormous crimes of perjury and violation of vow, &c., 
 that they are, if so facto, rejected and deprived by God and the sacred 
 canons ; but that, nevertheless, the Council deprives both and each, 
 inhibiting them and each of them from presuming to act as Supreme 
 Pontiff." 
 
 The oath was, that " if any of us shall be elected supreme Roman 
 Pontiff, he will continue the present Council, and not dissolve it, nor 
 allow it to be dissolved, as tar as in him lies, until by him, with consent 
 of this same Council there be made a due, reasonable, and sufficient 
 reformation of the universal Church and its condition, both in its 
 head and members." Sess. xvi. Jur. 10. 
 
 P Sess. Gen. xii. May 29, 1415. Seventy Articles were established 
 by evidence (v. d. Hardt., iv. p. 253), of which some were so offensive 
 that they were not read publicly. Ibid., pp. 237, 247. 
 
 1 Cone. Const., Sess. Gen. v.; Cone. JBas., S^ss. ii.
 
 746 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 Council of Basle removed many powers claimed by 
 the Popes, as Papal reservation of benefices r ; it re- 
 sisted appeals and interdicts % annulled annates l , as- 
 signed to Cardinals the duty of admonishing the Pope ; 
 if he would not correct himself, they were to delate 
 him to a General Council u . The Council of Basle, 
 indeed, undid its own work by its extreme measures 
 against Eugenius IV., when he removed the Council 
 to Ferrara ; but the confidence, by which it was misled, 
 is an evidence of its popularity, and the fact that such 
 decisions were made by a Council of undisputed Ca- 
 tholicity at the time, must have left a lasting impres- 
 sion. France continued to receive even the decrees of 
 its later sessions during its conflict with Eugenius IV. 
 (as that of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed 
 Virgin), as decrees of a General Council. Martin V., 
 indeed, declared in a Constitution (A.D. 1418) any 
 appeal from the Apostolic see invalid; Pius II. pro- 
 hibited them v . Yet they continued, when occasion 
 arose w . Exactions disgraced even the energetic reign 
 of Martin V. Even when the Turks threatened Hun- 
 gary, the attempts to promote a Crusade were regarded 
 as mere occasions for succouring the Papal revenues. 
 The purpose of Julius II. to lead a Crusade in person, 
 which once would have roused all the religious en- 
 
 * Deer, de elect, et confirm. Episc. et Preel., Sess. xii. 
 s Sess. xx. Deer. 3, 4. l Sess. xxi. Deer. L 
 
 u Sess. xxiii. Deer. 4, de num. et qual. Cardinal. 
 " In a Bull, Jan. 23, 1460, " Execrabilis." 
 
 " On the part of the Elector, at Nuaiberg, A.D. 1460; of the Em. 
 peror Sigismund, also 1460; by Charles VII. of France, also iu 1460.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 747 
 
 thusiasm of Europe, attracted a mere mob x . Had 
 those who elected the three last Popes of the cen- 
 tury, Sixtus IV., Innocent VIII., Alexander VI., had 
 for their object to degrade the Papacy as a spiritual 
 power, they would have chosen well. Yet the claims 
 made for Papal authority never ran higher. Flatter- 
 ers, on public occasions too, called the Pope " another 
 God upon earthy." Alexander VI. dispensed with 
 what was, or was accounted hitherto to be, Divine 
 law. To his married daughter Lucretia he gave licence 
 to marry, her husband still living z , (of which she twice 
 availed herself, and her example was followed by Louis, 
 Duke of Orleans) ; he dispensed with orders to his 
 son Caesar Borgia, a Deacon and a Cardinal a , and he 
 first allowed of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, 
 which had, to a recent predecessor, been pronounced 
 beyond the power of the Pope b . His act was the pre- 
 cedent of that which furnished occasion for the breach 
 of Henry VIII. of England. Indulgences given by 
 Julius II. for the rebuilding of St. Peter's, involved 
 the loss of half of Germany ; it was the spark which 
 kindled the inflammable material. The two last Popes 
 of that unhappy century became proverbs throughout 
 Europe, Innocent VIII. for his incontinence, and Alex- 
 
 * Vita Pii II., (in Murat. Scriptt. Eer. ItaL, iii. ii., p. 990) j Card. 
 Papiens., Comm , 1. i. 
 
 f Mentioned by Gerson, Opp. ii. 424, " Tu denique alter Deus in 
 terris," said to Julius II. in Lat. Cone., Sess. iv. Dec. 10, 1512. 
 
 z Raph. Volat. comm. urb. Anthropol., 1. xxii. 
 
 a Burchard in Eccard ii. 2096. 
 
 b Card. Joh. He Turrecremata to Eugenius IV. See Dr. Pusey'a 
 Evidence on the Law of Marriage, Qu. 464, p. 27, ed. 8.
 
 748 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 ander VI. for what in Popes was not allowed to be 
 simony c . 
 
 To understand the position of England in reference 
 to the Papal power, and the degree of its repudiation, 
 it is necessary to go somewhat into detail concerning 
 the historic relations of Church and State. 
 
 Till the Norman Conquest in England there was no 
 distinction of jurisdictions. All matters, spiritual as 
 well as temporal, were determined in the Sheriff's 
 tourn, the county court where the Bishop and Earl 
 sat together d . As the legislative synods were mixed 
 assemblies, so the executive was mixed also. The 
 bishoprics being conterminous with the kingdoms, 
 the archdeaconries with the counties, there was the 
 closest connection between the civil and ecclesiastical 
 laws: "The shyregemot shall be kept twice a year, 
 and oftener if need require, whenever the Bishop and 
 the Alderman of the shire shall be present; the one to 
 teach the laws of God, the other the law of the land e ." 
 
 The separation of the Ecclesiastical from the Tem- 
 poral Courts was the act of William the Conqueror. 
 No Bishop or Archdeacon was any longer to hold pleas 
 of the laws episcopal in the Hundred, or draw a cause 
 which belongs to the government of souls to the judg- 
 
 c That on Alexander VI. was, 
 
 Vendit Alexander claves, Altaria, Christum, 
 Emerat ilia prius, vendere jure potest." 
 
 It is said that it was sung in his time throughout the Christian world. 
 Lud. Tub., 1. vi. 7. 
 
 d Burn's Eccl. Law, vol. ii. 81. e Laws of Canute.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 749 
 
 ment of secular men. Whoever contumaciously re- 
 fused the episcopal jurisdiction was to be excommu- 
 nicated ; and that, if need be, was to be supported by 
 the King or Sheriff'. 
 
 This was the reward of the support of the Pope, who 
 sent two legates to England, with whom William held 
 a synod when the Saxon Stigand was deposed, because 
 he had no pall from Rome, and Normans were substi- 
 tuted for natives in many of the sees and abbeys. Yet, 
 while the right to send legates was thus conceded, 
 although not without royal licence in each case, no 
 ecclesiastical decrees were passed without the royal 
 assent, and "William distinctly refused the oath of 
 fealty to Gregory VII. 
 
 His successor, William Rufus, resisted the right of 
 appeal. 
 
 In the reign of Henry I., the Pope obtained the 
 patronage and donation of bishoprics and other bene- 
 fices, Urban having decreed that no lay person should 
 give any ecclesiastical benefice ; and at the Synod of 
 London, in 1107, the King yielded investiture per annu- 
 lum et bacuhim, gaining the privilege that no foreign 
 legates should be sent, but that the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury was to be legatus natus. Both parties broke 
 faith after St. Anselm's death, but the law remained. 
 The settlement of 1107 was a compromise, the king 
 resigning the form of investiture, but enforcing the 
 homage of each prelate before he received the tem- 
 poralities of his preferment. 
 
 f Carta Willelmi in Thorpe's Ancitnt Laws, i. 495.
 
 750 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 A third point was gained in the reign of King 
 Stephen. Appeals to the Pope were multiplied. 
 
 The power of the see of Rome still increased. In 
 the reign of Henry II., clerks were exempted from the 
 civil power. The Constitutions of Clarendon (1164), 
 though for the time rendered inoperative by the moral 
 effect of Becket's death, were the first great normal 
 resistance to the Roman Court g . 
 
 At last, in the reign of King John, the ecclesiastical 
 power was in its zenith. 
 
 Henry III. owed his establishment in the kingdom 
 to Pope Honorius ; and the reigns of Edward I. and 
 Edward II., with the exception of one Act in the 
 thirty-fifth year of the first of these monarchs, pro- 
 hibiting foreigners from holding benefices, shewed no 
 open resistance to the foreign power. 
 
 The accomplished Grossteste, Bishop of Lincoln, from 
 1235 to 1253, whose fame has hitherto mainly rested 
 on a letter in which he resisted Innocent the Fourth's 
 nomination of his nephew, Frederico di Lavagna, to 
 a canonry at Lincoln, according to that evil practice 
 of beneficing foreign, and especially Italian clerks, 
 which was pursued till their incomes amounted in value 
 to 70,000 marks h , yet did what he could to support 
 the Pope in obtaining the tax for the Crusades, the 
 payment of which Henry III. had resisted 1 . Though 
 
 f See Johnson's English Canons, vol. ii. 2. Anglo-Cath. Lib., 
 Oxf. ed. 
 
 h Luard's Preface to Grossteste's Works, p. Ixxix. 
 5 Ibid., p. xvii.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 751 
 
 his sense of episcopal responsibility induced him, at 
 the risk of the anger of the Italians, to resist any 
 improper nominations to benefices, " no one can exceed 
 Grossteste in his reverence for the Papal power, and 
 for Innocent IV. in particular J." He did much to pro- 
 mote the interest of the Friars, especially the Minorites. 
 He was present at a Council at Lyons in 1245. 
 
 The foreign power of the Popes meanwhile had been 
 making itself felt in many obnoxious ways, and the 
 result was a passionate opposition, which found a legal 
 expression in the Statutes of Prsemunire. 
 
 The first of these, in 27 Edw. III., proceeds upon 
 " the grievous and clamorous complaints of the great 
 men and commons of the realm, how that divers of 
 the people are drawn out of the realm to answer of 
 things pertaining to the King's Court; and also that 
 the judgements given in the said court are impeached 
 in another court. Offenders shall have a day to ap- 
 pear to answer in their proper persons of the contempt 
 done on this behalf. If they come not, they are put 
 out of the King's protection, their lands are forfeit, 
 and their persons subject to imprisonment." 
 
 No names are mentioned in this Statute, though it 
 
 7 O 
 
 is plain what is pointed at ; but in 16 Richard II., the 
 language is more plain spoken. " Any one purchasing 
 or procuring in the Court of Rome or elsewhere any 
 translations of prelates, processes, sentences of excom- 
 munication, bulls, instruments, or any other things 
 whatsoever, which touch the King ; and they which 
 
 J Luard's Pref., p. xx.
 
 752 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 bring within the realm or them receive, or make 
 thereof notification, or any other execution whatsoever 
 within the said realm or without, shall incur penal- 
 ties of prsemuuire." 
 
 Meanwhile the secession to Avignon had weakened 
 the Pope's authority. The pecuniary necessities of his 
 Court, exiled from Italy, and domiciled first at Lyons 
 and then at Avignon, made the exactions of money 
 more peremptory ; nay, it is to be feared that the needy 
 ecclesiastics got into the habit of selling justice; at any 
 rate, such was the abiding conviction of all Europe. 
 All through the fourteenth century the influence of 
 the French lawyers told in a very hostile way upon 
 the working of the Papal Court, and at last the Great 
 Schism brought matters to a crisis. In the reign of 
 Henry IY. Acts were passed prohibiting licences being 
 given by the King for the infringement of the Statutes 
 of Provisors, or for compositions with him k . The Council 
 of Constance, in 1418, tended to heal the schism, and 
 there is nothing in the history of Institutions more 
 striking than the way in which Martin Y. did what 
 he could to restore the influence of the Papacy. His 
 
 k " Pecock, dr. 1445, whose ideas on the subject of Papal Supremacy 
 were not at all in advance of his age, conceived that the Pope, as lord 
 paramount of the Universal Church and of all things thereunto per- 
 taining, had a right, strictly speaking, to the entire proceeds of all 
 benefices, and that those whom he placed therein to enjoy them did no 
 sin in giving him (annates) of that which was his own, any more than 
 a bailiff does when he pays anything to the landlord of the soil." 
 (Churchill Babington's Introd. to Pecock's Eepressor, p. xvi. ; cf. Re- 
 i>ressor, pp. 436 444.)
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 753 
 
 relations with the English Church are well worthy of 
 study. The schism in the Papacy did more for the 
 Reformation, from an ecclesiastical point of view, than 
 later writers have recognised ! . 
 
 1 I am indebted to a learned friend for the accompanying exhaus- 
 tive analysis of the Papal interferences in the medieval Church of 
 England : 
 
 PAPAL PBOCEDTTBE IK CASE OF PBOMOTIONS. 
 
 1. Metropolitans. 2. Suffragans. 3. Inferior Benefices. 
 
 1. Metropolitans. (Most of the cases will be found in the first volume 
 
 of the Anglia Sacra.) 
 
 (a.) The gift of the pall, (1) originally recognising, (2) later confirm- 
 ing, (3) and finally conferring Metropolitan powers ; coeval with 
 the establishment of Christianity in England, and as early as the 
 time of Egbert, Archbishop of York, 735, understood as necessary 
 for the completeness of the Metropolitan character. 
 
 (/3.) The right of refusing the pall to a new Archbishop, in case his 
 character or mode of election is not entirely satisfactory ; exercised 
 by Nicholas II. in 1061, in the case of Ealdred, Archbishop of 
 York ; to whom, however, it was given by the same Pope almost 
 immediately after. (Flor. Wig., 1061.) 
 
 (7.) The right of consecrating an elect Archbishop contrary to the 
 will of the King and of the Archbishop of Canterbury ; exercised 
 by Calixtus II. in the case of Thurstan, Archbishop of York, in 
 1119. (Orderic. V., 1119, and Sim. Dun., 1119.) 
 
 (8.) Right of determining an appeal carried before the Pope in a 
 disputed election of two Archbishops, although previously decided 
 by the legate ; exercised by Eugenius III. in case of Archbishop 
 Murdac, of York, the election of S. William, already consecrated, 
 being quashed. (John of Hexham, and William of Newburgh.) 
 
 (e.) A disputed election referred by appeal for confirmation to the 
 Pope, who rejects both candidates, and prevails on the proxies of 
 the electors to elect his own nominee; Stephen Langton. (M. Paris.) 
 
 (f.) A disputed election coming before him, he rejects both candi- 
 dates, and in collusion with the English prelates, appoints a third 
 person, mero motu suo : in 1229. (M. Paris.) 
 
 (r/.) A disputed election coming before him, he persuades the candi- 
 
 3c
 
 754 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 From the period of the conclusion of the Wars of 
 the Roses, the Papal power declined in England. It 
 
 dates to resign, and in opposition to all parties provides his own 
 nominee; as in the case of Robert Kilwardby, Archbishop of Can- 
 terbury in 1272. (Anglia Sacra.) 
 
 (6.) An election coming before him for confirmation, he quashes it, 
 and appoints his own nominee ; case of John Peckham, Archbishop 
 of Canterbury in 1278. 
 
 (.) An election coming before him for confirmation, he rejects the 
 candidate, and in collusion with the King appoints the royal 
 nominee ; as in the case of Archbishop Reynolds in 1314. 
 
 Later cases are affected by the Statute of Provisors. (See below.) 
 
 2. Case of Suffragans. 
 
 (a.) Right of suffering and confirming translations; acknowledged 
 from the time of the Conquest in the very few cases which occurred 
 down to the end of the thirteenth century. 
 
 (/3.) Right of nominating to a see vacant by translation, made by 
 John XXII. (Parker's Antiq., p. 328.) 
 
 (7.) The gradual aggression on the rights of the chapters proceeded 
 much as in the case of the Archbishops; (1) by hearing appeals; 
 (2) by deciding against both candidates, and persuading the proxies 
 to elect the papal nominee; (3) by persuading the candidate or 
 candidates to resign, and appointing a new man mero tnotu ; (4) by 
 persuading the proxies of all parties to leave the nomination to the 
 Pope; (5) by providing absolutely, without regard to the wishes of 
 King or Chapter. 
 
 (5.) Claim to fill up all benefices, vacated by the death of the locum- 
 bent, at the Court of Rome. 
 
 (f.) Claim to provide for all bishoprics, either vacant or to be vacated: 
 made early in the fourteenth century, and actually exercised in 
 collusion with the King down to the time of the Reformation; 
 during which time the right of the Chapters to elect, and of the 
 Metropolitan to confirm was altogether in abeyance; the Statute 
 of Provisors being systematically transgressed. 
 
 (Concordat of 1373. See Rymer, ad ann. Adam Murimuth, p. 214, &c. 
 Statute of Provisors, 25 Edw. III.) 
 
 3. Interior benefices. 
 
 Provisions to these, whether in private or public presentation, are 
 simply an usurpation without pretext, and as such resisted from the
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 755 
 
 was a period of great agricultural and industrial ad- 
 vancement. The old Wiltshire manor-houses of the 
 
 beginning. They begin by the demand of a prebend in each cathe- 
 dral and collegiate church, and a portion in each monastery in the 
 reign of Henry III., and may be traced in Matthew Paris almost 
 to the end of the reign. These were made first for the purpose of 
 maintaining the Papal Court, but very early became purchase- 
 able. Forbidden by Statute of Carlisle and Statute of Provisors, 
 25 Edw. III. j and, owing to the opposition of private patrons, 
 actually defeated in such cases from the time of the passing of the 
 Statute. 
 
 LEGATIONS. 
 
 1. Simply missionary expeditions 
 
 2. Embassies to obtain national recognition for the enactments of 
 particular councils; e.g. mission of John the Chanter, Bede iv. 
 17, 18, and the Legatine Council of 787. (See Wilkins, ad ann.) 
 
 3. Embassies to consult the nation or the King, e.g . that of Armen. 
 fred in 1062. (See Flor. Wig., ad ann.) 
 
 4. After the Norman Conquest ; on the Hildebrandine theory, the 
 Legate claims jurisdiction as the Papal Lieutenant. This is re-isted 
 (amongst others) by St. Anselm, who objects to the legation of the 
 Archbishop of Vienne (Ep. iv. 2) ; by Henry I., who concludes an 
 agreement with the Pope that no legate is to be sent to England 
 without royal consent. In 1125, John of Crema is suffered to hold 
 a legatine visitation, but 
 
 5. The Archbishop of Canterbury himself accepts the office of legate 
 in 1126, and thus helps to confound the metropolitan with the 
 legatine authority. 
 
 6. Appointment of a Suffragan Bishop as legate, virtually super- 
 seding the Archbishop, e.g. Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winches- 
 ter in 1139. A plan worked by Alexander III. during the Becket 
 controversy. 
 
 7. From the time of Hubert Walter, 1193, the Archbishop is regu- 
 larly legatus natus ; and almost as regularly has a legatine com- 
 mission. 
 
 8. Legate a latere with powers to supersede the regular Legate, as 
 the Legate had formerly superseded the Metropolitan ; cases of 
 Gualo and Pandulf, Otto and Ottobon, (see M. Paris) ; of a piece
 
 '56 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 period testify to its civilization. There was great 
 languor in religion ; even Lollardism did not make 
 itself sensibly felt. " Henry YII. possessed the un- 
 disputed right of nominating candidates to the Epi- 
 scopal Sees. He was not satisfied with bestowing all 
 
 with the usurped provisions and taxes for false Crusades of the 
 same period. 
 
 9. Archbishops of York occasionally made legates in the fourteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries, to the disparagement of Canterbury. 
 
 10. Martin V. threatens to take away Chichele's legatine commission, 
 if he will not procure the abolition of the Statutes of Provisors and 
 Prsemunire. (Wilkins' Cone, ii., sub Chichele.) 
 
 11. Legation a latere of Wolsey, with unprecedented powers ; con- 
 nived at by the King, and afterwards made by him a plea for the 
 oppression of the Church. (See Bulls in Rymer.) 
 
 APPEALS. 
 
 Case "before the Conquest in marriage question. (See Hook's Life of 
 Dunstan.) 
 
 After the Conquest, appeals in disputed elections. (See above.) 
 
 After the establishment of legates (1139), suits carried more fre- 
 quently to Rome. Forbidden by Constitutions of Clarendon, 1164 ; 
 but suffered after Henry the Second's abjuration in 1173 ; and 
 constantly carried there down to the Statute of Pra3munire, temp. 
 Edw. III. 
 
 Throughout the whole of this time the administration in private 
 suits at Rome was flagrantly mercenary; but the processes were 
 analogous to those of ordinary courts of law. 
 
 PECTTNIABY EXACTIONS. 
 
 1. Ancient Romescot or Peter's pence. 
 
 2. Money levied on appeals, privileges, &c., purchased at Rome. 
 
 3. First fruits, &c. (See Gibson's Codex.) 
 
 4. Sums raised by taxation for Crusades (false or protended ones, 
 as that against Frederick II.) 
 
 5. Sums raised as procurations for the legates, in the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, which were very heavy, and were the great ca^e of popular 
 discontent. 
 
 6. Sale of benefices or provisions (indirect).
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 757 
 
 the clerical promotions, he also appropriated to him- 
 self the half of the annates m ." The see of Rome, oc- 
 cupied by Alexander VI. and Julius II., was ripe for 
 attack, though the actual onslaught was postponed 
 for a few years. 
 
 The question now conies, How far did the Statutes of 
 the English Reformation affect the Church of England, 
 as guardian of the faith, and as member of the great 
 Christian polity ? To estimate rightly the position, we 
 must see what actually took place in Parliament and 
 Convocation. 
 
 In 1536, both Houses of Convocation acknowledged 
 Henry VIIL, " Ecclesiee et cleri Anglicani singularem 
 protectorem, unicum et supremum dominum, et quan- 
 tum per Christi legem licet, etiam supremum caput 
 ipsius majestatem recognoscimus n ." They promised 
 never to attempt to allege claim or put in ure any 
 new canons without the King's licence ; or to enact 
 them without his assent ; and lastly, they petitioned 
 for a commission of thirty-two persons to revise the 
 Church laws, to annul what was faulty, and to present 
 the remainder to the Crown for fresh confirmation. 
 
 These enactments never took final effect, nor en- 
 tered into the constitution of the Church. They are 
 evidences of the temper of the Catholic clergy at 
 
 ra Ranke, i. 20. 
 
 n In the preamble to 25 Hen. VIII., c. 19, it is stated "the Clergy 
 of this realm of England, have not only knowledged according to the 
 truth, that the Convocations of the same Clergy are, always have been, 
 and ought to be assembled by the king's writ," &c., which is a distinct 
 falsehood. See the history in Atterbury on Convocation, pp. 82 sqq.
 
 758 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 the time. While they do not acknowledge that the 
 power of Church legislation resides in the Crown, 
 they place the exercise of it under Crown restraints. 
 All corrective jurisdiction is definitely annexed to 
 the Crown, though nothing is said of directive juris- 
 diction. 
 
 This Act was repealed by 1 and 2 Ph. and M., c. 8, 
 and when the repealing Act was itself repealed, the 
 repealing parts of it were saved in 1 Eliz., c. 1, except 
 as to certain of the rescinded acts. 
 
 The 1 Eliz., c. i. sect. 17, provides " that such juris- 
 dictions, privileges, superiorities, and pre-eminences, 
 spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or eccle- 
 siastical power or authority hath heretofore been, and 
 may lawfully be, exercised or used for the visitation of 
 the ecclesiastical state and persons, and for reformation, 
 order, and correction of the same, and of all manner 
 of errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, offences, contempt, 
 and enormities, shall for ever by authority of this pre- 
 sent Parliament, be united and annexed to the imperial 
 Crown of the realm." 
 
 In the nineteenth section it provides that all Bishops 
 and ecclesiastical persons shall take the oath of the 
 Queen's Supremacy, as the only Supreme Governor of 
 this realm, and of all other Her Highness's dominions 
 and countries, as well in all spiritual and ecclesiastical 
 things or causes as temporal. The clergy at ordination 
 subscribe a clause similar to this oath, which in terms 
 was repealed by 1 Gr. and M., c. 8. 
 
 It will be observed that neither the words of the
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 759 
 
 Article, nor those of any of the documents still in 
 force, make the Sovereign the source or fountain-head 
 of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The powers given are 
 corrective not directive powers; for reformation of 
 abuse, not for the ordinary administration of the of- 
 fices of the Church. 
 
 One could not have said this in the days of Henry 
 VIII. and Edward VI. in view of Cromwell's Vicar- 
 Generalship, of the episcopal commissions taken out by 
 the Bishops, of the title Head assumed by the monarch. 
 But these statutes and practices were repealed. One 
 cannot exaggerate the importance of Elizabeth's change 
 of style from Head to Governor. So much resides 
 in a name, that although the actual power claimed by 
 Henry VIII. under the title Head, was no greater 
 than that of Elizabeth, the name Head might have 
 been developed into the claim of any amount of power. 
 The position then assumed was that certain ancient 
 jurisdictions which had belonged to the Crown had 
 been usurped by the Curia of Rome, and that this 
 must be remedied. The title, therefore, of the law 
 of 1 Eliz. is, "An Act to restore to the Crown the 
 ancient jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and 
 Spiritual, and abolishing all foreign powers repugnant 
 to the same." This was afterwards explained in the 
 Queen's Injunction of 1559, that the Queen should 
 have sovereignty and rule over all manner of persons ; 
 so that no other foreign power should have any autho- 
 rity over them, thus limiting the refusal of jurisdiction 
 to what was repugnant to ancient law. The 5 Eliz.,
 
 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 c. i. sect. 14, refers to this as fixing the legal con- 
 struction of the oath above alluded to. The ideal was 
 to restore such a state of things as existed in the times 
 of Constantine, Justinian, or Charlemagne. 
 
 What Elizabeth meant, or rather what she desired 
 people to believe that she meant, has been made very 
 clear in a remarkable document recently disinterred by 
 the industry of Mr. Froude from the recesses of the State 
 Paper Office, and it is the more germane to the present 
 matter that it bears the date of 1570, and in fact preceded 
 only by a few months the enforcement of the Thirty- 
 nine Articles . The northern rebellion had just been 
 subdued, and the unhappy agents in it had been hanged 
 in hundreds. The Roman Catholics were subdued for 
 the moment, but embittered and exasperated beyond 
 imagination. The Regent Murray had been murdered 
 by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh, and the terror of assas- 
 sination, a too commonly employed political weapon in 
 the sixteenth century, menaced Queen Elizabeth. It 
 will be seen in the document : 1. that she only claimed 
 the authority that had from immemorial time attached 
 to the English Crown ; 2. that she challenged no supe- 
 riority to define faith or change ceremony ; 3. that the 
 Royal Supremacy extended only to persons ; 4. that 
 she has to provide that the Church be orderly governed 
 and established; 5. that she was so far tolerant that 
 she did not mean her subjects to be molested in mat- 
 ters of faith, so long as they did not gainsay Scripture 
 or the Creeds, and that they might retain their own 
 Froude, vol. x. p. 5, Domestic MSS., 15691579.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 761 
 
 opinions so long as they were outwardly quiet and 
 resorted to Church ; 6. she appealed to a free General 
 Council, promising to abide by its award, so as the 
 truth were not obtruded on her by threats of war and 
 rebellion, by fulminations, or other worldly tyrannous 
 violences or cruel practices p . 
 
 "February, 1570. So much as to the general 
 management of the country. There remained to be 
 considered religion, on which her rule, ' specially from 
 abroad, had been most frequently and maliciously im- 
 pugned.' It was true, Elizabeth admitted, that 'the 
 external ecclesiastical policy of England differed in 
 some respects from that which was established in other 
 countries, and occasions had been sought to trouble 
 weak consciences on this ground. Simply, however, 
 she declared that she had neither claimed nor exerted 
 any other authority in the Church than had attached 
 
 P Henry VIII. was excommunicated, and in the Bull his subjects 
 were commanded to renounce their allegiance, and the nobles were or- 
 dered "sub ejusdem excommuuicationis ac perditionis bonorum suorum 
 poenis," to unite with all Christian princes in expelling Henry from 
 England. Elizabeth was excommunicated in pretty similar terms, but 
 not until twelve years after her accession. In answer to a request from 
 the Emperor and other Roman Catholic princes, that she would allow 
 the Roman Catholic places of worship, she replied that she would not 
 allow them to keep up a distinct communion, alleging her reasons in 
 these remarkable words, "For there was no new faith propagated in 
 England ; no religion set up but that which was commanded by our 
 Saviour, practised by the Primitive Church, and unanimously approved 
 by the Fathers of the best antiquity." The Roman Catholics, both in 
 England and Ireland, outwardly conformed to the services of the Church 
 lor about ten years. (Phillimore's International Law, vol. ii. p. 417, 
 1855.)
 
 r 62 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 from immemorial time to the English Crown, although 
 that authority had been recognised with greater or less 
 distinctness at different times. The Crown challenged 
 no superiority to define, decide, or determine any article 
 or point of the Christian faith or religion ; or to change 
 any rite or ceremony before received and observed in 
 the Catholic Church. The lioyal Supremacy in matters 
 Spiritual means no more than this, that she being by 
 lawful succession Queen of England, all persons born 
 in the realm were subjects to her and to no other 
 earthly ruler. She was bound in duty to provide that 
 her people should live in the faith, obedience, and ob- 
 servance of the Christian religion ; that consequently 
 there should be a Church orderly governed and esta- 
 blished ; and that the ecclesiastical ministers should be 
 supported by the civil powers, that her subjects might 
 live in the fear of God to the salvation of their souls. 
 In this, Christian princes differed from Pagan princes, 
 who, when they did best, took but a worldly care of 
 their subjects' bodies and earthly lives. And yet,' she 
 said, ' to answer further to some malicious untruths, 
 she never had any meaning or intent that any of her 
 subjects should be troubled or molested by examina- 
 tions or inquisitions in any matter of their faith, as 
 long as they should not gainsay the authority of the 
 Holy Scriptures, or deny the articles of faith con- 
 tained in any of the Creeds received and used in the 
 Church ; they might retain their own opinions in any 
 rites or ceremonies appertaining to religion, as long 
 as they should in their outward conversations shew
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 763 
 
 themselves quiet and conformable, and not manifestly 
 repugnant to the laws for resorting to their ordinary 
 churches. 
 
 " ' So far and no farther the Crown of England 
 claimed authority over the Church ; and if any poten- 
 tate in Christendom, challenging universal and sole 
 superiority, should condemn the English princes for 
 refusing to recognise that superiority, Elizabeth said 
 she would be ready, in any free and general assembly, 
 where such potentate should not be only judge in his 
 own cause, to make such an answer in her defence as 
 should in reason satisfy the university of good and 
 faithful Christians; or, if she failed to satisfy them, 
 as the humble servant and handmaid of Christ, she 
 would be willing to conform herself and her policy to 
 that which truth should guide her into for the advance- 
 ment of the Christian faith and concord of Christendom ; 
 she would admit as truth, however, only that which 
 Almighty God should please to reveal by ordinary 
 means in peaceable manner, and not that which should 
 be obtruded upon her by threatenings of bloodshed 
 and motions of war and rebellion, or by curses, fulmi- 
 nations, or other worldly tyrannous violences or cruel 
 practices. 
 
 " ' With this general statement her subjects ought 
 to be contented. She had done nothing which could 
 justly offend them, and she intended to do nothing. 
 Inasmuch, however, as some kinds of her people had 
 been encouraged in disobedience by an opinion evil 
 conceived of her lenity, she must and would, for the
 
 764 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 future, make use of the sword of justice against the 
 obstinately disaffected. There should be no inquisition, 
 no examination, no violence done to conscience in 
 matters of faith; and that who would outwardly con- 
 form should enjoy the fruits of her former accustomed 
 mildness : but sedition and rebellion should be speedily 
 and promptly repressed V " 
 
 Such was the view of the Supremacy, which Eliza- 
 beth, in terror of foreign invasion and intestine com- 
 motion, probably also in entire conformity with her 
 own real opinions, propounded to her subjects. She 
 does not claim so much as Henry VIII. had acquired. 
 Nothing is said as to any right absolutely to designate 
 the person to be elected to any vacant see, or of the 
 prohibition to enact any canons without the leave of 
 the sovereign, which Henry VIII. had forced upon 
 the Clergy. These had been made part of the law of 
 the land ; but Elizabeth does not claim them as part of 
 her prerogative. They might, accordingly, be aban- 
 doned at any time, without touching on the preroga- 
 tive claimed for the Crown. She claims only a personal 
 authority over all her subjects. Henry VIII., in his 
 wily " Letter to the Clergy of the province of York, 
 A.D. 1533, touching his title of supreme head of the 
 
 i Fronde's History of England, from Fall of Wolsey to death of 
 Elizabeth, vol. x. pp. 68. Lond., 1866. The above address of the 
 Queen was sent to every parish, and "hung up in some public place 
 where every one could see it, and read aloud in service time from the 
 pulpit." The original MS. is in the Rolls' House. (Domestic MSS. 
 15691579.)
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 765 
 
 Church of England r ," pointed out that the meaning of 
 the words, caput Ecclesia, were limited by those united 
 with them, et cleri Anglicani. " It were too absurd," 
 he says, " for us to be called Head of the Church, re- 
 presenting the mystical body of Christ. And there- 
 fore, although Ecclcsia is spoken of in these words 
 touched in the proeme, yet there is added, et cleri 
 Anglicani, which words conjoined restrain, by way of 
 interpretation, the word Ecclesiam, and is as much as 
 to say, the Church i.e. the clergy of England. Which 
 manner of speaking in the law ye have professed ye 
 many times find, and likewise in many other places/' 
 And of the Clergy also, he claims only that their 
 "persons, acts, and deeds should be under the power 
 of the prince by God assigned, whom they should ac- 
 knowledge as their head." And for this he thought 
 it to suffice, that they were governed by ordinances, 
 made in convocations assembled by authority of kings. 
 " If you take spiritualibus for spiritual men, that is to 
 say, priests, clerks, their good acts and deeds worldly, 
 in all this both we and all other princes be at this day 
 chiefs and heads, after whose ordinance, whether in 
 general or particular, they be ordered and governed. 
 For leaving old stories and considering the state of 
 the world in our time, is there any Convocation, where 
 laws be made for the order of our Clergy, but such 
 as by our authority is assembled ? And why should 
 we not say, as Justinian saith, 'Omnia nostra facimu?, 
 quibus a nobis impartitur auctoritas ?' " where Jus- 
 
 * In Wilkins' Cone., iii. 763.
 
 766 AKT1CLE XXXVII. 
 
 tinian means, that " the Sovereign makes, or adopts, 
 as his own, all things to which he gives civil autho- 
 rity." In regard to judicial authority, he says, " some 
 notable offences we reserve to our correction, some 
 we remit by our sufferance to the judges of the Clergy ; 
 as, murder, felony, and treason, and such like enor- 
 mities we reserve to our examination ; other crimes we 
 leave to be ordered by the Clergy, not because we 
 may not intermeddle with them, for there is no doubt 
 but as well might we punish adultery and insolence in 
 priests, as Emperors have done, and other princes at tlm 
 time do, which ye know well enough ; so as in all these 
 articles, concerning the persons of priests, their laws, 
 their acts, and order of living, forasmuch as they be 
 indeed temporal and concerning this present life only, 
 in those we (as we are called) be indeed in this realm 
 caput, and because there is no man above us here, we 
 be indeed supremum caput." Henry Till, then pro- 
 ceeded to disclaim authority in things spiritual. " As 
 to spiritual things, meaning by them the Sacraments, 
 being by God ordained as instruments of efficacy and 
 strength, whereby grace is of His infinite goodness 
 conferred upon His people, forasmuch as they be no 
 worldly nor temporal things, they have no worldly nor 
 temporal head, but only Christ that did institute them, 
 by whose ordinance they be ministered here by mortal 
 men elect, chosen, and ordered as God hath willed 
 for that purpose, who be the Clergy ; who for the time 
 they do that, and in that respect, 'tanquam ministri 
 versantur in his, quae hominum potestati non subjici- 
 untur ; in quibus si male versantur sine scandalo, Deum
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 767 
 
 ultorem habent; si cum scandalo, hominum cognitio et 
 vindicta est.' '' Here lie asserts, again, the distinction 
 of cases in which " the prince is the chief doer," and 
 those "when by sufferance or priviledge the prelates 
 intromit themselves therein 8 ." On judgment as to 
 heretical teaching, he does not speak ; but he adds, 
 " We be not in deed nor in name, to him tliat would 
 sincerely understand it, head of such things, being not 
 spiritual, as they be not temporal, and yet to these 
 words spoken of us, ad evitandam illam calumniam, there 
 is added, quantum per ley em Christi licet." Henry VIII. 
 did not claim to interfere in things spiritual. In the 
 Act " for restraint of appeals *," which lay as the foun- 
 dation of the rest, and which is still part of the law of 
 the land, while claiming for himself to be "furnished, 
 by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God, with 
 plenary, whole and entire power, pre-eminence, autho- 
 rity, prerogative, and jurisdiction, to render and yield 
 justice and final determination to all manner of foil;*, 
 resiants, or subjects within this his realm, in all causes, 
 matters, debates, and contentions, happening to occur, 
 insurge, or begin within the limits thereof, without re- 
 straint, or provocation to any foreign princes or poten- 
 tates of the world," yet claims no direct jurisdiction 
 herein. He only claims to be head of the whole body 
 politic, spiritualty and temporalty, "the body spiri- 
 tual whereof having power, when any cause of the law 
 
 Something seems to have dropped out. It s^nds, "either the 
 prince," &c., without any corresponding "or." 
 ' 24 Henry VIII., c. 12.
 
 768 ARTICLE XXXV1T. 
 
 divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual 
 learning, then it was declared, interpreted, and shewed 
 by that part of the said body politic, called the spiri- 
 tualty, now being usually called the English Church, 
 which always hath been reputed and also found of 
 that sort that both for knowedge, integrity, and suf- 
 ficiency of number, it hath always been thought, and 
 is also at this hour, sufficient and meet of itself, with- 
 out the intermeddling of any exterior person or per- 
 sons, to declare and determine all such doubts, and to 
 administer all such offices and duties as to their rooms 
 spiritual doth appertain." 
 
 The Act of Parliament, which is still in force, stated 
 that it belonged to the spiritualty to "declare, and 
 interpret, and shew any cause of the law divine which 
 might come in question." Elizabeth, following Henry 
 VIII. both in what he claimed and in what he dis- 
 claimed, (except the title of "Head,") disclaimed "all 
 superiority to define, decide, or determine any Article 
 or point of the Christian faith." 
 
 And yet it is on this very point that imminent peril 
 to the faith lies. It is now a principle of English jus- 
 tice that one charged with any offence is to be pro- 
 tected against criminating himself; it is also a prin- 
 ciple that any doubt is to be given in his favour. On a 
 doctrinal subject doubt might, in a given case, be raised 
 as to the force either of the theological terms used by 
 the Church, or of those in which a Clerk incriminated 
 is alleged to have contravened them. In the former 
 case, according to the 24th Henry, c. 12, it was clearly
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 709 
 
 presupposed that the spiritualty would define, " declare, 
 interpret, and shew" such point of doctrine. Elizabeth 
 expressly denied that the Crown had any such power. 
 And yet this power is practically exercised by lawyers 
 by authority of the Crown, and this with the avowed 
 principle that doctrinal statements, by which the case 
 is to be determined, are to be ruled to mean as little 
 as they can anyhow be made to mean, and this by 
 judges unfamiliar with the terms of theology. The 
 result has been, that vital doctrines have been succes- 
 sively made open questions. Discipline is utterly pros- 
 trate. Formerly, one with cure of souls, if suspected 
 of teaching error for truth, of poisoning instead of 
 feeding his sheep, had to clear himself of the charge. 
 Now, the object (according to the principle of acquit- 
 ting one criminated if possible) is to evacuate the mean- 
 ing of terms, whereby the Church has defined and 
 guarded the faith. This power, inspired by lawyers, 
 exercised in the direction of the casting down of all 
 dogmatic truth, threatens the existence of Christianity 
 in England, and it remains to be seen what power can 
 cope with it. If not resisted, there seems no guarantee 
 for the preservation of any one distinctive doctrine of 
 the Christian religion. 
 
 The first great blow to the theory of the personal 
 headship over the Church of England was given by the 
 latitudinarian William. The establishment of Presby- 
 tcrianism in Scotland introduced many difficult ele- 
 ments into the polity of England, which, in view of the 
 strong political feelings of the time, were not appre- 
 
 Cr>
 
 '70 ARTICLE XXXVIT. 
 
 ciated. Among other things, it necessarily gave the coup 
 de grace to the personal headship. The Crown is now no 
 more head of the Church in England than of the kirk 
 in Scotland. It retains in each the power of giving 
 redress to any subjects in things temporal, as it has 
 also in other religious bodies. It has whatever power 
 Acts of Parliament have given her, but the Queen is 
 "in all causes supreme," within the Church of Eng- 
 land, in the same sense as she is in bodies external 
 to it, and in no other. 
 
 Having premised these facts, it becomes us to see 
 exactly what the literal and grammatical sense of the 
 Article implies. 
 
 1. " The Queen's Majesty hath the chief power in the 
 realm of England and other her dominions." This im- 
 plies an assertion of civil supremacy, such as was 
 wielded by the Emperors in Germany, and a repudia 
 tion of vassalage to the Pope. King John had con- 
 sented to receive back his crown as a gift, and his 
 kingdom as a fief of the Holy See. The Pope was no 
 longer to be the Suzerain of England. 
 
 In the early draft of the Article, " Ireland," which 
 was specially claimed by the Popes, so that the King 
 was only called Lord of Ireland, is mentioned. In the 
 Elizabethan draft the word is made general, " other 
 her dominions." As Queen Mary had lost Calais, the 
 last English possession on French ground, the wider 
 expression may have reference, either by a mere re- 
 cognition of the popular style which attributed the 
 kingdom of France to the Sovereign of England; or to
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 771 
 
 Scotland, over which the English sovereigns had always 
 aimed to rule, and into which she was at the time ex- 
 ceedingly anxious to introduce the Anglican Polity. 
 
 The next assertion is that to the Queen " the chief 
 government of all estates of this realm, whether they 
 be ecclesiastical or civil, in all causes doth appertain." 
 This first strikes at the mediaeval laws whereby clerks 
 were exempted from the civil courts. It was a re-asser- 
 tion of one of the Constitutions of Clarendon. The 
 bad effect of these exemptions had been found. It was 
 for the good of the clergy themselves that they were 
 brought within the power of the civil law. The diffi- 
 culty lies "in all causes." As the subject under con- 
 sideration is, " the civil magistrate," it must refer to 
 property. In all causes where a question of property 
 comes in (as we have seen in the earliest times in the 
 instance of Aurelian and Paul of Samosata), the civil 
 magistrate must interfere. No subject may divest 
 himself of his right as a subject of claiming the pro- 
 tection of the law of the land. Any civil court may 
 interfere in the disputes of a religious body, in the way 
 of interpreting the condition of Church membership, 
 the meaning of trust deeds, &c. It will be seen, as 
 we proceed in the Article, that the expression "in all 
 causes," is interpreted and limited by a subsequent 
 clause. It is also interpreted by the words that the 
 Queen's Majesty "is not nor ought to be subject to 
 any foreign jurisdiction." Now the word 'jurisdic- 
 tion' is a technical one; it implies the enforcement 
 of a system of law by means of courts.
 
 772 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 Jurisdiction is defined as the faculty of any one 
 having public authority and pre-eminence over others 
 for their guidance and government. It is derived 
 a jure dicendo, according to justice, and the rules of 
 law, which is one of the principal offices of public 
 power. 
 
 1. It is divided into civil and ecclesiastical. The 
 first is that which is concerned with secular causes and 
 the temporal rule of the State. The second is concerned 
 with causes pertaining to the worship of God and the 
 spiritual care of souls, and this jurisdiction is exer- 
 cised, 1. in the forum externum of the courts ; and 2. in 
 the forum internum of conscience and the sacraments. 
 
 2. It is divided further into 1. voluntary, that ex- 
 ercised over willing subjects, such as manumission and 
 adoption in things civil; or ordination, consecration, 
 absolution, dispensation, institution in things sacred; 
 2. contentious, that exercised against unwilling sub- 
 jects, such as summoning and punishing. The first, 
 in some cases, may be exercised outside its proper terri- 
 tory, validly and licitly ; the second not so. 
 
 3. It is divided also into 1. ordinary, that which 
 belongs to any one by reason of his office or dignity, 
 by law, canon, or custom ; and 2. delegated, that which 
 a man has, not by his own right, but solely by com- 
 mission from another, for whom he acts. 
 
 4. Again, it is divided into iinperium and simple 
 jurisdiction. Imperium is that which is exercised by 
 the officium nolile of the judge, which acts motu proprio, 
 from its own power in punishing crimes, &c. Simple
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 773 
 
 jurisdiction is that which is exercised by the officium 
 mercenarium of the judge, when he proceeds to try at 
 the instance of the agent. 
 
 Imperium is divided into jurisdictio alia, or imperium 
 merum ; and 2.jurisdictio inferior, or imperium mixtum. 
 The first respects public utilky only, as the punishment 
 of malefactors ; the second respects private utility, as 
 appointing tutors. 
 
 Under imperium comes the right of inflicting every 
 kind of punishment. 
 
 Ordinary jurisdiction may be acquired in three ways : 
 1. either by the privilege of the sovereign conceded to 
 the dignity or person ; 2. or by law or canon ; 3. or 
 by custom legitimately prescribed. 
 
 Ordinary jurisdiction does not expire with the death 
 of him who grants it, but delegated jurisdiction does so. 
 
 Jurisdiction is necessarily required in hearing confes- 
 sion, and absolution given by a priest without jurisdic- 
 tion is null ; yet, even according to the strictest Roman 
 rules, simple priests in the article of death may ab- 
 solve not only from venial sins, and mortal sins else- 
 where confessed, but even in reserved cases, for in such 
 cases the Church gives jurisdiction to all priests, even 
 degraded and excommunicated ; and this is extended 
 to cases where there is a probable danger of death u . " It 
 will be seen from this that whatever irregularities as 
 to form have resulted as a consequence of the acts of 
 the sixteenth century, given the validity of Anglican 
 orders, even allowing (which we do not concede,) a 
 
 n Ferraris, Sibliotheca ad verb. Jurisdictio,
 
 '74 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 formal defect of jurisdiction, in article of necessity, any 
 person soever may be absolved from any sins whatso- 
 ever by any priest whomsoever/' Before the Council 
 of Trent, jurisdiction was given in very various ways v ; 
 the direct licence or approval of the Bishop was not 
 required for receiving confessions previously to that 
 Council. One of the most remarkable extensions of 
 jurisdiction was that of " tacit consent" of the Superior, 
 which dispensed even with positive prohibitions. 
 
 In Waterworth's " Council of Trent" it is stated that 
 at the Council a discussion took place as to the source 
 of jurisdiction. The Pope wished it to declare that 
 jurisdiction came from the Chair of St. Peter. The 
 answer was, it was a question whether it was not given 
 in Holy Orders, and on that ground they refused to 
 affirm it. 
 
 By the code of the Universal Church, all jurisdiction 
 in the provinces is given by the Metropolitan, but the 
 Metropolitan himself receives his j urisdiction from the 
 Provincial Bishops. The Pope, if Universal Bishop, 
 must receive his jurisdiction from all the bishops of 
 Christendom ; for, stripped of his patriarchal and uni- 
 versal powers, he is only an ordinary bishop. This 
 militates against the Ultramontane theory, which main- 
 tains that the Pope is as much above a bishop, as a 
 bishop is above a presbyter. Such a position would 
 imply a direct ordination from Jesus Christ, which, 
 though a logical consequence of the premiss, has never 
 yet be^n claimed. 
 
 v See in Dr. Pusey's Letter to Mr. Richards, pp. 30 81.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 775 
 
 As the Queen of England was Suzerain and not 
 vassal, so was she not subject to the Papal courts ; 
 not only is the law of the land declared paramount, 
 but the Queen's Canon law comes to be substituted for 
 the Pope's Canon law. The whole expensive foreign 
 procedure, which had been so long the complaint of the 
 English, was by the Church abolished. The Article 
 gives ecclesiastical sanctions to the different Acts of 
 Parliament in which this Reformation was carried out. 
 
 But now came an important modification, imported 
 into the Article at the last revision, in view of the 
 political situation of the Queen, and of the intellectual 
 progress of the controversies of the Reformation. These 
 two reservations are that the Church, " we" the spiri- 
 tualty, in whom the power of definition lies, " give not 
 to our princes the ministering either of God's word or 
 of the Sacraments ;" that is, neither the right to define 
 doctrine, nor the discipline of the forum interius of the 
 Sacraments. Not only is the right to preach and teach 
 reserved, but the highest form of that teaching, dog- 
 matic definition, as in councils, must be included in 
 the expression of ministering God's word. None ever 
 ministered God's word so efficaciously as the fathers of 
 the Church in Council assembled. And so the inner 
 jurisdiction of the Sacraments, the power of the keys, 
 excommunication and its consequences, are by the letter 
 of the Article withheld from princes. 
 
 Having stated negatively the abatement to the juris- 
 diction in all causes, the Article proceeds positively to 
 state what prerogative the Church gives to them, viz.
 
 776 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 that given to all godly princes in Holy Scripture by 
 God Himself. The ideal is the relation of the good 
 kings of Judah to the Israelitish hierarchy, for the term 
 'godly' precludes the idea being extended to the relations 
 between the early Christians and the heathen emperors. 
 
 But we are not left in doubt what is meant. The 
 princes are, 1. to rule all states and degrees committed 
 to their charge by God, whether they be ecclesiastical 
 or temporal; and 2. to restrain with the civil sword 
 (observe the distinction implied between the two swords 
 and the indorsement of the mediaeval interpretation of 
 the text x , Ecce duo gladii] the stubborn and evil doers ; 
 that is, to exercise over all a certain corrective juris- 
 diction. 
 
 The next proposition is that the Bishop of Rome 
 Pontifex Homanus hath no jurisdiction in this realm 
 of England, not in this Church of England, but in this 
 realm. The jurisdiction which has just been claimed 
 for the Queen's Majesty cannot of course, by the force of 
 the term, belong to the Apostolic See. The jurisdiction 
 that is given to the one has been taken away from the 
 other. They are correlative. It is a civil question, 
 
 * Gladio medii SBvitempore significare solebat jurisdictio. Cf. Grimm 
 Rechtsalterth. 167. ita injure Gallico "Spatha placiti" la haute justice. 
 Cf. Du Cange. s. v. Spatha; vide Friedberg De finium inter Ecclam. 
 et civitatem, 20, Leipsig 1861. Primus hac comparatione usus esse 
 Abbas Vindocinensis Gofiridus traditur. Post eum Sanctus Bernardus 
 ep. 256. Exhort, ad mil. Temp. c. 3. Consid. 1. 4, c. 3 : Joannes Salish. 
 Tol\ crates, 1. 4, c. 3. Greg. IX. See Matthew Paris ad an. 1237 ; Innocent 
 IV. see Hofler Frederick II. 223; Boniface VIII. extr. com. de Maj. et 
 Obed. 1. 1, c. 1.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 777 
 
 the subject of the whole article is the civil magistrate, 
 therefore it must be a civil jurisdiction. It must be so ; 
 for plainly both the word and the Sacraments have 
 been excepted, and therefore it touches the question 
 between Pope and Queen, not between Pope and Bishop, 
 except so far as the bishop is an English subject. It 
 has to deal with the temporal side of spiritual things, 
 not with the spiritual things themselves. So far as the 
 article is concerned, it does not affect the question of 
 the Scriptural TrpwreLa of St. Peter, or even that Trpecr- 
 ySe/a granted by the early Councils to his successors in 
 the see of Home r. 
 
 "VVe saw just now that the right of punishment 
 was included in imperium. There are four theories 
 on which the right of punishment is grounded, and 
 these theories have distinguished the progress of 
 human society. All have an element of truth in 
 them : no one by itself is adequate to meet all the 
 circumstances of the case. The first theory on which 
 the right of punishment is grounded is that of ex- 
 piation. The crime against society is here looked 
 upon in its primary light, as an offence against God. 
 
 r Hallam speaking of the action of King Henry VIII. takes exactly 
 the line adopted in the text, and says, " As for the Pope's merely spiri- 
 tual primacy and authority in matters of faith, which are, or at least 
 were, defended by Catholics of the Gallican or Cisalpine school on quite 
 different grounds from his jurisdiction or his legislatorial power in points 
 of discipline, they seem to have attracted little peculiar attention at 
 the time, and to have dropped off as a dead branch, when the axe had 
 lopped the fibres that gave it nourishment." (Hallain's Const, ttisl., 
 vol. i. p. 67, ed. 1846.)
 
 778 
 
 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 This is the view of theocracies, and more or less of 
 early society generally. God is a God of order. Civil 
 society is His work. Every wrong, therefore, done to 
 civil society is a wrong against Him. Again, human 
 life is one of the most wonderful creations of God, and 
 His special care ; an attempt on human life, therefore, 
 comes very closely into contact with Him. He has 
 surrounded human life with special hedges and sanc- 
 tions. Blood crieth from the ground. A Nemesis in 
 this life dogs the heels of the murderer, in a way and 
 degree that it dogs no other sin. Lastly, in early 
 society crime, vice, and sin are not clearly distin- 
 guished, and the two first are referred to the last, of 
 which they are indeed the species. Even mala prohibita, 
 things not wrong in themselves, but only wrong be- 
 cause against lawful enactments, are sins, so that the 
 element of expiation comes in in the case of every 
 punishment. 
 
 The next aspect of punishment is that of retaliation. 
 An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. This is 
 the principle of what is termed vindictive justice. The 
 divine relation to man is here not so directly marked 
 as in the former case, though in the abstract, God being 
 Justice Himself, He really is considered under this 
 theory. However, mainly, the question turns on the 
 relations between man and man. So much injury in- 
 flicted must be compensated by so much suffering 
 undergone ; for so much property taken or destroyed, 
 so much restitution made. An extreme form of this 
 is the right of vendetta, namely, that when the retalia-
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 779 
 
 tion has not taken place in the person of the offender, 
 his heirs are still liable. In proportion as law is 
 established, and provisions are made therein for the 
 redress of individual wrongs, in that proportion an 
 individual abdicates in favour of society his right to 
 private vengeance. 
 
 The third theory of punishment is that which finds 
 most acceptance with modern thought. It is that 
 which bases its right to inflict such pain as punish- 
 ment necessarily implies, on the ground of prevention 
 of crime. Here the idea of God is to a degree further 
 eliminated, and the matter is based upon a theory of 
 utility. This theory in its degree is perfectly legiti- 
 mate, resting as it does on that self-love which God 
 has implanted in man, but it may be exercised in a 
 way that self-love may degenerate into selfishness, and 
 so defeat its own end. Applied to the question at issue, 
 utility holds that the whole principle of punishment 
 rests on the right which society has, by all means to 
 prevent or repress whatsoever injures or weakens it. 
 Now every crime by so much injures society, and there- 
 fore society, in the instinct of self-preservation, may pre- 
 vent it. So strongly is this theory held now, that the 
 measure of suffering is now everywhere reduced to 
 a fancied maximum of prevention, as where the severe 
 penalties against forgery have been remitted, to secure, 
 in all cases, the offender being brought to justice. 
 Abnormal sins, which were formerly treated as crimes, 
 are in the process of ceasing to be so, publicity having 
 been found to have the effect not of prevention, but
 
 780 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 of turning public attention to such faults in the way 
 of imitation. 
 
 A fourth theory is the emendation of the offender. 
 The education of children supplies an analogy to the 
 treatment of men as members of the republic. Judi- 
 cial punishment is one of the ways in which families 
 are governed, and the same is a necessary evil on the 
 larger scale. Public attention being now turned to 
 the great mass of criminal population, which in the 
 midst of our boasted civilization has grown up at 
 our doors, moved, partly by humanity, and partly by 
 fear, the state is doing all it can to abate the fearful 
 nuisance. Among the remedies, education, refuges, 
 criminal colonies, and the like, punishment is now in- 
 flicted in such way as will tend to benefit the criminal, 
 especially in the case of the young offenders; this 
 forms an important element in the nature and degree 
 of the award inflicted. 
 
 All these four theories are distinctly recognised in 
 Holy Scripture : the theory of expiation in those 
 striking rites which were to be practised in the case 
 of barbarous slaughter ; that of retaliation in many of 
 the awards of the Mosaic dispensation, only that the 
 retaliation was taken out of the hands of the indivi- 
 dual injured, and was inflicted by the judge, as the re- 
 presentative of God. It was an embodying in written 
 law, the rule of the Divine justice, "As I have done, 
 so God hath requited me 1 ;" that of prevention and 
 
 z Jud. i. 7.
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 781 
 
 that of amendment in the theories of government put 
 forth by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans. 
 
 Having laid down these principles, it remains for us 
 to test the question of capital punishment by each of 
 them. It is a tremendous thing that any class of men 
 may judicially and in cold blood take the life of a fel- 
 low-creature, deprive him of that which they cannot 
 restore, and abridge the term of probation and instruc- 
 tion which the life of each man is. A thoughtful school 
 in the present day has greatly doubted, and in some 
 cases absolutely denied, the lawfulness of this. Life, 
 they say, is something so sacred that it is inviolable. 
 Any punishment short of that is permissible, but on 
 any account to violate the sanctuary of life is wrong. 
 Moreover, it is maintained that society fares best by 
 minimizing the measure of punishment in all cases, 
 and that, if society can go on equally well without 
 capital punishment, it is plainly the duty of society 
 to do without it. 
 
 It will be seen that on every one of the four theories 
 just mentioned, death-punishment is defensible. On 
 the theory of expiation, we have the distinct recog- 
 nition of Holy Scripture, " lest the land be defiled with 
 blood;" on that of retaliation, blood must wash, out 
 blood. On that of prevention, it is clear that there 
 are temptations to some crimes so strong, and the 
 reward of others so great, that nothing but the fear 
 of hanging for them will deter men. The greatest 
 advocates for the abolition of capital sentences are 
 significantly silent in the presence of a great State
 
 782 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 necessity, or in the chronic predominance of some 
 brutal form of murder. Even the theory of the emen- 
 dation of the criminal is in favour of death-sentences. 
 A man who has committed a great crime has a better 
 chance of a true repentance, if when condemned to 
 pay the penalty of his crimes with his life, he knows 
 that he has a fixed term only to live. He betakes 
 himself to religion ; he is attended by its ministers, 
 and he has the four last things brought before him so 
 forcibly, that there is every chance of his becoming 
 really penitent. On the other hand, in the case of 
 those tremendous imprisonments, sometimes for life, 
 which society exacts where capital punishment is 
 forbidden, to shut up a bad man with his own bad 
 thoughts for a lifetime, is to do one's best to turn him 
 into an incarnation of everything that is foul, lustful, 
 and malignant. 
 
 The Article on the Civil Magistrate concludes by 
 asserting the lawfulness of wearing arms and of war. 
 Both these are permitted, on the ground that under 
 certain circumstances man may take the life of his 
 fellow. Individually he may protect life or property, 
 even to the destruction of the life of his assailant. 
 Hence the permissibility of arms, not only of defence 
 but of offence. Our Lord sanctions the use of the 
 sword. It is a terrible necessity, still it is a necessity. 
 Of course as the civil government becomes stronger, 
 and interferes more promptly and efficaciously in the 
 redress of wrongs, that necessity diminishes, and there 
 is perhaps no such test of the real civilization of
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 783 
 
 a country as the non-necessity of the use of weapons 
 for personal protection. From the time that the court- 
 sword went out as a fashion, there was a marked ad- 
 vance in civilization. It is a degeneracy when men 
 have to adopt the revolver and the bowie knife. 
 
 The last point treated of is War. 
 
 Cicero a describes war as a striving by force (cer- 
 tationem per vim}, but custom has established that it is 
 not an action but a condition, which is indicated by 
 the word, so that it comes to mean the state of those 
 who are striving by force. This applies both to public 
 wars, wherein nations are concerned, and also to pri- 
 vate wars, as where a traveller contends with a robber, 
 and which are the first form of wars, for the word 
 itself, bellum, is derived from duellum, 'a combat be- 
 tween two.' 
 
 There is nothing against natural law in war, for the 
 end of war is the preservation of life and members, and 
 the retention or acquisition of the things which are 
 useful for life. Society only forbids that violence which 
 injures it. The force that does not injure the right 
 of another is not unjust. 
 
 So there is nothing against the jus gentium in war. 
 Xay, necessity and use have trained nations so that cer- 
 tain forms of war have been introduced, and hence we 
 have the distinction of the bellum solemne, in which is 
 a certain order and method along with justice; and 
 the bellum non solemne, which retaining still the same 
 
 Grotius, lib. i. cap. 11, vol. i. p. 2. ed. Lausanne, 1751.
 
 784 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 element of justice, may be tumultuary, sudden, and 
 informal (incondita). 
 
 Neither is there anything against the divine law, 
 in spite of the Noachic precept against bloodshed, and 
 the sixth commandment of the Decalogue. For, not 
 to speak of the example of Abram and the kings of 
 Canaan, the principle of death-punishment so clearty 
 taught in the Bible, implies that it may be inflicted on 
 a large scale, in defence of life, honour, matrimonial 
 honour, or the stability of the state. Even under the 
 Gospel the same principle may be' admitted ; for 
 
 I. The right of the sword is recognised b in the 
 Prayers for the Civil Government, and its recognition 
 as bearing not the sword in vain c . 
 
 II. St. John the Baptist does not forbid the arpa- 
 rev6fj,vot, the militia against Aretas, to fight, but urges 
 them not to maraud, and to be content with their pay. 
 
 III. War hangs on the same principle as capital 
 punishment. Our Lord has forbidden neither the one 
 nor the other. 
 
 IV. The early Christians followed the Jewish cus- 
 toms where they were not forbidden by our Lord, 
 therefore war is lawful to Christian men. 
 
 Y. The examples of Cornelius and of the various 
 pious centurions in the Gospels, are evidences that 
 there is no sin in bearing arms. Add the number of 
 saints who have been soldiers. 
 
 VI. St. Paul had no hesitation in using the services 
 of the soldiers, the four quaternions of men who con- 
 
 b 1 Tim. ii. 1. c Kom. xiii. 4
 
 OF THE CIVIL MAGISTRATES. 785 
 
 ducted him from Jerusalem to Philippi. Also he re- 
 fused not to die if guilty of breach of the law. 
 
 VII. Wars are predicted in the 18th chapter of 
 the Apocalypse, with the manifest approbation of the 
 saints. 
 
 VIII. Our Lord abrogated only the ceremonial law 
 of Moses, by which the Gentiles were separated from 
 the chosen people, but He left the natural law and 
 what was deemed right and lawful by well-conditioned 
 and well-moralled states. 
 
 In short, while we must deplore the necessity of 
 war, its existence is a necessity of the present state 
 of the world. A large army is the best guarantee for 
 peace. The possibility of war, coupled with the know- 
 ledge of its misery, waste, and expense, acts as a paci- 
 ficatory element on earth. Nay, actual war, though 
 in one sense deplorable, is not wholly bad. It braces 
 up the nerves of a nation, it developes heroism, and 
 prevents men from resting too exclusively on a mate- 
 rialistic money-getting civilization. 
 
 It need hardly be said that, while on the one hand 
 the providence of God employs war to scourge and 
 amend men's corrupt ways, yet the necessity of war- 
 is a token of decayed Christian love. The Christian 
 must mourn even over "just wars." At the Incarna- 
 tion the herald-song was, "On earth peace, good will 
 towards man." Ambitious wars, " What are they but 
 a vast brigandage d ?" " Christians who originate an 
 unjust war from lust of power or wealth, or from envy 
 d Grande latrocinium, S. Aug. de Civ. D., iv. 6. 
 3E
 
 786 ARTICLE XXXVII. 
 
 lest a neighbouring prince become too great or power- 
 ful, are not so much Christians as Pagans." But, says 
 St. Augustine, " if war is waged out of the cupidity of 
 man, this hurts not the saints. For there is no power 
 but of God, either commanding or permitting. A just 
 man, then, if perchance he be in military service under 
 a king who is even a sacrilegious man, may rightly 
 war at his command, keeping the due order of internal 
 peace, (to which what is commanded is either certain 
 that it is not against the command of God, or not cer- 
 tain whether it be,) so that perchance the injustice of 
 the command may make the king guilty, but the due 
 order of obeying may prove the soldier innocent e ." 
 
 e S. Aug. c. Faust., xxii. 74, 75. On the opinions of the early 
 Fathers, see Dr. Pusey's Note E on Tertullian against Gibbon's taunt : 
 c. 15, n. 4.
 
 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 DE ILL1CITA BONORUM COMMUNICATIONS. 
 
 FACULTATES et bona Christianoriim, non sunt communia, 
 quoad jus et possessionem (ut quidam Anabaptist aef also 
 jactant] ; debet tamen quisque de his qitae possidet, pro 
 facuHatum ratione, pauperibus elccmosynas benigne dis- 
 tribuere. 
 
 " Of Christian Men's Goods, which are not common. 
 
 "THE riches and goods of Christians are not com- 
 mon, as touching the right, title, and possession of the 
 same, as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast. Not- 
 withstanding, every man ought, of such things as he 
 possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according 
 to his ability." 
 
 AN investigation into the origin of the notion, of 
 property is one of great interest, not only on philo- 
 sophical and literary, but on practical grounds also. 
 Such questions as the measure of relief to which 
 the able-bodied poor are entitled, or the proportion 
 of remuneration to be allotted to labour as against 
 capital, bring the matter before our thoughts in a 
 way that appeals to all. Yet it is difficult to lay
 
 788 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 down a comprehensive statement of the question ; for 
 jurists generally assume the idea of property as a pos- 
 tulate, use it as the foundation of law, deal with it 
 as an ultimate fact, and confine themselves to the 
 modifications and restrictions enforced by society on 
 its unlimited use. The old civil law brocard, " Quod 
 nullius est, fit occupantis," is tacitly assumed as in- 
 disputable. 
 
 " God bestowed on mankind in general a right over 
 the inferior things of nature immediately after the 
 Creation, and again at the Flood. All things, says 
 Justin, were undivided and common to all, as if all 
 had one patrimony. Hence it was that every one 
 might take to his uses what he pleased, and consume 
 what was to be consumed ; which use of the universal 
 right was then instead of property, for what any one 
 had so taken, another could not without injury take 
 away from him. Thus, Cicero* says, 'a theatre belongs 
 to all, yet the place possessed by any one may be called 
 his own/ 
 
 " It was not impossible that this condition of things 
 could continue, if men continued to live either in great 
 simplicity, or in a certain mutual charity. Communion, 
 by reason of an exceeding simplicity, may be observed 
 in some tribes of America; the other, the communion 
 of charity, the Essenes practised, and then the Chris- 
 tians at Jerusalem, and now not a few who lead the 
 ascetic life. 
 
 " The simplicity in which man existed at first, was 
 
 a De Fin., iii.
 
 OF CHRISTIAN MEN'S GOODS, &C. 789 
 
 shewn by his nakedness ; there was in him rather the 
 ignorance of vice than the knowledge of virtue. . . . But 
 in this simple and innocent life men persisted not, but 
 applied their minds to diverse arts. ' God made man up- 
 right, but they have found out many inventions V The 
 most ancient arts appeared in the first brothers. From 
 the diversity of their courses arose emulation and then 
 slaughter, and at length when the good were infected 
 by the conversation of the bad, the giant life of violence 
 prevailed. The world being washed by the Flood, there 
 succeeded the desire of pleasure, to which wine minis- 
 tered, and hence arose unlawful loves. But concord 
 was more broken by ambition, at Babel; after which 
 men parted asunder and severally possessed the various 
 parts of the earth, yet so that afterwards there re- 
 mained a community not of cattle, but of pastures. 
 This lasted, till the number of men and cattle so in- 
 creased that lands everywhere began to be divided, 
 not among nations as before, but many families also ; 
 but wells in a thirsty land, every one made his own 
 by seizure. 
 
 " Hence we learn wherefore men departed from the 
 primitive community; 1st, of moveables, and, 2ndly, 
 of immoveables also ; viz., because when, no longer 
 content to feed upon what grew of itself, to dwell 
 in caves, to go naked, or clad in bark or skins, they 
 had chosen a more artificial life, there was need of 
 industry, which every one must use. 
 
 "The reason why the fruits of the earth were not 
 
 b Eccles. vii. 29.
 
 790 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 brought together for common use, was, 1st, the dis- 
 tance of places whereby men are separate, and, 2nd, 
 the failure of justice and love, whereby it came to pass, 
 that neither in labour nor in the consumption of those 
 fruits due equality was preserved. Thus we learn how 
 property arose, not only by an act of the mind (for 
 they could not know the thoughts of one another, what 
 every one would have to be his own, that they might 
 abstain from it, and many might desire the same 
 thing,) but by a certain covenant, either express, as 
 by division, or tacit, as by occupation. Community of 
 goods being given up, and no division being made, 
 an universal agreement must be supposed, whereby 
 each one should have belonging to himself what he 
 occupied. ' It is allowed/ says Cicero, * that every 
 man may prefer himself before another in getting 
 things useful for his life, nature not being repugnant 
 hereunto.' To which is added the saying of Quinc- 
 tilian ; ' Granting that what is come into a man's pos- 
 session is his own, certainly whatsoever is possessed by 
 right is taken away by wrong/ And the ancients when 
 they called Ceres, Legifcra, and her rites, Thezmophoria, 
 signified this, that by the division of fields came up the 
 original of a certain new right c ." 
 
 Yet a knowledge of the manners and customs of cer- 
 tain nations, and the history of religious and philoso- 
 phical speculation on these subjects, shew that the pos- 
 tulate of the existence of property has been disputed. 
 
 c Hugo Grotius De Jure Belli et Pacis, cap. ii. vol. ii. p. 53, ed. 
 Laus., 1751.
 
 OF CHRISTIAN MEN*S GOODS, &C. 791 
 
 For example, the notion was very much modified among 
 the Celtic races. Their possessions accrued not to one, 
 but to the tribe. Sismondi shews this with regard to 
 the Highlands of Scotland ; and the recent publication 
 of the Brehon laws in Ireland, exhibits to us the picture 
 of a simple state of society, not without its civilization, 
 in which tribal possession forms a most important con- 
 stituent. Analogous to this is the village-system in 
 India, in which from time immemorial there has been 
 a joint occupation and possession by the ryots. Dynasty 
 after dynasty of conquerors, often foreign conquerors, 
 utterly ignorant or regardless of this peculiar insti- 
 tution, have ruled in India ; laws, such as those made 
 by Lord Cornwallis in misunderstanding of what was 
 dearest to the feelings of the poor villagers, have 
 been enacted, but still the old system has survived to 
 this day. Neither can this be said to be the character- 
 istic of the Indo-European race, for the recent war 
 in New Zealand, so deeply to be regretted on every 
 ground, has arisen from an ignorance on the part of 
 the British authorities of these peculiar tenures. 
 
 But, furthermore, the idea of property has been chal- 
 lenged both on theological and philosophical grounds; 
 on the first by the Anabaptists, as indicated in the Ar- 
 ticle ; on the latter by such communists as St. Simon, 
 Fourier, and Proudhon, who boldly state the matter 
 on the apparent paradox that it is property that is 
 the theft. 
 
 With regard to the first, one cannot do better than 
 quote the weighty words of Lord Stair, the eminent
 
 792 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 Scottish Jurist : " It is a false and groundless opinion 
 which some hold, that man by his fall has lost his right 
 to the creatures, until by grace he be restored, and that 
 the sole dominion of them belongs to the saints, who 
 may take them by force from all others. For by the 
 whole strain of the law of God, He still alloweth do- 
 minion and property of the creatures in man, with- 
 out distinction, and prohibiteth all force or fraud in 
 the contrary, which sufficiently cleareth that subtilty 
 of man's forfeiture ; for though sin maketh men ob- 
 noxious by way of obligation to punishments by God's 
 exterminating him from the use and comfort of the 
 creatures ; yet that obligation doth not infer the actual 
 ceasing of man's right, much less the stating of the 
 rights of mankind in a small part of them d ." 
 
 Nothing is so irritating for religionists, as to be out- 
 stripped in the course upon which they have entered, 
 or to have their principles, by them often held in solu- 
 tion, precipitated and carried out into inconvenient 
 results. Something of this kind was experienced by 
 the Lutherans in the case of the earlier Anabaptists. 
 At first they agreed entirely with them, except on the 
 subject of infant-baptism, the rejection of which was 
 only a legitimate consequence of Luther's dogma which, 
 connecting the efficacy of the Sacraments with faith, 
 rendered the baptism of infants wholly irrational. 
 But soon this alliance became a deadly hatred. A 
 fearful fanaticism drove these men into every species 
 of violence; they were implicated in the war of the 
 d Bk. II. chap. i. p. 166.
 
 OF CHRISTIAN MEN*S GOODS, &C. 793 
 
 peasants, and at last the outrages at Miinster shewed 
 to what terrible results sincere ill-guided zeal may 
 lead men. 
 
 They had strong millenarian expectations. After 
 foretelling the utter extirpation of all the ungodly, 
 they announced the kingdom of Christ as immediately 
 thereafter established upon earth. A new and perfect 
 life, in common among Christians, would then be esta- 
 blished, without magistrate or external law. Even the 
 Bible was to be abolished ; for the perfect children of 
 God needed it not. Perfect equality and community of 
 goods would prevail, and even marriage be no longer 
 contracted. Of course war was unlawful, and oaths un- 
 necessary, in this glorious kingdom of Christ. These 
 high and ideal notions cannot but extort our admira- 
 tion, but the Anabaptists wished to force these on men 
 unprepared, and by violence. Many other errors were 
 held by them, and it is to be feared that Antinomianism 
 especially prevailed amongst some of them. "In the 
 first Anabaptists we discern, beside the simplicity of 
 the child, the fury of the wildest demagogue, who, to 
 create a happy and holy world, destroyed in the most 
 unholy and calamitous manner the actual one ; and, 
 as a blind instrument, ministered to the ambition, 
 the avarice, and all the basest passions of the repro- 
 bate men, whom we so frequently meet with in the 
 early history of the sect e ." 
 
 The speculations of the Anabaptists are things of 
 the past ; but the questions which they raised are still 
 Mohler, ii. 161.
 
 794 AimCLE xxxvin. 
 
 unsolved. After the dark ages, with the very first 
 dawn of intelligence, hungry mouths began to ask, 
 " Why are we hungry ?" Many of the heretical sects 
 had social as well as religious errors in the cata- 
 logue of their opinions. In the ages of faith every 
 question took a religious form, and therefore political 
 economy expressed itself in the language of the soul. 
 Begardi, the good men of Lyons, the Albigenses, and 
 many others, thought that they were reforming the 
 Church when they were only stating their political 
 grievances. In the opinions of Huss and Jerome of 
 Prague many of the propositions condemned are sim- 
 ply economics ; for they endorsed the propositions of 
 Wicliffe. 
 
 That the tyranny of the feudal system should gene- 
 rate such sentiments, or that God should seek to alle- 
 viate the sorrows of men by raising up the Franciscan 
 Order to console the poor, are circumstances not to be 
 wondered at. At a time when the oppression was at 
 its worst, and when industrial wealth was beginning 
 among the Lombards and Genoese to occupy a new 
 place as a power in the world, Francis of Assisi by 
 proclaiming the holiness of poverty on which he founded 
 his order, and Jacopone da Todi by becoming the poet 
 of the unfortunate, were made the instruments of God's 
 goodness. The Seraphic Order in all its branches 
 ever maintained a traditional recollection of the causes 
 of its rise. It has ever been the poor man's friend, 
 and has escaped much of the odium which has fallen 
 upon other religious associations.
 
 OF CHRISTIAN MEN*S GOODS, &C. 795 
 
 But after the institution of the Franciscans, with 
 their various reforms, nothing was done for the poor. 
 To burn Huss and Jerome of Prague was no real 
 solution of the question. A terrorism might silence 
 complaint ; but the complaint was there still, and so 
 the evil went on till the Reformation. It would be 
 curious to trace the political causes of that event. 
 In all countries it was influenced thereby. Calvinism 
 made Holland and Geneva republican ; it became 
 the element of political disturbances in Scotland, the 
 weakest of all royalties ; and the Stuarts with their 
 pet dictum, " no bishop no king," put strongly and 
 truly the democratic element of the new system. It 
 was the same in England, modified by the strong will 
 of the Tudors, and the greater strength of the monarch- 
 ical principle. In Germany, where the nobility were 
 stronger than in any other country in Europe, the 
 rise of the Anabaptists saved them by precipitating 
 the element of communism that was held in solution, 
 and giving the nobles an easy victory over them. 
 In Italy and Spain, (with the exception of Venice,) 
 the elements of Protestantism got trodden out simul- 
 taneously with those of political freedom ; while in 
 France, the struggle of the two principles was fought 
 out in internecine feud, more than one half of France, 
 nobility and all, being Protestant. The massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew was a piece of cruel State-craft, as 
 well as of religious persecution, the revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes expelled with Protestantism the last 
 efforts of political free-thought of France. Mean-
 
 796 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 while, the absenteeism caused by the crushing of the 
 political power of the nobility, and the consequent en- 
 forcement of their attendance at Court, added to the 
 extravagance of the kings after the time of Mazarin 
 and Richelieu, established a spirit of alienation be- 
 tween the ranks in society, and an impoverishment 
 of the lower classes, which resulted in the first Revo- 
 lution. The good side of that movement was a vindi- 
 cation of the rights of man as man ; the misery was 
 a denial of his rights as the creature of God. A poli- 
 tical economy which eliminates God as the main factor 
 in life is Sciolism. 
 
 The economic side of the democratic question was 
 differently treated in England. The destructive Wars 
 of the Roses prevented a surplusage of population, 
 and the Commons were comparatively well fed. The 
 nobility and squirearchy lived very much on their 
 estates, the parochial system was strongly developed, 
 and a kindly feeling existed between the different 
 ranks of society. The immense mass of land, too, held 
 in mortmain by the abbeys, while it prevented the full 
 development of the resources of the country, had this 
 effect, that a great many of the commons held their 
 farms on easy terms, while the ready dole at the con- 
 vent-gate afforded a subsistence for the poorer sort. 
 As a matter of fact, no poor-law was required till the 
 reign of Edward VI. Representative Government kept 
 tyranny in check, if it did nothing directly to ame- 
 liorate the condition of the poor. The introduction 
 of foreign trades, though at the time viewed with
 
 OF CHRISTIAN MEN'S GOODS, &C. 797 
 
 jealousy by the people, in reality was a boon to them. 
 The national resources were not taxed by the existence 
 of great standing armies, and therefore the outbursts 
 of popular misery were few, and the demand for the 
 solution of the questions affecting the rights of la- 
 bour and capital respectively, never came to a bloody 
 arbitrement. 
 
 It has been reserved to the nineteenth century, 
 when industry has been developed to a degree that 
 our fathers never dreamt of, when the discovery of 
 gold has upset for a time the whole measure of prices, 
 when increased locomotion has indefinitely thrown 
 open markets, to call up all these questions again. 
 For in spite of all material advancement, a hideous 
 pauperism menaces society, and the enlightenment of 
 the age is thereby terribly reminded of that Biblical 
 truth it would fain deny or invalidate, that " the poor 
 shall never cease out of the land." And the awful 
 thing is, that the pauperism of an industrial civiliza- 
 tion is more hopeless, more incurable, more degraded, 
 than that of any prior state of things. When an 
 oriental sovereign could compel a whole nation to 
 build a pyramid, when the daughters and goods of 
 the vassal were not safe from the lust and rapacity 
 of the overlord, it was simply the misfortune of the 
 unhappy ones, and their cry entered into the ear of 
 the Lord God of Sabaoth; but now the pauperism of 
 the age is the result of moral degradation, and drink, 
 and every kind of sin, and the squalor of the external 
 circumstance is the symbol of the foulness of that 
 which exists within.
 
 798 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 Poverty is one thing, pauperism is another. Poverty 
 is the momentary or even permanent deprivation of 
 the enjoyments of means ; it is the state in which 
 man is condemned to work for the necessaries of life : 
 but pauperism is a chronic, normal, almost fatal state 
 of misery, which hands over a notable portion of living 
 humanity to moral degradation and physical suffering, 
 while a small and privileged class live in the most 
 unexampled luxury. For here is the awful fact, that 
 pauperism is measured by the advance of industry, 
 and progress in wealth goes on side by side with pro- 
 gress in misery. 
 
 A great man has said, " There is not a sadder sight 
 than that which Great Britain offers, between a wealth 
 and a luxury without bounds, and the exhaustion to 
 which ten thousand of the poor, shut up in cellars, 
 without light or air, are exposed. Misery, famine, 
 and degradation, in the presence of our sumptuous 
 abodes and our exhaustless profusion, strikes us more 
 than any other misery in the world." 
 
 The chief causes of this disastrous state of things 
 are, 1. the exaggerated preponderance of industrial 
 over agricultural production, and the abnormal dis- 
 placement of the powers of labour, so that on the oc- 
 currence of a crisis great distress is produced. 2. The 
 separation of interest between master and workman, 
 and the existence of combinations on either side for 
 mutual aggression and protection. 3. The cessation 
 of work at home, and the aggregation of labour in 
 great workshops, and hence the creation of great in- 
 dustrial towns to the prejudice of the moral and phy-
 
 OF CHRISTIAN MEN'S GOODS, &C. 799 
 
 sical health of the people. 4. The extreme division of 
 labour, which makes man more and more of a machine, 
 and impoverishes him mentally and morally. Lastly, 
 the hideous mixture of the sexes in the workshops, 
 and the abuse of the young, which produces in some 
 cases a corruption unheard-of in Christian times. 
 
 No wonder that all this produces pauperism, that 
 pauperism is misery, and misery cries aloud, Why 
 should these things be ? No wonder that, unable to 
 detect that much of its misery is of its own making, 
 poverty should claim a hearing in the presence of 
 inordinate wealth, and demand in the accents of de- 
 spair, For what end has property been instituted ? 
 
 It has been said that every heresy is the intellectual 
 vengeance of some suppressed truth ; in any case, there 
 is often an underlying truth at the bottom of each 
 aberration. What we have said of the image of God 
 not being entirely obliterated by the Fall will induce 
 us to acknowledge the fact that man still hankers in 
 a feeble way after the Good and the True, does not 
 naturally take up with the evil and the hideous, so 
 that his errors are disguised in some specious form of 
 virtue ; otherwise error would not be so nearly synony- 
 mous with sin. 
 
 Now what was the underlying truth which lay at 
 the bottom of the Anabaptist theories, which gave 
 point to the paradox of Fourier and Proud hon? It 
 was that in the eyes of God all property is held in 
 trust for our neighbour. While in the order of nature 
 and of civil polity, that state is most firmly established 
 where the individuality of ownership is most strictly
 
 800 ARTICLE XXXVIII. 
 
 recognised and respected; in the order of grace it is 
 otherwise. God permits the existence of property, 
 but only as a necessary evil. To avoid a dead level 
 of unprogressive barbarism, He allows one man to 
 have, another to want ; but in allowing this apparent 
 injustice, He corrects the disparity by the sense of 
 responsible stewardship. The children of the king- 
 dom must have nothing selfish about them ; their 
 citizenship being in heaven, they must use what God 
 has given them, for His glory, and for the benefit of 
 His creatures. Civil society being His ordinance, has 
 its claims on man ; there is something due to the 
 position of each rank and class of life. But there is 
 beside and beyond this the kingdom of God and His 
 righteousness, the interests of Christ and His mem- 
 bers, and the sense of stewardship connected with 
 these interests. 
 
 It will be seen how all this affects the luxury, the 
 industrial power of modern civilization. That a cer- 
 tain refinement and grace of life, is not only not 
 sinful, but actually a help heavenward, cannot be de- 
 nied; that an industrial progress is compatible with 
 the development of the resources of a Christian nation 
 must also be admitted. But beyond such admission, 
 it is very difficult to see one's way to lay down canons 
 of right on such a question. While a well-appointed 
 establishment, rich dresses, costly wines, circulate money 
 and foster trade, one asks oneself, in spite of oneself, 
 how many poor children would the same cost feed, 
 clothe, and educate ? While the development of in- 
 dustry gives work and wages to many a poor creature,
 
 OF CHRISTIAN MEN'S GOODS, &C. 801 
 
 and brings the necessaries of life by cheapness of pro- 
 duction within the reach of the poor, it is awful to 
 think of the terrible race which competition causes, 
 the neglect of immortal souls in the training of those 
 who by a horrid sarcastic truth are termed "hands," 
 and the countless evils which spring from the system, 
 not to mention the mutilations by machinery, the pre- 
 mature exhaustion of the physical powers, the creed- 
 less unlovely life, and the solitary workhouse-death. 
 
 It is needless to deplore evils which we cannot 
 mend. At least, each one in his station should try 
 and do his duty, and so mitigate the evils conse- 
 quent on the necessary permission of property. Mat- 
 ters will not be mended by revolution, though we 
 know from an awful experience, that evils of this 
 kind neglected, are apt to end in revolution, and a 
 country where its nobles and capitalists betray their 
 trust is apt from time to time to be regenerated in 
 their blood. The true course is, that each one in his 
 station should live according to the rule of the " Ser- 
 mon on the Mount :" live a Christ-like life on earth, 
 the life of the brethren of Him who laid down His 
 life for His friends ; love his brother as himself, 
 render to all their due, love as brethren, be pitiful, 
 be courteous ; so shall one step be gained towards the 
 reign of righteousness and charity. The rest must be 
 relegated to the great compensation day. "Son, re- 
 member that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good 
 things." 
 
 3F
 
 ARTICLE XXXIX. 
 
 DE JUREJURANDO. 
 
 QUEMADMODUM juramentum vanum et temerarium a Do- 
 mino nostro Jesu Christo, et Apostolo ejus Jacobo, 
 Christianis hominibiis intcrdictum esse fatemur : if a 
 Christianorum Religionem minime prohibere ccnsemus, 
 quin jubente magistrate, in causa fidei et charitatis 
 jurare liceat, modo id fiat juxta Propheta doctrinam, 
 injustitia, injudicio, et veritate. 
 
 " Of a Christian Man's Oath. 
 
 " As we confess that vain and rash swearing is for- 
 bidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 James His Apostle ; so we judge that Christian reli- 
 gion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear 
 when the magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and 
 charity, so it be done, according to the Prophet's teach- 
 ing, in justice, judgment, and truth." 
 
 AN oath is a tacit or expressed invocation of the 
 Deity, as of the first and infallible Truth, in testimony 
 of anything. It is a religious asseveration, made with 
 the intention of swearing to the truth of anything, 
 God being called in as witness and avenger. It is 
 divided into the oath assertory, and the oath promis-
 
 OF A CHRISTIAN MAN*S OATH. 803 
 
 sory. Again, into the oath simple, and the oath so- 
 lemn, such as homages and professions of faith. 
 
 Again, it is divided into the oath of attestation, the 
 oath of execration, the oath of threatening. 
 
 Three conditions, as the Article quotes from Jere- 
 miah (chap, iv.), are requisite to a legitimate oath 
 justice, judgment, and truth; justice, that the thing 
 be lawful and honest, and so the Name of the holy 
 God be not adduced in confirmation of injustice or 
 sin; judgment, in that the oath be not taken without 
 necessity or grave cause, or manifest advantage, with 
 prudent consideration of the mind, and pure and re- 
 verent affection of the will ; and truth, that the thing 
 be true, or at least on reasonable grounds and bond 
 fide believed to be true; so that the holy Name be 
 not brought forward to testify to a lie, which were 
 perjury and a great sin. 
 
 An oath so taken, is not only no sin, but a religious 
 act. "Thou shalt fear the Lord, and swear by His 
 Name a ." 
 
 But the habit of swearing without a cause, indis- 
 creetly and inadvertently, whether the thing be true 
 or false, is a mortal sin ; so that such a consuetudinary 
 sinner, neglecting to amend his ways, sins grievously 
 by the force of the retention of such custom, as often 
 as he so swears. Being in proximate peril of mortal 
 sin from the habit, he sins also in not attempting to 
 cure himself. 
 
 The habit of swearing has very much gone out 
 8 Deut. x. 20.
 
 804 ARTICLE XXXIX. 
 
 among the upper classes, partly from the censure of 
 society, partly, it is to be feared, from the materialistic 
 and unbelieving frame of mind into which uninter- 
 rupted prosperity, fulness of bread, and an unsuper- 
 natural mind, throw the soul. Men will not swear by 
 God, unless they realize His hand in all things. It is 
 not simple good, that has caused the abandonment of 
 this disgusting vice. 
 
 Among all people b , and from the most ancient times, 
 very great has been the power of an oath. Our an- 
 cestors, saith Cicero, esteemed no bond of faith stronger 
 than this. Hence it has always been believed that 
 some heavy punishment hangs over the head of a per- 
 jured person, and even posterity paid for the sins of 
 their forefathers in this kind. Even the will, without 
 the actual deed, drew punishment along with it, as in 
 the story of Glaucus, as told by Herodotus. 
 
 To a valid oath, sanity of mind and deliberation of 
 purpose are required. Next, what is so sworn as the 
 mind of the swearer conceives it must be done, must 
 be kept. They perjure themselves, who, while saving 
 the words, disappoint the expectation of those to whom 
 they have sworn. 
 
 As to oaths deceitfully procured, if it be certain 
 that he who sweareth supposeth something done, which 
 indeed is not so, and that, unless he had believed it, 
 he would not have sworn, the oath will not bind. 
 But if it be doubtful whether he would not, even 
 
 b Grotius de Jure, lib. ii. c. 13, vol. iii. p. 1, ed. Laus., 1751.
 
 OF A CHRISTIAN MAN S OATH. 
 
 without that, have sworn the same, he must stand to 
 his word, because the greatest simplicity there can be 
 agrees to an oath. 
 
 Yet the signification of an oath is not to be ex- 
 tended beyond the received custom of speech, as it is 
 one thing to give, it is another thing not to require 
 that which is taken away. 
 
 Above all things, an oath binds nothing made of 
 unlawful matter. A sworn promise to do what is 
 either naturally, or by the interdict of God, unlawful, 
 does not hold good. It is sometimes against duty to 
 perform a promise, or to keep an oath. If one's faith 
 be pledged to commit a sin, it is strange to call it 
 faith. 
 
 Also, an oath that hinders a greater moral good does 
 not hold. We owe to God progress in good, and so 
 may not take away from ourselves the liberty of so 
 doing. A man who swears never to do another a good 
 turn would not be bound. 
 
 No man, also, is held to fulfil what is impossible. 
 
 Next, as to the form of oaths. These may vary, but 
 all agree in fact. The calling in God to be witness 
 and avenger underlies the idea of every oath. Every 
 oath terminates in imprecation upon the perjurer. 
 Other names and things, as one's country, one's head, 
 one's children, sometimes were associated with God, 
 but pleonastically. 
 
 The effect of an oath is the settlement of contro- 
 versies, as the greatest assurance among men. Some 
 authorities maintain that even a forced oath is to be
 
 806 ARTICLE XXXIX. 
 
 kept, out of reverence to God. The Hebrew kiugs 
 were reproved by the prophets, because they kept not 
 faith with the Babylonian conquerors. And the per- 
 son alone to whom we swear is not to be respected, 
 but He by whom we swear, God. This suffices to 
 create an obligation ; and therefore oaths to tyrants, 
 and pirates, and other common enemies, are valid. 
 In such bad cases, however, the heir of a man would 
 not be bound. 
 
 An oath to another, being a solemn promise, the 
 person who makes it is released from that oath, if he 
 to whom it is made refuses to accept the advantage so 
 promised. Neither is a man bound, if the quality 
 under which he hath sworn to any, ceaseth ; as, if 
 a magistrate cease to be a magistrate. When a man 
 resigns a place, the oath is voided by the loss of the 
 place. 
 
 As to whether that which is done against an oath is 
 unlawful only, or also void, in law, one must say that 
 if one's faith only be engaged, an act done against an 
 oath is valid, in law, e.g. a will, or a sale : it is not 
 valid, if the oath be so conceived, that withal it con- 
 tains a full abdication of the power to act. 
 
 The acts of superiors cannot so far prevail, that 
 an oath, so far as it is truly obligatory, is not to be 
 performed ; for that it is of natural and divine right. 
 But a superior may forbid the taking of oaths, or pre- 
 vent their fulfilment. 
 
 Or a mixed case may be, where the superior ordains 
 that the oath shall be of force, if approved by him.
 
 OF A CHRISTIAN MAN'S OATH. 807 
 
 On this ground is defended the power of dispensation 
 in the Church. 
 
 Our Lord and St. James do not forbid the " as- 
 sertory" oath, of which there are some instances iu 
 St. Paul, but the oath promissory of a future uncer- 
 tain thing. "It is best and most profitable, and to 
 the rational creature most convenient, to abstain from 
 swearing, and so to accustom oneself to truthfulness, 
 that one's word may be taken for an oath c ." 
 
 The most advanced schools of modern jurisprudence 
 are more than doubtful as to the policy of using oaths 
 in judicial processes. When a man determines to tell 
 the truth, he will do so without an oath ; when he has 
 determined to lie, an oath will not hinder him. This 
 is true ; but, on the other hand, so illogical is the action 
 of the human conscience, that there are many who will 
 be deterred by an oath from stating what they would 
 state without that sanction. In the popular mind there 
 is a great gulph between a lie and a perjury, and be- 
 sides the fact that perjury is punishable at law, an 
 oath gives a further guarantee for the enunciation of 
 the truth. 
 
 e Grotius.
 
 THE EATIFICATION. 
 
 CONFIRMATIO ARTICULORUM. 
 
 Hie liber antedictorum Articulorum jam dcnuo appro- 
 batus est, per assensum et consensum Serenissimcs Rc- 
 ffinte Elizabeths Domints nostra, Dei gratia Angliee, 
 Franciee, et Hibernia, Reginee, Defensoris fidei, fyc., 
 retinendm, et per totum regnum Anglia exequendm. 
 Qui Articuli, et lecti sunt, et denuo confirmati, sitb- 
 scriptione D. Archiepiscopi et Episcoporum superioris 
 domus, et totius Cleri inferioris domus, in Convocatione 
 Anno Domini, 1571. 
 
 "The Ratification. 
 
 "Tnis Book of Articles before rehearsed, is again 
 approved, and allowed to be holden and executed 
 within the realm, by the assent and consent of our 
 Sovereign Lady Elizabeth, by the Grace of God, of 
 England, France, and Ireland, Queen, Defender of 
 the Faith, &c. Which Articles were deliberately read 
 and confirmed again by the subscription of the hands 
 of the Archbishops and Bishops of the Upper House, 
 and by the subscription of the whole Clergy of the 
 Nether House in their Convocation, in the year of 
 our Lord 1571." 
 
 THE Articles are primarily a State document, made 
 ecclesiastical by the acceptance of the two Convoca-
 
 THE RATIFICATION. 809 
 
 tions in 1562 and 1571. This fact weighs much in 
 a moral point of view in respect to our subjective 
 treatment of them. One treats them very differently 
 from the decrees of a Provincial Synod of the Church 
 of England. Convocation, though by some said to be 
 legally the Church of England by representation, is 
 only so in the sense of certain civil results. It is not 
 a Council in the strictly ecclesiastical sense. Its de- 
 crees do not bind the conscience from any intrinsic 
 authority in themselves, or in the documents put out 
 by it. It only binds the conscience as a result of 
 subscription. It is immoral and wicked in itself, to 
 deny the decree of a Council accepted by the Church. 
 It is not immoral or wicked in itself to deny an 
 Article, e.g. that the Homilies have certain qualities. 
 It only becomes immoral and wicked, when a man' 
 has signed what he does not believe, or when a man 
 denies what he has subscribed to. 
 
 A result of this will be that a very different degree 
 of reverence will attach to the body of the document, 
 and specially to the inferences to be drawn from it. 
 In dealing with the language of a Council, emanating 
 from the Holy Ghost, we speak with bated breath in 
 discussing it, and we respect inferences that may be 
 certainly gathered from it, though not expressed ; but 
 in dealing with a document of the nature of the Ar- 
 ticles, we are under no such moral obligation. The 
 plain literal and grammatical sense, interpreted by 
 the hardest legal head, is all that we have to do with 
 in accepting the text; and as regards the inferences, 
 we have nothing whatever to do with them.
 
 810 THE RATIFICATION. 
 
 Lastly, they are not of eternal obligation. The 
 offspring of a controversial age, they bear on their 
 surface the evidence of their paternity. That age 
 has passed away, and the questions then unsolved 
 have received the fullest consideration, and much that 
 then looked like actual opposition has been found to 
 be mere logomachy. New enemies to the faith have 
 sprung up since those days, of which they take no 
 cognizance, and, in resistance to these, all parties in 
 the sixteenth century would have united as against 
 a common foe. Two camps are arraying themselves 
 in battle against each other. Communities and men 
 are taking their sides. All conscious misbelief is gra- 
 vitating towards unbelief; all imperfect but sincere 
 conviction tending to the Catholic Faith. As then be- 
 lievers, in opposition to infidels and miscreants, come 
 to make common cause, that common cause will lead 
 to common faith, and under such common faith there 
 will be no need for such declarations as the Thirty- 
 nine Articles ; they will have done their work, so, 
 having done their work, they will take their place 
 among the things of the past. 
 
 And to this consummation, to this common cause 
 and common faith, we have to ask ourselves, what 
 course of events will tend. How is the present state 
 of confusion in the Church of Christ to be remedied? 
 What can be done to heal the divisions in the Body of 
 the Lord ? There has been but one answer in all ages of 
 confusion. At the beginning of the troubles in Henry 
 the Eighth's time, just after "Wolsey's death, when 
 the matter of the division had thrown everything into
 
 THE RATIFICATION. 811 
 
 confusion, Sir Thomas More said that he desired three 
 things, and one of these things was the Convocation of 
 a Free General Council. It was the recognised means 
 of healing the wounds of the Church desired by those 
 enlightened men, who, while they recognised and 
 deplored the existence of scandals and corruptions, 
 clung earnestly to the old faith a . Nor was this 
 confined to them alone b . The reformers, such as Me- 
 lanchthon and Archbishop Herman of Cologne, main- 
 tained their reforms to be provisional until a Gene- 
 ral Council . 
 
 Luther himself at one time used it as a weapon of 
 offence against the Pope d . In this very volume we 
 have seen that Queen Elizabeth appealed to a free 
 synod to arbitrate on the Anglican position. If Bi- 
 shop Jewel in so many words does not go so far 6 , it is 
 at least the legitimate outcome of his Apology. He 
 
 In 1536 Convocation, in protesting against the Pope holding a 
 Council " without the express consent, assent, and agreement of the re- 
 sidue of Christian Princes," says, " We, taught by long experience, do 
 perfectly know, that there never was, or is, anything devised, invented 
 or instituted, by our forefathers, more expedient, or more necessary, for 
 the establishment of our faith, for the extirpation of heresies, and the 
 abolishing of sects and schisms; and, finally, for reducing Christ's 
 people into one perfect unity and concord of religion, than the having 
 of General Councils." (Burnet, Ref., vol. i. App. b. iii. No. 5.) 
 
 b e.g. Erasmus, Epist., lib. xxviii. 8. c Hardwick's Manual of 
 
 Kef., p. 9, ed. 1856. d Ibid., p. 62, note. 
 
 * " Nos quidem concilia et episcoporum doctorumque hominum con- 
 ventus et colloquia non contemnimus. Neque ea quse fecimus, prorsus 
 sine episcopis aut sine concilio fecimus." (Jewel's Apol., p. 34 ; Words- 
 worth's Christian Institutes ; see also Apol., part vi. (vol. iv. 71, ed. 
 Jelf,) Serm. ii. vol. vii. 384 ; Ep. de Cone. Trid., viii. 102.
 
 812 TTIE RATIFICATION. 
 
 gives many reasons for not attending at Trent, but 
 all the reasons presuppose the supreme authority of 
 a Council really (Ecumenical. The theology of King 
 James I., which was really able, and which, from the 
 moral deficiencies of its author, has not received the 
 respect it intellectually deserves, was in harmony with 
 the same notion. Isaac Casaubon in his dedication to 
 James I. (chap, v.) says, " Et tamen adhuc illis tempori- 
 bus stabat suum jus, et in ecclesia summa auctoritas con- 
 ciliis universalibus : quoe etsi cogi semper non poterant, 
 semper tamen fas fuit piis hominibus spe saltern con- 
 solari sese ejus remedii, quod solum ad componendas 
 controversias et haereses auctoritate ecclesise debel- 
 landas cum Scripturae docuerunt turn prisci patres ag- 
 noverunt atque usurparunt." 
 
 Hooker f says, " The urgent necessity of mutual 
 communion for preservation of our unity . . . maketh 
 it requisite that the Church of God here on earth, 
 have her laws of spiritual commerce between Chris- 
 tian nations ; laws, by virtue whereof all Churches 
 may enjoy freely the use of those reverend, religious, 
 and sacred consultations, which are termed Councils 
 General. A thing, whereof God's own blessed Spirit 
 was the author, a thing practised by the Apostles 
 themselves, a thing always afterward kept and ob- 
 served throughout the world, a thing never otherwise 
 than most highly esteemed of, till pride, ambition, 
 and tyranny, began by factious and vile endeavours 
 
 f E. P., lib. i. ch. x. 14, ed. Keble, p. 252.
 
 THE RATIFICATION. 813 
 
 to abuse that divide invention unto the furtherance of 
 wicked purposes/' 
 
 If the appeal to a Council, under certain possible 
 circumstances, was in the minds of the divines of the 
 time of King Henry and Queen Elizabeth, it as- 
 sumed a still more prominent place in what may be 
 termed the Constructive Epoch of Anglicanism. The 
 great High Church school, in seeking to fiud a Ca- 
 tholic basis for their teaching, had of necessity to 
 appeal to this. 
 
 Thus Archbishop Bramhall&, in his replication to 
 the Bishop of Chalcedon, after stating, "I submit 
 myself and my poor endeavours to the judgment of 
 the Catholic (Ecumenical essential Church," continues, 
 " Likewise I submit myself to the Representative 
 Church, that is, a free General Council, or so general 
 as may be procured ; and until then, to the Church of 
 England, wherein I was baptized, or to a national 
 English Synod." 
 
 In his just vindication of the Church of England 
 from the unjust aspersion of criminal schism, in his 
 propositions for re-union, in speaking of the " neces- 
 sary explications" to be made in view of that blessed 
 object, he says they must "be made by the authority 
 of a General Council, or one so general as can be con- 
 vocated 1 '." He moreover says, "To rebel against the 
 Catholic Church, and its representative a General 
 Council, which is the last visible judge of contro- 
 
 f Vol. ii. p. 22, Anglo-Catb. h Part i. d. 2, vol. i. p. 279.
 
 814 THE RATIFICATION. 
 
 versies, and the Supreme Ecclesiastical Court, either 
 is gross schism, or there is no such thing as schis- 
 matical pravity in the world *." 
 
 So Archbishop LaudJ says, "Therefore according 
 to A. C.'s own argument, there will be some busi- 
 ness also found (is not the settling of the divisions of 
 Christendom one of them?) which can never be well 
 settled but in a General Council; and particularly 
 the making of Canons, which must bind all particu- 
 lar Christians and Churches, cannot be concluded and 
 established but there." 
 
 So Bishop Overal k , "And if in those troublesome 
 times the peace of the Church were thus preserved, 
 how much more now under Christian magistrates may 
 it be strengthened, upheld, and maintained without 
 the Pope, not only within their separate kingdoms, 
 but likewise throughout (in effect) all these western 
 parts of the world, if Christian Kings and Sovereign 
 Princes would agree together for a General Council, 
 to the end that all these heresies, errors, impostures, 
 and presumptions, wherewith the Church of Christ 
 has been long and is now miserably shaken and dis- 
 turbed, might be at the last utterly suppressed and 
 extinguished l ." 
 
 A profound distrust of the motives of the Roman 
 Catholic Church runs through the appeals to a Council 
 on the part of the Elizabethan divines; it was felt 
 
 1 Part i. d. 2, vol. i. p. 249. J Conf. with Fisher, Works, 
 
 vol. ii. p. 234, Anglo-Cath. ed. k Conv. Book. l Wordsworth's 
 
 Christian Institutes, vol. iv. p. 146.
 
 THE RATIFICATION. 815 
 
 that under such auspices it could not be free. Re- 
 course, therefore, was had to a theory of interference 
 on the part of Christian kings, such as had actually 
 been brought to act in the case of the early (Ecumeni- 
 cal Synods ; and later at Constance and Basle. 
 
 That appeal can no longer be made. Christian 
 Europe (as representing the thought, civilization, and 
 religion of the world) is no longer at one on the most 
 important of all points. The Latin Communion is 
 now represented (to speak broadly) by France, Spain, 
 Austria, Bavaria, Portugal, Belgium. Italy as a na- 
 tion is in semi-schism. Russia has been admitted as 
 a potent factor into the politics of the West. Greece 
 is a non-Latin kingdom, and the Provinces already 
 possessed of a passionate nationality, are aspiring to 
 their place in the royal houses of Europe. Prussia, 
 for the moment the most powerful state in Europe, 
 and uniting the force of all the vast north of Europe, 
 is Protestant ; so are the three Scandinavian kingdoms 
 and Switzerland. It is obvious that not one of these 
 possesses the adequate authority to move in the direc- 
 tion of the Convocation of an (Ecumenical Synod. From 
 the political side, such a conference is impossible. 
 
 Again, all modern theories of government are tend- 
 ing to treat religion only as a matter of police. The 
 preservation of morals now concerns the civil magis- 
 trate, only so far as offences against them tend to 
 breaches of the peace. The whole class of wrongs, 
 which were in fact sins, are ceasing to be recognised 
 as crimes. Above all, religious belief is being freed.
 
 816 THE RATIFICATION. 
 
 A man may believe what he pleases in the eyes of 
 the State, so long as his belief does not assault public 
 order, does not injure property or person. It is no 
 longer recognised as a duty of the Supreme Civil power 
 "to maintain truth." There is a re-action against the 
 tyranny of the Reformation theory, which made over 
 the consciences of the subject to the Crown. 
 
 Consequently, even if Civil Governments were at one 
 as to the basis on which re-union was to be promoted, 
 they could never consistently combine to call together 
 a Council. The results of such a Council, if not a 
 matter of indifference to them, would only become 
 a subject of jealous dread, by the increase of power 
 which it would give to the Catholic Church. The 
 Elizabethan idea of such a convocation by the Christian 
 princes, if it ever was more than an excuse for main- 
 taining a separate position, is, in view of the actual 
 condition of the world, and of the modern theories of 
 dominion, an utter impossibility. 
 
 What, then, remains to be done ? There is but one 
 power on earth which is able to attempt this great 
 work. Let the successor of St. Peter, Bramhall's Pri- 
 cipium Unitatis, the holder of that see whose potior 
 principalitas was acknowledged by St. Irena3us, only 
 rise above the miserable triumph of an immediate 
 Ultramontane success ; let him accept the high des- 
 tiny which God has placed in his hand, of being, not 
 as in past times the cause of disunion, but the principle 
 of re-union in Christendom. Let him send forth his 
 invitation, not merely to all the Bishops of his own
 
 THE RATIFICATION. 817 
 
 subjection, assembled to register foregone conclusions, 
 to give pomp and dignity to his own individual utter- 
 ances ; but let him invite first his own to testify to tra- 
 dition and to judge freely in matters submitted to him. 
 Then let him invite the ancient Eastern hierarchies, 
 not as "prudent persons exercising ecclesiastical func- 
 tions," but as the successors, as in fact they are, of the 
 Ancient Thrones of New Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, 
 and Jerusalem. Let him summon the Anglican prelates, 
 not prejudging the doubts of their jurisdiction, but 
 accepting them as they are historically, the occupants 
 of the chairs of St. Austin and St. Paulinus. Let him 
 call to himself all that is still sound in the Lutheran 
 and Calvinistic bodies, whether they will hear or whe- 
 ther they will forbear, and then in free Council as- 
 sembled, under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, let 
 every question be discussed, every difficulty sifted. 
 Let the fullest explanations be given of what has 
 given offence and promoted disunion ; let the remain- 
 ing superstitions left untouched by the Council of 
 Trent be honestly dealt with ; let the balancing and 
 complementary truths that interpret the more start- 
 ling assertions of the Church be enunciated; let the 
 most candid and generous construction be placed upon 
 the utterances^of all the separated limbs of the Body of 
 Christ ; let a sound Catholic philosophy be sanctioned ; 
 let the deep underlying distinctions of race be allowed 
 for; let the demarcation between faith and opinion 
 be drawn with a firm and tender hand, so shall the 
 great cause of re-union be promoted, the rent vesture
 
 818 THE RATIFICATION. 
 
 of Christ repaired, the walls of partition broken down, 
 and the reign of Christ the Lord over the world be 
 inaugurated. "When in the day of His power, the 
 people will offer Him free-will offerings with a holy 
 worship m ." " And I will make thy windows of agates, 
 and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of 
 pleasant stones; and all thy children shall be taught 
 of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy 
 children n ." 
 
 Ot T>V airotTToKdav Tr 
 
 Kdl TTJS OlKOVfJLfVrjS 8l5a<TKaXot, 
 
 TW AetrjroV?; ruiv oXeov 
 
 f)fJ.S>v TO fjifya eXeor . 
 
 SOLI DEO GLORIA. 
 
 m Ps. ex. 3. " Isa. liv. 12. 
 
 Hymn by Ephraim of Caria apud Pitra Hymnographie de I'Eglise 
 Grecque, p. Ixvii.
 
 I/ENVOY TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 I HAVE now come to the end of my task, and I 
 submit my work to the judgment of the Church with 
 a deep sense of the responsibility of my action. It is 
 with the greatest diffidence that I have ventured to 
 touch upon points, concerning which good men during 
 more than three hundred years have come to such 
 different conclusions. I can only say that I have tried 
 to approach them in a candid, truth-loving, and con- 
 ciliatory spirit. I have endeavoured to cultivate the 
 loving spirit of the author of the Considerationes Mo- 
 destee, who, by his profound learning, pacific temper, 
 and sincere piety, has illustrated the name I bear. I 
 am well aware that my work is likely to provoke much 
 hostile criticism. The office of mediator is proverbially 
 a thankless one. I shall be accused of insincerity by 
 some, of timidity by others. I shall be blamed for 
 casuistical fine-drawing. I shall be taunted with not 
 pxishing my premises to their legitimate conclusion. 
 My consolation is that it has been my constant effort 
 to state the truth in love, without regard to conse-
 
 820 L'ENVOY TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 quences. On the one hand, I have never failed to 
 exhibit the errors in speculation and practice which 
 have from time to time prevailed, and to unfold the 
 growth of those superstitions which have deformed the 
 Christian religion ; on the other hand, I have endea- 
 voured to give due prominence to the statement and 
 evolution of the true doctrine which underlies these 
 errors, and the depravation of which has engendered 
 those superstitions. Believing that there can be no 
 sound Theological Science which has not its support in 
 history, I have endeavoured to give its proper place to 
 the argument from Antiquity, Universality, and Con- 
 sent; at the same time, I have recognised that the 
 Church of God is a living Entity, and that God the 
 Holy Ghost speaks within her. I have also not passed 
 over the mysterious fact that the action of the depraved 
 and infirm free-will of man has been permitted to 
 cripple the teaching office of the Church, as it has 
 marred so much of the beautiful Creation and Re- 
 creation of God. 
 
 In addition to the more general aid and revision of 
 that dearest and most valued Friend to whom this 
 attempt of mine is dedicated, which I have already 
 acknowledged in the Preface, it is due that I should 
 mention very large assistance in this present portion, 
 in the extensive Patristic authorities with which Arti- 
 cles XXII. and XXV. are enriched, where his rare 
 familiarity with the Fathers of the Church has fur- 
 nished me with what else, the duties of my own calling 
 leading me in other directions, I could only have but
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE FIRST EDITION. 821 
 
 slightly gone into ; and yet more in the labour so 
 generously and ungrudgingly bestowed upon Articles 
 XXXII. and XXXVII., in both of which large and 
 important additions are due to him. Those who with 
 me can see, even at a distance, that Life of unwearied, 
 unceasing toil, a Life whose whole existence is for 
 others; his own long-cherished works put off from 
 year to year, in humility and gentle trustfulness, as 
 other duties come before him one by one, will with 
 me gratefully receive the fruits of his toil. 
 
 CHRIST CHTJECH, 
 Sexagesima Sunday, 1868.
 
 I/ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 AT the end of this treatise, an appeal has been made 
 to the convocation of a general Council by him who, 
 in the early Church, was recognised as the Principium 
 Unitatis. Since that time, a Council professing to be 
 (Ecumenical has been held by him, and the question 
 now arises, Is the author, as an honest man, as a Ca- 
 tholic Christian, bound to submit to it, and to persuade 
 others to do likewise ? The answer is not far to seek. 
 Not one of the conditions which the author assumed 
 as necessary to its recognition, as the great healing 
 power for the wounds of Christ's Body, have hitherto 
 been found in the Vatican Council. The Pope has not 
 risen " above the miserable triumph of an immediate 
 Ultramontane success." He has not " accepted the 
 high destiny which God has placed in his hand, of 
 being, not as in past times the cause of disunion, but 
 the principle of reunion in Christendom ; " he has not 
 invited the bishops of his own subjection " to testify 
 to tradition, and to judge freely in matters submitted 
 to them;" he has not invited the ancient Eastern 
 hierarchies as " the successors of the ancient thrones ;" 
 that is, in such terms as would have enabled them to 
 be present consistently with self-respect; he has not
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 823 
 
 " summoned the Anglican prelates ;" he has not " called 
 round him all that is still sound in the Lutheran and 
 Calvinistic bodies ;" no explanation of " what has given 
 offence or promoted disunion has yet been given;" 
 " the remaining superstitions left untouched by the 
 Council of Trent have not been dealt with ;" " no 
 balancing or complementary truths that interpret the 
 more startling assertions of the Church have been 
 enunciated;" "no candid and generous construction 
 has been placed on the utterances of all the separated 
 limbs of the Body of Christ." The deep underlying 
 distinctions of race have not been allowed for ; the 
 demarcations between faith and opinion have not been 
 drawn with firm and tender hand, but rather ob- 
 literated. With the exception of a condemnation of 
 the false philosophy of the nineteenth century, for 
 which we are deeply thankful, not one of the conditions 
 of the author has been complied with. As an honest 
 man, he is not bound to submit to the Council, or to 
 persuade others to do so. There remains the question 
 of his conduct as a Catholic Christian. If the Council 
 fulfils the conditions of ecumenicity, he is bound to 
 do both. This will be best answered by attention to 
 the following facts. 
 
 The Council was summoned by a Bull to the Patri- 
 archs, Archbishops, Bishops, Abbots, &c. all members 
 of the Church in communion with the See of Rome. 
 Unless, then, we hold that the Roman obedience is con- 
 terminous with the Church Catholic, an opinion which 
 Greeks and Anglicans deny, and which, as has been
 
 824 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 shewn in the preceding work, Latins themselves have, 
 from time to time as in the Councils of Florence, 
 Lyons, Pisa, and Ferrara ignored or acted in an- 
 tagonism to, we must hold that so far as the sum- 
 mons is concerned, the Council cannot be regarded as 
 oecumenical. Some fear of this seems to have actuated 
 the minds of the promoters, for, subsequently to the 
 Bull of Indiction, a letter, dated Sept. 8, 1868, was 
 addressed to the Bishops of the Churches of the Ori- 
 ental Rite which are not in communion with the 
 Apostolic See, praying, admonishing, and conjuring 
 them to come to the general Council, as their fathers 
 came to the second Council of Lyons, but in such terms 
 that the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria 
 cast it back in the writer's teeth. 
 
 Moreover, another document was emitted, in which 
 all Protestants and Acatholici were not invited to take 
 part in the Council, but exhorted and besought to 
 return to the one fold of Christ. 
 
 No notice whatever, in any of these documents, was 
 taken of the great Anglican Communion as such. The 
 Church of England was ignored, or mixed up with the 
 mass of Protestants. 
 
 Now, when no summons is issued, no obedience can 
 be expected. Under the circumstances, the Church of 
 England had no power to appear. So far as she is 
 concerned, the Council cannot be regarded as having 
 complied with the antecedent conditions which would 
 make its decrees binding upon England. 
 
 But not only do we assert that the ecumenicity of
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 825 
 
 the Vatican Synod has been destroyed by the absence 
 of sufficient summons, but no sooner was the assem- 
 blage convoked, than it became evident that such 
 freedom as was necessary to its true character as 
 a representative assembly was denied it ; the greatest 
 pressure was brought to bear upon the Oriental Bi- 
 shops of the Latin Rite ; regulations, protested against 
 by many prelates in a formal document, were en- 
 acted, crippling the freedom of debate; the right of 
 initiation, though formally conceded to them, was so 
 hedged round by restrictions as to become a nullity ; 
 privileges of discussion belonging to the Bishops by 
 divine institution, and recognised at the Council of 
 Trent, were disallowed, and every Italian art of threat- 
 ening, coaxing, and bribing, was employed to disarm 
 the opponent, to win over the hesitating. The Pope 
 himself unsparingly used his enormous influence in 
 canvassing for support ; to the gentle he appealed by 
 tenderness, " Lovest thou me ?" One must draw a veil 
 over the manner in which he treated the aged Chal- 
 dean patriarch. 
 
 And, as might be expected under the circumstances, 
 a Council so constituted and so manipulated, has ex- 
 ceeded that mighty power which Councils have hereto- 
 fore exercised. A Council cannot create new objects 
 of faith ; it may proclaim what is an article of faith, 
 but only in accordance with Holy Scripture and tra- 
 dition. Christianity must not be treated as a philo- 
 sophical idea. In its essence, it is a revelation given 
 once for all. Bishops come together to declare what
 
 826 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 is the tradition of their sees, and to testify to the 
 universal reception of the old truth. Consequently, 
 a point upon which opposite opinions have been long 
 tolerated, can never possess that universality and con- 
 sent which is the test of Catholic truth. The very fact 
 that an opinion has been long held and tolerated, (and 
 be it remembered that an authoritative denial of Papal 
 Infallibility was the price at which the English and 
 Irish Roman Catholics obtained their emancipation,) 
 is sufficient to forbid for ever that the opposite opinion 
 can, by any power, be erected into dogma. Thereby, 
 such doctrine can never be said to have been held 
 semper, ubique, et ab omnibus. Another consequence is 
 that no question in a Council, which involves so awful 
 a matter as the erection of a pious opinion into an 
 article of faith, the belief of which involves the salva- 
 tion or damnation of countless immortal souls, can be 
 made by a majority of votes. It is impossible to be- 
 lieve that the mind of the Holy Ghost is ascertained by 
 counting heads. Till now, in Councils, decisions have 
 only been arrived at by a morally unanimous vote a . 
 
 Moreover, the actual doctrine which has been sought 
 to be established by the recent Vatican Synod is at- 
 tended by special difficulties of its own. A Council 
 dealing with Infallibility must either declare it or 
 confer it. It must either declare that it is the essence 
 of the Christian Faith from the beginning, that the 
 
 a Since this was written the greater mass of the Bishops of the 
 minority are said to have succumbed. But this regrettable fact cannot 
 alter the circumstances under which the decree was passed.
 
 I/ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 827 
 
 successor of St. Peter, under certain conditions, is, 
 and always has been, infallible; or being confessedly, 
 as the organ of the Church Catholic, infallible itself, 
 whereinsoever the decrees are accepted and confirmed 
 by the whole Church throughout the world, of which 
 it is the representative, it must confer this prerogative 
 upon him. Both these positions are surrounded by 
 difficulty. On the one hand, not only is there no ap- 
 pearance of a personal infallibility, as distinct from 
 a solemn magisterial authority, being exercised by the 
 Pope for a thousand years after Christ, but every cir- 
 cumstance of Church history militates against such a 
 supposition. The very institution of Councils is utterly 
 irreconcileable with the historical existence and exer- 
 cise of such a power as that of an infallible Pope. The 
 treatment of the different heresies, which would natu- 
 rally have evoked its exhibition, emphatically negative 
 its existence. Where was the infallible voice when 
 the world groaned and found itself Arian ? when the 
 Council of Chalcedon sat in judgment upon the tome 
 of St. Leo ? when Zosimus overlooked plain heresy in 
 Coelestius ? when the miserable Yigilius again and 
 again contradicted himself? when Agatho confirmed the 
 sixth Council which had anathematized his predecessor 
 Honorius by name ? when Gregory II., speaking out 
 of the authority of the Roman See, allowed polygamy 
 under certain circumstances? when Stephen II. af- 
 firmed that baptism with wine was valid ? when Ser- 
 gius III. and Stephen VI. annulled the indelible orders 
 conferred by Formosus ?
 
 828 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Nay, further, we must ask where was the personal 
 infallibility when we find Popes distinctly affirming 
 their own liability to error ? If John XXII. expressly 
 revoked on his deathbed whatever he had preached or 
 written that was suspected of heresy ; if Gregory XI. 
 protested that if he had said anything against the 
 Catholic faith, he recalled the same ; if Pius IV., in 
 a question of marriage, assumed that he and his pre- 
 decessors may have been mistaken, we must hold that 
 they, at least, maintained with the entire mediaeval 
 Church, that A POPE MIGHT FALL INTO HERESY. 
 
 But in the formula put forth by the Vatican Synod b , 
 these historical difficulties are sought to be evaded 
 by the phrase which confines Infallibility to < the con- 
 dition " cum ex cathedra loquitur, id est, cum omnium 
 Christianorum pastoris et doctoris munere fungens pro 
 suprema sua apostolica auctoritate doctrinain de fide 
 vel moribus ab universa ecclesia tenendum definit." 
 But who is to determine this ? Have not some of the 
 most erroneous declarations of Popes been enunciated 
 
 b We subjoin the text of the actual definition : 
 
 " REVELATIONE DOGMA ESSE DEFINIMTJS : 
 
 " Romanum Pontificem cum ex Cathedra loquitur (id est, cum om- 
 nium Christianorum Pastoris et Doctoris munere fungens, pro suprema 
 sua Apostolica auctoritate doctrinam de fide vel moribus et universa 
 ecclesia tenendam definit) per assertentiam divinam, ipsi in Beato Petro 
 promissam, ea Infallibilitate pollere, qua Divinus Redemptor Ecclesiam 
 suam in definienda doctrina de fide vel moribus instructam esse voluit, 
 ideoque ejusmodi Romani Pontificis Definitionis ex sese, non autem ex 
 consensu ecclesiae, irreformahilis esse. 
 
 "Si quis autem huic nostra Definition! contradicere, quod Deus 
 avertat, prsesumpserit, anathema sit."
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 829 
 
 under circumstances of the greatest solemnity ? The 
 argument cuts both ways. If the Popes did not enun- 
 ciate these errors under the requisite conditions, it was 
 because, at that time, they did not recognise the high 
 mission claimed for them. It is true that high pre- 
 tension and exorbitant claims were, from time to time, 
 put forward by the Roman Pontiffs in early ages. But 
 they never claimed infallibility. So that the cases of 
 error just quoted cannot be alleged, as not coming 
 under the limitation that, on these occasions, the Popes 
 did not speak as omnium Christianorum pastoris et doc- 
 tor is munere fungens. As a matter of fact, history sup- 
 plies no instance of the fulfilment of these conditions, 
 for a thousand years after Christ. 
 
 But supposing that the facts of history are too clear 
 for the belief that the personal Infallibility of the Pope 
 is one of the principles of the Christian religion, a part 
 of the primitive TrapaKaradrj/crj, we may suppose, ad- 
 mitting the principle of development, that the Council 
 may confer its own power on the Pope, and, infallible 
 itself, make him infallible. Although this involves the 
 absurdity of the existence of two separate infallible 
 organs in the same Church, a notion almost as absurd 
 
 O ' 
 
 as that of the possibility of there being two Almighty 
 Beings, it would seem that something like this was in 
 the minds of the promoters of the Council, else why go 
 to the Council at all ? If the Pope was essentially 
 infallible, he ought to have proclaimed it proprio motu, 
 and not gone to the inferior authority for his title. 
 But the common law of Christendom had always held
 
 830 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 that a legitimate and approved Council was the highest 
 tribunal in the Church, and therefore recourse was 
 had to that. But a Council, although infallible, is not 
 omnipotent; and the power and responsibility of in- 
 fallibility cannot be shifted at will from the corporate 
 body to any individual. The gift was to the Body of 
 Christ, a gift to, be exercised, not delegated, not re- 
 signed. As the great Mohler says, in this becoming 
 the advocate of the position which the Church of 
 England is obliged to assume with reference to these 
 determinations : " To no individual, considered as such, 
 doth infallibility belong : for the Catholic regards the 
 individual only as a member of the whole ; as living 
 and breathing in the Church. When his feelings, 
 thoughts, and will, are conformable to her spirit, then 
 only can the individual attain to inerrability. Were 
 the Church, to conceive the relation of the individual 
 to the whole in an opposite sense, [as the recent Council 
 has done, by rejecting the formula nixus testimonio eccle- 
 siarum, and by asserting that the Pope's definitions are 
 irreformable ex sese non autem ex consensu ecclesm,'] 
 and consider him as personally infallible, then she 
 would destroy the very notion of community ; for com- 
 munity can only be conceived as necessary, when the 
 true faith and pure and solid Christian life cannot be 
 conceived in individualisation." (Mohler, Symbolik, 
 vol. ii. p. 10, ed. Robertson.) 
 
 Our appeal, then, must still be to a Council. We 
 have appealed before to a Council, really free, of one 
 mind, declaring authoritatively what had, although not
 
 J/ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 831 
 
 formally enunciated, ever been the faith of the Church. 
 German Catholics, too, have sought for redress against 
 the late Council and its decisions, both as to the extent 
 of the authority which it ascribes to the Bishop of 
 Rome, and to the enunciation of Papal infallibility as 
 an article of faith. 
 
 One important declaration of " many German Pro- 
 fessors of Theology, Ecclesiastical Law and Philosophy" 
 is as follows : " We are convinced that any longer 
 silence in regard to the Papal decree published through 
 the Bull Pastor JEternm, in consequence of the de- 
 cision of the majority of the assemblage of Bishops in 
 the Vatican, of July 18, 1870, is neither becoming to 
 us, nor can be for the benefit of the Church. 
 
 " In the third chapter of the Constitutio dogmatica 
 prima de ecclesia Christi, it is set forth as de fide, that 
 ' the Roman Bishop has not only the office of super- 
 intendence and supreme guidance of the Church, but 
 is inherently possessed of the whole fulness of power, 
 and possesses over all Churches and each Church, over 
 all who are over the Churches and each several indi- 
 vidual, and over each individual Christian, the ordi- 
 nary and immediate power.' 
 
 "In the fourth chapter it is taught that 'it is an 
 article of faith revealed by God, that the Roman 
 Bishop, as Teacher for the whole Church (ex Cathedra), 
 possesses, in matters of faith and morals, the infalli- 
 bility promised by Christ to the Church, and that 
 therefore such decisions are irreformable in themselves, 
 not on ground of the agreement of the Church.'
 
 832 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 " These positions we cannot acknowledge as the ex- 
 pressions of a truly (Ecumenical Council ; we reject 
 them as new doctrines, never acknowledged by the 
 Church. Of the grounds hereafter to be developed by 
 strictest scientific method, we name the following : 
 
 " 1. The doctrine of the Church on these points was 
 never ascertained in the Council, in consequence of the 
 concealment before its opening, as also of the pre- 
 vention of any full statement of testimonies, and of the 
 free expression of opinion, through the premature close 
 of the debate. Thereby the essential problem for an 
 (Ecumenical Council was set on one side. 
 
 "2. That freedom from any sort of moral com- 
 pulsion, and from any influence through a higher 
 power, which is of the essence of an (Ecumenical 
 Council, was wanting in that assembly; among other 
 things, 
 
 " (a.) Because an order of proceeding, destructive 
 of freedom, was, contrary to the practice of earlier 
 Councils, imposed by the Pope, notwithstanding the 
 Protest of a great number of Bishops, and was again 
 subsequently modified without the consent of the 
 assembly, and against a renewed protest. 
 
 " (b.} Because in a doctrine yet to be decided, and 
 personally relating to the Pope, a moral oppression 
 was practised towards its members through the most 
 manifold means which stand at the command of 
 the Pope. 
 
 " 3. Whereas heretofore it was ever held as a rule 
 in the Church, that only what ' was acknowledged,
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 833 
 
 ever, everywhere, and by all,' can be matter of faith 
 of the Church. This principle was departed from in 
 the Vatican assembly. A mere fraction of an assembly 
 of Bishops has, against the persevering contradiction 
 of a minority, important ' for its number as well as for 
 the dignity and extent of its Churches/ elevated to 
 a matter of faith, a doctrine, in regard to which it is 
 evident and notorious that none of the three conditions, 
 the ever, or the everywhere, or the by all, belong to it. 
 This proceeding practically involves a position, wholly 
 new, that an opinion, the contrary of what has hitherto 
 been freely taught, and in many dioceses believed, can 
 be declared to be a doctrine revealed by God. 
 
 "4. In that this third chapter transfers to the Pope 
 the ordinary jurisdiction in the several dioceses, which, 
 according to Catholic doctrine, belongs to the Bishop, 
 the nature and essence of the Episcopate, as a divine 
 institution given in the Apostolate, and as an integral 
 portion of the Church is, in reference thereto, wholly 
 annihilated. 
 
 "5. Through the declaration, that all doctrinal ex- 
 pressions of the Pope directed to the whole Church 
 are infallible, those ecclesiastico-political positions and 
 declarations of older or more modern indulgence, which 
 teach the subjection of states, peoples, and princes in 
 secular matters also to the power of the Pope ; and, in 
 regard to the toleration of dissenters, and the rights of 
 the clergy as an order, set up principles contrary to 
 the present system of society, are declared to be in- 
 fallible rules of faith. Thereby the peaceable under- 
 
 3n
 
 834 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 standing between Church and State, between clergy 
 and laity, between catholics and dissenters, is, for the 
 future, shut out. 
 
 "In view of the distraction, which, through these 
 new doctrines, has already come into the Church, and 
 which may be expected to increase hereafter, we look 
 confidently to those Bishops who have opposed these 
 doctrines, and who, through their conduct at the 
 Assembly, have deserved the thanks of the Catholic 
 world ; and, at the same time, we entreat them, duly 
 weighing the necessities of the Church and the op- 
 pression of consciences, to use all the means at their 
 command to obtain speedily a true, free (Ecumenical 
 Council, which, to be such, must be held, not in Italy, 
 but this side of the Alps." 
 
 Another still more important document is as fol- 
 lows : " In face of the official measures and announce- 
 ments of the German bishops in favour of the Vatican 
 decrees, the undersigned consider it necessary to guard 
 their position by the following declaration ; and, so 
 far as in them lies, to meet that bewilderment of con- 
 sciences which is breaking in upon us. 
 
 " 1. True to the inviolable duty of every Catholic 
 Christian a duty not disputed by Pope or bishops 
 to hold fast to the ancient faith, and to repudiate every 
 innovation, were it preached even by an angel from 
 heaven, we persist in our rejection of the Vatican 
 dogmas. That every Christian should have in the 
 Pope, whether personally or represented by his legates 
 and plenipotentiaries, an absolute lord and master to
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 835 
 
 whom he is directly and immediately subject, and 
 whom, on pain of temporal and eternal perdition, he 
 is bound unconditionally to obey in everything which 
 relates to his religious belief and to the whole sphere of 
 his moral conduct this has never yet been the teaching 
 of the Church, and has formed no part of the Catholic 
 faith. Equally notorious is it that, up to this time, it 
 has not been the teaching of the Church that infalli- 
 bility has ever been vouchsafed to any single man, 
 the Pope for the time being, in his pronouncements to 
 the Church on matters of faith, and on the duties and 
 rights of men. These principles have hitherto been 
 mere opinions, greatly favoured, indeed, by Rome, and 
 defended by every exercise of power at her disposal, 
 but combated and rejected by the most eminent theo- 
 logians without their incurring any censure. It is well 
 known and if the German bishops do not know they 
 ought to know that these doctrines owe their origin 
 to fraud and their propagation to violence. By these 
 doctrines, as the Pope has proclaimed them in his 
 Vatican decrees, the whole body of the faithful are 
 robbed of their essential rights, their testimony is 
 nullified, the weight of Church tradition is diminished, 
 and the supreme maxim of the Catholic faith is de- 
 stroyed namely, that the Christian is bound to accept 
 that only which has been taught and believed always, 
 everywhere, and by all. Since, however, the last 
 pastoral of the German bishops maintains that it is 
 Peter who has spoken by the mouth of the Pope, who 
 declares himself infallible, we must simply reject the
 
 836 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 statement as a blasphemy. Peter speaks to us clearly, 
 and in a way which all may understand, in his acts 
 and speeches as they are recorded in Holy Scripture, 
 and in the epistles which he has addressed to us. But 
 those acts, speeches, and epistles of the Apostle breathe 
 a totally different spirit, and contain an entirely dif- 
 ferent doctrine, from that which is now attempted to 
 be forced upon us. It has, indeed, been attempted to 
 soften down these new doctrines, which, in their naked 
 crudeness and almost incalculable import, wound every 
 Christian feeling, and, to delude people with the notion 
 that they are ancient, have always been believed, and 
 are really harmless. As before, so in their last pas- 
 toral, the bishops have taken pains to represent the 
 infallibility of which the decrees speak as if it were the 
 prerogative of the teaching body, consisting jointly of 
 popes and bishops. This, however, contradicts the 
 plain language of the decree, according to which the 
 Pope only, and he of himself, is infallible ; he alone 
 receives the assistance of the Holy Spirit, and in his 
 decisions is entirely independent of the judgment of 
 the bishops, whose assent to every papal pronounce- 
 ment has now become matter of duty, and can no 
 longer be refused. But since the German bishops 
 maintain that the 'plenitude of power' which, accord- 
 ing to the Vatican decrees, belongs to the Pope, cannot 
 be designated as absolute and universal, because the 
 Pope is bound in his exercise of it to the teaching, 
 ordinances, and principles of divine revelation, one 
 might just as well say that there is no such thing as
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 837 
 
 absolute despotic power even among the Mahometans. 
 For even the Sultan of Turkey or the Shah of Persia 
 acknowledges the limitations of the Divine law and of 
 the rules of the Koran. The Pope, by the new de- 
 crees, not only claims to dominate the whole sphere of 
 morals; he also alone determines, and with infallible 
 authority, what belongs to that sphere, what is the law 
 of God, and how it is to be interpreted and applied in 
 individual cases. In the exercise of this power the 
 Pope has nobody's consent to ask for, is responsible to 
 no one on earth, and no one can gainsay him ; every 
 one, be he who he may, prince or day-labourer, bishop 
 or layman, is bound to pay him unreserved obedience, 
 and to fulfil every one of his commands without dis- 
 pute. If such a power is not to be called absolute and 
 despotic, then there has never been an absolute and 
 despotic power in the world. 
 
 " 2. We persevere in our firmly-grounded conviction 
 that the Vatican decrees constitute a serious danger 
 for States and for society; that they are absolutely 
 incompatible with the laws and institutions of modern 
 States; and that we, by accepting them, should be 
 brought into hopeless conflict with our political duties 
 and oaths. In vain do the bishops attempt partly to 
 blot out, and partly by arbitrary explanation of papal 
 bulls to set aside, the undeniable fact that these bulls 
 and decisions subject all political authorities to the 
 absolute control of the Papal See, and condemn with 
 peculiar emphasis those laws which are the most in- 
 dispensable in the present social order. The bishops
 
 838 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 "know very well that the Vatican decrees do not leave 
 them the least right to limit Papal decrees, whether 
 the latest or the earliest, by skilfully-devised interpre- 
 tations, and that the opposite interpretation of a single 
 Jesuit weighs just as much as that of a hundred 
 bishops. Moreover, there are already the interpreta- 
 tions of other prelates to set against those of German 
 bishops, and among them that of Archbishop Manning 
 of Westminster, who ascribes the widest conceivable 
 extent to Papal infallibility. And thus, notwithstand- 
 ing the episcopal denunciations, we hold ourselves 
 abundantly justified in calling that infallibility which 
 belongs to the Pope, and to him alone, without any 
 one else sharing it with him, a personal infallibility ; 
 for this term is here strictly correct, and in accordance 
 with the universal use of language, as the authority 
 possessed and exercised by a sovereign independently 
 of other State officials is called a personal one. For 
 even an official prerogative is rightly called a personal 
 one when it is so firmly and inseparably attached to an 
 individual that he can neither alienate nor depute it to 
 others. When the censures of the Syllabus now be- 
 come an infallible Papal decree, but which the German 
 bishops pass over in silence, the solemn condemnation 
 of the Austrian constitution by the Pope ; the con- 
 temporaneous publications of the Jesuits at Maria 
 Laach, Vienna, and Rome, (who notoriously are better 
 informed about the views of the Curia than the German 
 bishops) ; when all this is taken in connection with the 
 Vatican decrees, a man must shut his eyes not to re-
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 839 
 
 cognise the well-planned scheme of the universal do- 
 minion of the Pope. Our governments, our laws and 
 civil institutions, the whole domain of morality, the 
 actions of individuals all is for the future to be sub- 
 jected to the Curia and its tools and agents, whether 
 stationary or itinerant, be they bishops or Jesuits. As 
 sole legislator in matters of faith, discipline, and 
 morals, as supreme judge, as irresponsible ruler and 
 executor of his own decrees, the Pope possesses, ac- 
 cording to this new doctrine, such a plenitude of power 
 as the wildest fancy could not exaggerate. But the 
 German bishops would do well to take to heart the 
 excellent saying, formerly uttered, under similar cir- 
 cumstances, by the Franciscan Occam at Munich : 
 'If the Bishop of Rome possesses such a fulness of 
 power as the Popes culpably lay claim to, and as many 
 sycophants falsely attribute to them, all human beings 
 would be slaves, and that would openly contradict the 
 freedom of the Gospel law.' 
 
 " 3. We appeal to the unwilling testimony given by 
 the German bishops themselves for the righteousness 
 of our cause. "We openly and directly reject the new 
 doctrine that the Pope is the universal bishop and the 
 absolute ruler of every Christian in the whole sphere 
 of morals, that is, of all moral action, whatever the 
 bishops shew by the dissimilar and contradictory ex- 
 planations of their pastorals, that they are perfectly 
 aware of the novelty and offensiveness of this doctrine, 
 and are in reality ashamed of it. Not one of them can 
 bring himself to follow the example of Manning and
 
 840 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 the Jesuits, and let the Vatican decrees have their 
 simple and natural sense. But they forget that the 
 attempts at explanations and minimising adopted in 
 their pastorals, if they were to be applied to other 
 decisions on faith, would completely shake all security 
 of doctrine, and lead to a universal uncertainty of 
 belief. What, indeed, would remain secure and trust- 
 worthy either in. the ancient or recent decisions of the 
 Church on matters of faith, if the manipulation applied 
 in the last pastoral to the Bull of Boniface the Eighth 
 ('Unam sanctam') were to be applied to all of them; 
 if their clear language and obvious import were to be 
 thus directly contravened ? We deplore such an ex- 
 ercise of the episcopal office of teaching. We deplore 
 yet more deeply that these same bishops have not 
 shrunk from answering the cry of conscience of their 
 flocks in a joint pastoral by reproaches against reason 
 and science. Truly, if we look back from men who 
 seem to recognise no higher duty than blind obedience, 
 to their venerable predecessors in the episcopate, to 
 bishops like Cyprian, Athanasius, and Augustine, we 
 have a better right than St. Bernard to utter the cry 
 of pain, ' Quis nobis dabit videre ecclesiam sicut erat 
 in diebus antiquis ?' 
 
 " 4. We repudiate the threats of the bishops as un- 
 justifiable, and their violent measures as invalid and 
 not binding. Formerly it was a principle maintained 
 throughout the Church that ' where the point of time 
 could be named when a doctrine first came into vogue 
 that was a sure sign of its being a false one.' And
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 841 
 
 this is precisely the case with the new doctrine of 
 Papal infallibility. The precise period can be fixed 
 when this doctrine was first brought up, the persons 
 who invented it, and the interests they desired to serve 
 thereby. If Popes and bishops in former days excluded 
 from Church communion the authors and adherents of 
 an uncatholic doctrine, the main ground they invari- 
 ably put forward was the novelty of that doctrine, and 
 its incompatibility with the ancient traditional faith. 
 It was by this manifest and clearly established fact 
 that their doctrine had never before been esteemed 
 a part of Divine revelation, that the excommunicate 
 were to recognise the justice of their sentence and the 
 untenableness of what they had taught. Now, for the 
 first time for no case has occurred during eighteen 
 centuries men have been placed under excommu- 
 nication, not for maintaining and disseminating a new 
 doctrine, but for holding fast to the ancient faith which 
 they learned from their elders and teachers in school 
 and in church, and not accepting the opposite ; in fact, 
 for not choosing to change their faith like a garment. 
 That an unjust excommunication does not injure its 
 victims, but only those who impose it; that, on the 
 contrary, God will turn the sufferings of such innocent 
 victims into a source of blessings for them, is the com- 
 mon teaching of the fathers. We know, moreover, 
 that these sentences are as null and invalid as they are 
 unjust; that they can neither deprive the faithful of 
 their right to the sacraments of Christ, nor priests of 
 their power to administer them ; and we are determined
 
 842 I/ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 not to surrender our rights to censures pronounced in 
 furtherance of false doctrine. 
 
 " 5. We live in the hope that the contest which has 
 now broken out may be the means, under Divine guid- 
 ance, of bringing about the realisation of the long- 
 desired and inevitable reform in the constitution and 
 life of the Church. In the midst of our present 
 troubles and confusions we are elevated and encouraged 
 by looking to the future. If we are met at the present 
 moment throughout the Church by the overweening 
 abuses which would be strengthened and rendered un- 
 assailable by the triumph of the Vatican dogmas ; nay, 
 would at last extend to the annihilation of all Christian 
 life ; if we see, with grief, the efforts after a centralisa- 
 tion which paralyses the mind, and a mechanical uni- 
 formity ; if we observe the increasing incapacity of the 
 hierarchy, which can only accompany or interrupt the 
 great intellectual efforts of modern times by the jing- 
 ling of obsolete phrases and impotent curses, we are 
 yet encouraged by the memory of better days, and our 
 confidence in the Divine guide of the Church. While 
 we thus look backward and forward, there presents 
 itself to our eyes a picture of the true regeneration of 
 the Church, a condition of things wherein the cul- 
 tivated Catholic nations, without prejudice to their 
 membership in the body of the universal Church, but 
 free from the yoke of unjust dominion, forms and builds 
 up each one its own Church system, corresponding to 
 its character, and in harmony with its general culture 
 and with the labours of its clergy and laity ; while the
 
 L'ENVOY TO THE SECOND EDITION. 843 
 
 whole Catholic world enjoys the guidance of a primacy 
 and episcopate, which, by knowledge and by taking 
 active part in the common life, has conquered for itself 
 the insight and capacity for restoring and preserving 
 to the Church that position which is alone worthy of 
 her, at the head of the civilisation of the world. In 
 this way, and not through the Vatican decrees, shall 
 we at the same time approximate to that highest aim 
 of Christian progress the union of the now separated 
 Christian communities, which is willed and promised 
 by the Founder of the Church, longed for and invoked 
 with every advancing energy of desire by numberless 
 pious persons, and not least in Germany. May God 
 grant it !" 
 
 With this protest of the intellect of Germany in 
 our hands, we likewise, the members of the Anglican 
 Church, who do not regard a reference to history as 
 a sin against the Holy Ghost, still maintain our ap- 
 peal. We demand that we shall be judged in a Coun- 
 cil really free, really ecumenical, and we profess be- 
 forehand that if the necessary conditions that in times 
 past have been observed as to its convocation, manage- 
 ment, extent of power, ratification, and acceptance, be 
 fulfilled, we submit ourselves to it implicitly and most 
 submissive!}^ as the voice of God on earth, and as the 
 mouth-piece of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 |lrinicb bg lames Barker anb a., Crofon-garb, xforb.
 
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