I Our goodness shall compel them into the right way, truly CHAP more effectually than all your suspendings and cursings. Wherefore, if ye will have the lay people to live after your wish and will, first live you yourselves after the will of God, and so (trust me) ye shall get in them whatsoever ye will. "Ye will be obeyed of them, and right it is. For in the Thus may Epistle to the Hebrews these are the words of St. Paul to the the bishops lay people, 'Obey your rulers, and be you under them.' But ed and if ye will have this obedience, first perform in you the reason obeyed and cause of obedience which the said Paul doth teach, and it followeth in the text, 'Take you heed diligently, as though ye should give a reckoning for their souls,' and they will obey you. "You will be honoured of the people; it is reason. For St. Paul writeth unto Timothy, 'Priests that rule well are worthy double honours, chiefly those that labour in word and teaching.' Therefore, if ye desire to be honoured, first look that ye rule well, and that ye labour in word and teaching, and then shall the people have you in all honour. "You will reap their carnal things, and gather tithes and offerings without any striving-right it is. For St. Paul, writing to the Romans, saith, 'They are debtors, and ought to minister unto you in carnal things;' first, sow you your spiritual things, and then ye shall reap plentifully their carnal things. For truly that man is very hard and unjust that ' will reap where he never did sow, and gather where he never scattered.' be honour have true "Ye will have the Church's liberty, and not to be drawn And the before secular judges; and that also is right. But if ye desire Church this liberty, first unloose yourselves from the worldly bon- liberty dage, and from the services of men, and lift up yourselves into the true liberty, the spiritual liberty of Christ, into grace from sins, and serve your God and reign in Him, and then (believe me) the people will not touch the anointed of their Lord God. . . "These are they, reverend fathers and right famous men, that I thought to be said for the reformation of the Church's estate. I trust ye will take them of your gentleness to the best. And if peradventure it be thought that I have past my B I CHAP bounds in this sermon, or have said anything out of temper, forgive it me, and ye shall forgive a man speaking of very zeal to a man sorrowing the decay of the Church; and consider the thing itself, not regarding my foolishness; consider the miserable form and state of the Church; and endeavour yourselves with all your minds to reform it. "Suffer not, fathers, this your so great a gathering to depart in vain; suffer not this your congregation to slip for nought. Freely ye are gathered oftentimes together (but by your favour to speak the truth), yet I see not what fruit cometh of your assembling, namely, to the Church. "Go ye now in the Spirit that ye have called on, that by the help of it, ye may in this your council find out, discern, and ordain those things that may be profitable to the Church, praise unto you, and honour unto God: unto whom be all honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen." 7 In this earnest and vigorous appeal to the representatives of the clergy and to the bishops, we may observe that Colet looked upon the decay of religion throughout the Church as the result of evils and abuses among the clergy, the nature of which practical is such that they cannot be said to have been however, brought about by the ecclesiastical or theological gered on system which characterised the pre-Reformation Such abuses, still lin Church of England. Complaints of a similar description were made by Latimer forty years afterwards, by Tenison' at a still more recent date, and by not a few farseeing men in the last and earlier part of the present century. As men's thoughts came to dwell more on the subject of reformation, they gradually came to see that other changes were needed, and that the medieval phase of religion was, in reality, wearing out. The habits of the 7 Knight's Life of Colet, pp. 252264. See also Seebohm's Oxford Reformers of 1498, pp. 162-178. 8 Latimer's Sermons, ii. 243, and many other places. 9 Ellis' Orig. Letters, III, iv. 333. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLY XVTH CENTURY 19 I primitive Church had undergone a great change CHAP when the empire became Christian; the Western Church had gradually acquired habits different from those so carefully conserved in the East; the English Church in times that required external aid against domestic tyranny had given itself itself up to foreign influences. All these various changes had been brought about by the necessities of the ages in which they occurred; and now a new phase of the ecclesiastical system was opening out slowly to men's view, as the old and long-loved system of former days was found to fit in less and less with the times of transition that were now coming upon them. a ences at of Henry It is difficult to read history while it is being New influ made, and the most astute men of that period work in could not have seen as we can see how great crisis the reign had arrived in the course of our national life: but VIII. looking backward three centuries and a half, to the beginning of Henry VIII.'s reign, we may observe that the dawn of the sixteenth century was characterized by four great and prominent features. First, after several generations of civil disorganisation and strife, caused by the wars of York and Lancaster, the succession to the crown was settled in a manner which united all factions, and thus disposed of a question that had been the cause of an incessant political restlessness, as well as of fearful bloodshed and devastation. Secondly, a self-contained national independence was growing up around England, which caused her people, always insular in their feelings, to look with great disfavour upon anything like foreign interference with English affairs. Thirdly, the feudal system being at an end, a new influence, that of the middle classes, was I CHAP making itself extensively felt through the extension of commerce,1 and this was gradually attempering the absolute power of the monarchs and great nobles. Fourthly, the giant art of printing had sprung with wonderful rapidity into the full strength and vigour of adult life, and was originating a vast influence that could not fail to change the face of society in many important respects, and even to penetrate its constitution to the very heart. During the throes of such a gigantic social crisis it was impossible for the Church to stand still. Its foundations, indeed, were immoveable, but its superstructure was open to the influences of the convulsion How could going on around it. What many wise men were utilized for already considering was, How should these influthe Church ences be guided in their operation upon the Church, they be good of so that the result should be good and not evil? Perhaps also some, even then, may have considered that the Church was a spiritual engine placed under their care, for the spiritual guidance and control of the world in its onward course; and they may have seen that if that engine were not in some particulars adapted to the changing character of the materials on which it had to operate, its work could never be effectively performed. The consideration of these points in detail will, however, be reserved for future chapters; and we must go back to take a further survey of the abuses which Colet and others noticed, and which in their eyes made vigorous reformation of the Church a 1 It is also observable that the rise of our vast colonial dominions is to be traced to the period under survey. An empire like that of England was never before formed without conquest; nor does it seem possible that so vast a congeries of nations could have been formed and maintained under any old-world system. I pressing necessity. These we may conveniently CHAP class under three heads,-[1.] The organic or constitutional abuses, indicated by so many writers, as eating out the heart of the Church; [2.] the doctrinal errors which had grown up in mediæval times; and [3.] the superstitions with which religion had been burdened. § 1. CONSTITUTIONAL ABUSES WHICH NEEDED Perhaps the real foundation of most evils in the Non-reziChurch of England, for some time before and some ae after the Reformation, is to be found in the non-residence of those who held cure of souls. This evil centred in the bishops, and ramified into a majority of the parishes of England and its roots were so deeply planted in the substance of our ecclesiastical habits, that we are only just emerging from the mischief which it has caused.2 2 It is a great mistake to suppose that the bishops, clergy, and monks descended below the level of their age in respect to discipline and morals. It was probably very much the reverse in ancient times, as it undoubtedly has been in more recent days. In Mr. Foss's Lives of the Judges of England it is abundantly proved that the judicial bench was guilty of corruptions far greater than have ever been proved against the Episcopal bench. The great and learned judge, Ranulph de Glanville, charged Sir Gilbert de Plumpton with the illegal marriage of his wife, with theft and violence, and condemned him to death, for no other object than to marry the : young widow to a rich friend. dence |