VIII law of God; and that it exempeth them from other liberties CHAP of Christian people, which, without that, they might enjoy. "Fifthly, That this is meet and necessary, that private A.D. 1539 Masses be continued and admitted in the King's English Church and Congregation; as whereby good Christian people, ordering themselves accordingly, do receive both godly and goodly consolations and benefits; and it is agreeable also to God's law. "Sixthly, That auricular confession is expedient and necessary to be retained and continued, used and frequented, in the church of God." The Act then goes on to say that Parliament gives great thanks to his Majesty for his godly pains and travail; and desiring that the said Articles may be established, enacts that offenders against the first shall be adjudged heretics, and shall be burned, and shall forfeit their goods as in cases of high treason; while offenders against the other five shall suffer and forfeit as in cases of felony. In the remaining clauses provision is made for the appointment of commissioners in every shire to meet four times a year for inquiry concerning heresies; which are also to be inquired into by the ordinaries, the justices of the peace, and stewards of hundreds Every clergyman having cure of souls is also required to read the Act in his parish church four times every year. The last clause enacts that vows are only to be binding when taken by persons above twenty-one years of age. the Act of Articles The Act of the Six Articles justly acquired a bad Results of name for its penal clauses, which (although of the the Six same character as those in other Acts against heresy) were made more severe by the exactness with which the theological statements were made, an exactness precluding evasion. Yet, strange to say, all extant VIII CHAP evidence tends to show that the labour and pains expended on it were mere state-craft, and its penal A.D. 1539 clauses little more than sound and fury! Historians commonly follow Lord Herbert in saying that persons "suffered daily" under this Act; but Lord Herbert's authority was Foxe, and Foxe says only, "What unity thereof followed, the groaning hearts of a great number, and also the cruel death of divers, both in the days of King Henry and of Queen Mary, can so well declare, I pray God never the like be felt hereafter."5 Now the Act of Six Articles was repealed by 1 Edw. VI. cap. 12, and was never revived, so that none of those condemned in Queen Mary's days could have been condemned under this cruel statute. It simply has nothing whatever to do with the "days of Queen Mary." Moreover, it was in operation for eight years during the reign of Henry VIII., and out of the twenty-eight persons executed during those years on account of their religion, very few indeed, if any, were condemned under this statute. It may have been that some were imprisoned under it, and that many were driven out of the country through fear of it, but such cases are not recorded; and when we consider the great industry of Foxe and Strype in collecting reports of such cases, the absence of them in this particular instance is an evidence of some importance." In spite, therefore, of the obloquy which has always been associated with the name of this Act, we are absolutely driven to the conclusion that it was only intended to strike terror into the hearts of the people, 5 Foxe's Acts and Mon., v. 262, by Parliament, and did not suffer ed. 1837. under this statute. 6 Even Dr. Barnes was attainted VIII which it did very effectually. Possibly some know- CHAP ledge of such an intention had been conveyed to Cranmer, and had overcome his opposition: for it is A.D. 1543 certain he did not oppose it (as stated by Foxe) in Parliament. But whatever the explanation of it, the fact is beyond dispute that the most cruel act against heretics that disgraced our Statute Book, so far as words go, was so administered or so neglected that it was practically inoperative. The key of its practical operation was, indeed, the appointment of commissioners for searching out and trying heretics: but the appointment was suspended for a year, at least in London, and probably elsewhere, so that for a while the Act remained all but a dead letter. In the beginning of 1543, another Act was passed [35 Hen. VIII. cap. 5] "concerning the qualification of the Statute of the Six Articles," and this (which much lessened the power of the executive, and made secret information or trial illegal) appears to have been passed because the Statute which it modified had in some cases been brought into operation. The Act of Six Articles was certainly a dead letter in one respect. It produced no real uniformity of opinion. So far was it from doing so that it caused a rapid under-current of reaction against the very doctrines it was intended to uphold: and when the strong hand of the King ceased to hold it in check, this reaction broke forth at once in a manner that would have astonished him if he could have witnessed it. During the remainder of Henry's reign there were no further direct dealings with doctrine, and what 7 It would be very pleasant to find that the mendicancy acts were equally inoperative as to their worst VIII CHAP was done respecting changes in divine service, religious customs, and the translation of the Holy Scriptures, is noticed in other chapters. We may, therefore, conclude our review of the doctrinal reformation of this reign with the remark that its importance has been very much underrated; and that, so far as it was an ecclesiastical movement, it settled the doctrine of the Church of England on very nearly its present footing. This was done by means of the two works which have been reviewed at length in the preceding pages, the "Institution of a Christian Man," and the "Necessary Doctrine and Erudition" which was afterwards compiled from its contents. It is also worthy of remark that this settlement of doctrine was entirely the work of the clergy. CHAPTER IX MODIFICATION OF THE DEVOTIONAL SYSTEM OF THE CHURCHI OF ENGLAND IN THE REIGN OF HENRY THE EIGHTII THE [A.D. 1535-A.D. 1544] IX HE same influences which led to a re-construction CHAP of the doctrinal system of the Church of England, and which were glanced at in the opening of the last chapter, were also leading to a re-construction of its devotional system. In medieval times most persons had been disposed to take everything for granted which came to them on respectable authority. When a reaction from this submissiveness of intellect arose, many went to the opposite extreme, and were disposed to take nothing for granted however respectable the authority on which it came, and to disbelieve all that had been previously Extremes believed. Under the first influence men grew and increof credulity superstitious in their belief, under the second they dulity became superstitious in their incredulity: the one unreasonably afraid of believing too little, the other quite as unreasonable in the fear of believing too much. The conflict between these two schools of thought influenced the minds of sensible and judicious men. very conspicuously in the carlier portion of the Refor |