2 VIII lecturer on Holy Scripture. He also wrote a treatise CHAP on the seven Sacraments, which indicates a very decided inclination to break away from ordinary habits of thought. But the treatise was never printed by Colet; and its only historical value is that of illustrating this growing tendency of educated men to strike out new lines rather than to walk servilely on those already chalked out by their predecessors. 3 cal discus But the spirit of inquiry soon extended itself to Theologithe uneducated as well as to the educated classes; sion among the laity and as it descended in the social scale, it stirred up much ignorant and irreverent controversy, ill-feeling, and even violence. At the one extreme was the habitual superstition and "ultramontanism" which the sixteenth century inherited from the fifteenth, at the other the wild and infidel principles of the foreign Anabaptists now finding a home among the lower classes of Englishmen. "Too many there be," says one of the Homilies a few years later, "which, upon the ale-benches or other places, delight to set forth certain questions not so much pertaining to edification as to vain-glory, and showing forth of their cunning, and so unsoberly to reason and dispute, that when neither part will give place to other, they fall to chiding and contention, and sometime from hot words to further inconvenience. St. Paul could not abide to hear among the Corinthians these words of discord or dissension, 'I hold of Paul, I of Cephas, and I of Apollos.' What would he then say if he heard these words of contention which be now almost in every man's mouth? He is a Pharisee,' 2 Printed for the first time in 1867, when it was edited, with an introduction, by the Rev. J. H. Lupton, M.A., Sur-Master of St. Paul's School. 3 Henry VIII.'s Treatise, "As sertio Septem Sacramentorum," is VIII CHAP he is a Gospeller,' 'he is of the new sort,' 'he is of the old faith,' 'he is a new-broached brother,' 'he is a good Catholic father,' he is a papist,' he is an heretic."" Review of doctrine of the clergy in synods The Acts of Parliament and proclamations use similar language, and that it is not at all exaggerated is shown by many of the narratives contained in Foxe's "Acts and Monuments." The spirit of inquiry was, in fact, developing into a spirit of doubt and unbelief-a rapid and dangerous recoil from the blind dogmatism and superstition which had been allowed to grow up during several preceding generations. Such a general unsettlement of religious opinion showed that the time had fully come for the Church to act, and that the great question of papal jurisdiction having been disposed of, the official representatives of the Church of England must now undertake the responsibility of reforming the doctrines and devotional customs which had been handed down by the Middle Ages. And here something must be said as to the authothe work rity by which this work was undertaken by the Church of England; for it has often been alleged by the opponents of her independence, that independent action on such subjects was contrary to the law and practice of the Catholic Church. Such an opinion is contradicted, however, by history; and the course taken by the Anglican reformers can be fully justified by Catholic precedents. For the Church was ordinarily governed and directed in all things by local synods down to the time of the first General Council, A.D. 325, and substantially so after the time of the sixth General "First part of Sermon against Contention and Brawling." VIII Council, A.D. 681. Even during those exceptional CHAP three centuries and a half, General Councils were only called in very special cases, and the ordinary affairs of particular churches were still left to their own local synods. Archbishop Laud has shown that this freedom extended even to matters of faith, local synods sometimes anticipating the decrees of General Councils : "For the council at Rome," he says, "under Pope Sylvester, Laud on anno 324, condemned Photinus and Sabellius (and their powers of local heresies were of high nature against the faith). The Council synods of Gangra about the same time [between 325 and 380] condemned Eustathius for his condemning of marriage as unlawful. The first council at Carthage, being a provincial, condemned rebaptization, much about the year 348. The provincial council at Aquileia, in the year 381, in which St. Ambrose was present, condemned Palladius and Secundinus for embracing the Arian heresy. The second council of Carthage handled and decreed the belief and preaching of the Trinity; and this a little after the year 424. The Council of Milevis in Africa, in which St. Augustine was present, condemned the whole course of the heresy of Pelagius, that great and bewitching heresy, in the year 416. The second council of Orange, a provincial too, handled the great controversies about grace and free-will, and set the Church right in them in the year 444. The third council of Toledo (a national one), in the year 589, determined many things against the Arian heresy, about the very prime articles of faith, under fourteen several anathemas. The fourth council of Toledo did not only handle matters of faith, for the reformation of that people, but even added also some things to the creed which were not expressly delivered in former creeds. Nay, the bishops did not only practise this to condemn heresies in national and provincial synods, and so reform these several places and the Church itself by parts, but they did openly challenge this as their right and due, and that without any leave asked of the see of Rome; for in this fourth council of Toledo they decree, 'That VIII CHAP if there happen a cause of faith to be settled, a general, that is a national synod of all Spain and Galicia shall be held thereon;' and this in the year 643: where you see it was then catholic doctrine in all Spain that a national synod might be a competent judge in a cause of faith. And I would fain know what article of faith doth more concern all Christians in general than that of Filioque? and yet the Church of Rome herself made that addition to the creed without a general council. . . And if this were practised so often and in so many places, why may not a national council of the Church of England do the like."5 Decrees of great Gen accepted by the Church of These arguments and illustrations might indeed be strengthened, in the case of the Church of England, by showing that it stood from the first in a peculiar position of independence, from the fact that the country never formed any part of the later empire, and had never therefore been thoroughly assimilated in habits with the Southern Churches of Europe that the Roman canon law never prevailed to any extent in this country, which had always a canon law of its own: and that its liturgy was always essentially national. It is well-known, however, that as far as matters eral Coun- of faith are concerned, the later Church of England cils always has as constantly received the decrees of the first six General Councils (the only six which have been England universally accepted by Christendom) as the Church of Rome itself has done; and neither her provincial synods nor her convocations have ever attempted to meddle with primary articles of faith except by way of solemn acceptance and confirmation. Nor has the Church of England ever manifested the least reluctance to take part in any General Council. Henry VIII. and Cranmer both made formal appeals Laud against Fisher, § 24, 126, 127, ed. 1839. VIII' to such a council, and negotiations were on foot in CHAP Elizabeth's reign for the representation of England at the Council of Trent. But no council can ever be A.D. 1535 generally acknowledged as oecumenical by Christendom at large in which the Pope claims to be more than a presiding moderator: and until a free council is properly constituted, England, at least, must look to its national synods for spiritual guidance, even in matters of faith. It has been already shown that the repudiation of the papal jurisdiction and other matters of disciplinary reform were practical enunciations of the principles indicated in the preceding pages and it will now be shown how the same principles were brought to bear on the reformation of doctrine in the Church of England. : vocation of The convocation which was opened at St. Paul's The Conon June 9, 1536, with a sermon by Bishop Latimer, 1536 was evidently expected to do some important work. It was the critical time of the northern rebellion, and the dissolution of the lesser monasteries: the full effects of renouncing the Pope's authority were just beginning to be felt, the seething spirit of controversy was reaching its climax, and a general feeling pervaded society that further great changes were at hand. No session was held for business until June 21st. On that day Cromwell (who appeared in the anoma lous position of the King's Vicar-General') brought • Cromwell had tried to carry his assumption still further by sending a deputy to take his place in the Convocation. This was Dr., afterwards Sir William Petre, who kept in office under every sovereign from Henry VIII. to Elizabeth inclusive, and including |