CHAP renounced deal exclusively with the administrative V and, what may not unfitly be called, secular phase of A.D. 1534 the question. Parliament enacted that no taxes terdicted should be paid by Englishmen to the Bishop of Rome, that he should have no judicial authority in England, that his assumed rights to patronage should be abolished,-that his license should not be required for ecclesiastical appointments,—and that he should no longer have authority to override English law by his dispensations. In the course of all this legislation it became necessary sometimes to tread on the boundary of the theological question; as for example, by providing Papal in that papal excommunications and interdicts should terdicts in- not prevent the celebration of divine service or the administration of sacraments. But nothing was said as to the spiritual authority of the Pope by reason of his episcopal office, all these laws relating to ecclesiastical rights, which were not (to say the least) indissolubly bound up with the theological principle. It might be that although the legislature of the country had justly enacted all this, yet the Pope had a spiritual power over the souls of Englishmen which no legislative act could abolish; and that this power was effective in the spiritual world and in the sight of God, though not in the world which temporal laws deal with, or in the sight of man. Church and Universities decide The theological aspect of the papal jurisdiction was sent for determination to the Convocations of the formally clergy, and to the Universities of Oxford and Camagainst pa bridge. Of the discussions which ensued, no records remain, those of Convocation having been destroyed by fire. But there does remain on record the definitive sentence of the Church of England, uttered by its pal claims "3 V A. D. 1534 assent of representative assemblies. The Convocation of Can- CHAP terbury declared, on March 31, 1534, and that of York on May 5, 1534, "that the Bishop of Rome has no greater jurisdiction conferred on him by God, in this kingdom of England, than any other foreign bishop.' There seems to have been no difficulty in obtaining the assent of the clergy, whether in the General Convocations, at the Universities, or elsewhere, to this the clergy final repudiation of the papal supremacy. It was subscribed, apparently without hesitation, even in the monasteries. The learned Wharton' says that documents then in his custody showed how general the subscription was. There remained in the Exchequer in his time no fewer than a hundred and seventy-five authentic instruments of this kind, which contained the subscriptions of all the bishops, chapters, monasteries, colleges, hospitals, &c., of thirteen dioceses: and that to his certain knowledge, the original sub- in every scriptions of the remaining dioceses were lodged England elsewhere. The University of Oxford subscribed on June 27, 1534, that of Cambridge about the same regno Angliæ, quam quivis alius A similar document by the Uni- 4 Observations on Strype's Memorials of Abp. Cranmer. Many such subscriptions, including those of Bishops, Abbots, Priors, and of the University of Oxford, are contained in MS. Cleop. E. vi. diocese of V A.D. 1534 5 CHAP time and the bishops were even zealous in preaching on the subject, as may be seen by their letters still extant. The almost centenarian Bishop of Chichester, Robert Sherborne, who had presided over that see since 1508, writes that he had preached himself concerning it on June 13th, that he had commissioned his suffragan to do the same in the towns of his diocese, and that "there is neither abbot, prior, dean, archdeacon, provost, parson, vicar, nor curate within my diocese, but they have commandment to publish the same in their churches every Sunday and solemn feast accordingly." Summary The clergy of England were, there can be no doubt, quite ready at that time to renounce the papal supremacy and English divines had no hesitation in declaring that there was a total absence of theological ground for its maintenance. A period of reaction came when (as in early medieval days) the tyranny of the crown and its ministers bore so heavily upon them that they were willing to bow themselves again under the old yoke, as the less heavy and ruinous to the Church. But so long as the question was unencumbered by such circumstances, and it seemed as if the independent Church of England would be fairly dealt with by the crown, so long the clergy were willing not only to recognise the principle, but to act upon it in practice, that the jurisdiction of the Pope in England was an usurped jurisdiction, and one that ought to be put away. A few words will suffice to sum up the course of legislation by which the papal jurisdiction in England was extinguished. 5 In the same volume. V 1. In 1531 the clergy in Convocation petitioned CHAP the King for an Act of Parliament by which the payment of annates should be abolished; suggesting A.D. 1534 that if the Pope resisted the operation of such an act England should withdraw from obedience to Rome. This declaration was nearly contemporaneous with the recognition of the royal supremacy by Convocation. 2. A provisional act was passed in consequence, embodying the wishes and the suggestions of the clergy. This Act [23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20] did not come into operation for nearly three years, the King meanwhile endeavouring, but in vain, to bring about an amicable arrangement on the subject with the Pope. 3. In 1532-3, an act was passed abolishing the appellate jurisdiction of the See of Rome, and vesting it in the archbishops, bishops, and other ordinaries of the Church of England. But by the "Act of Submission," which shortly followed, a final appeal was permitted to the King in Chancery. 4. In 1534, the influence of the Pope in the appointments to English sees, and the profits which he derived from it, received its final death-blow from an act [25 Hen. VIII. cap. 20] which forbad the payment of first-fruits to him, and defined the manner in which bishops were in future to be appointed, by a nominal election of the person nominated by the King in letters missive accompanying the congé d'élire. 5. In the same year an act was passed [25 Hen. VIII. 21] confirmed by another in 1536, by which, although all that had been done by the Pope in previous times was allowed to stand for the sake of 278 PAPAL JURISDICTION FINALLY ABOLISHED the vested interests involved, no further authoritative documents from him were to run in England. 6. Finally, the Convocations of Canterbury and York, the Universities, and all the clergy of England endorsed as they had suggested-the Acts of the State, by declaring that "the Bishop of Rome has no greater jurisdiction conferred on him by God in this kingdom of England than any other foreign bishop." Thus the jurisdiction of the Pope was finally abolished in this country, being transferred in spiritual things to the local episcopate, in temporal things to the crown. What is called "Roman Catholic Emancipation" has led to a restoration of it, by sufferance of Parliament, over that part of the nation which belongs to the Roman Catholic sect, but the Church of England has rejected it once and for ever. |
