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CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND AT ITS HIGHEST POINT OF INFLUENCE.

1710-1717.

§ 5.

§ 1. Church at its highest point of political influence. § 2. External devotion. § 3. Social condition of the Clergy. § 4. Able writers. Dean Swift. § 6. Humphrey Prideaux, William Wall, Joseph Bingham. § 7. Bishops Bull and Beveridge. § 8. The sermons of the period. § 9. Frequent services. § 10. Negotiations for a union with the German Protestants. § 11. Convocation ordered to discuss certain points. § 12. The case of William Whiston. § 13. Atterbury interrupts the proceedings of Convocation. § 14. The Declaration as to Lay Baptism. § 15. Zeal of the House of Commons for High Church views. § 16. The new Parliament passes the Schism Bill. § 17. Progress in Convocation. § 18. Interrupted by the case of Dr. Samuel Clarke. § 19. Death of the Queen; serious loss to the Church. § 20. Feeling of the Church at the accession of George I. § 21. Hoadly's attack upon Church principles. § 22. The censure of the Convocation of Canterbury. § 23. Prorogation and silencing of Convocation.

§ 1. In the year 1710 the Church of England was at the height of its power and influence. It had controlled the elections, and returned a Parliament devoted to its interests. The queen was its zealous friend and supporter. Its popularity among all classes was unbounded. The Nonconformists saw that their cause was hopeless. "So far are we," writes Dr. Calamy, "from any hopes of a coalition, that nothing will do but an entire submission.” 1 Parliament voted the erection of fifty new churches out of public funds.2 The House of Commons declared that it would receive the recommendations of the Lower House of Convocation "with particular regard ; and the clergy, with the exception of the bishops, became the ruling power in the State.

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§ 2. And as the political influence of the Church grew, so did also its influence on the devotional feelings of the people. A strong development of external observance was everywhere to be seen. "Some would not go to their seats in church until they had kneeled and prayed at the rails of the communion-table. They would not be content to receive the sacrament there kneeling, but with prostration and striking of the breast and kissing of the ground, as if there were an Host to be adored." Services with 1 Calamy's Baxter, i. 725.

2 The duty of one shilling per chaldron on coals, which had been employed for building St. Paul's, was given for three years to provide £350,000 for these churches.

choral accompaniments were preferred to sermons, and even pictures about the altar began to be the books of the vulgar.”1

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§ 3. The clergy `ad not advanced much in social position since the Restoration. They were still badly paid, and did not take rank with the gentry of the land, but they had learned the power of combination. They met constantly in political coffee-houses; their energies and thoughts were turned in one particular channel ; and thus, favoured also by other circumstances, they obtained an extraordinary influence.

§ 4. Neither were they without political writers of great talent and power, or learned writers, the fame of whose labours added repute to the whole body. Of the first class was the famous Dean Swift. Of the second were Dean Prideaux, Joseph Bingham, and William Wall.

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§ 5. Jonathan Swift was first known as the chaplain of Sir W Temple, and as the assistant of his patron in his literary quarrel with Wotton and Bentley. In 1704 he wrote his Tale of a Tub, a profane but very witty satire on religious controversies; and in 1710 he was employed in using his clever pen in the support of the Tory ministry. His satirical pieces, his historical sketches, his papers in the Examiner, his lampoons on Whig bishops, produced the greatest excitement, and were welcomed by the Tory and High Church party with intense delight. Swift would probably have reached the highest promotion had not Archbishop Sharp firmly opposed his claims, on the ground of the inexcusable ribaldry and profanity which are too apparent in his writings.4 As Sharp was the trusted adviser of the queen, the witty satirist advanced no farther than the deanery of St. Patrick's.

§ 6. Of the more learned writers of the clergy at this time, Humphrey Prideaux, Dean of Norwich, produced his very valuable Connection of Sacred and Profane History, which was written in such a taking style, that it ran through no less than eleven editions in five years. William Wall, vicar of Shoreham, gave to the world a very learned and exhaustive History of Infant Baptism; and Joseph Bingham, driven from Oxford by his share in the Trinitarian controversy, composed at Headbourne Worthy, near Winchester, that vast monument of erudition and labour--the Antiquities of the Christian Church.

1 Kennett's Life, p. 127; Defence of the Church and Clergy of England, p. 59.

2 For an account of the social position and incomes of the clergy of this period, see Notes and Illustrations to this chapter.

3 Sir W. Temple waged a literary war against Bentley on the subject of the comparative excellence of modern and ancient learning. Swift wrote his Battle of the Books in support of Temple's view.

4 Life of Archbishop Sharp, 333.

§ 7. Among her bishops also at this period, the Church could number the famous Bishop Bull1 and William Beveridge, one of the most learned of her theologians as well as one of the most devout of her preachers.

§ 8. The sermons of this period had been greatly improved by the influence of the school of Tillotson. They were no longer cumbrous disquisitions, overloaded with quotations either from the Scripture or the fathers, but compositions with some pretence to style, and some sense of the due proportions of the various parts of the subject. The admirable English of Swift and Addison found its way also into the pulpits, and though there was much danger of the sermon becoming too sententious and merely moral, yet, at any rate, it was more of a character to attract and instruct than the ill-digested rhapsodies of a previous period.

§ 9. That the clergy were not desirous to spare themselves either in preaching or in services there is good reason to believe. "Within the cities of London and Westminster," says a writer of that day, "and the suburbs of them, in most churches there be constant prayers morning and evening." 2 In all the cathedrals there were weekly celebrations of Holy Communion, and in many parish churches also.3 Preparation lectures were commonly given. In the country churches there were usually services on the litany days. Clerical meetings for the discussion of Holy Scripture and mutual counsel and assistance were not uncommon among the clergy, and upon the whole it may fairly be said that at this period the clergy displayed a zeal for their profession, which is in great measure lost sight of as we advance in the century.

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§ 10. The Church of England, indeed, presented at this time so fair an appearance in the eyes of foreigners, that overtures were made by the King of Prussia, through Dr. Jablonski, who had during a long stay in England become thoroughly acquainted with the formularies of the English Church, towards adopting the English Liturgy and Articles. Archbishop Tenison was unaccountably cold in the matter, but Archbishop Sharp took it up warmly, and the queen was greatly interested in it. The Prussians were informed that the one essential requisite for union was their acceptance of episcopacy and receiving the apostolical succession from the English prelates. To this Dr. Jablonski offered no opposition, and in fact appears to have heartily desired it. Probably the episco

1 George Bull was consecrated to St. David's 1705, and died in 1710. 2 Defence of the Clergy of England, p. 40; Pietas Londinensis (1712). 3 Defence, etc., p. 45; Life of Dean Comber, p. 180.

4 Defence, etc., p. 57.

See Lives of Dean Comber, Dean Prideaux, Archbishop Sharp.

pate might have been given to Germany, but, at this moment, negotiations for extending the plan to Hanover (for which there were great and manifest reasons) caused a delay, and before anything could be arranged, new complications of political affairs carried away the attention of the men in power from this most important matter.1

§ 11. It would naturally be expected from the temper of Parliament, the professed principles of the queen's present ministers, and the feeling of the country, that no impediment would any longer be placed in the way of the action of Convocation. The queen's license to proceed to business was sent to the Synod of Canterbury, January 23, 1711, and on January 29 a paper was brought from the queen, stating the points on which the Convocation was at liberty to debate and decide. These were—1. The growth of infidelity, heresy, and irreligion; 2. The regulation of the proceedings in excommunications; 3. The preparation of forms for the visitation of prisoners and condemned persons, for converts from the Church of Rome, for restoring those who had relapsed; 4. For regulating the duties of rural deans; 5. The making of Terriers for benefices; 6. The regulating licenses for matrimony.

§ 12. The Convocation entered upon the consideration of these subjects with zeal, and there was some prospect of a useful prac tical result being reached, when its labours were unfortunately interrupted by an exciting prosecution for heresy. William Whiston, professor of mathematics at Cambridge, had taken up the strange paradox that the Apostolical Constitutions-whose origin and date are at best but doubtful—were, in fact, of the age of the apostles, and of equal authority with the Holy Scriptures. Having been led by this strange theory into manifest heresy, Whiston was expelled from Cambridge, but he republished his book and dedicated it with a preface to the bishops and clergy in Convocation. Thus challenged, the Lower House examined the book, and reported on it to the Upper as directly opposed to the fundamental doctrines of the Christian religion. Upon this there arose a very interesting question as to the power of Convocation to sit as a court and try and censure a heretic. The matter was referred to the judges, and eight of them, together with the attorney and solicitor-general, pronounced that Convocation had such a power. The queen was desirous that it might be exercised. But difficulties arose. Was the Lower House to take part with the Upper in holding this court? Was the Convocation of York to be a sharer in the pro

1 A full account of these negotiations will be found in the Life of Arch bishop Sharp, i. 403-449, and vol. ii., Appendix.

ceedings? The matter seemed so full of difficulty, that the bishops decided, instead of trying the man, to censure the doctrine. As to the power of Convocation to do this there was no doubt. Both Houses concurred in a condemnation of certain passages from Whiston's book, but the paper being sent to the queen was by some inadvertence lost, and the matter came to nothing.1

§ 13. At the next meeting of Convocation, the bishops desired to resume the consideration of the subjects mentioned in the queen's letter at the point where they had dropped, but the Lower House-under the guidance of Atterbury, now their Prolocutorrefused. Atterbury was desirous to assimilate the proceedings of the House over which he presided in every way to those of the House of Commons, and as the House of Commons commenced all its business each session de novo, he claimed to do the same. This ambitious and unjustifiable claim stopped all business, and now another topic of dissension between High Church and Low Church was developed.

§ 14. In view of certain questions about baptism which had been raised by Mr. Dodwell, Camden professor at Oxford, a majo. rity of the bishops agreed to publish a declaration to the effect that baptism once administered with water in the name of the Holy Trinity is valid, and need not be repeated, whatever may have been the status of the person who performed the rite.2 To this declaration some of the High Church bishops objected, as giving too much countenance to Dissenters. Thus encouraged, the Lower House of Convocation thought fit to oppose it also, and to refuse to condemn the unorthodox practice of rebaptization. They even went so far as to advocate rebaptization when the rite had been administered by an unordained person. It would thus seem as though the High Church clergy were ready to sacrifice a most important principle, upheld by the Church in all ages, rather than forego an opportunity of vexing their opponents.3

§ 15. Meantime in Parliament the High Church party had obtained a great triumph. The bill against occasional conformity, which had been three times rejected by the Lords in the first Parliament of the reign, was now brought into the House of Lords and carried without a division. Being sent to the Commons, it was there received with the same general acquiescence, and at once became law. A further demonstration of the principles of the

1 Wilkins' Concilia, iv. 646, ings in Convocation.

651; Johnston's Account of the Proceed2 Life of Archbishop Sharp, i. 372. 3 The whole question of lay baptism is exhaustively treated by the learned Bingham in his Scholastical History of Lay Baptism. 4 Parl. Hist., vi. 1045.

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