II. RELIGION'S PEACE, A PLEA FOR LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE 1 VII. A PLEA FOR TOLERATION OF OPINIONS AND PERSUASIONS IN AN HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION. SECTION I. HENRY VIII. AMIDST the many eminent and remarkable events that signalized the rise and establishment of the Reformation in England-next after the introduction of the word of God, translated, and for the first time printed in the language of the people, in the year 1526, by the martyr Tyndale-there is not one of greater moment, nor so productive of large and continuing results, as the transference to the reigning sovereign of the ecclesiastical authority till then exercised by the pope. The exaltation of the royal prerogative above all ecclesiastical claims, and the imposition of a form of belief, accordant with the convictions or policy of the secular magistrate, were leading features of that great movement. To this, duty, based on a supposed right, sternly called him, even should it lead to the forfeiture of the life of a conscientious opponent. Thus in every country where the Reformation took root, and flourished, the church became subordinate to the civil power. The royalties of Jesus Christ were swallowed up in the regale of human potentates. b It is not within our object to relate the tortuous policy unremittingly pursued by noble, priest, and king, during the early part of the sixteenth century, by which the way was prepared for the bringing in of the reformed doctrines; nor to mark those preliminary steps, which, terminating in the fall of Cardinal Wolsey, who had exercised a more than papal authority over the land, ushered in a complete change in the religious policy of the state. But taking up at this point our national history, we shall briefly sketch, from its rise to its settlement in 1603, that interference of the secular power in the things of God, which has proved itself to be alike fatal to liberty of conscience, and to the scriptural form and purity of the church of Christ. It is not improbable that the ambitious cardinal, failing in all his efforts to obtain the triple crown, and foiled at his own weapons by the very parties he was endeavouring to cajole, had at last conceived the idea of erecting an ecclesiastical authority in England which should be free from papal control. In the matter of the divorce of Henry from queen Katharine, he had sought to obtain unlimited powers. He wished that the sentence of his legantine court should be final, subject neither to the revision nor to the reversal of the pope. But his last and highest office as vicar-general, had brought into this kingdom a species of authority, altogether unknown; and in doing this, he had put a cup to the lips of his royal master, and afforded him one taste, for the first time, of the sweetness of dominion over all the clergy of the kingdom.' In the cardinal's service had been trained Thomas Cromwell. For some time his employment was that of secretary: but he had been particularly useful to his master, in the 1 Tyndale's Practice of Prelates. Works, vol. i. p. 480. Russell's edit. 2 Dodd's Church History, vol. i. p. 103. Tierney's edition. 3 Anderson's Annals of the English Bible, vol. i. p. 224. suppression of certain monasteries, the revenues of which were devoted to the establishment of Wolsey's colleges at Oxford and Ipswich. By and by we shall find him acting as vicar-general also, and following, with no mean results, in the steps of his predecessor. The authority exercised by the cardinal, as legate à latere, especially in the celebrated trial of queen Katharine, was the proximate cause of his fall. This power, having its existence in the arrogant claims of the papacy, had been often a matter of parliamentary interference, denunciation, and enactment; and was therefore exercised in defiance of the law. But those statutes were inoperative. "Several cardinals before Wolsey had procured, and executed with impunity, a legantine power which was clearly contrary to them;" and, in his case, with the full knowledge and approbation of the king, who had even granted letters patent to Wolsey, freeing him from the legal consequences of this breach of the nation's law. This, however, mattered not; Wolsey must fall, and with him the papal supremacy. That fall made way for the elevation of his servant Cromwell, the instrument in the hand of God to overthrow the domination ́ of Rome. Many things also conspired to render the assumption of a regal sovereignty over the church, palatable to all classes of the community. The adherents of the new learning, a rapidly increasing section of the people, of course saw without regret the papal tiara trodden in the mire. To them such an event appeared as the "beginning of days," as "life from the dead." Their conviction of the religious errors of Rome, and their attachment to the life-giving truths of the scriptures, just put so providentially into their hands, led them to hail with joy the dethronement of antichrist. Experience Burnet's Hist. of Reformation, vol. i. p. 204. 8vo. edit. Oxford. |