Belief in the Episcopacy. common counsels and united worship; secondly, we desire to express the deep sorrow with which we view the divided condition of the flock of Christ throughout the world, ardently longing for the fulfilment of the prayer of our Lord, That all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me;' and, lastly, we do here solemnly record our conviction that unity will be most effectually promoted by maintaining the faith in its purity and integrity, as taught in the holy scriptures, held by the primitive church, summed up in the creeds, and affirmed by the undisputed general councils." As the Church of England is catholic, the cardinal point of her constitution is necessarily her episcopal government, in accordance with the doctrine and usage of the primitive Catholic Church. When the bishop is ordained or consecrated (c)," The archbishop and bishops present shall lay their hands upon the head of the elected bishop kneeling before them upon his knees, the archbishop saying, Receive the Holy Ghost, for the office and work of a bishop in the Church of God, now committed unto thee by the imposition of our hands; In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. And remember that thou stir up the grace of God which is given thee by this imposition of our hands: for God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, of soberness. "It was (Hooker says) the general received persuasion of the ancient christian world, that Ecclesia est in Episcopo, the outward being of a church consisted in the having of a bishop" (d). So the statute of Provisors (25 Edw. III. st. 4) speaks of "The Holy Church of England founded in the estate of prelacy within the realm of England." A clear perception of the fact, that the Holy Church of England is founded in the estate of prelacy, is indispensable to an accurate understanding of her whole system and of the law by which the various parts of it are governed and maintained. In illustration of this position many instances might be averred. In this place, - the subject being dealt with at length hereafter,-it will suffice to mention two. First, the Church of England does not (c) The form of ordaining or consecrating a bishop is a portion of the Book of Common Prayer, and has therefore received the sanction of the church and the legal authority of parliament. (d) Hooker, Eccles. Pol., vol. II., book VII., 8. 5. recognize the validity of holy orders unless conferred by an episcopal hand, and does always recognize them when so conferred. Consistently with this theory she does not in practice re-ordain the clerk who, having been ordained by a Roman bishop, leaves the Church of Rome and desires to officiate in the Church of England. Nor can there be any doubt that the Church of England recognizes the validity of the orders conferred by the Greek Church. Secondly, the bishop of the Church of England has an unexaminable (e) authority to refuse ordination to any person presented to him. No rights of royal, lay, or ecclesiastical patronage are allowed to interfere with the exercise of this power always inherent in the episcopal office. The Church of England is often called Protestant The term in common speech, and in some acts of parliament since Protestant. the beginning of the eighteenth century. The sovereign at his coronation swears to maintain the "Protestant Reformed Religion established by law," and the crown is by law to descend in the " Protestant Line," but "whosoever shall come to the possession of this crown shall join in communion with the Church of England as by law established." So in the statutes relating to the union of Great Britain and Ireland (now repealed) it was provided, "that the churches of England and Ireland as now by law established be united into one Protestant Episcopal Church to be called the United Church of England and Ireland, and that the doctrine, worship, discipline and government of the said united church shall be and shall remain in full force for ever as the same are now established for the Church of England. So the Protestant Episcopal Church' in Scotland, and the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America are spoken of in various statutes (f). The 26 Geo. III. is wiser in its language, and speaks of " Citizens of countries out of his majesty's dominions" "who profess the public worship of Almighty God according to the principles of the Church of England." The expression Protestant is of foreign origin and obviously wanting in legal accuracy and logical precision; for in one sense the synagogue of the Jew and the assembly of the Unitarian are Protestant. It has not been (e) Rex v. Archbishop of Dublin, 1 Alcock & Napier, 244 (Ir. Rep.). (f) 3 & 4 Vict. c. 33; 5 Vict. c. 6. Church established in England. King's su premacy by the common law. adopted by the church herself in any formulary; but, as explained by the surrounding expressions and limitations in certain statutes which, since William the Third's reign, have adopted it, the name merely expresses, as the Constitutions of Clarendon, the Statutes of Provisors and of Præmunire had expressed before the Reformation, the independent national existence of the Church of England, and her distinct position from that of the Church of Rome, and certainly does not express any identity of position or of doctrine between the Church of England and general foreign Protestantism, as such (g). Indeed, the visible fabric of our old churches illustrates not inaptly the identity of the church in her spiritual aspect before and after the Reformation. They have been preserved, reformed and cleansed, so as to conform in material respects with the pattern of the primitive churches; the face has been washed, but the features are the same. The primitive church is in England (h) established by law as the church of the state. The state controls and protects her temporal condition and possessions. The sovereign is supreme over all courts and causes ecclesiastical as well as civil. The statute of Hen. VIII. (¿) expresses in admirable language and with historical and constitutional truth the manner in which this control, protection, and supremacy are exercised. The sycophants of this monarch, however, allowed the supremacy to the crown as absolutely as it had been formerly claimed by the Pope, and gave ground for the accusation that they ascribed to him spiritual power and functions as head of the church. Therefore, Bishop Jewell tells Bullinger, in a letter dated May, 1559, "that the queen (Elizabeth) would not be styled Head of the Church of England,' giving this grave reason thereof, that that was a title due to Christ only and to no mortal creature besides (k). The true account of the supremacy is to be found in the following authorities. Lord Chief Justice Hale says: "The supremacy of the crown of England in matters ecclesiastical is a most in (g) Thus Lutherans have been formally decided to be in the category of Protestant Dissenters, and as such to be entitled to the protection of the Toleration Act. Rex v. Hube, Peake, Ca. 132; S. C., 5 T. R. 542. (h) The established church in Scotland has been Presbyterian since the reign of William III. There is now no established church in Ireland. (i) 24 Hen. VIII., c. 12. (k) Strype's Annals of the Reformation, vol. I., p. 195, c. 10. dubitable right of the crown, as appeareth by records of By the parliament of England in 16 Rich. II., c. 5, it was asserted, that "the crown of England hath been so free at all times that it hath been in no earthly subjection, but immediately subject to God in all things touching the regality of the same crown, and to none other." statute. And in 24 Hen. VIII., c. 12, it is thus recited: "By King's sundry and authentic histories and chronicles it is mani- supremacy by festly declared and expressed, that this realm of England is an empire, and so hath been accepted in the world, governed by one supreme head and king, having dignity and royal estate of the imperial crown of the same; unto whom a body politic, compact of all sorts and degrees of people, divided in terms and by names of spiritualty and temporalty, been bounden and owen to bear next unto God a natural and humble obedience; he being also furnished by the goodness and sufferance of Almighty God, with plenary, whole and entire power, pre-eminence, authority, prerogative, and jurisdiction, to render and yield justice and final determination to all manner of persons resiants within this realm, in all cases, matters, debates, and contentions, without restraint or provocation to any foreign princes or potentates of the world; in causes spiritual by judges of the spiritualty, and causes temporal by temporal judges." Again in 25 Hen. VIII., c. 21: "The realm of England, recognizing no superior under God, but only the king, hath been and is free from subjection to any man's laws, but only to such as have been devised, made and obtained within this realm for the wealth of the same, or to such other as, by sufferance of the king, the people of this realm have taken at their free liberty by their own consent to be used amongst them, and have bound themselves by long use and custom to the observance of the same, not as to the observance of the laws of any foreign prince, potentate or prelate, but as to the customed and () 1 H. H. 75. (m) 5 Co. 8, 40, Cawdrey's case. By the canons ancient laws of this realm, originally established as laws of the same by the said sufferance, consents and custom, and none otherwise." In the Canons of 1603, can. 1. "As our duty to the of the Church. king's most excellent majesty requireth, we first decree and ordain, that the archbishop from time to time, all bishops, deans, archdeacons, parsons, vicars, and all other ecclesiastical persons, shall faithfully keep and observe, and as much as in them lieth shall cause to be observed and kept of others, all and singular laws and statutes made for restoring to the crown of this kingdom, the ancient jurisdiction over the state ecclesiastical, and abolishing of all foreign power repugnant to the same. Furthermore, all ecclesiastical persons having cure of souls, and all other preachers, and readers of divinity lectures, shall to the uttermost of their wit, knowledge and learning, purely and sincerely (without any colour or dissimulation) teach, manifest, open and declare, four times every year at the least, in their sermons, and other collation and lectures, that all usurped and foreign power (forasmuch as the same hath no establishment nor ground by the law of God) is for most just causes taken away and abolished, and that therefore no manner of obedience or subjection within his majesty's realms and dominions is due unto any such foreign power; but that the king's power, within his realms of England, Scotland and Ireland, and all other his dominions and countries, is the highest power under God, to whom all men, as well inhabitants as born within the same, do by God's laws owe most loyalty and obedience, afore and above all other powers and potentates in the earth." Can. 2. "Whoever shall affirm, that the king's majesty hath not the same authority in causes ecclesiastical, that the godly kings had amongst the Jews, and Christian emperors of the primitive church, or impeach any part of his regal supremacy in the said causes restored to the crown, and by the laws of this realm therein established; let him be excommunicated ipso facto, and not restored but only by the archbishop, after his repentance and public revocation of those his wicked errors." Can. 26. "No person shall be received into the ministry, nor admitted to any ecclesiastical function, except he shall first subscribe (amongst others) to this article following: that the king's majesty under God is the only supreme governor of this realm, and of all other his highness's dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal; and that no foreign |